Poll: Dragon Age 3D (Dismal Dragon Disappointment ?) *may contain spoilers*

[Googooguru]

Just Finished Dragon age 2, and feeling a little torn about the experience, so i though i would write about it. Below is a list of What i loved and loathed about the Game. If you have played or are playing this title what are your feelings towards the game?, what was good about your experience with DA? Was it rushed to completion or is it the defining direction into which all RPG's will venture?

anyway enough Banter, here is my long Post



Loved:
*Fully voice acted (including Hawke ,even if he is a bit pompous and has the emotional range of a flounder)
*New combat system (fast and fun like all generic combat experiences should be )
* New combat animations were great really make you feel like battle tested bayonettes deploying your ordinance to the ground (sorry couldnt help myself)
*The framed narrative with Varric was great i mean whats not to love about dwarfs,short beer loving rogues with crosbows that always shoot at groin height, technically that could be a rogue dwarfs special ability: groin shot: knockback / 20X physical damage/ inflicts sterility buff

Liked:
*Overall the companions were interesting and had a good dialogue and banter with each other
*the revised ability trees (easy and straight forward, i like the upgrade options)
* Story while not as Epic as DA:O played out well overall

Disliked:

*Kirkwall is too empty ( judging by the reception at the gates i was expecting it to be full to the rafters with Hakers, Merchants , Citizens, Trade Caravans, Civilians and Refugees) finding an empty city really broke the immersion. The viscount really like his citizens to have a lot of personal space cleary he has never been on a public bus.

* The story didnt gel at several places (anders companion quest didnt seem to come to a conclusion, Several choices which i guessed would have had huge ramifications never panned out, kinda seemes unlikely that everyone just looks the other way at champion mages given the circumstances. must be my mind trick NPC's passive ability)

*Was there a sale of blood magic books in kirkwall seems like you cant swing a cat without hitting an apostate , the templar order in kirkwall is know for two things 1) its fantastic croquet team and 2)its knitting club. finding apostates or even noticing them is not there strong suit.

* I like being human as much as the next guy but not in an RPG, in a fantasy game i like to play as a fantasy character maby a Vaudevillian Quanari with a "to hell with the Qun" attitude and a love of fine whiskey and human bar maids

*Horny Quanari, this is a personal gripe, but by dehumanising the Qunaris Apperance it has Psychologicall seemed to reduces their values to a more simplistic or animalistic understanding of the world. Guess thats also why there were kept caged off in a seperate part of the city like good animals should be

* Too many Rogue companions , i mean honestly is everyone in this city a rogue, who in this city do i bribe to get another tank or could the gaurd do there damn job and arrest all these fracking rogues

* Crafting System: Apparenlty all crafting resources are homeopathic recipes and only contain one part per million so you only need 3 pieces of each for the entire game . whats next scanning the forrest from the tree tops with a magic rod to find resources

* no Arcane Warrior / battlemage why give us an awesome character build in the first game and remove it in the second? sigh

Hated:

*Repitition of Zones and Dungeons (15 hours in noticed i was starting to get zone fatigue, looks like the whole world was built by a condo developer at discount price with a wide choice of identical Dwarf Tuscan Style Mansions and with one generic dungeon (that will be run Forward, Backward and with Spooky lighting and fog included, al a scooby doo, as a matter of fact that could be shaggy in the arcane horror costume)... when you compare Kirkwall to other AAA title citys like Assains creed Brotherhoods Rome it looks dangerously shoddy , unpopulted and under developed)

* Boss fights felt like raids and instances in a MMORPG ie: Hack hack hack, step out of AOE , drink potion heal and hack hack hack. Tank and Spank all the way

note: where were the clevery designed encounters from DA:O ie: the Puzzle challenge with the Demon Cat, Sloth demon who cycled through several forms which challenged your understanding of the game mechanics, ashes of andraste Puzzle etc...

* inability to customize the armor of the companions made the loot system irrelevant and makes for some very smelly companions (why bother with loot once you have the champion armor set you never needed to loot another corpse of open another chest)

*non customised trinkets ie: everything seemed to be named Belt, Ring, Amulet it stripped the game of vital depth. When playing an RPG i want to find items with a sence of history ie: Wardens amulets of vigilance and even generic items like Amulet of the wolf or the blooming rose garter of chastity you know ....whatever.. it increases immmersion in the fantasy. i was incredibly disappointed in this aspect

*rehashed monsters . The developers had an amazing chance in Kirkwal to introduce new Monsters maybe a bound old god or two .out to reclaim there past glory and munch on some souls this is A Tiventer city seeping with ancient rogue magics from the old empire, but instead of exploiting this dragon age 2 lays on more of the same and in most cases less .if any one is looking for me i will be down at the Hanged man putting up missing posters for the Shrieks and Werewolves, drinks are on the golems

Overall : For every Step that Dragon age took forward it took two back with this lateset iteration, some solid Ideas get overshadowed by the recuring feeling that im not playing Dragon age at all and rather another title that was shoehorned into the dragon age mould. The Story,doesnt have the puch to deliver the final sating blow of satisfaction this title desperatly needed to convince the fans that these changes were in their best interests. While Mass effect 2 was in every way a superior game to Mass effect 1 . Dragon age 2 trips over its own grand designs and plays out more as a poor Mass effect 1 clone : with blind templars, sock puppet blood mages with as much magical range as my mum, saucy pirates, horny quanari and groin obsessed dwarfs.

 

[Judgement101]

for me it was
Loved: Combat, reworking of inventory system, new skill trees, and basically the gameplay improvements.
Hate: They made your character's sister the most attractive character (imo)

 

[cainx10a]

Excellent review. This game is depressingly inferior to DA:O, it felt more like a tedious grind than an entertaining ride throughout the 32 hours. The combat lacked substance to them. But, BioWare did an excellent job with the storytelling.

I just bought Sacred 2 and its expansion, and it's hilarious how this game, which was criticized for its bugs and what's not, have 100 of dungeons, that have each a unique feel to them, and BioWare, who are masters of their craft, can't even bother to have interesting locales to visit on those side quests, which definitely had a well written story to support them.

Remember that one quest, to help a certain mage companion in order to recover some purty important documents. I was expecting a raid on a Templar stronghold to acquire the documents. Instead, we had to visit another cave.

And when we are sent to capture a certain criminal, or help a certain emo sidekick, we end in the same dwarven ruin, same map layout, I mean, seriously.


On a side note, Dragon Age Legends is kinda of fun.


Captcha: Average Orkii .... for the horde?

Edit: Another whine is the companion system. I can't even 'roleplay' properly because there are not enough tanks, or mages to fill a certain role when I need them. For the endgame, I had to side with a group because the mage who I wanted to murder with a warhammer, was also the team healer. Merrill doesn't even have a healing tree.

 

[Judgement101]

Hate: They made your character's sister the most attractive character (imo)

Are you talking about Dragon Age or Two worlds? Seriously, look it up.

Perhaps both, honestly both those games blended together for me so I might be talking about Two Worlds. Not quite sure.

 

[Googooguru]

for me it was
Hate: They made your character's sister the most attractive character (imo)

LMAO ... but yeah true

 

[Googooguru]

I just bought Sacred 2 and its expansion, and it's hilarious how this game, which was criticized for its bugs and what's not, have 100 of dungeons, that have each a unique feel to them, and BioWare, who are masters of their craft, can't even bother to have interesting locales to visit on those side quests, which definitely had a well written story to support them.

I think im going to replay Dragon age Origins or go all Retro and whip out NWN as Dragon age 2 has in no ways Sated my RPG thirst, pity cause i was so looking forward to it even had it on preorder since October last year, all that time waiting for 1 Damn dungeon and a Deep road be still my beating heart..

yeah the main story was well done and it definitely added a veneer of depth that the environments were lacking, just cant believe how small the world felt

 

[Magicman10893]

Loved:
-Voiced Main Character
-Dialogue Wheel
-Combat System

Hated:
-Couldn't customize companion armor.
-Couldn't customize companion skills enough (Aveline is the only tank, Anders is the only healer, Varric is the only archer [except for Sebastian, but he's DLC] leaving the only way to have a diverse party to include characters you like is to either fill those roles yourself or play on Casual to ignore the need for those roles)
-Reuse of the same maps CONSTANTLY!!!
-Lack of logic in the third act. See spoiler tag for more details, you have been warned

Spoiler

I wanted to side with the Mages, considering I was a Mage myself, and in the middle of the game I did a quest where I was to convince some Blood Mages from Starkhaven to surrender themselves peacefully at the request of a Mage sympathizing Templar. Once I fought through the cave I made it to the leader of the Blood Mages and he didn't give me any option to resolve things peacefully and he attacked, forcing me to kill him and most of his followers. After the battle his "girlfriend," Grace, scolded me for defending myself, but ultimately listened to reason and I tried to tell the Templar outside that they were all dead to help them escape. Outside, however, was a very sadistic Templar who started a fight to capture the Blood Mages and the sympathetic Templar, Thrask, fought against them. At the end of it, Thrask helped Grace and the others escape.

Later in the game it turns out they were captured by another Templar. In the third act you are sent by First Enchanter Orsino (leader of the Mages) to investigate the disappearances of some of his Mages. I stumble upon a group of Mages and Templars talking and when they notice me, yell out "There's one of Meredith's spies to take us down! Kill him!" Now, this is strange for many reasons: One, I am a Mage, the last person that would be working for the evil Commander of the Templars. Two, I am working for Orsino, the leader of the MAGES. Three, I openly stood against Meredith in front of EVERYBODY. Anyway, I am forced to kill them all in self defense.

I go to the next meeting spot and I am again attacked on site because, "I am working for Knight Commander Meredith to take down the resistance that is trying to oust her from power." Whatever, I kill them AGAIN and the one Templar smart enough to realize that fighting me is not a good idea comes to and says, "I know you're a reasonable man, surely you can see that Meredith needs to removed from power!" to which I say to myself, "I HATE MEREDITH! THAT'S WHY ORSINO SENT ME HERE!" So I tell him that I completely agree with his movement and he tells me that Thrask feared that I would side with Meredith so he kidnapped my brother, Carver, to insure that I wouldn't stop them. Now, Thrask is the guy that I aided in against the cruel Templars by having him help Mages escape.

Now, I go to see Thrask and I am attacked, on sight AGAIN, before I make my way to Thrask and tell him that I agree with him completely. Grace, the Mage that we helped escape earlier, is still upset that I killed her boyfriend in self defense and uses Blood Magic to kill Thrask and rallies all but one of the rebellious group against me. This is confusing on so many levels because: One, there are Templars there. They may not condone the oppression of Mages, but they still are supposed to stop Abominations and well she did just kill someone in cold blood. Two, the other Mages feel the need to attack the Champion of Kirkwall, they guy that could be single guiding factor in helping their cause and defeating Meredith, especially considering I freed Kirkwall of Qunari control by DUELING THE ARISHOK!

None of that makes sense!

 

[Kaanyr Vhok]

Butchered the franchise? DA:O was a turd.
Bioware has been on the down since BG 2
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6492905

That sums it up

Lets take a look at what Bioware removed from BG to their first console RPG KOTOR.

KOTOR had a party size of three. They went from six to three. We could no longer attack civilians, inventories were now unified, areas were smaller, there were less NPCs in the areas, Party members could not die, you could no longer solo the game with the same vigor as you would in BG, soloing in BG was a cause to replay. You could solo with your character after you beat the game, Day/Night cycles were all but removed, point and click or point and press controls were removed so you couldn?t move party members while paused thus you could not flee or set up ambushes. Party customization was removed. With the infinity engine you could create a party of Luke, Lea, Han, Chewie, R2, and C-3PO and gave them custom voices.

That was KOTOR?


Then we get DA:O. Supposedly it?s the predecessor to BG. Its supposed to restore some of this stuff right? What did we get? An extra party member. Good start but why not six? Then we lose the ability to bash chest, we get auto healing, level scaling that is much worse than KOTOR?s, less exploration, worthless ranged weapons, a ridiculous hit point driven stat system that makes D&D seem logical, senseless stat requirements, and you still cant move characters while paused in the console version.
If the game had decent encounter design I could have put up with it. With all of that gameplay removed Bioware used filler combat to fill the void.

Earlier today I checked the speedrun records of some notable RPGs. DA:O is the slowest of them all. Its slower than Oblivion, Morrowind and Baldurs Gate put together.

So DA 2 comes out and...

we lose friendly fire on normal and hard, we lose the iso cam, we lose auto attack, and some inventory management but we gain fast Power Rangers animation.
For what??? How streamlined does it need to be before its shallow? I?m reminded of what George Carlin would say about when we changed the term "Shell Shocked" to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Maybe the soldiers would receive better treatment if they were still Shell Shocked. Maybe we shouldn?t get rid of the term Dumbed Down. Maybe it fits. If "Press a button and something awesome happens" is the slogan for DA 2 I have one for DA 3. Smarten up!!

 

[Risingblade]

Loved: The characters,story,fast paced combat,abilities,emo elf, silly blood mage elf Any mention of the warden, Allistor and Anders being in the same room!
nly
Hated: Combat glitches, Anders turning into such a douche, Only one healer,all the elves sound irish for some odd reason

 

[Legendairy314]

Loved: Characters, Voicover for Hawke, Champion Armor, Fighting Mechanics, The Story

Hated: Party Restrictions (forcefully putting an unwanted member in your party disrupting your perfect team), Class Restrictions (1 tank and 1 healer. Either take their jobs or experiment with a single other party member. Oh joy), Inventory Restrictions, Ugly weapons/armor/robes that offer better stats, Enemies that suddenly have access to 1 hit KO attacks that never miss and have infinite range.

It's not a bad game but it just has so many of the same reasons I traded in Origins for.

 

[Coldie]

If this was any other game, it would've been destroyed in both ratings and review. As it is, it's riding on the wave of popularity of the developer and the franchise.

* When Oblivion was released, people hated the auto-scaling of enemies. In Dragon Age 2, it's a step deeper than that: not only the enemies always scale to your level, but all enemies are functionally identical and differ only in name and models. In Dragon Age 2, you participate in the exact same fight over and over and over (with wave after wave of new enemies literally popping into existence all around you), throughout the entire game. There are unique bosses, but they are very rare.

* Sure combat is "sped up", but combat abilities are few and have huge cooldowns. You'll spend most of the game auto-attacking and chugging potions (because Heal is a rare spell and is on a loooooong cooldown).

* Environments are not "copy-pasted", are not "assembled with a small tileset", but outright reused. Maybe some doors will be locked and entrance/exit portals are in different places, but the map and minimap are the same. Considering that you will have to revisit pretty much each (already reused) area several times in each act (there are 3 acts), the game quickly becomes a tiresome blur of identical combat encounters in identical dungeons and mansions on behalf of identical fetch quests.

* Speaking of identical fetch quests. The game is very story-light. First 3 quarters of the game are filled with meaningless, grindy quests and the main plot is (suddenly) introduced in the very short Act 3. While the individual scenes can be good, overall the story is paper thin, completely linear, and filled with utterly bizarre things.

Spoiler: Things like this. Things that must not exist.

1. Pretty much all mages you encounter are Blood Magic-using Abominations. That's quite a leap from the first game. A leap that makes Templars look completely justified in their paranoia.

2. On the other hand, Templars have an ace of their own up their controversy sleeve. The so-called Tranquil Solution [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution]. Yes, it really is called that in-game.

3. And then an additional punch in the finale: Oh, look, that's not the Templars' fault they oppress and kill and tranquilize all the mages they can find, a McGuffin made their commander do it and they all really are innocent. W. T. F.

Each of these has Unfortunate Implications on their own, but combined together, it's no longer "implications" and is just "very, very unfortunate".

I can live with romances being inspired by Twilight, they are optional. This is the main plot. You can't be serious, BioWare. Next time just stick to the twenty-breasted, betentacled Broodmothers and leave the history books alone.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

I actually enjoyed the game thoroughly, though to be honest there are so few RPG's that I actually want to play, I kind of had to enjoy it

 

[ultrachicken]

Loved:
-Voiced Main Character
-Dialogue Wheel
-Combat System

Hated:
-Couldn't customize companion armor.
-Couldn't customize companion skills enough (Aveline is the only tank, Anders is the only healer, Varric is the only archer [except for Sebastian, but he's DLC] leaving the only way to have a diverse party to include characters you like is to either fill those roles yourself or play on Casual to ignore the need for those roles)
-Reuse of the same maps CONSTANTLY!!!
-Lack of logic in the third act. See spoiler tag for more details, you have been warned

Spoiler

I wanted to side with the Mages, considering I was a Mage myself, and in the middle of the game I did a quest where I was to convince some Blood Mages from Starkhaven to surrender themselves peacefully at the request of a Mage sympathizing Templar. Once I fought through the cave I made it to the leader of the Blood Mages and he didn't give me any option to resolve things peacefully and he attacked, forcing me to kill him and most of his followers. After the battle his "girlfriend," Grace, scolded me for defending myself, but ultimately listened to reason and I tried to tell the Templar outside that they were all dead to help them escape. Outside, however, was a very sadistic Templar who started a fight to capture the Blood Mages and the sympathetic Templar, Thrask, fought against them. At the end of it, Thrask helped Grace and the others escape.

Later in the game it turns out they were captured by another Templar. In the third act you are sent by First Enchanter Orsino (leader of the Mages) to investigate the disappearances of some of his Mages. I stumble upon a group of Mages and Templars talking and when they notice me, yell out "There's one of Meredith's spies to take us down! Kill him!" Now, this is strange for many reasons: One, I am a Mage, the last person that would be working for the evil Commander of the Templars. Two, I am working for Orsino, the leader of the MAGES. Three, I openly stood against Meredith in front of EVERYBODY. Anyway, I am forced to kill them all in self defense.

I go to the next meeting spot and I am again attacked on site because, "I am working for Knight Commander Meredith to take down the resistance that is trying to oust her from power." Whatever, I kill them AGAIN and the one Templar smart enough to realize that fighting me is not a good idea comes to and says, "I know you're a reasonable man, surely you can see that Meredith needs to removed from power!" to which I say to myself, "I HATE MEREDITH! THAT'S WHY ORSINO SENT ME HERE!" So I tell him that I completely agree with his movement and he tells me that Thrask feared that I would side with Meredith so he kidnapped my brother, Carver, to insure that I wouldn't stop them. Now, Thrask is the guy that I aided in against the cruel Templars by having him help Mages escape.

Now, I go to see Thrask and I am attacked, on sight AGAIN, before I make my way to Thrask and tell him that I agree with him completely. Grace, the Mage that we helped escape earlier, is still upset that I killed her boyfriend in self defense and uses Blood Magic to kill Thrask and rallies all but one of the rebellious group against me. This is confusing on so many levels because: One, there are Templars there. They may not condone the oppression of Mages, but they still are supposed to stop Abominations and well she did just kill someone in cold blood. Two, the other Mages feel the need to attack the Champion of Kirkwall, they guy that could be single guiding factor in helping their cause and defeating Meredith, especially considering I freed Kirkwall of Qunari control by DUELING THE ARISHOK!

None of that makes sense!

Blood magic is supposed to screw with a person's mind, which explains why Grace acts like a retard, along with her companions. As for Thrask, I have no explanation.

Really, the biggest plot-hole of them all is this - why are so many people willing to fight the god damned champion of Kirkwall? Why is it that no-one seems to learn that the champion is not to be messed with?

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Enjoyed it thoroughly.

Loved:
-Combat. Fast, fluid, fun. Still requires strategy on Hard/Nightmare.
-Voiced main character. Made him much more relatable, and helped with immersion.
-Varric and Merrill. Wonderful characters, both with unique and often hilarious personalities.

Liked:
-Side quests. The best side quests ever in an RPG? I think so. I have NEVER enjoyed side quests in RPGs, but I enjoyed these.
-Stat system. I feel like the lieutenant and bosses perhaps reduce your defense and attack too much compared to normal enemies (100% chance to hit normal enemy, 40% chance to hit boss... what???), but other than that I thought it was well designed.
-Interface. Simple and functional. Inventory system was improved over Origins.

Disliked:
-Repetitive environments. I swear I must have gone to each section of the city 4 dozen times each throughout the game. Visited the same 3 or 4 dungeons over and over and over again. It was honestly the only thing holding me back from LOVING this game.
-Story was mediocre. For a BioWare game, I really felt like the story lacked substance. I understand the whole "Mage vs Templar" thing, but I think maybe it lacked proper foreshadowing, or just took too long to develop. I found myself 12 hours into the game with no freakin' clue what was happening in the main plot.

 

[Kaanyr Vhok]

If this was any other game, it would've been destroyed in both ratings and review. As it is, it's riding on the wave of popularity of the developer and the franchise.

* When Oblivion was released, people hated the auto-scaling of enemies. In Dragon Age 2, it's a step deeper than that: not only the enemies always scale to your level, but all enemies are functionally identical and differ only in name and models. In Dragon Age 2, you participate in the exact same fight over and over and over (with wave after wave of new enemies literally popping into existence all around you), throughout the entire game. There are unique bosses, but they are very rare.

Thats it right there. Cant agree more. DA:O and DA 2 both send waves of the same boring fights over again and people excuse it because its one of the few high budget RPGs.

 

[Googooguru]

Loved: The characters,story,fast paced combat,abilities,emo elf, silly blood mage elf Any mention of the warden, Allistor and Anders being in the same room!
nly
Hated: Combat glitches, Anders turning into such a douche, Only one healer,all the elves sound irish for some odd reason

and that may be the true cause of the fall of the elvish empire it wasn't the war with the Tevinter Imperium it was the great Elven Potato famine during the Badger age.

(before i get hit with cold hard mythology by someone ...yes i know that eleven and fairy lore originated in Irish Mythology so i get the reference they are trying to make.. but for the sake of continuity .. think of the continuity)

 

[Hulten]

I just finished Dragon Age 2 and what a fucking kick in the balls... It builds up all this hype in the beginning and then sticks you in a city for the rest of the game to play around with characters and people you don't fucking care about. Sure there were some cameos of a few characters from Origins, but that was just more momentum to the swift kick I already mentioned. Nothing remotely relates to what happened in the first game. NOTHING!

I had such high hopes for it... Hell I even defended, but what a fool I was.

 

[Googooguru]

[/quote]Blood magic is supposed to screw with a person's mind, which explains why Grace acts like a retard, along with her companions. As for Thrask, I have no explanation.

Really, the biggest plot-hole of them all is this - why are so many people willing to fight the god damned champion of Kirkwall? Why is it that no-one seems to learn that the champion is not to be messed with?[/quote]

Blood magic is Apparently like Red Sand it makes every mage think they are a Biotic God .. speaking of Biotics did anyone else notice some similarities with the Mages new Force magic tree (pull, Slam, Singularity) im just saying ...