Dragon Age 2: I done started playing it.
So I started playing it. I heard it wasn't as good as the first one. I think I'm about half way through? I'm enjoying it so far. I really like having a voiced character and I'm not against the decision to characterise Hawke as confident and sarcastic in quite a strong way, I think there's still enough leeway to create your own person there. Gameplay-wise, I usually...sort of don't care, blowing stuff up with magic is fun but not really what I get the most enjoyment out of, but even I am kinda hacked off with the endless recycled maps.
I like most of the characters so far, though I'm seriously disappointed with the way they wrecked the fun, lighthearted, but slightly sad Anders from Awakening and made him into some...emo kid about to blow up at any moment. I probably would have romanced him but every time I brought it up, he got so damn emo it was really offputting. I can't bring myself to romance Merill because she's adorable and funny but she makes me feel like I'm - to steal a phrase from a friend - tempting her into my dodgy van with promises of puppies and ice cream. Sort of why I couldn't romance Tali in Mass Effect.
Which leaves Isabela, frankly my favourite character in the game, because who doesn't love a polyamorous, bisexual woman of colour who's basically Captain Jack Sparrow but sober (even if not by choice)? But I want to run away with her and be BFF forever and do all the crime. I want an epic bromance (jesus we need a girl word for that), I want awesome platonic dedication, which can totally include the occasional sexual hookup, but I don't want our relationship defined by that because I honestly feel like being her friend is worth more in the scheme of her life.
And Fenris. OH GOD FENRIS. I loathe him. I mean partly because he's designed as the sort of character I hate. An angsty woobie with a dark and tragic past who ~judges everyone~, and partly because I think that it's clear he and Anders are supposed to represent two sides of an argument, and I don't think he manages to do so very well, and I think that together they represent the weakest characters because they're too...similar really. I just, gah, ALL THE ARGH BUTTONS, HE PRESSES THEM.
So naturally, with such limited recourse, I have initiated Operation: Fenris Hate Sex. It’s going swimmingly. All I do is needle him with sarcasm and flaunt the fact I adore mages and he KEEPS COMING BACK like he hates himself for it. I feel like a magnificent troll, it’s awesome. Now I just have to work out how to break up with him, cus I hear that if he hates me enough he’ll side against me at some point and I’ll be forced to kill him in a tragedy of epic proportions.
Post-game I’m totalling arranging a marriage for myself to some wealthy, naive noble, and using the proceeds to fund Isabela’s Pirate Fleet & Printing Press so she can ship her filthy Avelline/Donnic fanfic to the rest of Thedas.
I have finally decided to take my Inability to Plan a BioWare Romance Storyline and turn it to great justice. I NEED NO CANON LOVE INTEREST! I WILL JUST TROLL THEM ~ALLLLL~.
As I said I haven't finished yet, so I don't really feel I can comment on whether or not it's as good as DA1. As I said, the voicework for the main character is a definite improvement. I feel that the love interests are a bit limited because two of the characters are the two I like least, whereas in DA1, I liked all of them, but in general I think the characters in DA2 are as good as DA1, it's just that in DA1 the ones I liked less weren't the romance options. Avelline, Varric and Bethany (NOOO, BETHANY COME BACK FROM THE CIRCLE!) are all great.
I am a little disappointed at how little my imported save affected things. Just expectation from the Mass Effect series, I guess. I knew it wouldn't be about the Warden, but it felt a little cheap setting it in another country that still basically looks and operates in the same way, so that I don't actually get to see the changes my Warden made (homelands for the Dalish or freedom for the Mages).
Storywise is where I'm really going to end up making my judgement and I don't think I can do that until the end. There are a lot of ideas I like - having a family for the character, seeing things change over time, telling a different type of epic story as you rise through the ranks of power in a single city state is an idea that has appeal. But all these things are also going to be difficult to pull off. The complaint K had was that it didn't feel like the storyline needed to span such a large timeline, so it ended up feeling less rather than more epic, and he said a lot of it felt like setup for something else, which, if you've spent a significant chunk of your "life" on this adventure, probably feels more defeating than exciting. I'll be interested to see how I react when I get there.
In other worse, will I ME3 my reaction to the ending again. ;)
OH, ALSO, I CANNOT STAND THE QUN. Argh, they are frustrating and stupid. I really wanted to like that DLC featuring Felicia Day but in the end I was just extremely frustrated that after spending a whole five minutes in the real world deliberating on whether or not to help her, and ultimately deciding that morally, I couldn't do it if she wouldn't tell me what was going on, I got railroaded into helping her anyway and there was no option to go, "Wait, you have a list of spies for the people sat in the middle of my city, threatening to start a war of conversion that would seek to turn my sister into a physically and mentally mutilated slave? Yeah, NO GIVE ME THAT, we are not going to have some witty reparte before parting well-wishes, lady!" But...bah, whatever, I need to put them on the list of things I shouldn't rant about in public, right under Batman.
I like most of the characters so far, though I'm seriously disappointed with the way they wrecked the fun, lighthearted, but slightly sad Anders from Awakening and made him into some...emo kid about to blow up at any moment. I probably would have romanced him but every time I brought it up, he got so damn emo it was really offputting. I can't bring myself to romance Merill because she's adorable and funny but she makes me feel like I'm - to steal a phrase from a friend - tempting her into my dodgy van with promises of puppies and ice cream. Sort of why I couldn't romance Tali in Mass Effect.
Which leaves Isabela, frankly my favourite character in the game, because who doesn't love a polyamorous, bisexual woman of colour who's basically Captain Jack Sparrow but sober (even if not by choice)? But I want to run away with her and be BFF forever and do all the crime. I want an epic bromance (jesus we need a girl word for that), I want awesome platonic dedication, which can totally include the occasional sexual hookup, but I don't want our relationship defined by that because I honestly feel like being her friend is worth more in the scheme of her life.
And Fenris. OH GOD FENRIS. I loathe him. I mean partly because he's designed as the sort of character I hate. An angsty woobie with a dark and tragic past who ~judges everyone~, and partly because I think that it's clear he and Anders are supposed to represent two sides of an argument, and I don't think he manages to do so very well, and I think that together they represent the weakest characters because they're too...similar really. I just, gah, ALL THE ARGH BUTTONS, HE PRESSES THEM.
So naturally, with such limited recourse, I have initiated Operation: Fenris Hate Sex. It’s going swimmingly. All I do is needle him with sarcasm and flaunt the fact I adore mages and he KEEPS COMING BACK like he hates himself for it. I feel like a magnificent troll, it’s awesome. Now I just have to work out how to break up with him, cus I hear that if he hates me enough he’ll side against me at some point and I’ll be forced to kill him in a tragedy of epic proportions.
Post-game I’m totalling arranging a marriage for myself to some wealthy, naive noble, and using the proceeds to fund Isabela’s Pirate Fleet & Printing Press so she can ship her filthy Avelline/Donnic fanfic to the rest of Thedas.
I have finally decided to take my Inability to Plan a BioWare Romance Storyline and turn it to great justice. I NEED NO CANON LOVE INTEREST! I WILL JUST TROLL THEM ~ALLLLL~.
As I said I haven't finished yet, so I don't really feel I can comment on whether or not it's as good as DA1. As I said, the voicework for the main character is a definite improvement. I feel that the love interests are a bit limited because two of the characters are the two I like least, whereas in DA1, I liked all of them, but in general I think the characters in DA2 are as good as DA1, it's just that in DA1 the ones I liked less weren't the romance options. Avelline, Varric and Bethany (NOOO, BETHANY COME BACK FROM THE CIRCLE!) are all great.
I am a little disappointed at how little my imported save affected things. Just expectation from the Mass Effect series, I guess. I knew it wouldn't be about the Warden, but it felt a little cheap setting it in another country that still basically looks and operates in the same way, so that I don't actually get to see the changes my Warden made (homelands for the Dalish or freedom for the Mages).
Storywise is where I'm really going to end up making my judgement and I don't think I can do that until the end. There are a lot of ideas I like - having a family for the character, seeing things change over time, telling a different type of epic story as you rise through the ranks of power in a single city state is an idea that has appeal. But all these things are also going to be difficult to pull off. The complaint K had was that it didn't feel like the storyline needed to span such a large timeline, so it ended up feeling less rather than more epic, and he said a lot of it felt like setup for something else, which, if you've spent a significant chunk of your "life" on this adventure, probably feels more defeating than exciting. I'll be interested to see how I react when I get there.
In other worse, will I ME3 my reaction to the ending again. ;)
OH, ALSO, I CANNOT STAND THE QUN. Argh, they are frustrating and stupid. I really wanted to like that DLC featuring Felicia Day but in the end I was just extremely frustrated that after spending a whole five minutes in the real world deliberating on whether or not to help her, and ultimately deciding that morally, I couldn't do it if she wouldn't tell me what was going on, I got railroaded into helping her anyway and there was no option to go, "Wait, you have a list of spies for the people sat in the middle of my city, threatening to start a war of conversion that would seek to turn my sister into a physically and mentally mutilated slave? Yeah, NO GIVE ME THAT, we are not going to have some witty reparte before parting well-wishes, lady!" But...bah, whatever, I need to put them on the list of things I shouldn't rant about in public, right under Batman.