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So I have finished Dragon Age 2, finally. My husband hogged the X-box since he was off work for an injury and I never got a chance to play. But I have beaten it!! And before him, might I add. He makes too many characters so he can find the most powerful of the profiles before he finishes. Therefore, I won the race to the end....more like marathon. And this is what opinions I've developed about the game. It's subject to be added to as I play different classes or romances, but this is how I felt about my 1st runthrough.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Dragon Age series of games, though I'd be a BAMF if I did. I do not take responsability for those who read this and are now mad that they are spoiled. Yes, I do see the religious and cultural parallels in the game, but I'm not going to talk about them because I have enough of that in reality, I don't want people bringing reality in to my gaming. And remember....Swooping is bad!
Thinks I liked:
- Hawke's snarky responses- Dumb I know, but it was hilarious! The dialogue in general was nice, especially the part where my Champion had an actual reaction to things. My Warden looked like a deer in the headlights most of the game and hardly reacted to anything.
- The quest choices- these decision, even in the side quests could be difficult, down to picking the lesser of the two evils, after asking everyone's opinion in the game and even pausing to have a philisophical discussion with my husband about the choices. Now I enjoyed that quite a bit, thought the hard part was when you think it's the right choice and sometimes it ends so wrong you re-load to try again. lol That happened alot, and I admit, in regards to the final battle, I had an idea all throgh the game which side I was on, and in the end, the plot thickens and suddenly I wasn't so sure. Kudos to you Bioware for throwing me for so many loops I threw up (in a good way)
- The Combat- Although I have qualms about the ability trees and all that I'll get to later, the actual combat was challenging to the point I think I grew as a player. By that I mean by the end of the game I was quicker at the draw and used many more abilities than I had in Origins. In Origins I used my faithful moves and didn't branch out, where as in DA2 I had to use all I had in many cases (pride demons for one). I love how the mages are now all kung fu with thier staffs. Instead of it being just a large wand for their magic, now it's a weapon as well, bludgeoning people inbetween spells.
- Maker's Sigh- Man, I can't tell you how many times I used that potion. I LOVE that potion because your first playthrough, it's impossible to know what skills you or your companions will need in future quests. But Maker's Sigh allowed me to re-customize abilities to suit any given chapter, as long as I had the coin. By the end of the game, I was dealing one hit kills to the "tin men"
- Cinematics- the cinematics were good quality and added to the story, even feeling like a movie at times. And Man can Merril cry, I swear I almost cried with her it felt so real.
- The designs of the weapons/armour- Everything looked more detailed and intimidating in this game. The staffs had blades for crying out loud!! Freaking blades on their staffs....amazing.
- Loading- the loading times were about half of what they were in previous installments. You can pretty much guess that it'll go through a screen twice and you are back in game, very nice and swift.
- Cameos- I loved the cameos, though I got cheated out of seeing Zeveran because Isabela abandoned me to die ( I didn't die, so there Isabela!) Sandal and Bodhan are the best, Alistair was cheeky as always, and Flemeth talked in circles, Most of the companions were from former games as well, Anders being the most suprizing. He was such an downer at times and so angry, unlike in Awakenings where he was joking around and playing with Ser Ponce-a-lot. Oh Anders, you broke my heart in the end, well Justice did but it's your face I had to look at when you BLEW EVERYONE UP.
- The star system- I liked the rating system for the armor, it made it easier to see when your equipment was either gonna save you or get you killed.
- Storage chest included! Remember how in "Origins" you had to pay money to stash your stuff, which is kind of ludicrous in an RPG where looting is a big deal? Not this time around. You have a storage chest from pretty much the get-go.
- Graphics- I liked the smoother look of things though the redesign of some of the characters was weird. The Elves looked Like Na'vi and what the Maker happened to Teagan's nose? He was a hottie in Origins and they made him a hook nosed waif, very depressing.
- The Romance Optiions- Ok, as a female, I didn't have a bad time. Anders was my romance for this playthrough because I loved Anders in Awakenings about thought it'd be fun. It was to a point but there was no real resolution to the relationship, kinda like the no wedding flaw in Origins. My other option was Fenris, who I like (unlike my husband, who thinks the elf is too grumpy). Now male characters don't have as good of a choice in the matter. My husband had to choose between a Pirate queen who had been around the block a few times and a blood mage elf who was completely insane. (now my husband and I don't usually play the same-sex options just out of personal preferance, but for the purpose of full disclosure: Anders, Merril, Fenris, and Isabela are available to both genders) Aveline and Varric are not romancable which was ok to me. I liked how in depth the effort you had to put into the relationships were, but I didn't like that they didn't have a finale or closure really. But the scenes were tasteful and heart-warming, showing less skin than the first game (which really didn't show much anyway) but still gave the feeling of a sweet romance.
- The ability trees- Had to get used to them, I enjoyed that every companion had thier own specialty, but the trees made it a little more difficult. Getting rid of the lockpicking skill for rogues and making is dependant on cunning was frustrating and I missed alot of loot over that.
- Why are the Elves Irish? I'm not against it, I LOVE the Irish, it was just a change I was confused by.
- Companion's Armor- I basically had to depend on accessories to beef up my friends. The armor isn't changable and armor you buy is restricted to you so really it made the companions dependant on the gifts you can find for them. I didn't like this because although it was easy to make my character tough, some of my companions suffered because I couldn't upgrade them as easily.
- Repeat Maps- This I hated the most! Every cave looked the same, every warehouse was the same, almost every mansion looked the same. There was no originality as far as layouts.
- Chats-You’re no longer able to randomly chat with your friends and party members - gifts and conversations are pretty rigidly sanctioned. You can’t even get a romance until the second act, and you can’t even inappropriately make out when you’re covered in blood either.
- Enchantments- Permenant, enough said
So, there is my review. If you are visitors from Facebook, go ahead and comment on there; if you are from LJ, then leave me a comment and tell me what you think. I want to know how the game faired for others.