Dragon Age 2 -- The Spoiler-free version
Since there's a lot of cool, meaty spoiler-tastic stuff to talk about, here are my spoiler-free comments:
That's all for now. Spoilery discussion to come!
- Varric is amazing. He's one of my favorite RPG companions in years, alongside Mordin, Garrus, IG-88, and Shale. His frame narrative is a cool technique which lead to several cool moments.
- I loved the cameos and references to Dragon Age: Origins and Awakenings. DA2 does a compelling job of showing a larger world, where the Blight of Dragon Age: Origins almost pales in intensity to the conflict in Kirkwall.
- Even with the 1.01 patch, there were several notable bugs, and the game has crashed about once a day when I play. Fortunately, there is a good autosave function
- Combat works very differently than in DA:O and DA:A. I really like the dynamism and kineticism of the DA2 combat, enough that when I went back to re-do Witch Hunt and set up my second DA 2 playthrough, I found myself tuning out in the combat.
- There is a fair amount of what you could call 'railroading' and I would instead call 'narrative streamlining.' Hawke is at the center of many really important things, it's a question of how.
- If you liked Mass Effect 2, DA2 will probably be up your alley. It definitely has the 'interactive movie/novel' feel, which I loved.
- Almost all of the companions are romanceable by a Hawke of either gender, and you can flirt with all of the companions. Bioware makes really good dating sims with combat interludes.
- I want DLC now! The story ends at a fantastic place with tons of possibility and I'm very excited for what comes next.
- Dragon Age 2 Rogues = Ninja. So many movement powers and backflips and poisons and whee!
- The voice acting is really good -- yay for full-cast games!
That's all for now. Spoilery discussion to come!