Dragon Age II

[Guynemer]

Wow. **** gets real at the end. God damn.

[N35t0r]

I'm stuck at the

Spoiler:

duel

with the Arishok.

Spoiler:

I'm aware I can take my whole party, but I want to try and beat him solo. I'm a melee rogue, so it's kind of hard, especially since it's impossible to predict his impalement attack, which shaves off over half my health, and every time I manage to get him under half health, he heals up with a potion (three times in my last try) and I eventually get hit, and when he throws me to the ground there's a chance I don't get up fast enough to escape.

[Felch]

I tried once with a duel, but since my healer mage was no good at that, I went with a party brawl afterwards.

[Guynemer]

Same issue as you, with a melee rogue. I went with the party approach, so much easier.

Spoiler:

Especially if Isabella is sticking around

[Boris Godunov]

I just finished as a warrior. Overall, it was a mix of a great deal of fun and some frustration. The improvements to the interface are superb, especially stealing the dialog wheel from ME. It's nice that Hawke is given a voice and personality (there's a pretty funny inside joke about this in reference to DA1 about 2/3rds through the game). Combat is faster and a bit more fun, although it seems to devolve into button-mashing--I didn't spend the time tweaking my party's tactics like I did in the first one. As with all Bioware games, the voice acting is excellent.

However, I felt a pretty big "meh" at the game's plot itself. It's just a collection of little side quests tacked onto the main story, which isn't even that memorable. I think I'd probably beat the game in under 10 hrs if I didn't do the side quests. But the side quests actually tended to be more enjoyable than the main story, and definitely had the most "WTF?" moments. The graphics are a big disappointment, made all the more prominent by there being so few environments to explore. You're confined to a pretty small area for the whole game. After the gorgeous graphics in ME2, this is definitely a step backwards with pretty bland locations and colors. And the reuse of areas over and over again to represent different places was just plain LAZY. Oh look, this cave is the exact same layout as those 3 other ones I went in, they just had me enter a different room first and closed off certain parts that were open before...

I didn't get a sense of the epicness like I did with the first one. I suppose perhaps it's all just setup for DA3, given how it ends, but that's not satisfactory for a game. I'd give it a B/B+ overall.

[Felch]

However, I felt a pretty big "meh" at the game's plot itself. It's just a collection of little side quests tacked onto the main story, which isn't even that memorable. I think I'd probably beat the game in under 10 hrs if I didn't do the side quests. But the side quests actually tended to be more enjoyable than the main story, and definitely had the most "WTF?" moments. The graphics are a big disappointment, made all the more prominent by there being so few environments to explore. You're confined to a pretty small area for the whole game. After the gorgeous graphics in ME2, this is definitely a step backwards with pretty bland locations and colors. And the reuse of areas over and over again to represent different places was just plain LAZY. Oh look, this cave is the exact same layout as those 3 other ones I went in, they just had me enter a different room first and closed off certain parts that were open before...

I didn't get a sense of the epicness like I did with the first one. I suppose perhaps it's all just setup for DA3, given how it ends, but that's not satisfactory for a game. I'd give it a B/B+ overall.

The plot is one area where different tastes will matter a lot. I liked it because it was broken up, and I felt like I was exploring a world, discovering it, and influencing it through those side quests. You seem disappointed that it wasn't an epic world spanning quest with huge consequences like Origins or the Mass Effect games. You're right about the graphics. A high fantasy setting has a lot of potential, and deserves better.

[Guynemer]

I just finished as a warrior. Overall, it was a mix of a great deal of fun and some frustration. The improvements to the interface are superb, especially stealing the dialog wheel from ME. It's nice that Hawke is given a voice and personality (there's a pretty funny inside joke about this in reference to DA1 about 2/3rds through the game). Combat is faster and a bit more fun, although it seems to devolve into button-mashing--I didn't spend the time tweaking my party's tactics like I did in the first one. As with all Bioware games, the voice acting is excellent.

However, I felt a pretty big "meh" at the game's plot itself. It's just a collection of little side quests tacked onto the main story, which isn't even that memorable. I think I'd probably beat the game in under 10 hrs if I didn't do the side quests. But the side quests actually tended to be more enjoyable than the main story, and definitely had the most "WTF?" moments. The graphics are a big disappointment, made all the more prominent by there being so few environments to explore. You're confined to a pretty small area for the whole game. After the gorgeous graphics in ME2, this is definitely a step backwards with pretty bland locations and colors. And the reuse of areas over and over again to represent different places was just plain LAZY. Oh look, this cave is the exact same layout as those 3 other ones I went in, they just had me enter a different room first and closed off certain parts that were open before...

I didn't get a sense of the epicness like I did with the first one. I suppose perhaps it's all just setup for DA3, given how it ends, but that's not satisfactory for a game. I'd give it a B/B+ overall.

I agree with almost all of this; I liked the graphics much more than you did. The reused environments, however, stunk.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the completely different direction the plot went in this game. DA1, set up this fascinating fantasy world, but its all background as you've got the standard fantasy plot going on. DA2, there is no grand, overarching plot, but we really dig into the nitty-gritty details and implications of the world. Six of one, half dozen of the other. Put the two together, and I think it might be perfect.

[ghen]

Just finished the game. Loved the Justice sidequests and going into the sleeper's dream. That sort of stuff should have happened more often instead of all city-scape fighting.

Also, the night-time battles with random ruffians were annoying. That would have been a good chance to put you up against boss level assassin humans. Instead it was just a crowd of easy to kill nobodies who should have known who I was.

Oh well, with the scope of the first game and the lessons learned from this one the next game should be fantastic again.

[Boris Godunov]

I just finished my second play-through, this time as an "evil" mage instead of the goody-goody warrior I did at first. My overall assessment of the game still stands. The best part is indeed the relationship-building with the team. Ironically, I was much better at winning the friendship of the entire team when I was being a jerk than I was as a good guy. And that definitely had a significant impact on how some events played out, especially the final showdown with the Arishok.

[Guynemer]

Really? I was a goody-goody, and had the whole team with me against the Arishok (after Isabella returned at the last minute).

[Boris Godunov]

Really? I was a goody-goody, and had the whole team with me against the Arishok (after Isabella returned at the last minute).

I didn't build enough friendship with her on the first play-through and she didn't come back. She tended to disapprove of my goody-goody actions a lot. I didn't have any trouble defeating the Arishok without her, though.

On the second play-through:

Spoiler:

I had ****ed her and my friendship with her was at the highest level. She came back when I confronted the Arishok in the palace, but I just handed her over to him. The Arishok left town peacefully, there was no fight at all. That's what you get for crossing me, *****!

[Zevico]

I liked the combat and gameplay, and I'm appreciating the storyline. But I can't help but compare to DAO and think: wow, this could've been way better in a thousand little ways. It's not just recycling and waves. The game feels more bare bones than DAO. Maybe it's because I'm a PC player? I dunno.

[dino5jacobson]

It is an amazing game. I am playing this game currently and I am enjoying a lot......

[Felch]

It's 25% off on Steam today.

[Zevico]

Yeah. Weakness in the game is playing as a mage or doing magic near templars. Not accounted for in-game. Oh well.