Dragon Age Series

[Sheva Alomar]

It means he jizzed all over his TV screen and game.

 

[Bex]

I want my xbox back and I want it NAO.
This will be the first game I actually want to play a mage.
IMMA WARRIOR
goddamnit

 

[Max Payne]

The mage has always been easy mode in DA.

 

[Splintered]

I always thought mage was the most fun to play as anyway.

 

[Joker]

It means he jizzed all over his TV screen and game.

IT'S IN MY RACCOON WOUNDS

 

[Hisako]

Mage is just ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh to me And yeah it was the easiest class to play as in Origins. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE A HEALER FOR LIKE A FIFTH OF THE GAME IF YOU PLAY ANY OTHER CLASS =/

I'm downloading DAII at home as I type this, so when I come back from uni it'll be finished.
Sort of excite



Well actually I wanted to import my saves from Origins but I hadn't actually reached the endgame because I was so fed up with the gameplay, so what I might do is just import a custom character and just tweak it a bit until I have what I like >:3 (I know it doesn't particularly change the character, but still).

 

[Cthulhu]

I'm debating whether I should just DL it and play through it halfway like I did with DA 1, or whether I should (finally) get a console and get the legal version. But then I'd have to redo the old one too. And do Mass Effect 1 & 2 as well. And GoW. And a dozen other games I just haven't played yet, .

 

[Zee]

The classes are rebalanced well enough so that it's not so mage biased -- at least that's what I've experienced so far. Rogues are actually really fun this time around, and the backflip and backstab abilities let you move around the battlefield for some get in, do damage, get out. Archery is also far, far better, and stands more on its own now.

I started a two handed warrior file to see how that went, and I like it so far. I don't find warriors as exciting as mages or even rogues, but they're more fun than they were in Origins.

Pro: I like the redesign of the talent tree. Some interesting choices there and you aren't as forced to pick a skill you don't like just to get through to another one.

Con: The cooldown on the heals. IT MAKES ME WEEP

But then I'd have to redo the old one too.

Well, you wouldn't have to. The game gives you three possible choices for endings if you don't want to (or can't) import a save. Unless you're really a stickler about having your save file be a certain way.

 

[Hisako]

Rogues are the most dynamic in terms of combat I think. Aside from the sneak attack from Origins they were definitively the more difficult class to use without a solid payoff from the fights. And bows, yes, were fucking useless etc.

imo they were the class that have really been improved by the most leaps and bounds out of the three.

I do have an issue with the dialogue wheel, though. I mean, the Paragon-Neutral-Renegade system in Mass Effect wasn't the brightest of ideas but Dragon Age II seems to have a 'Saintly'-'Smarmy'-'Angry' sort of paradigm, which isn't much of an improvement. Some of the Smarmy options seem a bit... inappropriate on occasion. Not incredibly insensitive or anything, but just odd.

 

[Zee]

The character's voice/personality is supposed to change depending on which way you lean. But there are certain differences in the DA2 one -- I have to look up what all the icons meant, but it was something like, the bottom red was usually the assertive one, but there was a difference in being direct and just being an aggressive jerk (one being a fist, another a hammer). Same for the top "nice" option. The branch is usually neutral or diplomatic, the halo and wings are being a goody goody. I'm not sure how well these options play out in the course of the whole game, but I started my file being pretty direct, but diplomatic when

Spoiler

Flemeth

showed up, and it didn't sound all over the place. Sarcasm + Assertive just didn't work, though.

Some of the Smarmy options seem a bit... inappropriate on occasion. Not incredibly insensitive or anything, but just odd.

lol, in the first part of the game

Spoiler

after your sibling dies, you can choose the snarky option and Hawke will say, "At least father has company!"

. Choosing a sarcastic option during dramatic moments is gonna be inappropriate no matter what, though.

 

[Hisako]

Yeah that moment was one that stood out for me. I was like "um that's a little... not cool".

 

[Zee]

Ahaha yeah, I was pretty surprised at that line, myself.

Also, are you playing as male or female Hawke? I'm more partial to FemHawke's voice -- even if she a while to grow on me. I'm trying to get used to M!Hawke's voice. He's better than MaleShep, but idk, I feel like he's really flat in some scenes.

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

female is always better because she's always moar awesome

 

[Hisako]

MHawke is definitely better than MShep though.

I'm actually pretty divided on the voices. Female Hawke doesn't have the same sort of charisma that Jennifer Hale put into FemShep, and I think the two voices are pretty even in this game.



Also, I've been flicking through reviews online and there are so many comments about how the combat has been 'dumbed down' and how they're annoyed that II doesn't play out like a "classic RPG"

http://www.hookedgamers.com/editorials/2011/03/02/dragon_age_ii_the_decline_of_the_classic_rpg.html

OH CALAMITY, GOD FUCKING FORBID THE SERIES TAKE A NEW DIRECTION FOR THE FANS WHO STILL LIVE IN 1998 BALDUR'S GATE ERA.

 

[Zee]

Oh, god. I liked DA: O, but the combat was a drag, and the classes were unbalanced.

It's not even like you can't still play the classic pause method, either. You just don't have to rely on it as much.

 

[Joker]

My only comment is that the rogue in DAO was fucking pro (read: has the highest DPS of any class in the game). I just finished the main game and Golems of Amgarrak today, and srsly, the two most difficult fights in Golems ended up with me solo'ing with my rogue because his Dexterity is so high that enemies only hit once every dozen or so swings at him. (although I set the difficulty to Hard for the final fight and ended up dying three times before the photo finish fourth run, where

Spoiler: lol

The Harvester jumped to the other side of the map, pulling my character out of combat and reviving my three dead party members, which was awesome because

holy fucking lol.

Aaaaanyway.

I also agree on the restructuring of the talent trees - LOVE IT!

 

[Hisako]

The combat and pause-play method of gameplay was personally really damn banal. The pacing of combat was so absurdly slow. There's a place for classic RPGs, yes, but honestly if Origins' combat is any indication of what cRPG combat is like then I want no part of it.


EDIT:

ENCHANTMENT!

EDITx2: I just noticed how massive how all the women's boobs are in this game

This game is cray cray

 

[Joker]

lolsandal

 

[Hisako]

Sandal is secretly an archdemon trapped in a mentally challenged dwarf's body

 

[Joe]

Sandal is secretly footwear.

 

[Hisako]

careful what you say around him

he might "enchantment" you*





*dismemberment, decapitation, disembowelment, spontaneous combustion and general agonizing spellcasting of which the end result is that all that remains is giblets

 

[Zee]

The cooldowns on the heals make me want to weep. I thought grabbing a healing spell would take some of the pressure off, but nope!

Spoiler

ANOTHER WAVE

 

[Hisako]

Random encounters are easy when you can retreat behind corners and bottleneck the waves in (especially in Kirkwall), just a tip

I was a little bit sad I couldn't tweak the demo preset for my own, but you can't have everything >:



Also, goddamnit Fenris would be such an awesome romance for FemHawke if he wasn't such a goddamn angry ham


I'm liking this game so far. It certainly makes me want to have enemy encounters as opposed to Origins. The pause-play format is still in use all the time, it just feels a lot faster (I'm playing on Hard difficulty as standard and tbh it's much easier than Origins Hard difficulty was). Rogue is the most tunzofun so far, especially with dual daggers, Evade and Backstab and such making combat so dynamic. Only thing I sadfeis'd with my preorder is that the preorder items (from Steam) are restricted to the Warrior class, which makes those special deliveries useless for me,

And my god I am serious there are so many huge boobs in this game. It appears to run in Hawke's family. Don't get me started on Isabela's. They would be quite literally extremely dangerous for a real woman's centre of gravity.


EDIT: I think they have increased Sandal's enthusiasm for enchantment in Dragon Age II to the point where it could be described as "unreasonably excited even for a batshit insane dwarf"

 

[Joker]

Satsu...stop the spoilers pls. Or tag them, at least.

 

[Hisako]

What freakin spoilers

there's nothing in my post that indicated anyone's plot experience would be completely ruined