Dragon Age Series

[Joe]

Yahtzee review here.

 

[Russell]

^ Beat me to it.
And I agree with Yathzee, it feels more like a spin-off/cash grab than a sequel.

 

[Hisako]

The end of Act II feels like a definitive ending somewhere, although having an idea of the story, it obviously isn't.


Will expand later.

 

[Alex]

^ Beat me to it.
And I agree with Yathzee, it feels more like a spin-off/cash grab than a sequel.

And yet, its a vastly better game. Strange, no?

 

[Bex]

I've finally wrestled my copy back off Alex.
24 hours until I can play it though, DAMNIT

 

[Hisako]

Finding myself using quite a few exploits, especially for quest bosses in thin-pathed dungeons

 

[Russell]

And yet, its a vastly better game. Strange, no?

I understand why people prefer it to Origins, I just don't.

It feels shallow & over simplified. True Bioware NEEDED to simplify/change DA in certain areas, (the Fade anyone?) but I think they went to far in the name of appealing to a wider audience.

I just can’t shake the feeling that it should have been called 'Dragon Age: Kirkwall', or 'DA: Hawke Rises' or 'DA: Champions Tale' or something. It’s a spin-off, whilst we wait for the real sequel.

I don’t think it’s a bad game; I enjoyed playing it. I’m just disappointed with it, (especially the BS ending.)

 

[Max Payne]

And yet, its a vastly better game. Strange, no?

I wouldn't go so far as to say that. It's better in a lot of ways, yes. But not much.

 

[Zee]

I just can’t shake the feeling that it should have been called 'Dragon Age: Kirkwall', or 'DA: Hawke Rises' or 'DA: Champions Tale' or something. It’s a spin-off, whilst we wait for the real sequel.

It was originally supposed to be called Dragon Age: Exodus

 

[Russell]

It was originally supposed to be called Dragon Age: Exodus

O rly?

Because that makes sense.
Also if it had clearly been a spinoff and named DA: Exodus I'd be alot kinder to it, my expectations would have been lower & I wouldn’t have been as disappointed with it or the ending.

 

[Hisako]

I think the reason why people feel this way about Dragon Age II is that it didn't have a typical narrative structure ala Origins. A few things happen in the first act, which culminates in an event that doesn't really have anything to do with anything in the next act, and the process repeats itself two more times with the next act's events being foreshadowed in the previous one.

I think this actually is a sort of design choice by Bioware, and I find it interesting of them to use Dragon Age II to break the typical high-fantasy mold (because let's face it Origins was far from the fucking 'dark-fantasy' epic people were promised in the promotions). Regardless of whether or not the game is "good", the game is different, and the story is definitely more personal. It's all about Hawke's personal life and how Hawke deals with all the shit that's thrown at him/her. The setting of Kirkwall is merely a platform to display what Hawke does, rather than in Origins where the setting was the centrepiece of the story which the Warden so happened to make an impact on. That's what, I think, also influenced the way the narrative was framed through Varric's storytelling, because aside from the fact that Varric is the natural-born bullshitter of the party, he quickly establishes at the beginning (and in quite a few other parts of the game) that the story is all about Hawke's life (which Cassandra asked for, ) rather than Hawke's one overarching quest to go on a journey to location X to defeat singular enemy Y.

So while I don't necessarily consider it to be a 'spinoff', I can certainly see how people can see the game as merely a bridge to Dragon Age 3. It has only a few of the typical things that a regular run-of-the-mill high fantasy game would. Story structure is definitely not one of them. And I applaud them for being ambitious.

 

[Russell]

I can certainly see how people can see the game as merely a bridge to Dragon Age 3. It has only a few of the typical things that a regular run-of-the-mill high fantasy game would. Story structure is definitely not one of them. And I applaud them for being ambitious.

Concur. Focusing on Hawke’s rise rather than Origins “hey Warden fix everyone’s problems” was a good thing. But it's not the idea that sucks balls, it's the execution.

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

this game ignores straight male gamers so you straight men should not be enjoying this game!

 

[Joe]

I lol'd at that entire rant.

 

[Splintered]

oh god, what did I just read?

 

[Hisako]

Old news is very old.

David Gaider's response was glorious.

 

[Splintered]

Spoiler

 

[Alex]

^ Thanked for accuracy.

 

[Splintered]

Isn't it?

I found it on the bioware forum and was like, "I think s/he just summarized the entire game."

 

[Joe]

Fenris' comment at the bottom of Aveline's was the best. XD

 

[Zee]

Old news is very old.

David Gaider's response was glorious.

I thought hell froze over when Gaider wrote a response I wasn't cringing at.

 

[Max Payne]

I just finished the game. Goddamn, so much drama.

Spoiler

Anders you stupid fuck. I was well on my way to disliking you, then you went and turned that into full on hate. Killing all those fucking people like that, jesus christ how off your gourd can you get. Thank you for finally giving me both opportunity and reason to kill you. Farewell fuckwad.

Fenris, you no talent personalityless fuck. How dare you turn on me. I have endured your idiotic near sighted prejudice for so long simply because I had need of your skills, but between you and Aveline I will always pick the butch chick. I shed no tears over spilling your dirty lyrium laced blood. Maybe when you meet your elders at the clearing they will finally bestow you with some measure of brains.

I KNEW that goddamn idol had something to do with Meredith's insanity. She kept wavering between reasonable and outright stupid randomly. But to find out this psycho bitch had a sword made out of it. That's just fucking batshit.

This game has more angst in it collectively than the last 5 rpgs I've played. I mean really, goddamn so much melodrama. I'm not even sure how I feel about all of it atm.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Lol @ rant.

Spoiler

I never had any issue killing Anders, I was all for it in fact even before the stupid twat killed everyone and started the war.
Fenris on the other hand stated he wouldn't be a part of helping the mages but when confronting Meredith I just ended up saying "Why stand against me" and he switched right back to my side and went against Meredith XD

In all seriousness though the deep roads items were all underplayed, between the sword from the Dwarven Brother and the idol both had the potential to be far greater than they were.

 

[Hisako]

I just skipped the High Dragon segment because I know that's going to take me another 5 fucking hours on Hard

I'll probably come back to it tomorrow or something
IT'S NOT EVEN THAT DIFFICULT, THE HIGH DRAGON ITSELF IS BATSHIT STUPID BUT THEN IT SENDS A BAJILLION MINIONS AT ME AND THINKS ITS FUNNY TO KILL ALL MY MAGES IN TWO HITS

also

Spoiler

yeah Anders can go fuck himself with a rake, I mean seriously the Grand Cleric was probably the only unbiased voice of reason in this goddamn power struggle and Anders thinks killing her along with the entire Chantry is going to fix things roflolocopter

I did really think of killing him, but I kept him alive to see what other sorts of things he can fuck up in Dragon Age 3, being that sort of fella

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Spoiler

The only reason I would allow Anders to live would be in order to spark a war between Kirkwall and Starkhaven. As much as I hate Anders I hate Sebastian more (and I really wanted his scottish twang to make him into a good character

Just started my third playthrough as a rogue archer, OMFG!!! I can't get over how devastating the attacks are compared to even a two handed warrior.
Im averaging around 85 DPS with 10% fire damage and im not even half way through Act 1

LOVIN IT!!!