[karajorma]

I've only played as far as the Deep Roads and I must say that I'm incredibly disappointed about

Spoiler:

Hawke's brother suddenly contracting and dying of the darkspawn taint out of nowhere. I was tempted to replay the whole section just to see if I could save him by leaving him behind but apparently even if you do that he'll still die or be removed from the game somehow.

****ing awful writing.

[Fury]

Spoiler:

If you leave him behind, he is not removed from the game. You will in fact meet him a few times at the end of Act 3. He doesn't die.

I didn't know he dies if you take him with you to the Deep Roads. I wonder, does same happen if your surviving sibling is Bethany? And what happens to Bethany if you don't take her with you to the Deep Roads?

[Ransom]

Spoiler:

I'd expect she'd die the same way, and it doesn't really surprise me. The game warns you it'll happen when your mother begs you not to take her.

If you don't take her, Bethany gets taken to the Circle and you run into her at several points in the plot, mainly in the finale. Probably the same places as Hawke's brother.

[The E]

Spoiler:

Third option, if you take Anders with you, is that Beth gets Grey Wardened.

[starbug]

Spoiler:

I've just got past the qunari invasion and have ventured into the deep roads for a second time and come across a puzzling thing, a warden says that your warden allied with the architect, even though in the saved character i imported, i killed him and when you click on the events button or whatever, where it tells you what you did in DA O and DA A, it has him as dead, yet in the game he is mentioned as being allowed to go free by the warden, weird!

[Locutus of Borg]

Just like how in DAA and DA@ many characters made references to the Warden's relation with Zevran even though I sent his sorry ass back to Antiva.

[starbug]

Ok i have just finished the game and i have to say, after a good final fight, why oh why does the end suck so much!!!! sooooooooooo anticlimactic, just like Dragon Age Origins, a let down when it comes to the ending, i know its meant to end so that will lead on to DA3 but come on, Mass Effect 1 and 2 had brillant ends if rather cheesy and their a trilogy. I'll never get this problem with game writers/developers they put so much work into the beginning and the middle but when it comes to the end its like they ran out of steam ie Starcraft 2s ending.

A pretty good game but let down by the constant repeat of levels that are meant to be different locations( sorry Bioware but that is just lazy and not on.) and a rubbish ending.

erm 7 out of 10, IMHO the game should of had a longer development time.

[TrashMan]

A 10-year span narrative, yet what changes in those 10 years? Nothing really. You didn't FEEL that passage of time.

We have a skewed perspective on this because the march of progress in our time is much quicker than it was in the timeperiod being portrayed, and the ability to move around much greater. A decade being a short span of time, and very samey, is actually pretty reasonable for the Medieval-ish world being portrayed.

Alternately you're absolutely correct but they just happened to blow it a way that's mildly appropriate.

You'd expect new people..changes in the city. Construction (like new houses or locations)...some crates changing location..SOMETHING!

[Stormkeeper]

I finished the game in 2 days, give or take, with a Mage. I rather liked my ending sequence though.

Spoiler:

An entire Circle of Templars bowing before an apostate mage just seems rather awesome.

In my ending, Anders blew up the Chantry along with the Grand Cleric (!), I defeated the Qunari invasion by having a mass brawl in the throne room, Carver became a Grey Warden, I didn't manage to romance anyone, and I never actually managed to recruit Isabella.

I agree that in some parts the writing is bad. The gameplay seems rather dumbed down from the original DA, and feels more like a Devil May Cry clone then a DA sequel. Tactics seem less important when your party will be wiping out enemy waves in no time flat.

I liked the voice acting though, and I thought linking seemingly insignificant sidequests to the main quest line was a rather smooth touch. For example:

Spoiler:

When I chose to answer a letter from Thrask, the Nice Templar, and spared the Blood Mages, I didn't realise it'd come back to bite me in the butt later on when I was working for Meredith.

Also, since I didn't have Isabella, I didn't know about the relic, leaving me with that massive brawl I mentioned above.

[mxlm]

I've come around to the view that the writing isn't bad (Act 3's main line is actively awful, though), it's merely atrociously integrated with the gameplay, incomplete, and therefore less than the sum of its parts.

As an example, you know why there are so many crazy mages in Kirkwall? Because there's some sort of malevolent force under/in the city that ****s them up but good. You know why I'm not putting that in spoiler tags? Because it's a codex entry.

[Stormkeeper]

As an example, you know why there are so many crazy mages in Kirkwall? Because there's some sort of malevolent force under/in the city that ****s them up but good. You know why I'm not putting that in spoiler tags? Because it's a codex entry.

It's the death of hundreds of millions of slaves in the past when Kirkwall was a slave city, and their deaths caused the wall between our world and the Fade to be weakened, allowing daemons to more easily cross over to infest the minds of the mages.

... will probably be the explanation somewhere.

[The E]

In the end, this reminds me a lot of KOTOR 2. It's a rush job, punted out of development while it was nowhere near finished or polished enough. It's a game that has good ideas, but that is ultimately let down by a lack of time. I'm certain that, if Bioware had another 6 Months, or another year, they could have made this into a truly great experience, but as it is, it's more like a quick cash grab. It's still enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but just like KOTOR 2, you can never escape the feeling that it could have been infinitely more.

[Stormkeeper]

The DA community reckons that DA2 is just to make more money to pad out development costs for DA 3.

[Ransom]

the DA community reckons a lot of things

[Dark RevenantX]

feels more like a Devil May Cry clone then a DA sequel.

I have the feeling that DA2 would actually be a lot better if it were a DMC clone.   

[Stormkeeper]

Some truth in that, sadly.

[Ravenholme]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/31/analysis-dragon-age-ii/

RPS has a good knack for summing up my thoughts so I don't have to.

[TrashMan]

Yes, saw that article too.. Pretty good, apart from the uninteresting companions. I rather liked Aveline, Merrill and Varric.


B.t.w - I just finished playing Drakensang: The River of Time. IT's a true old-school RPG, far prettier than DA2. And with a far more satisfying story and ending.

[TrashMan]

The two funniest threads on the whole Bioware boards. Enjoy the madness:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6594400

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6927245/1

[The E]

Okay, so, DA2 is _such_ a flop that EA has decided to give everyone who bought it before April 30th a free copy of Mass Effect 2. As consolation prizes go, that's rather decent.