slaughter the entire city, otherwise Varric would mention it. He was just super pissed and saying things. He will certainly go back and try to hunt Anders, probably successfully unless Hawke protects him. He doesn't attack Anders right there because Hawke would murder him.
slaughter the entire city, otherwise Varric would mention it. He was just super pissed and saying things. He will certainly go back and try to hunt Anders, probably successfully unless Hawke protects him. He doesn't attack Anders right there because Hawke would murder him.
Honestly, Kirkwall could probably stand being slaughtered though.
OK, I just finished it. Good game, but far from bioware's best. I don't really regret buying it at launch (though mostly because I got it at 1/4 off), but I don't think I'd suggest it to any of my friends until it hits a MSRP drop like Dead Space 2 did.
The ending though. I mean, it was sliding in all of act 3, but the last couple hours? Bleh, everyone's already bitched about it before, so there's no use in complaining about it again. Their weakest ending ever, probably would have been better to just stop playing at the end of act 2.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
edited April 2011
I didn't think the ending was that bad.
But going into it I braced myself for "middle title syndrome."
I'm all for setting stuff up, but to not even bother with ending slides? Or even any sort of denouncement for your characters after the final battle? That's just kind of...insulting.
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ZarathustraEckUbermenschnow with stripes!Registered Userregular
I'm all for setting stuff up, but to not even bother with ending slides? Or even any sort of denouncement for your characters after the final battle? That's just kind of...insulting.
I wouldn't go as far as to say I was insulted, but even the static screens of DA:O with text printed on the screen to tell you what happened was better than, "well, they eventually went their separate ways".
Maybe insulting was too strong a word. Disappointing maybe? Frustrated certainly.
I do hope that if the sequel is set in orlais, they'll actually have a segment of it that's like the landsmeet. Or the quarian fleet. Or heck, even the vassalage stuff in Awakening.
I will say that the conversation system is significantly better than Mass Effect's. And only half of it is because of the separate skip and select keybinds.
Maybe insulting was too strong a word. Disappointing maybe? Frustrated certainly.
I do hope that if the sequel is set in orlais, they'll actually have a segment of it that's like the landsmeet. Or the quarian fleet. Or heck, even the vassalage stuff in Awakening.
I will say that the conversation system is significantly better than Mass Effect's. And only half of it is because of the separate skip and select keybinds.
The idea of Hawke taking on a specific attitude due to your choices and that attitude being reflected in so many ways (Special dialogue options, cutscene dialogue, battle commentary, ambient chatter) is incredibly and quite seamlessly done.
Snarky Hawke does get the best special dialogue options though. "There's a fire two rows that way, you'd best take all your guards and check it out!"
The problem with doing slides is probably because they don't know exactly what they are going to do with future installments and the characters and even Hawke in relation to the new storyline yet. Keep in mind the short development cycle and the rumours of the game getting rushed out.
If they say that Fenris moved to Orlais to become a pastry chef following the events in DA2, it will be harder to do things with him as a character if they release an expansion (and eventually DA3) detailing what happens after DA2. They did the slides thing in DA:O and as a result we saw basically none of the main characters of that game return in any significant way, even in DA2 or Awakenings.
Usually companies have expansions already lined up in a design phase as they release the original game, but due to the rumours of DA2 getting rushed out and the very short development cycle for it, I doubt they have a very clear outline on what to do yet.
Besides I kind of got the impression that whatever they will release next in the franchise will deal with what happens right after DA2 ended, so having slides telling the player of the immediate future wouldn't really work like it did in DA:O where the storyline was pretty much wrapped up
Just beat it, I'm hugely disappointed about this game, all in all.
In terms of gameplay, the numerous flaws which I'm sure have been talked about already really killed this game for me. They wouldn't have been too bad if this was a short game, but dealing with ever-respawning shitty waves of enemies with hardly any variety for 40 hours? About 10-15 environments throughout the entire game? smh
About the story... Well, act 1 and 2 were fine... except that so much important stuff happens off-screen. But that's semi-kinda understandable, and act 2 was actually great. But act 3 decides to shit all over you. And blood magic. It's fucking everywhere, everytime. There was like, 4 mages who didn't use blood magic in the entire game? And the ending. Goddamn, the ending.
The game wasn't really BAD or anything but.. This game feels like a game that should've had at least a year more of polishing.
I must be the only person in the world who thought the crazy respawns were fun times.
So I haven't been paying much attention since I beat it but has this game been patched yet? I've been waiting ona patch before I do an evil warrior and a snarky mage run through.
I'm all for setting stuff up, but to not even bother with ending slides? Or even any sort of denouncement for your characters after the final battle? That's just kind of...insulting.
With Dragon Age 3 likely to be almost immediately after the final scene that we saw in DA2, the reason for foregoing ending slides is pretty clear.
I must be the only person in the world who thought the crazy respawns were fun times.
So I haven't been paying much attention since I beat it but has this game been patched yet? I've been waiting ona patch before I do an evil warrior and a snarky mage run through.
I didn't mind them either. I can't think of any way of having the alternative without making serious changes to other gameplay mechanics, possibly for the worse.
KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
edited April 2011
Yeah I romanced pretty much everybody, but I think the romance options shut off after you
sleep with one of them and decide to commit.
Isabella didn't want to commit, and I rejected Anders post-banging so I was still able to do romance options after sleeping with them, but I don't remember being able to continue romancing Fenris after I let Merril move in
Kwoaru on
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
I must be the only person in the world who thought the crazy respawns were fun times.
So I haven't been paying much attention since I beat it but has this game been patched yet? I've been waiting ona patch before I do an evil warrior and a snarky mage run through.
I'm all for setting stuff up, but to not even bother with ending slides? Or even any sort of denouncement for your characters after the final battle? That's just kind of...insulting.
I'd say you got the denouncement down, it's the denouement that's missing.
I must be the only person in the world who thought the crazy respawns were fun times.
So I haven't been paying much attention since I beat it but has this game been patched yet? I've been waiting ona patch before I do an evil warrior and a snarky mage run through.
No, I really liked them.
According to Bioware on their forums, patches for all three systems are currently going through certification. There's something like 100 fixes in the patch, including Merril's Act 3 personal quest and the Isabela and Sebastian bonus bugs.
You can do everyone's romances simultaneously up until sleeping with them, which is pretty early in each one, really. But after the sex, if you choose to continue it, Merrill and Anders become exclusive. Fenris and Isabela don't. So you can sleep with Fenris and Isabela and still sleep with or romance whoever else you want, but you can't do that with Anders and Merrill without ending the romance completely.
I'm all for setting stuff up, but to not even bother with ending slides? Or even any sort of denouncement for your characters after the final battle? That's just kind of...insulting.
With Dragon Age 3 likely to be almost immediately after the final scene that we saw in DA2, the reason for foregoing ending slides is pretty clear.
They didn't want to tie their hands.
There's still a 3 year gap before the ending and the ending that Varric kind of brushes over.
I'm all for setting stuff up, but to not even bother with ending slides? Or even any sort of denouncement for your characters after the final battle? That's just kind of...insulting.
With Dragon Age 3 likely to be almost immediately after the final scene that we saw in DA2, the reason for foregoing ending slides is pretty clear.
They didn't want to tie their hands.
There's still a 3 year gap before the ending and the ending that Varric kind of brushes over.
And Mike Laidlaw has said they're looking into DLC that continues things for Hawke past the game's ending since the feedback they got from DLC like Leliana's Song was that people disliked playing DLC where their player character from the campaign wasn't involved.
Just beat it, I'm hugely disappointed about this game, all in all.
In terms of gameplay, the numerous flaws which I'm sure have been talked about already really killed this game for me. They wouldn't have been too bad if this was a short game, but dealing with ever-respawning shitty waves of enemies with hardly any variety for 40 hours? About 10-15 environments throughout the entire game? smh
About the story... Well, act 1 and 2 were fine... except that so much important stuff happens off-screen. But that's semi-kinda understandable, and act 2 was actually great. But act 3 decides to shit all over you. And blood magic. It's fucking everywhere, everytime. There was like, 4 mages who didn't use blood magic in the entire game? And the ending. Goddamn, the ending.
The game wasn't really BAD or anything but.. This game feels like a game that should've had at least a year more of polishing.
I'm not sure I understand your objection - most of what you are complaining about is systemic flaws that would not me remedied easily through additional polish. I wonder if you, like many, are mixing your surprise with some of the direction shifts with some really on-target criticism, and coming out with an overall impression that is actually more negative than you actually intend.
I think one thing I'm distilling from threads like this is that people are really surprised by some of the direction shifts, and are finding it easier to express that negatively. Hence, if Origins did not exist, people would like this game more than they do (supported by the 90%+ ratings from people who did not like or did not play Origins).
Its just a theory of mine. This is a polarizing, complicated subject.
Jerkass Blood Warrior is the best warrior. I can't normally stomach such playthroughs, but they reward you so much for the bad behavior. It's almost as much fun as smarmy female rogue. That's saying a LOT!
Then there is the making it with Isabella. Love? Don't be silly, you just got nice cans. Hopefully I didn't screw myself out of the romance path with that, but it was just so magnificent bastard.
it is so much easier to swap in guys that you don't regularly use
it would have been nice if you could get appearance upgrades from things other than romance, though
This. I noticed that Merril's armor got better, and when I realized it was for reasons other than upgrades I was bummed. I wish at least buying the armor upgrades made the appearance differ, but in the end as long as Hawke looked cool I didn't reall care.
So I just started Act III.
I challenged the Arishok to single combat at the end of Act II and it was pretty fucking awesome. I'm sure you HAVE to fight him, but doing it in single combat, as an archer, was one of the most intense things I've ever done in a game. It took me realtime 5-10 minutes to beat him. Running, shooting, dodging. It was the most dynamic fight I've had in the game thus far.
I sided with the mages, as Merril is my romance and Anders is my "best friend". We'll see where this takes us.
I'm spoilering most of my post, actually the rest, just in case, because I'm not finished so I'm not sure what the spoiler policy is. Anyways, this contains spoilers for Act II and a couple of ways to acquire a specific achievement:
I'm a little bummed that apparently I missed Isabella completely and entirely, which is definitely going to necessitate a second playthrough at some point. I honestly just never met her, ever. I read that she's in the hanged man, and as an archer I never visited Varric during act 1, since I didn't need him, which I'm assuming was the cause.
I also just saw there's an achievement for Usurping the Crown, and I read that the only way to do this is to side with the templars the entire way through. Is this true?
Lastly, I just want to say that after much deliberation, Wounds of the Past is the best spell in the game. I hail of arrows and then watch as ENTIRE MOBS shake until they explode.
Posts
I love the characters in the game. I'm just enamored with Merrill. She's so ridiculous. Everything she says is hilarious.
The ending though. I mean, it was sliding in all of act 3, but the last couple hours? Bleh, everyone's already bitched about it before, so there's no use in complaining about it again. Their weakest ending ever, probably would have been better to just stop playing at the end of act 2.
But going into it I braced myself for "middle title syndrome."
But I thought they said that it wasn't a trilogy
It was pretty obvious going into it that it would be.
There was no way they were done with this world after 2 games. No way.
That doesn't mean they intend for the series to be a trilogy.
Fair enough.
I wouldn't go as far as to say I was insulted, but even the static screens of DA:O with text printed on the screen to tell you what happened was better than, "well, they eventually went their separate ways".
-Z
I do hope that if the sequel is set in orlais, they'll actually have a segment of it that's like the landsmeet. Or the quarian fleet. Or heck, even the vassalage stuff in Awakening.
I will say that the conversation system is significantly better than Mass Effect's. And only half of it is because of the separate skip and select keybinds.
The idea of Hawke taking on a specific attitude due to your choices and that attitude being reflected in so many ways (Special dialogue options, cutscene dialogue, battle commentary, ambient chatter) is incredibly and quite seamlessly done.
Snarky Hawke does get the best special dialogue options though. "There's a fire two rows that way, you'd best take all your guards and check it out!"
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
If they say that Fenris moved to Orlais to become a pastry chef following the events in DA2, it will be harder to do things with him as a character if they release an expansion (and eventually DA3) detailing what happens after DA2. They did the slides thing in DA:O and as a result we saw basically none of the main characters of that game return in any significant way, even in DA2 or Awakenings.
Usually companies have expansions already lined up in a design phase as they release the original game, but due to the rumours of DA2 getting rushed out and the very short development cycle for it, I doubt they have a very clear outline on what to do yet.
Besides I kind of got the impression that whatever they will release next in the franchise will deal with what happens right after DA2 ended, so having slides telling the player of the immediate future wouldn't really work like it did in DA:O where the storyline was pretty much wrapped up
TL;DR - DEY RAN OUTTA TIME
In terms of gameplay, the numerous flaws which I'm sure have been talked about already really killed this game for me. They wouldn't have been too bad if this was a short game, but dealing with ever-respawning shitty waves of enemies with hardly any variety for 40 hours? About 10-15 environments throughout the entire game? smh
About the story... Well, act 1 and 2 were fine... except that so much important stuff happens off-screen. But that's semi-kinda understandable, and act 2 was actually great. But act 3 decides to shit all over you. And blood magic. It's fucking everywhere, everytime. There was like, 4 mages who didn't use blood magic in the entire game? And the ending. Goddamn, the ending.
The game wasn't really BAD or anything but.. This game feels like a game that should've had at least a year more of polishing.
So I haven't been paying much attention since I beat it but has this game been patched yet? I've been waiting ona patch before I do an evil warrior and a snarky mage run through.
LoL: failboattootoot
With Dragon Age 3 likely to be almost immediately after the final scene that we saw in DA2, the reason for foregoing ending slides is pretty clear.
They didn't want to tie their hands.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
I didn't mind them either. I can't think of any way of having the alternative without making serious changes to other gameplay mechanics, possibly for the worse.
I know I hit the option to sleep with or reject anders like 15 minutes after getting him
thanks for the info
Isabella didn't want to commit, and I rejected Anders post-banging so I was still able to do romance options after sleeping with them, but I don't remember being able to continue romancing Fenris after I let Merril move in
No, I really liked them.
I'd say you got the denouncement down, it's the denouement that's missing.
According to Bioware on their forums, patches for all three systems are currently going through certification. There's something like 100 fixes in the patch, including Merril's Act 3 personal quest and the Isabela and Sebastian bonus bugs.
And also maybe the companions-sheath-their-weapon-and-stroll-around-leisurely-during-combat bug.
I feel like everyone got one over on me.
You can do everyone's romances simultaneously up until sleeping with them, which is pretty early in each one, really. But after the sex, if you choose to continue it, Merrill and Anders become exclusive. Fenris and Isabela don't. So you can sleep with Fenris and Isabela and still sleep with or romance whoever else you want, but you can't do that with Anders and Merrill without ending the romance completely.
There's still a 3 year gap before the ending and the ending that Varric kind of brushes over.
And Mike Laidlaw has said they're looking into DLC that continues things for Hawke past the game's ending since the feedback they got from DLC like Leliana's Song was that people disliked playing DLC where their player character from the campaign wasn't involved.
And Sten needs to be in there somewhere.
Fuck mages and templars
I'm not sure I understand your objection - most of what you are complaining about is systemic flaws that would not me remedied easily through additional polish. I wonder if you, like many, are mixing your surprise with some of the direction shifts with some really on-target criticism, and coming out with an overall impression that is actually more negative than you actually intend.
I think one thing I'm distilling from threads like this is that people are really surprised by some of the direction shifts, and are finding it easier to express that negatively. Hence, if Origins did not exist, people would like this game more than they do (supported by the 90%+ ratings from people who did not like or did not play Origins).
Its just a theory of mine. This is a polarizing, complicated subject.
猿も木から落ちる
The bugs annoy me, but I loved the game.
it is so much easier to swap in guys that you don't regularly use
it would have been nice if you could get appearance upgrades from things other than romance, though
That being said, I can't say I minded the fixed armor as a concept.
That being said, you could have had a more active hand in modifying them.
This. I noticed that Merril's armor got better, and when I realized it was for reasons other than upgrades I was bummed. I wish at least buying the armor upgrades made the appearance differ, but in the end as long as Hawke looked cool I didn't reall care.
So I just started Act III.
I sided with the mages, as Merril is my romance and Anders is my "best friend". We'll see where this takes us.
I'm spoilering most of my post, actually the rest, just in case, because I'm not finished so I'm not sure what the spoiler policy is. Anyways, this contains spoilers for Act II and a couple of ways to acquire a specific achievement:
I also just saw there's an achievement for Usurping the Crown, and I read that the only way to do this is to side with the templars the entire way through. Is this true?
Lastly, I just want to say that after much deliberation, Wounds of the Past is the best spell in the game. I hail of arrows and then watch as ENTIRE MOBS shake until they explode.
It is the most satisfying thing.