Dragon Age II

[Flying Dagger]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Yup, it's pretty console-RPG linear. But hey, it's fun.

Origins was pretty damned linear, too.

As linear as it is, there are "some" choices as to where to progress first. Both hanging yourself at the mage tower or dealing with the lunatics at redcliff are viable beginnings. The choices you make have some long term impact, such as wiping out the entire dalish camp with the werewolves, or crowning a new king at Orzimmar (which feels pretty epic). The various choices you make also come up one more time at the epilogue (and some even transition into DA2!).

Originally Posted by Key Board

Well.. the problem is Bioware hyped it up to be a game in which your decisions matter
That's how they brand themselves nowadays.
This is a linear as a typical JPRG which wouldn't be bad.. had they not bash JRPGS for the same "flaws" I see in DA2

You see.. one of their main criticism of JRPGs is that you're character is on a rail and really has not power to change how the story develops.

And that's.. exactly how DA2 plays like

JRPGs usually are fun in their own way with an interesting story + more character development (and more moe-ness (see neptunia)).

[Who]

Haven't run into any problems yet... but it's a complete pain, running around trying to find items so that my rogue won't die 3 seconds into battle. Etched Ring of the Twins is the only one I know, but even then, I get sent flying backwards by both regular attacks and skills. I know there's a dagger and a ring that prevents stuns, but I don't know their names. Anyone know of any accessories to boost defense/stun/immunities to crit/attack speed?

Also, I find it weird how Archer's Lance is affected by geography; if you're on higher ground in comparison to your enemy, it won't hit them at all due to it going in a straight line...

[Nightengale]

After Mass Effect 2, I've come to accept that Bioware at its current level doesn't have the real capacity to live up to the 'these decisions really matter!' type of choices, even more so when it came to sequel-crossing.

I mentioned this before, but the only game in the past 5 years that actually lived up to the hype of 'diverse choices that matter to change the experience, outcome, and responses in-game' in my opinion was the Espionage Mass Effect Clone aka Alpha Protocol.

Despite a less than stellar gameplay and obvious copy-paste designs from the Mass Effect playbook, it actually managed to really integrate a decent overarching choice-effect system.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by Who

Haven't run into any problems yet... but it's a complete pain, running around trying to find items so that my rogue won't die 3 seconds into battle. Etched Ring of the Twins is the only one I know, but even then, I get sent flying backwards by both regular attacks and skills. I know there's a dagger and a ring that prevents stuns, but I don't know their names. Anyone know of any accessories to boost defense/stun/immunities to crit/attack speed?

Also, I find it weird how Archer's Lance is affected by geography; if you're on higher ground in comparison to your enemy, it won't hit them at all due to it going in a straight line...

My rogue's been pretty easy to keep alive on Hard (I won't play Nightmare, friendly fire on AOE spells reduce mages to near-uselessness in a game where healing is crap). I went Assassin and Shadow spec and I abuse stealth, inconspicuous and evade to avoid dying, and have my mages use Barrier if my health gets too low.

I can do most of the battles in the game with the only mage being Merrill (who doesn't have any healing spells) on Hard.

[Flying Dagger]

I think I will have to do my rogue playthrough on hard.
Rogues do AMAZING dps (and amazing threat), but on nightmare survivability is downright terrible (still in act 1). The moment I pull aggro (even proximity aggro by running up front) I get tossed around like a bowling ball. And oh man... even aveline's assult is killing me =S.

They need to give rogues a fortitude talent which reduces friendly fire damage and make the knockdown less of a problem.

[synaesthetic]

Nightmare is so un-fun I just flat refuse to play it. I want to be entertained by my games, not to punch a hole in my monitor out of frustration.

Also, I find it kind of funny people hate on ME2 so much. In my opinion, it's the best game Bioware's made in years. People make the mistake of expecting it to be an oldschool CRPG just because it's made by Bioware--it's not. It's Gears of War without the suck and bad writing. It's Knights of the Old Republic where guns don't suck and nobody has lightsabers. It's a third-person shooter with RPG elements. Saying ME2 is bad because of that would be like saying Deus Ex is a shitty RPG because it has strong FPS elements.

Not all RPGs have to be isometric-view Infinity Engine clones.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Nightmare is so un-fun I just flat refuse to play it. I want to be entertained by my games, not to punch a hole in my monitor out of frustration.

Also, I find it kind of funny people hate on ME2 so much. In my opinion, it's the best game Bioware's made in years. People make the mistake of expecting it to be an oldschool CRPG just because it's made by Bioware--it's not. It's Gears of War without the suck and bad writing. It's a third-person shooter with RPG elements. Saying ME2 is bad because of that would be like saying Deus Ex is a shitty RPG because it has strong FPS elements.

Not all RPGs have to be isometric-view Infinity Engine clones.

Cuz' people don't like science or science fiction as they used to in the 1990s?

I remember System Shock as the major doomfail of that time....but it is a great game with plot elements.

[synaesthetic]

SS1 was a great game! I don't understand why people hated it so much, honestly...

And most of the ME2 hate I've heard hasn't been about it's space-opera roots, but about "console-ification" and being "dumbed down."

The complaints are ridiculous, of course--they were both designed with consoles in mind and ported to PC (though, ME2 was developed cross-platform and it shows in how much better a port it is than ME1 for PC).

Besides all that gameplay, plot, graphics, interface and other technical crap, the largest part of my personal game ratings comes from how much fun I have with the game and how much time I spend on it before putting it down for a while. And I've been furiously playing DA2 ever since I got it, and I suspect I will not uninstall it unless I start running out of hard drive space.

There were plenty of "bad" games I found ridiculously fun, and I suspect there will be more in the future.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Besides all that gameplay, plot, graphics, interface and other technical crap, the largest part of my personal game ratings comes from how much fun I have with the game and how much time I spend on it before putting it down for a while. And I've been furiously playing DA2 ever since I got it, and I suspect I will not uninstall it unless I start running out of hard drive space.

There were plenty of "bad" games I found ridiculously fun, and I suspect there will be more in the future.

I am more inclined to think that the game reviewers are paid stipends for their work. If they don't get paid by the company, they don't give good reviews.

Originally Posted by Flying Dagger

JRPGs usually are fun in their own way with an interesting story + more character development (and more moe-ness (see neptunia)).

Neptune isn't exactly a game you know. People buy the game for the otaku references (Azunoire parodies probably made Blackheart one of the most popular 2010 RPG characters), but mainly for the girls.

It isn't a great game in terms of gameplay, but I bought it for the goddesses.

[MeoTwister5]

Is everyone in the party out of their goddamned minds? About the only one with any semblance of sanity is Aveline and... well Bethany sort of.

[Von Himmel]

Can anyone tell me a good talent for staggering your enemy other than using shield bash ?

[Who]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

My rogue's been pretty easy to keep alive on Hard (I won't play Nightmare, friendly fire on AOE spells reduce mages to near-uselessness in a game where healing is crap). I went Assassin and Shadow spec and I abuse stealth, inconspicuous and evade to avoid dying, and have my mages use Barrier if my health gets too low.

I can do most of the battles in the game with the only mage being Merrill (who doesn't have any healing spells) on Hard.

Yeah, I refuse to play anything but Nightmare. I'm a masochist at heart. But doing so forces me to take Anders and Bethany (until I have to replace her with Merill) and Aveline. Having constant 80% defense, even against bosses, and high elemental resist is always nice, although I like the Duelist's sustains more.

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Is everyone in the party out of their goddamned minds? About the only one with any semblance of sanity is Aveline and... well Bethany sort of.

What, no Varric?

[SaintessHeart]

Just got the game and is playing as a rogue. Not as fun as I expected since I have to press buttons just to attack.

Bastards take out the skilltree! Bioware should just go bankrupt itself for removing stealing!

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

SS1 was a great game! I don't understand why people hated it so much, honestly...

And most of the ME2 hate I've heard hasn't been about it's space-opera roots, but about "console-ification" and being "dumbed down."

The complaints are ridiculous, of course--they were both designed with consoles in mind and ported to PC (though, ME2 was developed cross-platform and it shows in how much better a port it is than ME1 for PC).

Besides all that gameplay, plot, graphics, interface and other technical crap, the largest part of my personal game ratings comes from how much fun I have with the game and how much time I spend on it before putting it down for a while. And I've been furiously playing DA2 ever since I got it, and I suspect I will not uninstall it unless I start running out of hard drive space.

There were plenty of "bad" games I found ridiculously fun, and I suspect there will be more in the future.

My biggest issue with ME2 was just how short the actual story felt in it. You start, gather up your companions, do a loyalty quest, and then go to the final battle. It was just part of how the story was set up, but geeze it just felt short. Thankfully DLC helped build it up a little and added more things to do.

I can't really use how much I play something before putting it down to rate it, since I'm pretty much like that with most games. Unless it's just terrible then I'll be hard pressed to finish it at all. Rating a game usually comes after I'm done and the story definitely plays a key role.

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Is everyone in the party out of their goddamned minds? About the only one with any semblance of sanity is Aveline and... well Bethany sort of.

I'd probably include Varric and say yeah pretty much everyone else that joins your party is just messed up and nuts. Ironically you can't romance those three also .

[Flying Dagger]

Originally Posted by Von Himmel

Can anyone tell me a good talent for staggering your enemy other than using shield bash ?

For 2 handers, whirlwind upgraded has guaranteed crit chance combined with sunder which allows 50% chance to proc stagger.

Cleave in the Vanguard tree with claymore upgrade is one of the most powerful skills in your arsenal and it also staggers a lot.

With those 2 skills combined you should have more than enough staggered mobs to CCC with.




Neither isabela or fenris is that big of a nutcase.

[Stiletto]

Originally Posted by Flying Dagger

Neither isabela or fenris is that big of a nutcase.

"Out of their goddamned minds" don't necessary mean insanity or madness. I think Meo meant a lapse in judgment or continued lapses in judgment. Like in Anders case, you don't have to be batshit insane to do something completely crazy... Though by then he was pretty much corrupted by Vengeance.

Isabela is just a pirate whore, and Fenris broods too much. Though to be accurate Fenris did have a huge lapse in the quest Night Terrors.

[Irkalla]

Who even wants to have perfectly normal companions, that would be outright boring. They all have their issues that make them as unique as possible. It's just such a lose-lose situation, you have ordinary characters and people flame you for unoriginal/archetypes, then you spice your characters with bloodmages/lying thiefs/abominations/zealots and they flame you for the craziness. I look back at Origins now, and I say wow, the only character that is something else is Morrigan. Cheers for crazy!!!


...And there is a great difference between a whore and a hedonist. I was kinda pissed how Isabela got owned in every conversation regarding her sexuality, damn girl, stand up for yourself!

[-Sho-]

Zup , someone know if we can stack the rune for more gold ? or this only can work for one ?

Edit : Found it . Apparently yes.

[Stiletto]

Originally Posted by Irkalla

Cheers for crazy!!!

I find Anders crazy positively glorious.

[synaesthetic]

I miss funny Anders from Awakening. Him and Nathaniel had some hilarious Ho Yay party-chatter conversations.

DA2's party members seem to be mostly either psychologically broken (Merrill), immoral (Isabela), filled with anger or righteousness (Fenris, Anders, Sebastian).

Aveline and the Hawke sibling (Carver or Bethany) are the most normal ones, and Varric plays the self-inflicted role of Only Sane Man.

I don't care what anyone says or how batshit crazy she is, I adore Merrill... she's moemoe, a woobie (even if her woobie-ness is self-inflicted)... and with proper talents and equipment, she's basically an unstoppable magical artillery platform with an unlimited ammo supply.

Not to mention Eve Myles has that hot Welsh accent...

@Irkalla: Dude, Shale was the best character in Origins. The pigeon population of Ferelden has reached an all-time low!

Morrigan was only good if you played a male Warden and romanced her, then played Witch Hunt.

While I always romance Leliana since she's the only lesbian option... uh... she's pretty boring, and I get tired of the blah-blah about the Maker. Fuck the Chantry. I have a feeling that Morrigan was probably right, the Maker never actually existed. The Tevinters, the Primeval Thaig and the lyrium idol... I bet those were actually the real cause of the darkspawn.