Dragon Age II

[HiddenJumper]

Its funny you mention KotOR, cause I'm replaying it again, in-between other games.

Anyhow, I've played about an hour of the game so far and I have yet to pick it back up. The game doesn't feel as open as DA1 was. While DA1 wasn't super open or anything, I still felt like my actions mattered. Here, of the choices I've made so far, it feels like my relationships and results don't differ from where they were.

The leveling up system feels way too easy. It doesn't seem like the skills I choose matter cause I still hack and slash my way through everything. DA1 was alot harder than this and thats not saying much. Also interactions with the NPCs seem even more limited than DA1.

Pretty much my point is I feel so far, BioWare has taken a couple steps back. DA1 was a great game and I went out of my way to play that as much as I could, but with DA2, I don't have that same excitement anymore. I thought with a change of settings, a new country to work with, everything would be different.

[Havoc10K]

the only 2 things I don't like in this game :

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bad male characters, I mean, seriously, a gay warden and a gay elf ? I can understand girls being Bi-sexual, but guys being gay, I simply can't handle that, and it was so easy to screw Isabella, she is such a whore, seriously, and where the fuck did she take that third dagger out from I was like OMG !!!!

the only thing I hate about this game is not having Bethany back, seriously, the biggest fail in this game EVER !! you'd think after supporting the circle and mages you could get your sister back, and she was my fav mage

[SeventyX7]

I know what you mean about Bethany.  I kept hoping I'd find out we're not blood-related so I could nail her.

Or for Bioware to man up and allow incest in the game.

[Havoc10K]

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or to make an opening in the wall so i can get her out of there, I NEED HER !!!!!!!!

Anders is a good healer but as far as DPS goes he is shit,

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Bethany on the other hand was only having the heal spell with the upgrade and the main spells, and I wasn't really doing much, she only had 14 constitution, 36 magic and 13 willpower until the point of her being gone, she pretty much mopped the floor, if I didn't have Scythe, I wouldn't even get to the mobs in time to land a hit XD

[JoonasTo]

I finished on hard. The game difficulty is shit. Bosses are easy as hell but BORING(way too much HP, way too little damage) while I managed to wipe a few times against road bandits...

Interface is pretty horrible. More deaths because of that than the difficulty...

Items? Equipment? I only went to shops to sell all the junk filling my inventory.

Did anyone ever order potions or runes? I know I didn't.

Companions, god damn, companions. Just, BORING, Isabela and Merrill bring some hope at times with their conversations(especially Isabella/Aveline) but mostly they're just boring, nothing like Morrigan/Alistair, Zevran/Wynne, Wynne/Oghren awesomeness from the first. Also, there is practically no companion activity/chat/discussion/relations in general.

Oh yeah, the game is filled with gay people. I played fem and bedded two female companions. Neither didn't seem to mind that I had two.

Maybe 50h or so with all sidequests. Level 21 in the end.

Same problem as DA:O with the choices, you're given choices
A, Kill side one
B, Kill side two
C, Both sides try to kill you

Overall the game felt rushed and lacking in all areas.

doesn't matter,

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cuz I want my Bethy back
her DPS was kick ass, and I only invested int heal spell with upgrade and basic magic spells like fireball, winters grasp, just that tree, she was like, WTF GIRL YOU KILLED EM ALL BEFORE I GOT TO THEM GIMME A BREAK !!!

won't happen.

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WILL HAPPEN!

PS. Kirkwall has a lot of robbers, I must have killed 2000.

[blubart]

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WILL HAPPEN!

the last 10 minutes of the game don't count.

Same problem as DA:O with the choices, you're given choices
A, Kill side one
B, Kill side two
C, Both sides try to kill you

only that as a "twist" to get back to the storyline it turns out that if you choose A "side two" turns out evil and if you choose B "side one" turns out evil - so you are stuck will killing both anyway.

[JoonasTo]

Awww...
Now you spoiled it.

[vuzedome]

Well I'm impressed with how they're telling the story, but the only thing I miss is long grinds.

[Havoc10K]

Still haven't finished the game, had some stuff to do, gotta admit I don't have much problems, and potions and poisons are useful, and runes too, particularly interesting in poisons and grenades was the reviving grenade

saved me from wiping

the game does lack in many aspects, but it's still pretty fun for me, Dragons fights can be hard, but if you can figure out tactics for them it's pretty easy as well,

I had one quest where I had to fight like 30 demons or more, very annoying battle, wiped a lot on it, but went to sleep and devised tactics to make it work.

I too bedded 3 companions ! Isabella (the whore is easy) Merrill (she is cool) and even made it with Aveline, wasn't easy, I stayed with Merrill though, she is funny

nice change in clothing when you stay with a companion, Merrill's clothes became noble white, also there like, 5 more NPCs you can flirt with and even bed them, so you don't have to do it with your own companions pretty cool choice.

I like the game so far, has a lot of problems, and a few bugs, but nothing serious, I like the interface myself, clean and easy, problem is, your debuffs are not shown, and enemies buffs aren't shown, unless you spot an aura around an enemy, cleanse is useful then.

[JoonasTo]

I didn't see the quest what you talked about with the desire demon boss even though I did all the quests, where was this?

Dragon fights were a disappointment, even the high dragon was lousy and I didn't even hae my main team(Me(mage, nuker/healer), Anders(healer), Aveline(tank), Isabela(dps)) in it but merril instead of isabela since I was going to the sundermount.

I doubt I ever play this again but if I do it will definitely be nightmare, I was really disappointed at the friendly fire missing from hard. Now that I look back, I could have just as well played nightmare.

Overall rating for game, maybe 6.

[Havoc10K]

It's a long chain quest, I had to kill some bitch who was doing something weird to mages and forcing them to use blood magic so she could make them tranquil, after than it was a side quest to find all tomes from the book she was using, and at the end was a big damned book on blood magic, destroying it makes Merrill unhappy, so I took it instead, she gained +2 magic stat from it. I don't remember where the quest starts actually.

I'll play it again wit ha rogue I think, and leave a mage for the last, I like the game, wil ltake me time to play it again soon, but i'm having fun so far.

[blubart]

that boss is actually the hardest in the whole game - in a mere sidequest
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Forbidden_Knowledge

[JoonasTo]

Ah, I probably killed the bitch. Don't recall anymore.
Merril did have the book in her home later though. I wonder what's up with that?

[Havoc10K]

The boss itself was weak, the biggest problem are minions in that fight, more than 30 of them, Abominations and Rage Demons, the adds were harder than the boss herself in fact, kill too many at a time and you end up with and entire new wave, you have to play it smart or you wipe it, play it smart and you can live to tell the tale, Anders is a must have in that fight, and the revive bottles just in case as well, forget injuries, don't treat them, the party can deal with it with even 5+ injuries, just make sure you have Aveline alive the entire fight and you have enough stamina potions for her to keep taunting mobs at herself,
Bet is you have Aveline with Bravery with max upgrades, that way she can keep mobs at herself, that fight is the hardest fight in the game indeed, and you can easily wipe it a number of times, the fight is fun and if all battles were like that, it would be incredibly fun game actually, the High Dragon is annoying actually, guess BioWare played WOW:WotLK far too much, Cata Raids are much more demanding heheh

Ah, I probably killed the bitch. Don't recall anymore.
Merril did have the book in her home later though. I wonder what's up with that?

you usually ran teh game with 3 mages and Aveline, hardly challenging at all.

[newy]

that boss is actually the hardest in the whole game - in a mere sidequest
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Forbidden_Knowledge

As hard as the Revenant in DA:O (on the most difficult mode of course)?

[JoonasTo]

Spritit healer makes the whole party immune to injuries.
Anders and myself both with revival and party heal and the healing aura, ownage. Anders also got normal heal, paralyse glyph and repulsing glyph with+50% healing arties. I was elemental nuker otherwise.
Aveline has second wind for stamina, full stamina every 45 seconds, immune to knockdown, stun, knockback and 25% damage resistance with bravery, shield defense, taunt and immovable if needed. Pretty awesome tank.
Usually Isabela for rogue stuff and awesome damage, with lacerate and upgrades to team mate target damage and precision with some crit arties she was pulling off crits almost every hit and the rate she hit, she was the best damage dealer I got. Over 1000 in a second easily.

Merrill(Hexing with blood magic and a lot of the +mana from blood arties) and Carver(cleave+whirlwind=1000 dam in 8m radius, mighty blow, scythe etc.) where my other two used teammates, Varrick when I couldn't use Isabela or I had to use Varrick(speed and archery skills). Fenris(rally, battle synergy, control), never used.

So I was 2/3rds of the game with 2 mages, rogue and tank. Maybe 1/4th with 3 mages and tank. Hard with no friendly fire was kinda easy I admit. Archers were problematic if 3/mage or more targeted my mages before I got force magic for my main and the +100 fortitude skill to make her immune to knocklock. After that it wasn't even fun anymore.
Just go in, send aveline there, firestorm them, if they try to run winter's grasp, cone of cold or the force magic fist to keep them there. Then just finish the big one left standing. Only enemies appearing out of thin air in big numbers brought any problems if I had exhausted my spells. I didn't really expect humans to appear out of thin air or jump down from heaven as they tended to do.

Oh, I found one use for fireball in the game! You can use it to expose stealthed enemies! God that spell sucks.

[Havoc10K]

One Word: Bethany !
you don't need any more mages than her actually, with proper attributes, skills, you party doesn't even need a spirit healer, you don't need to do much damage yourself, she makes ALL battles easy as pie, I guess that is why

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Circle/Wardens claim her

She is far too powerful for the game to handle it, when I play a Mage class next, I know what I want to do

[JoonasTo]

BTW. How many of you went "Oh dear"-facepalm when Anders told you he needed Sela Petrae?
I was like, "He can't be doing this, there's no way he can be doing this." then he asked me to distract the cleric and I was like, "He is really going to do this.",

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Pretty much "HELL YEAH!"-moment when he blew up the church. I have to admit, it's the prettiest black powder explosion I've seen. 

[Havoc10K]

yeah that was very fun, also, i'm now fighting Meredith, I am like <3
1- Bethany kicks ass
2- Meredith is a Sith Lord XDDDD
3- I HAS A BLOODY AXE TO PUT UP HER ARSE !


Edit:
So, am I the only one or this story is far from over yet ?

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Lelyanna leading the chantry seekers, Hero of Feralden and Champion of Kirkwall vanished, Morrigan also Gone, and I have not seen Flemmeth yet, aside from that one point, and all that Flemmeth said just hints for more Dragon Age games and stories.

so yeah, from all I can tell, this is still just the beginning.

[HiddenJumper]

No doubt we can expect an expansion for the game. Not sure if they'll make a full on Dragon Age 3.