Dragon Age 2 - Here be spoilers.

[Sjofn]

When even the token humorless feminist gamer (you know, me) thought the Pearl was hilarious, it really isn't surprising they threw in a halfway decent brothel in DA2.  

I've actually seen complaints that it isn't as well done as the Pearl, but given I've only slept with the swishy elf whore (who is apparently voiced by ManShep?!), I cannot judge! Clearly I need to go dump a bunch of cash there. For science.

[tmp]

Yeah, the new one is pretty boring :/  didn't see the "surprise me" option anywhere?

[Ingmar]

There's some loading screen message about the lady who runs it having a 'special reward for the most loyal customers' but I've not bothered to track down what it might be.

[tmp]

Ahh. hmm maybe something extra shows if you go through all options, but --sacrilegious as it sounds-- i got bored after second identical looking bj 

[Merusk]

The elf guy wouldn't even talk to my FemHawke after I turned down his initial services.  I'm wondering if I have to have Carver there to get a response or if he's just bugged.

Also: One of the only amusing Nerf Now comics I've read after being pointed (again) to the site yesterday is germane to this topic.

http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/481

[Strazos]

[Koyasha]

I liked most of the personal storylines, really. I found Varric's Act 2 one pretty sad. Merril's make me want to bang my head on my desk though. Merril you are sweet but you are a goddamn idiot. Ingmar thinks I'm weird that I keep rivalling her, but I can't help it. 

I felt exactly the other way about Merrill's, I thought she was the only rational dalish in the whole damn place.

On an tangentially related note, all the dialogues where Hawke goes 'were they using blood magic?' while she herself is a blood mage really annoyed the crap out of me.  Would have been nice to have them instead question whether they did anything harmful, since she herself obviously has no problem with using blood magic.

[Sjofn]

Also supposedly the timeline of DA:O, DA:A and Witch Hunt is like ... two years. But yeah, it doesn't quite mesh, as the mirror pieces are clearly still there and that clan apparently took off and never came back. I guess we're supposed to just wave our hands about it.

I kinda want to know how they're going to explain the Warden disappearing for reasons besides following Morrigan, because of my ten (gah) Wardens, not a blessed one followed her through that thing.

[Rasix]

"I like big boats, I cannot lie."

Isabella and Varric are the only two characters my LadySarcastaHawke really like and get along with (yah, I'm sure that won't end well).  I'm a bit of a scoundrel, good hearted, but practical (ok, greedy). Merill is a walking time bomb that I try to be nice too, but she's got some serious demon issues.  The dudes are mainly OK, even if Anders is a bit whiny and Fenris is a bit too "generic badass elf".  Aveline is about as interesting as a cup of frozen yogurt.

I'm very pleased with this game overall, and I'm just a bit into what I think is Act 2.  Sure the copy pasta is annoying and there's far too much running around and staring at brief loading screens.  But the combat so far is enjoyable, the plot is interesting enough so far if a bit unfocused, and the writing and quests are very, very interesting at times.  I really labor over some of the decisions you have to make.   This feels like a Obsidian game, but without all of the terrible technical ineptitude.

[Sjofn]

[tmp]

[Koyasha]

[tmp]

[Koyasha]

[Strazos]

[Sjofn]

[Rasix]

[Koyasha]

[Sjofn]

I need to do the Isabella romance. I can't decide what class to make for it, though. It will be a strapping young lad, because I want at least one cute dude to look at during love scenes, but I'm waffling between mage and rogue. And I'm thinking mage entirely because Carver is a million times more interesting than Bethany. I'm a dork.

[Engels]

Go mage if you wanna play on 'easy'. My first toon was an archer rogue, and stuff was hard. Then I made a storm mage and stuff just falls over.

FYI, the romantic scene that I had with Isabella isn't particularly saucy.

[Sjofn]

Pfft, I've slept with Isabella before, I just haven't romanced her.

I've already played through as a mage and two warriors, which is another point for "rogue." I haaaaaaate the melee rogue stuff though. Archer rogue thus far as been fine - I got an archer into act 2 but I got my wires crossed in my brain about what he was shooting for friendship/rivalry-wise with some of his companions and managed to put them in limbo, which annoyed me, so I ditched that playthrough.

I only just got to Kirkwall on this new guy. He's cute, Bethany is not. Apparently dark skin = Bethany getting a shitty haircut, no matter how hard I try.

[Rasix]

Really? I tried archer rogue and I couldn't stand it.  Went back to melee.  

Going assassin, I have two "mob falls over dead" abilities in twin fangs and assassinate.  Assassinate can be just hilarius if something isn't flagged as a boss.  Plus, you have a passive that adds another point of crit damage for each point of cunning.  Pretty big crits, even at this level.

Plus, I can always put mark of death on something, hit my auto-crit ability, and then have Anders cast haste.  It reminds me of haste from BG2, where you just turn into a buzzsaw, kibbling mobs left and right.

Unsure of my next playthrough of what I'll pick.  Mage or warrior.  Overall, I'm thinking mage might be more interesting.  I'm sure Carver is a bit more interesting than Blandthany.  Smaller boobs though, pity.

[Sjofn]

I think it's because if I'm going to explode dudes in melee, I'd rather do it as a 2h warrior? Or maybe it's because melee rogue feels so ... single target. Also! I feel like I pay better attention to everything happening when I'm not in melee, I get tunnel vision when I'm duking it out with people and then whoops Anders and Varric are both dead, my bad. Or something. Bear in mind my tastes are always a little off, I loathed mages in DA:O when everyone else was like PLAYING ANYTHING BESIDES A MAGE IS CRAZY.

That warning in place, you should totally pick a mage next. Carver is a bitch, but in a believable (to me) way, and his growth over time is more noticable than Bethany, who basically starts out thinking you're awesome and doesn't really waver from that mindset ever (except in one case). He has some lines, especially towards the end, that had me all "Oh Carver, you DO care! <sob>"

Reminder: Sjofn is a gigantic dork.

[Lum]

There's some loading screen message about the lady who runs it having a 'special reward for the most loyal customers' but I've not bothered to track down what it might be.

If you patronize enough wenches/ambigiously gay elves
If you really want to know the joke...

[Ingmar]

Archer rogue is really strong built properly - and actually there's apparently a very very good nightmare build for it that doesn't actually put any points in archery itself (I still have to look into that one). A lot of people seem to be recommending on nightmare that you go with one 2h warrior and then a bunch of single-target specialized ranged people.

[Lum]

But the combat so far is enjoyable, the plot is interesting enough so far if a bit unfocused, and the writing and quests are very, very interesting at times.  I really labor over some of the decisions you have to make.  

Except that very few of your decisions actually have consequences. Most of them are just different paths to the same point. Even the endgame
I dunno. On the one hand some of the writing is great. On the other hand it's hilariously rushed and dumbed down to the point of being insulting (I was pissed off that so few mages had access to healing until I realized that combat was so dumbed down no one ever *needs* healing.)

I finished one playthrough. I might do another once they come out with a year's worth of DLC, maybe. The third act I just blew through as fast as possible until the endgame because the side quests just got SO FREAKING BORING. Oh, look, my old friend the cave. I remember in Ferelden sometimes we had more than one cave. In Kirkwall? We just have CAVE.

[Ingmar]

Being forced to take a healer all the time would be something you would have considered a plus?

[Lum]

By this line of logic all combat should end in one press of the "A" button, which causes Varric to explode in an orgy of Bianca-Kata crossbow bolts.

I played on normal and the only time my party broke a sweat was the high dragon. Maybe rogues (I was playing as a dual wielding) are just broken? It seemed that once I levelled a couple of talents everything just died in an anime cuisinart.

[caladein]

DW Rogues do some pretty brutal damage and their main drawback, getting gibbed by your Warrior's AOEs, won't show up in Normal.

[Ingmar]

So turn up the difficulty? Is it surprising that someone who has been playing CRPGs since Richard Garriot had a full head of hair might find normal difficulty a bit unchallenging? The easiness of normal might have been a problem before they invented the difficulty slider but it doesn't matter now really.

[Rasix]

By this line of logic all combat should end in one press of the "A" button, which causes Varric to explode in an orgy of Bianca-Kata crossbow bolts.

I played on normal and the only time my party broke a sweat was the high dragon. Maybe rogues (I was playing as a dual wielding) are just broken? It seemed that once I levelled a couple of talents everything just died in an anime cuisinart.

I'm playing on normal and it's not very difficult.  Maybe it's just that.. normal isn't very difficult.  I've had party members fall over a grand total of like 3 times.  It has been getting a bit more difficult as I encounter more bosses.

But the combat so far is enjoyable, the plot is interesting enough so far if a bit unfocused, and the writing and quests are very, very interesting at times.  I really labor over some of the decisions you have to make.  

Except that very few of your decisions actually have consequences. Most of them are just different paths to the same point.

That's what I figured.  I may have said as much a few pages back or in the "what are you playing?" thread.  Still, mercy or knife, whether it changes only a single line of text or not, are decisions that are difficult to make for me, especially when my Hawke has been a little morally flexible.


Anyhow, I find it funny that my mother says "now we'll need to find you a husband" once you moved in.  I hope she was being ironic.  I know this isn't Orlais, but open your eyes lady.

[Strazos]

My rogue tanked a dragon on normal. 

I went in with, I think...Varric, Isabella, and Merril. Or maybe Varric, Merril, and Anders, but I would bet on the former combo.

[Lum]

So turn up the difficulty? Is it surprising that someone who has been playing CRPGs since Richard Garriot had a full head of hair might find normal difficulty a bit unchallenging? The easiness of normal might have been a problem before they invented the difficulty slider but it doesn't matter now really.

Except that, as mentioned, past normal friendly fire is an issue, as is the utter inability of NPCs to avoid said friendly fire.

And I don't mean "dumbed down" as in "hurr, this is so easy my rogue can tank a dragon" (although he can, apparently). More that so much is stripped away that it just feels insulting. Hey, you don't want to actually equip new armor for your companions, that's too much work! (We're fine with giving you 50 "Amulets" though.) And you know, it's really too much trouble to track healing after every combat so we just won't bother. You'd just heal anyway, right? Right.

I would have been perfectly happy had DA2 combat used the DA1 mechanics, instead of turning it into some misbegotten Devil May Cry clone. They really should have done the "This Is The New Shit!!11!" video for this one, in retrospect!

The story in general I have some issues with but enjoyed overall. The content (specifically the constant repetition of areas and general picayune nature of most side quests) was less enjoyable but understandable given EA only gave Bioware a year to make it. The combat - well, it's not an RPG any more.

[Ingmar]

This is something I've been thinking about for a while now with RPGs. How big of a consequence does a choice have to have to 'count' as an actual consequence? KOTOR gave you a different ending scene if you went Dark Side vs. Light Side, but you still fight the same fight against Malak at the end. Is that appreciably different than the ending of DA2? Varric says different stuff depending on who you side with, and you have different dialogue leading into each situation, after all. Depending on your relationships and who you side with, you might have to fight some of your own party members, just like KOTOR.

If DA2 had the "this is what happened to this city/character/item" epilogue graphics of Fallout or DA:O would that count as 'consequences'?


Virtually *every RPG ever* has choices that don't truly affect the actual endgame sequence of the game. DA:O had 4 "endings" but ultimately they all play out very similarly in terms of actual gameplay. Same thing with everyone's favorite game ever, Planescape: Torment. You're still standing on that same roof at the end, the same movie plays afterwards. Ditto BG1, 2, and Throne of Bhaal. Mass Effect 1 & 2 don't change in a terribly significant way, unless maybe you really, really love evil speeches from Ambassador Udina. Has any Final Fantasy game ever even featured a choice in the first place?

Fallout: New Vegas is the only recent RPG I can think of where the endgame changes more than superficially depending on your choices in the game, and that flexibility appears to have come at the cost of a lot of interesting character development, story writing, etc., that could otherwise have been in the game. I don't know if that's a trade I want to make personally, there's a reason I put it behind ME2 on my incredibly prestigious personal top 5 games of 2010 list.

[Ingmar]

So turn up the difficulty? Is it surprising that someone who has been playing CRPGs since Richard Garriot had a full head of hair might find normal difficulty a bit unchallenging? The easiness of normal might have been a problem before they invented the difficulty slider but it doesn't matter now really.

Except that, as mentioned, past normal friendly fire is an issue, as is the utter inability of NPCs to avoid said friendly fire.

And I don't mean "dumbed down" as in "hurr, this is so easy my rogue can tank a dragon" (although he can, apparently). More that so much is stripped away that it just feels insulting. Hey, you don't want to actually equip new armor for your companions, that's too much work! (We're fine with giving you 50 "Amulets" though.) And you know, it's really too much trouble to track healing after every combat so we just won't bother. You'd just heal anyway, right? Right.

I would have been perfectly happy had DA2 combat used the DA1 mechanics, instead of turning it into some misbegotten Devil May Cry clone. They really should have done the "This Is The New Shit!!11!" video for this one, in retrospect!

The story in general I have some issues with but enjoyed overall. The content (specifically the constant repetition of areas and general picayune nature of most side quests) was less enjoyable but understandable given EA only gave Bioware a year to make it. The combat - well, it's not an RPG any more.

Friendly fire doesn't kick in until nightmare, there's a 'hard' difficulty in between that for me at least more or less hits the sweet spot of where I want the combat difficulty to be.

I'm down with you on the item naming, not so much on the companion armor. I like the ME2 model of companions actually having a defined 'look' to the DA:O model of 'all my rogues are wearing the exact same leather skirt'. YMMV (and obviously does.)