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My thoughts when reading this analysis of "what went wrong in DA2": Yes.
Comment that won the thread:
if Mage.isBloodMage() {
Mage.possesByDemon(new Demon(Random));
Mage.changeModel(Abomination)
Mage.attack(PC);
}
else
{
Mage.speakString(“Templars are so evil. Boo”);
Mage.playAnimation(ANIMATION_CREATURE_NPC_CRYING);
}
I always thought that in DAO, you have the landsmeet, decide who's king, and then POOF out of bloody nowhere, the Archdemon shows up and oh, low and behold, he's headed for Denerim...what a coincidence...it was kind of a half assed way to bring in the finale...
I'm not saying DA2 is better than the first one, it's different. In some ways, it got a lot of things right, mainly the combat and the changes to the graphics (although the reused caves and scenery get tedious over time). But I still think it's a setup to something more. In a way, it kind of reminds me of Mass Effect...a lot of the dynamics are the same (even the menu when you press pause on the Xbox looks a lot like the menu ME2). And I think that's where they went a little wrong...but, enough ranting for me. I say that Bioware can only learn from this little failure (even if I still love the game), can come back stronger when they present us Dragon Age 3.
Oh, but saying it's just as good as a DLC, that's an insult to the game, truly.
I think the difference in DAO is that you know you're gonna fight the archdemon eventually, and it's obviously SUPER EVIL, so when it shows up you're like "YEAH LET'S DO IT!!" In DA2, you're like "Wait, what... I don't wanna do this!" because the climax is just so.... uggghhh. There were tons of ways it could have been resolved even before that point (like tying Anders to the bedpost until you fixed things, DAMMIT ANDERS) but in the end none of the choices you made mattered. You still fight the archdemon in DAO, but there were a lot of other things like who becomes king/queen, whether Morrigan gets her demon baby, etc. that you felt like you did affect in some way.
Ok ranting again, sorry, anyway! While I do agree with the article's points, I still really like DA2 for what it is, and I hope they listen to the fans and DA3 is like the best game of all time.
Now that you mention it, you're right. There was a lot of things you had to do in the end of the game, compared to DA2...I still find myself replaying DA2 a lot more (I have 3 characters now, two of them are finished and one is halfway done), because of how the game is structured.
I still wonder if it's worth finish a DAO game I'm doing to import it to DA2. See, I haven't met Alistair as a Grey Warden yet in DA2, and I didn't see it on Youtube. My city elf game is quite advanced...but I'm still reluctant to actually go and finish it because I find the quests and the gameplay to be far more tedious in DAO...So part of me is saying "ah screw it, I'll just start another character in DA2 without the import", but, another part of me is saying "wait, they're saying the warden is missing at the end of the game, there's gotta be a good reason for that...maybe I should import a DAO save"...so I don't know what to do.
What I do know is that my next mage character is going to go pro templar and I'm gonna get Anders at 100% rival so that he'll join me when I side with the Templars. Apparently, you can do that in the console versions of the game and I sooo want to see him go against his beliefs (a little sadistic am I), so I'm totally gonna play it that way
I think if you still haven't seen it, it's TOTALLY worth it to go Grey Warden Alistair. (You can't get that with a pre-made right?) It was so awesome to see him beating the crap out of dudes. And he's not like IMPORTANT KING GUY Alistair, just Alistair the Grey Warden like I always remembered him so it was all AWWWWWW.... okay I better stop now before I ramble for hours and/or melt. But yeah, it's cool
Loghain left the field to preserve Maric's image, thereby condemning Cailan and the Grey Wardens, and because he refused Orlesian help since he was still haunted by the memory of them. All Loghain really wanted to do was to remember Maric, and he did it in the shittiest way possible by killing his best friend's kid. That was why. And civil war started because he really didn't choose the most tactical option of trying to get the people of Ferelden on his side.
Yeah, it was kind of half-assed, but you do realise that in the time between you travelling back to Redcliffe after the Landsmeet it has been a week or something? And if you watch the map from time to time, you do notice the black area is spreading towards Denerim. The game hinted that for ages that it was going to happen near Denerim.
DA2 is nothing like Origins, but it is a really fun game. The combat and graphics are better, I agree, if a little repetitive, and it is a setup for DA3.
Because the game is more of a lead on than an actual game, I'd call it a little more than a DLC as well. It isn't intended as an insult, but seriously, if you just play the whole main storyline, it won't take any time at all. In DAO, the main storyline took forever. That's a major difference as well.
I think they should not have called it DA2 as well, it's not a sequel to the first game at all...I would have called it something along the lines of Dragon Age: Rise of the Champion or something like that... For me, a direct sequel, meaning that it has a number attached to title (example Mass Effect 2) has to be a direct sequel to it's predecessor, which we can all agree was not the case of DA2 at all. Still it's not a bad game, but like I said, DAO wasn't great either...
You know, I never noticed the blackness on the map... And I used to think I had a good sense of observation... Well, right now, I'm replaying DAO, so maybe I'll notice it. And it's true that the DAO is longer than DA2, but let's be honest, to me anyway, it's much more boring than DA2...I hate certain quests with a passion, mainly The Fade and perhaps Orzamarr...I don't know why, but I just do. They are long and tedious and you just want to get them done to move along in the storyline. I like the DA2 system, because, it reminds me of Mass Effect. You have major quests that you have to get done in order to advance the storyline, but, you have optional side quests that you can chose to complete or not. In DAo, the side quests were sort of "integrated in the main quest, so you more often than not had to do them in order to move things along.
Anyway, it may look like I'm defending DA2, but I'm not. If I had to say anything, I'd sat I like them on equal levels but DA2 gets a little extra because of the gameplay update, but yeah, some things could have been handled better.
It was originally called DA: Exodus, or DA: Rise to Power. Something along those lines. Then they changes it, whacked on a number and didn't really create a sequel. DA2 isn't a bad game, I'm not saying it is, but it isn't DAO. Shouldn't have put that '2' after it ...
Don't even get me started on the Fade, or the Deep Roads. That really, really pissed me off. It just kept going, and going. I kind of wished I played on the computer or something, and got a MOD to skip it. And then to return to the Fade and Deep Roads briefly, ugh, that really put me off that part of anything DA.
I get what you're saying, and it's all good. I still think that DAO is better, and DA2, without the 2, is pretty good as well. Lacking in areas, but still a pretty good game.