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Dragon Age II |OT| The Revenge of Shit Mountain
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Audioboxer
Member
Picked this up for a few £ on PSN, any opinions on Mage/Rogue? Guess I just want to have fun, so not really interested in which is the more powerful.
Been playing through the series and finished the magnificent Origins and started this.
Wow, they turned it into a console game. Everything from the interface to the controls and menus and gameplay screams "play it with a controller", and yet there's no controller support for the PC version.
Not that I mind, as long as it's done well. There was a lot of fat in Origins, like the four dozen mage spells, a dozen which were useless, a dozen which did the same thing, a dozen which were all variations on a theme, and a dozen which you actually used.
And so far the combat feels really fun. Slashing through darkspawn has a lot more impact and speed, and is a lot more immediately satisfying, though a little less tactical.
The art design and animation has a bit of a cartoony, exaggerated feel, which is a far better direction generic slush of the first game (oh man the light armours in Origins were so boring, everyone wearing them looked like Xena).
I'll think I'll play this on Hard the first time through, just to restore some of the tactical feel.
Wow, they turned it into a console game. Everything from the interface to the controls and menus and gameplay screams "play it with a controller", and yet there's no controller support for the PC version.
Not that I mind, as long as it's done well. There was a lot of fat in Origins, like the four dozen mage spells, a dozen which were useless, a dozen which did the same thing, a dozen which were all variations on a theme, and a dozen which you actually used.
And so far the combat feels really fun. Slashing through darkspawn has a lot more impact and speed, and is a lot more immediately satisfying, though a little less tactical.
The art design and animation has a bit of a cartoony, exaggerated feel, which is a far better direction generic slush of the first game (oh man the light armours in Origins were so boring, everyone wearing them looked like Xena).
I'll think I'll play this on Hard the first time through, just to restore some of the tactical feel.
StoppedInTracks
Member
20 hours into the game (PS3), right after putting 96 hours into Dragon Age 1.
My thoughts:
- graphics are easily 10x better than in DA1
- love the overall aesthetic of the game - the design of characters, buildings, the city, the loading screens etc. it all looks very... primal, brutal, sculpted. Much better than the Generic Fantasy 2.0 look of Dragon Age 1
- Kirkwall sure is a big city! After 20 hours spent in it I cannot wait to travel outside and see the world and other cities!!! Just like in Dragon Age 1.
- characters are worthless and bland as hell. Varric is the only one I remember by name compared to Allistair, Morrigan, Doge, Leliana etc. from DA1
- plot is - right now - very FF12-like with impact on politics, politics and politics.
- 20 hours in and I fought maybe 10-20 Darkspawn! INCREDIBLE in a Dragon Age 1 game
- the teleporting enemies... suck. It is so braindead. Why did they change this from DA1? Because of console memory limitiations? Why are there FULL ARMORED SOLDIERS dropping down from the ceiling/ sky? Breaks the immersion, totally. I can understand Undead rising from the earth but soldiers/ thugs/ mercenaries etc. doing the same is just beyond stupid
- new skill trees are super lame. They finally cut the Baldur's Gate ties with this game for sure. And they were proud of it
- Hard Mode is a joke compared to Hard Mode in DA1. In DA1 I was dying left and right on Hard. In DA2, so far, I am only dying to that Captain Qerth fight in Hightown. He is the only fucker destroys me
- Hard Mode is a joke. I did not level up ANY ABILITY in the last 20 hours (because I need to decide what is worth it). You read that right - I only levelled up Attributes. No Abilities. My party has 26 Ability points to spend
- Hard Mode is a joke. Everything dies to 2 Warriors, 1 Mage with nice Staff and Stun/ Fireball combo and Varric.
- DA1 cameos are worthless
- world economy seems better with most expensive items costing max 5 gold pieces instead of 150 gold pieces like in DA1
Overall the game is much worse than DA1 so far and I am afraid it will not get any better...
My thoughts:
- graphics are easily 10x better than in DA1
- love the overall aesthetic of the game - the design of characters, buildings, the city, the loading screens etc. it all looks very... primal, brutal, sculpted. Much better than the Generic Fantasy 2.0 look of Dragon Age 1
- Kirkwall sure is a big city! After 20 hours spent in it I cannot wait to travel outside and see the world and other cities!!! Just like in Dragon Age 1.
cry ;_;
- plot is - right now - very FF12-like with impact on politics, politics and politics.
- 20 hours in and I fought maybe 10-20 Darkspawn! INCREDIBLE in a Dragon Age 1 game
- the teleporting enemies... suck. It is so braindead. Why did they change this from DA1? Because of console memory limitiations? Why are there FULL ARMORED SOLDIERS dropping down from the ceiling/ sky? Breaks the immersion, totally. I can understand Undead rising from the earth but soldiers/ thugs/ mercenaries etc. doing the same is just beyond stupid
- new skill trees are super lame. They finally cut the Baldur's Gate ties with this game for sure. And they were proud of it
- Hard Mode is a joke compared to Hard Mode in DA1. In DA1 I was dying left and right on Hard. In DA2, so far, I am only dying to that Captain Qerth fight in Hightown. He is the only fucker destroys me
- Hard Mode is a joke. I did not level up ANY ABILITY in the last 20 hours (because I need to decide what is worth it). You read that right - I only levelled up Attributes. No Abilities. My party has 26 Ability points to spend
- Hard Mode is a joke. Everything dies to 2 Warriors, 1 Mage with nice Staff and Stun/ Fireball combo and Varric.
- DA1 cameos are worthless
- world economy seems better with most expensive items costing max 5 gold pieces instead of 150 gold pieces like in DA1
Overall the game is much worse than DA1 so far and I am afraid it will not get any better...
StoppedInTracks
Member
This shit sucks so much --> Chantry fight with Templar Hunter/ Lieutenant. I mean wow, this is straight up BUG, not a feature.
StoppedInTracks
Member
The same happened with the Arvaarad fight, wow. Did not have the chance to check his equipment before the cutscene started. What the fuck, BioWare, how do you let a bug this big through.
Anyway, 32 hours in, playing on Hard, just beaten the Ancient Evil Rock Spirit in the Deep Roads. Level 13, still have 5 Ability points to spend per character.
Can't deny the game is super fun. The world feels claustrophobic compared to DA1 but is still super fun doing the sidequests, killing all ambushers, picking which abilities to select etc.
My main warriror (Carver) just got removed from the game forever
I will have to enlist Fenrir now, ehh.I hate and love this game. Love it even more after I am hearing it is the "last" of Baldur's Gate-type games from BioWare. Dragon Age 3 resembles WoW more than BG.
StoppedInTracks
Member
One last thing:
the Qunari are the best thing about this game.
Arishok <3
the Qunari are the best thing about this game.
Arishok <3
StoppedInTracks
Member
So not only there are like zero new areas in Act II but every other side quest or companion quest takes you through same Act I looking:
- fiery thaigs
- warehouses
- back alleys
- caves
- cliffsides
And on top of it, you have to clear the city (Docks, Lowtown, Hightown) from bandits, dog lords, mabaris, undercity thieves etc.
Reminder: killing one mabari nets me 12 XP. I need 12 000 XP to level up.
*yaaaaaawn*
- fiery thaigs
- warehouses
- back alleys
- caves
- cliffsides
And on top of it, you have to clear the city (Docks, Lowtown, Hightown) from bandits, dog lords, mabaris, undercity thieves etc.
Reminder: killing one mabari nets me 12 XP. I need 12 000 XP to level up.
*yaaaaaawn*
StoppedInTracks
Member
Can't believe that bitch Avelline turned on me in the Fade. smh. Fenris - I understand. Varric is the only true bro in this game.
46 hours in, level 16, and no end in sight. Fantastic.
46 hours in, level 16, and no end in sight. Fantastic.
HadesGigas
Member
And you're in the good part of the game right now. Just you wait for act 3.
LonelyGreyWolf
Banned
Did you just do six posts in a row, one of which is quoting a post from three years ago?
This is a lively thread.
I'm surprised at how much time you're getting from the game though. I kinda 100%-ed it twice; I did all the side-quests and all that jazz, but I don't think it took that long. Was playing on normal though iirc. Also who turns on you or not of course depends on what you've said and done to them in the past.
This is a lively thread.
I'm surprised at how much time you're getting from the game though. I kinda 100%-ed it twice; I did all the side-quests and all that jazz, but I don't think it took that long. Was playing on normal though iirc. Also who turns on you or not of course depends on what you've said and done to them in the past.
Basileus777
Member
There's a significant time gap between posts, there's nothing wrong with multiposting in this case.
LonelyGreyWolf
Banned
?
Did I say that there was something wrong with it? You're the one making assumptions here.
StoppedInTracks
Member
Yup. It seems I am the only living being that is currently playing DA2 for the first time. I have to finish it before moving on to DA3!
I mean there were like no posts here after 2012. Incredible. The game dropped like a rock off people's radars.
That's because most people who played the game after that tended to make LTTP threads. I think if you do a search you'll find quite a few.
StoppedInTracks
Member
Finished the game after long 79 hours. Hybris, the super optional boss, was easier than the last and pre-last boss fights.
Now do not get me started on the Orsino character and how dumb his fight was even if you sided with the Mages.... The whole Act 3 feels rushed as hell. The closures to some of the best side quests are so much disappointing. You met Danarius... In the Hanged Man. Really? How lazy as fuck is that. Man I wish the game ended with the Arishok battle. Such a high note of this game... It felt like a Baldur's Gate 2 quest for me. Act 3 ruined the whole game for me. Anders blowing up the Chantry? Really?
The only Party Character worth a damn and comparable to Dragon Age 1 characters was Varric. I was so delighted to meet him in the first 2 hours of Dragon Age 3. Too bad he looks worse than in DA2 for me. The skin shaders on him DO NOT WORK AT ALL.
Now do not get me started on the Orsino character and how dumb his fight was even if you sided with the Mages.... The whole Act 3 feels rushed as hell. The closures to some of the best side quests are so much disappointing. You met Danarius... In the Hanged Man. Really? How lazy as fuck is that. Man I wish the game ended with the Arishok battle. Such a high note of this game... It felt like a Baldur's Gate 2 quest for me. Act 3 ruined the whole game for me. Anders blowing up the Chantry? Really?
The only Party Character worth a damn and comparable to Dragon Age 1 characters was Varric. I was so delighted to meet him in the first 2 hours of Dragon Age 3. Too bad he looks worse than in DA2 for me. The skin shaders on him DO NOT WORK AT ALL.
StoppedInTracks
Member
Raise from the Dead!
I finally started the two DLCs that I bought some months ago: Mark of the Assassin and The Legacy.
1) MOTA was funny because I've played it after finishing Dragon Age 3. Now I understand why it had Orlesian boss, Orlesian armour and those golden Orlesian lion statues everywhere! I was a little bit rusty when returning back from DA3 to DA2 and the Alpha Wyvern was just destroying me! First I started to chug some health potions which I never really did in DA2 except the Orsino/ Arishok fight. That did not help me. He was simply one-shotting Fenris and Avelling. How is that possible?!? I tried about 5 times and I just could not beat him. So I dropped the difficulty back to Normal and finally managed to put him down after another 5 tries (with potions).
Then the Baron comes in immediately after that. Jesus fucking Christ. They've put up the toughest fight in the entire Dragon Age 2 at the beginning of the DLC! Oh and just before that you could try to beat the Sky Horror in that small-ass arena. Good luck with that!
Sadly, I stayed on Normal through the rest of the DLC. The last boss fight with Leopold and Duke was 10x easier than the Alpha Wyvern one. Wow. I could not believe it. A random-ass Wyvern was harder than the last boss Wyvern + mobs.
Oh and I did not solve the 5x5 flip tiles puzzle. Fuck that. I gave up after 2 hours.
A so-so DLC that reminds me of the Kasumi one from ME2. I also couldn't play with Varric (me + Tallis + Avelline + Fenris) so it gets lower points for that!
2) Legacy
Oh... so this is the random Dragon Age 2 DLC that stars the... main bad guy from Dragon Age 3?!? Talk about running out of ideas for the Dragon Age 3 boss, huh?
I only started the Legacy today. Double checked if I am on Hard and am currently doing quite good - I am deep down in the Carta Hideout killing dumb dwarves.
So far did not encounter any road block like the Alpha Wyvern in MOTA.
---
Gotta say there is something in the DA2 art-style that draws me in. I like it and I think I prefer it to the ultra-realistic looking one in DA3. I still think Varric looks better in DA2 than in DA3, ha.
I finally started the two DLCs that I bought some months ago: Mark of the Assassin and The Legacy.
1) MOTA was funny because I've played it after finishing Dragon Age 3. Now I understand why it had Orlesian boss, Orlesian armour and those golden Orlesian lion statues everywhere! I was a little bit rusty when returning back from DA3 to DA2 and the Alpha Wyvern was just destroying me! First I started to chug some health potions which I never really did in DA2 except the Orsino/ Arishok fight. That did not help me. He was simply one-shotting Fenris and Avelling. How is that possible?!? I tried about 5 times and I just could not beat him. So I dropped the difficulty back to Normal and finally managed to put him down after another 5 tries (with potions).
Then the Baron comes in immediately after that. Jesus fucking Christ. They've put up the toughest fight in the entire Dragon Age 2 at the beginning of the DLC! Oh and just before that you could try to beat the Sky Horror in that small-ass arena. Good luck with that!
Sadly, I stayed on Normal through the rest of the DLC. The last boss fight with Leopold and Duke was 10x easier than the Alpha Wyvern one. Wow. I could not believe it. A random-ass Wyvern was harder than the last boss Wyvern + mobs.
Oh and I did not solve the 5x5 flip tiles puzzle. Fuck that. I gave up after 2 hours.
A so-so DLC that reminds me of the Kasumi one from ME2. I also couldn't play with Varric (me + Tallis + Avelline + Fenris) so it gets lower points for that!
2) Legacy
Oh... so this is the random Dragon Age 2 DLC that stars the... main bad guy from Dragon Age 3?!? Talk about running out of ideas for the Dragon Age 3 boss, huh?
I only started the Legacy today. Double checked if I am on Hard and am currently doing quite good - I am deep down in the Carta Hideout killing dumb dwarves.
So far did not encounter any road block like the Alpha Wyvern in MOTA.
---
Gotta say there is something in the DA2 art-style that draws me in. I like it and I think I prefer it to the ultra-realistic looking one in DA3. I still think Varric looks better in DA2 than in DA3, ha.
StoppedInTracks
Member
...and Corypheus is down. What a fantastic battle and DLC. The fight was piss poor easy though with Elemental Aegis Mk II spread on the entire party via Fenris skill. Corypheus is a damn good villain. The shit they made to him in DA3 is really embarassing. I killed him DEAD in DA2 fair and square.
Corypheus DA2:
Corypheus DA3:
I loved this DLC. A no nonsense dungeon crawling reminding me of the best areas of Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal (the Demigorgon tower).
Having beaten the main game + 2 DLCs on Hard (except MOTS) I can rank the most difficult battles in DA2 history:
1) Alpha Wyvern (Mark of the Assassin) - had to drop difficulty to Normal
2) the final Shepherding Wolves battle in the Saarebas Ketojan questline - reloaded 20+ times
3) Arishok full party battle
4) Orsino - unbeatable w/o runecrafting and levelling
Corypheus DA2:
Corypheus DA3:
I loved this DLC. A no nonsense dungeon crawling reminding me of the best areas of Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal (the Demigorgon tower).
Having beaten the main game + 2 DLCs on Hard (except MOTS) I can rank the most difficult battles in DA2 history:
1) Alpha Wyvern (Mark of the Assassin) - had to drop difficulty to Normal
2) the final Shepherding Wolves battle in the Saarebas Ketojan questline - reloaded 20+ times
3) Arishok full party battle
4) Orsino - unbeatable w/o runecrafting and levelling
StoppedInTracks
Member
All of it, I played through the base game years ago but never got around playing the dlc.
I need to play the DLC, I really liked DAII, DAI left such a bad taste in my mouth I should go back to new content for one of the good games in the series and remind myself why I liked Dragon Age so much.
StoppedInTracks
Member
Sioen said:
Guys if you even remotely liked DA2 then you should love the DLC. It is really, really good. MOTS is 4 hours long, Legacy is 8 hours long.
Both are combat oriented but they also feature: lots of puzzles, stealth segments with enemies cone-of-view a la MGS or Commandos, boss battles, lots of named loot, cutscenes.
Oh and the main bad guy from DA3 is the main bad guy in DA2 DLC. Fancy that. It was very interesting to play DA2 DLC after beating DA3 and knowing what Corypheus will do in the future, heh.
I find it strange that you disliked DA3, though. IMO DA2 is the absolute worst in the series (5/10) whereas DA1 is 10/10 and DA3 is 9.5/10. To each its own etc. but usually people dislike DA2 and like DA3.
DA2 was a fetch-quest parade in a teeny tiny area. DA3 lacked quests in story-baron large landscapes.
I thought the DA2 DLC was alright. I wouldn't say it's amazing, but it does actually provide new levels/areas to explore. The battles were also interesting. Though there's a weird ham-fisted "stealth" mission in one of them, but overall neither were actually bad.
I need to play the DAI DLC sometime.
I thought the DA2 DLC was alright. I wouldn't say it's amazing, but it does actually provide new levels/areas to explore. The battles were also interesting. Though there's a weird ham-fisted "stealth" mission in one of them, but overall neither were actually bad.
I need to play the DAI DLC sometime.
thepenguin55
Member
So I started playing through this game on PS3 with an imported DAO save in late 2014, but got sidetracked and fell off. I recently finished the Mass Effect series and decided it was time to come back to DA2. While the non-DLC environments are bland I'm enjoying what I've played so far. Having said that, resuming a save that's close to 2 years old has been a little jarring but interesting.
Anyways, I'm about halfway through the game and I already completed Legacy, so I moved on the Mark of the Assassin dlc. Thankfully, I backed up all of my saves to the cloud beforehand and it's a good thing I did because I read something about some game breaking bugs tied to playing through both the Legacy dlc and the MotA dlc. The chances of save data corruption are high when you play through both addons.
Apparently, discarding all the equipment you get from one or both addons helps reduce the chances of save data corruption which I'm fine with doing that. My question for all you is have any of you played through both addons with the PS3 version of DA2 without save data corruption?
My understanding is that the corruptions tend to happen occur at the end of each act, so it could be hours before I know my data is corrupted. I've thought about wiping the saves on my console and downloading the saves I have in the cloud but I already started the addon and I'm enjoying it so far so I'd just like to play through it. Any tips to avoid save corruption would be great.
Anyways, I'm about halfway through the game and I already completed Legacy, so I moved on the Mark of the Assassin dlc. Thankfully, I backed up all of my saves to the cloud beforehand and it's a good thing I did because I read something about some game breaking bugs tied to playing through both the Legacy dlc and the MotA dlc. The chances of save data corruption are high when you play through both addons.
Apparently, discarding all the equipment you get from one or both addons helps reduce the chances of save data corruption which I'm fine with doing that. My question for all you is have any of you played through both addons with the PS3 version of DA2 without save data corruption?
My understanding is that the corruptions tend to happen occur at the end of each act, so it could be hours before I know my data is corrupted. I've thought about wiping the saves on my console and downloading the saves I have in the cloud but I already started the addon and I'm enjoying it so far so I'd just like to play through it. Any tips to avoid save corruption would be great.
I played both DLCs during Act 3 and didn't have any corruption. I didn't specifically do anything to avoid it, just kinda hoped it wouldn't happen.
thepenguin55
Member
So I apparently was only at the end of Act 1, so I completed both add-ons pretty early (which maybe explains the high difficulty spike for the MotA dlc). Everything I've read makes it sound like the biggest chances for failure are during Act transition quick saves, so I turned of quick saving in case it's related to that at all. In the hours I've played since my last post I have not had any issues.
Even though I'm enjoying this game I kind of am just pushing through it to get to Inquisition, so if I can just get to the end of the game without my saves becoming corrupted then I'm golden because even if my final save gets corrupted I could just go through the Dragon Age Keep and select stuff from memory.