I'm pretty sure Isabela gets the book and the Qunari do their thing no matter what choices you make, which is what aggravates me. I could be wrong but looking over the Bioware forums I don't think I am.

And that would actually be fine with me, narrative-heavy games need certain plot points to happen, but the WAY they did is annoying. I am sitting there telling Isabela to fuck off and telling the Qunari I agree with them but then I end up helping Isabela and killing the Qunari anyway. I mean... huh?

I didn't choose this option so I can't say if it's any different but did you try and hand Isabela over to the Arishok? I have no idea if they'd write around it and still make the fight happen anyway, but that's the only thing I could think of that might change the outcome.


There are little things like that in chapter 3 as well. I'll be vague but I spent the whole game helping one side of the powers in Kirkwall, and when I visit the home of the side I've purposely been an ass to, the guards keep thanking me for my help. Huh? :P

I beat the high dragon last night! :D It took me probably about 45 minutes to do so and a ton of healing pots\spells but I did it. I'm very proud.

She ran off with the book before I even got the Arishok, so that wasn't an option for me.

Congrats. I'm going for it tonight, I think (waded into the fight without knowing about it yesterday, but quickly reloaded and decided to go back later).

Seems pretty tough. But hey, it should be. It's a dragon, after all.

Oh. :S When I replay I might eventually hand her over just to see how the outcome changes. I do plan to make a rather jerkish Hawke eventually so that'll probably be that time. :P Does the Arishok automatically blame you if she takes off and doesn't return and that's why you have to fight him?

Thanks much! :D I usually always avoid dragon fights that aren't mandatory since I know they usually are a real pain. I changed that last year when I was replaying BG2 and decided to kill most of the dragons (I can't kill the white one though, not because of difficulty, just on principle). That got me thinking that I'm going to try fighting all the dragons I can and so far it's a lot more fun than I was expecting (this particular fight is very fun, though time consuming). I hope you enjoy it! :)

No, he says "you have to answer for the actions of your team even if you disagreed with them," which is what I call forcing it.

This is something I have been finding increasingly annoying in BioWare games. Yes, I fully understand the need for railroading, but the way they seem intent to rub it in your face really grated on me in DAO. If you refuse Morrigan's offer then you get to say "I should have killed you!" and yet you still let her walk away! I was like "If I wasn't allowed to kill her then why give me the option to say that and make the railroading even more obvious?" Let me at least try and chase after her with my big sword at least!

Hell, her introduction rubbed her 'plot armour' in your face as well: "OOH aren't I all mysterious and giving you plenty of valid reasons to smack me with your sword yet you won't because you won't be allowed to, despite my threatening behaviour!" If you give a character plot armour for, well, plot reasons then at least don't rub it in my face or put her in a situation where I can't just try and butcher her (considering that we know she's not all that powerful since we can get her in the party just makes it even worse). Put a forcefield between us whenever we meet at least...

But yeah, railroading is bad enough, but when they rub it in your face, grr...

I think I know who you mean and yeah, that was annoying. My situation with Isabella was roughly the same, I called her out on something and said "you won't get away with this" and then the game made me follow her into the dungeon to help her out anyway. Then she screwed me and ran off... shocker! So stupid.

Overall the game is good and from act 2 it has a really good plot actually, but Bioware's insistence that the plot come out their way despite giving you the illusion of choice is getting worse and worse with every release.

Act 2 is very very good in my opinion. I don't quite know if act 3 is going to live up to it's momentum (I'd say I'm maybe half way through the main plot of it. Mostly scampered off to do side quests and such), but what started out as a kind of drab act for me (2) became pretty damn amazing by it's closing. :D

I would say act one was kind of drab, even at the end. Once act two started having a plot I was suddenly 10 times more interested in the story of the game. Act one feels almost like an MMO, just exp farming quests.

I can definitely agree with you there. While I do really love the game I must admit I'm not fond of how they handled the time jumps. In chapter 1 I was hoping I would get to see that first year and actually play through Hawke starting their life in Kirkwall. Nope, just a time jump. :( I went the smuggler route and was looking forward to doing some slightly shady things but no such luck, only to find out Hawke and (in my case) her employer had some kind of falling out.

Going into the game the time span was the thing I was initially worried about because I figured they'd do this, and they did. I still really enjoy the story but there are those little details that I'd appreciate much more if they weren't just told to me. I know it's supposed to be Varric retelling the story but I'd like to think Hawke wouldn't have said "Oh yeah, that first year in Kirkwall? Not important at all, let's talk about other things :D" when they presumably told each other stories.

Minor gripes aside though, I don't think it ruins the game for me at all.

Aye, I'm not too worried about spoilers since I find I can still enjoy the game regardless, its experiencing it that I enjoy, but I know others would prefer not to know though so not fussed.

Developers seem to forget that the player is supposed to feel like he's the one in control (of making their choices, not necessarily the consequence) these days, especially with the drive for 'cinematic experience' they all seem to want. If I want to watch a story I'll go watch a film, if I want to be a part of a story I'll play a cRPG, and expect the writer to try and write around what I want to do. Or maybe I'm just crazy...okay I am crazy but that's beside the point!!

*********SPOILERS*****************

Play nice with Isabella, let her have the book. She'll come back and you can turn her to the Arishok. So fight with Arishok is not, in fact, forced. It's based on previous choices. Of course it's not really plausible. I mean first you agree to help her and agree to let her keep the book in spite of all the Qunari trouble. But then when she comes back and gives the book to the Qunari in spite of her life being threaten by whatshisname you're going to pull a 180 and give her up? Right...

But the choice is there.

As you say, that's a weird way to get there. Why would I help her if I was more concerned with the Qunari getting it back? Arg!

Reminds me of Fallout 3's stupid evil choices at the end... you help the Brotherhood of Steel kill Enclave the whole game but then at the very end you can nuke the Brotherhood base. Why? If you hated them that much why help them for 100 hours of game time before that? Stupid!