I don't want to spoil anything but it's very Fallout 3. You are the right person in the right place at the right time nothing more. Bioware called the Champion the most important person in Thedas, No. Kirkwall maybe, the world? No.

The endings in F3 showed just how much a "good" game development company can fail at making the story in an RPG plausible. Unfortunately it's not just the endings :(

There's plenty of moments in DA2 that made me go WTF! FAIL! For example the many conversations where either the PC or the NPC talk about how "mages are not normal people like you and me!". So you mean you did not notice the fireballs I casted 2 minutes ago when I saved you ass? Or the staff on my back? Nothing? Ok...

Finally completed the whole game on Nightmare. Very disappointed with DA2.

Any particular thing or was it a combination?

I know I said my main gripes were the constant recycling of maps and that fact that for the most part your choices make no difference to the actual outcomes. Bioware had a story to tell here and despite it being a good one they made damn sure that no player was going to change it.

The number one most annoying thing now though while playing it a second time was the amount of stuff that was removed for absolutely no good reason. The skill trees are too restrictive, the fact you can only upgrade Hawke means there is no point to 90% of the loot you find and while meeting your companions to talk does give a sense of them having another life, it also makes you feel far less important. Why the hell do I have to go to Fenris' mansion to talk to him when he is standing right next to me?

I've been keeping an eye on the Nexus and already there are mod that:

- Make Elves and Dwarves playable for the MC (including armor to match)
- Skill trees are now open so Anders can be a proper spirit healer, Merrill is actually a Blood Mage and Warriors can now dual wield or use a bow
- A fix for the Isabela/Sebastian friendship bug
- Expands the character creator options with more hairstyles, eye colors and skin tones
- You can have a Mage and Bethany or a Rouge/Warrior and Carver
- A balance patch for spells that are largely useless like Spirit and improves Blood Magic

I mean Modders haven't had the game a month and don't have a proper toolset and are already putting things in that were removed for what Bioware called 'streamlining'. I'm now inclined to call it lazyness.

These are the two main things I dislike about it. I actually reinstalled Dragon Age: Origins and played through Lothering to compare the games and I much prefer DA2's combat, to be honest. If it were not for the repetition and the complete lack of meaningful choices I would give the game high marks.

Mind if I just copy and paste whatever I typed in another forum?

You're at Act 1 and Kirkwall is nice when you see it for the first time, much bigger than Denerim. Then you got the Sundermount Dalish Camp, the Wounded Coast and the Deep Roads Dungeon. And that's it. That's ALL you will be seeing till the end of the game.
In all 3 Acts you go to the EXACT same place and clear out the enemies or to do the sidequests. There are no new places except for the mini-dungeons off the major sites. Whatever you see in Act 1 is what you'll be seeing through the whole game. Take Sundermount for e.g., you clear the place in Act 1, in Act 2 there're mobs again in that place, same thing for Act 3.

The dungeons themselves, HORRIBLE. The standard mansion dungeon, you'll probably see again and again for like 7 times. And all of them are exactly the same! And then there's the Mine dungeon, again for like 6 times or so. There's the Thiag/Deep Road dungeon, fewer but very samey. The Sewer dungeon, also exactly the same for that many times as well. etc etc.

When I visited the Manion dungeon again just now for Varric quest, my character can even say "Time to clear this place out again"

All this alone kills off the immersion. I don't feel much immersion playing the game.
And the monsters too. You'll see and fight them over and over again. There's a boss in Act 2 that you fight again in Act 3, exact same boss, exact same spot and exact same location. How effing lame.
It's clear how EA has destroyed the game:
- exactly same dungeons for most of the game
- limited places to go to other than Kirkwall
- lazy mob patterns(wave after wave, mage, assassin, warrior, 2H warrior, bloodmage mob leaders)
- seeing the same monsters over and over again, only stronger.
- seeing the same boss twice (Varric can even say "Didn't we kill him before", like it was deliberately made ingame to warn of EA's rushing of the game)
- Dumbed down classes and no race choices (no dual wielding warr)
- No companion armour (much easier to set them in 1-2 set armour pieces for ur companions than to program them to look different when you wear different pieces of armour)
etc, etc.

Luckily, the companion sidequests are interesting themselves to bring favour to this tasteless game. The family quests are pretty ok too. And Sandal, my favourite character in Dragon Age, plays a bigger role in DA2.
Enchantment!

******* MAJOR SPOILERS **********


First Enchanter Orsino, he was pretty much my righteous bastion of hope at the end, he was also, from what I see, tough on Blood Magic and scolding Anders for being stupid and reckless. Then all the sudden he slices his wristm uses Blood Magic and becomes a WoW abomination look alike abeit more funky. Worse still, he came after me, his diehard supporter. What's wrong with making him die fighting the Templars without turning to Blood Magic.

I don't know, this part further killed the game for me. Like when the story of the game is already in the garbage bin, this add manure fudge right on top of it.




******* MAJOR SPOILERS **********


Don't know what to think of DA3. Will be interested in the story of Sandal and the characters of the original DAO, can't really be bothered about DA2 except maybe for Varric.

That really was absolutely retarded. I guess the point of it was to make you question your decision after the fact but it just comes from nowhere and deflates your entire purpose. Plus it makes no sense, since he attacks you and not the templars or Meredith.

Baffling.

*Spoilers*

Orosino turns into the Harvester from Awakening. To me it makes perfect sense. In the quest where you ultimately find out that Hawke's mother dies, if you search around you will find a note to the Blood Mage (Quentin, whom Orosino even mentions before transforming) involved signed by "O". I personally felt the reason he changed is because his back was completely against the wall. Yes there are gripes that he attacked the party too but really, an abomination doesn't have conscious thought, and with an army of Templars storming the Gallows, and more on the way, he did it as a last ditch effort to try and wipe out as much as he can. Is it right? No, but I believe that's the point of the last chapter, that the Mages turn to dire actions when pushed far enough, and that Meredith while ruling with an oppressive fist might not be all that wrong about some things.

I sided with the mages by the way.


End of spoilers.

*Spoilers*





Even if you slaughter the Templars with no mages lost it still plays the same damn cut-scene with the mages getting killed and Orsinio flipping out. Similarly if you fight through the mages for the Templars Meridith still goes all Final Fantasy. It leaves you the impression that Hawke really had no say in the events of Kirkwall no matter what he did. They could have ended the game so much better and still had the outcome they wanted, as it stands DA2 has more in common with a JRPG than any CRPG that has gone before.
*Spoilerinos*





Yeah I read that note as well and it does paint a nastier side to Orsinio. His actions to protect mages at all costs were similar to what Irving did in the Magi Origin. He was ready to turn over Jowan but only if Lilly was punished as well. At the time he suspected Jowan was dabbling in Blood Magic and could have been influencing her but he didn't care he just wanted one of the Chantry to suffer.

As for Meridith she was absolutely wrong and did force the mages to do what they did but at the same time the game's story robbed you of any chance of saving the mages. The end message clearly was that if a mage turned to Blood Magic whey would forever be tainted by it and might as well be put to the sword. Cullen and Anders both say as much. This actually goes completely against what was established in DA:O where it was the Chantry that outlawed Blood Magic because of the events in Tevinter and the creation of the Darkspawn but Avernus and Wynne both hint the Chantry are not telling the full story.

Blood magic is very confusing in this series. I guess they are going for ambiguity but it just comes off as unfocused. I mean Merril does blood magic right in front of you and you just go "hey... naughty!" and can do nothing else. Then the whole game you are told blood magic is evil and you can't even choose to spare blood mages 99% of the time, it just auto-fights, but Merril is a-okay? Why? And why can Hawke go blood mage without repercussions?

Silly.

Like you said the game is totally a JRPG, which is hilarious given Bioware's comments on that genre.

The thing that cements this as a JRPG for me is

*Spoilerdizzle*





Anders. In a classic Bioware game or any CRPG for that matter you would belive if your friendship was high enough or god forbid you were in a relationship with him then you would have the option of talking him out of his Monumental Moment of Stupid. That was the biggest WTF moment in the game for me. It was unnessesary and totally out of character even if it was Justice/Vengence driving him. Even Justice would know that the destruction of the Chantry and the deaths of everyone in it would have only resulted in Templars going nuts. The Chantry after all are the only ones holding the Templars leash and the Grand Cleric was a reasonable person who you could believe you could get to side with the mages. That one event summed up for me just how powerless the so-called Champion was and just how pointless any friendship with Anders was.

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


Damn, I hated Anders in that moment. Heck, I hated that moment.
Sandal, The Grand Cleric and the Dalish Keeper are the only NPCs I really like for the game. And he blew her up. Plain stupid. I nearly wanted to kill him even though my character has a romance with him but then I needed my healer which pissed Sebastian off a great deal and left.

*****************************

Anyway, I vote Sandal as the major hero and John Riccitiello as the last boss in DA3.

I'm beyond even joking about DA3. I fully expect a teaser flyer in ME3 implying DA3 March 2012. Bioware are going to have to go right back to the drawing board with that game because if it's a sequel to DA2 with all DA2's limited story and limited RPG scope I will wait to pick up a Complete edition cheap. I'm so shocked over the overall quality of DA2 that I seriously doubt I will pre-order ME3. I'm sure DA has suffered because ME is Bioware's cash cow and thats probably where all their effort has gone but still, dunno if I will fully trust them again.

Also I hate to single out one person for blame but in the case of DA2 it's all Mike Laidlaw the lead designer. He's the one that has been championing all the streamlining that has been going on and quite frankly I can see DA3 being an even more limited experience with Laidlaw remaining in charge. I hope for once EA live up to their reputation and kick him out if sales of DA2 don't match expectaions and by the looks of things they wont. The message is clear. Dragon Age: Origins sold well, DA2 had half the content cut and sold less.

Thanks for posting the spoiler warnings, guys. I skipped all those but thought I'd toss in my 2 cents here. I'm not quite to the end of act 1 yet (at least, I assume I haven't much left to go) and I'm actually at the point where I think I'm just going to turn the difficulty down to easy (I've been playing on Nightmare) just so I can breeze through the rest of the game as fast as possible.

Someone on the BioWare boards said something like "There's a good game in here somewhere that's trying to get out". I pretty much agree with that assessment. I can see there are some elements here that, if fleshed out more, could have resulted in a really great game. As it stands though, I find I'm agreeing more and more with people that say it was rushed and I find it's a pretty damned low quality title from the likes of BioWare. The more I play, the more I find it's just becoming tedious. I want to get through it so I can see the whole thing and how it ends, but I don't think I have the patience or fortitude to continue on with Nightmare mode.

Just want to get it over with, and that's a feeling I've never before felt from a BioWare title. I'm not going to write them off because of one poor effort though (I'm actually shocked at how many 'loyal fans' on the BioWare boards are willing to tank BioWare due to one game, but that's another discussion entirely). I likely won't bother with any DA2 DLC, sinec I can't see me wanting to replay this one at all. I'll still grab ME3 when it hits the shelves, but I fear for what the next DA title may be like (if there even is a next one). And I'll be watching very carefully for info on the next DA game before going out to buy it.

also Spoiler:




I really hated how 99% of the mages immediatly turn into blood magic using abonimations as soon as they face the slightest resistance. Even if your hawke is a mage they will assume you came to kill them and attack you while sacrificing the freedom they are fighting for. The other 1% go back to the chantry without much complaining.
They try to justisfy that with meridith way of treating them, but we hardly experince anyhting of that. It makes the thedas mages look like they had some disease that turns them into abonimation as soon as they leave the chantry. (unlike the ferelden mages, who do just fine as apostates)
Even your mage companions behave like idiots.
Orsino turning into some body horror while you easily kill any templers? Thats too much nonsense. It adds insult to injury for anyone trying to defend the mages as reasonable human beings.
And then the boss fight against meridith. For some reason all the other templars think that killing you is too much and just want to arrest you after you slaughtered a few dozen of them. omfg!
Both boss fights are also boring. Orsino gets some insane amount of hp. This makes the fight last far longer than necessary.
Meridith isnt much better. Her sword attacks do surprisingly little damage. Only the mooks are dangerous. And then they gave her some monologue while stunning your party. too bad for her since my PC had stun immunity.

While i enjoyed playing most of the game ( i didnt mind the streamlining of the gameplay) then ending just makes me puke while thinking about it. DA:O already had a bad ending (too many pointless fights and generic story). I wonder if Biowars DA team will ever manage to make a worthy ending to one of their games. This silly endings reduce any replaybility to almost zero.

Oh and is it a bug when no music plays in the credits?