I've been playing for a while, and there are two things that are bugging me quite a bit.

First of all, the combat. They broke it. The way it constantly spawns more monsters during the fights isn't just incredibly silly (and looks embarrassing), but it destroys all hopes of using proper tactics and using the terrain to your advantage. It means that you can not control the combat situations, no matter what you do.

So they may have retained a lot of the mechanics that made the tactical combat so enjoyable in the original, but it doesn't matter because tactics are mostly futile when the enemies can (and will) spawn in wherever they want and are impossible to predict or control in any way. Of course it doesn't help that the new camera sucks.

Second, the locations. This game is so obviously rushed. Much of the game happens in the same few locations, and even when the locations are supposed to be different, it's all built using a very limited set of individual rooms, corridors, et.c.. So I'm doing two different missions in two different locations, but most of the areas I explore are completely identical in both missions. Weak. Very, very weak.


That said, I'm having a fairly good time with the game. It's not quite as fun as, say, Alpha Protocol, and it's certainly nothing compared to the original, but it does have an enjoyable story, some interesting quests (the actual gameplay in the quests is pretty dull and repetitive, but the characters and moral dilemmas are fun). For the most part, I'm liking the looting and character building too, even though it's fairly simple stuff.

Whoever said (in this thread or another) something about them needing to release a toolset was probably right. What Zeewolf is saying could be solved by community extensions (not that they should have to, mind you).

"THERE'S MORE OF THEM" ;)

The copypasta dungeons are getting stupid now I have never seen anything as lazy as this including Oblivion. The writing and the characters are great and on more than one occasion I made what I thought was the right decision and it turned very wrong. The writing team did a good job but the people who actually made the game and especially the level designers need to hang their heads in shame. Honestly did they not notice they were playing the same damn dungeons 8, 9 or even 10 times before you are even half way through the game? I feel sorry for the Q&A team.

God damn dude, you were phenomenal at giving them the benefit of the doubt, I'm really sorry what you were looking forward to this much fell this short of expectations (being mildly disappointed is fine, imo, this sounds like more than that, though).

I believe in taking people at their word when they haven't given me reason to doubt them in the past. As I said to Roman5 I prefer to want games to be good than hang on every possible piece of bad news complaining about a game before it's even out. However I also said I wouldn't hold back when I finally got my hands on the game and i'm not going to. I'm 25 hours in and these are my impressions:

+ Writing is solid.
+ Quests are more varied than DA:O.
+ Voice acting is mostly great with only one or two exceptions.
+ Animation has been vastly improved.
+ Combat is much more fluid with characters actually acting in a fight rather than shuffling around.
+ Several WTF moments, especially involving Hawkes family. Overall a much better story than DA:O
+ Loading times much shorter.
+ Graphics for the most part much better than Origins
+ Voiced Hawke is much better than mute Warden. (My opinion) "ISABELA!!"
+ Companions are far more fleshed out than Origins.

- Copypasta borders on unreal. I'm not kidding when I say you will see the same locations over and over again with a blocked door or a cave in to pretend it's somewhere else. The map even shows the full area.
- Tactics have mostly been thrown out the window.
- Loot is largely pointless. In fact most loot even has a trash icon. Might as well just loot gold.
- Redesign of the elves is universally reviled. Merrill may have a lovely voice and may indeed be as cute as a button but there is no way i'm hitting that.
- Still the same problem with conversations. Not as bad as ME2 but you will still pick an option and Hawke will say something completely different.
- Spawning NPC's have no place in an RPG, at least not spawning right in front of you.
- I really hate you have to search for items to upgrade your companions. There is a perfectly good set of Rogue armor I just found with 5 stars and its useless as my Hawke is a warrior. More vendor trash YAY.

So yeah it's not all bad by a long stretch. I've played all those hours and i'm going to continue playing it as i'm enjoying the story. Hell I might start a new game when I finish as well to try a Rogue out. Still doesn't take away from the monumental fuck up they made here. Dragon Age 2 deserved to be a fantastic game like Origins but because it was rushed and every possible corner was cut it ends up being just a good game and good isn't enough for a company like Bioware.

Sorry for the offtopic, but you said that companions can't use found armor? Why?

Another thing, I'm playing as a rogue and dual wielding daggers. Can I wield a sword in my other hand and dagger in another if I take the Sword&Shield -ability? I mean, is my Fadeshear useless?

Yes Fadeshear is useless for a Rogue. They can only dual wield daggers now.

Companion armor can only be upgraded by finding upgrades at vendors and during their quests and if you advance the story and miss one it's gone for good. You can change companions weapons (except Varric), amulet, rings and belts but not their armor. This means every piece of armor you find can only be used by Hawke. Or not if it's class restricted. Utterly pointless change.

Oh and one other major gripe I forgot. What complete dingleberry decided it would be a good idea to only allow you to change your party at designated points? In Origins if you got a mission you think might piss off a party memeber no problem you just switch them out. In DA2 say you get a pro-Mages mission well Fenris might not like the outcome so I have to go HOME, change the party, go back to that area and then WALK to the quest giver again... Jesus wept.

O.o

Well, no wonder Mr. Knowles resigned as a lead desinger when he saw what DA2 would be...

Don't get me wrong, I'm truly enjoying the game, but it has it's...weaknesses...

Almost all the weaknesses are time related. Forgetting the redesign for a moment the real important stuff like character customisation, camera and tactic control, changing the party, level design these only needed time, something that obviously wasn't given. Pretty much everyone was worried including myself that it was too soon for Dragon Age 2 given the size of Origins and it's development length and it's just a shame that we were right it was too soon. They should have just made another Expac, some more grotty DLC that would have sold truckloads and given DA2 another year in the oven. Stick it back in Bioware it's not done yet.

I agree, and hope that they do release a toolset some time. I feel like a lot of the issues are ones that something like Oblivion had at release as well, but the mods made it great. I really love the way combat feels now (I'm playing as a mage, and it is so much more satisfying than Origins) but I am getting annoyed by the things everyone has been mentioning. The copy-past levels, the loot, the emptiness of some places.

I definitely like the game. But I like it in the same way I like something like Assassin's Creed, for the story and fighting, not for the other RPG elements.

Some how I got a feeling that there will be no TS for DA2. I hope I am wrong!

1) Stop calling me out on everything.
2) There's always furor over DRM. Mostly by the 3 to 5 year olds who can't get over the fact that people steal, and Big Corps try to prevent theft, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. I myself was a little miffed that I had to register the game on BOTH a Bioware account and an EA account, but after the activation bitkey was unlocked I quickly got over it. "Oooo, EA is spying on me, watching me watch mah prawnz!". Yeah, sure.

Thing is, DRM does not help them protect their investment at all. Hackers usually have it cracked with in hours of the games release, or sometimes even BEFORE and then, the pirates get the game without all the dumb bullshit requirements. So in actuality all DRM does is hurt and inconvenience legit purchasers. Im not defending pirates or their ilk, im simply saying that DRM in general is completely useless and is a complete waste of time. Pirates will pirate no matter what draconian bullshit DRM they come up with.