DA2 (Split from Homefront thread)

I'm nearing the end of DA2 already, so I'm going to need something to fill the void til Brink. Of the options out there, Homefront looks like a good one. That said, won't be able to actually get it this weekend due to me and my gf going to visit my parents. OH WELL.

haha you game like an addict...

I've put maybe 6-7 hours in on my guy so far lol... I might be up to 9.

I'd have to double check... and then take a couple hours off (at least) from idling on chat prompts to cook, eat, watch Hulu, etc lol

Since ur almost done... are all the Acts as long as the first Act? Or are they a lot shorter making Act1 like half, or more, of the game, and then the rest combined make up the rest?

I'm kinda fearing, yet expecting, the latter.

I got near the end of Act 2 on a mage, realised that the Primal tree is shizzle, as is Force mage (and I don't appreciate being forced to pick Blood Magic, lest I become a healbot, thus making me the biggest hypocrite ever).

So I rolled Rogue, and they are SO much better.

I rolled a dual blade rogue....

I assume your going blades over archery?

Normal difficulty Rogues are ridiculous.

Heh, I set difficulty up to hard for a second char (Warrior, just messing about) and it raised diff for the whole game, so when I went back to my rogue, I wasn't doing as good.

Didn't help EVERY single item on EVERY single character was 0 or 1 star LMAO

I didn't even notice on normal... went and spent about 6-8 gold upgrading everyone and back on normal (switched back b4 upgrading actually) and it's far too easy again lmao

Think I might give Hard another go with proper equipment

Melee rogue.

I played my mage on hard mode, and the boss fights are stupidly long, tiresome fights of attrition. Doesn't help that Primal's Petrify doesn't work on rogues (yet it says 100% chance against ANY enemy), the bosses are all made of rock (thus making Stonefist useless). Basically it's auto attack until all your party members die, then kite boss around until it finally dies/you realise you just wasted 2 hours on one boss and turn it off.

haha
You can always adjust difficulty on the fly...

Play hard, drop to normal for boss fights, return to hard.

That's my plan.

I hate annoying boss battles too

we went way off topic for too long, split to it's own thread in proper section

Game finished, a bit over 30 hours. Christ, what a shit fest... I'll give some room, then I'm spoiling so....





















You know the way that the 1st act ends with something with a bit of...I don't know, substance, difference, purpose, whatever? Going to the Deep Roads, that is. The rest of the game doesn't do that. Shit kicks off with the Qunary in act 2 and they try to take over the city, and in act 3 shit kicks off between the templars and mages and you have to pick a side. The point is, you don't go off anywhere else. There are the usual sidequests to the mountains and the seaside, but you don't properly go any where other than Kirkwall. And apart from you moving to Hightown in act 2, there is no change to the city whatsoever. Not even more statues, or some paint, or anything. Loot drops are moved, shops change wares, that's it.

Act 2, still felt okay, because there was still plenty to do, the the Qunary thing had very much been established as a running thing in act 1. They felt very present, that something was bound to happen with them sooner or later, so when it did it felt right.

Act 3 didn't. The mage/templar thing, while rumbling along all the way through the game, never felt that present until act 3, when every single one of the quests is related to it. It really felt like they rammed all of that arc into act 3, with not nearly enough emphasis on it in the previous two acts.

The main thing that bothered me though, was that you had to pick a side. You can't just walk away, take all your riches and friends and look, and go questing for kicks down the road. The game forces you to support the templars or mages. Okay, fine, to be fair to Bioware they can only program so much stuff in a year. But why couldn't I kill both factions? My hawke had very little interest in the bickering. Hers was a story of personal gain all the way through, about dragging herself up from the poor to the elite; a theme that the game hammers home from the very beginning too. You're not cast as a hero in this thing, it just gets dropped on you in act 3. Primarily, this is in the dialogue - the reason Shepherd works very well as a hero in ME is because what she says always sounds like she cares. Hawke doesn't really seem to give a shit, she spends most of the time cracking jokes. And it's not just that I was picked those dialogue options either, all the pre-written stuff is like that too. Even her tone of voice, nice option or no, sounds like she's taking the piss. Anyway...

Hawke wasn't a particularly callous person, but she really wasn't one to save humanity from great evil either. It just didn't make any sense. In the end I had to pick a side, so I picked the mages because (a) My sister was an apostate, a guy in my party was an apostate, and my romance was an apostate. So...if Hawke was with one or the other, it was the mages. Also, (b) The game had set Meredith up as a wackjob from day one, she was clearly, clearly, clearly the villain. Pretty sure this thing was meant to be a big moral choice, but it failed. I felt more sympathy for the Asharok in act 2 - I killed him because I sure as hell wasn't going to let him take Isabella away (my other party regular), but I had a lot of respect for him at the same time.

And then there's the very end of the game, which is just made of fail. You kill Meredith, get surrounded my templars, and everyone's having a stare off....then then back off, and you wander off.

The end.

No, literally. You walk off, cut to Varric telling that templar woman that 'the Champion took to the hills' or some crap, and that's it. Why world Hawke take to the hills? She's clearly capable of dealing with anything on the fudge planet. We're also informed that all her companions went off elsewhere for various reasons (besides whoever you romance), DESPITE THE FACT THAT ME AND ISABELLA MADE A DEAL FOR ME AND HER AND MERILL TO SAIL AROUND ON OUR PIRATE SHIP BEING AWESOME.

Lastly: feet sinking through the terrain all the time Bioware? Really? Hands passing through my clothes? arms going through people when they hug? It's 2011 for god's sake, solid materials are meant to be solid.

30 hrs?

that's decent..... sounds like Acts 2+ are shorter then the first act though

I think act 2 is about the same...act 3 is very short, and feels all the shorter since all you do is take care of a few companion quests and chug through the main arc.