Am I the only one who found Dragon Age 2 superior to Origins?

[MrMyth]

I definitely enjoyed DA2, and the core concept of the game - as a story more focused on one character's journey, rather than an epic spanning an entire kingdom - was a change of pace I really liked. And the first half of the game was really, really engaging. And the companion characters were fantastic, with some truly genuine arcs of character development and growth, presented in a way you can actually witness over the course of the game.

Overall, though, it had some pretty big flaws. Grydan covers most of them - inability to impact certain events, being forced to end up with bad outcomes that you should have some way to prevent, etc. Its a bit too tightly scripted and railroaded, and that is unfortunate in something that so fundamentally should thrive on player impact.

Two other big things really left a sour taste in my mouth:
1) The actions of a certain character need the end of the game, and how that forces things to play out. Just... a really unpleasant experience that doesn't make any sense, and having very limited options on how you respond to it.
2) Bugs. Specifically, one bug, which made my character attack in slow motion - and, as a fast-attacking rogue, meant by the end of the game (and by the time I had figured out what was causing it, but after the damage had been done)... I was literally incapable of fighting enemies in combat. Which meant my main character was just a target while I spent all my time running my allies, pretty much for the last third of the game. It got fixed - in that it was gone by the time I came back for the DLC - but still made for a really frustrating experience.

It is a shame, since I generally liked the changes to gameplay, found most of the companion characters really awesome (especially Aveline and Varric), and liked the setting and the elements that were building up the tension and the plot. I think it had more potential to be a better game that Origins, namely by being a much more unique game - but the flaws prevented it from reaching that potential, while Origins was a more solid game as a whole.

90% of the time I played it, DA2 was really, really good - but when it was bad, it was really, really, really bad.

 

[Welverin]

Worse

The only real real flaw of the game is the map recycling. I guess they wanted to save a few months of game development but it's pretty jarring when you recognize the same cave being used over and over. Ugh.

They set a really aggressive release date, about eighteen months after DA:O, but then made the mistake of trying to cram almost as much content into.

So, rather than have fewer quests they decided to reuse locations, which ended up being one of the bigger criticisms of the game. I wonder if they had just gone with less content if they would have gotten as many complaints.

 

[Mallus]

Nope, you're not alone. I got so bored with DA:O after the first few hours, I put it down and didn't pick it up again/finish it for six months. DA2, however, I played straight through, then immediately started a new game. Soon after I sold it, since I didn't really want to pour another 30+ hours of my life into the same CRPG..

I (mostly) loved the characters in DA2. Ditto the ending, in which I-as-Hawke slunk away from Kirkwall in pseudo-triumph with my frenemy who blew up the Pope, my sweet-yet-dangerously-crazy girlfriend, and my ex-fling the Qur'an-stealing pirate. After losing everything else I held dear.

Not an ending I've ever scene before, and I started playing CRPGs with Ultima II.

 

[Remus Lupin]

"You must spread some experience around before giving to Mallus again" Dang. That was just for the "frenemy who blew up the pope" comment.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I liked it better. I agree with the map recycling thing, which gets a bit old. I completed the game as a 2-handed weapon warrior first, a force mage the second time through, and just started a new game as a assassin/shadow rogue, last night I went into the next act where the Arashok decided to take over the city. I'm enjoying the playthrough again and having a lot of fun with the different scenarios. I'm actually trying to get 100% of the ps3 trophies and am at about 90% right now with only 3 or 4 trophies to get. I like the graphics, gameplay, characters, and talent tree options better. I also like the potions/runes/poisons setup much better.

 

[drothgery]

(comments inside the sblock)
[sblock]

Anyways, my main issues with the game were these:

...
4. Similar to the above two, Merrill's story is frustrating. Regardless of whether she's a casual friend, or hates your guts, or thinks you're the most wonderful person to ever exist, she's not going to change her mind. Her story only has one end point, and it's a tragedy that forces you to slaughter a bunch of innocents. Gee thanks, Bioware.

It's actually possible to avoid killing a bunch of innocents in Merrill's storyline; with the right choices, the elves won't fight you after the Keeper dies.

Mostly agree with everything else, though I still liked the game.
[/sblock]

 

[Remus Lupin]

I thought the friendship/rivalry system was a bit wonky. Often it didn't matter what you did to provoke your allies affection or hostility in game terms (Isabella was a possible exception to that rule).

I thwarted Merrill at EVERY opportunity, maxed out her rivalry, yet not only did she STILL go to bed with me, but after I threw her over in favor of Isabella, she still continued to follow me and moon over me (in one amusing cross-talk exchange, telling Isabella how wonderful she thought I was). Again, this was ALL with maxed out rivalry. Weird.

 

[GreyLord]

Hmmm, maybe there is a peaceful way out of the end of Merrill's storyline, but I'm not sure how you'd get it. The elves weren't particularly inclined to listen to me, as we'd just walked out of a cave without their beloved leader, couldn't explain why, and were covered in blood. Which is somewhat amusing, as it's a bit of a running joke about the series that your characters are constantly coated head to toe in blood and NPCs never mention it.

Which in itself is a bit odd, as Darkspawn blood is supposed to be corrupting, and rapidly so. It should be a bit of problem that it's in my eyes, and by my mouth...

I got the peaceful ending for Merril as well.

I got really tired of all the guys being Bi and even if I expressed no interest they kept hitting on my male character. There wasn't a romance option for guys that didn't involve some bi character at all (even the girls are bi). That was pretty annoying as well, it's as if the usual standard in this world is to be bi instead of anything close to normal.

 

[Remus Lupin]

I got the peaceful ending for Merril as well.

I got really tired of all the guys being Bi and even if I expressed no interest they kept hitting on my male character. There wasn't a romance option for guys that didn't involve some bi character at all (even the girls are bi). That was pretty annoying as well, it's as if the usual standard in this world is to be bi instead of anything close to normal.

Yeah, not touching that one.

 

[Grydan]

I thought the friendship/rivalry system was a bit wonky. Often it didn't matter what you did to provoke your allies affection or hostility in game terms (Isabella was a possible exception to that rule).

I thwarted Merrill at EVERY opportunity, maxed out her rivalry, yet not only did she STILL go to bed with me, but after I threw her over in favor of Isabella, she still continued to follow me and moon over me (in one amusing cross-talk exchange, telling Isabella how wonderful she thought I was). Again, this was ALL with maxed out rivalry. Weird.

Weird. Wasn't aware it was quite that wonky.

I did notice that certain gifts specifically reinforce whatever general feelings that a character has about you. A gift that, when a character likes you, dramatically improves their view of you, will make them loathe you all the more if they didn't like you to begin with.

Which, in my eyes, is weird. It also makes it hard to recover if things have drifted in a direction you didn't want. In one playthrough I had pushed Merrill further in the Rivalry direction than I had wanted, so when I found a gift that I knew she had really liked on a prior playthrough I gave it to her, hoping to get back in her good graces. Boy was that a mistake. She took the gift as a grave insult.


My thanks to everyone for letting me know there's a way to avoid slaughtering the elves. If I ever go back to my "ideal playthrough" to set up my version of events for carrying over to DA3, I'll try and make sure I get that ending.