Dragon Age II: The Quickening

[Matt]

did you go as the diplomat, the comedian, or as the asshole? Just curious, as I can see the companions reacting VERY differently to you depending upon your demeanor.

[Captain Russ]

Olive branches all the way. Most of the time this made them all fall in love with my watered down Conando Hawke.

Now I'm being a ruthless rogue fuck and using the red right hand of doom.

[BillyG]

Loving this game, but is it just me or does the game feel MUCH smaller? I've put in somewhere north of 10 hours and I've not left Kirkwall, except for the tiny jogs right outside its walls. There's no venturing across the continent or any of that so far, and the game feels a lot less epic and lot more "here's another Fed Ex mission to this other part of town."

[BillyG]

Totally scissored Isabella.

[Matt]

Digging it immensely, but I'm kinda with Billy on the 'scale feels less epic' feeling. I liked traipsing across all of Fereldon.

For those of you playing the game: make a point of bringing Isabella with you when you briefly enter the Fade for the Nightmare mission (where you have to save Feynriel). There's a GREAT joke to be had.

Hardest laugh so far: getting the 'Nigerian Prince' letter scam at my estate. That was killer.

So far:
- my female rogue Dilanna Hawke is in a relationship with Isabella, but I'm still flirting with everyone else. I'm not seeing any ill-effects from this yet.
- I just finished Merrill's companion mission. The Varteral that you fight was easily the hardest mission so far. It took me a couple of tries to take it down. That was extremely satisfying.
- The main missions are fairly well designed and written. It's making for a compelling story that I feel involved with, and I like the fact that I honestly feel like I'm shaping events around me by my decisions. The side missions are kinda hit and miss, though.

[Matt]

Holy shit. Wait until you guys find out what happens with Hawke's mother.

[BillyG]

Yeah...just got that part. Man. For a game small in "area covered" it is huge in scale and story telling.

[Matt]

REALLY digging how they're making callbacks to the original DA games. I ran into Nathaniel (from Awakenings) in a fun little quest, and I ran into Zevran in another quest. I also ran into Alistair (briefly) during the Qunari fight...I also ran into Sten several times...unfortunately.

A word of advice: When you get the Zevran quest (called 'A Murder of Crows'), have Isabella in your party; you won't regret it

www.dragonagenexus.com is starting to have some decent mods show up.

[BillyG]

Loving the "hidden" vendors that you find in oddball places around the world. One on wounded coast, another in the thaig on Sundermount, another in the sewers below the docks at night...all carrying cool but fucking expensive gear. 88g for a ring? 115g for the staff! My god, I've got 119g to my name, and no apparent way to "grind" for more. I'm holding off with hope that I meet someone with a super crazy dagger for my rogue.

[Matt]

Ii haven't found the vendor on the Wounded Coast yet...thanks for the tip.

Regarding the daggers: Don't buy any. You'll get drops that will equal or better any of them that you can find. Indeed, you get one really awesome one from the Zevran mission (it looks like one of the daggers from the opening sequence). I just need to find another one and I've got the final daggerset.

I never ended up getting the chestpiece for the second act (the Chestpiece of Ensalan). Never could find it.

[Matt]

Getting close to the end on this.

Thoughts:
- the game has a pretty solid sense of humor to it. The party banter is often really funny (especially from Isabella and Varric) and there are plenty of little comedy Easter eggs here and there. The letters that you get at your mansion are worth reading...pparently mortgage rates in Kirkwall are at an all time low.
- one of the programmers is a Mason. I know this because of several Masonic references sprinkled within the codexes that you find.
- the bosses in this game are, on the whole, much tougher. The UBER dragon that I fought up by the bone pit last night was epic in scale and in time consumed. The battle against the Arishok (I opted for a 1 on 1 duel) was intense as hell. Fun stuff.

I'll give the game a final review once I finish it, but for now I put it at about the same level as the first one. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but on the whole they cancel each other out. My main concern is with replayability...I don't have the burning desire to play DA2 again, whereas the first one was almost an obsession.

[Matt]

Oh, I also finished off the Isabella romance last night and got her to admit that she loved me. Boom, done.

Of course, once I locked in on that, Merrill threw herself at me. I closed the deal on that one as well and I'm wondering if there's gonna be any kind of catfight between my two lovers.

[V]

I closed the deal on that one as well and I'm wondering if there's gonna be any kind of catfight between my two lovers.

See to it that this happens... preferably in some kind of oil or whipped cream laden environment

[Matt]

Finished it last night. The end fight is rather epic in size and in scale, but the stakes of it don't feel SPECTACULAR enough...it feels like it's setting up DLC or 'Dragon Age III' rather than providing a definitive ending to a game.

My stats:
- finished it at level 22 (almost 23) with a female rogue.
- completed full romances with Isabella and Merrill.
- I sided with the mages at the end.
- Had almost complete friendships with everyone. Fenris was the only one that turned against me at the end, but I was able to convince him to join me (and leave Meredith) before the battle began. As such, I had everyone there.
- My final group: Anders (healer), Merrill (nuker), and Aveline (tank). Bethany came back to offer her assistance and I ALMOST accepted it, but I would have swapped her out for Merrill...I had Merrill set up perfectly as a nuker by that point so I passed.
- I did this playthrough using the diplomatic dialog choices (occasionally using the humorous choices).

I didn't have Sebastian on this playthrough. I may go ahead and download him for the second playthrough just to see what he's like.

  Spoiler: Spoiler thoughts 

- It was nice seeing Alistair briefly in the Qunari battle.
- I killed Sten 5-6 times in the Qunari battle. That was kinda sad, as I really liked his char in the original game.
- Leliana's cameo in the epilogue was surprising; apparently she DID end up going back to Orlais.
- Anders blowing up the Chantry was really, really cool.

[BillyG]

Sebastian is another ranger rogue. Seemed odd considering Varrick is awesome.