Dragon Age II: The Quickening

[Abraham Smashington]

If someone hated the first one, would this one be worth checking out?

[Captain Russ]

Wynne was a like hanging with Wooderson.

Anders is like being stuck in that fucking station wagon with Adam Goldberg FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

[Captain Russ]

You might dig it. It's much more action-oriented and a lot of the previous micromanaging is optional now.

But then again, it doesn't have anything you're interested in: fighting robots, sexrobots, robotic sexfights.

[Abraham Smashington]

Hmms. Maybe part 3 will up the robotsexing quotient.

[Captain Russ]

I highly doubt it.

Mass Erect Three will though.

EDI is in for a hurtin'. That's right Vaginaface, I'm talkin' to YOU.

[Matt]

If someone hated the first one, would this one be worth checking out?

It depends upon what you hated about the first one. If you read the reviews out there, you'll see that it's pretty evenly divided between people who LOVE the changes and people who LOATHE them.

Apparently it plays almost exactly like ME2 now. I haven't played ME2 so I can't say...what I CAN say is this:

- I like the dialog. I think that it's been approved accross the board, for the most part.
- I like the dialog wheel and how it pretty clearly helps you decide on a response.
- I like the characters/companions, for the most part. I've grown to like them better than the DA:O companions. Anders can die in a fire, though.
- I like the overall 'dark' nature of some of the quests that you're forced to undertake. Seriously, some warped shit happens that I really wasn't expecting.

- I don't like the fact that the game feels very confined, location-wise. You're pretty much stuck within one city and several repeatable locations for 90% of the game. Also, some of the random areas that you do go into are all drawn from the same templates...they all look alike after a while.
- I don't like how the story is less 'epic' feeling, overall. Act II is very, very strong, however...the finale with the Qunari was very satisfying...much more so than the actual ending of the game.
- I don't like how you can't modify (legally) any of the companion armors. Thank God the mods are working on this, and there are several good nudie mods appearing on a daily basis.
- I don't like how you now have limited specializations for your companions. Again, the mods have fixed this so that you CAN make Merrill into a spriit healer (and other things).

In short, it's a step forward and a step back. I don't remember what your issues were with DA:O, so ask away and I'll address them.

[Captain Russ]

It is like ME2 in terms of the combat design. But where that went into 3rd person shooter territory, you've got streamlined hack n' slash here.

[Abraham Smashington]

ah, cool. Ok. Maybe I'll grab it on the PC when the steam sales roll around then.

[Matt]

I won't lie, most of the actual gameplay concerns that most people have are being addressed by the modders out there. There are still quite a few gameplay bugs that Bioware is going to need to address...bugs that didn't hit me on my first playthrough but have definitely arisen on my second one.

[Abraham Smashington]

Yeah, your links to PC mods have convinced me to wait until a price drop on the PC. Stuff looks pretty great.

[Captain Russ]

Well, not all of us can get the fancypants PC version with the superfluous nudie magazine day mods.

Some of us are stuck with the console. Stuck with Anders as a healer. In digital purgatory are we.

[Matt]

The nudie mods for DA2 aren't too extreme yet. YET. Isabella is definitely the hot thing to be modded, though...there are tons of mods altering her face and her outfit...hell, even her race. The most popular mod outright removes her thong so that, if you look up her skirt, hello kitty.

but DA:O? Jesus, the mods turn that game into something X-rated.

[Matt]

Finished my second playthrough on DA2 yesterday. I sided with the templars just to see how it would play out and was pretty disappointed with the fact that the ending is, more or less, the same.

I maaaaaay play it again just to see how the ASSHOLE dialog route pans out, but I'm not all that enthused.

[BillyG]

Jesus did you skip all the side work on the second playthrough?

[Matt]

No, I actually did ALL of it on my second run. I was at level 22 at the end of the first playthrough (with my rogue) and at level 25 on my second one.