Well I started a new female Hawke mage.
Glaring mistake right away? They remove the ability to have a meaningful choice right away when the mere choosing of your class means that one sibling or the other will die.
They could have made it a choice on who to save but nope...its just a function of your class. That is about 5 minutes into the game.
So then you're in cutscenes for the next 30 fucking minutes accomplishing almost nothing in game. Literally nothing but cinematics...and then you're set free in the most empty of cities to ever have claimed to be too full of refugees to let more in.
Then you meet the only good character in the entire game (Varric Tethras) aside from Bethany (who in this case is dead). And then you're left in neutral. The cutscenes do nothing in the game at this point except take up space and give you some narrative.
So the entire game ends of feeling like you just played through david gaider's novels and had no choice whatsoever. Sure the protagonist is fully voiced and the game is smooth as heck. No question that much of it was well done. But after playing even Mass Effect 2, 3 and other newer games it not only shows its age but also the lack of detail and love that was put into it.
This was the real abortion that came out of EA and honestly was a prelude to what we'd see in ME3...which was still much better than DA2. DA2 suffered from producers not fighting for their teams. The entire game could have been fantastic...like the Legacy DLC was. And it was fantastic. But they screwed it up and didn't have the courage to admit it. Nor did they come up with a solution. They pumped out crappy DLC and much much later after libraries full of criticism finally kinda half heartedly admitted they screwed up. And only promised to do better next time.
Now - Over four years later they are about to release Dragon Age Inquisition. I do hope it is what fans expect it to be. But I am not holding out too much hope. I have seen quite a bit of gameplay and well...it looks promising. One can only hope that the writing is much improved and we don't have mooks jumping out of walls in stupid wave spawns.
DA2 - Chapter 1 Flaws
1) Gamlen's House - feels more like a mission hub than a home. Not enough to do and doesn't feel important after initial family missions
2) Lowtown - Feels empty in the day time and at night its a ghost town
3) No city guard patrols...even after you get Butch Ginger Valkyrie in charge of everything.
4) the city feels very tiny - no real exploration
5) You can't kill Sister Petrice even after she betrays you - she's wearing plot armor and it is inexcusable.
6) Arishok most sympathetic character - and yet he is forced to be your enemy. You should have been able to help him take over the city. But of course that would have completely messed the plot for the rest of the game...showing you how flimsy the entire plot is in the first place.
7) Blood Magery - stupid female elf mage is a blood mage. You can't turn her in to the chantry nor kill her. She's so witless it hurts and that just isn't cute. Her motivations aren't strong enough nor is she honest with you from the beginning because she is in collusion with demons.
8) Thrask and his mages - makes no sense in its resolution. You can change nothing about it. Your attitude affects nothing except companion perception. Another 'decision' without consequence.
9) You've already seen several levels reused by now and Fenris is a slob.
DA2 - Deep Roads (Pending)
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