I'm getting revenge on the bad dwarf brother, and I have to say, whatever bitching you have about the game, framing the whole game as a story being told by Varrick and how it occasionally reminds you of that is just really fantastic.
Dragon Age: Inquisition (Plot Details in Spoilers!)
- Thread starter Eonan
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Zehnpai
Molten Core Raider
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Rogues are pretty weak in vanilla DA2 unless you're playing one yourself. The prestige class Assassin is just stupid overpowered. Since every enemy wave consisted of 1 bad-ass and 3~5 regular mobs you just one shot the badass with the assassin and then AE'd the rest down.
Falstaff
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Yeah I remember Archery Rogues were really OP at the beginning and may still be if they haven't patched changes in this long...
Vorph
Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Archery was very good (Varrick much more so than Hawke though, if I remember right), and melee was fine as well as long as you were playing on a difficulty with low friendly fire or using a mod to get rid of the stupid shit entirely. Friendly fire isn't a bad thing in concept, but BioWare's AI is far too terrible to put up with it.
Assassinate, pinpoint strikes and marked for death abilities as a rogue hawke were wtf good. My rogue playthrough had nothing *but* rogues; I felt like it was sort of all in. On the hardest settings your only option was to quickly and efficiently eliminate everyone without taking damage and chugging pots when you did. Sebastian, Isabela, Varric + Me; assassinate, then mark for death, pinpoint strikes then the hardest hitting crap from the others. As long as you assassinated and destroyed the big targets, using shadows to remove threat/distract you were golden. That playthrough was probably the easiest one for me.
2H Warrior was the hardest.
2H Warrior was the hardest.
Vorph
Silver Baronet of the Realm
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2H warrior on Nightmare was about as easy as ME2 Insanity as a Vanguard. Bring only ranged companions, have Varric send everything to attack you since you're practically a god after a while into the game.
That said, I still wouldn't recommend playing Nightmare in either Dragon Age to anyone. In both games it almost entirely increases tedium rather than challenge, and in DA2 it severely restricts the pool of viable companions and practically demands that you take that asshole Anders with you everywhere. I did it with Bethany/Sebastian/Isabela instead of him and it sucked.
That said, I still wouldn't recommend playing Nightmare in either Dragon Age to anyone. In both games it almost entirely increases tedium rather than challenge, and in DA2 it severely restricts the pool of viable companions and practically demands that you take that asshole Anders with you everywhere. I did it with Bethany/Sebastian/Isabela instead of him and it sucked.
Ahh I guess that was my mistake. I didn't bring any ranged companions except Varric; Isabela was my love interest so I kept her around to build up rep or to hear her convos, and then it was usually Fenris or Aveline.
My character would never get knocked out, but Isabela would go down fairly easily, because if I wasn't paying attention to her she would go and tank one of the bigger dudes and get flattened. Varric would be next, then it would just be a long battle of attrition as they whittled down my warriors.
My character would never get knocked out, but Isabela would go down fairly easily, because if I wasn't paying attention to her she would go and tank one of the bigger dudes and get flattened. Varric would be next, then it would just be a long battle of attrition as they whittled down my warriors.
So I decided to play through DAO and DA2 again since it looks like it is going to be a long time till DA3 is released. I have to admit that DAO hasn't aged well at all. The silent protagonist just doesn't work anymore. But I must admit that they really didn't take advantage of the voice overs like they did in ME3.
Caliane
Avatar of War Slayer
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Sulrn
Deuces
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It's definitely not as immersive as DA2/AP style conversation, but I appreciated the apparent trade off for PC customization and having the option for fluid conversations outside of set piece scenes.
Falling for Leliana and building up her affection score with continous QnA/story telling felt infinitely more immersive than say ME3s Reintroduction/Doubting Phase/Crisis/HeartToHeart/Confirmation/PreFinalBattleSex.
DA:O's lack of voice sucks, but assuming it meant that or being forced into another male/female set protagonist - would you realy want to make that trade considering how shitty Hawke was and sketchy Shepard could be?
Falling for Leliana and building up her affection score with continous QnA/story telling felt infinitely more immersive than say ME3s Reintroduction/Doubting Phase/Crisis/HeartToHeart/Confirmation/PreFinalBattleSex.
DA:O's lack of voice sucks, but assuming it meant that or being forced into another male/female set protagonist - would you realy want to make that trade considering how shitty Hawke was and sketchy Shepard could be?
I personally liked Hawke and would take him any day over a silent protagonist. I also felt that the DA2 dialogue system was better than Mass Effect's black & white (red/blue) system and how Hawke's tone changed throughout the game and how he would respond was much more fluid.http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Dialogue_Wheel
Yeah, I was pretty shocked to discover they recorded almost triple the voice work for the two Hawke's in angry/sarcastic/heroic or whatever.
After playing through DA2 I find it just baffling. One one hand there is so much work and effort put into some parts of the game, like the voice work, but then other parts are just totally phoned in and half assed. It's like half their team put in 110% to try and make game of the year, and the other half was just getting high in the parking lot for 2/3 of the project and just kind of threw shit together.
Sulrn
Deuces
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DA2/AP dialogue >>>>> ME Dialogue wheel by far, that wasn't what I was asking though. I understand you like Hawke, but
If it came down to having a voiced lead, would you still want it if it meant a stunted, canned persona over a (possibly) immersion killing, but more adaptive character design?
As much as the "character evolution" supposedly could have added to the game, Hawke barely took advantage of the mechanic. Aggressive, Peacemaker, or Suave, Hawke remained a smarmy bitch throughout the game (this was worsened by game design, macro). Character Development/Writing failed on that perspective where as the silent protagonist in DA:O had infinitely more flexibility(especially when you bring in the mods).
Obviously voiced is better than not voiced for the majority (especially when supported by a non-linear, adaptive dialogue control (AP/DA2). However, I recently played NWN2:OC for the first time and found myself much more engrossed in the story than in DA2 because I felt like my PC (while silent) actually adapted and fit the role I foresaw within the game limits (where as DA2 was laughable throughout and companions stole the show).
Yes, I prefer it over any non-voiced character. I do not find the silent protagonist immersive in the slightest. They had their place and they are a relic now that has no place in modern RPGs that have cinematic storytelling and they ruin it when inserted into one.
If someone goes back and makes a game like NWN or BG, sure, they fit in there fine (the new Shadowrun Returns game looks great). They just have no place in anything like DA, ME, AP, etc.
If someone goes back and makes a game like NWN or BG, sure, they fit in there fine (the new Shadowrun Returns game looks great). They just have no place in anything like DA, ME, AP, etc.
I totally agree with people who say a voice character is the way to go. Just look at all the shitty RPG's that came before MA and Shepard, junk like Baldurs Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Fallout, Planescape Torment, they ought to know better by now.
I mean, whats the point of a role playing game if not everyone is playing the exact same fucking role/character, right? Doesn't matter how dumbed down the gameplay is, just give me voices!
Go watch a fucking movie.
I mean, whats the point of a role playing game if not everyone is playing the exact same fucking role/character, right? Doesn't matter how dumbed down the gameplay is, just give me voices!
Go watch a fucking movie.