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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
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I have played for a bit (advanced my Rogue up to level 8) and have a few thoughts. (I'm playing on a PC; I also played the demo on PS3.)
1) Consolification.
They definitely simplified the game for the console audience.
-- Out of combat abilities (stealth, persuade, etc.) are pretty much gone from character creation. I am disappointed; I like being able to enhance your character's abilities outside of combat. In Dragon Age: Origins, my mage's first 4 skills went to Persade, and it was a lot of fun.
-- Crafting is also removed from your character; NPCs do all your crafting for you. You just have to find recipes and ingredients. I haven't made use of this yet, but finding ingredients is satisfying and I expect that I will like this change.
-- The font. Something about the font is just wrong. It does not feel "fantasy" at all.
-- Auto-attack on the PC is wonderful. Mashing the X button on the PS3 was seriously annoying.
-- Inventory. Most items are only usable by your PC, which is a bit weird (helmets that no one else can equip, for example).
-- No overhead view. I miss this less than I thought I would, but it's still a shame that it's gone.
Mass Effect -ification
The game engine and presentation definitely feel more like Mass Effect 2; in general this is good. Your character has a voice, which is very nice. The dialog options are very much like ME2, and have a little highlight in the center that indicates the tenor of the response (good guy, smartass, tough guy, question, neutral, etc.).
As mentioned above, the inventory system is much simpler -- not as simple as Mass Effect 2 fortunately, but simpler than Origins. There is a very nice feature where random loot is categories as "junk", and there's a "Sell All Junk" option when you are in a store. For me at least, that let's me know I can sell things without worrying about needing them later.
It also (at least initially) has a similar story structure to ME2 (and Origins), where you learn about a large-scale mission (through the Omega point in ME2; stopping the darkspawn in Origins) but then have to do a lot of prep (gathering your squad; gathering the nations) before you can do that mission. It's an interesting dynamic that provides a good frame for storytelling...but it's also getting a bit old. At least this time around, it's quicker to gather your team (I think I may already have all my team members).
Story
I'm liking the story a lot so far. As one review pointed out, having established the world in DA:Origins, they can do a lot more with it in DA2. You hear a decent amount about the "Hero of Ferelden", and the storyline is definitely connected to what happened away south. We'll see how it develops.
Characters
Great, in general. I love Varric and Merrill! Lots of clever comments and the occasional hilarious in joke.
Voice acting is a mix -- the main NPCs are good, but some of the lesser NPC lines are a bit off (wrong emphasis, etc.).
Good Game!
I'm definitely having fun, and look forward to whatever plot twists are lurking around the corner.
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