So I'm a big fan of pretty much everything made by Bioware, but I've only gotten in on the dragon age craze relatively recently. That being said I've now played through both games 3 times with near 100% completion and have been trolling the web for information on what's going to be happening with the third game. As I hadn't played these games before, I was actually rather astonished at the seemingly massive controversy surrounding the differences between Origins and 2. While I certainly agree that origins did some (debatably many) things better than it's sequel, critiques of the game's new style seem to conveniently gloss over all the steps forward the game has taken. Seeing how Bioware seems to do a good job of both innovating and listening to fan feedback, I feel confident that the third title (which we all know is coming) will be spectacular. Therefore, I'd like to present a short(ish) list of things I feel they should keep in mind as they develop Dragon Age 3, from big sweeping gameplay aspects, to small details.
-DISCLAIMER: I play Dragon Age on PC, and I've been informed that there are a few differences, so keep that in mind-
1. THE STORY
Ok, most people say that origins has a far superior story, and I'll certainly agree that it feels more epic and is on a much larger scale than that of the rise of Hawke in Kirkwall, but personally, I thought the quality of the writing in 2 was just as good. Essentially, I think a return to the scale of origins (which considering the cliffhanger 2 ends on is pretty likely) will satisfy a lot of fans.
2. THE MAIN CHARACTER
The switch from a blank slate silent protagonist (ala elder scrolls or fallout) to a hero more in line with Commander Shepard from Mass Effect is (and if you disagree feel free to comment) a terrific one. As much as I liked origins, I felt like the hero was almost cartoonish in that they didn't display anything resembling a personality or emotions, and on occasion it really broke my immersion when other voice actors were making the situation feel real, but were having what seemed to be a one sided conversation. In addition, the system of having (in DA2) three personalities to choose from, certainly made each of my characters feel much more distinct, despite the fact that they were all humans which brings me neatly to my next point.
Bring back the option to be a different race! The question of whether each race would need their own male and female voice actor is up for debate, but even if they do, fans really seem to miss the ability to pick the race they'll be saving the world (or city) with, and despite the fact that it made some degree of sense to the story in 2 that you be a human, the lack of choice did feel a bit stifling.
3. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION
I think everyone agrees on this: don't repeat locations so often! The environments in the second game may have looked much nicer than origins, but you stop appreciating this quite so much the third or forth time you walk through the same damn room. It probably didn't help that blocking of certain parts of the room to make it feel a little different, but not even bothering to change the map, just felt downright lazy. We can wait through a slightly longer development time if it means we get to see new places throughout the game. Obviously, the switch to a more epic story, encompassing more of the world should help to solve this problem by making it impossible to recycle environments to the degree DA2 did.
4. COMPANIONS
Here is an instance where I think both games could learn something from each other. Dragon Age origins certainly had more dialogue with companions, but it felt a bit artificial as it all took place standing still with eyes locked in camp. On the other hand, 2 had comparatively little conversation, but each one felt different, partially because they took place in the companion's base of operations, but also because they could walk, drink, or even -gasp- shift stance while conversing to make it seem more dynamic. In addition, I personally thought the little mini glimpses into the relationships between the companions in the form of conversations you would witness when going to a base to visit a companion were very clever and made your band feel like much more of a cohesive whole.
I would like to hear what people think about the new way of tracking companion favor, i.e. the friendship/rivalry meter. I thought it was much more interesting and involving than origins, as it enabled slightly more complex relationships with companions than: they like you, they love you, or they leave.
5. LEVELING AND ABILITIES
One of my big problems with the leveling system in origins was that (particularly as a spell caster) you would amass a horde of abilities that you never used to get to the 3 or 4 that you would use in almost every combat situation. Another issue was that despite appearances, there really wasn't any choice in regard to choosing abilities, you had the section for your class, and the section for your weapon type (for non spell casters) and anything outside was literally unusable. Near the end of the game I had accumulated all the abilities I could use and was reduced to simply wasting points on abilities that I literally couldn't use, like two handed for my shield and sword character. As for the spell casters, there was certainly more choice, but again, due to your mana, each individual spell's usefulness, and the pace of the battles, there were only about 4, maybe 5, activated abilities (not counting sustained abilities) that I ever used, except for VERY specific circumstances. In DA2, the change to trees, and the additions of non weapon type specific (for non spell casters) trees allowed for a much higher degree of choice. For my dual wielding rogue, as an example, I decided to focus on (beside the two weapon tree obviously) subterfuge and the assassin specialization, but I could have gone with dueling and stealth, or shadow and scoundrel (or any combination). While it is true that specializations existed in origins, in DA2 they have up to twice as many abilities within each specialization tree. So I feel the system from DA2, perhaps with a few added trees and specializations for variety would be optimal.
6. SKILLS AND CRAFTING
In DA2 skills were done away with completely. The crafting skills were replaced by vendors who could provide runes, enchantments and potions for coin, provided you had found enough resources. Honestly, I'm not sure either system works very well. The former was ridiculously broken; by the end of a game I usually had hundreds of potent health potions and was practically invincible. In DA2, however, It doesn't feel so much like crafting, but an unlock able shop. All I have to say here is, keep looking, there's bound to be a solution somewhere.
As for the other skills: survival, stealing, and combat training were pretty pointless and I don't miss them at all. Combat tactics is gone, and they've given us plentiful tactics slots for each character, which is terrific, allowing your companion strategies to be as in depth, or as straightforward as you like. Finally coercion. I felt that it didn't work very well in the first game, but to be fair it only came up once in a while, but the rewards for having the skill in the instances where it was necessary were substantial enough that it was essentially required for any character that wanted an optimal ending. In DA2, persuade chances are incredibly rare, and rely not on any skill or attribute, but rather a player to have consistently chosen a personality. I think they were trying to have it work similar Mass Effect 2's persuasion system (which I thought worked better than Mass Effect 1), but the rewards for persuasion in DA2 are so tiny, there are so few occasions to use it on, and there is no measure of how capable you are of persuasion at any given time that I'd say they need a whole new approach going into DA3.
7. COMBAT
For the most part (and keep in mind I'm playing on the pc, if you have a comment regard the console version feel free to pipe in) I felt the combat of 2 was a vast improvement on 1. The abilities of various classes seemed to compliment each other much more readily than in origins. In addition, it felt faster and more active, and I was rarely bored during an encounter, something that did happen on occasion in origins. That being said, there are a few flaws with DA2 in this area, some of them small, others larger. First of all, am I the only one who misses the tactical zoom option? The ability to look over the battlefield from above, give each companion an instruction, then zoom back down into the fray was so useful that I found it hard to believe they took it out. It seems like it wouldn't take too much effort to reinsert it back into DA3, so I hope they do, as it would improve my tactical experience immeasurably. Secondly, Bioware has stated that combat in the third game will be based on encounters (similar to origins) rather than the waves in DA2, and I say thank the gods. The wave combat so often eliminated all strategy and forethought I had put into an encounter as halfway through more enemies would pop up wherever they damn well liked. As one of the critiques of the game pointed out, "I call fucking bullshit!" Anyway, again this should be an easy fix, and it seems as though it's on Bioware's to do list, so I'll leave it alone.
A point I would like to know if I'm alone on, but in DA2 there seemed to be a lot of combats that felt completely unnecessary. Walking through a town district? Two fights. Trying to talk to a guy? A big mob of his buddies attack you, then you talk to him anyway. I feel this may be EA's influence, so I'll speak directly to them; EA, we have attention spans of greater than 5 minutes, we don't need you tapping on our heads and going, "STILL THERE?" every few minutes to ensure we haven't seized up and died in the middle of the game. If there's going to be combat, make sure it's necessary, has a point, or is clear why it needed to be part of our adventure, otherwise it's just blatantly padding out game time, which I feel Bioware is perfectly capable of doing with good parts.
8. EQUIPMENT AND LOOT MANAGEMENT
Two main parts to this, the things your character equips, and the things you sell. As for the items you equip, I felt both games were about on the same level in regard to variety of weapons and armor (perhaps origins had slightly more armor choices) and their usefulness in gameplay was comparable. The major change in regard to equitable items was the player's inability to change the armor of their companions, but rather only apply upgrades and enchantments. You still have control over what weapons they wield, however. Personally, I think this was entirely a good thing, as in my opinion, a character's visual identity does just as much to make them memorable as their personality, and having to worry about keeping their stats optimal often makes it impossible to have them with the look you would expect from the character. That being said the solution of having a leaving equipment for each companion that you can tweak a bit seems to be the perfect solution.
Another change was the way loot was managed. Small note, having a take all button on the pc: very very very yes. Anyway, I've heard some people complain about the way that the "junk" items you find, you know, the non magical, non equipable, non quest related items that you always sell the instant you get back to town get automatically placed in the junk tab, able to be sold with a single click. To them I have this to say - if you want to, no one's stopping you from selling them the old fashioned way, one by one. For the rest of us who don't enjoy sorting through dozens of crap items to find the stuff we want, the junk system provides a quick workaround. I find it hard to understand why providing people who didn't enjoy one way of doing things another NON MANDATORY option got such ire from those who liked the system the way it was. Anyway, that's my two cents on that.
9. EPILOGUE
Ok this is pretty simple, bring back the epilogue! One of my favorite parts about origins was the series of epilogue screens that concluded each adventure and let you know how your actions impacted both the world, and the various characters. Part of the problem was that most of the decisions you make in DA2 are on a much smaller scale, and only one has any far reaching effects, which is what they talk about during the end cinematic. I know that this will most likely be auto resolved with the switch to a larger scale story, like origins, but I felt it deserved mention all the same.
CONCLUSION
So that's all I can think of for now. I would appreciate feedback from both camps, but obviously would prefer it be constructive (i.e. if you dislike something from DA2 or origins, provide an alternative rather than just saying it sucks). Again I feel confident that if the fans provide useful feedback, bioware will listen and DA3 will be the epic fantasy adventure we are all looking for.
Cheers
-TheCommanders
-DISCLAIMER: I play Dragon Age on PC, and I've been informed that there are a few differences, so keep that in mind-
1. THE STORY
Ok, most people say that origins has a far superior story, and I'll certainly agree that it feels more epic and is on a much larger scale than that of the rise of Hawke in Kirkwall, but personally, I thought the quality of the writing in 2 was just as good. Essentially, I think a return to the scale of origins (which considering the cliffhanger 2 ends on is pretty likely) will satisfy a lot of fans.
2. THE MAIN CHARACTER
The switch from a blank slate silent protagonist (ala elder scrolls or fallout) to a hero more in line with Commander Shepard from Mass Effect is (and if you disagree feel free to comment) a terrific one. As much as I liked origins, I felt like the hero was almost cartoonish in that they didn't display anything resembling a personality or emotions, and on occasion it really broke my immersion when other voice actors were making the situation feel real, but were having what seemed to be a one sided conversation. In addition, the system of having (in DA2) three personalities to choose from, certainly made each of my characters feel much more distinct, despite the fact that they were all humans which brings me neatly to my next point.
Bring back the option to be a different race! The question of whether each race would need their own male and female voice actor is up for debate, but even if they do, fans really seem to miss the ability to pick the race they'll be saving the world (or city) with, and despite the fact that it made some degree of sense to the story in 2 that you be a human, the lack of choice did feel a bit stifling.
3. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION
I think everyone agrees on this: don't repeat locations so often! The environments in the second game may have looked much nicer than origins, but you stop appreciating this quite so much the third or forth time you walk through the same damn room. It probably didn't help that blocking of certain parts of the room to make it feel a little different, but not even bothering to change the map, just felt downright lazy. We can wait through a slightly longer development time if it means we get to see new places throughout the game. Obviously, the switch to a more epic story, encompassing more of the world should help to solve this problem by making it impossible to recycle environments to the degree DA2 did.
4. COMPANIONS
Here is an instance where I think both games could learn something from each other. Dragon Age origins certainly had more dialogue with companions, but it felt a bit artificial as it all took place standing still with eyes locked in camp. On the other hand, 2 had comparatively little conversation, but each one felt different, partially because they took place in the companion's base of operations, but also because they could walk, drink, or even -gasp- shift stance while conversing to make it seem more dynamic. In addition, I personally thought the little mini glimpses into the relationships between the companions in the form of conversations you would witness when going to a base to visit a companion were very clever and made your band feel like much more of a cohesive whole.
I would like to hear what people think about the new way of tracking companion favor, i.e. the friendship/rivalry meter. I thought it was much more interesting and involving than origins, as it enabled slightly more complex relationships with companions than: they like you, they love you, or they leave.
5. LEVELING AND ABILITIES
One of my big problems with the leveling system in origins was that (particularly as a spell caster) you would amass a horde of abilities that you never used to get to the 3 or 4 that you would use in almost every combat situation. Another issue was that despite appearances, there really wasn't any choice in regard to choosing abilities, you had the section for your class, and the section for your weapon type (for non spell casters) and anything outside was literally unusable. Near the end of the game I had accumulated all the abilities I could use and was reduced to simply wasting points on abilities that I literally couldn't use, like two handed for my shield and sword character. As for the spell casters, there was certainly more choice, but again, due to your mana, each individual spell's usefulness, and the pace of the battles, there were only about 4, maybe 5, activated abilities (not counting sustained abilities) that I ever used, except for VERY specific circumstances. In DA2, the change to trees, and the additions of non weapon type specific (for non spell casters) trees allowed for a much higher degree of choice. For my dual wielding rogue, as an example, I decided to focus on (beside the two weapon tree obviously) subterfuge and the assassin specialization, but I could have gone with dueling and stealth, or shadow and scoundrel (or any combination). While it is true that specializations existed in origins, in DA2 they have up to twice as many abilities within each specialization tree. So I feel the system from DA2, perhaps with a few added trees and specializations for variety would be optimal.
6. SKILLS AND CRAFTING
In DA2 skills were done away with completely. The crafting skills were replaced by vendors who could provide runes, enchantments and potions for coin, provided you had found enough resources. Honestly, I'm not sure either system works very well. The former was ridiculously broken; by the end of a game I usually had hundreds of potent health potions and was practically invincible. In DA2, however, It doesn't feel so much like crafting, but an unlock able shop. All I have to say here is, keep looking, there's bound to be a solution somewhere.
As for the other skills: survival, stealing, and combat training were pretty pointless and I don't miss them at all. Combat tactics is gone, and they've given us plentiful tactics slots for each character, which is terrific, allowing your companion strategies to be as in depth, or as straightforward as you like. Finally coercion. I felt that it didn't work very well in the first game, but to be fair it only came up once in a while, but the rewards for having the skill in the instances where it was necessary were substantial enough that it was essentially required for any character that wanted an optimal ending. In DA2, persuade chances are incredibly rare, and rely not on any skill or attribute, but rather a player to have consistently chosen a personality. I think they were trying to have it work similar Mass Effect 2's persuasion system (which I thought worked better than Mass Effect 1), but the rewards for persuasion in DA2 are so tiny, there are so few occasions to use it on, and there is no measure of how capable you are of persuasion at any given time that I'd say they need a whole new approach going into DA3.
7. COMBAT
For the most part (and keep in mind I'm playing on the pc, if you have a comment regard the console version feel free to pipe in) I felt the combat of 2 was a vast improvement on 1. The abilities of various classes seemed to compliment each other much more readily than in origins. In addition, it felt faster and more active, and I was rarely bored during an encounter, something that did happen on occasion in origins. That being said, there are a few flaws with DA2 in this area, some of them small, others larger. First of all, am I the only one who misses the tactical zoom option? The ability to look over the battlefield from above, give each companion an instruction, then zoom back down into the fray was so useful that I found it hard to believe they took it out. It seems like it wouldn't take too much effort to reinsert it back into DA3, so I hope they do, as it would improve my tactical experience immeasurably. Secondly, Bioware has stated that combat in the third game will be based on encounters (similar to origins) rather than the waves in DA2, and I say thank the gods. The wave combat so often eliminated all strategy and forethought I had put into an encounter as halfway through more enemies would pop up wherever they damn well liked. As one of the critiques of the game pointed out, "I call fucking bullshit!" Anyway, again this should be an easy fix, and it seems as though it's on Bioware's to do list, so I'll leave it alone.
A point I would like to know if I'm alone on, but in DA2 there seemed to be a lot of combats that felt completely unnecessary. Walking through a town district? Two fights. Trying to talk to a guy? A big mob of his buddies attack you, then you talk to him anyway. I feel this may be EA's influence, so I'll speak directly to them; EA, we have attention spans of greater than 5 minutes, we don't need you tapping on our heads and going, "STILL THERE?" every few minutes to ensure we haven't seized up and died in the middle of the game. If there's going to be combat, make sure it's necessary, has a point, or is clear why it needed to be part of our adventure, otherwise it's just blatantly padding out game time, which I feel Bioware is perfectly capable of doing with good parts.
8. EQUIPMENT AND LOOT MANAGEMENT
Two main parts to this, the things your character equips, and the things you sell. As for the items you equip, I felt both games were about on the same level in regard to variety of weapons and armor (perhaps origins had slightly more armor choices) and their usefulness in gameplay was comparable. The major change in regard to equitable items was the player's inability to change the armor of their companions, but rather only apply upgrades and enchantments. You still have control over what weapons they wield, however. Personally, I think this was entirely a good thing, as in my opinion, a character's visual identity does just as much to make them memorable as their personality, and having to worry about keeping their stats optimal often makes it impossible to have them with the look you would expect from the character. That being said the solution of having a leaving equipment for each companion that you can tweak a bit seems to be the perfect solution.
Another change was the way loot was managed. Small note, having a take all button on the pc: very very very yes. Anyway, I've heard some people complain about the way that the "junk" items you find, you know, the non magical, non equipable, non quest related items that you always sell the instant you get back to town get automatically placed in the junk tab, able to be sold with a single click. To them I have this to say - if you want to, no one's stopping you from selling them the old fashioned way, one by one. For the rest of us who don't enjoy sorting through dozens of crap items to find the stuff we want, the junk system provides a quick workaround. I find it hard to understand why providing people who didn't enjoy one way of doing things another NON MANDATORY option got such ire from those who liked the system the way it was. Anyway, that's my two cents on that.
9. EPILOGUE
Ok this is pretty simple, bring back the epilogue! One of my favorite parts about origins was the series of epilogue screens that concluded each adventure and let you know how your actions impacted both the world, and the various characters. Part of the problem was that most of the decisions you make in DA2 are on a much smaller scale, and only one has any far reaching effects, which is what they talk about during the end cinematic. I know that this will most likely be auto resolved with the switch to a larger scale story, like origins, but I felt it deserved mention all the same.
CONCLUSION
So that's all I can think of for now. I would appreciate feedback from both camps, but obviously would prefer it be constructive (i.e. if you dislike something from DA2 or origins, provide an alternative rather than just saying it sucks). Again I feel confident that if the fans provide useful feedback, bioware will listen and DA3 will be the epic fantasy adventure we are all looking for.
Cheers
-TheCommanders
