im so sad... finally...i only completed it NOW. just now. to think i was one of the first peeeps in SG to lay my hands on the game, cos i preordered the signature edition and it got shipped here even before any store in town had any copies of it on sale. and i only juz finished playing thru it. not because it was bad or anything, actl i liked it abit more than origins tbh, but bcos the lame previous com had too sucky graphics, i cldnt actl make it past half of ACT 1 before i risk turning the com into brick. so bad.. now with the new com, hehe :P. 1st runthru in 3 days :D

being the sequel, its definitely different from origins. the gamespot rating for it was 8.0, and i was worried at first. but after playign thru a while, one rly gets hyped over the new and improved combat in DA2. WOW. more like an action game merged with an RPG with the awesome cinematics and story-telling. combat is so fun and engaging that u do quests juz to fight (slaughter) the lame asses "hiding" in broad daylight (yes they appear more or less at the same locations zzz).

to start off, i chose a rogue agn, believing that since its a DA game, rogues are OP, and they wont get nerfed. sure enuf... i still believe rogues are the key to owning this game, so OP, beyond imagination. and with the brilliant animation of even a simple skill like backstab (u teleport to behind an enemy and crit, awesome graphics and sound effect), i immediately wanted to try all the skills laid out in the skill trees. and after a while... it feels like cheating, cos assassinate somehow one hit kills most elites, and half-life-s more powerful bosses, making most encounters simple but too fun. not to mention theres also another skill that does pretty much similar damage. i was worrying at first having to fight my companion fenris at the end, like "omgshiz i juz equipped him with the best sword and enchanted his armor, that worthless betraying soab!" but when i marked him and assassinated, one hit kill ftw :) the first thing that went thru my mind was "when r they gna nerf this". but its an rpg, so balancing is apparently not required, yay!

another satisfying change would be the storyline. in DA2, u no longer are juz a hero who will eventually save the world against these lame monsters and the big dragon. ye, its no longer so obvious wad u r gna do, unless u read spoilers. u juz know that u will eventually be someone very prominent in this city, but how u get there doing wad is a mystery, waiting for u to unveil. and the storytelling is a breath of fresh air as well, cos Varric (one of ur companions) is the one telling it after all the events have alrdy passed, right from the beginning. besides the more realistic and less fantasy-like storyline, its also much more personal, and i really did feel sad for hawke at some places in the game. the arc abt his mother was especially painful and memorable, while Seamus's sudden death was also rather shocking. in all, i enjoyed this story much more than the origins one, as one can remember the details of the story and the growth of hawke even after the playthru, rather than juz battle after battle after juz another heroic deed of saving someplace.

quests in DA2 were quite interesting, to my surprise. they are often much more elaborate than in origins, with plenty of cinematics to help. more often than not, u juz want to complete them once u have been introduced the quest, much less for the reward (u dun rly need gold after a while, nothing nice to buy anywayssss) than for the results of ur actions. it may not seem that ur actions impact the story in anyway, but lol, at the end of the story, any player will realise how many aspects of the present day he could change if he made some other choice sometime before. and i like having meaningful choices to make, esp in games, cos its for fun :DDD

according to wad we were told, the champion rises in status, and it was obvious (lol sometimes in games u dun even feel anything changed) and well planned. u start off in the slums like nothing different from a slave, and gradually move to the high-end town. u wear nice clothes at home, and as u adventure and lvl, u get new set armors. these armors not only giv u the good stats, they make u look like u have grown in status as well! in fact, they are so nicely designed that u wouldnt want to don any other piece of armor (even if they have better stats) cos the one set looks so awesome and epic (esp the final one).

if u wonder much abt the mage/templar conflict in orgins and thought why they included that since its not a MUZ HAVE in the dragonspawning storyline, well here u have it again, but in much greater detail. in DA2 this difference is much better represented, with full fledged quests and plot dedicated to this very important part of all of DA history, instd of mere codex entries back then. i remember back in origins i chose templar or mage juz for the achievements and other in game benefits, but here, its really a headache which side u choose. haha. have fun choosing, cos u will juz feel like punching both leaders' faces.

whats more, u get a nice look at how qunari looks like.. ye last time i rly din know and din care who/what the qunari is cos they dun even affect the trees arnd me. now i know they actl look quite cool, and nearly dominated my city.

LOTS of origins and awakening chars make appearance as well, which is very good to have. makes one feel honored to have played origins and known those characters first hand. for example, anders even joins ur team, and he was the first i romanced. ye i was a male char, so its gay. doesnt matter cos DA2 doesnt have sex scenes. whats more, they return with much better-looking faces, like leliana and zevran. alistair was soso.. i tink he looked better in origins, and his arc was so short that its like he appeared for the sake of appearing. having said that, its nice seeing him agn after all this while ^^



and u wonder, then wad's bad abt this game to bring it to 8.0 rating (8.0 is actl quite high alrdy)?

some things do disappoint me. not all corners have loot :C ye. u may have gone out of ur way to walk round that corner risking ur life in hope of getting something sweet, but no. theres nothing. and when theres finally a glimmering object, omg all there is is some junk item that u would rather not waste ur inventory space with. its sad, when so much of the stuff juz doesnt impact gameplay at all. the items here doesnt weigh as much as those in origins. u dun have fatal shock bombs dropped off monsters, and health pots are rare that u fight most battles trying to not use any of those. and the worst, companions armor cant be changed! so most of the armor items u loot go to the market, since u only want to wear ur set armor, and no one else is eligible to wear them. so no bonuses from gloves, helms, armor and boots for all ur companions. well their armor could be upgraded, some can even change appearance, but omg where has the customizations gone!?!?! and its not even easy to upgrade some of the armor, u have to find the right chest at the right place during the right quest zzz, and that particular companion had to be there. so if u only play with a few companions (like i do, i refer to holy trinity and only liked having fenris, merrill, anders and ocassionally sebastian with me), most armor pieces are going to be left sparkling NEW. this system could have been better imo.

although there are many interesting quests out there, not many have a major link to the main storyline. yes, they affect wad u see at the end, but they are not involved in the main events. saving that mage from the fade did not change anything, or even at least had him come back to aid me in the final fight. killing that high dragon.... was for fun seriously. maybe its asking abit too much, and origins din rly feel better in this aspect as well, but i thought maybe the story could have been longer like those of FF standard, and shed some of the not so prominent quests that are there to take up time. the whole concept of rising to power was great, and i rly did enjoy it, but it couldve been longer and more things couldve happened, not just the 3 that define the acts.

one major frustrating thing would be the interior design of buildings, caves and explorables. why are they all the same in layout!??! it feels absurd that this cave is juz the same as the other one, and this mansion is designed exactly like the one my companion lives in. they are really the same, dun doubt. ok, u may say, the mansions in hightown are all built by the same architect so have similar layout, then WHY are there stl corpses lying arnd, tables strewn across the floor and drawers collapsed on one another in Fenris's house in ACT 3? six years down the road, as my companion, living alone, and he stl has that same corpse lying there, not rotten, room not tidied up and he smiles and talks to me like nothing happened. from what i see he gets burglars everyday and is simply tired of tidying up the place. well, if they put so much effort into details, they shldnt have missed this part, cos anyone absorbed into the game will notice this flaw immediately, and find it rather disappointing. tbh, i really only wanted to see Fenris having a good life in his mansion, with new furniture and all... he worked hard u know.

lololol. ive alrdy created the second char and am on my way to kirkwall now :) this time its a female, but stl a rogue. sry, i cant bring myself to try other classes, because tanks are boring and are meant to be sustained-skill aura dogs, dps warriors dun have the broken skill called assassinate and i dun wan the AI to controll a game-changing rogue cos me>AI and mages dun deal damage like i do (they do aoe and in bursts, SLOW bursts). so... at least i will try a different path now, instd of the usual full dps rogue, i shall try some new stuff like stealth and chaos, which looks fun but effectiveness is stl to be confirmed. but one thing is for sure, ill be taking different choices down the road, and researching beforehand all the upgrades for my main companions, and of course, romance another target :) this would be fun.