Did you find out what level you were at the end? The amount of experience points you get is fixed, so it should be possible see if you’ve missed some quests by comparing your level to others who have beaten the game. Not all of the quest givers have big exclamation marks over them after all.
rei
3002
I hit level 22-23 by doing every single thing I could. I think I missed a 1-3 quests (like Varric’s armor upgrade because I didn’t import the necessary save) because they are bugged.
Sarkus
3003
My post-completion save has my Hawke at level 24.
Does anyone who finished both DA2 and The Witcher 2 feel like doing a quick comparison of the two? I kind of got the impression Bioware wouldn’t be making another game I wanted to play from the DA2 demo… but maybe I’m wrong :)
Just get Witcher 2. I haven’t finished it, but I can’t imagine anyone preferring DA2, which I -have- finished and thought was really sloppy and disappointing.
Equis
3006
Witcher 2
- Better graphics.
- More satisfying combat. (it’s hard, but that’s what makes it so satisfying.)
- More tactical combat. You may be one guy, but where you stand, how you swing and what tools/magic you use are incredibly important decisions at a minute level.
- Much better realized world. (It does come from the books, so if you aren’t too familiar with it, you might miss quite a bit.)
- More nuanced storytelling.
- Better plot decisions that feel both personal and epic to the world at large.
- Better scene direction.
- Better sex scenes. (Really, Bioware’s is cringeworthy. Witcher is at the very least, professional art-house porn)
- More developed main character.
- Environments that are actually integral to the story.
- Environments that are beautiful all on their own.
- Unique dungeons.
- Better Loot.
- Amazing towns, war-camps, dwarven cities, rivers and elven ruins. In contrast, DAII had a squarish town that looks kinda the same all over.
- Fantastic war scenes. You get not one, not two, but three war scenes. All different.
Side quests with actual story meat to their bones.
- Better prostitutes. At the very least, the prostitutes in Witcher seem to be doing their jobs and one or two of them even have storylines that match. DAII brothels seem to be only there because, hey, fantasy needs brothels.
- Satisfying ending with actual questions and plot resolved, while opening up threads for more interesting stories down the line.
- Just better writing in general.
Dragon Age II
- Better NPC dialog.
- Better loot pacing, though not by much.
- Better Dragon fight.
- Thuddingly dull climax of nonsensical decisions.
There’s probably more, but that’s the quick and dirty. Go play Witcher 2. It’s safe to skip DAII with Witcher 2 available.
If you are planning to play both, I would say play Dragon Age 2 first. After finishing Witcher 2, the simple act of looking at DA2’s screenshots is comically unbearable.
Razgon
3008
Yeah, I’ve finished both, and found DA2 to be lacking in a LOT of areas and when you compare it to W2? wow - Bioware needs to step up their act if they want to retain any kind of leading rpg position.
Agreed. The thing with BioWare is that they stopped crafting worlds and shifted to a focus on gameplay linked to a story. The setting and atmosphere became a flimsy wrapper for those elements. I think ME, and it’s success, showed them that they could do something that would still get acclaim without putting a lot of effort into the look of the place. And I think “the look” is, without a doubt, the biggest difference between DA2 and TW2; DA2 is a drab, lifeless, repetitive board of a world compared to TW2’s rich, colourful, vibrant reality.
You may have fun playing DA2 (I did), if you don’t get bogged down in its faults. But if you let a comparison with TW2 guide you, you won’t be able to get far. It’s a good idea to play DA2 first, as suggested above, if a comparison is likely to lower your enjoyment.
Quitch
3010
Pffft, the Mass Effect universe is brilliantly realised as well as being a homage to classic sci-fi. Who doesn’t remember the Citadel? While Dragon Age is floundering, its sci-fi cousin is prospering.
Maybe start a “Witcher 2 is better than DA 2” thread.
DA2 has a nice hardback 280pg full color official guide. Shame about the game though. (Though even here the original guide was IMO better).
DA2 wouldn’t have been so bad if the combat weren’t so horrible and gamey. Wave after wave of respawming enemies is lame even if it requires more “thought” into the tactics.
There is one already, it is right next to the “2 > 1” thread.
Sure, it’s prospering despite the world design. I loved ME/ME2 for its story and characters but found the entire universe to be incredibly devoid of interesting settings. ME2 changed that up a bit, after criticisms of the first, but not nearly to the extent of TW2’s world (nor to Oblivion’s, for that matter). Who can’t recall the multitude of barren planets with the claim-to-fame of being textured a different colour?
It’s okay to be that way if you want to focus on different things. The fact that the ME/DA games sold well mean that they are meeting some expectations of the players. DA2 is certainly the worst of the bunch but it clearly took its lead from the ME universe, and to its detriment. There’s a different level of support for that type of world design in a sci-fi universe compared to a fantasy one, I think, and perhaps that is a throw-back to mid-20th century sci-fi or “classic sci-fi” as you say. It doesn’t have to be that way, though.
Let me put it this way. I really like Bioware games. I really like Qt3 games discussion and criticism. But I find the discussion and criticism of Bioware games on Qt3 is very unpleasant because about 5-10 posters are basically anti-hong reverse-Bioware-fanboys that flog certain dead horses until every Bioware thread is a “Bioware game X sucks” thread.
And starting up the organ grinder again on the occasion of some other game being good is just a particularly vivid case in point. Could that not take place in a thread about that game?
Quitch
3016
Well, it did, so I will leave the rebuttal to Equisilus in that thread.
Rebuttal to what? The fact that the people who liked this game least posted about it most? You know hong and ME2, right? Imagine the opposite of that, and that’s what this is.
Except that one person asked in a DA2 thread about a comparison between DA2 and TW2. It’s great that some people need to have conversations compartmentalized to such an extreme, but I personally think the answer is relevant.
I happen to like all the games we’re talking about, so I’m not a hater, nor am I fanboy. If your comment above about turning “every BioWare thread” into a “Bioware game X sucks thread” is directed at me, you’re barking up the wrong tree. I haven’t disliked any BioWare game yet.
Look at how the comparison question was couched, and where the “helpful factual comparisons” immediately went. Anyway, you’re right, someone did ask though.
If your comment above about turning “every BioWare thread” into a “Bioware game X sucks thread” is directed at me, you’re barking up the wrong tree. I haven’t disliked any BioWare game yet.
It’s no one person so much as the dynamic between different people with different specific views. Nor do I really have any gripe with any of the posters as such.
Razgon
3020
huh? I don’t have any anti-bioware axe to grind? Love their older games, but if someone like CDRED can put out a game with the quality of W2, then I stand by what I said. And Alistair did ask.
