A single quest, I give up.(DA2 FFS)

[treave]

So I'm just trundling about with 3 apostates in my party(Merril, Myself and Warden Dude). we get a quest to go find a Templar recruit, chase the leads till we catch up to him at a mountain pass fighting with THE KNIGHT COMMANDER of the TEMPLAR MAGE HUNTERS, Apprentice turns into a demon and summons around 20 more Demons, fight them off because Hawke is a bad ass, and I've got an attack of something like 240 at level 8. Now all three of the mages in my poarty were casting spells, throwing fireballs, summoning meteors and storms, etc. So what does the knight commander of the TEMPLAR APOSTATE MAGE HUNTERS, do once the fight is over, why, completely ignore it and go along like nothing happened. I mean fuck Bioware, I paused the game to see if I could even do this with my singular non-mage only because I thought he was going to at least bring it up. But nope, nope, nope, he ist an idiot who doesn't even bat an eye at Apostates casting spells in front of him.


GRAGH, you've made a universe, at least make it consistent. Or is that too difficult for you guys. I chose to play a character of a reviled section of society cruelly ruled over, and you're not going to put the logical restrictions on me. You're not even going to penalize me when I fuck up and do magic in front of say, a very high member of a knigtly order designed to fuck with my kind?

Why are you judging a game based on what you wanted it to be and not based on what it is?

Because in universe that's what its explained as, all mages within Kirkwall are confined for the safety of the residents and easy slaughter when the Templars get frisky. In universe mages are seen with an utterly xenophobic eye, because they are essentially that universes "antichrist." You using magic in front of a Knight Commander of the Templars, is akin to calling Hitler a Jew, TO HIS FACE. It's not supposed to end well, and them basically handwaving it by giving him utterly no response, and then even him comment during the dialogue on how "Must be a mages work." When he standing next to what are apparently 3 powerful apostate mages, 2 of which are using Blood Magic. It just rings inconsistent. Especially after a big fuss is made about how you are supposed to be AVOIDING Templars, because you DON'T want to be sent to the Gallows(This is what they call the area with the mages).

Not to mention that the whole plot of the game culminates in a mages' rebellion. One'd expect it to be more consistent at least in terms of mages & templars.

Near the end-game they do try to play up the conflict and give the player the feeling of an impending, uncontrollable trainwreck with the NPCs constantly mentioning how the end seems to be near, glad to have been with you all, things seem like they're gonna go bad soon, and so on and so forth... but it doesn't really work. The writing and characterization is too poor for that. You're only really introduced to the Knight Commander and First Enchanter near the end of the second act of the game (out of three), and their characterization is so bland and stereotypical that I don't see why Hawke sides with either of them at all.

I expected to have multiple noble families jockeying to get into his favour as the Champion (ala BG2, at the very, very least) but apparently that was not interesting enough compared to more mage vs templar conflict. Political intrigue and personal story my ass. Saw the achievement "Crowning Glory", apparently you can become the viscount, was interested because it meant there could be actual choices where you play politics and nab the seat, but then found out it's automatically handed to you on a platter as long as you side with the templars so fuck that second playthrough, I'm deleting the game.

 

[torpid]

Saw the achievement "Crowning Glory", apparently you can become the viscount, was interested because it meant there could be actual choices where you play politics and nab the seat, but then found out it's automatically handed to you on a platter as long as you side with the templars so fuck that second playthrough, I'm deleting the game.

Ah, handing out achievements to pat you on the head for simply having played. The game has it all