I have reviewed Dragon Age 2 Mark of the Assassin

[CrazyLoon]

Turns out Bioware doesn’t consider it a Romance if you don’t have passionate, tastefully done sex.

So you didn't get the option to bang her? I thought this was the whole point of this DLC. But yeah, her face is and the way Bioware realistically modeled the face after Felicia Day is creepy.

 

[Coyote]

*image*

Hm, something's missing...



There we go.

 

[Stinger]

So basically, they've completely missed the point of why people hated the waves...fuuuu

Err.. not entirely?

The way the game throws reinforcements into the battlefield deserves some mockery. They are scattered in at random, sometimes literally dropping from the sky before your eyes. If they had entered the fray in a less immersion-breaking way (say, running from deeper in the dungeon), it would have worked better. However, this basic idea of how to structure combat shows a lot of potential, and I hope other games explore it. (Which is my way of saying: I really should steal that idea.)

Their base has no problem with waves, just the way they popped out on the battlefield right in the middle of your group. Dragon Age Origins had waves on the console versions, I don't remember seeing anyone complaining about them.

Well....shit, that's worse than I thought. And Vogel too? Huh.

However the stealth mechanics themselves have potential and they’re certainly an improvement over the stealth mechanics of the old Infinity Engine days (i.e. enter sneak and let dice rolls decide whether you’ve been noticed as you stand right in front of the guards)..

I disagree.

Hmm I played it up a bit there, I do still think the IE stealth mechanics could've been better developed where the player would need to avoid the line of sight and stuff by hiding behind things or sticking to dark areas and Mark of the Assassin's stealth section at least attempted to do this though it failed in the execution. I just think building on that and making it a more useful approach in quests rather than forced stealth sections could do a lot to improve the quest design of the series rather than pure stat based diceroll stealthing. YMMV on that I suppose.

So you didn't get the option to bang her? I thought this was the whole point of this DLC.

Nope, no sex. You get the option to flirt with her in pretty much every single dialogue sequence with her and then at the end you get the option to have a quick make out session with her (though apparently she doesn't do this if your current Romance option is present) but no banging. A tease of things to come in DA3?

So...I enjoyed writing the review, and I'd actually be up for reviewing later DA2 dlc (they're a hell of a bitch to play but the catharsis of rambling about it is fun) is there anything I need to work on with that review? Like the writing makes sense and everything's clearly explained and stuff?

 

[Angthoron]

Yeah, thought it was a nice and clean review. The first selection of screenshots could've been explained in just a tad more context (spoilers are okay for BioWare games, really, it's like spoiling Twilight) though, I've no idea of what and why and probably will never find out. How is Leliana's appearance breaking prior C&C for example?

Otherwise, well done sir, clear points, reasonable criticism, and hell, even screenshots. Good job.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I too enjoyed the review. You should've submitted it to the mods as official Codex content, I think.

 

[Stinger]

Yeah, thought it was a nice and clean review. The first selection of screenshots could've been explained in just a tad more context (spoilers are okay for BioWare games, really, it's like spoiling Twilight) though, I've no idea of what and why and probably will never find out. How is Leliana's appearance breaking prior C&C for example?

Otherwise, well done sir, clear points, reasonable criticism, and hell, even screenshots. Good job.

Ah sorry my bad. So a bit more explanation:

The first screenshot is a reference to this scene which has Jacob delivering a pretty cringe inducing line at the start of his 'romance' scene. It got to the point where it became a minor meme among ME fans. So of course Bioware makes a smug call back to it cause referencing memes is hilarious.

The second screenshot with Leliana is a bit different. So, in Dragon Age Origins you could have potentially killed her as part of one quest. Come DA2, the ending cutscene (this is the original campaign not the dlc) has her reappearing regardless of what choices the player made and Gaider acted like quite the dick when people started asking why Bioware was just retconning all over the player choice.
It's particularly annoying because it isn't even the usual Bioware approach to choice (i.e. ignore all variables or just add them in as flavour dialogue and different coloured shirts) and instead has the writers flat out declaring their own canon regardless of what players did. So I was just bringing that up again cause, iirc my Origins playthrough that I imported killed her off and it was annoying to see her keep popping up again and again.

The third screenshot is a cameo of a really irritating character from Origins (the lady, Isolde) who had a tendency to scream "TEAGAN!" (the other guy in the screenshot) in a really annoying french accent. And she has the same introduction this time as well.

Basically the first set of screenshots were grouped together cause to me it came across as Bioware being really smug and injokey about things that were never really funny to begin with/sticking in token cameos even when it wouldn't be appropriate or both at the same time.

And thanks Angthoron and Crooked Bee, I guess next time I'll submit the review to the mods.

 

[Jaesun]

I guess next time I'll submit the review to the mods.

Anyone can submit content using the Contact Us button, just FYI.

It is however up to Jason or DU if it will be approved.

 

[aries202]

You do know that you can romance Sebastian in Dragon Age 2; this won't lead to a sex scene since Sebastian is chaste an only wants a platonic romance i.e. without sex. As for MotA, I haven't formed an opinion yet as I haven't played it yet. However, judging from the Bioware boards on DA2 and also from the reviews from sites like IGN and Gamespot, they like it.

People seem to fortget, I think that yes, the basic game will still be the same, meaning that the fast combat remains, the wave combat will still be there, although changed a bit, so it makes more sense to have re-inforcements appear during combat.

As for Felicia Day, it is not fair to just see as nerd-gasm for Bioware fan-boys; she's actually a big fan of the DA franchise. And can you really blame her for doing her thing e.g. using the DA2 game to market herself? I certainly don't.

As Leliana and the ending cutscene, where Leli speaks to Cassandra about the Warden and the Hero of Ferelden, David Gaider did explain that there was a reason for Leli not being dead, if the played did choose to kill her during the Sacred Ashes quest in DA:O. Meaning we'll get an explanation for Leli being alive...sometime...

 

[Menckenstein]

So it's now basically proven that the DA2 team built a game by going through Casey Hudson's trash, right?

 

[Angthoron]

You do know that you can romance Sebastian in Dragon Age 2; this won't lead to a sex scene since Sebastian is chaste an only wants a platonic romance i.e. without sex. As for MotA, I haven't formed an opinion yet as I haven't played it yet. However, judging from the Bioware boards on DA2 and also from the reviews from sites like IGN and Gamespot, they like it.

Would be surprising if they wouldn't.

People seem to fortget, I think that yes, the basic game will still be the same, meaning that the fast combat remains, the wave combat will still be there, although changed a bit, so it makes more sense to have re-inforcements appear during combat.

Wave/spawn combat sucked in DA: O, it seems it sucks in DA2, and it'll suck everywhere else unless it's a World of Warcraft instance. It'll suck a little less there since you'll have people to play it with.

As for Felicia Day, it is not fair to just see as nerd-gasm for Bioware fan-boys; she's actually a big fan of the DA franchise.

This bit isn't really a valid arguement. There are tons of fans of things, many of them have big names, too, but they're not being in it "because they're fans". They're there because they fit the demographic that the marketing department of this or that company says the company should target - like using Julia Roberts as a poster woman for make-up. Oh, I'm sure she's a huge fan of MaxFactor or whatever, but she's not being cast in the commercials because of that.

And no, nobody's blaming her, not in this thread anyway. More like blaming Bio for cashing in on nerdgasms, but eh, it's a living.

As Leliana and the ending cutscene, where Leli speaks to Cassandra about the Warden and the Hero of Ferelden, David Gaider did explain that there was a reason for Leli not being dead, if the played did choose to kill her during the Sacred Ashes quest in DA:O. Meaning we'll get an explanation for Leli being alive...sometime...

And Karpyshyn didn't rape the Exile. Buy his book to find out how he didn't.

 

[Serious_Business]

You do know that you can romance Sebastian in Dragon Age 2; this won't lead to a sex scene since Sebastian is chaste an only wants a platonic romance i.e. without sex. As for MotA, I haven't formed an opinion yet as I haven't played it yet. However, judging from the Bioware boards on DA2 and also from the reviews from sites like IGN and Gamespot, they like it.

People seem to fortget, I think that yes, the basic game will still be the same, meaning that the fast combat remains, the wave combat will still be there, although changed a bit, so it makes more sense to have re-inforcements appear during combat.

As for Felicia Day, it is not fair to just see as nerd-gasm for Bioware fan-boys; she's actually a big fan of the DA franchise. And can you really blame her for doing her thing e.g. using the DA2 game to market herself? I certainly don't.

As Leliana and the ending cutscene, where Leli speaks to Cassandra about the Warden and the Hero of Ferelden, David Gaider did explain that there was a reason for Leli not being dead, if the played did choose to kill her during the Sacred Ashes quest in DA:O. Meaning we'll get an explanation for Leli being alive...sometime...

 

[villain of the story]

Just watched that DA web show and it's loltarded. And Felicia Day is trying too hard being edge-geeeee.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Prosper can do anything a Prosper can.

 

[Micmu]

As for Felicia Day, it is not fair to just see as nerd-gasm for Bioware fan-boys; she's actually a big fan of the DA franchise. And can you really blame her for doing her thing e.g. using the DA2 game to market herself? I certainly don't.

Your planet is absolutely fascinating. How is it called?
Here, they would just pay her to market DA instead.