Act 2 Ending (Spoilers, obviously)

[evdk]

So, am I completely alone being unsatisfied with the resolution of the second act?

I expected it would go down as it did (especially when the spy lady started raising death flags by telling me about her Thaos snuff fantasy and the last bottle of brandy - might as well mentioned it was her last day before retirement), but the way nothing you had done in the entire act mattered in the end kinda pissed me off. Mr Bad Guy pulls of his deus ex machina nomad soul trick (which you know about, yet nobody is oddly worried he might try something like that) and the whole city starts lynching animancers, but even before that the trial was completely pointless because it does not really let you influence anything. The duc ends it with "lol imma let you finish but my judgment will be the best of all time" and you might as well not have bothered. Well apart from getting the XP to level up to an Act 3 appropriate level, I guess.



Also city gets cordoned off after that. Great.

 

[empyrean]

Honestly it did feel railroady and that really sucked since they give you a lot of choices up to that point, but it is the "main quest" so I understand why they would want to have a point where they can direct you to move along.

The city opens back up after you advance the main story a bit in Twin Elms.

 

[Shadenuat]

All the theories people were making up and basing their decisions on them from the beginning of the game and later crumble when you learn that it's in fact just the Main Baddie who cares very deeply about the kids (
Some thought it was ze Bomb, some were ready to help animancers to find the cure..

And yeah, the hearing was very bioware. Although it's probably unfair to Bioware since they did a nice hearing in DA:O.

 

[Immortal]

So, am I completely alone being unsatisfied with the resolution of the second act?

I expected it would go down as it did (especially when the spy lady started raising death flags by telling me about her Thaos snuff fantasy and the last bottle of brandy - might as well mentioned it was her last day before retirement), but the way nothing you had done in the entire act mattered in the end kinda pissed me off. Mr Bad Guy pulls of his deus ex machina nomad soul trick (which you know about, yet nobody is oddly worried he might try something like that) and the whole city starts lynching animancers, but even before that the trial was completely pointless because it does not really let you influence anything. The duc ends it with "lol imma let you finish but my judgment will be the best of all time" and you might as well not have bothered. Well apart from getting the XP to level up to an Act 3 appropriate level, I guess.



Also city gets cordoned off after that. Great.

The city opens back up almost immediately after you visit the next big city.. That also worried me.

As for your beef with Act 2.. It does seem a little lackluster / low pay off.. You wake up and the npc's are like "Oh god they are gonna kill us don't go out there".. I walked out, saw a few fires.. saw a guy get maimed, saw some peasents maimed and then act 3..

I'm enjoying the plot but my dick was pretty soft throughout that whole transition.. I feel like a ton of content got cut..

 

[AN4RCHID]

Just got to Twin Elms, and yeah, it was slightly disappointing how the trial was handled. I liked it a lot up until the Deus Ex Machina assassination. Felt like I was making some meaningful decisions, and then... it all gets thrown out. I'm still hoping the dialogue options in that scene will have consequences in Defiance Bay once it opens back up, or at the very least some interesting companion stuff further down the line.

They missed an opportunity to have some good old 'facing the angry mob' drama there, too. I was stealthing out of First Fires like an idiot before I realized no one was going to attack or confront me.

 

[Immortal]

Just got to Twin Elms, and yeah, it was slightly disappointing how the trial was handled. I liked it a lot up until the Deus Ex Machina assassination. Felt like I was making some meaningful decisions, and then... it all gets thrown out. I'm still hoping the dialogue options in that scene will have consequences in Defiance Bay once it opens back up, or at the very least some interesting companion stuff further down the line.

They missed an opportunity to have some good old 'facing the angry mob' drama there, too. I was stealthing out of First Fires like an idiot before I realized no one was going to attack or confront me.

I think there's an assassin attack before you reach the house, still feels lackluster though.. The bounty hunters in BG 1 felt much more tense.. they had unique items, unique names, were known forces in the world, had a bounty on their corpse and were usually pretty tough and always found you when you least expected (first playthrough)..

They even talked to you before attacking.. They weren't just LULZ ASSASSIN ENCOUNTER HERE

 

[AN4RCHID]

Oh yeah, I think I met those guys in the wilderness on the way to Twin Elms. I liked that it was a full party - those fights have been the funnest so far. I did get some new mid-level spells for Aloth off their grimoire iirc.

 

[dragonul09]

Just got to Twin Elms, and yeah, it was slightly disappointing how the trial was handled. I liked it a lot up until the Deus Ex Machina assassination. Felt like I was making some meaningful decisions, and then... it all gets thrown out. I'm still hoping the dialogue options in that scene will have consequences in Defiance Bay once it opens back up, or at the very least some interesting companion stuff further down the line.

They missed an opportunity to have some good old 'facing the angry mob' drama there, too. I was stealthing out of First Fires like an idiot before I realized no one was going to attack or confront me.

I think there's an assassin attack before you reach the house, still feels lackluster though.. The bounty hunters in BG 1 felt much more tense.. they had unique items, unique names, were known forces in the world, had a bounty on their corpse and were usually pretty tough and always found you when you least expected (first playthrough)..

They even talked to you before attacking.. They weren't just LULZ ASSASSIN ENCOUNTER HERE

Well, assasins are supposed to kill you without giving you the formalities ''ELLO DERE ,I CAME TO KILLYOU'' ,they are supposed to strike in the shadow ,that's why they are called assasins...or what the fuck do i know, i liked them better when they talk to me as well.

 

[Alienman]

I liked the hearing, it was interesting especially considering what was happening with the country, and it felt cool being there in the middle of it all. Well up to the bad guy roflstomped the duke out of nowhere anyway. I couldn't help to roll my eyes. All those quests, all that build-up for nothing. Everyone goes bananas in 2 seconds flat and starts murdering each other. I felt like I had missed something. It took maybe 3 minutes to get out from that keep and half the city was already consumed by flames. Alrighty then.

 

[Kaldurenik]

Ah yes i had a problem with the entire scene there. While i enjoyed the trial itself however it was a bit short and there was a certain lack of... proof, yeah i guess i found it good.
And then he entered the room... Opening the doors (no one reacting), my character and all the companions look at him. Why did my ranged users not attack him the moment they noticed him? Why did the not jump of the balcony to stop him. Yes i know the story would be over and i would have to wait another lifetime for him to be reincarnated. But still...

I could not help but roll my eyes and get annoyed. Oh the lord of the country gets killed infront of my eyes? Lets just stand around and pick our noses, who cares about that anyway?
It was overall a lame encounter, did not make much sense from a story point of view. So far the worst part in the story.

Then we have the lady that in short said "i'm going to die"... so at that point i already knew that something was going to happen. And your character KNOWS about this guys abilities...

Yeah its just bad. Worst part in the game

 

[Angthoron]

Chapter 2 ending is simply horrible. There's no other way to put it. Take a somewhat free-form game with some modicum of choice and consequence, railroad it, nullify all player decisions and cancel all player agency with a deus ex machina of all things.

 

[Ninjerk]

Yeah, that's pretty much a "fuck me for giving a shit" moment.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I spent minutes upon minutes weighing my choices and carefully picking what I liked to say during the trial.

 

[evdk]

I spent minutes upon minutes weighing my choices and carefully picking what I liked to say during the trial.

It's the worst thing - the game gives you the illusion of your choices throughout the second act mattering and in the end it's all for nothing.

If they wanted the one fixed outcome they should have tried to incite the mob some other way, while letting you win/lose the hearing on your own merits. This way I just felt gypped.

 

[Jaedar]

I spent minutes upon minutes weighing my choices and carefully picking what I liked to say during the trial.

It's the worst thing - the game gives you the illusion of your choices throughout the second act mattering and in the end it's all for nothing.

If they wanted the one fixed outcome they should have tried to incite the mob some other way, while letting you win/lose the hearing on your own merits. This way I just felt gypped.

The thing is if they just fucking let the king speak one more sentance and make the pronouncement of ban/not ban or whatever, and THEN kill him it would have sucked a lot less. The riots could still start and he'd still die but at least you'd have got to feel like you accomplished something.

 

[Angthoron]

Yeah. And there also goes your feeling of accomplishment - yeah, you just disrupted the plans of the villain, learned an ancient language and learned how to operate soul machines. Let's not bring that up at all on the trial! Oh and you thought you rocked? No, you actually suck! Here, watch us fuck over all of the things you've just done, congrats for wasting time, stupid!

Gaaaaahhhh.

 

[SoupNazi]

Yeah just finished this part and it is really disappointing. I expected to be able to stop the assassination based on some kind of an attribute or whatever. It didn't need to be the bad guy himself I mean it could be just a vessel just like the kid in the sanatorium. Very meh.

 

[Ninjerk]

Yeah just finished this part and it is really disappointing. I expected to be able to stop the assassination based on some kind of an attribute or whatever. It didn't need to be the bad guy himself I mean it could be just a vessel just like the kid in the sanatorium. Very meh.

He waltzes right in the front door nbd. I guess the guard up front is a member of the Leaden Key.

 

[SoupNazi]

I would be so excited if I knew I could stop the assassination if maybe I had 1 more point in fucking perception or whatever. That'd be my "yeah, i'm replaying this game with a PER character" thought. And I'd be like "kudos obsidian". Or if I got it and knew that without that stat I wouldn't be able to.

Or maybe I'd just reload and get a temporary boost of perception or something but yeah.

It was especially disappointing since the discussion itself was fairly interesting with several skillchecks. Reminded me of the KOTOR trial. But ultimately pointless. Fuck this.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggghhhhh.

 

[Havoc]

Yeah, it just hurts. It's one of the worsts things you can do to your player. Reminds me of ME3 ending shit.

And again, what about my fortress? Why the fuck I should go get other people approval WHEN I HAVE A FUCKING FORTRESS? People pay TAXES to ME. Again, it doesn't matter. It makes me fucking mad.

 

[KK1001]

Thaos is a shit villain. The way the game sets him up he's sorta the anti-Irenicus: he operates primarily in the shadows and doesn't want too much attention, while Irenicus was about to blast your ass right there and then in the market. He obviously has plans that he wants to accomplish, but they aren't obvious; Irenicus on the other hand, you knew that guy just wanted more power. The relationship between Irenicus and the player comes off more naturally too.

Then he waltzes into presumably the most heavily guarded place in a city on the edge of rioting and blasts the duc, regardless of what the player has done or with whom they've sided.

 

[Azeot]

Yeah, the ending in act 2 is shameful. I knew something was bound to happen, but I didn't expect it to be something that completely nullifies everything you have done so far, not after a trial that felt meaningful and a better conclusion to the act.
This is sub-bioware level writing and railroading here, and I honestly hope Obsidian gets a nice bite in the ass for it and realize the mistake.

 

[Angthoron]

I would be so excited if I knew I could stop the assassination if maybe I had 1 more point in fucking perception or whatever. That'd be my "yeah, i'm replaying this game with a PER character" thought. And I'd be like "kudos obsidian". Or if I got it and knew that without that stat I wouldn't be able to.

Or maybe I'd just reload and get a temporary boost of perception or something but yeah.

It was especially disappointing since the discussion itself was fairly interesting with several skillchecks. Reminded me of the KOTOR trial. But ultimately pointless. Fuck this.

Yeah, that would've been good. A skillcheck to prevent/partially prevent assassination or its aftermath would've been great. Instead it's this. And just for clarity, yeah, no - there's no stat check.

 

[DrowningHarvey]

It was a stinker alright. Not only did the railroading pull the rug from under the whole debate scene that I had enjoyed, but it also showed that at that point I really had no interest in chasing Thaos anymore as I had more fun exploring the world and doing sidequests. I guess the big bad himself knew this too as he had to make such a massive scene to remind player of his existence.