Dragon Age 2 – First Impressions

Truthfully, I’m not sure I’ve played enough of the game yet to have First Impressions. I can probably manage “Immediate Impressions”, but not much more.  I haven’t been in a Role Playing Game (RPG) mood this weekend, and so I’ve stuck with TDU2 for the most part.  Still I’ve had an hour with it, so I should be able to give a misleading impression quite easily.

As has become usual with this type of game, the beginning is mostly cut-scenes to set the scene, and tutorial woven in between those to get you used to the way the game works.  My first complaint is one I’m sure I’ve had before:  You can’t pause the damned cut-scenes!

On my first play through I don’t want to skip them, as I want to immerse myself in the world and the story.  However, some of these cut scenes are so long that with my irritatingly busy Real Life, a pause would be useful.  More a necessity really.  It’s hard to tell someone on the phone to “please hold until this cut scene is done” and not add “your call is important to us”.

Beyond that, the beginning of the story is interesting, and has hooked me already.  It gives enough hints of potential storyline, and introduces a few key characters without overwhelming, or over-explaining.

I haven’t quite settled in to the combat yet, and am pretty much still in the button mashing phase.  I also haven’t worked out the skill trees and the like fully, so I’m flying a little blind and hoping I don’t have to restart because I’ve made some very silly choices.  On the other hand, the combat looks good, and from what I’ve seen there seem to be a lot of options once you get familiar with the system.  I hope I’m right.

So far it’s also a rather pretty game.  Not pretty as in “pretty landscapes”, because most of the landscapes are pretty much war-torn and blasted; but pretty in terms of quality and feel.  The story part of the cut-scenes also have a rather nice, stylised look, that I can’t help but compare to Deathspank’s story cut-scenes.  That’s not an insult, by the by, as I think it’s very effective for what it does.

Hopefully I’ll get more time this week (and the mood) to get further into the game.  There’s a few Real Life issues tugging at me, so it’s a fifty-fifty chance right now.

 

About Lisa

A Geeky Gamergrrl who obsesses about the strangest things.
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