Dragon Age 2 first impressions...

Since Merlin made his first impressions post on Dragon Age 2 and I started playing, I thought that I should make my first impressions post on Dragon age 2(PC Version) since my first impressions are not that good...

May I just say that I have only reached the end of the 1rst act and I have a long way to go with the game and my opinion may completely change by the end of it....These are my impressions on the first part of the game.

So very briefly:

The good stuff...Visually and performance-like the game is great....The graphics are refined and very appealing.It may not be top notch but who really needs top notch graphics if the visuals are made beautiful and on the same time can perform well on every system.

The combat system also it unbelievably fun. Fortunately they did not change the PC version into a hack 'N' slash rpg. They only just made it more fast paced and tense. I actually enjoy the combat system a lot and it is a huge improvement...

Finally the story is fine, although I am just at the start....Many ranted about the very plain everyday story as opposed the the Epic "save the World" quest in origins....I think is it a great idea...Even though I absolutely loved the epicness of the first a more plain "solder of fortune" plot feels refreshing...There is a big BUT here to be considered though.

And that is how I get to the bad stuff.For such a story to work and be compelling you have to have great characters.And the character are...well from nice to completely uninteresting(like Fernis), and that drags the plot down a lot. Since in the first quests are not really a part of something bigger you need good character development. And I don't see it...The characters follow you but with no real reason to actually stick with you till the end and many of their choices(romance included) and dialog seems forced. Especially with Anders that was a much more charming, light-hearted character in  Awakening now has become a depressed winer. And no, the Justice thing does not explain the complete lack of humor and charm and frankly the whole thing seems unnecessary if  what they did with is make the character unlikable.The story might elevate afterwards(it seem that it will at least) but that does not save it from the weakness of its beginning.

In the game play department that is where I have the most problems. I won't bitch forever so I will be brief.

The inventory system/ looting and character micromanagement is dumped down and it is a huge disappointment compared with origins. The difficulty is not scaled correctly. In normal the game is boringly easy and in hard it is tiring. Especially with that damn camera that does not zoom out like in origins and you can never really navigate the battlefield as you would like to manage a difficult battle.At least when your character improves this becomes a much smaller problem.

And those fucking opponents manifesting out of thin air...God it is frustrating and stupid. In every sodding battle that whenever you think you are done they just appear in front of you. And besides the frustration it completely destroys the game immersion. In origins opponents also spawned but usually they did from a distance so it seem like the were already there and you could prepare for them as they came. Here the just pop out or fall from above.It's like playing a bad MMORPG.

Frankly I am still waiting for this game to become great as it is supposed to.It is good but not better than the first as it should.If it was not for my love for the first I would have stopped playing it already. But I really want to like this game.All will  come down to the plot. If it elevates, as it seems it will, in the next act this could still be a great game, despite what I said earlier. But really after the first part of it seems like a much inferior game than Origins...I hope I will change my mind in the end....