Early DA2 Thoughts

Dragon Age 2 came in the mail on Wednesday.  I was dying to play it, got all the extra downloads and was ready to go.  Went through the first part (the demo part with the ogre) and when I got to Kirkwall, I was given a decision as to who I would work for over the next year to pay for a bribe into the city.  Smugglers or mercenaries?  I was actually torn on this decision.  After a long day with work, and futzing around with fish tanks and trying to decipher a curious ammonia presense in one of them, I just didn't feel like making a decision that could potentially impact me for the duration of the game.   I guess that's a hallmark of Dragon Age - you make these decisions, and 40 hours later, you can see their influence on how your character progressed.  I really, really, really like this type of game.  So many possibilities.

Last night, I decided to go ahead and make a decision.  I went with mercenaries.  I won't go into further detail, as not to spoil it for anyone.  I played for a couple hours last night.  I ran into a nasty freeze at one point.  The game just stopped.  I could hit the guide, but everything was slooooow.  The characters were moving a tick every minute or so.  I was hoping it would clear up, but after 45 minutes, it didn't.  Finally, I just stopped the game.  In the past, this has resulted in starting over from the origination of your save point.  I was prepared for the worst.  In actuality, it was just a restart of that particular section, so I only lost about 5 minutes.  That's good to know for the future.

The story unfolds a bit differently than DA:O did, but it's not a bad thing.  For starters, you're locked into a backstory - whereas in DA:O, you had numerous stories to work from.  This specificity hasn't seemed to hamper the experience.  Granted, I'm not too far in, but the story seems good so far. 

Other quick hit observations - tactics seem to work better this time around.  My support cast seems to be doing more of what I intend.  Character wise, I have a feeling that Merril will be my rock. I just dig her quirkiness.  Even if she dabbles in the blood magic, I want to keep her around.  My typical party is myself (trying rogue), Bethany (spec'ing for healing), Aveline (getting her into a tank role), and either Merril or Varric.  Varric is really good with the bow, and the hail of arrows and exploding arrow do a good bit of damage, but I do have that soft spot for Merril.  I need to settle into the rogue role.  I think I'm doing too much "tanking" right now, and while I'm getting away with it, I doubt that will continue at higher levels. 

All in all, DA2 is looking like another excellent title from BioWare, and should wind up as one of the year's best.  Can't wait to get back to it.