peopleofthedas | DLC Discussion - Mark of the Assassin

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DLC Discussion - Mark of the Assassin

IT'S OUT.

This is a post to chat about it. Obviously, SPOILERS. BE WARNED. Also...

.... we are all aware that there has been some drama regarding a certain scene in the DLC. There has been A LOT of discussion about it, especially on the BSN and on Tumblr. I am not going to say that we shouldn't discuss it. But I will make a general appeal to everyone here to keep it civil and remember that we're an inclusive community.

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we are all aware that there has been some drama regarding a certain scene in the DLC.

A brave assumption. Throw me a link so I can have a nosy at the bitching?

I'm really glad I'm not the only one in the dark lol. I was beginning to think I wasn't a human anymore! D8

PMing you both.

And a link for me, please? I suspect I can guess which scene could've induced wank, but I haven't seen any.

Ok, you probably all knew I'd do this - I am the lover of all things Dragon Age.

I loved it. Gameplay was good - new monsters were fabulous. It wasn't too hard - (although I played with a post game save, so I would imagine it would be a bit more challenging earlier on) and the environments were interesting and varied (although I did get a bit of motion sickness in the stealth section).

The puzzles were a nice touch - although I suspect it was a way of extending the game play time. They took me ages.

Party banter was a little light - but what I LOVED about it was that it was interaction between your party members and HAWKE rather than with each other - that was sadly lacking in the main game and I really liked that they talked to her. I'm assuming Hawke's responses are different whether you're a snark,aggro or diplo Hawke? I've only played through with Saoirse though, so I don't know - can someone confirm that?

The amount of Orlesian lore was fabulous, but I was sodding angry that the armour set was PRIEST ROBES. I don't care if they're better than the champion armour, Saoirse wouldn't be seen dead in them :D.

So. That's me done! What does everyone else think?

There was an armour set? Bah, it looks like I missed something.

What armor set? Where? Do you get it if you go back into the vaults after getting imprisoned?

I liked it, although less than Legacy. It seemed like there was less banter, too many out-of-the-world jokes (The Prize, CSI Vimmark and many others), and the ever present suspicion that Dragon Age is shamelessly ripping off Witcher switched from "I know these things from the Witcher books" to "And now you're trying to badly imitate the second game, seriously?" - specifically the 'let's laboriously prepare for a monster hunt' and 'sneaky section, yay!' parts.
I also hoped we'd get a rescue from prison section a la DAO, but alas.

What banter I encounter, I liked (finally after 10 years Reinar badgered Varric into giving him a nickname!), and yes, especially the fact that Hawke was an active participant (Anders remembered his humour and divulged his sexual fantasies :D), the plot was interesting - new info about Orlais and the Qunari was very welcome. But I would've preferred more interaction and more conversations during the garden party.

I haven't checked how it goes with my diplo mage, but I checked different time periods. The logic of receiving the invitation in the first year was kinda shaky, and there was a sad lack of denigration from the nobles during the party.

Ack, it seems I'm mainly criticizing it. I mostly liked it!

I really liked the sarcastic dialogue with Teagan - if you met him when Alistair was visiting, Hawke says something along the lines of "It's not like I rescue foreign diginitaries from Meredith all the time... Oh wait I do." Finally something that at least implies that Hawke was involved in Kirkwall politics! If only we've seen that in the main game...

Oh, and apparently Izzy and Aveline get personal quests? Gotta check that out. *launches the game again*

Kerr LOVES the priest robes. He looked like Indiana Jones before and all the other robe options were fruity. He thinks the priest robes look badass, and, since he's a mage-hating mage, they show his alliances quite clearly.

I don't really have anything nuanced to say about it other than that I loved it. I felt like I got my money's worth. The ambient dialog between Hawke and the other party members is great, Tallis is fun, and I loved all of the environments. After nothing but dirty city, mountains, and sandy cliffs, forests and a chateau were a lovely treat :D It was nice to see Carver again, though it was of course sort of contrived that he'd be there on Grey Warden business (in the context of my game). I liked the puzzles and the lore and it was just fun, for lack of a better word. No regrets for me.

P.S. I played it pretty early in Kerr's game, in Act II. He's been romancing Fenris but there's nothing official yet since I was just about to go do Hadrianna before I got MotA. Really interesting to see Fenris's reactions to Kerr flirting with Tallis considering that context.

I played it during Act III with my Hawke romancing Anders. Seeing Anders getting so jealous was totally worth the money right there!

I enjoyed it a lot. A bit easy, I thought, but lovely scenery, except having to see Teagan's beak again. Isolde looked great though. My Hawke wanted her dress! Most of the male Orlesians sounded like Riordan, which was a good thing. Loved the wyvern.

The puzzles were frustrating, but I like puzzles. The banter for the most part was entertaining, but as usual, depending on the LI, it was not even remotely as kissy-face as I like, except for Anders.

I'm still on the fence about Tallis. Sometimes Hawke liked her, other times Hawke wanted to cut her throat.

All in all, I enjoyed the Orlesian info and the scenery most of all, but in the end, I think I liked playing Legacy better.

Yeah, I think I liked Legacy better as well. Although I'm not entirely sure yet. I'll make another judgement on that when I've played through another few times.

Of course, I bitched about Legacy at the time too. I'm so fickle.

And I personally loved seeing the seneschal despite the unfortunate issues with the dialog, etc. in that scene.

Distracting inept guards who can apparently only see a three foot area right in front of their faces... did anyone else have Zelda Ocarina of Time flashbacks, or was that just me?

>.>

<.<

It was pretty fun, I think I liked Legacy more, but it was entertaining. Rinna got along well with Tallis, which really doesn't surprise me AT ALL. Ha.

Distracting inept guards who can apparently only see a three foot area right in front of their faces... did anyone else have Zelda Ocarina of Time flashbacks, or was that just me?

Hee - Yes! Maybe they all went to the same guard training academy.

+ Tallis was kind of an interesting character

+ New lore on the Qunari

+ Nice to have Carver back

+ Fenris dialogue worked!

+ Liked the outdoor maps

- The Duke struck me as odd, that all of a sudden he went batshit crazy. Wouldn't he have been more likely to try to capture the Champion and drag him back to Orlais in chains? (There's totally a fic in there...) Too many antagonists in DA2 are motivated by being nuts.

- Nice as it was to have Carver, I felt like there should have been more banter with Hawke.

- Also, how the hell did Carver get leave from the Templars to go to a party?

- Having to flirt with Tallis to get the Fenris dialogue was massively out-of-character for my very very gay Hawke.

- It didn't help that I found Tallis unattractive. In a way, this was cool, because dude, you made Felicia Day look homely! But I actually found her kind of creepy.

- Stealth thing was silly, but the "Let's go in and kill everyone!" seemed extremely excessive. It would have been nice to have an option to bullshit your way into the castle.

- Most of the Orlesian accents were like nails on a chalkboard. Like, Marjolaine in Origins levels of bad.

- You couldn't come up with a better R-rated insult for Fereldens than "turnip"?

-- I understand why, in many cases, they just can't do dialogue specific to a mage Hawke. However, there were places where it should have at least been mentioned at wasn't. In the conversation with Tallis in the cell, I wanted the option to point out that as a mage, I'm really not going to be down with having my eyes and mouth sewn shut.

-- If Tallis knew I was the Champion and basalit-an, wouldn't it have made more sense for her not to lie outright? I'm just thinking that pissing off the guy who killed the Arishok in single combat and could squish you like a fucking bug is...unwise.

-- The ending was rather anticlimactic

--- What's my motivation? I never felt like there was any reason for Hawke to agree to the quest in the first place.

Overall Grade: B-

I liked it, and I'll probably replay it if only for the party banter, but...I didn't feel all that drawn in, and there were too many moments when I felt like my Hawke was forced to be out of the character that I wanted him to have.

For Reference:

Origins Grade: A
Awakening Grade: B
Origins DLC: C+ (Leliana's Song and Witch Hunt drag it down)
DA2 Grade: B-
Legacy Grade B+

Edited 2011-10-13 23:48 (UTC)

"Awww, Hawke stepped in the poopie."

I don't even care... that line ALONE was worth the ten bucks spent on the damned thing. Fucking giggled my ass off.

So what was the drama over anyway? Nothing offended me.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/8468244/10#8469988

Oh, good grief.

*rolls eyes* Yeah.

L2 check dialogue when dealing with sensitive subjects, Bioware, or you get clusterfucks like that.

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