BROODMOTHER.: When people talk shit about Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2
I. RAGE.
Oh dear…Guilty. Not to the obnoxious extent that, say, /v/ did for weeks. Or the people who relentlessly post on the Dragon Age facebook wall. Broodmother will always try and avoid expressing strong opinions on things like this on tumblr, but this is just so…
I can totally understand criticizing some things. And I LOVED Origins. I just feel like a lot of the issue is that DA2 wasn’t the sequel people were looking for. Not because it was bad. I actually think that they created a lot of compelling, more developed characters in DA2. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my Origins companions (namely Alistair) but they were a bit stock sometimes. Which worked for the story that Origins wanted to present. It was more of a familiar, good and evil thing.
Personally, I much prefer the moral ambiguity and lack of a central villain in DA2. I love how everyone is a bit wrong, but everyone makes a good point too. I love how the companions are all a bit messed up and have their unsympathetic moments. I wish you could talk to them anywhere. the way you could in Origins, but that’s a different complaint.
Basically, they were making a different story. Not a good-or-evil story, but a rise-to-power-but-inevitably-fuck-things-up-because-people-are-flawed sort of story. And by forcing you to make difficult, black and white choices, it highlighted the shades of gray that the more dogmatic characters could not understand. And I prefer that to being able to fix everything and save everyone, because I got so emotionally invested in the story that I literally sobbed at the final choices I had to make.
But it wasn’t the sequel fans were looking for.
Same goes for ME2, which is far more a Magnificent Seven In Space and a character study than the stop the evil man from selling out the galaxy thing. But I like that, personally.
