Dragon Age 2: Kasumi Goto?

Opty · Sep 18, 2011

Next DLC is due out October 11th. Legacy was decent. I enjoyed it for what it was and appreciated that the designers seemed to take to heart the criticisms lobbed at them over DA2's repetitive levels and enemies.

This next one, "Mark of the Assassin" looks like it might be good but, to me, it seems like a direct rip off of the Kasumi Goto DLC from Mass Effect 2. Very similar plots, very similar new character, etc.

The DA team seems like they tried to "Mass Effectize" DA a lot with DA2, but this seems a bit too obvious. Maybe I'm just seeing similarities where none exist?

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/po...2-dlc-mark-of-the-assassin-stars-felicia-day/

AlexPiper · Sep 18, 2011

Actually, the Mark of the Assassin storyline is intended as a lead-in to the 'Dragon Age: Redemption' web series. The character in the DLC is the main character of the web-series, the one Felicia Day plays. So in this case, I think you may be seeing similarities where they aren't any; from what I've seen so far, this seems to just be an assassin/thief trying to finish a job (and an introduction to the character for the web-series), not a personal vendetta a'la Kasumi's DLC.

Opty · Sep 18, 2011

You might be right. And, it might be that I totally have the story wrong. But, from what I can tell, they seem pretty similar:

Kasumi - A thief who specializes in stealth combat (close range), brings main character (Shepherd) along to help her infiltrate a rich evil guy's fortress to steal something valuable. The set up is that they have an invitation to the fortress.

Mark of the Assassin/Tallis - An assassin/thief who specializes in stealth combat (close and long range) brings main character (Hawke) along to help her infiltrate a rich, evil guy's fortress to steal something valuable. The set up is that they have an invitation to the fortress.

It could be that I'm oversimplifying the stories and they really are substantially different. From the looks of the trailer and from what I've read, seems like Assassin is much more involved (and perhaps, more interesting) than Kasumi's mission, but on a basic level the plots seem all-too-similar to me.

I'll still get it and hopefully find it very enjoyable. I'm just disappointed that it seems they're drawing ideas from the ME well again rather than coming up with something more original.

Zoombie · Sep 18, 2011

Everything that worked great for ME2 seems to fail hard with Dragon Age.

But that's just me.

AlexPiper · Sep 19, 2011

"I'm hiring you to help me steal this valuable thing; I have a way to get inside legitimately, but after that we'll have to improvise" is pretty much a trope of adventure stories, and really adventure gaming of all types.

My old tabletop gaming group did a mission pretty much along those lines that ended up having a bit of a twist; the invitations the main fighter-sorts of the party used to sneak in got spotted as forgeries, so the fighters got arrested. The female rogue and mage -- non combat sorts -- ended up sneaking in pretending to be the courtesans who'd been hired for the royal party.

This isn't to say there may not be some similarities, but I do think there's also the chance you might be over-estimating them.

LOG · Sep 19, 2011

AlexPiper said:
My old tabletop gaming group did a mission pretty much along those lines that ended up having a bit of a twist; the invitations the main fighter-sorts of the party used to sneak in got spotted as forgeries, so the fighters got arrested. The female rogue and mage -- non combat sorts -- ended up sneaking in pretending to be the courtesans who'd been hired for the royal party.

Did you have the pleasure of RPing that?

Opty · Oct 14, 2011

It came out this week. I haven't gotten it yet but probably will next week.

Has anyone here played it? I found a review and was a bit relieved to see that I wasn't crazy in my initial concept analysis:

The newest Dragon Age II downloadable add-on bears more than a passing resemblance to another slice of content from developer BioWare: the Kasumi - Stolen Memory add-on for Mass Effect 2. In both, a stealthy assassin joins your party. In both, you mingle among socialites at a fancy party. Both are also heist missions in which you steal a valuable object from your host's vault. BioWare seems to be drawing its ideas from a progressively shallower well, but the good news for Dragon Age II fans is that Mark of the Assassin is more satisfying than the game's previous premium download.

froley · Oct 16, 2011

If it wasn't that both games were developed by BioWare, I might buy it as a coincidence. But since they're both female thieves, both infiltrating impregnable fortresses, both DLC only... all these things passed through my head when I saw the first trailer for Mark of the Assassin.

Also the web TV show is awful.

Opty · Oct 24, 2011

Got it. Beat it. Was pleasantly surprised by it. Felicia Day is good in the role of Tallis. Landscapes were beautiful and the level design was familiar but varied and much better than it's been in the past. It offered new enemies to battle, which is good, and the big boss fight at the end was challenging (depending on your gameplay level) in a good way.

Overall, it was a fun little romp. It's a good two-ish hours of gameplay. Worth the price if you have a few bucks to burn.

Dragon Age 2: Kasumi Goto?

Opty

AlexPiper

Wayward Wordsmith

Opty

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse

AlexPiper

Wayward Wordsmith

LOG

Lagrangian

Opty

froley

Opty