Veteran

Story Positives:

1. Voice Acting: Surprisingly good voice acting in general for the main characters…
2. Voice Acting: …but also for the NPCs. The US soldiers sound like kids, the SAS sound like seasoned vets, there’s variance in tone and direction depending on outfit, etc.
3. Intro: Crew Expendable. Immediately establishes what kind of game this is
4. Intro: The car ride. I can’t even begin to summarize the level of detail in this level, and the visual storytelling going on everywhere…
5. Intro: …easily earning two positives for what is essentially a barely-interactive cutscene
6. Storytelling Mechanics: Briefings. Lots of info is given very quickly and often powerfully in the briefings, and the satellite radar approach helps to sell both the detachment and the modern feel
7. MSQ: Proper escalation and foreshadowing in Blackout, with Kamarov and Nikolai
8. MSQ: Death From Above. This is probably the second best mission in the game narratively. The detachment, the deliberate lack of music, the total dehumanization of the targets, the dull tones of the crew, the cold professionalism, all seen through the eyes of the person on the radar telling someone else to push a button that kills people…
9. MSQ: …easily earning…
10. MSQ: …three positives
11. Moment: You know the one. Don’t front. This moment… it’s perfectly built up and paid off, it’s literally the fulcrum of the series, and… it hit a lot harder than I thought it would…
12. Moment: …earning…
13. Moment: …three positives
14. MSQ: Shock and Awe
15. Cutscene: Shock and Awe
16. Banter: Love the banter between the squad mates
17. Outro: The Outro does a great job of raising the stakes without getting ridiculous, and feels incredibly tense…
18. Outro: …but the finale where we’ve already won, and need to just survive, and finally being rescued by Kamarov, is a great moment
19. Brickwork: Really great brickwork in this one…
20. Brickwork: …just… everywhere really
21. Theme: Modern war… sucks

Story Negatives:

1. Writing: A weirdly large amount of ‘just go with it’ slides under the spectacle throughout

Gameplay Positives:

1. Intro: Crew Expendable. Good pacing, good structure, good tutorial
2. Tutorialization: The obstacle course. Gets across an idea of what to do and how to play, but also encourages the player via score and distinct scoreboard to repeat it just for fun
3. HUD: Minimalist (and reactionary) without being obtuse, very helpful on the fly
4. MSQ: Blackout, and the gradual encirclement and finally push through the village
5. MSQ: Charlie Don’t Surf, and the charge into enemy held territory
6. MSQ: Hunted. Night-time sequence that bounces between stealth and loud
7. MSQ: Death From Above… a good turret mission, go figure
8. MSQ: Shock and Awe… tense, short, and well paced between holdouts, turret sections, and pushing through heavily held territory
9. MSQ: All Ghillied Up
10. MSQ: One Shot One Kill
11. Viscerality: Guns look, sound, and feel fantastic…
12. Viscerality: …earning two positives
13. Kit: Not the best, but still a decent spread between turrets and guns
14. Pacing: Prologue
15. Pacing: US invasion of Madeupistan
16. Pacing: SAS evacuation of Nikolai
17. Pacing: All Ghillied Up
18. MSQ: Sins of the Father
19. Level Design: American missions (loud, hardware, reinforcements)
20. Level Design: SAS missions (quiet, behind lines, outnumbered)
21. Level Design: Final missions (somehow combining the previous two)

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Raspberry Jam: Yep.
2. Sound Design: Very bad audio balancing on the cutscenes
3. Difficulty: Boring difficulty
4. Encounter Rate: Monster closets
5. Visual Distinction: While deliberate, it’s very hard to tell enemies, friendlies, and civvies at a glance
6. Bug: Consistent crash on The Bog
7. Outro: The Outro… is honestly kind of the worst aspects of the game combined. Terrible visibility, inconsistent checkpoints, lots of enemies, etc.
8. Graphics: Entirely too much visual noise and irritation and jarring camerawork

Story Positives:

1. Visual Storytelling: The initial, expansive base under Shepard
2. Brickwork: S.S.D.D. has an astonishing level of detail going on, establishing tone and scene
3. Plot: The core plot of the game is surprisingly tightly knit
4. Foreshadowing: This allows the game to have plenty of foreshadowing
5. Internal Continuity: And the internal continuity similarly remains tight throughout
6. External Continuity: The game also is made much better by how it follows through, both literally and thematically, from Modern Warfare 1
7. MSQ: No Russian speaks for itself. It’s everything it needs to be, and for that…
8. MSQ: …it gets two positives
9. NPC Set Dressing: Excellent usage of NPCs in the cityscape areas to flesh out the story
10. Brickwork: Brazil is just… gorgeous
11. Doodads: Brazil also has insanely good doodad design
12. Doodads: No Russian (the airport) similarly nails the Doodad design
13. Storytelling Mechanics: Pre mission satellite briefings are awesome as always
14. Moment: The voice acting, presentation, and immediate professionalism of the ACS glitch… followed by the invasion
15. Visual Storytelling: Wolverines mission tells a lot just by looking around as the russian troops airdrop into suburbia
16. Voice Acting: The main characters are excellent of course…
17. Voice Acting: …but the supporting cast nails it across the board
18. Pacing: Each Act is very, very well paced. Proper lows, highs, tensions, breathers, and stressors…
19. Pacing: …earning each act…
20. Pacing: …a pacing positive
21. Cutscene: Of Their Own Accord’s intro is one of the more chilling moments in gaming for me. It’s just the emergency broadcast… no fancy, flashy logo or graphics, no epic music, no voice over. It’s chilling
22. MSQ: The intro to Of Their Own Accord, by itself, deserves its own positive. The walk through the bunker, the background chatter…
23. Visual Storytelling: …and the walk out into Washington DC, and the trench warfare
24. Babylon 5 Effect: The story really looks different the second time around
25. Brickwork: Contingency continues the brickwork excellence
26. Moment: The astronaut watching the nuke go off is very, very well executed
27. Sound Design: General. Awesome sound design
28. Sound Design: Second Sun gets its own sound positive for the proper use of no music, as well as the muted eeriness of it all
29. MSQ: Second Sun of course is amazing, what can I say
30. Moment: The finale of Whiskey Hotel. The chilling normalcy with which the rangers speak of revenge upon Moscow
31. Moment: Do not trust Shepard. I repeat; Do not trust Shepard
32. Characters: Good main cast
33. Characters: Good supporting cast
34. Moment: Just Like Old Times intro and speech by Price. It’s exactly as powerful and to the point as it needs to be. No grand gesture, no great victory, no ‘beat the bad guy and win’… we’re here for just one thing
35. Banter: As usual, great banter throughout
36. Brickwork: Suburbia has the usual excellent brickwork
37. Brickwork: Whiskey Hotel, ditto
38. Consequence Storytelling: A lot of actions are followed through very smoothly and naturally
39. Outro: The entire outro is fantastic, up to and including…
40. Outro: …the final knife fight, and the dead men in the desert
41. Themes: Revenge, what is it good for, absolutely nothin’

Story Negatives:

1. Writing: Hollywood nonsense…
2. Writing: …more hollywood nonsense

Gameplay Positives:

1. Kit: Good gun variety
2. Controls: Plays very smoothly compared to its predecessor
3. MSQ: No Russian… the optional nature of the earlier mission is nice, but what’s really good is the charge through the airport against entrenched defenders
4. Options: The ability to bypass No Russian (twice)
5. Enemy AI: Very good AI in general
6. Friendly AI: For both friends and foes
7. MSQ: Wolverines… you start off fighting through suburbia, have to hit the gas station, then the burger town, and the whole time there’s no feel of arduousness or backtracking. Enemy placement and design varies, as do the tools you have at your disposal…
8. MSQ: …earning it two positives
9. MSQ: Takedown. Despite the frustrations, it’s still a great showcasing of the new AI and dynamic nature of the firefights
10. MSQ: Hornet’s Nest. Ditto from before, but without the irritation this time, plus some excellent variety and pacing…
11. MSQ: …earning two positives
12. Viscerality: All the same viscerality of the last game, but now with even more…
13. Viscerality: …earning two positives
14. Pacing: The gameplay in general is very well paced across the board
15. Pacing: Act I continues pacing both within and across missions
16. Pacing: Early invasion missions are just… awesome
17. MSQ: The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday is a very fun joint infiltration and assault mission, varying up both
18. MSQ: Of Their Own Accord is honestly one of the better mid game missions…
19. Pacing: …getting its own pacing positive
20. Pacing: End game…
21. Pacing: …times two
22. MSQ: Whiskey Hotel. Hammer down is in effect
23. MSQ: Second Sun. Just… Second Sun. Somehow these missions continue to one up each other…
24. MSQ: …making it the best mission to date
25. Mid Mission Checkpoints: Very well placed, and reasonably spread
26. MSQ: Loose Ends continues the trend of excellent missions. It’s brutal, in all the right ways, gives you a ton of kit, and tons of options for how to deal with the assault…
27. MSQ: …earning two positives
28. MSQ: Endgame. The final assault, chase, the whole thing is just great
29. Music: Excellent music
30. Yoshi Drums: And excellent Yoshi Drums
31. Replayability: While this exact version (the remaster) lacks the Spec Ops missions, the main campaign continues to be very replayable
32. HUD: Same good minimalist HUD design from the last game
33. Sound Design: Fantastic sound design, between barks and directions giving you a lot to decide what to do very quickly

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Railroading: The ease with which the action setpieces can go badly, completely screwing the entire section, is just irritating
2. MSQ: Takedown (geometry and dead ends)
3. Raspberry Jam: Not as bad as the original believe it or not, but still there
4. Visual Distinction: Same ‘hard to see’ deliberate issue from the first game

Story Positives:

1. Brickwork: Act 1 green fields
2. Brickwork: Act 1 green fields original
3. Brickwork: Act 2 desert
4. Brickwork: Act 2 desert original
5. Brickwork: Act 5 in general
6. Brickwork: Harrogath
7. Brickwork: Harrogath
8. Brickwork: Hell
9. Brickwork: Kurast Docks
10. Brickwork: Kurast Docks
11. Brickwork: Kurast Docks Original
12. Brickwork: Lut Gholein
13. Brickwork: Lut Gholein
14. Brickwork: Lut Gholein
15. Brickwork: Lut Gholein Original
16. Brickwork: Palace
17. Brickwork: Palace original
18. Brickwork: Rogue Encampment
19. Brickwork: Rogue Encampment
20. Brickwork: Rogue Encampment Original
21. Brickwork: Rogue Monastery
22. Cinematics: General quality of the cinematics fidelity
23. Doodads: Harrogath
24. Doodads: Kurast Docks
25. Doodads: Lut Gholein
26. Doodads: Lut Gholein
27. Doodads: Lut Gholein Original
28. Doodads: Rogue Encampment
29. Doodads: Rogue Encampment Original
30. External Continuity: The story is a direct sequel to D1, and does a good job of continuing not just its threads, but using it for the betterment of the overall work
31. Music Direction: Each song is not just great by itself, but wonderfully designed to accentuate the different locales across Sanctuary
32. Pacing: Act 2 pacing and flow
33. Visual Storytelling: Bloody Foothills
34. Visual Storytelling: Harrogath
35. Visual Storytelling: Kurast city proper
36. Visual Storytelling: Kurast Docks
37. Visual Storytelling: Lut Gholein
38. Visual Storytelling: Rogue Encampment
39. Visual Storytelling: Rogue Encampment Original
40. Voice Acting: This is when Blizzard had really started getting good with voice acting…
41. Voice Acting: …and it shows
42. Background Lore: Random dialogues with the villagers at multiple steps throughout
43. Atmosphere and Tone: Yep
44. Humor: The Cow Level
45. Characters: Generally memorable, amusing characters

Story Negatives:

1. Plot: Act 2 finale. The ‘battle’ between the forces is honestly pretty badly choreographed, Diablo just has no issues whatsoever in getting there before you, there’s no sign of the fact that they got there first, and the whole thing fails at its intended purpose of having the player ‘lose’
2. Writing: Also, Tyrael just sort of… deciding Marius needs to be the one to carry the stone east is ridiculous on every level
3. Writing: Why is Marius dragged along for so much of the plot? There’s no point or benefit in it until he accidentaly’s Baal’s soulstone
4. Story Sequencing: Act 3 main plot
5. Writing: How the hell is Marius there in the Durance of Hatred?
6. Plot: Act 4 and the absence of story
7. Story Sequencing: There’s a whole lot of ‘how did we get here’ or disconnected tissue in the narrative
8. MSQ: So Nilathak is evil, barely explained, and insists on betraying us despite everything, for some reason, and…
9. MSQ: …it was all for nothing because what Baal was doing was ultimately barely affected by this
10. Outro: There’s… so much wrong with the Outro. Baal goes for the stone, corrupts it? Somehow? Also Tyrael is like okay let’s blow this sucker up. And worst of all, what’s it all for?
11. Outro: Who knows. Typical Blizzard ending
12. Brickwork: Act 5 Original
13. Internal Continuity: Whole lot of ‘because plot’ just flinging around everywhere

Gameplay Positives:

1. Alternate Leveling: Talents as a core system (effectively invented by DII)
2. Alternate Leveling: Talent synergies (and how they help you to not waste points in your build)
3. Level: Arcane Sanctuary (probably the best level in the game, neat gimmick and rewarding without being too frustrating)
4. Builds: While somewhat limited by connected systems, there’s plenty of good Build gameplay here
5. Co-Op: Co-op exists
6. Co-Op: Campaign co-op
7. Core Mechanic: Shrine system and its various benefits (including Wells)
8. Encounter Design: While exceptions exist, there are plenty of good examples of good encounter design
9. Enemy Design: The good enemies are pretty legit
10. Enemy Variety: Surprisingly good enemy variety
11. Enemy Variety: Second positive for enemy variety
12. Hub: Lut Gholein
13. Hub: Pandemonium Fortress
14. Hub: Rogue Encampment
15. HUD: Informative, helpful, good at-a-glance
16. Interface: Mouseover & Tooltips
17. Intro: The first bits (starting next to an NPC who gets you started, beelining Akara, road leading to the first dungeon, and shown how to both ‘sweep’ an area and forced into a unique encounter) all work really well to get you into the type of game this is even if you’ve never played D1 or similar games
18. Itemization: Charms and the trade off they offer (inventory space for stat bonuses)
19. Kit: Amazon
20. Kit: Amazon
21. Kit: Assassin
22. Kit: Assassin
23. Kit: Barbarian
24. Kit: Barbarian
25. Kit: Druid
26. Kit: Necromancer
27. Kit: Necromancer
28. Kit: Necromancer
29. Kit: Paladin
30. Kit: Paladin
31. Kit: Sorceress
32. Kit: Sorceress
33. Kit: Sorceress
34. QoL: Several small but neat QoL changes
35. Music: Tristram’s music continues to be awesome… oh and other good songs too
36. Options: From the remaster, lots of good new options
37. Party AI: Surprisingly good
38. Traversal: Waypoint system
39. Viscerality: Amazon
40. Viscerality: Druid
41. Viscerality: Necromancer
42. Viscerality: Paladin
43. Viscerality: Sorceress
44. Viscerality: Sorceress
45. Minimap: Even better than in the first game…
46. Minimap: …and now with options on placement and visibility
47. Replayability: Generally good replayability up to Act 2
48. Replayability: Lots of gameplay mechanics which encourage replay

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Alternate Leveling: Runewords can only be used on grays and whites
2. Audio Spam: Yeah, it’s not as bad as in D1, but it’s definitely there
3. Boss: Diablo. Hits like a truck, slows you, obliterates minions, and way, way too much health…
4. Boss: …for two negatives
5. Boss: Duriel is the worst boss in the game, and honestly one of the worst in gaming. He hits like a truck, has a charge / moves fast, slows you, and all of that’s already irritating but then you fight him in a VERY small area which you cannot simply walk back out of. This is on top of having no warning the boss is coming, and the fact that he turbo nukes minions, which combined with his other facets makes him very unforgiving to certain specs. But all of this is compounded by Duriel’s greatest sin; he’s boring. There’s nothing to him really. Earning him…
6. Boss: …a full…
7. Boss: …three negatives
8. Builds: While the builds are many and varied and awesome, it IS possible to build yourself into a corner especially if you don’t know what you’re doing or how committed it is
9. Co-Op: Quest syncing, hassles in grouping, etc.
10. Difficulty Curve: Hoo boy. The game likes to just sort of lurch forwards in difficulty periodically, and then back, and then forwards…
11. Dungeon: Maggot Hole. It’s tiny, cramped, easy to get stuck in, and almost totally invalidates several builds, but it’s even worse if you’re playing with friends cuz you’ll get stuck around and on each other
12. Encounter: The Venom Lord boss pack in Act 4 can go directly to hell, as all the inferno-type mobs can
13. Enemy Design: Act 3 irritations, especially the inferno-type mobs
14. Enemy Design: Act 4 in its entirety
15. Enemy Design: Irritating enemies across the whole game
16. Graphics: Framerate and related issues with original graphics mode
17. Grind: End game grind for experience
18. Grind: End game grind… for items
19. Grind: And of course, the terrible drop rate in general
20. Hub: Kurast Docks. It’s honestly legitimately badly laid out from a gameplay perspective
21. Info In Game: General (how specific abilities work, how specific items operate, etc.)
22. Info In Game: Horadric Cube recipes, good luck figuring any of those out without a guide or the internet
23. Info In Game: Rune word recipes, ditto
24. Interface: Inventory limitations. The inventory space is honestly far too small, and that’s before you consider the inventory tax of tomes, keys, and occasionally quest items
25. Itemization: Ammo. Honestly, enough said, but even ignoring the ‘ammo problem’ they don’t do anything interesting with ammo etiher to offset it
26. Itemization: Junk. There’s way, way too much junk and unlike some other games, there’s nothing you can really do with the junk except accidentally pick it up
27. Itemization: Runewords. They’re neat, but they’re very unforgiving, they’re RNG on top of RNG, and good luck figuring it out without a wiki
28. Itemization: The drop rates and spread of drops is just way, way too low, especially for how much junk enemies drop
29. Kit: Druid. While every class suffers this problem to some extent, Druid is the worst in how it doesn’t even really become its own class until level 24ish and that’s just way too long to be as plain as it is
30. Launch: DRM check in system requiring you to log in periodically to keep playing the game you own
31. Level: Act 3 sewers. Boring, samey, over-large, and the way forward is rather random
32. Levels: Jails. Plain, dull, frustrating, and hard to see
33. Levels: Monastery … everything wrong with Jails again
34. Lighting: Man it’s hard to see in general
35. Outro: The final dungeon is okay, the final gauntlet is whatever, but Baal is yet another of those awful DII style boss fights
36. Overworld: Act 3. It’s one nice big, long corridor that actually still manages to fail because there’s branching paths, some of which are mandatory (and some of which just waste your time)
37. Overworld: Act 4’s overworld is either plain vanilla empty or, worse, frustrating platforms to navigate
38. Padding: Act 3 jungle. This is partially due to the pseudo maze nature of the minimap but there’s entirely too much roaming for how little content there is
39. Padding: Act 4 is weirdly padded for how short it is
40. Prime Opt: Act 3 quests have no real rhyme or reason to them, and are actively hostile towards the player figuring them out unlike, say, Act 1 and 2’s
41. Prime Opt: Rescuing the barbarians in Act 5 quest by itself is just so damned frustrating
42. QoL: Talent system lack of commit/undo/idiot proofing
43. Respec: It’s there, but it’s VERY limited. One per difficulty and, worse, nothing actually indicates it’s there or that it’s limited
44. Traversal: The waypoints are heavily inconsistent. Some are fairly static, some are designed to be ‘in the path’ or useful, some can be wherever, and huge swaths of time can pass between them
45. Traversal Mechanics: Stamina. I honestly want to give it more negatives, but I can’t in good conscience, but I still hate it and how it doesn’t really do anything other than make you occasionally move slower
46. Visual Continuity: Act 3. Good luck figuring out where you are, where you’ve been, and where you need to go
47. Visual Distinction: Act 3 Original. The visuals are REALLY bad here, to the point where it’s a barely-varied palette and paths and terrain are legitimately difficult to see
48. Replayability: Act 3 and onwards actively discourages replayability
49. Penalty For Failure: Dying can REALLY suck in the wrong circumstances

Story Positives:

1. Background Lore: Act 4
2. Background Lore: Caldeum and the recent issues
3. Background Lore: Everything about the madness of Leoric and how awful that period of time was
4. Background Lore: Tristram
5. Banter: Some surprisingly good banter throughout the whole game, mostly between NPCs but still…
6. Banter: …there’s also the occasional bits between the PC and the Followers
7. Brickwork: Act 1 fields and plains
8. Brickwork: Act 2 deserts
9. Brickwork: Act 2 Oasis
10. Brickwork: Act 4
11. Brickwork: Act 4
12. Brickwork: Bastion’s Keep
13. Brickwork: Blood swamps
14. Brickwork: Caldeum
15. Brickwork: Cathedral
16. Brickwork: Early Westmarch
17. Brickwork: Greed’s realm
18. Brickwork: Leoric’s Manor
19. Brickwork: One last brickwork positive for the optional side areas in the bonus content
20. Brickwork: The Path
21. Brickwork: Tristram area
22. Brickwork: Westmarch proper
23. Brickwork: The early desert
24. Brickwork: The High Heavens
25. Brickwork: The High Heavens background
26. Brickwork: Pandemonium
27. Character: Covetous Shen
28. Character: Eamon
29. Character: Haedrig Eamon
30. Character: Kormac
31. Character: Lyndon
32. Character: Maghda
33. Characters: Act 1
34. Characters: Act 2
35. Characters: Act 2
36. Characters: Act 3
37. Characters: Act 3
38. Characters: Act 4 continues the Act 3 character moments
39. Characters: Act 5
40. Characters: Act 5
41. Characters: Act 5
42. Cinematic: Act 5 intro is just … really, really good. Wonderful visuals, excellent voice acting, fantastic presentation
43. Cinematic: Act 5’s intro does several surprisingly well designed bits of storytelling, including showcasing Malthael’s usage of souls to empower himself, the fact that he is still operating as wisdom, and the fact that Justice can’t do anything against this course because it is still ‘wise’
44. Cinematic: Again, excellent storyboarding and technical excellence in the Act 2 cinematic
45. Cinematic: Class opening cinematics
46. Cinematic: Opening cinematic
47. Cinematic: Technical excellence and storyboarding of the Act 1 end cutscene
48. Cinematic: The Act 4 finale cinematic is a bit empty but still good…
49. Cinematic: The little touches and surprising excellence in storytelling in the Act 1 end cutscene
50. Cinematic: Yep, the Act 3 cinematic is still high quality
51. Cinematic: …and still has several neat little nuances and details to it
52. Doodads: Act 1 fields and plains
53. Doodads: Act 2 Oasis
54. Doodads: Bastion’s Keep
55. Doodads: Caldeum
56. Doodads: Cathedral
57. Doodads: Leoric’s Manor
58. Doodads: Tristram
59. Doodads: Westmarch proper
60. Humor: Whimsydale. What can I say
61. Intro: While the plot stumbles a lot, the Intro is actually quite legit at establishing tone, theme, and stakes
62. Moment: The various past characters moments for each class in Pandemonium
63. Moments: The lost hope segment of Act 4
64. MSQ: Defending Bastion’s Keep
65. Prime Opt: Kormac’s Arc
66. Prime Opt: Kormac’s quest
67. Prime Opt: Lyndon’s Arc
68. Prime Opt: Lyndon’s quest
69. Prime Opt: Shen’s quest
70. Secondary: Bastion’s Keep side stories
71. Secondary: Caldeum side stories
72. Secondary: Kormac and Eirena
73. Secondary: Side stories in streets of Westmarch
74. Secondary: Side stories in Westmarch town
75. Secondary: There are many in Westmarch and they are awesome
76. Secondary: Vidian and the Sanctum of Blood side arc
77. Storytelling Mechanics: Quest log and relisten and sort options…
78. Storytelling Mechanics: …very well done
79. Visual Continuity: Act 1
80. Visual Continuity: Act 4
81. Visual Storytelling: Bastion’s Keep
82. Visual Storytelling: Early Tristram
83. Visual Storytelling: Intro to Reapers
84. Visual Storytelling: Leoric’s Manor
85. Visual Storytelling: The Path
86. Voice Acting: Covetous Shen
87. Voice Acting: Followers
88. Voice Acting: Followers
89. Voice Acting: Main PCs
90. Voice Acting: Main PCs
91. Voice Acting: Secondary NPCs
92. Voice Acting: Secondary NPCs
93. Voice Acting: Special mention to Westmarch NPCs
94. Voice Acting: Zoltun Kulle
95. World Building: Act 4
96. World Building: Act 4
97. External Continuity: Proper usage of the setting
98. Lighting: Generally good usage of lighting throughout
99. Sound Design: Generally good sound design

Story Negatives:

1. Character: Leah’s continued insistence on disbelief is bonkers on several levels but then it’s all just there to lead up to her suddenly hitting a switch and being cool with everything, which is worse
2. Cinematic: The Act 2 cinematic is neat and all but completely unnecessary, and only really functions to give the heroes their next destination
3. Cutscene Incompetence: Adria is, of course, super powerful and effortlessly accomplishes everything
4. Cutscene Incompetence: Cain’s death
5. Foreshadowing: Adria… it’s actually even worse because they both do and do not foreshadow this, and nobody picks up on it in universe
6. Foreshadowing: Tyrael and the lack thereof
7. Gameplay / Story Segregation: Everything
8. Moment: Cain’s death
9. Moment: It was secretly Tyrael all along! Dun dun dunnn
10. Moment: So they kill off Leah, do it badly, and do it for no reason
11. Outro: And it trips at the finishing line, as Malthael decides to free the seven Evils… so they can come back in the future. Yay
12. Pacing: Act 2 Kulle section
13. Pacing: Everyone’s instantly on board with every weird plot thread
14. Plot: Act 3 problems
15. Plot: And the only reason they do that is to have their stupid reveal
16. Plot: So the Stranger has amnesia
17. Plot: Underthought with Tyrael and the undead plague
18. Story Sequencing: Act 3 problems
19. World Building: Also Diablo is now the Prime Evil despite many reasons why that both shouldn’t work and the fact that it’s about to be made to be not a big thing
20. World Building: Myriam can literally see the future. This pretty violently contradicts how Fate worked earlier and honestly is just done to wink at the player periodically
21. Writing: Also all of that secrecy and twist and build up and amnesia was just for the fact that… surprise… the demon lords are here. We, it’s worth noting, already knew this in Maghda’s much better done build up
22. Writing: Also Diablo has been behind everything for 3 games now despite no build up, logic, reason, or even satisfaction therein
23. Writing: Cain’s death
24. Writing: Leah’s plot-driven powers
25. Writing: So, Tyrael does all this stuff to… hang around in town and periodically give quests. What a complete waste of Tyrael
26. Writing: So Cain survives for a week in the cathedral, but never escapes, but also is fine… sssure

Gameplay Positives:

1. Achievements: Cosmetics
2. Alternate Leveling: Kanai’s Cube
3. Alternate Leveling: Legendary gems leveling
4. Alternate Leveling: Paragon Levels
5. QoL: AOE Looting
6. Boss: Belial
7. Boss: Belial
8. Boss: Diablo isn’t the best, but he’s still a fun fight
9. Boss: General
10. Boss: The Butcher
11. Boss: Zoltun Kulle
12. Boss: Greed
13. Boss: The Dual Bosses
14. Endgame: Bounties
15. Endgame: Bounties and late game viability
16. Builds: Abilities
17. Builds: Abilities
18. Builds: Abilities
19. Builds: Followers
20. Builds: Kanai’s Cube
21. Builds: Legendaries
22. Builds: Legendaries
23. Builds: Legendaries
24. Builds: Legendary gems
25. Builds: Legendary gems
26. Builds: Rerolling
27. Builds: Rerolling
28. Builds: Runes
29. Builds: Runes
30. Builds: Runes
31. Builds: Sets
32. Builds: Sets
33. Builds: Sets
34. Builds: Talents
35. Builds: Talents
36. Builds: Talents
37. Combat: Charge mechanics
38. Combat: Potions
39. Combat: Potions
40. Controls: B Move
41. Co-Op: Campaign co op
42. Co-Op: Co-Op exists
43. Co-Op: Ease of co op sharing
44. Co-Op: Ease of party interaction
45. Co-Op: Ease of sharing 2
46. Co-Op: Loot sharing
47. Co-Op: Loot sharing again
48. Co-Op: Party interaction 2
49. Co-Op: Party interactions 3
50. Co-Op: Personal loot
51. Co-Op: Proper campaign co op
52. Core Mechanic: Gems and related designs
53. Cosmetics: Banner
54. Cosmetics: Dyeing
55. Cosmetics: Pets, Wings, Pennants
56. Cosmetics: Swapping freely and on the fly
57. Cosmetics: Swapping x2
58. Cosmetics: Unlocks
59. Cosmetics: Unlocks x2
60. Difficulty Options:
61. Difficulty Options:
62. Core Mechanics: Followers: Not the best, but with some abilities, decent AI, and the full gearing, they’re a good aspect of the game
63. Graphics: Foreground culling
64. Endgame: GRifts
65. Endgame: GRifts
66. Hub: Act 1
67. Hub: Act 2
68. Hub: Act 3
69. Hub: Act 3
70. Hub: Act 5
71. Hub: Act 5
72. Hub: Act 5
73. HUD: Enemy health bars
74. HUD: Enemy health bars plus toggleable
75. HUD: Honestly the same general quality HUD we’ve always seen, but still good
76. Info In Game: Kanai’s Cube
77. Info In Game: Lots and lots of info on all the actual stats you can have in your game…
78. Info In Game: Significant information available on inventory screen
79. Info In Game: …leading to two positives
80. Interface: Chat colorization options
81. Interface: Indicator when you have new dialogue to listen to
82. Interface: information in skill mouseover
83. Interface: Kanai’s Cube
84. Interface: Mouse-over
85. Interface: Mouseover comparisons
86. Interface: Mouse-over X2
87. Interface: Mouse-over X3
88. Interface: Profiles and ability to look up everything
89. Itemization: Cursed chests
90. Itemization: Targeted loot
91. Itemization: Treasure Goblin and their varieties
92. Kit: Barbarian
93. Kit: Barbarian
94. Kit: Barbarian
95. Kit: Barbarian Leveling
96. Kit: Barbarian Leveling
97. Kit: Barbarian Leveling
98. Kit: Barbarian Synergies
99. Kit: Barbarian Synergies
100. Kit: Crusader
101. Kit: Crusader
102. Kit: Crusader
103. Kit: Crusader Leveling
104. Kit: Crusader Leveling
105. Kit: Crusader Leveling
106. Kit: Crusader Synergies
107. Kit: Crusader Synergies
108. Kit: Demonhunter
109. Kit: Demonhunter
110. Kit: Demonhunter
111. Kit: Monk
112. Kit: Monk
113. Kit: Monk
114. Kit: Monk Synergies
115. Kit: Necromancer
116. Kit: Necromancer
117. Kit: Necromancer
118. Kit: Necromancer Leveling
119. Kit: Necromancer Leveling
120. Kit: Necromancer Leveling
121. Kit: Witch Doctor
122. Kit: Witch Doctor
123. Kit: Witch Doctor
124. Kit: Witch Doctor Leveling
125. Kit: Witch Doctor Leveling
126. Kit: Witch Doctor Synergies
127. Kit: Wizard
128. Kit: Wizard
129. Kit: Wizard
130. Kit: Wizard Leveling
131. Kit: Wizard Leveling
132. Kit: Wizard Leveling
133. Levels: General dungeon design
134. Levels: Most of the Heaven levels are the best constructed ones in the game, keeping the randomized puzzle pieces thing going without being too patterned or too random
135. Lighting: Cathedral
136. Log: Chat and lore logs
137. Map: Lots and lots of good info…
138. Map: …worthy of two positives
139. Minigame: Challenge Rifts
140. Minigame: Challenge Rifts
141. Minigame: Challenge Rifts
142. Minigame: Leaderboard
143. Minimap: Visual distinction and color usage and visible abilities…
144. Minimap: …for two positives
145. MSQ: The siege strike setpiece is surprisingly neat and unique for being something so simple
146. MSQ: Westmarch cityscape
147. Music: Generally good music
148. NG+: Unlocks as you go
149. NG+: Keeps everything as you go back
150. NG+: Granuliarity in where you can go
151. NG+: …allowing you to go to individual quests…
152. NG+: …which is bonkers
153. NG+: Keeping everything x2
154. NG+: Keeping everything x3
155. NG+: Generally good interface and options
156. NG+: Generally high quality
157. Option: Ability to lower difficulty on the fly…
158. Option: …for two positives
159. Options: Not the best, but some decent accessibility options
160. Outro: Final boss
161. Outro: Final boss
162. Outro: Final dungeon
163. Pacing: Act 1
164. QoL: Ability presets
165. QoL: Ease of morphing gems, gear, and other swapping related stuff
166. QoL: Rebirth mode
167. Respec: Great respec
168. Respec: …which is worth…
169. Respec: …three positives
170. Respec: Can do it on the fly near instantly with good interface design…
171. Respec: …which is worth…
172. Respec: …three positives
173. QoL: Return to entrance runes
174. Secondary: Optional dungeon layout, design, and worthwhileness
175. Secondary: Optional objectives on quests
176. Viscerality: Barbarian
177. Viscerality: Barbarian
178. Viscerality: Barbarian
179. Viscerality: Crusader
180. Viscerality: Crusader
181. Viscerality: Demonhunter
182. Viscerality: Monk
183. Viscerality: Necromancer
184. Viscerality: Witch Doctor
185. Viscerality: Wizard
186. Viscerality: Wizard
187. Viscerality: Wizard
188. Visual Distinction: Cathedral
189. Traversal: Waypoint system. Find as you go, travel from anywhere, travel instantly from town, travel instantly from one to another, the whole system is easily the best waypoint system in gaming…
190. Traversal: …earning it…
191. Traversal: …three positives
192. Endgame: Seasonal stuff and variety and general fun
193. Endgame: Seasonal stuff is just… a great idea really…
194. Endgame: …earning three positives
195. Encounter Design: Generally good combinations of enemy types
196. Enemy Variety: Lots and lots and lots of enemy variety…
197. Enemy Variety: …earning…
198. Enemy Variety: …three positives to gameplay
199. Penalty For Failure: Release (timer), release at checkpoint, release in town, rez’d by friend
200. Sound Design: Good sound design for loot, enemies, attacks, leveling, etc…
201. Sound Design: …leading to two positives
202. Replayability: Just… the best replayability. New classes, builds, modes, story zooming, story removal, challenge rifts, seasonal stuff…
203. Replayability: …earning it…
204. Replayability: …the coveted triple Replayability

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Boss: General health sponginess in several bosses
2. Co-Op: 4 player party size
3. Gameplay / Story Segregation: Pretty much everything
4. Info In Game: There is still some stuff that is just not in the game and requires a wiki
5. Launch: Auction House
6. Launch: Difficulty
7. Launch: Difficulty
8. Launch: Itemization drop rates
9. Launch: Itemization drop rates
10. Launch: RMAH
11. Launch: RMAH
12. Launch: RMAH
13. Launch/DRM: Always online
14. Launch/DRM: Always online
15. Launch/DRM: Always online
16. Music: Massive over-use of the one theme in Reaper of Souls
17. Padding: Act 2 plot coupon juggling
18. Padding: Act 3 dungeon stretching
19. Padding: Act 3’s latter half honestly just… draaags, just like some of the worst D2 dungeon stretches
20. QoL: Accidental dialogue skipping
21. Randomization in lore drops
22. Endgame: FOMO in Seasonal design
23. Audio Spam: Yeah there’s a fair bit
24. Difficulty Curve: The rather jarring jump at 61 isn’t fun

Story Positives:

1. Atmosphere: Being a noble lord // Keep management
2. Atmosphere: Genuine gratitude for doing the right thing. This is something only a few games really nail, but few nail it better than Dragon Age Origins where often-times your reward for helping someone is just a few lines of dialogue saying thank you, but we get this sort of thing persistently and it’s sufficiently well acted that the whole way through I find myself feeling like I’ve really helped these people…
3. Atmosphere: …earning it…
4. Atmosphere: …three positives
5. Atmosphere: Golems of Amgarrak. For all its issues, it manages the tone quite well
6. Atmosphere: The general tone of massacring your way through Denerim during the Darkspawn Chronicles is actually quite fun
7. Babylon 5 Effect: Loghaine, the Darkspawn, the Grey Wardens…
8. Banter: All the inter-party banter is good stuff, easily earning…
9. Banter: …a full…
10. Banter: …three positives
11. Banter: Morrigan and Allistair’s banter gets special praise
12. Brickwork: Castles and Keeps
13. Brickwork: Orzammar
14. Brickwork: Ostagar
15. Characters: Alistair. Alistair is just awesome, interesting, engaging, well acted, well presented, and one of my favorite characters in this game…
16. Characters: …earning him two positives
17. Characters: Anders, Nathaniel, and Sigrun don’t have much time to move and breathe but they’re still good and I’m still with it
18. Characters: The Architect and the Mother are both fascinating and bring up concepts that question the whole setting (that will never be followed through on but moving on)
19. Characters: Branka is, by herself, shockingly evil and in a well thought out, well written, horrifying way
20. Characters: Duncan gets some good stuff, seemingly generic good but honestly no he’s quite pragmatic and concerned with the Blight over all other things, a properly done ‘Renegade’ character
21. Characters: The Dwarf Origins and Orzammar in particular are peppered with memorable and fun side characters
22. Characters: Flemeth has relatively little screen time but they do a lot with it, and she is well positioned both for the plot and for Morrigan’s arc
23. Characters: Jowy & Daveth. They’re only the beginnings of characters, but there’s a lot implied here, and they’re interesting despite… y’know
24. Characters: Leliana. The convert who still enjoys the thrill of her old job, who seeks significance in her life
25. Characters: Loghaine… lost to paranoia and madness, utterly incapable of managing or uniting the country
26. Characters: Morrigan is the best character in the game. Layers to her make her a fully fleshed out, three dimensional character, and her arc can go quite a few different ways depending…
27. Characters: …earning two positives
28. Characters: Oghren, the veteran warrior who lost his wife, house, and status, and delved into drink instead to escape, but still retains his keen insight into things and willingness to help his people
29. Characters: Shale, also known as HK-47 Two, is mostly amusing, but she is quite amusing
30. Characters: Denerim NPCs
31. Characters: Wynne, the motherly sort who remains buried under guilt and fear
32. Characters: Zevran, the man who seeks death because of how unhappy he is, who nonetheless does all he can when given the opportunity, is awesome (made even better by his romance)…
33. Characters: …earning him two positives
34. Consequence Storytelling: Dwarf Noble Origin follows through on itself quite well in how events proceed
35. Cutscene: Good establishment of what we need to know very quickly and efficiently (Darkspawn, Grey Wardens, and it’s been a while since the last incursion)
36. Cutscene: The Ostagar cutscenes, logical issues aside, are still good stuff
37. Dialogue: Dwarven dialogue in general is probably some of the tightest dialogue in the game
38. Doodads: Orzammar, one of the only places in the game with decent Doodad design
39. Doodads: Awakening in general steps up the Doodad game noticeably
40. Exposition: Lack of knowledge about Darkspawn and Grey Wardens, by total coincidence
41. Humor: The Pearl’s special encounters
42. Humor: The poet tree…
43. Humor: Yyyep, Awakening got me several times
44. Integration: The choices you’ve made determines who’s there for the final battle, both in story and in gameplay
45. Moment: Character introductions in general
46. Moment: Morrigan and Flemeth
47. Moment: Shale’s introduction and that poor chicken
48. Moment: The Bannorn and Loghaine’s first confrontation
49. Moment: The charge into Denerim…
50. Moment: …and Alistair’s speech
51. Moment: The entry into Orzammar
52. Moment: The final round up of your characters and their arcs before the final battle
53. Moment: The Joining
54. MSQ: City Elf Origin, for all its flaws, nails both railroading and motive very well, and gives insight into culture, people, and politics
55. MSQ: Dwarf Commoner Origin is another very good origin, with tight characters, intrigue, compelling plot, and multiple gradients with the same general outcome…
56. MSQ: …earning it two positives
57. MSQ: Dwarf Noble Origin fires on every piston, between multiple paths and lots of ways to portray your character and plot and everything, all culminating in just being out-classed and struggling through anyways…
58. MSQ: …earning it…
59. MSQ: …three positives
60. MSQ: The Fade, its lore, and its insight into characters
61. MSQ: Human Noble Origin. It’s very cliche’d and very typical and very predictable… but none of that matters because it’s done quite well. It is dark, tragic, immediately gives us motive, helps establish a lot about Fereldan and several of our principle villains, and is a good insight into the politics of the country…
62. MSQ: …earning two positives
63. MSQ: Orzammar conclusion
64. MSQ: Orzammar initial quests and indications of Harromont vs. Bhelen
65. MSQ: Redcliffe in general (the dead, the keep, the demon)
66. MSQ: Some of Morrigan’s ritual paths not only work but fit, are well acted and written, and work in character
67. MSQ: The Rescue is, weirdly enough, really really well done. There’s a lot of possible permutations, they’re all good, and they’re all awesome…
68. MSQ: …earning it…
69. MSQ: …three positives
70. MSQ: The very idea of what Branka did to reach the Anvil is so many levels of horrible all on its own
71. Outro: The final charge up to the Archdemon
72. Outro: The final ending slides
73. Outro: The final playable epilogue is an awesome way to interact with everyone one last time, but also showcase your choices regarding the characters to date…
74. Outro: …earning two positives
75. Plot: Hook: Why we have to do it, why the army can’t do it, why we’re recruiting
76. Plot: The Darkspawn are an existential threat: No matter what type of character you play (within reason), all can profit from dealing with the Darkspawn
77. Plot: We’re not here to save the world, we’re here to save Fereldan… but better than that, we’re not here to save Fereldan from the Blight, not really, we’re here to save Fereldan from Fereldan…
78. Plot: …and I love it
79. Secondary: Orzammar has some of the better side quests in the game
80. Secondary: The conspiracy plot in Awakening is one of the better individual arcs in the game (also Awakening in general)
81. Storytelling Mechanic: Codex, as per usual
82. Theme: Stagnation. Traditionalism is everywhere and the effects and impacts it has on everyone
83. Voice Acting: Alistair is one of the better, more nuanced acting jobs in the game…
84. Voice Acting: …earning two positives
85. Voice Acting: Awakening Main characters all have good voice acting
86. Voice Acting: Awakening side characters also have good voice acting (notably the Mother and Architect)
87. Voice Acting: City Elf Origin characters
88. Voice Acting: Dalish Origin characters
89. Voice Acting: Duncan, in general but also for his narration
90. Voice Acting: Dwarf Commoner characters
91. Voice Acting: Dwarf Noble characters
92. Voice Acting: Flemeth, and the return of Janeway
93. Voice Acting: Human Noble characters
94. Voice Acting: Leliana
95. Voice Acting: Loghain because, I mean obviously
96. Voice Acting: Mage characters
97. Voice Acting: Morrigan is the best actor in the game. She manages so many tiny, nuanced details in every line, but also more overt pieces, and some fun and ‘bad acting’ sequences…
98. Voice Acting: …earning…
99. Voice Acting: …three positives
100. Voice Acting: Oghren because, shockingly, Steve Blum is a good actor
101. Voice Acting: Ostagar characters
102. Voice Acting: Redcliffe characters
103. Voice Acting: Shale manages a great dry wit tone
104. Voice Acting: Sten is wonderfully blunt and has some great moments
105. Voice Acting: Wynne speaks a bit specifically but she does a good job with it
106. Voice Acting: General, for all the good voice acting I missed, for there is so much
107. Voice Acting: Zevran and his own nuance
108. Voice Direction: Extra nuances and details in every performance in the game…
109. Voice Direction: …earning it…
110. Voice Direction: …three positives
111. World Building: Dwarf Commoner Origins
112. World Building: Dwarf Noble Origin shares double duty with Dwarf Commoner in how it insights into Orzammar and Dwarven society
113. World Building: Leliana’s Song, exposition and build up, and a lot of moving pieces in the background
114. World Building: Mage Origin
115. World Building: Soldier’s Peak and some insight into the history of the world
116. World Building: Urns of Andraste and our first real look into the Chantry, no really style
117. Writing: Some very good exposition in Dwarf Commoner and Noble Origins
118. Banter: Witch Hunt
119. Consequence Storytelling: If (if!) you are in a romance with Morrigan, Witch Hunt is honestly a great pay off for the whole affair
120. Writing: Morrigan’s romance is well thought out, sweet, and does great things for her character…
121. Writing: …in addition to being one of the best romances in gaming…
122. Writing: …earning it three positives
123. Writing: Alistair’s is, similarly, very cute. He’s adorkable, has no idea what he’s doing, and is totally heads over heels in love, and you can take it a lot of directions…
124. Writing: …earning it two positives
125. Writing: Leliana’s romance isn’t on the same level as the others, but it’s still good and it still deserves a positive
126. Writing: Zevran’s romance is honestly weirdly great for the type of character he portrays, an it easily earns itself…
127. …two positives

Story Negatives:

1. Brickwork: General. Whole game just doesn’t look… good
2. Brickwork: The Deep Roads especially. Hope you like endless grey and brown caves
3. Character: Oghren… in Awakening… is an abrasive, irritating, unpleasant character with nothing that redeems him
4. Consequence Storytelling: Lack of payoff across the board, especially for the Origins…
5. Consequence Storytelling: …earning two negatives
6. External Continuity: The near total lack of continuity between Origins and Awakening is not great
7. External Continuity: Special bonus points for how Oghren is a completely different character
8. Moment: Anora’s speech is hilarious, but man it’s just so… so bad
9. Moment: Mhairi’s death is… extraordinarily badly done. She just kind of drinks, falls over, dies, and the scene moves on less than a second later
10. Moment: The horror movie sting at the end of Golem of Amgarrak
11. Moment: The unnecessary squick and edge of male city elf origin
12. MSQ: On the flip side, Morrigan’s ritual doesn’t work for several of its permutations and, worse, is a bit too… well frankly badly written as a base concept. It reads as a bad porno script rather than what they were probably going for
13. MSQ: So… the Landsmeet. The game really wants us to pick Loghain or Alistair and that’s fine in and of itself (even if I’m not super into it) buuut the way it’s handled is too forced and too Fake Drama. The whole thing stinks of not having enough time to massage the sequence properly
14. MSQ: The entire city elf origin’s middle section is… unnecessary at best and tonally dissonant at worse, but worst of all its all just for its own sake. It’s shock for shock and leaning too hard into The Edge and instead it detracts from the work
15. Writing: Ostagar has several issues across the board, especially with the total nonsense of the battle
16. Outro: Awakening in general just sort of falls flat in the Outro
17. Plot: So… the Grail quest is one of the most ‘because plot’ things in the entire game. The noble lord is super poisoned, cool, so let’s spread to the winds chasing a rumor of a relic which might exist because it’ll totally cure him. Bonus points, the relic is real and does cure him. Sure
18. Story Sequencing: Ssssooo Redcliff is just… sitting there, on pause, and the longer you wait the less sense it makes (there’s other issues with the ‘choose your own order’ thing too)
19. Storytelling Mechanic: Limited party size problem… I’ve been thinking about this but this is just awful, for the Fade, for banter, for reactions to quests…
20. Storytelling Mechanic: …earning it two negatives
21. Storytelling Mechanic: This dovetails nicely into the other problem with the limited party size; gated content via Approval. You are (heavily) encouraged in both gameplay and story to seek Approval, at the cost of playing the way you want and choosing the way you want
22. World Building: So… why do the Darkspawn have gear and torches and catapults?
23. Writing: Also, and this is a weird negative but… Mhairi dying was not a really good decision I think. She’s too interesting to be tossed away for what is essentially just tradition
24. Writing: Leliana’s Song has a … lot of issues
25. Writing: So… the Joinings. Lots of people can just join and it’s not treated like a big deal and everybody survives and it just sort of… cheapens the entire affair
26. Writing: The Underthought of the Super Poison
27. Writing: Very awkward exposition in Dwarf Commoner and Noble Origin
28. Consequence Storytelling: If you are not one of two very tiny slivers of character, you have… no reason to do Witch Hunt, and the game provides even less
29. Outro: (Witch Hunt) We cannot stand against the vague, foreboding foreshadowing… dun dun duuun
30. Outro: (Awakening) Also good lord what a nothingburger ending
31. Internal Continuity: Several issues that clearly point to changed ideas and directions mid development
32. Writing: We’ve seen this before, but several of the good bits of character developement for a few characters (notably Zevran) are locked behind romance.

Gameplay Positives:

1. All Roads Lead To Rome: All the major quest hubs
2. All Roads Lead To Rome: Arl Eamon
3. All Roads Lead To Rome: Landsmeet
4. All Roads Lead To Rome: Mage Tower
5. All Roads Lead To Rome: Orzammar Initial
6. All Roads Lead To Rome: Redcliffe
7. All Roads Lead To Rome: The Rescue
8. Builds: While mostly an aspect of the abilities, there’s still gear and party make-up, meaning there’s a decent variety of possible builds in the game…
9. Builds: …earning two positives
10. Choices: Brecilian Forest
11. Choices: Denerim
12. Choices: DLCs (Soldier’s Peak, Shale)
13. Choices: Dwarven Noble
14. Choices: Keep mechanics in Awakening
15. Choices: Landsmeet
16. Choices: Lothering
17. Choices: Origins in general
18. Choices: Orzammar
19. Choices: Redcliffe
20. Choices: The final epilogue slides showcasing many of your choices
21. Controls: Variance between top down and action modes
22. Core Combat: Pausing and being able to give orders in combat is a nice feature by itself
23. Core Combat: Sustained system. This is great, gradient system that allows the player to reserve a portion of their casting for permanent buffs, which can be toggled and controlled at will, at however much you want, or you can reserve your resources for casting… it’s all up to you…
24. Core Combat: …earning two positives
25. Core Mechanic: The Approval system and its unlocks for abilities and quests
26. Core Mechanic: The Darkspawn Chronicles recruit and upgrade mechanic is actually pretty fun
27. Core Mechanic: The gambit system is awesome, and honestly probably the best implementation of Gambits in gaming that I’ve seen. You have tons and tons of options to customize how the party does what and when…
28. Core Mechanic: …earning a full…
29. Core Mechanic: …three positives
30. Core Mechanic: And a bonus positive for the Presets, both baked in and custom
31. Encounter: Broodmother fight
32. Encounter: Defending Redcliffe
33. Encounter: Ostagar (Emissary, tower, Ogre)
34. Encounter: Ser Cauthrian
35. Encounter: The Drake setup in the Ruined Temple
36. Encounter: Generally good encounter design across the whole game…
37. Encounter: …earning it…
38. Encounter: …three positives
39. Enemy Design: Decent design throughout
40. Enemy Variety: Decent variety throughout
41. HUD: Color distinction in text and buffs
42. Integration: The choices you’ve made determines who’s there for the final battle, both in story and in gameplay
43. Intro: Lothering is a really good Intro. It gets across character moments, sidequests, multiple paths to victory, and is nearly completely optional…
44. Intro: …earning two positives
45. Itemization: Gold, equipment, drops
46. Kit: Archer builds for rogues
47. Kit: Melee in general, for rogues and warriors both
48. Kit: Two hander gets its own point for being surprisingly legit
49. Kit: Sword and Board is, unironically, one of the best setups in the game, with good buffs, stances, and abilities, and more viable builds…
50. Kit: …earning two positives
51. Kit: Similarly, Mage is pretty legit for pretty much the same reasons…
52. Kit: …earning two positives
53. Level: General dungeon design in Awakening
54. Level: Kal’Hirol is surprisingly decent, a good step up from Origins dungeon design
55. Level: Trials of Andraste, probably one of the better dungeons in the whole game
56. Mods: Depth of mods
57. Mods: Ease of mod implementation
58. Mods: The devs did eventually release a dev toolkit (though good luck finding and implementing it)
59. MSQ: Fade (kit in forms, level design)
60. MSQ: The multi party combat during the Outro
61. MSQ: The Rescue is just a great mission. Depending on who you bring and how you do it the quest can go a lot of different ways, and there’s a gradient here too; it’s not ‘fight’ or ‘don’t fight’. Plus you can rescue yourself! Earning it…
62. MSQ: …two positives
63. Pacing: Out of combat regen seems like a minor thing but it keeps the pacing good, which is important in such a long game with so much combat
64. Prime Opt: Keep upgrade quests and related arcs
65. QoL: Bank, respec, unlock tomes, and a few other tidbits added in Awakening
66. Save System: Quick saves, auto saves, and manual saves…
67. Save System: …for two positives
68. Viscerality: Between the meaty melee and the fun magic, plus the impact of such abilities, the game has decent viscerality…
69. Viscerality: …earning two positives
70. Replayability: First, the game has plenty of alternate options and playstyles but…
71. Replayability: …then there’s the very nature of the game and how it encourages replay given the very nature of the Choice gameplay
72. Choices: Romance gameplay choices

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Audio Balancing: Lots of minor issues throughout
2. Audio Spam: There’s not a ton but there is some and it is irritating
3. Boss: The Darkspawn Chronicles final boss fight is all the wrong things about escort quests magnified. The amount of ridiculousness on display here while defending a paper tiger is bonkers…
4. Boss: …earning the encounter two negatives
5. Boss: The Harvester fight is overtuned to hell and back but even if we ignore that, it’s just kind of boring
6. Bug: Audio bugs with ambient lines
7. Bug: Lots of bugs in Awakening
8. Bug: Memory Leak. This is easily the worst memory leak I’ve seen in gaming, requiring a reset (on average) of about once an hour, earning it…
9. Bug: …a full…
10. Bug: …three negatives
11. Choices: As per usual, the Persuasion stat is neight-unto mandatory and limits your build potential
12. Choices: Or lack thereof re: Awakening
13. Choices: So the Hardening for Alistair is already kind of vague and unnatural (unlike the Leliana one where it’s clear where it’s going) but also it has a substantial impact on how his future and the endings can go
14. Core Combat: While I do, legitimately, enjoy the core combat there’s just SO much of it that it gets old
15. Core Combat: …made worse by virtue of trying to force something the game doesn’t, at its core, support
16. Core Mechanic: Approval only effects present party members, which can lead to irritations and issues with regards to trying to raise Approval appropriately
17. Core Mechanic: Attribute and skill point tax on tactics slots (requires Cunning and Skill Points)
18. Difficulty: So Golems of Amgarrak can go directly to hell with its difficulty cliffs
19. Encounter: Forced positioning after dialogues before a fight
20. Encounter: Severe over-tuning of several encounters in Leliana’s Song…
21. Encounter Rate: Similar to the Deep Roads, the Brecilian Forest just… has way, way too much trash
22. Encounter Rate: The Ruined Temple of the Sacred Ashes quest just has far, far too much endless boring trash fights
23. Encounter Rate: Yeah there’s honestly just… way too many trash fights in this game
24. Graphics: Gross, as per usual
25. Graphics: Improper resolution scaling (especially subtitles)
26. Graphics: One of the few spider negatives in gaming
27. Graphics: The blurry headache-inducing nature of the Fade is a toggle, which is nice, but that toggle is very unclear in its labeling, which is not
28. Interface: The inventory problems get worse in Awakening
29. Inventory: So if Alistair leaves the party heeee takes everything with him. Cute
30. Itemization: Limited bag size. This becomes even more irritating over time…
31. Itemization: …for a second negative
32. Itemization: The Injury system and subsequent item tax
33. Itemization: The Rogue lockpick tax
34. Level: Brecilian Forest, general. Very narrow, very nothing-burger, honestly feels worse designed than even the endless repetition of the Deep Roads
35. Level: For all its positives, Kal’Hirol just drags on entirely too long
36. Level: More problems from the Ruined Temple and DAO’s approach to dungeon design
37. Level: This is mostly a feature of level design, but the Deep Roads are a slog. Samey corridors and boring visuals in an endless dungeon fest fighting wave after wave after wave of enemies…
38. Level: …earning two negatives
39. Minigame: The Shale puzzle. Getting stuck on the terrain, taking pointless damage, and dialogue spam the whole time
40. MSQ: Fade (badly balanced, sucks for some classes, game isn’t built for solo combat)
41. MSQ: The Fade, general (several smaller but extant issues throughout the experience)
42. Music: Darkspawn’s battle theme and the repetition thereof in an expansion where we fight almost exclusively Darkspawn
43. No Music: And also there’s huge, huge swaths of No Music
44. No Music: Inconsistent music. Sometimes it plays, sometimes it doesn’t
45. Outro: The final fight with the Archdemon is passable… which is honestly the problem, it’s just another fight really
46. Padding: Random Encounters and trash fights
47. Padding: The final few trash fights and general fights (with infinite respawns) of the Outro
48. Party: Extremely badly designed party members which you can’t respec in the DLCs
49. Respec: The lack of respec in a game with so many options and possible builds hurts viability and experimentation…
50. Respec: …made worse by companions coming pre-leveled without option, limiting things even further
51. Secondary: The quest designs of the Brecilian Forest are bland, boring, and worse, in some cases best left undone
52. Seconds In Minutes: Unlocking and the Rogue of Requirement
53. Starting Options: Limitations of race are already irritating but locking you into Origins per class is worse
54. Walkthroughitis: It’s disturbingly easy to permanently miss content through no fault of your own in Awakening
55. Choices: It’s entirely too easy to stumble into a romance, and with no take-backs or other options to avoid it