Vympel wrote:^ Indeed. I'm most of the way through Act 1 (my copy only arrived the other day) and I'm already trying to take a distinctly pro-mage attitude, which is informed by a lifetime of knowing Bethany. However, that may change. I've already seen a mage turn into an Abomination once in the game.
The "Help the Templars" option feels rather like the "Turn to evil in the final battle" options in many older RPGs. (Turn to the Shadow King in NWN2, merge with the Paranoid incarnation in PS:T, etc').
In that, it's obviously the evil choice.
Which is a shame, since the game makes a good point of how magic in Dragon Age is almost as dangerous as the Warp in 40k (in that everyone using it has a chance of exploding into a gibbering daemonic abomination, and anyone can get a powerup by foul and unholy rituals).
But the Templar ending just didn't feel like an alternative option, it felt like choosing the "Evil" option. "Yes, let's slaughter all the mages! All of them! [The option of letting a few live is only bought up by Cullen halfway through, with the example of the Ferelden circle's annulment], then watch as you're inevitably betrayed!".
Orsino turning into a abomination is utterly stupid (in the mage path at least. In the Templar path, with it being confirmed that he had ties to the Blood mage, and the cause for desperation it makes a bit more sense).
Still not as impressive as in the first game (where it wasn't as blatantly foreshadowed, and thus awesomer
)