3274 réponses à ce sujet

[Alex Stewart]

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Compared to Dragon age I, I found the game play to be faster
paced which I liked. I also liked the fact there were less potions to clog up
my inventory. I was however bitterly disappointed by the linear story line. The
best thing about Dragon age I was that you could influence what happens and you
removed it! I also didn't like how there wasn't enough information to immerse
you in the game. For instance in the first game it told you a lot about why certain
things were happening around you, dragon age II lacked this as the story line
was less developed. The ending I felt was just poor and unless there is going
to be a massive expansion there were a lot of smaller potential story lines
left unexplored.

Having played it I feel it wasn't worth buying which is a shame as Dragon age I
was massively enjoyable.

[Shasow]

3.9/5

[Aglease]

For the most part, I really like the changes made to Dragon Age II.  As a huge fan of Dragon Age Origins, I was chomping at the bit for the sequel's release.  I played the first game as both a warrior and rogue, so my first playthrough of Dragon Age II has been as a warrior.  And I have to say, I LOVE the changes made to the two-handed weapon warrior.  It is a huge improvement over the last game.  In the first one, the two-handed weapon warrior seemed so slow, and vulnerable.  I love the DA II version in the quick movements and the powerful swings that can knock back more than one enemy at  a time.  I am also very happy with the changes they made to the fighting style in general.  It allows for more freedom of movement.  However, the sword and shield warrior seems less powerful, although I haven't played the game with a sword and shield warrior, I did play as one in the demo and did not like it nearly as much as the two-handed weapon warrior. 

I also love the interactive Hawke.  I was thrilled about the change made to the main character in terms of her ability to actually talk and not stand silent the entire time.  That has to be my favorite change.  Also, the conversation options are great, I love using the sarcastic, cheeky option.  For some characters Hawke comes in contact with, this option is awesome. 

I really like the cross-class tactics options too.  That is a really cool addition to the battle tactics.  It really makes it feel like the team is battling as a cohesive unit. 

One of my main gripes with this game is the interaction between Hawke and her companions.  It's very similar to the ME2 character interaction in that you need something to trigger a companion conversation whereas in DA Origins, you could chat with your companions whenever you wanted to.  I would much prefer the way in which the characters interacted in DA: Origins. 

I am kind of on the fence about the way in which you acquire potions, poisons and things in this game.  I like not having to worry about having a character with me that can make potions, but it seems a lot more expensive to get potions and things than it did in the previous game.  I do like that you can order runes in one place though instead of having to go to different vendors to buy different runes.

I do like that I don't have to worry about upgrading my companions' armor.  That is a good change.  I didn't like it at first, but then I warmed up to it.  I remember always stressing out about it in DA:Origins.

I feel like it is much harder to make money in this game.  Things you pick up are not worth as much as in the first game and you have to pay more for the potions, grenades, etc. 

I also don't like how difficult it is to forge a relationship with some of the characters, like Fenris.  I know that it is more like real life, but I think in some ways it is too difficult.  Also, the love scenes aren't as good.  They seem too G-rated, whereas the last game was more PG-13.  I also miss Alistair, I wish he made an appearance in this game, or that there was a character more like him.  I think Anders was maybe supposed to be like him, but he annoys me, whereas Alistair was more endearing.  I think Nathaniel would have been a good addition to the group instead of Sebastian.  Although Sebastian is cute, he's kind of a tool, I wish he wasn't so into his faith.

I like the change made to the map.  I also like the fact that you can be in Kirkwall both day and night.  And I do like the changes made to the allocation of talents and attributes.  I like that each character has character-specific talents.  I don't remember if that was in DA:Origins or not, but I think it's a great addition to this game.

I feel like the difficulty levels are harder in this game.  I started out playing at the Hard level, but found that the bosses were too hard.  On the normal level, normal enemies seem almost too easy, but bosses seem pretty hard, and on the hard level the normal enemies are challenging, but beatable whereas the bosses seem darn near impossible even with tactics management.

I think that's about all I can think of for now.

[zeon_bell]

 ...the graphic is good...i have fun in playing it...really...if i hadnt known what's what in it...the first time i play..okay..that's ROCK!!! then i started using guides and walkthroughs and saw the quests available...damn...lotsa quests i've missed...

played second and i got the quests...play 3rd, tried to do different things, and the quest is missing...aww...please...should i be very carefull not to do something funny and different to avoid the bugs..?then i wouldnt feel safe at all in playing...and i wont be free to do anything...regardless jumping the quests one and another...DAO never had those kind of bugs..u're free to move and u had all of the possible quests coming from your action done and good!!not like this...u do it wrong, it wont finish and stay in as active quests...what's the point of an RPG if u cant do it as u please...?what's the good of RPG if u have to stay to the "correct" way of playing..??!

cmon BW...u gotta fix every bugs possible...unless u want to leave it at that...then all of those high ratings u announced are all Flukes and Lies!!

[Lobato]

zeon_bell wrote...

 ...the graphic is good...i have fun in playing it...really...if i hadnt known what's what in it...the first time i play..okay..that's ROCK!!! then i started using guides and walkthroughs and saw the quests available...damn...lotsa quests i've missed...

played second and i got the quests...play 3rd, tried to do different things, and the quest is missing...aww...please...should i be very carefull not to do something funny and different to avoid the bugs..?then i wouldnt feel safe at all in playing...and i wont be free to do anything...regardless jumping the quests one and another...DAO never had those kind of bugs..u're free to move and u had all of the possible quests coming from your action done and good!!not like this...u do it wrong, it wont finish and stay in as active quests...what's the point of an RPG if u cant do it as u please...?what's the good of RPG if u have to stay to the "correct" way of playing..??!

cmon BW...u gotta fix every bugs possible...unless u want to leave it at that...then all of those high ratings u announced are all Flukes and Lies!!

Dragon Age for Dummies!

[neppakyo]

Lobato wrote...

zeon_bell wrote...

 ...the graphic is good...i have fun in playing it...really...if i hadnt known what's what in it...the first time i play..okay..that's ROCK!!! then i started using guides and walkthroughs and saw the quests available...damn...lotsa quests i've missed...

played second and i got the quests...play 3rd, tried to do different things, and the quest is missing...aww...please...should i be very carefull not to do something funny and different to avoid the bugs..?then i wouldnt feel safe at all in playing...and i wont be free to do anything...regardless jumping the quests one and another...DAO never had those kind of bugs..u're free to move and u had all of the possible quests coming from your action done and good!!not like this...u do it wrong, it wont finish and stay in as active quests...what's the point of an RPG if u cant do it as u please...?what's the good of RPG if u have to stay to the "correct" way of playing..??!

cmon BW...u gotta fix every bugs possible...unless u want to leave it at that...then all of those high ratings u announced are all Flukes and Lies!!

Dragon Age for Dummies!

Oh god. I think I just lost some more brain cells.

[erynnar]

neppakyo wrote...

Lobato wrote...

zeon_bell wrote...

 ...the graphic is good...i have fun in playing it...really...if i hadnt known what's what in it...the first time i play..okay..that's ROCK!!! then i started using guides and walkthroughs and saw the quests available...damn...lotsa quests i've missed...

played second and i got the quests...play 3rd, tried to do different things, and the quest is missing...aww...please...should i be very carefull not to do something funny and different to avoid the bugs..?then i wouldnt feel safe at all in playing...and i wont be free to do anything...regardless jumping the quests one and another...DAO never had those kind of bugs..u're free to move and u had all of the possible quests coming from your action done and good!!not like this...u do it wrong, it wont finish and stay in as active quests...what's the point of an RPG if u cant do it as u please...?what's the good of RPG if u have to stay to the "correct" way of playing..??!

cmon BW...u gotta fix every bugs possible...unless u want to leave it at that...then all of those high ratings u announced are all Flukes and Lies!!

Dragon Age for Dummies!

Oh god. I think I just lost some more brain cells.

[mhjenson]

Here's my review . . . no idea how  the formatting got so messed up:

This might contain spoilers so if you don't want your fun to possibly be spoiled do not continue.

So overall I definitely feel very let down by the game and here's some reasons why:

The
biggest problem is the game is flat.  There was not a single point in
the game where I thought "oh wow this is really cool".  The main story
is flat and dull and very incohesive.  I wondered
the whole game what the main story of the game was thinking it was
somehow all going to tie in together at some point.  I just don't
understand how you come out with a game that took me about 40 hours to
get through that doesn't have anything resembling a cohesive story.  It
almost felt like I was playing an mmo 10 years ago and just doing random
quests because that's what you're supposed to do, except that it was a
single player game, and there was no story to follow.

Sadly, the
ending was honestly laughable.  First when Anders blew up the chantry
all I could do was laugh.  Sure Anders is pro-mage and he's possessed
and all, but really?  And there was that super-low rez cut scene (no
idea how bioware can make absolutely awesome looking cutscenes for
trailors/commercials but they never end up in the game) showing the
explosion and I'm left there thinking "aren't we standing right in front
of that?" but I guess we're just super awesome and weren't phased or
something.  So I kill Anders because he's psychotic and then go side
with the mages at which point fenris tells me he won't side with me.  I
reply "join me" and he does . . . what a pushover.  So then all of a
sudden orsino or whatever his name was who the ENTIRE game has been all
"we're not all bad, but meredith accuses us all of blood magic but we're
not all like that" randomly decides "what the heck, might as well turn
to blood magic" and then that batle was a joke, it didn't even look like
anyone in my party lost any health.  I know
I'm on normal but come on.  So then I breeze to the Meredith battle and
she pulls out her sword which apparently was from a piece of that relic
from the deep roads.  HOLY COW,
it all makes sense!  Everything comes full circle, that's why she's
crazy!  (sarcasm)  Honestly it seemed like it was more of an
afterthought than anything else.  So once again, she was a breeze, then
game over.  Hallelujah I can stop being everyone's errand boy because
there certainly wasn't anything you could call plot in this game.

So aside from the story being flat, the characters were all flat.  I read
some article from someone at bioware talking about how the red-head
chick has the biggest companion side story in the history of dragon
age.  Well who cares because it's boring and flat.  Varric was pretty
cool for a while but then it seemed like in act 3 he just dried up. 
Everyone else was pretty forgetable.

The visuals were flat as
well.  Whatever happened to "it's gonna look way better than the first
one".  I actually really liked what the did with the qunari, but that's
pretty much it.  It looks like the decided to smash all the elves in the
face with an ugly stick.  The redone faces for people in the first game
(liliana, alistair, etc . . .)  all looked substantially worse than in
the first game.  So I also remember reading some article where Bioware
gave some talk at some game conference on "economic level design". 
Well, I guess their take is just do whatever you can the cheapest and
don't worry about quality.  While reusing caves and such was pretty
lame, I didn't mind that as much as the fact that every area you're in
is very homogenious.  Walk around lowtown - every single buildingn is
exactly the same.  Walk around any area and it seems like they built on
building or hall, then copy and pasted it over and over.  For example if
you put me in lowtown without a minimap it would be impossible for me
to tell where I was because it all looks the same.

The
boss fights were weak.  I surmise that this could partly be to the
increased pace of combat but i was just never impressed.  There were
multiple boss battles in the first game where I thought "wow, this is cool".  Not so this time.

I'm
pretty sure about a quarter of my game time was infront of a loading
screen.  THis is because each area is incredibly small, and you walk
pretty fast.  So there were numerous, and I mean
numerous times where part of a quest is just spend 10 sec walking in an
area, then load screen, over and over.  For example towards the end of
the
game I finished this quest for orsino and it says I have to go check my
mail.  So I run for 10 sec to get out of templar hall into the gallows
then LOAD SCREEN, then I run out of the gallows in about 5 sec then
LOAD SCREEN, then I read my letter from orsino saying come back
LOAD SCREEN, then I run for 5 sec through the gallows LOAD SCREEN
. . .  you catch my drift?  Another annoying thing is that I like
listening to my party members banter.  The problem is that you run
through areas so fast that they would never start until right before i'm
about to leave the area.  So my option is sit here and listen to them
(which i did initially) or realize that the dialogue is poorly written
and just leave.

The
music was forgettable - I don't even remember it.  I think music in
games is often transparent.  You only notice it if it's great or if it
sucks.  DA:O had fantastic music that always seemed to fit what was
going on.  DA2 . . . forgettable music.

I'm tired of hearing serah and messare.  Those are the lamest ways to great people.

I'm
definitely tired of them trying to put an h in the word elven.  It's
elven not elvhen and definitely not elvhenen.  What the heck is
elvhenen?

I feel
like the whole game I was everyone's errand boy.  I was just thrown all
over and nothing took more than 20-25 minutes.  How epic is that?  you
just finished a 20 minute cave.  You're AMAZING.

I feel like
generally this game was just riding on the coattails of DA:O.   All the
run-ins with characters from DA:O seemed cheap and I felt like it
devalued DA:O and they devalued DA:2.  Plus I remember i was only a
couple hours into the game when I went
to the bone pit and after a 10 minute lack luster cave fought a high
dragon.  How devalued is that?  What happened to the long, epic fight up
a mountain with tons of lore and story and great characters before you
bang the gong and kill the high dragon.  This was definitely when I started realizing how big of a let down this game would be.

The game was super buggy.  Whether
it's dialogue repeated over and over and having to reload, or dialogue
not being able to start so I have to reload, or people stuck in my
party, it just seemed like there was no QC.

Now I kind
of liked what they did with qunari.  In DA:O they just kind of looked
like big humans but now they have more character.  They do kind of look
like mini-ogre's though.

When
I played through DA:O, I was in the camp where I wished the main
character talked.  Well, now that I got my wish I'm kind of regretting
it.

I actually
really liked the revamped skill trees and I feel as that was the
biggest (and maybe only) improvement over DA:O.  The actually flowed and
just generally made more sense.  I felt more in control of designing my characters.

The
changes to combat I'm kind of eh about.  For trash fights it seemed
like it was easier and quicker to just mow through everyone (to the
point where after the first wave of baddies goes down in like 2 seconds
then all my people have to just wait around for the next wave to show
up).  For boss fights, the combat just made it seem not as epic.  I think
the combat definitely kind of diablo-esque where i'm pretty much just
slamming buttons over and over.  Kind of seems like it takes much of the
strategy out of the game.  I'm a big fan of the tactics option and deck
that out and so in combat it's pretty much a hack'n'slash.

The
absolute CRAZIEST thing to me is when I keep hearing "They're trying to
make it more like Mass Effect."  I LOVE Mass Effect.  The
ONLY similarity between DA2 and mass effect is the main character talks.
 That's it.  They
are not similar at all other than that.  Mass Effect has deep and
interesting characters with deep and interesting plot points.  Plus
there's this little thing called a story arc that mass effect does
rather well.

I just find it all very interesting because when I heard
how soon the game was coming out I got worried that the game would be
really
short.  Well a friend of mine got through it before I started and he
told me it wasn't short and that he really liked it.  So I was really
excited about it.  Well
it turns out that Bioware's formula for success is to just make sure
the game takes a long time to get through all the content and it's okay
for quality to severely lack.

My mindset the past several years
has been if bioware announces a game, I immediately preorder the
collector's edition if possible, or the normal edition if one doesn't
exist.  I guess that has changed now.  I sincerely
hope that ME3 doesn't get this type of shoddy treatment.  Whenever DA3
comes out I'll wait to look at the reviews (btw, i did not read any
reviews
or comments about DA2 before I played.  I generally don't before
playing a game I know will be good so it doesn't spoil anything.)  but
I guess now DA and maybe even Bioware in general is in the 'unknown
quality' category.


6/10

Modifié par mhjenson, 11 avril 2011 - 04:33 .

[RDuke4413]

Let me start by saying I wasn't a fan of the first game, I was very disappointed by it.  I am a longtime fan of you guys. I made lots of criticisms of the last game, didn't buy expansion or any addons beyond the ones available at release.

You guys did a fantastic job with this game.  If I had a giant ego, I'd almost swear you read my review and changed most of the things I knocked you for in DA: O.

I'll start at my favorite part: The storyline and production.  I don't really like the overall DA world, it seems somewhat generic to me.  Grey Wardens, darkspawn, Orlais, Ferelden, none of it seems distinct enough for me to remember.  This may just be me turning into a crusty old bastard, I dunno.  Fantasy really isn't my bag anymore.  I find myself skipping reading codex entries, which is something that I never would have done in my younger days.  So this gripe is probably more my problem.

The overall story was good - again, it seemed somewhat generic, but perhaps this is simply a limitation of this type of game.  MUCH MUCH tighter control of the plot.  It seemed much more natural, I didn't find myself second-guessing every single decision or saying "I didn't mean to do that!" and reloading.  The few times that I did, I just went with it and let my decision ride.

The place where this game shined was the dialogue writing and the delivery by the voice talent.  This was also one of the strong points of DA:O in my opinion. I played a male rogue that used the purple voice option most of the time.  I was expecting at least an eye-roller or two, but damn, it was spot on and never flat.  Absolutely great writing in this regard, you guys are surpassing most stuff I see on TV and movies these days.  This was also the first game in which I really felt that the companion characters had convincing interactions of their own outside of those with the main character.  The amount of banter between the different characters and the quality of it was amazing.  It seemed consistent too, which makes me wonder if you had one person write all this stuff.  Can't compliment you guys enough on this, it is very impressive, and I wonder how much I missed.

*possible minor spoilers*

The characters were very solid.  Some, (the Arishok stands out to me, what a strong character, I actually felt unworthy at several points role-playing witty rogue remarks to him heh, his disappointment was profound) were great.  I didn't dislike any of them, unlike in the first one.  I can't figure out if that is a good thing or not.

*end spoiler*

The story was much more mature this time around as well, without all the bizarre tent antics and strange alternative lifestyle nonsense.  Heh.  The armor looked much better as well, without all the frilly stuff from DA:O that looked like it fell out of a WoW wardrobe.  Although Fenris was skirting dangerous FF7 territory with those giant axes and swords. 

The gameplay was faster paced.  Is it better... maybe.  I usually just ran around and stabbed things and let the A.I. run the show.  For the most part, other than boss fights, it worked, and was fun.  I played on normal difficulty, ran into a few sticking points but for the most part it was ok.  The simplistic item system was ok with me, a lot of the items seemed like junk that I would just sell, but then I've never been a stat junkie.

The graphics were good.  I downloaded the hi-res pack.  Your facial animations and lip-syncing were spot on, which is great considering most companies STILL can't manage it half the time.  The music was good, the Wounded Coast music sounded like the starmap music from Mass Effect heh.

The major downer for me was the reused levels - but considering how quick you came up with this game, and how good the main elements of this type of game are (in my opinion, I know a lot of people would like more complex storylines/gameplay), I'm going to give you a pass on this.  I will trade getting a good game without exploration in 2 years versus waiting however much longer it would have taken for you to design levels.


Conclusion: 9/10 Well done folks you have restored a lot of my faith in your abilities.  I favor simple quality over the complexity of something like DA:O. 

I would really like to see you guys try something other than Fantasy or Sci-Fi.  Something in a contemporary setting.  Would be interesting to see you stretch your legs outside of those two genres for a change.  Maybe something conspiracy-based?  I don't know.  Look at how successful Heavy Rain was.  Well, from a critical standpoint, anyways.  Heh.  Maybe the money isn't there.

[mhjenson]

RDuke4413 wrote...

Let me start by saying I wasn't a fan of the first game, I was very disappointed by it.  I am a longtime fan of you guys. I made lots of criticisms of the last game, didn't buy expansion or any addons beyond the ones available at release.

You guys did a fantastic job with this game.  If I had a giant ego, I'd almost swear you read my review and changed most of the things I knocked you for in DA: O.

I'll start at my favorite part: The storyline and production.  I don't really like the overall DA world, it seems somewhat generic to me.  Grey Wardens, darkspawn, Orlais, Ferelden, none of it seems distinct enough for me to remember.  This may just be me turning into a crusty old bastard, I dunno.  Fantasy really isn't my bag anymore.  I find myself skipping reading codex entries, which is something that I never would have done in my younger days.  So this gripe is probably more my problem.

The overall story was good - again, it seemed somewhat generic, but perhaps this is simply a limitation of this type of game.  MUCH MUCH tighter control of the plot.  It seemed much more natural, I didn't find myself second-guessing every single decision or saying "I didn't mean to do that!" and reloading.  The few times that I did, I just went with it and let my decision ride.

The place where this game shined was the dialogue writing and the delivery by the voice talent.  This was also one of the strong points of DA:O in my opinion. I played a male rogue that used the purple voice option most of the time.  I was expecting at least an eye-roller or two, but damn, it was spot on and never flat.  Absolutely great writing in this regard, you guys are surpassing most stuff I see on TV and movies these days.  This was also the first game in which I really felt that the companion characters had convincing interactions of their own outside of those with the main character.  The amount of banter between the different characters and the quality of it was amazing.  It seemed consistent too, which makes me wonder if you had one person write all this stuff.  Can't compliment you guys enough on this, it is very impressive, and I wonder how much I missed.

*possible minor spoilers*

The characters were very solid.  Some, (the Arishok stands out to me, what a strong character, I actually felt unworthy at several points role-playing witty rogue remarks to him heh, his disappointment was profound) were great.  I didn't dislike any of them, unlike in the first one.  I can't figure out if that is a good thing or not.

*end spoiler*

The story was much more mature this time around as well, without all the bizarre tent antics and strange alternative lifestyle nonsense.  Heh.  The armor looked much better as well, without all the frilly stuff from DA:O that looked like it fell out of a WoW wardrobe.  Although Fenris was skirting dangerous FF7 territory with those giant axes and swords. 

The gameplay was faster paced.  Is it better... maybe.  I usually just ran around and stabbed things and let the A.I. run the show.  For the most part, other than boss fights, it worked, and was fun.  I played on normal difficulty, ran into a few sticking points but for the most part it was ok.  The simplistic item system was ok with me, a lot of the items seemed like junk that I would just sell, but then I've never been a stat junkie.

The graphics were good.  I downloaded the hi-res pack.  Your facial animations and lip-syncing were spot on, which is great considering most companies STILL can't manage it half the time.  The music was good, the Wounded Coast music sounded like the starmap music from Mass Effect heh.

The major downer for me was the reused levels - but considering how quick you came up with this game, and how good the main elements of this type of game are (in my opinion, I know a lot of people would like more complex storylines/gameplay), I'm going to give you a pass on this.  I will trade getting a good game without exploration in 2 years versus waiting however much longer it would have taken for you to design levels.


Conclusion: 9/10 Well done folks you have restored a lot of my faith in your abilities.  I favor simple quality over the complexity of something like DA:O. 

I would really like to see you guys try something other than Fantasy or Sci-Fi.  Something in a contemporary setting.  Would be interesting to see you stretch your legs outside of those two genres for a change.  Maybe something conspiracy-based?  I don't know.  Look at how successful Heavy Rain was.  Well, from a critical standpoint, anyways.  Heh.  Maybe the money isn't there.

What game did you play because I want to play it.

I played dragon age 2 and it would be the opposite of anything resembling quality.

[snarf001]

Overall I thought the game was good.



Combat is hands down, far superior to DAO.  No more shuffling toward your target like a tortoise or waving your hands in the air for five seconds to cast a spell.  DA2 is now fast. quick, responsive and thus, becomes more intuitive.

I liked the voiced protagonist. Female Hawke did a better job. Having a voice gave Hawke life whereas in DAO it kinda annoyed me a little that everyone I spoke to had a voice while my Warden remained completely silent throughout conversations. I also liked in DA2 sometimes Hawke would respond to the party banter and not a companion the rest of the party fail to acknowledge is actually traveling with them.

Despite some naft bits, the story was actually very good. From the start I had no idea what I was doing and even throughout the entire game it gave us very little lead as to what is really going on. I was kinda lost for the large part of the game, but in a good way because it built up suspense and tension. In DAO, I knew from the word go I needed to become a Grey Warden and defeat the Archdemon....the main story ended before it even started.

If Bio hadn't hyped this game into some massive epic as they did it would have been better recieved. I thought the concept of playing the game within the walls of Kirkwall was very good. It gave a sense of belonging and the feeling of home. Places around Kirkwall became my very backyard as I knew every inch of the place.  It got me immersed with all the politics involved.

A big disapointment came at the end of the game because there was no parade lap, a reward token for the long hours invested into the game. It just ended...rather abruptly.

One of the biggest gripe I have with this instalment are the cloned locations. Every cave, warehouse, dungeon and house interior layout looks exactly the same as the next. Not sure what bio were thinking here but if there are no excuses then I can only put it down to being....very lazy.

Modifié par snarf001, 11 avril 2011 - 07:54 .

[GUFCryptkeeper]

Started to Play DA 2 a few days ago. I have to say that I really liked Origins. I played ME I and II, and also liked them. From my point of view the gameplay changes for ME II were not very good - nevertheless the story kept me playing and I finished the game. The problem was that the fight were not interesting in general... it was similar to a simple shooter but in general much to simple (just a very simple party management and the shooting itself was also not very rewarding)...
Now there is Dragon Age II and I was really looking forward to play it. A friend of mine did not buy the game after he made bad experiences with ME II, which he did not like at all.I thought until now most bioware were at least entertaining and much better than the games of the competitors...
Unfortunately currently I think my friend was right:
Nearly all changed design decisions are bad (at least from my point of view):
- I like to control every single party member and hate to have them AI controlled. Until now I did not find the switches to shut down the AI. instead my mage does heal members, which I doesnt want to heal. When I want to heal I can bat the there are hours of cooldown time before...
- nearly every single fight has to do with a second wave of spawning monsters, which totally prevents any tactical, stationary fighting (tank to defend a door way, while mages act as artillery). the spawning monsters usually apear in a cleared area and are therefore not very plausible...
- the level design is not plausible at all and never delivers the experience of a consistent world around the main character... there is much to less to discover...
- the ogre fight in the prelude and during the escape with the family did feel like a deja vu
- some levels are just ugly and does not look very well designed
- the startegic over the head view is missing - it is extremely problematic to use area spells ins a good manner... just because it is extremely difficult to place the spell as required
- I like to equip any single party member and like to loot fallen enemies...nothing in dragon age II
- why play a prelude and after this build a character, whith a complete changed look than the protagonist of the prelude...
-the interface is not nice at all... looks like a beta version of a real nice looking interface... (same is valid for minimap and overview map)
The list is much longer, but I just want to express my frustration that questionable design decisions ruin a potentially very good game. Before DA II, I bought any single bioware title,, without caring too much about reviews.
After DA II I will not do this anymore. I could think a lot of old school rpg fans feel similar.
From my point of few bioware should take some time and reconsider it's core competence. Instead of publishing unpolished products like DA II I would much prefer more DLC or even old school add ons for Origins and waiting a little bit longer for part II.
I hope that there will be some other fanboys producing old school party rpgs for people like me.... I think bioware stopped to produce games like I loved them for years to have more access on the console systems. That's simply sad, because also on the consoles there are much more polished, balanced and attractive titles....

Modifié par GUFCryptkeeper, 11 avril 2011 - 08:38 .

[mhjenson]

GUFCryptkeeper wrote...

Before DA II, I bought any single bioware title,, without caring too much about reviews.
After DA II I will not do this anymore. I could think a lot of old school rpg fans feel similar.
From my point of few bioware should take some time and reconsider it's core competence. Instead of publishing unpolished products like DA II I would much prefer more DLC or even old school add ons for Origins and waiting a little bit longer for part II.
I hope that there will be some other fanboys producing old school party rpgs for people like me.... I think bioware stopped to produce games like I loved them for years to have more access on the console systems. That's simply sad, because also on the consoles there are much more polished, balanced and attractive titles....

And the lesson we should all learn is that Bioware doesn't care about it's core fans.  They did the math and realized stupid games that make no sense but have instant and almost constant action like CoD make bank and sell like 10 million copies.  They decided "screw the roughly 1 million people who like to play great rpg's, we're trying to appeal to the bigger crowd."

I still haven't made up my mind whether bioware just decided to abandon it's core fans or if they just somehow thought we would continue to gobble up whatever had the Bioware logo on it regardless of quality or even what type of game it is.

I hate sounding like a dead horse but it seems like the focus at bioware has definitely changed from "we make great games" to "we put out whatever we think will increase profit margins."

Is the rpg fan base much smaller than other genre's?  Obviously yes.  But the desire for quality classic styled rpg's isn't dead and if Bioware now has a quality problem, or won't make them, we will look elsewhere in the future.

[Zanos]

This is probably my first and my last post on these forums, not because I dislike the community but because I don't make a habit of writing about games unless I really have something to say. Having finished Dragon Age II, I felt drawn to the forums to seek out a general impression as to how others felt about this game. You will have to forgive me as I am a bit of an amateur game historian of sorts, and I equate certain games that I play with others depending on the features and the story or plot present in each of them. I also grew up with the gold box games (I am showing my age here), and I, like many of you, have witnessed the growth of roleplaying games over the last two decades. What people fail to realize on these forums is the simple fact that many of the returning fans of classic Bioware games expected a role playing game, they did not expect an Assassin's Creed or even, if I dare say, a Legacy of Kain game, which I was constantly reminded of while playing through Dragon Age II. It has all of the components, with a few changes interspersed, but very similar none the less: a hack-and-slash feel in combat separated by in-game cut-scenes that explain the backdrop of the story with a few surprises thrown in, as well as generally upgraded looks and abilities as the game progresses. The people here that are criticizing the most simply feel betrayed by the fact that they were expecting something from a franchise that dates back to Baldur's Gate and what they received instead was nothing of the sort.

This is not to say that I did not enjoy Dragon Age II at all, I did--at parts. The events of Act II, for me, were probably the best, even though others might disagree and claim Act III to be of far more importance. I felt rather that the events of Act III were rather haphazard and thrown together to push the story towards a climatic end instead of offering any sort of build up to that end. The Arishok was, by far, the most interesting character to me in terms of depth and purpose. It brought me back to the captivating dialogue of Planescape Torment when I spoke with him, and having to be forced into the action that all of us were forced into rather than, what one poster described, as joining him in reviling the city of Kirkwall and everything it stood for in more ways than one.

The companions of Dragon Age II were fine, I suppose. I should say that they were fine in terms of tolerability but remarkably unmemorable given some of the characters that we have seen from Dragon Age I as well as Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and even a few from the KotoR series. The dialogue choices, forced by the dialogue wheel of the Mass Effect series, leaves one feeling slighted by the fact that, as another poster said, what you actually say was not what you often intended. I did not feel particularly drawn to any character throughout the course of the game, there were some I enjoyed more than others in parts, but again, many of them felt FORCED, and yes, I will use this as the recurring theme of my review because at heart this game felt forced in just about every way.

I actually had something happen to me while playing Dragon Age II that I have never had while playing any other role-playing game that I remembered: I stopped playing due to the tediousness of the recycled environments. When I realized that every location was essentially the same, I grew frustrated and antsy and actually stopped playing for a couple days before I could stomach returning to it to grind through some more side quests that, again, felt forced. The linear environments felt forced by guiding you through the windy singular tunnels that you have gone through hour after hour after hour through the same types of battles with the Houdini effect that absolutely ruined the combat for me. The combat, for the most part, was mildly entertaining at certain moments but the raining of enemies, the boss battles with adds, the continued recipe that was forced on the player with little to no variety nor plot-defining features really took away from a general sense of immersion.

People play role-playing games for the sake of a few core reasons:

1. They want to experience a world in its totality.
2. They want to be in control of making choices in this world, and having those choices actually mean something.
3. They want to learn about the lore and history of this world.
4. They want to bring along an interesting cast of characters that have an affect on the main character's story as well as teaching you something about this world based on the place/race/gender/profession that the character is or practices.
5. (The most important point) They want to feel like they are actually inside of another world, replete with a series of events, a soundtrack that draws them in, dialogue that moves the story forward, and the power to make important decisions that have an affect both on the world itself, on the main character, on his or her companions, and on the history and lore of the place.

You might point out that you are tired of the save the world motif, to which I will reply: Baldur's Gate was not a series about saving the world. In fact, it was something of the opposite, and let's not forget when that series came out. There are many more examples but that one will suffice.

I feel that Dragon Age II broke the immersion meter so much that I felt like I was truly playing an action game rather than a roleplaying game. I felt what I had to say had little to do with my actual impact on the place, and the forced necessity to "fight it out" at every given situation. Maybe some people liked this, but, as I said already, sometimes in a gaming world where you make the decisions, you actually want to play diplomatically and have that make a difference rather than always resorting to exploding bodies and AOE firestorms.

Gutting the skills and crafting part of DA:O was a mistake. You could have simplified it, but this was not simplification, it was elimination. Simply relegating lock-picking and traps to your cunning attribute was both a cop out and an affront to the entire rogue class.

The wizard was fine if not a bit overpowered. I would have liked a few newer spells, which I suppose come in the form of the new specializations, but this is not D&D where you have your circles of spells of increasing power, you have a bag of tricks that are all, more or less, useful and, as such, it would be nice to mix that bag up from time to time.

The warrior was also fine, I guess, though the constant rush and strike and the button mashing (I am on a PC) combined with intense cooldown left you in a state of intense confusion: you want me to press a lot of buttons but you don't at the same time.


The monster compendium in this game was sorely lacking, I'm sorry. I will return to what I liked about it, but really...come on, it was a simple copy and paste from DA:O, and it really does show that you aren't trying that hard.

The lore was also sorely lacking. I didn't feel that I really learned anything new about Thedas in this game other than having tasted a little bit of (one of) the Free Cities and a smidgen of the Free Marches, especially because you brought back Tamlen's clan and dropped them from the sky onto the outskirts of Kirkwall, and here I thought the nomadic Elves traveled (usually from forest to forest) by those glorified RVs, but I guess they also turn into boats? Reminds me of Oregon Trail. I wonder how many people they lost when they tried to float them across the channel.

But, I am trying to keep your attention Bioware, if you are even reading this at all, and I would like to tell you what I did like: the family motif was a nice touch, even though...well, I won't say for fear of spoilers. Some of the companions did have interesting personalities. The voice overs were a nice touch. Some of the side quests were a bit streamlined and took out some of the tediousness of the 'collect a million of this', at least, until the sword quest, but they were all right except towards the end when you realize they are all essentially the same in the exact same environments over and over. The graphics, at least for me, were nice. Some parts of the combat system were entertaining, I'll admit, but I did feel they completely stripped any sort of tactics from combat, and so the recycled forced fights really did get boring after a while and the boss fights always played out in the EXACT same way, which I felt was more misdirection on the part of the development team thinking they would fool the players into thinking that there was more around the corner when there wasn't. Some of the weapons and armor (at least for the main character) did look cool, I'll admit, but the lack of customizable armor for your party's companions, again, really detracted from the immersion factor. There is a way that you can be economical and still also create a sense of control, on the part of the player, about his or her decisions and how they wish to equip their companions, and this option was never presented, it was, again, forced.

But I suppose what really killed it for me when I watched the credits rolling was thinking on the world in which I had just experienced and feeling cheated. I felt cheated by the recycled environments, the lack of exploration, the lack of learning more about Thedas other than a few trifling details, and the lack of...well, VOLUME that is normally present in a role-playing game. You don't have to inundate the player with environments to explore, but you didn't even try to accommodate that unwritten rule in most, if not all, RPGs: a player wants a world to explore, not a city, a mountain pass, a couple ambush sites, and a lot of caves.

I will wrap it up before I continue this wall of text. Dragon Age II was, in my opinion, an outrageous deviation from a genre that Bioware helped to define and an injustice to their previous products. It feels like you don't care about the standard that you helped to create and that you are more concerned with creating forced, linear, streamlined play marketed towards an audience that normally does not play role-playing games. Why couldn't you have made a spin off? A console-only hack and slash and said it took place within Thedas but was not a sequel to a game it is clearly not? Why did you do that?

The gripes you will see on this forum have less to do with people just whining and complaining and more about a general feeling of disappointment. People were led to believe that this was a role-playing game, a successor to a game that they really enjoyed, and a spiritual successor to one of, if not the best role-playing games series of all time, and I don't say that lightly. People were expecting a game befitting of a genre they enjoy and Bioware completely broke from that and marketed this game as something it was clearly not; if you wanted to grab non-RPG fans, you could have made a spin off. Instead we are left with a skeleton of a game, sorely confined, and forced to play out a story not of our own making but rather a pre-fabricated plot that leaves us feeling bewildered if this is the same gaming company that brought us the priceless gems that it has.

I hope you listen and consider some of the criticism on these forums. I am not advocating that you completely return to DA:O for the next possible installment as I know that would be akin to asking the sky to rain money, but I hope you consider what left your core base so disappointed and try to achieve some sort of synthesis between what you left behind and what you are trying to create.

5/10.

[Jills Toy]

javierabegazo wrote...

Any comments on the upgrading system or Armor?

Just one: When upgrading armor for the companions, their appearance remains the same, unlike DAO. Would have liked to see the different armor when companions are upgraded. That was pretty cool in DAO

[ian528]

I am a BioWare fanboy. I have played almost every game they have put out (MDK one day I will play you too) and to be succinct I think they are moving the genre forward in storytelling perspective most times. This game is not the game I hoped to play. I think that its fast sales success figures to more a lack of product in the market at this moment then the fact it is a great game.

Cons:
* Bugs.
-There is an unlimited xp gold bug that is extremely easy to take advantage of.
-Corrupting saves. I am one of the many people who had most of his saves corrupt at one point.
-Getting purchased extras. So I have multiple accounts associated with my EA ID and well that pretty much breaks the system.
* Tightwad questing. You don't get much money. Resource management is fine except the equipment that costs me 49 gold to buy sells back for maybe 2 gold.
* Racial hegemony. Great part about first game was being able to play multiple races. Thats gone.
* Armor for your party. Only you will be able to use the equipment you find. Yep it sucks as much as you think it does.
* Mana pool with a spell recharge rate. Mana pool disappears as you try enable sustained effects. And the spells take forever to recharge.
* Weak central story. The overarching story is just not well developed or really good.
* Depressing. I get this is a dark world and things have consequences. But there is a profound lack of joy in this world.
* Extra weak ending.
* Overuse of the same environments.
* Racially Insensitive. Try to make a black character.

Pros:
* Character dialog. It is adult and hilariously disturbing at times.
* Smaller quest stories really well done.
* Excellent characters.
* Control changes for console players. This is probably a negative on a PC.
* Sense of consequences of actions.

I played to the end for the first time. I want to play it again but I don't know that I will there are many problems with this game. It does feel rushed. They addressed some of the problems that people had playing the first Dragon Age much to the detriment of Dragon Age 2. The move to make you more present in the story and voice the character does do that. But they then take you out of the story and kill continuity by having you direct only certain years in your characters life. You spend a year as a smuggler or a mercenary. You do not play that year out. This is a major missed opportunity. Oh and that major fight in the game trailer you see is not the major fight of the game. It is one of the subplots(one of the better ones but still a subplot). And get ready to walk the same maps. You have seen almost all the maps you will ever see nearly 15 hours in. One map does take a while to unveil and then is immediately overused.

Dragon Age is suppose to be dark fantasy. It would be nice to for once meet a group that does not completely hate some other group. Also although the treatment of mages in this environment is truly wrong they nearly all deserve it for the propensity to turn to blood magic at the drop of a hat. It achieves a depressing environment that just does not have to always be.

The loot system here is crap. The best weapons you get for 2 stalwart characters you get possibly at the beginning of the game and then should never not have them equipped Bianca (crossbow of Varric) and the Fadeshear ( one-handed sword for Aveline or you). This means 2 of the characters you will use the most don't need anything you can basically give them. And only you get to wear any of the armor. Each character has a look and that doesn't change no matter how you go through the game. Your appearance can change quite drastically. Oh and the pounds of loot you turn in is worth basically nothing. So the only reason you want loot is that the random drops will probably have better armor then you can find in the stores.

There are just too many issues. I keep wanting to hit on a good part and it is hard to find them. I can not recommend this game to anyone.

[mhjenson]

ian528 wrote...

I think that its fast sales success figures to more a lack of product in the market at this moment then the fact it is a great game.

I think the fact that it's selling faster than DA:O shows how good of a game DA:O was.  Lots of people played it and loved it so are more willing to jump on DA:2 sooner.  After this disaster I have my prediction for how fast DA:3 sells.

ian528 wrote...

There are just too many issues. I keep wanting to hit on a good part and it is hard to find them. I can not recommend this game to anyone.

100% agree

[Green Monster]

My review: 5/10 - moderately satisfying
Played as a male rogue, finished up about a week ago. ( I work and don't get alot of concentrated play time)

Liked:
The concept of the frame narrative and general idea of the story.
The increased banter and that it paused if you did an action. I wish it had more impact on game play.
In game character appearance was improved.
Big boats - several well voiced lines and generally good voice actors
cliff hanger ending

Did not like:
execution of the frame narative and story line
companions - no real sense of connection to any & forced bi sexual romance options
repetative environments and fights, combat was mostly too easy and got boring

In short the whole was not as good as the sum of its parts. Put another way. After completing it once I decided use my limited game time to replay Icewind dale II instead of replaying DAII.

[Jills Toy]

Fiirst of all, I consider myself an RPG player but am nowhere near as good or shall I say experienced as many others. I say that because I'm still trying to learn some of their jargon when reading their reviews. SO I guess I'm somewhat of an amateur but also someone who likes games we have some control of events like the RPGs and I have enjoyed everyone I have played in the past by Bioware.

What I like about the game is the improved graphics (characters have more realistic facial expressions), on HDTV anyway since I don't have the wave issues others have been writing about. The story line is really great as is the banter between companions and the ocassional response from the main character Hawke (something that wasn't in DAO). Its kind of cool to hear them talk while traveling and switching characters just to hear the different sparring between them.  Some pretty good wit and laughs. Having Varrik narate is also something I like but may probably limited the game play overall, I'll explain later. Also, I could have sworn an NPC quoted a Jimmi Hendrix song while traveling in Lowtown..that was awesome being an ol' time rock-n-roll fan.

I like the different and varying personalities of the characters and their interactions with each other as I mentioned above because they seem much more diverse than DAO. Isabella is a treat as is the naivete of Merril (truly funny at times) or the abrutness of Ferris, you never know how he'll respond at times. Cut scenes where companions are joking or arguing with each other is something I like as well.
 
I thought the controls were good as they're not much different than DAO meaning the battle menu, etc. which made it familiar and quick for me to get into the playing of the game.

What I didn't like about the game is it seems to have departed from DAO in many ways. I really don't have that much control on events which kind of goes back to Varrik narating the story. You're pretty much forced in a single direction to include completing some side quests in a specific order. I'll need to play through it a few more times to confirm my opinion but I really don't see it changing that much because of the narative. The only fix to that I could see is having the narative and cut scenes with the Seeker change based on decisions made by the play itself. I said I'm an amateur RPGer but felt this one lacks far behind what we could control in DAO. Just my opinion.

Romancing a character was much more fun (almost like a side quest) and sometimes difficult to romance some characters in DAO (like walking on egg shells) while in DA II there's not much romancing dialog or options at all. The very few scenes were pretty weak as well but I've noticed that diminish from ME I to DAO to ME II. Must be a trend. 

Mansions, caves, alleys, etc. are all the same. Could use some more diversity as it got pretty boring seeing the same layout over and over again.

Bad guys exploding after being back stabbed was weird. Kind of cool graphically but didn't understand why they exploded. I also thought enemies (human, qunari or elvin) appearing out of nowhere was a bit unrealistic. Jumping off a wall or coming from around a corner was okay but from thin air?

After defeating some of the major demons, dragons or whatever I was left with junk or a few silver. Seems there should be better rewards in some cases as with opening master chests.

I'm sure I have more to say as far as what I like or dislike but you have enough to read from everyone already. I just wanted to get across that there are some really cool things about the game and some I thought were a major a departure from what got me hooked on Bioware's games.

6/10

[Jills Toy]

Jills Toy wrote...

Fiirst of all, I consider myself an RPG player but am nowhere near as good or shall I say experienced as many others. I say that because I'm still trying to learn some of their jargon when reading their reviews. SO I guess I'm somewhat of an amateur but also someone who likes games we have some control of events like the RPGs and I have enjoyed everyone I have played in the past by Bioware.

What I like about the game is the improved graphics (characters have more realistic facial expressions), on HDTV anyway since I don't have the wave issues others have been writing about. The story line is really great as is the banter between companions and the ocassional response from the main character Hawke (something that wasn't in DAO). Its kind of cool to hear them talk while traveling and switching characters just to hear the different sparring between them.  Some pretty good wit and laughs. Having Varrik narate is also something I like but may probably limited the game play overall, I'll explain later. Also, I could have sworn an NPC quoted a Jimmi Hendrix song while traveling in Lowtown..that was awesome being an ol' time rock-n-roll fan.

I like the different and varying personalities of the characters and their interactions with each other as I mentioned above because they seem much more diverse than DAO. Isabella is a treat as is the naivete of Merril (truly funny at times) or the abrutness of Ferris, you never know how he'll respond at times. Cut scenes where companions are joking or arguing with each other is something I like as well.
 
I thought the controls were good as they're not much different than DAO meaning the battle menu, etc. which made it familiar and quick for me to get into the playing of the game.

What I didn't like about the game is it seems to have departed from DAO in many ways. I really don't have that much control on events which kind of goes back to Varrik narating the story. You're pretty much forced in a single direction to include completing some side quests in a specific order. I'll need to play through it a few more times to confirm my opinion but I really don't see it changing that much because of the narative. The only fix to that I could see is having the narative and cut scenes with the Seeker change based on decisions made by the play itself. I said I'm an amateur RPGer but felt this one lacks far behind what we could control in DAO. Just my opinion.

Romancing a character was much more fun (almost like a side quest) and sometimes difficult to romance some characters in DAO (like walking on egg shells) while in DA II there's not much romancing dialog or options at all. The very few scenes were pretty weak as well but I've noticed that diminish from ME I to DAO to ME II. Must be a trend. 

Mansions, caves, alleys, etc. are all the same. Could use some more diversity as it got pretty boring seeing the same layout over and over again.

Bad guys exploding after being back stabbed was weird. Kind of cool graphically but didn't understand why they exploded. I also thought enemies (human, qunari or elvin) appearing out of nowhere was a bit unrealistic. Jumping off a wall or coming from around a corner was okay but from thin air?

After defeating some of the major demons, dragons or whatever I was left with junk or a few silver. Seems there should be better rewards in some cases as with opening master chests.

I'm sure I have more to say as far as what I like or dislike but you have enough to read from everyone already. I just wanted to get across that there are some really cool things about the game and some I thought were a major a departure from what got me hooked on Bioware's games.

6/10

OOPS! I almost forgot another dislike. When characters' armor is upgraded they still have the same attire as when they set out except Hawke! If they're getting new armor then let them wear it visually as well.

[Ghidorah14]

Rented it.

Played it non-stop for 4 days.

Played as a female warrior to differentiate her from my Warden. Shield/sword setup.

First playthrough clocked in around 30+ hours.

What a waste.


I have too much to say here (I'd rather join David from the DA Podcast on skype and vent all day than type it all out). So I'll keep it short and sweet.

4/10

Its a pretty "meh" game. On its own, its not terrible, but compared to DAO, its just embarrassing.

Its like DAO showed up for art class with a picaso painting, and DA2 was too lazy to make one, so, at the last minute, rushed out the door and came to class with a macaroni drawing.

The combat is blah. I can tolerate it, but it gets old around act 3. At least it looks cool.....sorta.

Environment argument is obvious, so moving on.

Music kicked ass, but big no-no points for copy-pasting scores from DAO.

Story felt forced, and very uninteresting. "Champion of Kirwall." Big deal. The Champion did...what? Beat back a few qunari? Whoop-de-do.  So much for being the "most important person in Thedas." Hawke didnt do jack-crap. I should know, I was there!

Characters were hit and miss.
-Aveline surprised me, as I thought she'd be more of a She-Hulk type, but was otherwise as deep as a puddle and stiff as a board.
-Anders I didnt mind so much, but God, I miss the old Anders so much. We should call this guy "A.I.N.O." from now on; "Anders In Name Only." I agreed with his "plight of the mages" but he started to take things a little too far. But I decided to stand with him for the lulz. I romanced him on my second playthrough (female mage) but didnt get to
finish that playthrough. Still, I found his romance to be good.
-Fenris didnt interest me enough to have him in the party alot. He was just sorta there. And the mage hate was kinda overdone.
-I hated Isabella. First playthrough, I barely used her. Then she did some stuff that really pissed me off. And she was pretty goddamn selfish. Screw her.....but not in that way.
-Varric I liked. He was interesting, funny, and knew when to lay down the jokes. Plus, he wasnt biased on, well....anything!
-Bethany was cool to have, but I honestly could take or leave her. She didnt really click with me.
-Carver, on the other hand, I LOVED having around. I found the sibling rivalry to be much more engaging than Bethany's instant friendship, especially since I was trying to make him my friend. Carver is much deeper than Bethany is, and he makes swinging my mage staff like a moron worthwhile.
-Merrill was my love interest in playthrough #1 (lol lesbian love ftw).....and it kinda sucked. Any flirting seemed to go right over her head, and even though it works with the whole "virigin girl" thing, the actual romance felt very flat and shallow by the time they actually made love. Then.....nothing! A few scenes here and there, and a couple kisses. Thats it! Her romance didnt feel like a romance at all! I felt so cheated by the end of the game, I said "screw it, I'm gonna give Anders a whirl."

I could go on and on, but I'm rambling now.

So...yeah. Sucky game, decent on its own merits, lets pretend it never happened, kthxbai.

Modifié par Ghidorah14, 13 avril 2011 - 04:49 .

[NICE-N-EVIL]

I guess "disapointed" is the right word for Dragon Age 2. Regardless, there will always be fans or haters, both spectrums, who will debate this to no end.

[SnT2k]

Disclaimer: I didn't play DA:O and jumped straight to DA2; I didn't read the marketing materials for DA2 or any of those hype. Thus, I probably don't have the expectations that some players had. (If you're wondering how I got to know about the game, it's because of its LGBT inclusion)

That said, I regard myself as a JRPG player (grew up with Square Enix and Atlus games and played the Sonic RPG on the DS which was also done by Bioware) with the exception of very few MMORPG.

Plot/Writing:

Simply stated, the writing is MAGNIFICENT. Note that I didn't use the word "awesome" since that seems to "direct" for me. Here are a couple of points:

In general, one can get an appreciation of the plot if one starts to look at the big picture; there are a lot of subtleties involved. It's easy to miss the plot's magnificence if one would just plow through the quests and taking everything at face value; one needs to think about the implications. Specifics on this follows.

For example, in the first act, some people dismiss the side quests as "unnecessary" and the "deep roads expedition" as being too "random". At face value, yes, it seems random. However, if you think about it,

• You just finished working off your debt
• You have no job and few connections
• The deep roads is your best bet at making a lot of money
• if Bethany was still alive, it gives her the opportunity to escape the templars for a while (going any further than this will result in spoilers).

The more interesting thing, however, is how the side quests whose initial purpose is for you to earn money has a more important secondary purpose: to introduce you to Kirkwall. How did you get to know about the plight of the mages? Through a side quest. How did you get to know the Qunari? Through a side quest. The situation of the Dalish Elves? The issue of slavery? The structure of the government in Kirkwall? All of them are through side quests. Granted however, the Side Quests and some of the other quests are random and just plain dumb (I'm specifically referring to the fetch quests).

Another thing I'd like to point out is the absence of a central villain. I love how the pieces just fall into place (elaborating further will result in spoilers). Some people complain that because there's no central villain made the game "directionless" but I disagree; having one might actually make the plot too generic.

The "linearity" or the inability of Hawke to change destiny is not much of an issue for me. It highly reinforces the point that the Champion is not entirely responsible for the mess Thedas currently is in, which was contrary to the Seeker's initial impression (she thought that the Champion is the mastermind of all the mess).

The Lore is really tight. I loved it even if some are TL;DR.

The following are "nitty-gritty" impressions as opposed to the "overall impressions of the plot"

• One of the dialogue that struck me the most was between Hawke and the Grand Cleric. At first, she seems "weak" and indecisive but upon talking to her, I discovered that her conviction on her neutrality is strong and that she does make sensible arguments. Moreover, this sort of reminds me of the Catholic Church's stance during the Holocaust when people are lambasting them for not doing anything.
• The codex entry: "The Maker's First Children" is wonderfully written.
• The party banters are awesome.
• The cast is colorful. Loved their personalities.
• Interesting lines during the final battle.
• The ending could've used an epilogue party talk or something (or more romancing dialogues) though I guess that will probably destroy the suspense.
• The time between acts (3 years) seems a bit too arbitrary and long, you could do with 3 months or 1 year... unless it's something needed for DA3 or something

Gameplay

I generally liked the gameplay. The battles against the Rock Wraith, Mature Dragon (Deep Roads) and High Dragon kept me on the edge and really got me into planning. However, there are a couple of points for improvement:

• An overhead/tactical view would be welcome. I think it sort of destroys immersion though.
• How terrain height factors in during combat is inconsistent. Lots of frustration when using ranged attacks.

The save/auto-save feature is great. Keep it

The friendship/rivalry feature is a "not-sure-if-want". On one hand, it adds variety to interactions and gives you a visible indicator of your status with your companions. On the other hand, it makes me wanna pull out a FAQ for every dialog choice.... which kinda destroys the experience (then again, I think it's really just my fault for pulling a FAQ in the first place)

Technicals/Execution

Map reuse is fine. Being also a game developer, I understand the need to reduce cost by reusing assets. From what I observe, only the indoor areas are reused, the outdoors aren't. Then again it's probably because I played too many games that feature "dynamic random dungeon generation" that has a ton of reuse which is why I'm not really bothered by those.

What bothered me a lot though are the bugs present in the game. Looping cutscenes, bugged quests, mouse detection problems, etc. This is the first game I've played to have encountered a ton of bugs without even looking at the FAQs. It felt like playing a beta build and destroyed immersion.

The voice acting, facial expressions and cinematography... I LOVE THEM ALL. Though there are minor issues (cross-eyed minor characters during cutscenes, etc), it's generally fine.

It's a good thing that the DRM is less intrusive... but I had to enter the game's serial 2 times and the online pass' serial 3 times... (I got the boxed version) it's annoying.

Closing Remarks

Props to EA/Bioware for making the game affordable in the South-East Asia region. I really appreciate the efforts.

To the writers, keep up the good work! For me, the plot/writing made the game, further enhanced by the voice acting and character animation, a fine piece of art. It made me think, reflect, depressed, excited, laugh and all that.

To the programmers, uh... good work. Try to improve the scripting tool probably? Not sure about your content workflow so can't really comment much about it. TBH most of the bugs I encountered are in the scripting aspect, not really in the game engine (save the mouse detection bugs).

Modifié par SnT2k, 13 avril 2011 - 08:33 .