3274 réponses à ce sujet

[JayDea]

Alright, so this where we can give our impressions on DA2... well, I haven't finished my first playthrough yet and my opinion is quite balanced... "surprisingly" just like I was with ME2.

On the overall aspect, DA2 feels like a pretty interesting game on its own, although I'm fairly disappointed with some changes from DAO/A.
I'm sure it's been discussed (and trolled) over and over already but the feeling I get is that it's being pushed towards pseudo-FPS more than necessary (ME was already pretty high on shooting so ME2 didn't add too much, but it feels more exagerated in DA2 compared to DAO). It may be just a feeling, but where's the charm/intimidate/convince mechanism gone? every now and then there's a charm-diamond-answer, but DAO had skills where you could invest points and combine with strength or cunning... instead, it makes you wonder why you have to bother talking with the people you're about to slay anyway (ok, there's the approval rating of the companions, I know), that's one example but it's not the main concern yet.

One of the terrible disappointment for me, was the level recycling for many sidequests. Now that was really chocking. There's like, 3 levels and depending on the quest, only different rooms blocked. Those are even visible on the map! I really was like "what? 50 bucks for that???".

Anyway, I keep playing because the game remains somewhat entertaining (I enjoy exploring plot options, more than micro-managing combats) and there I start to grow upset about the companions relationships limits... You're given one chance to discuss a topic with a companion and then there's no more discussion until the next act... isn't it meant to be a RPG? can't I choose when I want to bring a topic in? just because I don't pick the right option straight away I'm being forced to skip that part? (Isabella, act1, drink, for those who know)

Soooo, I keep playing, because I want to find out more about the general plot and finish a playthrough at least. I reach the end of Act1 and there I feel like either I picked really badly my skills/equipment/etc. or there's a really poor choice from BW/EA.
I think about the way I played so far and I get the feeling the only class that get some benefit from better equipment ends up being the warrior because all fights are done so you need a maxed out tank to get over with. Healer mages are useless with the huge cooldown to heal (not to mention the potions cooldown), rogue archers don't deal much damage unless the enemy is one of the low-health-add, rogue DW animations are impressive but these poor souls are useless in crowds. So the only way to deal with the opponents that are a bit challenging, is having a tank running around to keep the oponent focused while the other deal damge for an hour. Might be why there's so many warriors and mages in the companions. Really, it feels like the only way to play is being a tank with three mages to keep you up, talk about a champion...

Now, honestly, these topics have been discussed and everyone's milleage may vary, but DA2 remains an entertaining game... alone... when I look at it as the sequel of DAO... well, I can't just call it a sequel, perhaps a fork...
To me it just looks like a completely different game that could have been called "Hawke's Age 1" instead... I spent hours in DAO and what do I get? A few events vaguely mentionned here and there. Just like ME... I find it really disappointing to see BW/EA trashing the time I spent on the first game to allow people who didn't play it to hop in (considering the price, make a bundle with the first game for those who didn't have it FFS).
Unless there's a huge sequel that puts all the pieces together, I see almost no connection between DAO events (read "my decisions") and DA2, so I feel quite fooled by the "choice you make in DAO will have dire consequences in DA2"... bollocks to that! I know I haven't played the whole game yet, but feel just like playing ME2 after ME1 where the only events that really got some impact on the sequel, was the decision regarding the council before fighting Saren. And don't tell me about Fist, Helena Blake, Nassana, etc. I could put more example if needed.
Does BW/EA really feel genuine telling us to be careful about our choices when the only effect in the sequels is a bunch of lousy anecdotes? ok I'm being a bit harsh here, ME2 is following ME1 a bit more than DA2 is on DAO.

Ah well, I will keep playing it anyway, just to explore the options and all the funny references every now and then or the humorous talks, but really, I don't feel like following BW again on another RPG as I did for DA and ME.

On the technical side, it's a nice looking game, the gameplay out of combats isn't great (I miss the tactical cam-view of DAO) and finding myself alone to fight a dragon because my party found it a good idea to take a break in the stairs leading to the hall until I summoned them in can be irritating. Or having my rogue attacking a pillar instead of running around it to hit hit the foe standing behind it.
All stats (equipment, weapons, abilities, skills) seem to not have much of a meaning anymore.
The overall feeling of "best attitude is to be always nice and to help everyone with their problems (sodding lazy slackers)" is kind of boring, it's like you have to follow a righteous path to keep your party, why isn't there some of them that would be kind of "evil" and instead of being the savior of mankind, be able to become the new tyran of Kirkwall? or be able to mix both? Maybe I'm missing something, but I just feel it's sometimes too polished.

Anyway, I like the game, I wouldn't play it if I didn't, but sometimes I feel BW/EA put too much slack into consistency.

[CaptainBanana]

I guess this will be my final opinion.

I think the greatest disappointment for me is that after developing a truly great epic RPG like DAO, Bioware was on the cusp of something great. They had so many directions they could go in to add to their success. Man, I could of wrote a story for them that would of been much more entertaining then what they finally threw at us. I am not even in the business.

I am still playing DAO and have played it repeatitively since I purchased it 2 years ago. No other game has compelled me to use so much of my free time. I can't beleive Bioware is on the cusp of throwing it all away. Again this is only my opinion, and I quite understand DA2 was not another DAO.

As far as Bioware "chirping- up" their sales on DA2, I wonder how many where "pre-orders" and how many where directly attributive to DAO players who Bioware seduced into thinking DA2 would at least equal DAO (if not follow the same story-line), by making us feel that what we created in DAO would continue forward.
 
It will be interesting to see where the sales finally end up.

Good Luck Bioware . I hope for you and your fan's sake you see the light and find a good path back to the kind of creativity and design we all know you are the worlds  best at.  The best I can give this is a 5/10 if I factor in the disappointment 3/10.

Modifié par CaptainBanana, 23 avril 2011 - 02:32 .

[CroGamer002]

Game is just absolutely amazing.

But let me start with cons. I seriously dislike new design of the Darkspawn and I hate those horns on Quinari. Didn't like idea that party members can't be equipped with other armor and robes and reused maps is just stupid.

Well now the pros. Characters are amazingly on same level as DA:O characters which was a huge surprise for me. Plot is far, FAR superior to DA:O and plot twist at the end was just shocking and wanted to beat the crap out of my favorite character for that, in the good way. Some side quest actually impact main story, graphics are nice, soundtrack nice too.

Gameplay is largely the same as DA:O, only is much more fast-paced which makes it harder and more fun. This game is a must buy for anyone who like RPG games and future DLC's are expected for this game and Bioware rarely fail with DLC's.

8/10

[Black-Xero]

Brodyaha wrote...

Overall, this was a very strong game and one that I enjoyed playing through a whole weekend when I was supposed to be working on tests.

GREAT
~Character development. I felt the characters seemed alive.  This includes:

• banter/camaderie from NPC to NPC
• characterization
• friendship/rivalry

~Art style.  This included loading screens, the environment, the imagery...fantastic! The Deep Roads weren't boring!
~The story and the variables it could take within DA2.
~Dialogue system. 
~Voice acting all around.  The voices were fantastically-suited for each character
~Kirkwall.  It was a fantastically epic city.  It felt large, it seemed large, like right out of what you would read in a history book.
~The overall story.  Hawke is a character who happens to be at the wrong place in the wrong time and gets caught up in the political and social struggles of a city, instead of having to fight an arcane evil and being some special "chosen one." DA2's story was refreshing.

GOOD
~The romances. I think they were great for the most part, but a few areas here and there made it feel like the romance between Hawke and the LI was rushed, and not as well-developed as it could have been.

MEDIOCRE
~The music. Nothing particularily memorable, except the revised Leliana's Song.
~Clothing changes.  Some characters only change their clothing if you romance them. I didn't like that. Aveline is the only one with more than two upgrades.  Couldn't Anders get some more new clothes in the six years he and Hawke were together? Merrill?  Varric? I understand they're *poor.* but maybe Hawke could chip in?

BAD
~Retcons with characters and the justifications for them.  Leliana is alive, no matter what?  If I recall, I left her dead on a mountain top when she attacked me.  Anders was supposed to be dead for certain playthroughs in Awakenings. I recall some justifications for these, but I still think it's poor taste to retcon.
~Three-year jumps. It had great potential, and I liked the idea/concept, but they were weakly executed.  Instead of feeling natural, it felt like every time jump, everyone was mentioning, "oh, three years have passed! Lament/reminisce."  It felt awkward.  Obviously, Hawke is still friends with some of these guys, she wouldn't go three years without seeing them.
~Some characters did not benefit from the new art style. Alistair is one of them.

AWFUL
~The rush job on this:

• There were a lot of noticable glitches. I could see Justice's glowing orbs from Anders' chest, for just one. Fenris disappeared for one quest, even though it was required that I take him in my party.
• On that note, a patch is in production less than a month after release to fix over 100 glitches, with another patch likely on the way. Really?

~Forcing two characters I don't like into my house. People who have played the game know who.
~Reused environments. I understand that mountaintops and huge cities might not change a whole lot.  But the little caves I traipsed through in Sundermount are the same as in the Wounded Coast, which are the same as in the Bone Pit. I think there's a difference for reusing for the sake of reusing, and being lazy (or rushed, in this case).


I wasn't expecting a whole ton of cameos in DA2 from DAO.  Hawke is a different character, and it's not an extension of the Warden's story, so I wasn't disappointed.  i was, however, pleasantly surprised at how many references there were to DAO; it was more than i was expecting.

Overall, I'll be enjoying DA2 for a while.

I completely agree with everything you have stated in your review.Sums up my exact feelings for DAII.

[tumschi]

Okay, so I'm not much of a reviewer but I'll go ahead and put in my two cents on this game.

During the first act I was a little bored, but really I didn't mind too much some really great games do take off slowly. The second act was in general pretty good and was looking forward to the final chapter. Act three left A LOT to be desired. For 2/3 of the game I thought the story was pretty bland. I know there have been comments about how the game doesn't need to have this big bad guy you're basically preparing the whole game to fight, but not having one did little to push me forward or be excited about. Character interaction wasn't as fun either.

I felt like your surrounding cast was much weaker. Didn't feel like you made the connection with them that you did in Origins. Varric, Isabella, Sebas were pretty good. I have never liked Anders but at least before he wasn't such a pansy as he was this time around.

Graphically I wasn't blown away, but nothing bad. The fighting system wasn't bad either. I had fun with it, I also had fun with the first one though. I HATED the narration and the animation that went with it. I liked the idea of ten years, but just didn't feel like it was executed very well.

I think different towns would have been nice, but they weren't a must have.

Overall I would give this game a 6.5 out of 10 compared to a perfect 10 for DAO.

It really boiled down to the story, nowhere near the scale of Dragon Age Origins. Also the cast of characters were a pretty big step back too. And yes I deducted 3.5 points for the story and characters that's all I really wanted was another epic adventure.

I'll still get a 3rd game if there is one, the first game sold me on this series.

[LichEmperor]

Brodyaha wrote...

Overall, this was a very strong game and one that I enjoyed playing through a whole weekend when I was supposed to be working on tests.

GREAT
~Character development. I felt the characters seemed alive.  This includes:

• banter/camaderie from NPC to NPC
• characterization
• friendship/rivalry

~Art style.  This included loading screens, the environment, the imagery...fantastic! The Deep Roads weren't boring!
~The story and the variables it could take within DA2.
~Dialogue system. 
~Voice acting all around.  The voices were fantastically-suited for each character
~Kirkwall.  It was a fantastically epic city.  It felt large, it seemed large, like right out of what you would read in a history book.
~The overall story.  Hawke is a character who happens to be at the wrong place in the wrong time and gets caught up in the political and social struggles of a city, instead of having to fight an arcane evil and being some special "chosen one." DA2's story was refreshing.

GOOD
~The romances. I think they were great for the most part, but a few areas here and there made it feel like the romance between Hawke and the LI was rushed, and not as well-developed as it could have been.

MEDIOCRE
~The music. Nothing particularily memorable, except the revised Leliana's Song.
~Clothing changes.  Some characters only change their clothing if you romance them. I didn't like that. Aveline is the only one with more than two upgrades.  Couldn't Anders get some more new clothes in the six years he and Hawke were together? Merrill?  Varric? I understand they're *poor.* but maybe Hawke could chip in?

BAD
~Retcons with characters and the justifications for them.  Leliana is alive, no matter what?  If I recall, I left her dead on a mountain top when she attacked me.  Anders was supposed to be dead for certain playthroughs in Awakenings. I recall some justifications for these, but I still think it's poor taste to retcon.
~Three-year jumps. It had great potential, and I liked the idea/concept, but they were weakly executed.  Instead of feeling natural, it felt like every time jump, everyone was mentioning, "oh, three years have passed! Lament/reminisce."  It felt awkward.  Obviously, Hawke is still friends with some of these guys, she wouldn't go three years without seeing them.
~Some characters did not benefit from the new art style. Alistair is one of them.

AWFUL
~The rush job on this:

• There were a lot of noticable glitches. I could see Justice's glowing orbs from Anders' chest, for just one. Fenris disappeared for one quest, even though it was required that I take him in my party.
• On that note, a patch is in production less than a month after release to fix over 100 glitches, with another patch likely on the way. Really?

~Forcing two characters I don't like into my house. People who have played the game know who.
~Reused environments. I understand that mountaintops and huge cities might not change a whole lot.  But the little caves I traipsed through in Sundermount are the same as in the Wounded Coast, which are the same as in the Bone Pit. I think there's a difference for reusing for the sake of reusing, and being lazy (or rushed, in this case).


I wasn't expecting a whole ton of cameos in DA2 from DAO.  Hawke is a different character, and it's not an extension of the Warden's story, so I wasn't disappointed.  i was, however, pleasantly surprised at how many references there were to DAO; it was more than i was expecting.

Overall, I'll be enjoying DA2 for a while.

Wow. This is just the most accurate to my opinion review I've seen.
Although, I do enjoy Sandal at times. Particuraly the bit about the Salamanders.

One thing I have, is the difficulty to like certain characters, specifically, Carver. I hate him. With a fiery passion that could make Oghren's breath ignite. Everything I do is [Rivalry +15]

[enigmaticstate12]

Greetings,
I've been a long time forum reader but seldom posted, because I wanted to reserve my judgement about the game until I've actually completed it.

So now, my experience and personal review with DA2:
Generally speaking, While I loved DA:O and had fun even on the 4th playthrough, my experience with DA2 was so underwhelming that I'm doubting, I'll replay it.
Let me go into the details.

Concerning the story, I didn't like it, frankly. All the 3 act felt so forced and inevitable, that there was no real surprise or story twist. because of spoilers I cannot tell it, but you could easily summarize that every act concluded in the killing of a big bad person and then suddenly, it's over.. While the story in DA:O had this epic feel, here it doesn't gripe me at all. At the end I even had just the urge to finish the game quickly than run through this tedious story.
Another thing that I hated was the over-simplification that lead into a complete lack of complexity. I'm missing all the nice abilities from Origins, like potion-, trapmaking, pickpocketing and scouting. You cannot pickpocket now and making items is a joke, you now still have to pay for them, even if you found all the ingredients. Or the runes, which you can only insert in items but not take out. This lead me to never even bother making potions, or insert runes into armors or weapons. The same could be said for the weapons in general. Where is the speed-factor, the armor-penetration or the critical chance of different weapon types like maces, axes and swords? Only thing left of them is DPS. Also, the item names and the stars to indicate their worth were misleading: Sometimes an item called simply "dagger" was with better properties than one with a unique name like "Bloodletter" e.g. Also I found many items with no stars that were much more useful than items with 3 stars. Again, this lack of complexity and order lead me to never buy any items, and just wait till I find better equipment.
Apart from that, I also missed a more easily viewable codex and a statistics page(with info as biggest monster killed, highest damage etc.) which was present in DA:O, also most codex entries were copied from Origins, and few were new.
My biggest letdown was, like many already pointed out, the cloned areas. Really now, I know that Bioware already did this with Baldur's Gate or even DA:O, but never to this outrageous degree: now there are already very few areas to visit, and then even repeat and COPY the layout of most of them, that's too much. Seriously, you can bet that every interior area was repeated at least 4 times, often even more. To me this just kills immersion. I like to explore new terrain, marvel at the surroundings and like to be surprised by monsters. All that is no longer there, while every major quest like Orzammar or the Brecilian Forest in DA:O was unique and had a distinct feel to it.
I also wonder what Mike Laidlaw meant, when he said in a pre-release interview that you can watch the city of Kirkwall "evolve" in the timeframe of 10 years. What evolution? The only thing thats changed between the acts about Hightown, Lowtown or the Docks is the position of containers and a different day-time, at least in my perception.
Concerning your party members, hmm, I'd say that I generally liked them, most of all Varric and Merill. They didn't have that emotional impact as some party members in DA:O, so no one who I really loved, but still they are nice party members.

Let's cover another important aspect, combat.
I must admit, at first I was just confused, and put off with the mess which seemed to have become of the combat, it was like so hugely sped up that I lost sight of the combat as a whole, and at first it seems I just had to spawn special abilities to win the battle. However later on, while playing on hard I realised, that it was still necessary to play tactically, position and watching out for your characters was still as important as it was in DA:O. So gradually, I got used to it, even if I still think it is way too fast to micro-manage compared to DA:O. What I disliked, which, oddly, no one on the forums seems to notice, is, that regular enemies seem to have at least 10 times the hitpoints of your own characters, while Bosses seem to have almost 100 times. As a counterbalance, your own characters seem to do almost 10 to 20 times the damage, that enemies do to you, almost up to 500 ponits with a single shot in the last act, so they could one-shot kill themselves if they wanted to. I don't like this change from Origins either, why not just remove the high DPS values from Chars and lower the enemies HP to a comparable value of your own chars? And another extremely annoying thing that is stuck in my mind about combat, is, what many already mentioned, the spawning of enemies out of thin air. Really now, while in DA:O with the Survival skill, you almost never were surprised, here, in DA2, you always are. Furthermore you can hardly adjust your strategy, or save some special abilities from using, because you never know, how many more enemies will spawn anew. Mostly the battles are like, that the first wave of enemies is easy, then the next wave is getting hard, because all your skills are in cooldown, and the last wave is annoyingly hard, because the bosses appear, and most everyone of your party has no more stamina/mana left and most abilities are again in cooldown. That gets annoying and tedious exremely fast, especially with the insane amount of hitpoints, that the bosses got.

What I really welcome as a change is the new skill-tree system. Now Warriors, Rogues and Mages have all the same number of abilities and they are mostly all useful and interesting to me. I also like the new system of party combos, e.g. I shield bash an enemy with my warrior to stagger him and my mage electrocutes him with a lightnig bolt for +600% damage! That's very nice to witness in combat and gives another tactical value to combat.

The look of Kirkwall, I like. I like the differences of Hightown versus Lowtown and it all looks like a welcome change to more usual cities like Denerim. Generally speaking, the graphics really are a huge improvement over DA:O, sharper, more detailed, better shadowing, better player animations (if only, in combat, way too fast), and some cool-looking environments, which are, sadly, too few, because everything is cloned.

What I cannot find satisfying about DA2 is the lack of immediate consequences of choices you make in the game, or the "reactiveness" as the devs put it, I expected much more. I remember the quote by one of the devs saying "I think this is the most reactive game they made to date". I cannot, with all good will, agree. I expected and hoped something about any meaningful conseqences that change the future of the game but the different ways you take always lead to the same conclusion, for example, the Arishok will always attack the town, no matter what you are doing. Or more backflash to the narration by Varric. What is actually in the game is insufficient, only really after the conclusion of an Act do the decisions you made be narrated and commented by Varric, and also only partly.

I didn't like the dialog wheel either. It reduces the amount of reply choices compared to Origins, and furthermore, their paraphrasing was not matching with what they actually said, giving their sentence often a whole different meaning.

The different day times in Kirkwall also seem like an easy way out of designing new, unique areas. After the acts, you have to explore the same map layout again, searching for differences, just to find only different container locations with uninteresting items, or, at night, enemy groups with their respective bases.
What I found good and nice is the new wealth of new armor and weapon models in the game, differently looking axes or armors; a pity, that as a mage you can't use many of them, and your party members neither because of their distinct look.

Conclusion:
I was one of those, who were fooled into preordering just to get the signature edition, with blind faith that a game by Bioware will always be awesome. SO I have partly to blame myself. This will change now, however. I won't be fooled again and be wary of any new games by Bioware in the future.
While DA2 had some bright spots that are enjoyable to me, like the upped graphix and animations, compared to its big brother, DA:O, it just lacks in nearly every area to me, is simplified way too much and seems in most places simply unfinished and unpolished, destroying a lot of its potential to be great. I really wanted to give this game a chance, but when I'm starting to feel that I have to rush or turn down the difficulty to normal, only to avoid tediously long battles and just finish the game, it just shows me that something is wrong.

I'm confident to give it a 6/10, not more.

Sorry for the wall of text, I just didn't want to forget mentioning something.
Have a nice day!!:happy:

[Alisaunder]

 Has it's high points and it's low points. 

High
Graphics are good, Not quite what I'd expect from a next generation DX10 or 11 game. Darkspawn look lame. Flemway is hot umn if flemith is that hot why does she need to take over Morrigan's body? I like the arcade action style but sometimes a bit of storyline to help discover what must be done to defeat the boss mobs would be nice.

Dislikes
lack of replayability. Once you have tried each of the 3 classes there's no real fun in playing any more. I still play Origins/Awakenings etc because of the various origin stories leading to different outcomes. I feel this was one of the things that made Origins so spectacular. 

As a stand alone adventure I felt this was a compelling buy, but as a sequel to a game of the year it was very lacking.

[bejinxie]

DA2 well done! Ive played it through twice now, once as a 2h warrior, this last time a rogue. Next up is the mage.

I played DA:O up until level 12. When I realized I could not respec my toons to fix mistakes, I stopped playing it. I may give it another shot with mods (respec).

The DRM was less invasive. I hate having to put a cd in the drive, just to play a game I've payed for. They get scratched, cd drives get quirky, etc. So lately I stick to buying games through steam, or in this case with DA2, amazon. I understand the balance of protecting IP, but DRM simply doesnt work, except to make it less conveinient for the consumer. Now registering to get extra goodies online, good idea.

There was just enough RPG/cinematics mixed up with action for me. Anymore RPG gets me snoozing as I prefer more action. I have several save game points the second time through for when I want quick action (ie the high dragon).

The hi-res pack for the pc is great. A very nice -free- addon that started me playing it the second time around.

The interface, skill trees, tactics are all better than DA:O. Much simpler and easier to understand. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Making good tactics can be a bit of a challenge, but after looking up some good examples it was not too bad, and defintely helped gameplay.

The crafting was just enough. Buying things you missed from Black Emporium is very nice.

I purchased the Exiled Prince for the second time through, and I thought it was worth the money.

Thanks for a great game, Ive really enjoyed it.

[wojciec]

bejinxie wrote...
I played DA:O up until level 12. When I realized I could not respec my toons to fix mistakes, I stopped playing it. I may give it another shot with mods (respec).

Well that has to be a new kind of stupid... It's not Diablo, you know you can just reload the previous save? The one before spending the attribute/skill points? You do know that right?

[Crimson_D-bag]

seems like BW likes to erase my posts so i just have this to say, go **** yourselves you edmontonian ****gets. DA2 blows, learn how to make a real game you homosexuals!!!

[Jingles360]

Jingles360 wrote...

I played DA:Origins and all the expansion content into the ground, and I am now working my way through DA2. Although I haven't beaten the game yet, here are my likes and dislikes so far.

The combat system for DA2 is a vast improvement, not only in the pace of combat but the visual appeal as well.

The graphics seem much more photo-realistic in DA2 and are a great improvement.

In DA:Origins your main character never actually spoke any lines of dialogue. This was a disappointment to me. Having played Mass Effect 1 and 2 before DA:Origins, I was expecting this feature. I am glad to see that it was implemented for DA2 in much the same way as the ME series. It gives the game more of a movie quality depth and feel.

I found my greatest disappointment thus far at the very start of the game. What happened to the level of character customization that was in the first game? If anything, I expected to have all the race and background combinations from Origins and possibly a few extras, like a Qunari character or something. The race and background combinations of Origins were one of its strongest points as a game and its greatest factor in replayability. The decision to minimize this feature rather than expand upon it is greatly disappointing and a mystery to me.

My next concern may just be a result of not having played through the game yet. If I had to guess, I would say that I'm still in the early stages of the game, however I was well out of the dark, ugly areas and traveling Ferelden and visiting many different sceneries by the time I had spent this many hours on Origins. I certainly hope that the entirety of the game doesn't have me based in Kirkwall with occasional excursions outside for a quest. Hopefully this will prove to be an invalid fear as I progress further into the game, considering that traveling to all the various, fleshed out locations in Origins was one of the high points in that game for me.

The above concerns aside, I've found DA2 to be a well polished successor to the previous game.

Now that I've played through the game, I can expand upon what I had already observed at the time of this post. The only positive feedback I had was already in my previous post.

I have to say that overall I am disappointed with the game. It isn't a bad game, in fact it's very good. The problem is that I was expecting another Dragon Age game but instead found something that reminded me more of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance with chatty companions.

The game didn't feel like an RPG so much as it felt like a hack and slash dungeon crawl. So many of the rich RPG elements that should have been kept or improved upon from the first game were either dumbed down or removed completely. The end result comes off feeling like an "RPG for Dummies" game.

-Conversations with party members seemed unnatural and forced. It no longer feels like you have the access to your companions that you did in the first game. You have to go back to each of their respective home bases to talk to them, as if they forgot how to speak to you in public. Also, you have to be notified that you're allowed to talk to them via a companion quest showing up in your codex.

-Why discard the ability to equip your party members with gear? Part of an RPG game is managing and upgrading your party's armor, weapons, etc. not just your own. On the whole, the interaction between you and your companions felt as if it were added to the game as an afterthought.

-I felt like my character had no real purpose beyond just dungeon diving and running errands for people for the majority of the game. It's like a crap ton of side quests collectively constitute a main plot for the game. Novel idea, but ultimately bores the player when they get sick of doing side quest after side quest and want to further a real main quest plot. I had to force feed myself quite a bit of the game to get through it.

One of the biggest problems I had with the game was the "copy and paste" approach taken with dungeons, warehouses, etc. This was very disappointing and unexpected considering that Bioware was a developer I considered to be above such practices. I think gamers paying $60 per title expect and deserve better quality in a game than rehashed environments. Please tell me that we won't see more of this from any future Bioware games (God forbid we see such practices used for Mass Effect 3).

Speaking of environments, I was very disappointed to find that my fears about being stuck in Kirkwall for the whole game were valid. Not that Kirkwall wasn't marvelously designed, but the same old scenery just gets annoying after a while, especially when you're just doing different missions in basically the same locations after a while. The short adventures into the outskirts didn't really whet the appetite for some variety in the game, and let's just say that I wouldn't describe the design of these urban environments as creative, original, or visually appealing. I might use the word "generic" though.

As far as the talent system went, it wasn't good and it wasn't bad. It was just different. No real improvement and therefore no real necessity to have changed it. The time spent designing an entirely new ability system that does more or less the same as the old one could have been better spent on designing dungeons so they didn't have to be copied and pasted.

When players like a game enough that it warrants a sequel, such as in the case of DA Origins, the logical thing to do is take the first game and everything that made it great and make it better. With a sequel, you should find yourself in familiar territory so to speak. A shinier, more polished familiar territory....which now has air conditioning and complimentary snacks....and a hot tub. I had to learn a new language with DA2 because Bioware threw us into a different country with this sequel...it did have the hot tub, but still... DA2 felt like it should be the sequel to a different game. Bioware seemed to understand and embrace this concept perfectly with Mass Effect 2. What happened here?

I eagerly await the day that Bioware gives us a true sequel to one of the best RPGs available for today's generation of consoles. There is so much potential in the Dragon Age lore. Just....please...Bioware....stop watering down my RPG liquor. This game barely managed to give me a buzz.

[Jingles360]

Crimson_D-bag wrote...

seems like BW likes to erase my posts so i just have this to say, go **** yourselves you edmontonian ****gets. DA2 blows, learn how to make a real game you homosexuals!!!

Yes. I'm sure this post accomplished a lot. You've probably changed a lot of lives at Bioware today with that post. There's gonna be a lot of developers crying themselves to sleep tonight because of you. They'll think twice before messing with you again. Way to stick it to the man!

[Black-Xero]

Crimson_D-bag wrote...

seems like BW likes to erase my posts so i just have this to say, go **** yourselves you edmontonian ****gets. DA2 blows, learn how to make a real game you homosexuals!!!

And I would love to see you make a game even close to being as good.I expect you to create something along the lines of Damnation....I'm sure the team would love to read the think about the crimes they have committed with DAII.
Also,was that "homosexual" thing supposed to be an insult? There is nothing wrong with it.

Modifié par Black-Xero, 23 avril 2011 - 10:44 .

[Alisaunder]

Jingles360 wrote...

Jingles360 wrote...

I played DA:Origins and all the expansion content into the ground, and I am now working my way through DA2. Although I haven't beaten the game yet, here are my likes and dislikes so far.

The combat system for DA2 is a vast improvement, not only in the pace of combat but the visual appeal as well.

The graphics seem much more photo-realistic in DA2 and are a great improvement.

In DA:Origins your main character never actually spoke any lines of dialogue. This was a disappointment to me. Having played Mass Effect 1 and 2 before DA:Origins, I was expecting this feature. I am glad to see that it was implemented for DA2 in much the same way as the ME series. It gives the game more of a movie quality depth and feel.

I found my greatest disappointment thus far at the very start of the game. What happened to the level of character customization that was in the first game? If anything, I expected to have all the race and background combinations from Origins and possibly a few extras, like a Qunari character or something. The race and background combinations of Origins were one of its strongest points as a game and its greatest factor in replayability. The decision to minimize this feature rather than expand upon it is greatly disappointing and a mystery to me.

My next concern may just be a result of not having played through the game yet. If I had to guess, I would say that I'm still in the early stages of the game, however I was well out of the dark, ugly areas and traveling Ferelden and visiting many different sceneries by the time I had spent this many hours on Origins. I certainly hope that the entirety of the game doesn't have me based in Kirkwall with occasional excursions outside for a quest. Hopefully this will prove to be an invalid fear as I progress further into the game, considering that traveling to all the various, fleshed out locations in Origins was one of the high points in that game for me.

The above concerns aside, I've found DA2 to be a well polished successor to the previous game.

Now that I've played through the game, I can expand upon what I had already observed at the time of this post. The only positive feedback I had was already in my previous post.

I have to say that overall I am disappointed with the game. It isn't a bad game, in fact it's very good. The problem is that I was expecting another Dragon Age game but instead found something that reminded me more of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance with chatty companions.

The game didn't feel like an RPG so much as it felt like a hack and slash dungeon crawl. So many of the rich RPG elements that should have been kept or improved upon from the first game were either dumbed down or removed completely. The end result comes off feeling like an "RPG for Dummies" game.

-Conversations with party members seemed unnatural and forced. It no longer feels like you have the access to your companions that you did in the first game. You have to go back to each of their respective home bases to talk to them, as if they forgot how to speak to you in public. Also, you have to be notified that you're allowed to talk to them via a companion quest showing up in your codex.

-Why discard the ability to equip your party members with gear? Part of an RPG game is managing and upgrading your party's armor, weapons, etc. not just your own. On the whole, the interaction between you and your companions felt as if it were added to the game as an afterthought.

-I felt like my character had no real purpose beyond just dungeon diving and running errands for people for the majority of the game. It's like a crap ton of side quests collectively constitute a main plot for the game. Novel idea, but ultimately bores the player when they get sick of doing side quest after side quest and want to further a real main quest plot. I had to force feed myself quite a bit of the game to get through it.

One of the biggest problems I had with the game was the "copy and paste" approach taken with dungeons, warehouses, etc. This was very disappointing and unexpected considering that Bioware was a developer I considered to be above such practices. I think gamers paying $60 per title expect and deserve better quality in a game than rehashed environments. Please tell me that we won't see more of this from any future Bioware games (God forbid we see such practices used for Mass Effect 3).

Speaking of environments, I was very disappointed to find that my fears about being stuck in Kirkwall for the whole game were valid. Not that Kirkwall wasn't marvelously designed, but the same old scenery just gets annoying after a while, especially when you're just doing different missions in basically the same locations after a while. The short adventures into the outskirts didn't really whet the appetite for some variety in the game, and let's just say that I wouldn't describe the design of these urban environments as creative, original, or visually appealing. I might use the word "generic" though.

As far as the talent system went, it wasn't good and it wasn't bad. It was just different. No real improvement and therefore no real necessity to have changed it. The time spent designing an entirely new ability system that does more or less the same as the old one could have been better spent on designing dungeons so they didn't have to be copied and pasted.

When players like a game enough that it warrants a sequel, such as in the case of DA Origins, the logical thing to do is take the first game and everything that made it great and make it better. With a sequel, you should find yourself in familiar territory so to speak. A shinier, more polished familiar territory....which now has air conditioning and complimentary snacks....and a hot tub. I had to learn a new language with DA2 because Bioware threw us into a different country with this sequel...it did have the hot tub, but still... DA2 felt like it should be the sequel to a different game. Bioware seemed to understand and embrace this concept perfectly with Mass Effect 2. What happened here?

I eagerly await the day that Bioware gives us a true sequel to one of the best RPGs available for today's generation of consoles. There is so much potential in the Dragon Age lore. Just....please...Bioware....stop watering down my RPG liquor. This game barely managed to give me a buzz.

I have to admit you practically took the words I was looking for out of my mouth. The game as a whole is not that bad, but the key RPG elements, like you said, from the original DA:O/A seem to be dumbed down, or missing when they should have been intensified and built upon. This game definately feels like it was intended for the console from conception to inception. The developers reasoning behind the rotary interface was to supposedly give the player a deeper feeling of being the character Hawk. I felt this was lacking in that you basically had three types of responses to choose from. You could give a heroic type response, a neutral or shadowy response, or be an ass. Compound that with indicators displaying for you just what type of response they were and it felt too cookie cutter for me. For me an RPG should allow me to bond with my character from many possible background origins and possible outcome endings based upon paths I take during the game. This felt loike no matter what you did during the game the eventual outcome was based basically not by what you choose but what class you were. How many Fighters sided with the mages instead of the Templars. How many many mages sided with templars instead of mages etc. Also, even though many may argue romance is not a key element in an RPG I beg to differ. Most great all stories have some form of romance develop between the main character and some other character inside the story. It's not about having sex in the game but more about personifying your character with a sense of happyness and fullfillment. The lone hero attitude doesn't always fit a good story. I know they have romances in DA2 but they seem shallow and cookie cutter in comparison to those you establish in DA:O.

[runningwithmace]

The story was more complex than the first game-- it weaves through a number of different conflicts that were introduced in the first game (who didn't see the Circle of Magi issue coming up after playing through DA:O?) and I can clearly see where the next game will take us. It's nice to see the whole western political structure/liberal vs conservative idiocy portrayed so well and with such minimal bias.
The fighting graphics and character animations are much better than in DA:O and I appreciated that the love scenes (at least the ones I've seen so far) were much classier. The characters are all very entertaining and I like how they all weave into the main storyline with their own individual stories. The friendship/rivalry system is much better and having the character's dialogue voiced also allows players to create a more consistent or complex character depending on their personal choices, rather than forcing players to pander to different characters' personalities in an effort to gain the necessary approval to keep party members around.
That said, the environments got kind of small after I figured them out in Act ! and the repeated dungeon thing drove me crazy-- I kept trying to go through doors that were edited out for the sake of the dungeon and getting lost because Sundermount Caverns and the Bone Pit mines and the Tal-Vashoth caverns all have the same basic animation, but have just had portions of the map edited out to create insignificant differences. It would have been easier to just create a third dungeon structure than to edit the two that got reused over and over.
For the third game, though, would it be possible to entirely eliminate such garish shades of lipstick and eyeshadow as acid green, magenta, and blue dye #7? Somehow I can't envision a female Hawke trading makeup with Lady Gaga, but some of hard-to-see-on-Character-Creation-screen choices made it look like she had.

[jwcisneros]

I will not rehash the more in-depth numbers of the game. While it was a good game, it was clearly a smaller scale, developmental exercise; this may have to do with a shorter lead time and demands from a parent company eager to follow up on the immense success of DA:O/A. This is a common problem associated with creative endeavors. Project A is incredibly successful, Project B is rushed out to capitalize on the success of Project A, neglecting to take into account WHY Project A was such a success. DA:O/A was successful due to the incredible sense of detail. The game might have been linear, but it succeeded in not feeling linear because of more options being available to complete the game. DA:2 not only was linear, but FELT incredibly linear...the story is told at the expense of main character, and the shorter character development arc makes Hawke feel stunted in comparison to the development of the Warden.

Hawke is a passenger on this ride. His companions have more compelling stories to tell, and in the end he is a hostage to the passions of his companions, he can only react, not act to influence their choices. This is very apparent in the story arcs of Anders, Fenris and Merrill. Merrill is immovable by any loyalties the Champion displays towards her. Fenris to a lesser extent is the same. Anders is the Deus ex Machina and no matter how loyal the Champion is to Anders he will deliver the same outcome (which I cannot discuss in this thread), to the point of acting against the wishes of his romantic partner (Hawke) with 100% friendship/loyalty/love.

These limited choices and influence as the main character are the heart of my disappointment in this game. While a certain amount of story performance is demanded from the main companion/featured NPC in delivering the plot action that activates the end game, there is something to be said for making the player feel like they have some control or at a least a willingness to go along with the action...in this case I see no attempt whatsoever to enlist the audience (as the players of Hawke in his/her various iterations) in the telling of the story, it is forced down the audience's throat with no options which was the heart of the Origins product. Direct influence of the game's outcome.

It is not a finished product, and it will take DLC's to fill the large plot holes left open by corporate fiat in the rush to sell the next great DA product. It resulted in a merely good or above average product, and in turn risks brand loyalty to Bioware. The audience expectations are directly in proportion to the success of the first generation game and this does not deliver the goods, I regret to say.

~J

[element eater]

Okay so even though there is already 100 plus pages of review i thought i'd add mine. I'll try and keep it concise and stick to issues that are relevant to my particular feelings on the game rather then just whats been said before or what doeasnt concern me

STORY
this story was not particularly gripping and definately suffered from under development although there were a few memorable moments that highlight what the game should have been. cant say much more without spoilers

GAME PLAY
while enjoyable the repeated ares and constant need to be running between kirkwalls locations take there toll on what is still a relatively long game. Dungeons are linear and often reused multiple times a flaw which is significantly made worse by the fact the map remains the same so you can never tell what areas are accesable to you. The nock on affect of this was that i never explored the areas i visited as i didnt want to spend time working out what areas were or werent accesible this time through the map. While limited it is enjoyable and some quests do stand out unfortunately just not enough to make the game memorable


PRESENTATION
Generaly good the art work was nice and the music was good (if somewhat less impressive then origins). The game lets itself down in this respect in a few areas,  the party select, level up and the hud look unfinished. A good comparison is how in dao your allies stood around in the party select, presented in a paved room they would step forwards and comment when they were selected or cus when deselected. DA2 however just gives u a black screen. Its things like this that just contribute the lack of imersion in the story and the game as they comletely remove you from the world

COMBAT
its hard for me to asses this as the game was so combat heavy that it it ultimately felt like every action involved a slog through about 50 trash enemies which resulted in me loosing interest pretty quickly. What i will say is it was far to easy i dont think i ever ealy felt challenged even during boss fights, the few times i died it was generaly down to enemies spawning in awkward places during a fight already in process. The spawn waves were utterly miserable experiances on the odd occasion this dynamic could have been fun but when it happens nearly every encounter its just isnt good.
SOme bosses were however enjojable to battle as the offered nice variation on the battle format.
Another positve was that some build types were greatly improved since DAO archers in particular now seem much more viable


ART STYLE
overall i had no objections to the new style of the elves or Quanari ufortunately the dwarves looked pretty bad and somewhat like they were all wearing blusher and the Darkspawn just looked terrible im not realy sure how these made into the game im yet to hear anyone say that see them as an improvement over orgins version. 


COMPANIONS
The characters themselves arent bad in fact i rather like a few of them. Unfortunately DA2 offers verly little dialogue, as a result you never realy connect with them in the same way you would Mass effect or origins. The romances 2 suffer from lack of related events and dialogue after effectively completing merrils in act 2 on my run through it didnt seem to even come up in the rest of the game the exception being a few lines near the end of the game. Overall realy dissapointing a potentialy good cast of characters spoiled by a lack dialogue and development in game. 
Companion Customisation is another area this game is commonly criticised for so i wont say much on the subject, but what annoyed me greatly is how rooted my companions are to a specific combat role as in you get 1 healer, 1 tank, 1 archer, 1 2 hander etc. While i appreciate that you wanted to add specific charcteristics for each character it realy just means depending on your class some characters just arent needed the result of which means you have to decide wether you pick a party for its effectiveness in combat or so that you have the characters you like.

MISC

• cinematics were good although it was irritating there was no archer specific finsihing scenes
• Alistar looked pretty awful when he made his cameo
• so many bugs even though i started with the most recent patch
• ran well for me less loading and no real crashes unlike origins that froze often on this system
• seriously why is there less weapons its a sequel! you should be adding more 
• no sense of time even though the game is supposedly set over decade

Overall this game is good, still better then most you'll play but equaly nothing outstanding, certainly not up to biowares standard. Just doesnt feel like its got soul that games like ME, DAO or Baldurs gate had 

Good but forgetable 6/10

Modifié par element eater, 24 avril 2011 - 11:00 .

[Zaagje]

Well, D.A II really isn´t a bad game. Really. That´s what I said when I played M.E. II. Then I bought a copy M.E. I. (yeah, that souns weird but hey; you can´t just buy every game that had good reviews)
To be honest, i´m a bit dissapointed as a fan. Keep telling myself that it´s not that bad. Then I dusted off my old D.A.O. In general, you have to say the first game is beter, just as with M.E. It had more depth, the characters of your companions are more developed and de voice acting... When walking around in kirkwall your just not impressed. Really, they started something great with D.A.O, and continued progressively with Awakenings. If you compare it with DAO II, you can only say that the original was better.

Shame. I know it´s all about the money. They made a game that would sell good on PC and console and liked by both fans, hard core RPG players and Hack&Slash fans but they missed something here. I bought it when it came out and I will buy D.A. III as well, so they will get my money anyway but don´t expect me to go for the DLC.

Maybe they can fix things with an add-on like Awakenings.

Just saying; more epic grand story thats bad for your social life

[Crimson_D-bag]

Black-Xero wrote...

Crimson_D-bag wrote...

seems like BW likes to erase my posts so i just have this to say, go **** yourselves you edmontonian ****gets. DA2 blows, learn how to make a real game you homosexuals!!!

And I would love to see you make a game even close to being as good.I expect you to create something along the lines of Damnation....I'm sure the team would love to read the think about the crimes they have committed with DAII.
Also,was that "homosexual" thing supposed to be an insult? There is nothing wrong with it.

Although i lack the programing skills, yes... yes i could design a much more playable enjoyable game than this. I think most people on this site could too. and yes, absolutely yes i ment homosexuals as an insult cause homosexuals are gay, and we all know thats not a good thing. As in "have you guys seen green hornet, damn that movie was gay" or "holy that justin beaver kid is gay".

[kalelifatih]

I even could not show patience to complete full game (sorry but it is just boring to play an hack n slash game dear developers) This game is a clear evidence that shows Bioware sold his soul to EA Games. (I really hope EA games doesnot involve any other RPG game anymore) It shows that Bioware only cares about his profit [money], I really miss mighty Black Isle days!

Where is the RP aspect of the game, where is deep storyline, where is the tactical decisions, where is the unique world, where is the conversations that shapes the enviroment? This game is empty man! Just take a weapon and slash everything on your way, and do it EASILY...

I do not know since when Bioware decided to create RPG labeled games to keep console boys happy? I am really disappointed to see this... You make me fail fo the last time Bioware.

[gypsy21]

I have been playing DA2 since it first came out. I am enjoying the game. It is just so different from Origins.

The only real dislike that I have with DA2 is that  I don't feel the connection to my character and my companions that I did in Origins and Awakening. I somehow feel that I am just going through the motions from one quest to the next. I don't even feel a real connection to the quests. I just click on the map and go wherever it tells me a quest needs to be done. Sometimes something is finished and I don't even know what I did. There is just not the feeling for this game. I definitely prefer the overall feel of Origins. I miss that connection. Otherwise the game is ok. Not awed, but ok.

Modifié par gypsy21, 25 avril 2011 - 03:59 .

[DAFerelden91]

My thought?I love everything Dragon Age 2 has to offer,except reused maps and stages,lack of new enemies and noticeable dreadful glitches,

[LichEmperor]

Crimson_D-bag wrote...

Black-Xero wrote...

Crimson_D-bag wrote...

seems like BW likes to erase my posts so i just have this to say, go **** yourselves you edmontonian ****gets. DA2 blows, learn how to make a real game you homosexuals!!!

And I would love to see you make a game even close to being as good.I expect you to create something along the lines of Damnation....I'm sure the team would love to read the think about the crimes they have committed with DAII.
Also,was that "homosexual" thing supposed to be an insult? There is nothing wrong with it.

Although i lack the programing skills, yes... yes i could design a much more playable enjoyable game than this. I think most people on this site could too. and yes, absolutely yes i ment homosexuals as an insult cause homosexuals are gay, and we all know thats not a good thing. As in "have you guys seen green hornet, damn that movie was gay" or "holy that justin beaver kid is gay".

I highly doubt you're gaining any supporters here...

[Zeratul83]

This isn't a review per se but I would like to point out that since Baldur's Gate 2 I have been a loyal Bioware fan, and have purchased every one of this company's fine products.

I mostly agree with some of things directly above me. I bought Dragon Age 2 despite all of the internet controversy I refused to believe any of it could be true. While it was INCREDIBLY blown out of proportion, some of it did indeed have merit.

I have played Dragon Age: Origins three times and I am afraid the sequel doesn't stand up to it. I even believe the people it now appeals to are the people EA intended it to appeal to. I mean no offense by that but some people just have different mentalities towards RPGs. That being said, my mentality is in disagreement with this game.

I don't mind the fact that it was clearly rushed, because frankly if EA says to Bioware, "rush this game" they pretty much have to do it. What bothers me though is the STAUNCH, STAUNCH defense of the game from Bioware representatives (a few writers spring to mind, but I won't name names).

Anyway to the overall point assuming someone reads this and cares, don't tell me I ABSOLUTELY will love a game and then not deliver. (If I need to cite sources for that last statement I am pretty sure it won't be hard). I still have faith in you as a company but next time I will at least keep an ear the controversy before release. Dragon Age 2 was a decent enough game, had it not had your Bioware logo on it. I had come to expect a much higher (if not some of the highest) quality of game from you and it was not delivered with Dragon Age 2.

Sorry thats my opinion. I hope Dragon Age 3 will be as awesome as a majority of people apparently hope it will be, but with the next Dragon Age game I will at least be a bit more hesitant before I run and pre-order it.