3274 réponses à ce sujet

[Silb]

Hi,
i'm writing from Italy and I've finished Dragon Age II two times and first of all I've enjoyed very much the play, but...
but I'll continue to prefer per first one for the story anche the development of the charachters (png and pg).
I've found the story of DAOII too much driven and the choice that you can't talk to the png whenever you want a very bad one.
I'll hope that this thing we'll be changed in the futures.

Thank you

[Heretical]

Pointless simplification, dull characters and lazy design choices await in a mystical land where people fall apart for no reason and enemies pop out of nowhere.

[Daveros]

It's seems that every single day I have another reason to love Dragon Age 2.

Be it the adventure I get to partake in, the wonderful characters (and voice acting), the (very) enjoyable combat, the wonderfully unforgiving story (more like this please), the fantastic use of cinematics or just the music I find myself humming throughout the day there's one hell of a lot to love in Dragon Age 2.

Whilst I enjoyed Origins, I could never say I loved it; It never grabbed me in any significant way at all. This is not true of Dragon Age 2. It's almost become something of an obsession for me, I can't get enough of it. I just love it.

Thank you, Bioware. Thank you very much.

Modifié par Daveros, 03 juin 2011 - 03:44 .

[Keth Balderk]

I’ve played quite a bit more now and wanted to revisit a few points in my original review. The first time I played this game was without console commands, and I don’t think I had the DLC item pack either (i.e no cheating). Now, I am open to doing whatever I think may make the game more enjoyable (including cheating if I so desire as this is a single player PC game). I play on impossible (without friendly fire, mod).

Limiting gold and equipment is a great way to add difficulty to the game. I think that is what the designers of DA2 had in mind. There now exists detailed instruction on the Bioware forums on how to maximize your gold and your equipment received. It reminds me of grinding for gold on WoW. I don’t like that. I don’t like there being game breaking items available. Making items available only at certain acts or scaling with level was a good idea. Allowing money to accumulate at a rate such that you can buy most of the best equipment available for your class by the middle of Act 3 is also a good idea – but that doesn’t seem to be easy unless you do things to maximize your gold. I originally liked the item pack – with reservations. After more game play, I like the item pack less. The stuff is too powerful – and is free. These facts can disturb play balance. I only use some of the item pack now and a few items get only special occasion use. I actually think it is less a cheat to give myself gold in order to buy equipment offered in the original game than to use the DLC item pack. I also think it is more fun to give myself gold rather than being a packrat and merchant to try to maximize profits. I strongly feel that the game could use some work in regards to balancing the DLC item pack and making gold more abundant.

I don’t like the look of the Anders toon, and I don’t like his incessant whining. However, he is the only healer for most of the game. I have decided to go without a healer. As long as I am giving myself gold, I can afford healing potions. Anders healing power is better as it can rescue stunned allies, aid allies for a group heal, and even raise fallen comrades; however, I don’t like him. As long as healing potions can be afforded I don’t have to use him. Still, I would rather that a certain healer be available for use throughout the game – hint, hint.

Some people like cartoon weapons. I wish the best weapons looked good, but also had historically proven functional shapes. For instance, the rogue could use knives/daggers like the Applegate dagger, tanto, Bowie knife, kukri, and perhaps a few others. These are proven fighting knives, rather than some of the ridiculous looking junk that appears – such as a butcher’s cleaver – really? The same applies to the warriors weapons. There are some models in the game that do have functional shape. Heaven’s Blessing looks like a recurve bow, which is nice, particularly as it is one of the best bows in the game. However, many times the armor and weapons are comical – in a bad way.

I’ve heard that Patch 1.03 may limit the amount of damage that rogues can do. I’m skeptical concerning that. Although I hated that the enemy rogues could eliminate my characters in a single come-from-nowhere attack, it actually makes for an interesting tactical challenge to corral this major threat. Likewise, a PC rogue that can’t deal out tremendous spike damage leaves me with little interest to play a rogue – spike damage is what the rogue is all about. I have heard of people dealing 25,000 points of damage with their rogue. I have never done that much damage, because I don’t assassinate normal enemies on normal difficulty. I have only done a few thousand against the elites+ on impossible, which does not necessarily represent a major portion of their HP! So, I hope nothing is done to nerf the rogues in this way.

[Lyna357]

Opinions are like rear ends, we all have them and they all stink. That being said, here goes:

I could not get into Dragon Age 2. I could not get past the art style. I hated everything about it with the possible exception of the Qunari. I hated the way they redesigned the darkspawn. And then there's that spikey armor... uhg. I didn't like the changes they make to
I did not like the changes to the battle system.
I hate voiced main characters. Period.
Can't say as I am a fan of the framed narrative story telling either.

[JesusTheJedi]

Alright so in origins I was able to complete the game with a love triangle with allistair, leliana and zevran XD how do you guys think this will effect DA2?

[Darklaguna]

Ok i'll make it short,there where some things that worked and some that didn't.Basically none of the new ideas where (according to my humble opinion) really bad per se,just very very underdeveloped.Keep the new mechanics and optimize them,or do what io do best,Innovation.The only ingredient realy missing in DA2 was time
A genial game is still 99%work and 1% talent and not the other way around.Even with  Biowares c[/i]on[/i]siderable[/i] skill[/i] [/i]and experience the end result had to be disappointing.
80/100

[Archereon]

JesusTheJedi wrote...

Alright so in origins I was able to complete the game with a love triangle with allistair, leliana and zevran XD how do you guys think this will effect DA2?

It won't.  Dragon Age 2 rarely references Origins, except where it absolutely must.

[Eveangaline]

I've played through several times, and I love it! I have one major beef with the game though. One of the endings doesn't really..make much sense

Edit because I realized I made this too spoilery for this thread. Basically my review is I like the game, but during one of the endings there's a very weird plot hole that's very obviously just so that the player doesn't have to do something they may not want to, even though it makes absolutely no sense not to have to considering what's already transpired. It really knocked me out of the game so fast and I can't choose that side at the end anymore because I just find it way too rediculous.

Modifié par Eveangaline, 07 juin 2011 - 08:59 .

[Jophiel]

***Cursing. Harshness. Some praise. Probably not ambiguous enough for the Moderators. Don't read if you enjoyed the game, I'll probably just offend you with my opinions. You've been warned. Mods are welcome to delete this post if they find it offensive or not rule-abiding.***


My boyfriend introduced me to the Dragon Age franchise. I'm glad he did; I adored Origins and Awakenings! When Dragon Age 2 came out, he let me play his copy of the game on his Xbox. I was so excited to finally play it that I finished the game in 3 days. But I was sorely disappointed with DA2.


If Dragon Age: Origins is like a great Dungeons & Dragons campaign made into an immersive, engaging action-adventure role-playing video game... then Dragon Age 2 is like the bad self-insert fan-fiction a Twilight fangirl wrote about the Human Mage Warden's second cousin. And made it into an Achievement-whoring video game with insanely long loading screens, cut-and-paste dungeons/caves/alleyways/sewers, and enough retcons to make Marvel and DC balk and call bull****.


You cannot undo enchantments, which can be frustrating when you keep getting newer and (not always) better armor or weapons. The "unique" looks given to Hawke's companions made them more distinct during combat and led to some amusing banter (Anders's feathery shoulder pauldrons), but because I'm not a completionist like some of my gamer friends, I didn't get all of the armor upgrades for everyone. This could have been avoided if I were painfully attentive to a game I wasn't always 100% interested in, or if I could freely change around companion armors to suit their unique stats.


The lack of an overarching plot drove me INSANE. I disliked being strung along through a game with slow build-up that suddenly steamrollers you into a climax at the end of major plot quests (Act changes). And the lack of merit or consequence to your actions is enough to make me want to choke the person or persons at EA who rushed the programmers, writers, graphic artists, etc. This game feels like a dumbed-down, restricted Fable 2 (which is in turn Fable dumbed-down and given more Monty Python). DA2 is very rigid with story progression if you want to continue the anti-plot and have Varric and Cassandra make in-game time pass. Unlike the Fable games and some other RPGs, certain side-quests expire after permanently advancing the plot, even if it seems plausible to still be able to do them. This happened with Origins too, but to a much lesser degree.


It's like playing D&D with a Dungeon Master who makes the story go his/her way regardless of what the other players choose to do--they have the whole thing planned out and bugger to you if want a different ending than the one they chose.


The single upside of DA2: Varric. That dwarf made the whole game worth playing. He stole the show completely. Varric could easily have been the main character rather than Hawke. Props to the person who wrote him and the animators and artists who designed him--they all did an excellent job. Varric really didn’t have an agenda, he was just kind of your wingman who reminded you that sometimes SLAUGHTER AND EXTORT wasn’t the best solution to your problem.

But other than Varric and (sometimes) Hawke, every major character was an amalgamation of ridiculous flaws and sometimes a generous helping of dry humor. The angry, judgmental party banter between certain companion characters made me think of them as dangerous children who needed to get their heads out of their collective arses and not as what was originally intended by the writers.


The body types only varied between race and gender; Leandra has the same body-type as Bethany, Keeper Marethari has the same body-type as Merrill, etc. Everyone with hair looked like they had unique wooden hats pasted to their skulls. Clothing, armor, and hair did not flow with the character's movements, but staffs strapped to a mage's back wobble around?!


I give DA2 about 4.5/10. It disappointed me, considering how much I loved Origins and Awakenings. Varric made up for a lot of the game being monotonous or bad, but not enough to redeem all the things I perceive as negative. If DA3 is going to be uncannily similar to DA2, I'm not buying it, borrowing it, or pirating it, and if someone offered me the game as a gift, I'd probably beat them with my keyboard.


*TL;DR, I liked the old one better and am a pretentious twit.

Modifié par Jophiel, 09 juin 2011 - 10:36 .

[nexus01]

First of all, i will try to do an objective review of my experience on this game saga, but also English is not my native language so sorry if i have some grammar or syntax errors. My main motivation to write this was that after finishing the game i saw on the internet that Bioware was already on the way to DA3, so i wanted to share my thoughts and review so they can have it in mind in the develop of this game. Also this is the first time i write a game review.

Ontopic: I have to say that im extremely disappointed with this DA2 release in several points...

1) Storyline:
When i first played DAO, i was very excited to know about the story, it was very interesting, everything has sense and a meaning, i have to say that was the main factor that kept me playing for hours and complete it 4 different times. Why? because in DAO you had a great storyline, you had a propose a final goal to achieve, you had lot more of breaking decisions to made that will def change the way you play it (i.e.: dismissing party members if your relation wasn't good enough or just you didn't liked them) like you can do in real life.

The dialogue lines were coherent, like a real conversation if that fantasy world could really exist somehow. The motivation and actions of the NPC were real, correction, believable stories (like Logain's or Howe's), like attempt of murders, poisoning, plots etc..to archive the power thought this and that...let’s face it, this same storyline with a movie production team like the one of The Lord of the Rings could definitely be a Hollywood hit, even a 3 or 4 movies saga if it’s well made

The option of importing your decisions in DAO to DA2 its nice, but really, how does affects you any of the calls you made in the storyline of DAO in DA2?? To be honest besides a few dialogue lines with certain characters and that Alistair Quest in ACT 3 which is ONLY a dialogue quest...please someone tell me what else i did in DAO relates directly with what i can or can't do in DA2 ?? im talking about something significant...and its nothing there. Why i mention this? because the idea to continue my story in DA2 was my main motivation to play DA2 and i have seen nothing related with my Grey Warden that could def change my way of playing DA2.

In other hand, DA2 was the second part of a saga where the main element were the Grey Wardens, and i only saw a few of them in the game that are not the main character. Also to the story matters none if at the end they grey wardens that appear on it, are grey wardens or not...if you remove the grey wardens "tag" to their backgrounds you still have the same story and game only that completely unrelated game with DAO and what you did there. do i am wrong??

The only story i seen in DA2 was a the arrival of a normal character to a new city (woman in my case) and the story of how she made her way thought the years in this new city...and how she ends fighting against a very defined "evil" character (Meredith) which is like a badass cop who became even more hardass and "evil" after she "magically" obtains a sword made from the pieces of a liryum icon from Varric's brother what made her even more crazy but with super powers like jumping like 50 meters long and flying like superman (yes, we saw it at the final battle...wtf ???) ...when did she got the sword ? why those powers, with which end?? how ?? nothing of this explained. Also, in DAO existed dragons, dark spawns, creatures, etc.. but hits creatures, they all behave, moves, attacks, as if besides all the fantasy behind they existence, they really were able to all stuff they do in the way they do it. Maybe im talking about a little of physics here...not for grabbing a rare sword you could just flying and jumping like 50 meters longs...i think those kind of none senses removes life to the game, to the story at makes it a baby fantasy kids game.

2) Graphics:
What can i say, this is the only half positive point i can give to this game. Why half ? because despite the increased textures quality and def, fxs, blablabla which if you have the proper hard you will def enjoy, i seen a very huge lack of imagination here. For example, when you go to a Cave...THEY ARE ALWAYS the same cave!!! with some doors open one time, and another time closed...a lazy copy/paste only ?? very very disappointing also. When you enter a secret hidden temple, it’s just like the Deep Roads ??....talking about the Deep Roads, i remember in DAO the Deep Roads were REALLY deep and with a fantastic atmosphere which i never seen in DA2, was very short way, very poorly made and again, copy/paste...copy/paste. At least if you are reducing the game to 3 big maps which is not bad, it’s just what it requires (day, night, mountains) put a little of effort and make every space different avoiding the so obvious copy/paste, that coulded really made a difference in this game.

Another point i really didn’t enjoy it was the cartoon graphics of characters, items, equipment and creatures...the graphics of the dark spawns were awful and their movements were like a parkinson dancing team, all shaky and imprecise which were very different from DAO where they were brutal, calmed down when they should and all crazy when they have to be like that.

Equipment, i don't know, i don't buy that a little just like Fenris could take an Axe which is bigger than whole torso and move it like if where a tree stick...again the whole game feels way too cartoony for my taste. Seems that this "consolation" of the game made Bioware to sacrifice a lot on the game for nothing, because people bought this game because of the success of the previous one, or at least the 80% of the people did it for that reason...

3) Gameplay:
Again the "consolation problem"...it’s nice the combat speed and movements were increased, but one thing is increase them and another thing is convert a super successful RGP game into an Arcade/Adventure/Action just to fit the playing style of PS3 and Xbox....This DA2 has almost nothing of the strategy that DAO had and again zero credibility in all the players actions, movements, attacks, etc...That thing that with only one Sword hit to attack 3, 4, 5 enemies...come on. In DAO when you selected a player, you had to attack an specific type of enemy with that character or your character could easy die, besides you selected a warrior and click on an enemy and the character attacked only that enemy and no one else around it, unless you used an specific skill that allows you to hit multiple targets. Nothing of this is seen in DA2, you hit everybody all the time with almost every attack, except for arrows and mages normal attack.

Another thing, is the ridiculous spawn of the enemies. In DAO you arrived to an area, you saw all the enemies on it and that was it, all you see is what you get. Despite you choose different difficulty levels, which only made bad guys harder to kill, not magically fabric more during combat! In DA2 you choose higher difficulty and you have more enemies that spawn from the air and literally jumps into battle  ?!?!? you are in a cave and people start falling from the sky and appearing form nowhere ?!!!? why not to spawn 100 of bad guys at once and let you choose how to deal with them with no freaky or unreal surprises ??? at least if you made bad guys appear from nowhere, made them spawn from a far point at the map that the main player do not see and then make them come into battle as if they really join into battle...just an observation that really removes one more time reality that the previous release had and this not!

The story of the game happens over the years and i always notice that all you party members are always with same cloths over the years! except for Anders, Aveline and one more i think...the rest of them you can't change their looks...thats pretty lame, even that was a very nice part of the DAO to really customize you party and how they look....even to the dog! Now you have really lack of items, armors...very poor loot in all the cases except a few bosses...pretty boring to play all the game with only 2 o 3 different weapons and armors. That didn't remove reality from the game that others things, but it really removes a lot fun and pleasure to really choose well you combat armor and weapon for each character. I know maybe its decision to maintain the party members stetic but as you changed this system for an upgradable one, at least with each upgrade you could add some visual aspects to their cloths and armor...that coulded help a lot to the visual improvements, but anyway, not happy with it at all.

The dialogue system. A huge improvement and one of the things i like most is that this time the main player has a voice!! great for that, was the only thing i didn't liked on DAO which DA2 has. BUT and there's always one, putting mod balloons right next to every dialogue ??? what are we 5 year old kids ?? learning to speak and what to say ? Dragon Age claims to be a non-linear game where you actions have consequences. Great for you! Now what if you respect that marketing line letting people really decide for themselves if their dialogue line is the correct for X conversation and let the user really think that what they choose to say wasn't an offence to X character even if it was ??? like it was in DAO, you had like 4...even 5 things more to response to X guys and you never know (unless it was too obvious) which answer could be the correct one, and that was great, because you had to think before speak! now you just look at the balloon and you can be always sure that your answer will be the perfect one to always be friendly, aggressive, romantic, that could lead in a different situations or you will just gather info...Again, it makes the games faster for the 12 year old boys that plays in consoles this new action/adventure game which was wrongly turned into a Diablo all time click killing game...

To be honest, im deeply doubt that the very same team who developed DAO was involved in DA2 developing, Anyway, if i choose to Buy this game without never ever played DAO i could say that it’s a very good game very well achieved. But as we most do played DA2 because of DAO i could say that Bioware really miss the path in here.

I just finished the game in nightmare (i always plays all games in the hardest difficulty possible, even if the first time i play it) and i like the increased dif level, it is much harder than DAO, but i really doesn’t feel the need to play it again with another class, because i have practically discovered all in one time...it has nothing else to show. DAO was about it, to discover different reactions to you, with different characters genders, race and origins and every time i found new things i didn't before because of the variety of maps, items, choices, characters, dialogues...

I don't know, i hope you Bioware guys read this if you are developing DA3 and read it as a constructive review, despite of my language and writing skills this is a forum and could sound harder than it is. AND I ONLY WRITE THIS BECAUSE IF YOU DO A GAME LIKE DAO YEARS AGO, NOW DAYS WITH NEW TECH YOU CAN DO IT EVEN BETTER!!!

And i hope in DA3 you really do it. I Hope you don't ruin again a great RPG game in the same way just make it playable in a freaking PS3, Xbox or whatever who already haves thousands of games to choose...and def i hope that you don’t destroy this game with a multiplayer platform like WoW or Linage...

Modifié par nexus01, 08 juin 2011 - 05:15 .

[ShinsFortress]

I personally am not impressed. I could live with all the gameplay changes if the rest of it was much improved. But the limited scopes (areas, level repetitiveness, etc.) handicap the game for me.

[Freckle Face]

Great review, Unionhack. I felt the same way about Origins... I've been playing it nonstop since I got it for my birthday last year. I agree with you, that people who haven't played Origins, or didn't like Origins, would probably find DA2 very enjoyable. But to me, that's not a compliment.

(EDIT: Perfectly stated, Jophiel. And I loved the TL;DR summary )

Modifié par Freckle Face, 10 juin 2011 - 03:06 .

[w0lfam0da1s]

i just want to know why red bandanas and not some other color like black blue green yellow the list goes on. why red? is it to let you know that you can look but not touch

[worldcitizen1919]

I loved a lot more about Dragon Age 2 than the first version. I never finished Dragon Age but havde already played through DA2 TWICE it's that good.

What I liked is the graphics are like in Mass Effect. large real life like people. And I loved the COMBAT. Such brilliant graphics again with the combart as opposed to the first Dragon Age.

And the story. Excellent. I played different roles each time and the story unfolded differently and I noticed the game played differently so it was not boring 2nd time round.

One thing I hate about most RPG's is path finding. I hate getting lost and spending quality time searching for where I have to go. DA2's path finding was excellent. Straight into the action/story without wasting time searching for a door or road.

The atmosphere was right in DA2. The characters real as well as the fights. I'm keeping it on my PC in case I want to play through it again or buy some DLC.

[bebop50]

What I liked about the game let's see graphic was very nice combat was smooth and quick the story up to Act 3 was well written. Some of the things that disappointed me were lack of character development especially the romances 7 years of no build up, I also felt for 7 years nothing I did in act 1 had any consequences in act 3 ( no real choices ) of course the reused levels ( which I could overlook because of the combat but it still get's old ) lack of DLC or constant news. Good game got my monies worth but was expecting better all around. If bioware is going to do romances please put forth a better effort and less ( use your imagination to fill in the blanks moments )

[Unionhack]

Welcome to Kirkwall, where people drop out of the sky and explode when you poke them with a dagger,

[Rokky94]

Not much point replaying it after a first playthrough, no exploration, stupid magically appearing enemies, Every apostate mage seems to be either a blood mage or an abomination... why?

Overall, the game was ok, but such a let down compared to DA:O.

[Melima]

My first problem is that fell for a game character. Argh, how embarrassing. I can't shake it, it's bad. Okay, that happened in Origins, not in Awakenings, and not in DA II. No character in Awakenings or DA II interested me that much,... or in any other game, really. Shocking to have this problem over a game persona.

So,... I tried the character involvements in DA II and the most interest lay in parts of the New Anders' persona; (Justice kind of balanced him out for me), and part of the Fenris' persona, but neither of them wholly were too interesting. How anyone liked Anders in Awakenings, I don't know. He was so whiny! He's still too whiny and close-minded, but better than he was in Awakenings. Bleah,... come on, stand like a man!

Programmers took away the ability to continuosly interact, get a kiss, whatever, even when Anders is standing right in your house. Pfft! And Fenris,... okay, he's moody, but the ability to interact with your romantic interest was really nice in Origins. Why did you kill that?

As for the whole bisexual option, well, I find it overdone. I want an option right at the top of the game that asks if you want that option in the game or not, please.  Thanks, that would solve a major annoyance for me.

I loved the shorter battles. It keeps just enough fighting in, while holding my interest. I'm not big on battles, and DA II was much more pleasant for me on that score. Thanks for that.

The rogue character, flying through the air, flipping, doing the double swords, ... I had so much fun with that. Thanks.

Resolution,... is that just too boring for DA programmers to care about? Seriously! You've left me so disatisfied on so many fronts. Why did I have to be a whole new persona and start over, watching short cameos of Origin folks, and wondering if Thedas swallowed Morrigan altogether? All I could think was that no writer or programmer felt like dealing with those old stories any more, or had run out of imagination, so they went on to new stuff. (Like the random dungeon rooms,....'Oh, that's too boring. We can't be bothered with that.') It does leave a player feeling like the writers/programmers care much more about what they're creatively up for in the moment than for their consumer gamers' enjoyment.

I didn't realize how much I missed the first game until I realized how excited I got when the letter arrived from King Alistair. I thought, "Wow. What is the matter with me? My heart's all hammering like an idiot. Sheesh." So, I was back at the embarrassment stage for falling for the aforementioned game character in Origins. Steve Valentine,... you are going to get yours one of these days,... such a heartwringer of a voice! And whoever wrote those lines and plot for Alistair,... you're really sick. You know you are. Good at it, yes, but a sick, sick person. haha Yep, I've got it bad.

Zevran? No way. Can you say sleaze ball? I knew that you could.  (Stand like a man, Zevran!)  And Alistair,... he's the best -- and worst. All I can say is,... Ferelden must be a woman, and she must have it all. How else could Alistair do what he did?

Oh yes,... blood mages are everywhere! Ahhh! Why? I mean seriously, .... why? How am I supposed to get my sympathy up for mages when only my character and Anders remain true for the cause? Of course, I can't see my way to supporting the templars, ... especially with that nut at the top of their chain, but please, I need to have more sympathy to the cause.  The Blight was a good cause! Fighting for the mages is also a good cause, but I've got to really be convinced that Fenris is NOT right, after all, please.

Back to the question of 'do gamer/consumers really matter to you'....and resolution,... the end of DA II is pretty epic with the battle, but uh,...well,.. lackluster when the text tells me what happens ... pretty much like it was at the end of Origins,... and Awakenings (I just 'disappeared' one day??)  It just doesn't seem to make that much difference in the wide world to the programmers/writers what my character does / doesn't do -- as far as I can tell. It seems to be on Ander's shoulders. Hmmm...

*Edit: The elves faces were ruined in DA II

Modifié par Melima, 15 juin 2011 - 12:04 .

[phoenixgoddess27]

I... personally did not enjoy the game that much. There were some things that I could enjoy and it definitely had potential, but overall, I feel like I was ripped off.
I begged my boss for some overtime to be able to afford the Signature Edition around Christmas time while still paying for rent, groceries and bills, and I was quite excited to play in March.... until I actually played it. Maybe it had something to do with me playing Origins three times and enjoyed connecting with the characters or maybe it was just that terrible.


The beginning made me wonder, "I thought there was character customization in this game? Why is my Hawke so... default?" but then after about five minutes, I finally got to the customization. The hair was... ugly. Very... ugly. I do have to ask, but is there a reason why there's no such thing as long hair in this game? Is it to prevent lice? Is it so hot in-game that there's no reason for long hair? Is someone snipping it in their sleep?

Controls: I liked them. I didn't really see a problem with them, but it did take some getting used to. I kept accidentally pressing L2 to open up my inventory since I wasn't quite used to pressing start. I usually press select to get to my codex quicker, instead of pressing start. Other than that, good job

Hawke and family: Great potential. Absolutely great A tear jerker in the beginning, but great. I... do wish I was given a chance to choose whether to have her voiced or not voiced, though. Since well, usually what I chose for her to say didn't mean diddly squat since she always said something different. Some of the choices didn't make sense, at all, really. What I think was 'clever and witty" as the manual describes, was usually just coming off as a b****. I wish it would have told me that. "Warning: Your Hawke may be a bit harsh than intended." but whenever I chose a mean response, it seemed... sugarcoated. I was wondering if maybe they had these two backwards since the manual said the red response was meant to be rude. I hate that your sibling is a pain in the backside, despite you saving them and there's nothing you can say or do back.

Companions: What about them?
Seriously, what about them? I didn't really learn much about them outside of quests. They had more fun bantering with each other than when I tried talking to them. All I ever got was barks. That three year gap was laughable. You mean in those three years you couldn't have given us one cutscene talking to them each or the one we got along/rivaled with the most? In those three years we're supposed to be all buddy buddy when the jerks wouldn't even talk to me any other time? I felt cheated. I didn't preorder or spend $60 to get the cold shoulder from everyone. The whole, "Don't call me, I'll call you." was lame. I enjoyed their homes, especially a certain love interest's... but would it hurt to get rid of the dead bodies scattered around watching us with " D: " and "O_O" faces? Maybe even not reusing the same estate/mansion over and over? (Same goes for areas outside of Kirkwall, too) I'd like to not have a wh*** as a teammate for once. I laughed that she was basically a portable STD farm(Yes, she may have a deeper side to her, but her crotch repelled me from ever wanting to find out). All it took was a cutscene or two to confirm my suspicions. I think this is where Bioware didn't give two flips or a huzzah. I didn't feel like a friend or a lover. The love scenes... well, I'll skip this part since all I saw was a black screen, can't really say what happened with the giant black screen censor bar D: I felt like I was just there. I don't recall telling my teammates, "Don't mind me, I'm just your errand boy meat shield.", but I was treated as such.

Standard love interest conversation to me:
Character: I need your help. I'm cold shoulder.
Hawke: Okay, sure, I'm Hawke.
*awkward silence over three years*
Character: I hate that I can't calm my anus.
Hawke: Oh, well... you're cute. I don't agree/agree with you, though.
Character: Wanna bone?
Hawke: Sure.
Character: That was great, cya. *Gone, only to return later*
Character: Still love me?
Hawke: Of course/Who are you, again?

After a handful of quests for them. That's how I felt pretty much. I didn't really know them, despite us having our own homes which should have made things more personal. Fenris was quite the eye candy, though.

Gameplay: The only one that really has any real meaning to me is Act II. Act I was boring and if I hadn't forced myself to get past it(Cause I was wasting time just wandering around), I would have forgot it was in my PS3. Act III was just... eh. Just when you think you're finally understanding something, it makes less sense all over, again. And the result? That there's nothing you can do about it. I was thought something was wrong with my game copy when I saw the elves' faces. And the poor Origin cameo faces.... Let's just say, I cried inside. Other than that, I could easily tell the elves apart from the humans. Anders was too whiny to get along with/choose a dialogue option that I'd choose, myself. He had too many romance dialogue options. Why couldn't I just choose something normal? It was disappointed to see three options. Flirt, flirt, rude. Where's the option to simply talk normally? I barely knew the guy The enemies fell from the heavens to smite me with their wrath... after I had just killed a big group of them. That... was a tad ridiculous, but it was hilarious and I enjoyed the XP. I did enjoy the crafting. That was pretty cool. Didn't enjoy the enchantment replacement, but I can see why they did it that way. It was good to see Sandal again, even if his face and glowy eyes scared me too much to sleep. I like that the enemies aren't easy to defeat (That or my Warden was just too badass to take down), it feels like a good challenge. However... the inventory could have been so much better. In Origins, I was happy to loot dead bodies to see the description I got, but in this one.... It felt bland. I forget to even check my inventory.


Graphics: I think I'm one of the only ones who like the graphics. With the exception of the hideous Avatar/Goblin looking elves, the cameos from Origins and Anders face compared to his face in Awakening, I loved them. Can't say anything bad outside of that. Just good things.

EDIT: I just noticed the hands. Maker forsake those hands.


Overall: I'd give it a 4/10. The companion issue really bothered me cause the game felt boring. Of course I'll replay, but I won't expect anything better. After reading up in the forum that Gaider has no plans to change the conversations with the party to something more than just "Let's move on.", "You like what I whine about or I will be mean to you >: " and "whine, complain, do this quest, whine.", I don't see myself quickly jumping to preorder Dragon Age 3 or anything else they plan to make that's going to be based on that. If cold shoulders is what they like so much, so be it, but it's very disappointing to many(Not all, many). I do hate how this means squat to the developers, but nothing can be done about it, so there's really no point in ranting over it any longer. What happens, happens, even if it's for the worse. I personally think DA2 could have been a loooooooooooooot better, but hopefully a little leprechaun/fairy will make the developers have a change of heart and spend more time developing the next game/DLC into being something greater than this.

Good luck, Bioware!

Modifié par phoenixgoddess27, 14 juin 2011 - 02:51 .

[kuroshimodo]

This is something I had posted on another thread but it would seem that nobody was paying much attention, so perhaps there would be a better response if I post it here. . .

kuroshimodo wrote...

Dragon Age 2 in general didn't have any sort of an impact and felt like a cookie cutter template was used. All Dragon Age 2 really was, was just fireworks. At first you go ooh then afterwards there is nothing left,"but my golly it was cool while it lasted." By confining the player to play one certain character, the world wasn't immersible like Dragon Age: Origins was. You were the bad ass Hawke going around being the bad ass he/she were born as.

Hawke losing his family over the years wasn't really that big of an impact considering the Warden had to leave everything they knew behind and embrace a new fate that was against their choosing. Sure, Dragon Age 2 used a similar plot device and it is an easy one to use but the main difference between how Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 applied such a plot device was in their execution. Concerning the party members available, there hardly was, if any, connection to be form with the player. Identifying with the party members including Hawke and the "struggles" they were going through, was incredibly lacking in Dragon Age 2. There was no depth to their personalities or their back story it seemed. Sure you can easily say what mold they were fashion from but what materials were use to shape them is a challenge since the craftsman rushed his efforts and didn't give time to add details to his work.

The story, characters, and setting were exceptionally dull and quite frankly I have yet to beat the game for I find it is rather boring and it doesn't effectively grasp my attention. How the quests are set up reinforce the lack of intrigue that Dragon Age 2 had brought to the table. The battle system and their choice of leveling dynamics, hindered, if not void, the need to choose wisely on how to build your character as well as how to effectively advance your character. There were no limits on how "awesome" and powerful you could make your characters, but by doing so, there were severe limitations on how to make a meaningful and rich character that the player could craft.

On that note, an RPG should have the player create a character they want however challenging the player by having them to start off average then as they progress, they could reach the zenith where their character is epic. The player should have to work to improve their character to become as awesome as Hawke pretty much started off as, which is in essence of what a good RPG should be rather than having everything readily available from the beginning to achieve epic status.

In this day and age, it would seem such values have decline drastically. It would seem the majority just wants to be entertain by fireworks rather than taking their time to enjoy the lasting impact of a product that a craftsman poured all his effort and the applications of his craft into. In short, it is hard to find players that can appreciate the video game craft, and disappointing and frustrating to see those who posses such a craft but don't apply it. However this may sound like I am complaining but sadly what I have mentioned is what I notice to truly be the trend that affects the video game industry this age.

I do apologize if this wasn't much of a review and more of a critic's ramblings. For what it is worth, I do hope my post will help the Bioware/EA staff in their future endeavors concerning creating a richer game experience.

Modifié par kuroshimodo, 14 juin 2011 - 08:24 .

[wangxiuming]

A very late review, though it covers most of my thoughts on Dragon Age. Overall it was a good game, but not as good as Dragon Age: Origins.

Review:

It is perhaps impossible to review Dragon Age 2 without making
comparisons to its predecessor. Dragon Age: Origins was a stunning
achievement in late 2009, winning multiple game of the year awards and
lauded as one of the best RPGs of the generation. Considering the
daunting tasks that the game had to achieve and how well it succeeded -
creating an immersive setting, establishing a fun and tactical gameplay
system, and building a strong fanbase for future games to capitalize on -
it's no wonder that the game took 5 years for the RPG veteran Bioware
to complete.

Comparatively, Dragon Age 2 was released in March of
2011, less than 1.5 years from the release of the original in November
of 2009.

That was probably the first clue that something was wrong.

Admittedly,
a large part of the effort that went into making Dragon Age: Origins
was completed with the first entry in the series: establishment of lore
being the main part. Still, 1.5 years is a short turnaround for an epic
RPG series, and I was worried that the brief development time might
impact the quality of the sequel.

See the rest of the post here.

[Klaus Kutuzuv]

 Hi Everybody, 

I just finished DA 2 and I must say that I feel really disappointed by the entire story of the game. 
In fact I was so disappointed that I felt compelled to write a review in a public forum which I never ever did before. 

Whereas DAO featured a storyline with a very strong sense of fighting an epic battle against a great threat, with friends and companions at your side, DA II feels more like three not so important stories loosely tied together. 
What really added up to this feeling were: 

• The Ending: I really liked the ending of DAO - it gave me the time to talk to my companions a last time, an d then walk of into glory. Whereas in DAO I got to know what happened to my friends and Ferelden, due to my decisions, I really hated the ending of DA II: It just ends. No goodbyes, no relevant story information. Iu really didn't feel that i was being treated as a hero or a friend or a lover. This just feels like a game in-between two other games. 
• The Involvement: In DAO I read all the codex information I could. I liked it so much, I would have read it in an app, if there were any. In DA 2 I didn't read it at all. First, there was no shortcut to these (as in DAO where I pushed "select") - and second: There was no reason to. No riddles (as with andrastes ashes) - this really spoiled the feeling of integration-
• The Companion System. I really liked the campfire in DAO - I was able to talk to my companions whenever I wished to and it felt like a home within the gameworld. In DA II there is no such thing. In fact, I can only talk to my companions at the beginning of each chapter - and thats it. Thats really dull.
• The smaleness. Whereas in DAO there were lots of worlds and areas with differing vegetation etc, I was fed up of Kirkwall by the end of the second chapter. It was really boring to see the same settings all over again. 

Although I liked the improvements (the new fights, the graphics, the skill trees) the overall game felt more like a hack'n'slay than a RPG - written by somebody entirely else. I will probably buy DA III - but certainly not as a preorder anymore. 

Best regards, 
Klaus

P.s.: I'm sure that somebody wrote down all this before me - but I wanted to make sure it settled in, by mentioning it again, as I'm really disappointed. 

[Anthemion]

Hello everyone, hello Bioware

I've finished Dragon Age 2 a week ago. As a PC user I've been a huge and longtime fan of Bioware games so far but now it hurts me watching more and more sequels (ME2, DA2) becoming less and less demanding in regard of gameplay.
I've read a lot of reviews here and I concurr with many of them - so in my review youi'll find the one or the other argument posted before...

In DA2 I liked:
- The story after the first act.
- The Quest guiding system.

I didn't like
- The undemanding fights and combat system - even on hard difficulty.When changing the difficulty level the fights only got longer - no need to change the strategy,because the behaviour and the skills of the enemies were too restricted.

-Even after the "better graphics" patch - I liked the graphical style of DAO better. It was somewhat darker and dirtier - it felt more "real".

-I missed the possibility to talk to my companions when I liked to.It was alway great to learn more from my compainions in the camp in DAO.

-The repeating maps. Well you can do that once or twice - but with DA2 it was ridiculus.

- Why so many items when I can only equip them on the main character? Equiping the entire party was fun and important in DAO (on higher difficulty). Bring back the old system.

- I was never really a fan of crafting. But that even got worse in part 2. Runes were destroyed when changing them?

- According to announcements from Bioware my decisions in DAO should play a role in DA2. While I've noticed references to part 1 on a handful of occasions - it never felt important.
I can't verify that because I won't play it a second time.

- I hoped to see more from Ferelden than just a unknown city and it's surroundings. There are so many interesting Places (Tevinter, Orlais, Anderfels, Antiva) described in the lore - so why not visit them in the game?

Overall I think that more got wrong than right. One consequence for me is that next time I won't preorder the game. I'll play the demo first and then decide - or I'll wait for the bargain rack.

PS: You surely have realized that I'm not a native speaker, so please excuse the one or the other linguistig catastrophe.

[Klaus Kutuzuv]

...reading all the reviews, I wonder how many DAO gamers (who, it seems, played the games 3 to 4 times on average) really liked DA II. And how often they played through the game. Is there some kind of questionnaire system here?