3274 réponses à ce sujet

[BountyHuntress16]

The Good:

• The story. I actually liked the idea of a focused tale set in one place. While some things were lost in the execution (repeated dungeons, a timeline that probably could have been shortened) I liked the mage vs. templar conflict. I liked getting to know the characters over time and seeing them interact with each other. I like that this group of people don't always get along (sometimes even with Hawke, via the friendship/rivalry matrix). I like that even if they don't agree with Hawke, they can come stand with you at the end. I loved the expansiveness of DA:O and experiencing the different cultures within Fereldan. But I also don't think the idea of a focused setting in a video game should be discounted because of the richness found in one place.
• The characters. Like Hawke, I don't always agree with them. But damn did I love watching them grow. I loved when Aveline and Isabela became friends after years of sniping. I loved how Varric looked out for all the others in his way. Even Anders who I spent a lot of time frowning at was sympathetic. (And his actions, though they made me throw my hands up in their air, were understandable from someone who had been sytematically oppressed for most of his life.)
• (As an Anders sidenote, the constant refrain of "Anders was a whiny ****" irritates me. I'm not a huge Anders fan but the man has been raised in a system that punishes him for what he was born as. I would be passionate about it too. Please don't let it deter you from writing other characters, male or female, who have a lot of emotions to share.)
• The "Everyone is Romanceable" motif. You already addressed this quite well in the letter to the angry fan that popped up last year. I enjoyed this aspect of the game. DA2 was about Templars and Mages but it was also abut relationships with family, friends, lovers and the people around you. Letting the four LI's be romanced by either gender opened up new ways to explore the bonds between the characters. (I know that Hawke is Hawke regardless of gender but each different Hawke brings different nuances to the relationships.) I will say that I liked how ME3 handled their relationships (some people are gay, some people are bi, some people are straight) and would be open to this but I have to say I prefer "everyone is bi!" for DA.
• A lot of video games suffer from a) only having the token chick or all the lady characters have to be sexy. We have four very different female companions (and depending on the player's hawke, a pretty kick-ass female hero) and I am glad of it.
• The combat system. There is probably some adjusting that can be done to find a happy medium between DA:O and DA2 gameplay but as a console gamer, I preferred the DA2 combat.
• The main conflict: mages vs. templars. Because it is something that has no clear right or wrong. Though there were some executions problems with this...

The Not-So-Good:

• Like the fact that a lot of the apostates you meet do turn to blood magic. A varied approach to apostates would have helped the main conflict.
• I do like the idea of staying in one focused area over time but the last time jump could have been shortened.
• Orsino's fate if you choose to be Pro-Mage seemed unnecessary and unfitting wth the story.
• Repeating dungeons.

Ovrall, I enjoyed DAII. And my greatest fear is the wrong feedback is taken and put into play. Namely the kind that says "These men are too whiny!" or "Aveline is ugly!" or "Isabela is too dark!" and so on. If Bioware brings over the storytelling chops they've showcased to DA3 and finds a combat system that please all parties involved, I don't see why it can't be a hit.

[DeadPoolX]

If nothing else, I liked the fact DA2's story had a more down-to-earth local feel. Nearly every RPG (especially those that're fantasy-based) deals with an epic tale and that gets boring after a while.

Sorry, I can't relate to being the one person in the world who can save everyone.

[Cynnane]

Not a regular poster, but I wanted to give my 2 cents. I figure my post length can be excused by not having posted in the thread so far.

Dragon Age 2 Pros

Party Character Behaviour
Regardless of how I felt about the character personalities, the way they behaved with the PC and the world was a huge step forward. They acted more like real people when they:

• commented on inane topics (ex. "I wonder why it's called the Hanged Man")
• acted like a real person to the PC (ex. When a major event happens to the PC that people in real life would normally comment on, they actually all did, instead of just saying "I don't have anything else to say.")
• discussed details of the current quest (ex. When investigating a certain nefarious individual, commented on him and the implications of the evidence around his house)
• don't suddenly stop being your friend like a 6 year old, when you disagree with them

Localised Story
I really did enjoy the story of DA:O, as well as those of previous BioWare games, but it was great to have something different.  DA2 offered a good change from saving the kingdom/world/galaxy again.

I loved the personal level of the story, including the long-term involvement of the PC with the party members and the city. In DA2, you had relationships that grew and expanded over time. In games that focus on a broader geographical scope in a shorter time, the player is often left without a sense of home.

That said, I don't object to future games having epic, globe-spanning storylines, but it would be really, really nice if they could have some variation back and forth, or at least include more personal levels to them.

Mistreatment of Mages
Although the mages circle in DA:O was a start, I felt that BioWare really delivered on their vision of mages in a less accepting society in DA2.

It delved more deeply into politics and the ethical questions surrounding mages and I really appreciated that. It was quite a thought-provoking issue.

Vibrant Settings
Not only were the natural settings more visually vibrant and attractive, the behaviour of the random NPCs in the city made it more immersive as well.

(This was expanded even further in ME3 on the Citadel with all the bits of conversations you overhear that continue on at later points. Great attention to detail that really polishes off the setting.)

Combat Animations
I liked seeing my rogue using a more agile, acrobatic technique in combat. It was much more fun to watch and more engaging to play.

Female PC Hair and Run
There were finally some decent hairstyles for the female PC and she stopped running like a guy. Thank you.


Dragon Age 2 Cons

Bugs
This is the major one for me. The amount of issues with DA2 when it was released was unacceptable. Thanks to some community mods, I was able to get past the worst of them and play the game shortly after release.

At least BioWare was quick to start working on them and careful to track them, which was the second best thing they could do.

Gore
The game omitted a gore toggle. I don't mind a little gore, but to see a body explode when I backstabbed it was ridiculous. Thanks to whoever made the anti-gibbing mod. That was much appreciated.

No Stealth Outside of Combat
Although there was stealth outside of combat in DA:O, its application was limited, so this is more of a series issue. It would be wonderful to have:

• the option of sleight-of-hand to gain items from people (ex. lift a key from them instead of disabling/killing them for it)
• the option to use stealth to gain information (ex. eavesdropping, or rifling through someone's drawers (not underwear  ) for documents)
• the option to open alternate routes (ex. climb through a window and let your party in through the side door, instead of breaking down the front door)
• the option of stealth to gain items from places (ex. sneak in and take them, instead of barge in or hijack them elsewhere)
• the option to use "dirty" means to disable someone, instead of using force or killing them (ex. slip something in their drink or blackjack them)

These don't require a stealth "mode" per se, but some form of stealth, sleight-of-hand, or dexterity. In fact, the ODO definition is perfect: "Sleight: the use of dexterity or cunning, especially so as to deceive."

Portrayal of Time
By the latter part of the game, I really had to stop, mull-over, and imagine the situation to understand the movitations for some characters. A couple more lines of dialogue from said characters that emphasised how they felt because of the extent of the changes over time would have helped. Or a more visual transition between the years, something that hit home the extent of the changes going on a little more than what was there.

Repeated Areas
This is actually a very minor quibble. However, unless you are in a maze of twisty little passages that are all alike, it does briefly interrupt the immersion to notice that the area you're currently exploring looks suspiciously like the one you were in 30 minutes ago.


All in all, I've always enjoyed BioWare games and thought each new game improved upon the last in some way, whether it was a gameplay feature, narrative technique, or something else. I appreciate their dedication to creating a good story, engaging characters, and immersive settings, which are the best part of the games for me. I also like that they're willing to take risks to move their series forward (even if they don't always get the reception they want for some of this ).

Modifié par Cynnane, 23 mars 2012 - 12:36 .

[unbentbuzzkill]

Da2 is a decent game not great like Dragon age just felt kinda flat.

[Silver77nz]

Customization: I missed the ability to equip
your companions with armor. I would pick up all this armor for different
classes and pretty much could of used it with my warrior, mage, or
rouge companion. The fact I couldn't drove me nuts. Also I got a little
irritated that certain rings would just be named ring. So I had to keep
looking at all my rings to figure out what attributes it had. DA:O had
names for their rings which made it so much easier.

Loot:
Pretty much sucked in DA2. The loot in DA:O I pretty much got good
money for it where as in DA2 I got next to nothing so I always felt
broke. When I pick up something in loot that says torn trousers or
broken sword it irritated me. I think I spent half the game destroying
junk.

Companion Interaction: I missed the
ability to click on my companions and have a conversation rather than
an auto-dialogue response. DA2 I felt that the conversations were
available only when you got a message to come talk to them. I miss the
ability to just talk to them when I want and get to know them. Also I
felt like I had a limited amount of times I could talk to them during
each Act. I missed the interaction of the camp in DA:O.

Reuse of Maps and Lack of Exploration:
Yep pretty much agree with people on this. Reuse of maps felt lazy and I
knew exactly what the dungeon layout or cave would be for every single
one I encountered. Skyrium is a great example of mysterious and
beautiful caves and dungeons. You have no idea what is up ahead. I
missed the ability to explore a wide range of regions like in DA:O. In
DA2 I barely got to explore the world beyond Kirkwall.

Voiced/Silent Protagonist:
I don't mind a silent one but I prefer one that I can hear. Just makes
the character more real for me. The dialouge system though needs to be
better. I have picked a phrase thinking I would say that and something
comepletely different came out. I really like how Deus Ex had their
dialouge set up cause I at least knew what I was going to say ahead of
time. Also I don't think I need a big red heart to know when I'm being
flirty or a big broken heart to know when I'm cutting off a potential
relationship.

More Humor: I know that the
fight between the mages and templars is pretty dark in DA2 but the
whole world could be ending in DA:O and there was tons of humor to
balance that darkness. I brought Varric or Isabella just to lighten the
mood but even then it didn't seem like enough. DA:O it seemed the
characters had more of a sense of humor even during troubling times.

Decisions Matter:
The choice in the end I made didn't really matter. It felt like I really had no impact on the game either way.

Combat:
Felt very smooth and was done pretty well. However the wave after wave
of enemies was a bit crazy. I missed seeing the enemy sometimes in
advance so I could prepare what my tatical apporach was.

That is all I can think of for now[smilie]../../../images/forum/emoticons/w00t.png[/smilie]

[icykitty]

Well, here r my 2 cents:
the YAY!!!!
1. I love the characters! Hawke, Carver, Sebastian etc the npcs interactions and conflicts r very great!
2. the graphics, wow, very breath taking
3. All romance characters finally open to gay and les except Sebastian XD No need for mods

the NAY
1. lack of choices on the voice: I can accept the DA2 focusing on the Hawke family, thus, we can't play as an elf or other race. But the addition of voice on the PC character really ruined the whole role playing experience! I can't really role play as my campy Hawke w the masculine butch default voice. However, male Hawke has a very very sexy voice XD if DA3 allows us to choose from different voices to represent the PC we created, i am cool with it
2. now this is a very serious problem, the lack of tool set really really ruined the game community from further exploring and developing the game. I still play DAO these days for the wonderful new adventures created by the mod writers. DAO is a game that i can keep on playing for many many play throughs while DA2 failed miserably.
3. with all the mages Hawke met gone rogue for blood magic, and even killing Hawke's family, it's almost impossible to lean towards the mages. If we wanna play the conflict between the mages and the templars, should it not be a more balanced approach?
4. companions stuck in same clothes, players cannot dress them up it really made collecting armors meaningless and making the adventures boring...
5. unable to speak to the companions like how DAO used to be making the game so werid, so unrealistic. I wanna speak to my friends!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, i am still very very looking forward for DA3!

Modifié par icykitty, 30 mars 2012 - 07:29 .

[br003]

Ystitans78 wrote...

Sylfschiffer wrote...

It's not mine, but this critic is 100% my thought: http://www.1up.com/d...try?bId=9074145
Don't mind the "Why all the hate" thing, it's not a critic saying that "omg it's so goooood" thing =)

I'm with you on this the critic is spot on in this article. I still don't get all the Dragon Age 2 hate and I think most of the people that hate DA 2 will hate DA 3 no matter how good or bad it is when it comes out

Definitely agree, after the last DLC I was looking forward to Exalted March[/b], might have to break down and get Skyrim  or Wtcher. Who  knows how long 3 will take.

[hussey 92]

Dragon age 2 wasn't a bad game, I enjoy playing it, but it was pretty much just a copy off of Mass Effect 2.  Which was frustrating because changes that work for Mass Effect don't work for Dragon Age.

The Good

-The charcters and combat look prettier

The Bad

-Weapon and armor restrictions ruined custimization
-Compared to Origins, the DA 2 companions were very forgetable
- Nothing you did in Origins seemed to have any effect on DA 2
-The dialouge choices didn't seem to have an affect on the game
-The loot sucked
-"Junk" was useless, you couldn't sell it for much and it crowded your inventory space.
-The recycled enviroments were annoying and may have killed the replay value
-The "water paint" backround looked pretty bad

note:  Fallout 3 had a much better version of Junk (cigarette cartons, scrap metal, ect) and it was one of the best ways to make money in the game.  In Dragon Age 2, money was easy to come by so I just ingnored Junk everytime I saw it

Modifié par hussey 92, 02 avril 2012 - 02:25 .

[staindgrey]

I've been playing through on my fourth time, and I felt the need to pop in here to give my own never-to-be-read impression of the game I love to hate to love.

Great: The idea of changing conflicts. This isn't just "stop the Blight" or "save the princess". It's living. First dealing with personal anguish and building a life, then a clash of cultures reaching the point of no return, then seeing it repeat itself within your own ranks over the politically and religiously charged conflict of "gifted" people and "normal" people. Watching the story evolve with time was my favorite part of DAII compared to any other game.

Good: The simplification of the item micromanagement, and the character interaction. The amount of time allowed party members to change both around Hawke and around one another. Despite the lack of scenery changes, the amount of personal changes made me want to come back to the game multiple times, just to see it all happen again.

Indifferent: The art style and the centralized focus on one human character. I don't mind the change in art direction; sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. It's whatever. And while picking your origin was cool in DAO, I realize the benefit of making us choose a certain Hawke-- the story can be more personally charged, the family can play a major role in the main character's life without being shoehorned as a cameo, etc. Some parts of the "origins" idea were entirely superficial and unnecessary while some made DAO a wholly unique experience. The same concept of "take the good with the bad" applies to DAII's Hawke.

Pretty bad: The lack of scenery change. Listen, I know we're in one city for the whole game. I like that idea. But you know what other game had a similar concept? Zelda: Majora's Mask. It put you in the same town for three days and managed to give it far more life than Kirkwall had. Kirkwall never grew or evolved. It never changed over the course of 7 years. Shops didn't move, people didn't even move. People would treat you kind of differently and mention changes casually, but it was hard to care about a city that seemed more or less like a boring canvas on which we were trying to paint our stories. I expected way more to change over the course of seven years.

Horrible: The obvious rushed status of the game. I'm talking "junk" inventory that just takes up space. I'm talking visiting the same damn warehouse every time you have to track someone down. I'm talking about the waves of unnamed enemies there for no reason other than to bump up the gameplay time. I'm talking glitches galore upon release and an entire game that just felt lacking in comparison to its predecessor upon completion. I mean, you guys didn't even change the on-screen maps of reused dungeons, mansions or caves! I know the game had a stupidly short development schedule and needed more time to cook, but this cannot happen again. Period. A one-time mistake is forgivable, but a second will lose me entirely, regardless of the other positives the series has.



Despite flaws and a clear lack of polish or 'umf', I fell in love with Hawke and her merry companions, and felt that the politically charged and emotional story is one that other similar adventure games should take note of. I'm tired of saving the world like superman; saving what I can like Hawke gives me a better sense of purpose.

Just work on your plot twists, guys. The stuff with Orsino and Meredith at the end was awful and completely ruined their characters.

[Scarlet Rabbi]

Assassins are mind-numbinly stupid in this game. Instant kills on mages and rogues, and 75% of a two-handed or tank warrior. Absolutely no cool-down to their back-stab, and if it is there it's not more than two seconds. How is it that these morons can execute a slow-motion dissapearing backflip in mid-air (which somehow knocks everyone around them off balance) while my ENTIRE TEAM is slashing and pounding at them, while Haste is activated too? It makes my blood-boil that something so cheap was includes in a game that revolves (supposedly) around stragety and tatics.

Well, can't do too much of that while two invisible back-stabbing assassins with HUGE health bars are running around single-handidly taking out my party one by one. Oh yeah, and when they have a sliver of their life left they'll just whip out a potion and chug it while they're being attacked by all four of my party members, like we're just annonying gnats. Absolutely ridiculous and cheaper than a $2 movie.

Who on the DA team raised their hand during a brain-storm session and suggested implementing spawn-out-of-thin-air, instant-one-hit-kill, dissapearing backflipping assassins? "Oh yeah, they'll love that." On hard and Nightmare a battle that involves two or more assassins is on par with any boss battle in this game. In fact, I'd say boss battles are just longer, but no where near as cheap as assassins.

Oh yeah, and when they do their dissapearing backflip, and you try to coast around to avoid being back-stabbed, forget it. Your character will stop, yes the game will freeze your character mid-run, when the assassin appears behind you just to give him a nice, clean, easy kill. Nice, real nice. Can't do AoE spells on nightmare to knock them out stealth either because cone of cold or whatever wipes out your part member's life bar while barley denting the weakest enemies. Ahhhh...I got positives coming but I've been gutted by soooo many assassins today I had to get that out.

[Bearmonsta]

Bit late but better than never. I bought this game the first day it came out for $89 off steam, but would have gladly paid $120 if i didnt have to spend the first 4 hours saying dude, wheres my mabari? Only to find out its part of the $10 magic shop DLC (kick in the face because i found it right after i completed the game). My suggestions are specifically features I would like to see for Dragon Age 3.

Graphics
What i did enjoy from the get go was the gore, enough paused blood spatters and sprays to make a psychopath squeal . The visceral elements where such a welcome change and done so well yet i wanted to cherish that instead of having my warriors continually take out 3+ enemies at once with a few button presses from the start of the game onwards. Mage spells were elegant and beautiful to watch and use. Rogues were sneaky and fun. The environements were stunning albiet copy-pasted and sometimes under detailed. Character's clothes (idk if the texture pack changed this) looked like painted on directx 9 textures though, an issue i just couldn't get past.

Tactics
While i love and encourage the move towards a more streamlined combat system in regards to not pausing all the time i much preferred pausing over relying on the tactics system which was bugged and never fit the ever changing combat situations. I paused even on normal due to losing characters constantly to attrition. My suggestion would be to add an option to slow time before having to pause to deal with smaller issues like rogues getting focused ect. I would also prefer much more effort on streamlining the tactics system with a new addition of 'group tactics' where you can see, on a spreadsheet, what each character is doing, as a whole, in response to events. Its just because i hate having to micromanage situations like "Oh no you didn't just waste 2 mana pots on rockbiting a mob before you froze him!?@!". Would also love being able to que multiple spells in a row i.e: pause game > highlight warrior > taunt boss > kite to here > sheild slam > melee > health potion > kite to here ect.

Story
The Varric storybook method was unexpected and really cool. Yet at release there wasnt enough ways to set your storyline details that carried over from origins without any saved games, making me somewhat annoyed at points when it was brought up "NO. I made Alastair king you imbecile!". Having said that some of the time i felt like skipping dialogue as it didn't contribute to anything or wasnt intriguing.

Interface
I strongly miss the more complex origins interface and keybindings. You'll have to forgive me a whinge but i thought this was the pc version not a rushed console port. It felt like a case of you took something solid and broke it to suit all platforms instead of taking the time on each platform individually (please do or you wont hear the end of it ). One feature i would like added though is a shared inventory with all your active group members weapons and armor shown on the one page. Also like origins i always got lost with save games, i would start
different main characters and get lost as to where their saved games
were or worse save over them. I also thoroughly enjoyed the talents and spending them.

Gameplay
I loved the gameplay, its what kept me playing. I loved the talents and spells and being in combat was incredibly fun when i had the chance to see things unfold or win tough battles. I would spend hours hunting down extra skill books. I dont understand other forum posts going on about how characters are
locked to certain weapons i think they look pretty cool and love that
they have talents devoted to the weapons.

Map
I understand why everyone is upset about how we are almost solely based in one city. In origins I spent many hours avoiding the main quest line to explore every area, and loved every second of it. The new areas where so diverse and rewarding to visit and the game didnt feel completed until i did. I really missed the banter and dialogue around the campfire from origins too.

I didnt mean to write this post as a mega whinge, just wanted to see the many begrudged pc gamers come back to the series and enjoy it again. I get the sense the problem lies with the compromises made to suit consoles and abandoning things that werent broken in the first place. All in all i managed to play through DA2 at least once and enjoyed it thoroughly.

[keesio74]

Note that a lot of the comparison is DA2 vs DA:O

Good:
-Graphics. Though this is expected with a newer game
-Companions. I thought the companions, in general, had more depth. Their side quests were more complex and the interactions with them were more fleshed out. Each companion also brough something unique in terms of abilities with their unique specialization. In DA:O, You can spec Sten and Oghren to be pretty much the same. I also liked how they minimized gifts.
-Ambiguous morals. There was no clear good vs evil. This includes your companions (rivalmace with Merrill was intense)
-Cross class combos. just awesome.
-More balanced classes. 2H warriors and archers are really useful now.
-Redesign of races. I like the redesign of elves and qunari. I didn't think I would like it when i first saw pictures but it really did work well.


Bad
-Unfinished/un-polished product. This release was rushed. In some areas (companions), the game has the right amount of details. In others, it is very obvious that corners were cut. Reusing maps is one thing but they overdid it. And the mini map doesn't even try to hide it with blocked off areas being shown. Too many items just called "ring" or "amulet". etc...
-Spawning enemies (out of nowhere). Unless it makes sense from an RPG standpoint, I hated the enemies appearing out of thin air. It is one thing for spirits to appear. But when human warriors do that, it is just wrong. In DA:O, I liked how you can scout ahead and see enemy deployment. In DA2, you can't do this since i most cases, they just appear out of nowhere.
-Enemy waves. I HATE this. Wave after wave of enemies that pop in out of nowhere. It really kills the tactical fun of combat. I would carefully place my weaker companions in where I think they are not in harms way and guess what, enemies materialize out of thin air behind them... like a friggin GIANT OGRE. Yeah, a huge ogre slipped my defenses and surprised me from behind. This and spawning enemies are combat gimmicks that I can't stand.

Honestly if the above bad issues did not exist (more attention to detail and no bad combat gimmicks), this game would completely kick ass. Even with those giant flaws I liked this game a lot.

Modifié par keesio74, 11 avril 2012 - 05:52 .

[indio]

Quick review: DA2 is a shocking game. I play many RPGs and the team botched this good and proper. Trust your audience more. Even little kids can handle complexity with interfaces. I watch my boy handle PC games with ease and he's 7. This game was designed for morons, seemingly, although I hold many members of the BioWare community in esteem, forum members included, and certainly don't wish to offend those who enjoy it. It's tough to admit BioWare pumped this nonsense out.

In broader terms, the industry fears the console onslaught and the fading demographic that pioneered the great RPGs on the PC. We're getting old. Dumbing things down makes sense to business types. This game is offensive to good gamers and cheapens your brand, BioWare. Do better next time.

And for the record, nothing shames BioWare more than repeated interiors. When I think of all the effort put into crafting one of the BG games. DA:O flirted with them, but DA2 just flat out dry humps them. Cringeworthy.

[Sparky2146]

Just bought and finished Dragon Age 2 recently due to the mauling it got on its release. I thought it was decent and well worth the discounted price I paid although I would have definitely been disappointed buying it for full price.

Ok then..

PROS

The story - much better than origins which was generic high fantasy of the greatest order, "become great man/woman, beat great evil and save the world". The DA2 plot was less about the main character as it was about the world and its many problems which I felt was more interesting.

Voiced Hawke - Felt it added a level of personality to the main character that wasnt there in origins.

Warriors vs rogues - the two classes were much more distinct in DA2 adding replayability value.

CONS

Spawn points - I'm in a battle and enemies are popping out of..thin air. No logic to the spawning whatsoever meaning tactics suffer as well.

Reused areas - I expect better from a AAA rpg than seeing the same dungeons over and over. Surely if a dungeon or a cave has a different name the layout should be different and not exactly the same with different doors open and shut? Its so amateurish and totally unexpected from a developer like bioware.

Generic and more generic - This theme permeated thorughout the game. Kirkwall itself looked terribly generic, all stone cobbles and sand (The unique features of the city such as those in the gallows could only be seen if you pointed the camera up. Why? I dont know).
Even the district names were dull. Hightown, Lowtown, Darktown, each looking exactly as how you'd imagine from the name. Also a lot of items had generic names. I lost count of the number of rings I found simply called 'ring'.
A lack of imagination or a symptom of a rushed game? Bit of both I think.

What I call "fluff" - What I mean by fluff is stuff that had no reason to be in the game. I'm picking up junk, that has no use other than selling, clogging up my inventory, why couldnt that have just been money in the first place? Also if the companions couldnt wear armor and I could only wear certain types why am i carrying armor that has no use?

Fetch quests - Too many fetch that, kill that type quests with no plot and no consequence besides the few silvers or gold for your troubles. DA2 was significantly shorter than origins I would have at least expected more unique quests for the trade off.



In conclusion I feel DA2 improved upon origins in some ways but these were vastly outnumbered by the missteps made. With DA2 you managed to decorate the branches adding voiced character, improved story, but you dug out the roots by not delivering so many of the fundamentals expected from a AAA rpg.

[Cultist]

The Good:
- Background for Thedas and Dragon Age expanded.

The Bad:
Combat
Paradropping knights that make acrobatic tricks in heavy armor, arcade fighting style, lack of positioning, lack of tactics, bashing awesome buttons, teleporting rogues, ridiculous over the top animations, waves of faceless clones - all this contributed to the awful expression of combat.
Dialogue wheel
The very concept of dialogue wheel in a decent RPG is apalling. During the game in 95% you can only get two responses - "yes" or "no", no other variations allowed.
Decisions
None of your decisions matter. Both in Origins and DA2. Game forces you down the pre-set storyline and no matter what you do you'll one ending.
Characters
Characters are shallow and forgettable. They have no personality and will stick with Hawke no matter what. They have no beliefs that they will follow, nothing can turn them on you - even if you perform the most repulsive acts to them.
Map recycling
'nuff said already.
Lack of customization
again, 'nuff said
Voiced protagonist
Limiting player's race and implementing VA hogged resources that could be used to improve the gameplay.

Verdict: Rushed and dumbed down jRPG with arcade combat and miminum story interaction
Overall, phrase "Dumbed down" describes DA2 the best. It's inferior to Origins in every aspect, even graphics!

[keesio74]

Cultist wrote...

Characters
Characters are shallow and forgettable. They have no personality and will stick with Hawke no matter what. They have no beliefs that they will follow, nothing can turn them on you - even if you perform the most repulsive acts to them.

No way. Almost all of them can turn on you. In fact, unlike DA:O, it is impossible to have all your companions on your side at the end (assuming you included all possible companions in the game into your party).

Modifié par keesio74, 17 avril 2012 - 03:49 .

[adi4444]

a decent b game 7/10

not like the 9/10 for dao!

[Jitter]

Im always surprised to read .

"I found the mediocre story line refreshing"
I wonder to myself , what kind of bland existence must someone live , to find the non epic story of some shlep wandering around an unchanging environment refreshing.

Because we are all so tired , of Epic stories that chronicle the rise from rags to riches.

You know like every great story ever told.
like well the American dream!
Star Wars
Mass Effect
Lord Of the Rings
DAO
Every Greek classic tale.
(insert every story worth remembering here).

The whole game was a side quest of DAO.

If DA2 was a book .
It would be a pamphlet in a doctors office about the prevention of std's
with Isabella serving as an example to others.
Riveting !!!

[hussey 92]

The button mashing combat and recycled environments really bored me after a while.

Also, the mage battles may look cool, but with the fast draining mana, the long cool down on lyrium potions and the restrictions on certain spells (you have to be in different modes to use different spells) your just left to button mashing and can't use as many spells as you would in Origins

[br003]

I liked the combat, to me button mashing was that crap passed off as Dungeon Siege 3.

[ShinsFortress]

Overall, quite good, not bad.  Not as bad as many user reviews I've seen.

But from Bioware, I expect (and usually used to get) better.

The state it was in at release was just hideous.  I always research such things before I buy, and for this reason even more than the many bad (mostly player not "review site which I rarely bother with anymore since ME3) reviews, I waited until it was well patched.  I got a cheaper game after waiting (Amazon as usual) and it was less buggy.  Even DA:O had problems here, though I got it at 1.02a, thinking that was the minimum state.  Then 1.03 broke PP/stealing!

Visuals.  Nice.  Good standard and a better colour palette than DA:O, quite scalabe depending on user system configuration.  I liked most of the spell effects too.  Didn't like the look of Hawke, but I guess Bioware was never going to be able to please most people here.

Sound.  less impressive.  Adequate, but not great.  Here and there the music worked well, but this should not be difficult given the massive library of music available in the world to either license or draw inspiration from.  Most of the voice acting was so-so to good, but unfortunately Hawke himself was one of the so-so's.  For the most part he sounded like a damp squib than the action dude he's made out as.

Gameplay.  Combat: After DA:O, this took some adjusting to.  I would have preferred more subtle tweeks to how DA:O worked, rather than the significant ovehaul.  Found sword and shield to be very boring (unusual for me).  Almost all other class options were more fun.  Attributes/Skills etc.  Also, would have preferred a less radical change, but am okay with them.  Inventory system, despite being a bit different, was equally poor to that found in DA:O.

Maps / game area.  While it is a significant minus point that there was so little of the game in out doors out of town areas (especially since they looked so nice), the excessive re-use of maps is woeful and such a big minus that it's second only to the release day bugs present.  The only time re-using small maps like that is acceptable to me is if you have random encounters.  Even if it's NWN2:SoZ style.  Maybe.  Almost anything is better than a re-used dungeon as a different or new area with some sections blocked or not blocked by featured grey (stone?) slabs.

Story/plot.  As usual, this is (was) Bioware's strong point.  Not bad.  I'm old, sentimental and believe real life is depressing enough, so would have liked at least a chance to get a compromise ending.  Despite the mechanics of the endings being not that different, they felt differently flavoured enough for this not to be a minus point.  Did not find the few romance options I tried terribly convincing.  Perhaps because few the LI's I felt my characters would actually be interested in had the more mediocre voice acting.  I have also read some very different opinions on the way companion quests were given out, esp vs the way DA:O did it.  Did not see these as a plus or a minus in DA2.

Some minor niggles with specific Quests and events, too.  But other little things (e,g, good character banter) balance those out.

Unfortunately this is probably the last Bioware game I am likely to buy for the foreseeable future.  What has happened with ME3 has put me off.  The furore was so great, that I actually allowed myself to see plot details in addition to my usual technical/gameplay research.  Don't worry, I won't be going into more detail here!

[rapscallioness]

Idk if anybody still reads this thread, but..hey, why not?

I just wanted to say that I love the way my FemHawke walks..Lol! I do! I know some have felt it was too...suggestive? For me, however, I think she walks like she owns the place. The way she looks at those Templars like they're short while she swooshes by. It makes me grin.

In general, I find the ability to maneuver my PC very responsive. Very agile. I don't have to play ring around the rosie just to find the sweet spot in front of a chest to open it. Well, unless my companions are hanging from my tetas as they often do, and I can't actually get to the chest....

I also Love the way other characters actually seem to notice and are able to observe your character. They watch you walk by. They turn their heads to look at you. Your companions' eyes, face, heads will often move as your character moves. If Hawke..yawns, or stretches and is standing by one of the companions, they're head movements will follow your movements. In a detailed way.

It's really cool. It's a small detail, but it adds so much life to all the characters.

I really noticed the difference when I had finished DA2 and was about to do some DLC. I went back to the mansion real quick to get something after I had chosen my squad, and for some reason Anders was stuck there standing in my foyer.

But it was like he was dead. It's like he had no awareness that Hawke was there. It was an eerie feeling after a whole game of responsiveness through physical movement. It was like he, or Hawke, was a ghost. That's when I realized what a difference that detail made.

So, whoever did the character walking/moving...animation stuff, Bravo.

[wsandista]

Good 

• Talents/Spell tees: I liked replacing the old lines with the branching trees like they did, and the upgrades being optional instead of a passive abiltiy that you needed to complete the line was nice.
• Ability bonuses in percentages: I thought this was an improvement over the static bonuses in DAO, for example now Berserk doesn't become trivial late in the game and remains consistenly good.
• Basic movement flows better, overall improvement in body models, interactions seem much less clumsy

Bad

• Background: Kirkwall and the surrounding areas change very little over the 7 years
• Limited Area: Needed more varied areas to explore, over the course of the game, you never venture very far outside of Kirkwall(excluding DLC and Intro)
• Party: Most party members are not as memorable as the companions in DAO(or DAA for that matter)
• Romances: Didn't feel that the relationships were as close as the ones in DAO
• Combat: too fast, cooldowns on many Talents/Spells were not adjusted to compensate for faster combat(Heal in paticular), enemies didn't follow same rules as party, focus seemed more on button mashing than tactics, too easy to kite
• classes: Rogue was overpowered, Warrior and Mage were much weaker than before, class roles were more limited(rouge is damage, warrior is tank, mage is CC or support)
• Atributes: Affected fewer things, made less likley for a class to invest out side their main 2 atributes, affected things that seemed out of place(Dex tied to critical chance, or Cun boosting Defence)
• Equipment: New system was deeply flawed, Tier system worked much better. I would assemble a great set of armor(Champions Mantle) only to have it out classed by generic equipment. Weapons are the same. Should go back to tier system and have only unique items have special abilities.
• Voiced PC: I personally didn't like, ME implemented much better, paraphrases often did not do a good job to convey whatthe PC was about to say, and tone icons need to be improved upon
• Overall design: I felt like everything was too bright, did not like new look for elves, hated new look for darkspawn, was neutral on every other non-human, setting was too forgetable