3274 réponses à ce sujet

[Just Deb]

I just finished my first play through. (don't worry no spoilers). Firstly I noticed a constant problem with the people speaking to me and their right eyebrow seems to just droop down and deform depending on their facial expressions.... very distracting.

Pros: I loved the graphics , and the combat system. The potion/poison/rune crafting system seems to be an improvement (when I figured out that you did not use up the resource on the first order.

Cons: I really hate the dialog system in comparison to the first dragon age... I may be in the minority but I really don't give a crap if I see my character speak what I just chose for a dialog option. Additionally I preferred the options in the first game where I could ask questions, depending on what was happening and the dialog would be different if I was back at camp or somewhere on the big map. Example: the discussion between Lilianna, female gray warden and Alistair when she brings up how he is in bed. Additionally I was not given the option to terminate a relationship at any time in the game. It may have been there, and just missed.

The ending... is lacking. I agree with the comparison to KOTAR 2. It seems unfinished at best, or at worst was a blatant attempt to show that there now has to be a sequel. I also got no warning that I was embarking on the final ending sequence. I am also a bit sorry that I was not given an chance to romance someone who did not come with dark overly complicated baggage. Granted I was playing a"straight" female seeking male company. I also fondly remembered Anders from the expansion and totally hated what happened to him. He is a far cry from someone who "just wanted to be left alone with a beautiful woman and be allowed to toss lightening bolts at fools". I am also sorry that my character who was romantically involved was not given more dialog options to try to "help" him. Also a character who died during the game, remained at my side according to Varic. I won't say more at risk of causing a spoiler.

As a whole I preferred the first game... perhaps the anticipation of the sequel out-shadowed the actual quality of the game.. I think it could have been done better.

I have some other specific complaints that refer to actual plot which I won't mention here.... if there is a forum where spoilers are permitted.. I will bring them up there.

[InfinitePaths]

 I loved origins and i tought dragon age 2 wont be good as origins,i was very wrong,dragon age 2 is soo good and personal,im playing it right now,and its so good,there are so emotional and OMG! and WTF! moments,the music and the combat and graphisc are the best no disscution, and the story is soo good,soo deep and personal,many charethers and events from origins are imported,the charethers are fantastic,i loved all but fenris(No spoilers,but he is a pesimistic bastard,everithing good you do he gets angry),the narating is perfect,overall the game is perfect and i am just at 11 h,and im amazed with it,10/10:happy:
:bandit:Rouges rule,be a rouge

[zambixi]

In Short:
8/10 on 360. I like it as much as DA:O.

In Long:
This game had to grow on me. Once it did, I would say it's probably on the same level as DA:O, but not quite up to snuff with the ME2 (mostly in terms of story). Combat is better (for the 360), graphics and expressions have improved with the characters, and DA finally has its own 'personality'. I appreciated that Bioware didn't take the 'easy' route of making a story where the hero was saving the world from some clearly defined, evil force, and many of the choices (especially in the end game) were morally difficult and made me wrestle with the idea of what I should do. The characters each having their own homes made the setting more interesting, but I did not feel like enough was done with this.

I often felt like DA2 was only letting me scratch the surface of the world Bioware created however, and would like to have been allowed to become more immersed in the story. Kirkwall as a setting was a bit limited, and I wanted either a larger world or a Kirkwall that was physically richer. I wasn't in love with the game until the endgame, and that disappointed me. Overall, I liked many of the new risks that Bioware took with DA2, and hope that they can learn from what worked and what didn't.

[Frenrihr]

The idiots who like this game more or equal to origins are just that, maybe you should play "power rangers rescue" on psone and stop playing games that are suppoused to be rpg and not button mashers...

No one that actually play origins can like this ****.

[Erunestaron]

Edit: doublepost

Modifié par Erunestaron, 13 mars 2011 - 10:04 .

[Erunestaron]

Frenrihr wrote...

The idiots who like this game more or equal to origins are just that, maybe you should play "power rangers rescue" on psone and stop playing games that are suppoused to be rpg and not button mashers...

No one that actually play origins can like this ****.

Its idiotic to say a game is completly crap just because you dislike it. And its even more crap, to blame the ones who actually like the Game. And to say, Origins were far better, is ok, because it was, but to say DA2 is completely crap is wrong. Its just, compared to the epic Origins, less fun to play. But most continues of a very epic Game are not as good as the first one. Its just a matter of fact thats really really hard, near to impossible, to fulfill all wishes and hopes.

I might add an example game were this happened too: Gothic, the 1 Gothic were epic, really really great, the 2 and 3 were out of any comparison to it, but 2 and 3 are good games, too.

[CroGamer002]

Finished the game.

Absolutely amazing!

Superior to DA:O in almost every way, even in plot too.
Characters are on the same level.

[sonny2dap1]

I have to ask who on earth thought it was a good idea to lock out party member inventories? it was a stupid idea in ME2 its an absurd idea in DA2, depending on which class you pick any number of items are off limits to you with no discernible function as you cannot even distribute those items among your party, which also makes me feel like I cant make the party into the party I want, i actually am not against the combat speed up however animations are over the top, exploding enemies realy Bioware?, altering the events at the beginning based on class choice to preserve Bioware's idea of party composition takes away not only from my control but also makes a certain character about as deep as a puddle, anyway my biggest criticism of the game is simple it no longer feels like MY character it feels like Biowares character and I simply bought the priviledge to direct him/her throught the events of the game. It's not a bad game but it doesn't feel like a Dragon age game.

[DrunkenMonkey]

I like it no where good as DAO

but the game is good.

[2Hard2C]

8.5 out of 10 is just about perfect for me.

Pros:
Combat is a bit more rewarding. Story is pretty good. Companions are pretty good. Questing is better. Better atmosphere and lighting. VA for main character. A lot of "WTF There is no right/wrong or good/bad choices". Graphics are a step up. The new resource system. VA is also pretty good all-around.

Cons:
Nothing is as good or as polished as it should have been. Animations are stiff. Companions have bits of good dialouge, but mostly meh. Only Isabella is really memerable, where as even for all the over-the-topness of Oghren I still remember him and like him. This is also a odd hyprid of RPG and Action-Adventure. It is stuck limbo of having the nuances of both and doesn't execute any of them to a high quality. Also, quite a bit of things that weren't broken in Origins, such as item management and the leveling system, where removed for no reason, they worked fine.

Repetive enviroments. Two indoor locations that are in a completely seperate loaction in-game look exactly the same, over and over again. The story is more personal, but lacks any focus and has a bit of this, and a bit of that. Never consistent or as exciting as Origins nor as rewarding. Stuck in Kirkwall for 75% of the time is a downer too.


Overall:
Good game. BioWare didn't fail, just didn't deliver a great game. I enjoy it enough, but I am not wowed by the story, as I was in Origins. The graphics are better, but not a huge step-up. The story is not bad, but it doesn't excel. The game needed another six months to a full year to get the story, dialouge, companions down to the level of Origins, and to vary and increase the scope of the world.

The game doesn't fail at anything, but only can get "good" in a few areas, never great.

[Akto]

hi all my English is not very good, but I need to comment on how I feel about DO2, this time I want to express my opinion clearly, the truth about a dragon age 2, I am totally disappointed and robbed and I'm 100% game fan, I consider myself a hardcore PC RPG player, in short, this version of age Dargon almost made it to fit on consoles, losing almost everything that was a great game dragon age,

by the way, pass the game

failures

1-The dialogue does not work, maybe that style served in masseffect but in a rpg, 'at least I, I want to choose what you going to say, other talks are artificial, just a little romance is nothing special and the other thing quite annoying is that almost appears more options romance with men than with women who's this or game WTF GAY!!

2-All promotions are lies, the main character never gets special powers as seen in trailer where two arms out of fire and destroy the arishock, advertising bull****!!

3-All matters relating to the equipment is more limited, less options to choose from.

Repetitive 4-full, the same fights over and over again in the same places, the entire story takes place in Kirkwall, too boring, the story in itself is boring and too short !!!!!


to close I do not recommend this game, people who expect something like dragon age.



is stealing this game cost $ 60 !!!!! And what bothers me is the most ignorant people giving Ratings 9.5, are not blind!!

[AnnaBananaBamBamBoo]

DA2 adds a completely new dimension to the RPG experience. And yes it is an RPG; any time you gather a party and venture forth on the human level (squad level only, battalion and above are strategy; it's about SCOPE), it is an RPG.  I would not call the Daggerfall series up to Morrowind an RPG, I don't know WHAT to call that series because you don't gather a party nor do you interact with any one else in the universe because it's not a multi-player, networked game. You do venture forth, but you venture forth to go do repetitive tasks ad naseum.  So you pretty much have to call Morrowind a single player shooter (slasher in that case).  To me, DA2 is everything a CRPG should be and Oblivion is an example of everything a CRPG should NOT be. 
 
Some people will never be satisfied and I suppose they feel it is their right to be hypercritical, and it is, have at it.  But I do see from those who are putting time into the game, not running around plowing through everything, but taking it all in, looking around, are slowly gaining momentum with very favorable reviews.  Slowly because they've been playing the game while the hypercriticals waste time romping around on the message boards looking for that silver-bullet-that-will-justify-me-enjoying-the-game epiphany, which ain't gonna happen in their universe. Slowly because like anything revolutionary, it stirs controversy.
  
Graphics 6/5  
Combat 6/5 
AD&D "feel" 5/5 
Story 6/5 (getting sick of save-the-world syndromes) 
Balance 6/5  (Much better than DAO)

[TransientNomad]

 Just beat the game yesterday (on the 360), so now I feel I can give Dragon Age 2 the review it deserves.  I will break the game up into several topics to better organize my thoughts.  before anyone reads this, I want to make three things clear:

 1)  I rate as if the score of 5 is a average game.  1 = Terrible, you like this game means something is wrong with you.  2 = A bad game in general, some players will enjoy it.  A small, small number.  3 = For of the genre only, and even then, it does nothing for whatever genre it belongs in. 4 = Below average.  Does some noticeably good things, but falters at key points.  Still can be enjoyable.  5 = Average, does a lot right but glaring faults prevent the game from being above the rest of the pack.  6 = Above average.  Does more good than bad, but falls short of becoming a classic.  7 = Good game.  All in all its a good game that succeeds in what it sets out to do, entertain the player and add a piece to the genre as a whole.  8 = Great game, those without a biased mindset will see what this game has to offer, and they will be sated, despite a few flaws here and there. 9 = Epic, get this game, all true video game enthuisiasts NEED to play this game as it adds a lot to the genre.  Only the truly nit-picky can find flaws with this game.  10 = Perfection.  Avoid this game as it causes rapid failiure in ones career, schooling, relationships, and generally destroys peoples future. 

2)  I will gladly debate my review (if I have the time) but I will only respond to arguements and conflicting opinions if they are based on solid facts about the game.  That is if someone finds a flaw with my reasoning, or disagrees with an opinion, be prepared two discuss it like adults.  Anti-corporate/EA rants, PC elitism rage, "old schooler" narcissists, and Bioware fanboy/girl zealots who have had their opinions skewed on blind loyalty or self entitlement need not comment (If anyone cares to).  In fact, if you have given this game a 1 or a 10, there is a good chance you fall into one of those catagories, and frankly, your opinion falls into a set mindset of one side or the other that has little to do with the game, thus your review/opinion has no real value.

3)  You will see a lot of references to Dragon Age: Origins as it compares to Dragon Age 2.  While this may be in bad form while writing a review, I believe it best helps give people perspective.  Without going into what I thought of DAO, just know I gave it a 8.  

REVIEW

The story, without spoiling too much, revolves around a character named Hawke (surname) and rise, and possible fall, to being the Champion of Kirkwall, as told by one of Hawke's companions named Varric to a female "Templar."   The story actually follows about ten years of Hawke's life, and can best be divided into four chapters.  Chapter 1 is generally the setup for the rest of the story, and functions as a tutorial for the game.  Chapter 2 is dedicated to recruiting your team.  And Chapter 3 & 4 provide the real meat of the story.  

This functions well for the most part, however this is a change from most of Bioware's previous games in which you had one objective at the start of the game and the entirety of the game follows through until you complete it.  In DA2, you are given one main problem (with a ton of sidequests) per-chapter, you work to complete it, and then at the end of the chapter the problem is solved, one way or another.  Then when you come to the next chapter, you are given a new problem, that has little to do with the previous problem, you work to solve it, it reaches its conclusion, and repeat.  Honestly it plays out simularily to JRPG's like Wild Arms and the "Tales of" series in structure.  

Also new to the Bioware storytelling is the fact that (up until the end) none of the conflicts seem earth shattering.  While sure Hawke and company are in mortal danger at every turn, and the city of Kirkwall hangs in the balance, the world will go on, unlike in DAO where the world itself was at risk.  I diverge from other "old schoolers" and purists in saying this really works for me.  The problems and themes make it much easier to identify with as a player, and it succeeds in avoiding the somewhat stale concept of "win or the world gets destroyed!"

Speaking of themes, they are as serious as they are identifiable.  The most noticeable of course would be Racism.  Hawke will be faced with prejudice against his being from a foreign country, to seeing either himself and/or other magic users the subject of varying levels of racism.  Also other themes include loyalty, naivety, liberalism, conservatism, religeon, among many others.  All these themes are dealt with in a mature and fair handed manner.  Notice though, that the theme of Good vs. Evil or Right vs. Wrong were not mentioned, which in my opinion is DA2's crowning achievement.  Almost every choice that deals with the main storyline or companion quests, and how you complete them fall's into a very grey area.  In fact, DA2 can be considered a true "Dark Fantasy" far more than its predecessor.   By the end of the game, in less you are a dullard, you will see the good and bad of every decision you have made.

Speaking of "Dark Fantasy" lets move onto the characters.  I will just come out and say it.  The characters in DA2 are far more developed, have better interactions, and more interesting than in DAO.  Each character is not a "Perfect Archetype" like they were in DAO.  Take Alistair for example.  His archetype was the "Reluctant Hero," he never develops beyond this.  He gives his one companion quest, you do it, and can "harden" him or not, but he never breaks away from the reluctant hero mold.  The same could be said of all the characters in DAO.  But in DA2, placing these characters is much harder, as they naturally develop and change throughout the course of 10 years.  A young naive girl at the start of a game will develop into a driven, confident woman by the end.  Also, another positive mark comes in the form of unique events taking place if you bring along certain party members.  The most memorable is bringing the rogue along with you when another companion confides that she is having relationship issues, which caused the entire situation to deterioate to a hissing cat fight.  The entire scene would have been completely missable had I just hadn't had the rogue in the party at the time.  Another instance is bringing along a certain mage to a particular dreamworld.  

On top of developing, in the course of the game each character has layers to their character.  You see a dashing female rogue, who you later learn is very much a ****, who you later learn is not as confident as you thought, who you later learn is... and the list goes on.  Upon completion of the game, my thoughts on each of the characters had changed since I recruited them in chapter 2.  I have never expierienced that with a game, ever.  And in accomplishing this, Bioware shows that their writing skill is still top notch.  In fact, in addition to the characters, the storyline actually managed to surprise me with plot twists several times, something that hasn't happened in years with any other game.  

Also another major improvement over its predecessor is character interaction.  In DAO's, you HAD to be nice to the other characters because if you were not, you were barred from stat bonus' and eventually punished by them leaving the party.  This really barred you from playing characters the way you wanted as doing so punished the player.  In DA2, relationships with your party members is governed by the Friend/Rival relationship.  This system rewards you for making a emotional impact (one way or the other) on each character, and thus granting them different bonus'.  For example, if a character likes you, her defense will rise to better protect you, if the character is your rival, her frustration will translate into a bonus to damage. Gone too is the hokey gift system from DAO which is another positive, replaced by a much more low key gift system.  The only, tiny complaint I have is once you max out either friendship or Rival, they are locked into that role, meaning if you max one out then do things that the characters would disapprove of, they won't mind.

Speaking of dialog, as usual for Bioware it is excellent and clever.  The main quest dialogs are almost always serious in nature, but there are plenty of lighthearted, funny moments sprinkled along the way via group banter, (Do they have tabbies?), and several easter eggs like finding a fire wand request form in your loot.  

On the subject of characters and dialog, I should also discuss Hawke, the main protagonist and the dialog wheel.  Now fully voiced, Hawke is unlike the Warden.  This allows for a much better personalization of the characters and how they act around you.  While some scoff at the idea of a voiced protagonist, it does not hurt the game, and it really helps making conversations more natural.  Characters are communicating to your avatar and he/she is communicating back in a form far more natural than the mute hero.  Some prefer to roleplay the silent hero, opting instead for "using your imagination" which is fine, however one cannot review the game based on one's own imagining, and having a voiced protagonists helps the game as a whole.  

The dialog wheel, usually works out fine, and some choose to over simplify it.  Usually three reactions are put forth, the top being empathetic/Moral, the middle being sarcastic/joking/neutral, and the bottom being stern/aggressive.  Each are marked with a icon that outlines the emotional state Hawke will have in picking that option, and a short blurb on the basic idea Hawke will convey.  Most of the time it should be fairly obvious on what Hawke is going to say and how he is going to say to anyone with even a average level of comprehension.  MOST of the time.  In the 45 hours it took me to complete the game, there were three points in which Hawke said/did something I was not expecting him (My Hawke was a male) to do.  Two of those times he said something I did not want to say at all.  That being said, its a paultry complaint in the face of what Bioware delivered as far as dialog.

Now moving onto actual gameplay and starting with combat.  The core mechanics of the combat remain unchanged from origin's, but its faster.  You still have the pause and play function as well as taking a more action oriented expierience.  The difference between the two games, what difficulty you choose to play the game one really plays a noticeable difference as those who want to play the game as a action game will feel right at home on casual and normal, while it would be too easy for those using pause and play.  However those seeking a more traditionalists rpg approach to combat will feel right at home on the hard and nightmare difficulties.  The difference to the expierience is remarkable as I switched halfway through my playthrough from normal to hard.  I found myself asking "Is this even the same game?"

Another extremely welcome surprise is the unique boss battles.  While there are still plenty of boss battles that are no different than regular ones save for the stronger leader, but there are several battles that require special tactics to win.  In fact, the final boss of the game, in my opinion, was the more epic and challenging (on hard) than the Archdemon of DAO.  With the improved AI, you rally have to pay attention to what your characters are doing and where they are.  Several times I was concentrating on one opponent only to turn around and find my entire party down.  My only complaint as far as the battle system goes is I wish there were more unique battles than the ones offered.  And wanting more of a good thing is hardly a complaint.

Next up is character customization.  As most already know, you can no longer be anything other than human.  Having said that, true character customization is far and away superior to its predecessor.  While there are less physical changes you can make to your character (since you can't be dwarves or elves), the stat system has been rethought, reworked, and delivered as the system it should have been.  In DAO's, you really only needed to pay attention to one or two stats depending on the class to create the strongest character possible, and putting points in any other stat means you just gimped your character.  Warriors ONLY needed Dex, Str, and Con, rogues only cared about CUNNING and DEX, while Mages really only need Magic and Will (Magic only in the case of Arcane warriors).  While those stats are still important to the same classes, every stat now benefits all the classes in different ways, allowing with unique characters to be developed in unique ways.  For example, my Hawke used a sword and shield the same as another companion.  However, I developed both differently, and by the end of the game they had completely different roles on the battlefield, strengths and weaknesses. 

The same could be said about combat abilities.  Another thing I would like to say is that each class now feels truly unique, and class balance has been improved, both in terms of power, and engaging the player.

The only problem with customization, and by extension combat, is that it takes hours to reach a level in which you can truly appreciate the intricacies of the combat system and character building.  At level 1 to 6, the combat is boring, and plodding, especially if you are using pause and play.  At 7 to 12, you really start getting the hang of things, and can sort of start seeing what works and what doesn't.  After level 13, you (or at least I did) look at the game's combat and say "FINALLY!  The combat matches the quality of the story!"  In other words, it takes a long time to get to the meat of the game, which turns a lot of players off.  Especially during early levels where you are thrown into fights which require no real tactics to win.


Speaking of pacing, we finally arrive to the biggest caveat.  Backtracking and the horrible, terrible, and downright inexcusable copy and pasted maps.  The game takes place in Kirkwall, nearby mountains, and mines.  The first few hours you spend exploring the city, looking into shops, and such are great, but that feeling doesn't last long.  In fact, everything you see in the first three hours of the game, get used to it, because you will be seeing it the next 42 hours.  In ten years time, the city never changes, and in fact the same npcs will wander around following the same pathway forever.  The shops you see on the first day of being there will be the same shops as the endgame.  And you will be backtracking through these same area's dozens of times through the course of the game.  It gets boring and drags the game as a whole down with it.  It would have been much better if there were noticeable changes with the time jumps (that occur chapter to chapter) like different shops opening up, different characters wandering around, and different non-quest events popping up. 

The backtracking may be bad, but it is overshadowed by a even bigger problem.  That is the copy-and-pasted maps.  You will go into caves in the course of the game.  Caves that are in different places, heck some even miles appart, but you will quickly realize its the SAME freak'in cave... again, and again, and again.  I had to laugh when I went in one cave at the foot of a mountain, then scaled up to another cave which was the same map as the last one, then reached the peak to another cave which, you guessed it, was the same stupid cave.  The colors and set pieces don't even change either, and various doors block you off to give the illusion that the cave is somehow different.  In fact I visited the same cave 16 times, the same mansion 8 times, the same dwarven mine 5 times, the same highway point 4 times, the same sandy area 3 times, and the same beach area 4 times.  And thats ONLY "new" caves, and not counting simple backtracking through previously visited ones.  This makes the game seem sloppy, and like backtracking, brings the whole of it down.


If I could give my rating based on the story, writing, and combat mechanics which were all improvements over DAO, the game would get a solid 8.5 from me.  However glaring faults in the games design with copy and pasted dungeons, the ridiculous amount of backtracking, and the slow starting pace of the game hurts the whole expierience.  

FINAL VERDICT = 7 out of 10

SCHOOL GRADE RATING (or more common rating system) = 8

[blakskyz]

Thanks Bioware for giving me a game that has me annoyed beyond words. "Normal" level getting my ass kicked left and right, mobs and mobs of enemies coming at me whilst the health potion takes an eternity to reappear.

I have played a lot of games, and none has me so annoyed as this DA2. What were you guys smoking at the time you designed it? I want to get me some of that wacky weed!

Everything else is fine, graphics,music and even the voice overs. But come on...gameplay is horrible. Really wished you guys had taken your time to make this game, and made it a continuation of Origins...like looking for Morrigan and the baby perhaps? Or Morrigan's child is the new blight leader? That would have been EPIC.

A game is so supposed to be fun, but this one seems to take the fun away..for me anyways. Getting killed in the first minute of a fight with a mob of 20+ "ain't" no way to play on normal level.

But thats my opinion. Now with all the griping from other players, make DA:ORIGINS 2 an EPIC game the right way.

okay you flamers, you may flame now. LOL.

BTW forgot to mention..I have the PC version. So..yeah..I don't care for consoles even tho I have the XBOX 360, PS3 and Wii...it sits there and collects dust.  Makes for a great door stopper tho! HEH! 

Modifié par blakskyz, 13 mars 2011 - 10:33 .

[Noatz]

I'm about halfway through the game now as a mage.

I find it generally more fun to play than Origins which ultimately is the most important thing. Origins, while a marvellous start to the series and a great immersive game did feel a little clunky in places (e.g crafting and inventory management), and the combat felt a little uninvolving at times. DA2 streamlines and speeds up these mechanics and combat feels much improved over the original - and I am intrigued by some of the responses so far...

Frenrihr wrote...

The idiots who like this game more or equal to origins are just that, maybe you should play "power rangers rescue" on psone and stop playing games that are suppoused to be rpg and not button mashers...

No one that actually play origins can like this ****.

...Because it feels as if people are setting it to normal or casual difficulty and just letting rip. You could do that on Origins as well - in fact probably more so as some of the spell combos like Storm of the Century or Paralysis Explosion took all challenge out of playing the game on these difficulties. Which leads me to another point - the 3 archetypes feel a lot more balanced now. In Origins mages were grossly overpowered, which while perhaps  logical from a lore standpoint doesn't do anything for the gameplay stakes. Now if anything rogues do the most damage and mage's strengths are more in controlling fights than powering through them, and "overpowered" combos now involve cross class abilities which works much better imo. I feel a lot more ready to play the game again with a warrior or rogue, as well as not taking just taking a rogue along with me as a lockpicking bot.

The story is excellent and I for one massively prefer having my lead character not being a mute. Ultimately though the narrative structure of the game, and the ME style dialogue wheel are down to personal preference. Personally I choose to interpret the wheel's text as Hawke's immediate thoughts, since people rarely express exactly what they are thinking. The companions are all very well acted and have some great lines, but then this is what we've come to expect from Bioware games by now

The biggest criticism I have that is that you can perhaps accuse it of being a little rushed. Not in the sense of broken systems or unfinished dialogue but rather the variety of locations/tilesets/dungeon layouts seems quite restricted next to its predecessor. Going into a cave inside the Sundermount and finding it to share the exact layout down to missing planks in its boardwalks as one you went into earlier on the Wounded Coast is downright lazy, and overall the locations you visit are pretty limited. In Origins you visit Orzammar, Brecilian Forest, Korcari Wilds, Denerim, Circle Tower, large tracts of the Deep Roads, the Frozen Temple with Andraste's ashes and far more, in DA2 you have the three distinct districts of Kirkwall and some few generic wilderness areas you go to outside of it (and not other cities in the Free Marches as I had previously hoped). I don't miss the endless travelling around so much, but I do feel the game could have used some extra time on dungeon variety at the very least.

Oh, and Shale > Sebastian :<

Modifié par Noatz, 14 mars 2011 - 12:09 .

[TransientNomad]

blakskyz wrote...

Thanks Bioware for giving me a game that has me annoyed beyond words. "Normal" level getting my ass kicked left and right, mobs and mobs of enemies coming at me whilst the health potion takes an eternity to reappear.

I have played a lot of games, and none has me so annoyed as this DA2. What were you guys smoking at the time you designed it? I want to get me some of that wacky weed!

A game is so supposed to be fun, but this one seems to take the fun away..for me anyways. Getting killed in the first minute of a fight with a mob of 20+ "ain't" no way to play on normal level.
 

... I never lost a single character playing through normal, until I switched to hard half way through.  Even then, I only got killed twice, and both by bosses.

[blakskyz]

TransientNomad wrote...

blakskyz wrote...

Thanks Bioware for giving me a game that has me annoyed beyond words. "Normal" level getting my ass kicked left and right, mobs and mobs of enemies coming at me whilst the health potion takes an eternity to reappear.

I have played a lot of games, and none has me so annoyed as this DA2. What were you guys smoking at the time you designed it? I want to get me some of that wacky weed!

A game is so supposed to be fun, but this one seems to take the fun away..for me anyways. Getting killed in the first minute of a fight with a mob of 20+ "ain't" no way to play on normal level.
 

... I never lost a single character playing through normal, until I switched to hard half way through.  Even then, I only got killed twice, and both by bosses.

As I said, thats me. I played the Origins, Awakening and all the DLC on Nightmare and didn't have problems like I do in this DA2. Played ME and ME2 on Insanity and no problems.  Some reason in ths DA2 I am getting my ass whooped and frankly its not fun.

Its like the weapons don't do any damage and the armor seems so useless.

[SexBomb]

I'm surprised by how many people are giving it good reviews. Perhaps it's just me, but from the perspective of someone who plays games for the story and characters, DAII is a total let down. Or maybe a lot of these reviews are coming from people who haven't finished it, or made it very far into the game.

Anybody who has ever taken a class in storytelling or character development should be able to easily see what I'm talking about when I bring up issues such as character growth, plot summation, and a story that ties together. DAII has none of these things.

[Dubya75]

I'm on my first playthrough (32 hours in - still in act 2) and I have to say, it is absolutely superb! So much better than I had hoped after all the negative responses in the first few days after release - which I simply cannot understand.
This is still very much Dragon Age, but so much better!
I absolutely love the new art style. Even though some areas are recycled, I feel it is easily overlooked for she sheer quality of the environments. Leaps and bounds ahead of Origins.
Gameplay and combat I find to be immensely satisfiying.
Bioware has really done an amazing job on this game, considering the short development time.

The dialog wheel so many people have a problem with? I love it!

My only real gripe is the fact that weapons and armor are no longer organised in levels. This does make it a bit of a chore picking upgrades for my character and weapons for my party members.
(Still haven't worked out what the star ratings indicate exactly).

Sound quality is also a tremendous improvement over Origins. Love the music and all the environmental sounds. Thumbs up for voice acting as well.

I'm enjoying this even more than my first Origins playthough.
Well done Bioware, I would buy this game again if I had to! 9.5/10.

Modifié par Dubya75, 13 mars 2011 - 11:26 .

[Miriel Amarinth]

First off let me start by saying I'm enjoying the game a lot. I think it's not a bad game on its own merits and there's a lot of fun to be had, but I do have a few things that I feel keep me from enjoying it all the way. I'm not going to discuss all the game elements, but just want to highlight the things that stood out to me as particularly good or bad.

Starting with the GOOD:

* The new combat system.

This was one of the things that I was most hesitant about prior to the release, because it's always hard to predict how well a "consolized" combat system will work out on the PC. More often than not with cross-platform games, the results end up varying from 'mediocre' to 'horrible' and only very few games manage to do it well. Thankfully I feel this game is one of the games that does it well.

The combat feels more fluid and direct than the first game, but it's still possible to zoom out and switch to a tactical pause-and-command playstyle, which is mostly how I played in DAO. With DA2 though I haven't really looked back and I now play mostly in realtime, with only the occasional pause to drink a potion. My only minor gripe with the combat system is that there's no keybindings to just target and cycle through enemies without attacking.

* The companions and dialogue.

It must be hard coming up with new ideas when a lot of things have already been done before in DAO, but I was pleasantly surprised that the new companions still feel like refreshingly new and interesting characters. The dialogue as well had me chuckling at several points.

* Continuation of the original game

I'm one of the people who wasn't sad to start with a fresh character, as I feel it would have been difficult to continue with the original without it feeling contrived - plus it was just nice to start afresh. However it's great to see that even though you're playing a new character in a new land, it's still worthwhile to import your DAO saves for the world choices, as DA2 is full of small (and large) nudges towards the events in DAO.

The BAD:

* The dialogue wheel

It suffers from the "dialogue wheel suggests A, but character says B" syndrome, just as it does in both of the Mass Effect games. I feel like the dialogue wheel is a typical case of the right idea with the wrong implementation. The icons/colors make it easier to see at a glance what type of response you are going to give, and that more or less works for the people who are less interested in the dialogue part of the game. However the additional short text description given with each choice often bears little resemblance to what your character actually ends up saying. For people who are more into immersion and dialogue this can be quite frustrating. There's nothing like accidentally cracking a really bad joke in a situation where you were merely trying to be somewhat nonchalant.

* Gameplay design changes

While most of the changes to streamline things haven't really bothered me, there were some things that did, like the inability to remove runes from weapons and armor and also the inability to learn/use certain skilltrees on specific companions thus forcing me choose between efficiency and favourite companions (imho, if i'm forced to choose between these, the game is doing something wrong).

* Technical issues

The game seems to have quite a few technical issues that should have been ironed out before launch and as an Nvidia card owner I'm still unable to use DX11 because the performance is awful on nvidia. This might have been more forgiveable if it hadn't been announced that the DX11 issues would be fixed in the release version.


Final verdict:

It's not a bad game on its own, but I can't quite give it an 8 or higher when taking into account the original game. There are some marked improvements over the original, but there are also some things that let this sequel down. Still because I think the game IS a lot of fun to play and technical kinks can be worked out over time, I'll give it a:

7.5 / 10

Modifié par Miriel Amarinth, 13 mars 2011 - 11:27 .

[ReD BaKen9]

I loved the game but they could of done more work on it and for some reason to me it felt like DLC rather than a game.

[Laeird]

I have enjoyed the game so far.

The story is a nice attempt at a more political story and definitly centers around one of the core conflicts in the DA universe and touches on one of the others that is brewing(Qunari). That said I also think the main storyline felt a bit disjoined and directionless for a while.

Side quests where fun and interesting for the most part and many fed back into the main storyline which was nice.

I LOVE the new talents set up. Almost all of them have useful things and can be combined for some interesting outcomes. I also like that crafting is still in but taken out as a player "talent", I didn't care for having characters that you dedicated to crafts in Origins, it felt hollow.

While I kind of agree that combat is slightly less tactical I think it translates much better to consoles and makes combat on the console much more enjoyable. I've played Origins on both console and PC and didnt care for it on the console where I actually like the console version of DA2, however I haven't played the PC version.

I dont really care for the main character being the only one who's armor you get to change. While it did make equipment management easier I feel it took away from some of the customization/ specilization that I could have done with the other characters.

I didn't really care for the lack of exploration in the surounding areas for the Freemarches, however I understand having less focus on that given the stories centers on the tensions of the city.

I was extreamly unimpressed with the number of reused cave systems and the fact that the mini maps would show the entire thing, even portions that where blocked off. I understand the time saved in doing this for developing such a huge game but it does take some of the feel away from the game.

[dragunz76]

I am not that far into the game (end of chapter 1) but here is my 2 cents so far.
I strongly agree to whatwas said about this being a RUSHED game!
From the creators of ME graphics are sub-par still compare to what can be done on the systems, maps are obviously reused to the max with a wall of concrete (????) blocking the parts not available in a the quest. 
But by far my disappointment comes from the actual story that lacks the polish of the stellar DA:O.
Again, I am still early in the game so this may change but if I compare to DA:O I feel this is going nowhere.
Also, the way they strip some of the game mechanics are just unexplainable, you just happen to now all specialization and jusy need to reach a level for it to pop-up ? no need to get a mentor or a clever way in the story to have a tangible explanation on your character development??? you cannot craft anything yourself, you being a mage or rogue, that implies you are too dumb to mix a poison from plants ??? Instead you <order> it instanteneously from your home ? And also, simplifying the equipment management speed-up the game true but there is no more satisfaction from completing that armor set from the legion and seeing Ogren in his new suit. With a bit of time it would have been possible to actually give that option to the players (full control or upgrade system)???? RPG is about interacting in a world that feels genuine and this was all but shattered by this version... Some of the changes are for the better especially on PS3 : combat system is more user friendly and fun but to be satisfying switch to HARD, dialog wheel and voice acting are tip-top. I do not say I did not enjoy my time so far in Kirkwall and I have some ground to cover but I can say that I am not sure I would play it again once I finish... As for the DLC I will wait and see and as an EA shareholder I will probably buy them but bioware has to come up with some solid stuff! Oh and btw if I pay for favors I would like at least an animation no black screen please ;-)

Modifié par dragunz76, 13 mars 2011 - 11:55 .

[al4mir]

I found DA2 a good game indeed (bought it yesterday and except for food/bath/sleep i ain't stopped playing so.. :V) but there are a few things i "must" i disagree with:

• Our party members are now less desiderable than in Origins. They were a part of our soul in the game. I can still say "wow wonderful was speaking with Leliana" or "I really enjoyed when Alastair talk to me". Nothing of that is happening here, and this make me so sad
• Friendly/Rival system could be good, but not in DA. We went from "i can kick you from my party - oh**** i made him angry and now he leaves" to this. Too much casual-player friendly, imo
• Travel to their "home" in order to talk to em? what the.... is this The sims or..
• Dialogue Wheel is good. So good (ME2 is my favourite game), but now i ask: why don't use also the renegade/paragon active action while speaking? Pc or console, noob or pro everyone could enjoy it. It's a trademark from your mass effect, damn!
• No real inventory for the party member is just supporting what i said: companions are here only to smash things and few more... so sad