3274 réponses à ce sujet

[Kaylord]

I did not like DA:O much. Even though I felt a connection to my character, the connection to the world was missing. That may be a matter of taste, since I would have liked to see some nice environments between all the dirt and gore. It felt like no home, no beaty to fight for. Also, replayability was greatly reduced, as compared to BG1 or even BG2 with its ´Chateau Irenicus´.

Now to DA2; I have not finished yet, but sometimes it is worth to post first impressions, too. It happens that, so far, by setting and plot, I like it more than DA:O. This is mainly because it feels more personal for your character. You are not out to fight an moreless anonymous threat and betrayal, you are out to survive and find a living for yourself and the family. I particulary like that you can have a sibling as one of your partymemers. That said, here some bullet points:

Pro:
- Very nice NPC characters, I feel much more connection than in DA:O
- Character dialogue shorter but better, I hated those hours of dialogue-clicking in the camp in DA:O
- Very nice scenery; background world seems much more fleshed out now
- Fights feel more satisfying than in DA:O
- Very nice and consequent art for loading screens e.a.; yes, I like!

Cons:
- Dialogue options feel sometimes scizophrenic (especially mixing ´paragon´ and ´joker´ answers)
- ridiculous dialogue-tree icons; a heart for romance replies? Does it get any cheaper? Come! On!! Bioware!!!!
- Voiceovers could be better; I might be spoiled by Mass Effect, though
- Combat became too much ´dragonballZ-ish´; and gore is still hopelessly overdone
- Loot/Inventory system is unlogic and boring, you might as well leave it out of the game! Why and how does my plate have fire resistance? Why does a barrel along the way contain a magical ring? Why can´t my NPC equip stuff?
- Encounters are unlogic too, enemies spawn from thin air? Come on! Bioware!!!

All in all:
I love returning to games which build on top of familiar worlds with familiar game mechanics. But, a good RPG requires more than a nice plot an good NPCs. This game feels more like a "Mass Effect gone Fantasy", with some droplets of MMORPG or console combat, but without individuality. So, I call it a good game, but it does not belong to my personal ´hall of fame´.

[Haventh]

 My non-spoiler review of DA 2:

Story:

I thought the story was much more interesting, it made me pose a lot of questions what was going on. Which i think is a good thing in RPGs. I do not like it when you get almost everything handed to you on a silver plattern from the start.  There was plenty of plot twists.

Companions:

A very good job on the companions, the cross dialogues between companions are simply hilarious.  And Bioware, you did a fine job with picking VA, very fine job.. also hat off for making so many interesting characters.

Though, i just wish there was a bit more dialogue between the companions and Hawke.

Gameplay:

I think the combat was a great improvement. Combat is more engaging now, and more action based, it is exiting, and gets your adrenaline pumping.  

And a very good job on the classes, each on of them is in my view much more fun to play now. At first i didn't quite like the fact that dual wield & archery was removed from warrior, but someone convinced me it was better that way, so rogue were more unique. 

At the end there is something that i wasn't too bothered with, but i did find it a tad annoying at times. Some areas and locations are overused, it felt "cramped" at times. And i think that there should have been more areas, instead of reusing the same location over and over. 

Dungeons that looked almost the same got a tad annoying as well, but luckily, there wasn't a lot of dungeon crawling. 

EDIT: I liked it that there was less customizing, less items to equip. Companions had set armor. In singleplayer RPGs i prefer it if there is less customizing with items.  Given that the companion armors looks awesome... and that they do... so does the robes & armors for Hawke so many details, simply beautiful.

Overall, i had a very good time playing this game, and i intend to do many more playthroughs. I'd give it a 9.5/10.

Modifié par Haventh, 14 mars 2011 - 03:13 .

[Falcon 54]

I'm about 15 - 20 hours in so far and here are my thoughts...

Cons

Camera angles, sometimes it's great but I would like to be able to adjust the camera to see ahead of my character more and it is terrible if you are in a corner, especially somewhere with a roof.  Sometimes it is terrible playing a rouge and you end up behind an enemy in said corner.

Lack of customization.  It has been said before, no extra races, similar hair styles, companion armor, ect. 


Repetitive maps and quests.  As well, been said before, many of the maps are the same with closed off doors, it would have been better to have more maps.  It also seems like some of the secondary quests are almost the same thing, with different people.  As well it seems everybody in Thedas needs help.

I bought the signature edition and didn't like the Dog, you can only use him for a time, but then he is gone.  I like it better in DA:O as the Dog was part of the group.  With that said an extra party member (the Dog) is nice for some battles.

Pros

I like the main story so far, and the quests associated with it.

The graphics look good along with some of the environments you end up in.

I really like the Qunari models (graphics) and characterization of them.

I like some of the witty humor by the companions when you talk to them.



Overall this a good game, but I just can't see myself playing through the game again, well for at least a year or two but I will leave that final judgement until I finish the game.  I also wish this was bit more like mass effect in that you can import your character and continue the story.

[isaac79]

Overall a fantastic game there was a few little things that I was a bit disappointed with but those were mainly just my own personal taste. No two weapon fighting for warriors was a bit of a bummer (not a rogue type guy) but not a game breaker by any stretch. I was also a little disappointed that we didn't get to to chat with our companions whenever we wanted to. In the first game I would spend all kinds of time just in dialogues at camp, just did not have that option in DA2. I also wish we had a few more environments to explore but I get why we were mainly kept to the city, it makes perfect sense. The game play, graphics, customization options, story, and especially the fully voiced characters were awesome.

My biggest complaint by far, the only one I am really concerned about if the series moves on is how short it was. I complete every single little quest and spend hours upon hours just tweaking abilities and stats and it was A LOT shorter then DAO. I put in about 75 hours in DAO and around 40 in DA2.

[-Morfolk-]

The main point of my review is:

SO TOTALLY RUSHED!

80% of complaints come from that statement:
1. Empty reused areas. It even hits you from the very start, where DA:O starting areas exhaled the promise of an epic story we get a desert here. Seriously, you can make your game start -anywhere- and you choose the worst place to make a first impression.
2. Voiceovers are uninspired, I usually have more intensity in my voice when I'm buying soap than some of these people have when telling about life-changing events.
3. Combat is only fun on Nightmare, albeit unplayable sometimes, completely unbablanced.
4. What have they done to elven faces?!
5. Lack of inventory for companions.
6. Lack of charisma-esque dialogue options, the wheel is dumb.
7. My tank makes me feel like it's Final Fantasy or something


The good parts include fun interactions between companions, decent side-quests and some cameos from DA:O

Overall 7.5

P.S. Does every male character I meet have a romantic option for my male protagonist? I understand that some of them might but right now I'm seeing those hearts pop up in conversation more often than my RLF experience tells me. =)

[Garudevil]

I've finished the game on pc about 29 - 30 hours, switch the difficulty among casual, normal, hard.

So this is my comment. (Sorry for some mistakes because english is not my first language.)

Like

- Companions

Good designs, many companion quests are very interesting.

Dislike

- The Combat

Making it faster than the origins is a good idea. But It's unbalance. In casual and Normal difficulty, The enemy is too easy to beat (I didn't have problem with them except some bosses). But in hard it's terrible. With a narrow pathway/room to deal with them (15 - 20 guys or more) and no bird eye viewed camera,30 seconds cooldown for every potion I have (3 kinds). I'm very annoyed with this. And when the character stood between the enemies and the wall , it couldn't escape. That character died surely.

- The Army of enemies

I want to fight 15 - 20 enemy in every battle in Dynasty Warrior, not Dragon Age. Fighting with these numbers in every fight is very boring.

- Interface

Poor style for middle age fantasy rpg.

- Same Mansion, Same Cave

It's a bad joke. Make me laugh when I see one achievement about this, haha.

- Can't change teammate armor

My armor is not worthy anymore if it's not match with my Hawke class. Selling it doesn't make much money too.

- Cant' remove rune after installed once

If I want to replace it by the new one. The old one must be destroyed.

- Dialog wheel

I don't hate the idea of using it, but please remove the sign. It only helps someone who is too lazy to read a very short sentences.

- I can't talk with my companions when I want anymore.

Indifferent

- Main Story

Nothing wonderful, but not bad. But less attractive than the Origins.

Overall

So, if this game isn't name Dragon age. I gave it 7/10 to 8/10

But as a sequel, my score for it is 5 to 6/10

Modifié par Garudevil, 14 mars 2011 - 05:08 .

[Shaewaros]

Here's a great Dragon Age 2 review:

www.youtube.com/watch

Modifié par Shaewaros, 14 mars 2011 - 03:58 .

[Gnoster]

So I just finished my first playthrough of Dragon Age 2 and would like to give my 2 cents of opinion

I'll start with the short conclusion, where I would like to quote the great Barney Stinson: "It was LEGEN.... wait for it.... DARY!"

Of course everything is a matter of personal opinion; do you enjoy a more action based combat form, the (in)famous dialogue wheel, the narrative and the human only Hawke character. Below are my thoughts on some of the many debated issues.

The story:
Overall I am amazingly impressed. The entire storyline is very well thought out and much of the dialogue put in are well written. Several times I was taken aback by the consequences of my choices, which led to me often changing the core foundation of my character from a roleplaying perspective.

This to me is the perfect example of how a roleplaying should play out; there was simply no way of knowing what would come of some of the major choices, and I am sitting left with the impression that there cannot be a "perfect" playthrough. This is one major difference from DA:O in my opinion, where e.g. saving both the Dalish clan and curing the werewolves really was the only "good" choice. In DA2 there are no good or evil choices as far as I see it, there are only different viewpoints and arguments can be made for all of them. This will of course lead to much heated debate on the forums just the like old Mass Effect choices on e.g. whether or not to save the council.

The fact that the story revolved around Hawke and thus "only" enabling us to be a human character did not have any negative effect on me. To be honest it had the opposite effect, it didn't take long for me to really enjoy my charcater and I really felt for Hawke when certain events occured (wont state them here due to spoilers).

Regarding the companions I've heard some state that they never get attached to them as they did in DA:O. To that I can only say that I disagree. Actually it is the opposite for me. The gift scenarios, the companion quests, and the overall flow of party banter and feel of companionship was a lot better for me in this game than it was in DA:O. E.g. in DA:O I have no trouble killing Zevran outright and I have no problem kicking Alistair to the curve, but in DA2 I really do feel for all the character - well Fenris wasn't my cup of tea, but those types belong in the game as well.

The combat:
It is no secret the combat is way more action oriented than it was in DA:O. Whether this was done to better handle transition to consols or because the gaming market in generel is moving in that direction I cannot say. I would venture a guess and say a little bit of both.
However that didn't stop me from really enjoying the combat much more so than I did that of DA:O. Some have stated it was too fast paced and fights were over too quickly. Well maybe, but personally can't be asked to spend 5+ minutes on every single fight and having to pause every 1½ seconds in order to control every single move of every single character. To me the pacing was really enjoyable and the ability use and generel flow of combat felt easy.

The boss fights are definately in a category of their own. All except one was truly amazing stuff and they had some really good mechanics. They seemed like a move toward the experiences from MMOs like WoW, which as long as they are transformed like they are done in DA2 is a good thing. Now you should take even more from Blizzard's learnings in WoW and change the bosses abilities everytime you change difficulty level in the game (haven't tried it, but I doubt anything is done other than higher damage and higher health + more immunities). Regarding the one fight, which was really bad see below on the negative stuff.

The dialogue:
The dialgoue wheel and especially the icons gave some very good pointers as to what to say, and I really enjoy this over the older version used in DA:O. This is definately the way to go in the future. Not much more to be said really.

The negative:
The only really important criticism I have is the character generator. Here two things really annoy me.
The first is the lack of clickable sliders, the fact that I have to use drag and drop on the sliders make it extremely difficult to create a good character or at the very least check out all options. I really hope that this will be changed in a patch because as someone who really enjoys spending a lot of time creating the "perfect" character, I will soon hate this.
The second is more of a community thing. We're a lot of people, who enjoy spending time creating characters and the enormous amount of sharing of character face codes in the Mass Effect 2 forum shows that this is something people really like to do. I had hoped you had learned this from ME2 given you had taken in some other stuff as well, but alas. This is unfortunately made a much bigger issue because of my first point, because without face codes and slider markers sharing character faces is impossible beyond anything other than small impressions.

I only found a few bugs in the game:
- Found 3 quests which didn't show up on map overheads. No reason for these not to be shown, and it had me running around quite a lot.
- Pressing the button for "attack nearest target" doesn't work if the character have to move around stuff. He/she must have a clear path for it to work.

End of Act 2 boss fight was really bad compared to the other boss fights. Basically it is a matter of kiting for a very long time. With so many other ways to do the battle I was extremely disappointed.

Conclusion:
As if legendary didn't say it all already . Despite some minor flaws, the important ones being the character generator and the Act 2 end boss fight, I see this as a great tale of a great hero. It truly felt as an epic tale of heroes, villains, dragons, and romance. Oh and judging by the end the game can in expansions, DLC, and DA3 be taken anywhere possible. 9/10 from me (fix the character generator and I'll give you guys 10/10 despite that boss fight ).

[Daeion]

I just hit act 2 so I can't give a complete review but here's my take on it so far.

Appearance:
Hawke:
Just a little thing, but would have been nice to be able to change things on the default Hawk, i.e. hair color or eye color and a way to import other peoples facial builds like in ME2 would have been nice.  This will probably sound dumb, but I'm playing a female Hawk, a character that no matter how she is played kicks ass, why am I running around in plate armor like a dainty little fairy?

Companions:
I understand that it's easier to develop the game with companions armor never changing, and I appreciate that changing the weapons is reflected in game, but I miss the DA:O system of using different armors and them changing the look of the char.  I don't feel we need to go back to the DA:O system, but it would be nice if each armor upgrade provided to a companion added a noticeable difference to their appearance.

Finishing moves:
This was an issue in DA:O and I was really surprised to see it in DA 2, but when I go soaring through the air to finish something off and I'm using a 2h Mace or Axe, why am I still stabbing at it like I was using a sword?  Also, why are their so few finishing moves now?

Overall:
Overall this system is still much better then the system in ME2 which was greatly lacking in customization of looks, though the ability to change color of specific parts of armor would be nice.

Locations:
For a company that has done games such as KOTOR, ME, and DA:O, I'm really let down.  Compared to the previously mentioned games where we are going from one planet to another or one distinct part of a country to another, being stuck in Kirkwall and the surrounding area, most of which is extremely overused, feels rather blah.  I understand that using the same textures and simply adding a night cycle saves a lot of time and that this game only came out 1 year after DA:O, but it feels like I'm getting half a game.

Combat:
Meh, I don't love it and nor do I hate it.  It feels a little for fast paced but part of that could be that I'm playing through as a 2h tank warrior as opposed to the sword and board warrior I had in DA:O, though the jumping
around the battle field certainly is more exciting.  I've noticed that sometimes when a foe gets knocked back my Hawk runs after it, and other times it just sits there and I have to reengage it, it's a little annoying but w/e.  I appreciate that warrior’s attacks do an AOE with them, feels more realistic.

Graphics:
The graphics look really nice and I appreciate not having to turn off blood splatter, I like that it's there during a battle and for any scenes after the battle, but goes away by itself.  Best of both worlds imo.  I love that the different mage armors have visual affects to them.  I'm not really a fan of the new dark spawn look, just doesn't feel right.

General:
Merchants:
They should only have a tab for the items they are selling, if I sell them an item that they don't sell, there's still the buyback tab.  Also, it would be nice if items I sold them didn't go right to their selling screen so that I then need to sift through their original items and the things I just sold them.

Skills:
I appreciate that rogue skills are all based off cunning now, instead of having separate talents, but at the same time, I find it annoying that instead of leveling other stats I'm stuck pumping all my points into cunning.  Also, can we please impliment a system where if I click on a locked chest the rogue in the group goes and unlocks it instead of my char saying they can't and then needing to switch to the rogue?

Can't crafting just be a base skill determined by class?  Why do I need to go to specific merchants?

Minimap:
Would be nice if hovering over something on the minimap, i.e. the symbol for a merchant or quest, would tell me which merchant or quest it is.

Storytelling:
Would have been nice to have a better/more informative narrative of what happened between Acts and the such, I'm a details person.  I felt there were way too many sidequests and many of them were extreamly short and some of the areas were pretty small and short, I missed the longer dungeon crawls of DA:O.

Overall I'm disappointed.  I'm still having a good time and I'm impressed that it's only been 1 year since the last game, but it doesn't feel like a whole and complete game to me because I'm stuck in one area for probably 80% of the game.  I appreciate that I can alter my companions appearance a little, but I’d like it to change more throughout the course of the game, especially as it helps to reflect that time is passing
and we’ve been through different things.

Modifié par Daeion, 14 mars 2011 - 04:22 .

[BihotzAusarta]

Disslike:

*Only english voices (im from spain )
*Mini map sucks you dont know where to go.
*lots and a lots of enemys that dont mean nothing and apears from nowhere.
*one of my allys stuck with a symbol quest on the head for 2 episodes and I cant do nothing about it.
*sometimes I just let my allys kill all and just look at it cuz there is so boring go and use the 3 skills and then... nothing and more and more and more enemys apears from nowhere.
*craft? you dont craft anything.
*ally armors... sucks. just upgrades, that are not enought. you cant put something that really be usefull to your allys. just..are weak good looking people.
*mages sometimes, do nothing. have to heal manual cos they go crazy.
*places, are all the same. just go trought the missions killin loooooooots of enemys for no reason in the same places.
*you dont have gifts for you allys. just missions ones, that i miss it so much from DA:O
*what do you do with the trash? if U can do something with that...craft or whatever... just.. full your inventory and nothing else.

and someother things, but will be spoil if I say it. but are a big big ...disaster.

my rate 5/10

I wait for it and I buy it and have hope. but I dont like it. I really dont. I keep with DA:O and Awake
I probably dont buy another Dragon age, this is not dragon age for me.

[Obliviouz]

Dear Bioware and Fellow Gamers!

I come here today to express my toughts about the game after the deep lack o vital strenght i felt after i completed the Dragon Age 2, i suppose that it was the goal of this game, to totally suck the life and/or will to live out of anyone who submitted to this torture.
As i painfully made it trought the game i gradually grew aware of the many mistakes and disapointments placed in this "Game".
Bioware as shown us a certain lack of commitment and interest, and even Originality, after the previously launched games.

**Minor spoiler alert **
This are mostly mistakes in the game, other then spoilers, eitherway, it might be of your interest not to read this.

I'll be starting with a simple mistake commited on both DAO and DA2, wich is pretty relevant attending with the plot of the story, the fact that the Warden's and Champion's companions, and the Champion itself, are not affected by the darkspawn blood's corruption, even tought they take multiple showers of blood, is a pretty amateur mistake i must say. Even tought the made up for it in the Awakening, they fell into the pit again in this game.

Now more into de DA2 side, The concept art of the darkspawn are a deep disapointment obviously, they look "humanish" and evolved, wich is a major concern from the community, Another concerning fact, It's the lack of female characters from the Dwarven kin, unless someone says to me that they have beards and look like the males, they are inexistent in this game, the skill trees are copies from the first game, wich was disappointing as well, since we could previously tell that the skills needed working. The children are missing in this game for there almost none.... i guess the chantry keeps them for obvious reasons then . The human's designs are really, really, really repetitive.
The dungeons and maps are extremely repetitive, it gives a certain... AC1 nostalgy to the game, wich i mean by beeing all the same in the missions, fighting mechanics and dialogs, where we do the same things over and over again, it kinda looks like they designed one cave, and spammed it all over the place....
The dialogs made a clear destinction between kindness, jokes, and rudeness, wich in a way is a positive aspect, but makes it impossible to have a coherent dialog, causing in just 3 lines the Champion sounding like a Hero, an Ass and a Ribs n Beer Truck Driver all the same.

The "random" conversations your companions have are pleasant. The fact that you can ask your companions for oppinion or to step in the situation, its very conforting in a way, i suppose we can expect that as well in Mass Effect 3....

The game Plot itself its predictable and uninteresting, the way that the the game is built, you can go trough the game in just a couple of hours.. The fact that you have to go trought an obligatory "tutorial" or a "preview" of the game before you can build your character is also frustrating.
The character creator its poor, and doesnt have any new contents besides some fancy haircuts.

Rating:
Graphics - 7
Concept Art - 6
OST - 7
Contents - 5
Gameplay - 6

Overall - 6

Modifié par Obliviouz, 14 mars 2011 - 04:36 .

[emirdumani]

Simply put great game.

[BrianRB]

Shaewaros wrote...

Here's a great Dragon Age 2 review:

www.youtube.com/watch

HAhahahahaha!

That was hilarious!

And so right on...

[Arppis]

 Pros:
- Hawke is awesome. I like the voice and how I can develop the character, his story is also interesting and full of drama.
- Combat feels a lot better than it felt in DA:Origins. Autoattack was pretty boring on console version, plus if I want to change target fast, I can this time around.
- New dialogue system works in most ways. I like how I don't have to maximize some stupid score this time around, but I can RP pretty freely with it. Even when I don't real control over some of the replies Hawke does, they fit the character I am RPing pretty well, good job with that!
- Characters and the writing are amazing, I really like what you guys did here.
- Darker plot with many twists and turns. This is where the game really shines. I like how you guys managed to blend in drama, comedy and excitement.
- New "look" of the game, I like it a lot.

Cons:
- While combat is pretty cool, there is sometimes bit too much of it and getting enemy respawns too often dulls the combat. Atleast have a door slammed open or some realistic path where the reinforcements come. Don't just spawn them in middle of the party. I do like the basic idea of the reinforcements, but this is just too much.
- There is too little options in terms of healer and tank characters. I wish there was more of these characters and atleast have every mage own a healing spell. There is just one tanking NPC, that is a shame.
- Not enough customization. I'm sucker for a customization. I would have honestly pefered if I could have changed Hawke's armor color and build the armor up like in Mass Effect 2. But just the coloring would have been nice. I don't mind the fact that I can't outfit my companions, they can wear what they think work the best for them. But it would have been nice to get some choice in this matter.
- I wish the town would have changed a bit more over the years and characters would have changed their hairstyles and such.
- Last but not least: I wish the game would have had more things to do and that the game would have been bit longer.

Overall I enjoyed the game, didn't have much negative things to say about it. I like the dark themes and the more responsive combat. But I wish there was more customization when it comes to Hawke's outfit, coloring would have been a nice option. Respawning enemies are annoying and the combat happens too often, I wish Bioware would tone it down a bit. But these are minor issues really.

I would give the game 5/5 stars, for now.

Modifié par Arppis, 14 mars 2011 - 04:33 .

[Dan UK]

Now, if I wanted a believable story id go buy a CSI game or summit! I want an epic from my RPG’s! This is defiantly not an epic. The first game was so good and this is so bland, here are some of my major gripes:




Loot – "Ring picked up" "Ring Picked up" "necklace picked up" Tell me a bit more about what I looted other than the fact, ‘It’s a ring!’ Yes ill have to go and look at it in my inventory anyways, but seeing 'RIng picked up' 3 times in a row is bit underwhelming.









You cant kit your companions out in gear (armour) you’ve looted, massively disappointing









I got punished for being individual with my character attributes. Cunning wasn’t a desirable stat for me (rogue), I wanted dex, stam and health. All gear required me to have have cunning and I refused to be pigeonholed so I never got to upgrade my armor. Yes it was my choice to not take that stat and i myself made it so I wasnt eligible, but why would the devs limit the minority who dont want to conform to the achetype?









95% of the game takes place in the same bloody areas









No autoattack, I had to keep mindlessly mashing the A button to attack









Everythings bloody blood mages. Oh theres some bad people? Blood magic. Someone went missing? Thatl be blood magic. Yoy already know before you’ve solved an event it will be down to blood magic! There are other types of powerfull magic out there!! They just use it as such a plot crutch.









The text wheel with the icons telling me exactly what each kind of response is. Its ok bioware, you can give me the spoon, im a big lad now.



To be honest this following is my main complaint. And the one that kicked me off into a ‘Screw dragon age 2’ frame of mind. It’s a bit of a spoiler though so up to you if you read it. It doesn’t tell you ANY story, so it isnt an 'actual' spoiler it just describes the ‘style’ of the ending, but it is my MAIN complaint about this game and I only forwarn so as not to annoy anyone, so read if you wish
































It’s a bloody £40 trailer. It doesn’t end at all. What the hell is the point in playing an RPG that doesn’t give you any kind of closure whatsoever? I didn’t even KNOW they had planned a dragon age 3 for sure, but by this game its clear they had planned it all along. It realy gets my goat. I play RPG’s for a good story, whats the point of a good story that doesn’t end? Maybe its because im from an older generation of gamer, who thinks sequels are earnt, not a birthright. Release your game, if its good and there is demand, release more, DON’T not finish your current game before its even released with the ethos of ‘well we will release ANOTHER game years later to carry the story on. That’s not how it works! Not for me anyway! A £40 god damned trailer.




I loved DA:O massively. I was so SO exited about this game. I booked the relase day off work especialy for it. All I have now is bitter dissapointment.





Sorry if this is a rant, and for all I know ive put myself into the flame wall as im posting this on the DA2 forums, but I just have a tiny ray of hope that these posts ARE read and feeback IS given to the devs.

[Erika T]

Quick rating after 1 playthrough (14 hours, but i didnt do half of the quests):

Good game, but dissappointing for a DAO sequel. If it was a standalone game i'd give it 7/10. But as a DAO sequel, I give it 2/10. A crying shame how they dumbed down DAO to create this game.

will write More when I played some more.

[SlurpinTaxt]

Dragon Age2 is to Dragon age origins

as

Dark Alliance is to Baldurs Gate

[BrianRB]

Dan UK wrote...

I loved DA:O massively. I was so SO exited about this game. I booked the relase day off work especialy for it. All I have now is bitter dissapointment.





Sorry if this is a rant, and for all I know ive put myself into the flame wall as im posting this on the DA2 forums, but I just have a tiny ray of hope that these posts ARE read and feeback IS given to the devs.

Great review, Dan. Thanks for that non-spoiler tip about the game ending; that is SO disappointing to hear. I agree; spin-offs and sequels need to be EARNED.

Unfortunately, DO:A DID earn a sequel. It's just that this game isn't it.

[Necroscope]

I was never really a fan of DA:O. For me it was "perfect decent" -
casual and without heartaches, but still quite enjoyable play-and-forget.
Hovewer, I think that even old school veterans could have seen some
potential in it, maybe even some shy come back to the Baldur's roots, so
to speak.

But this game, this game is a disgrace, a b*tch slap in the face.

... Extremely repetitive dungeons, lack of any
driven storyline, far too much (oversimplified) combat in any given
period of time, laughable dialogues/dialogue options (the good, the bad,
and the idiot), environments pared down to the bone, uninspiring
weapons, uninspiring armor, uninspiring enemies, not a few essential
elements deliberately left out so that they can be put back in via DLC.
The list does not end here, but why should I say anyting more...?

The fun thing is, that although I played this game for 10 hours, my save
says 16 - why? Because I fall asleep while playing.

It is so obvious that it was rushed purely for money making purposes without any
care for fans, or even for Bioware's own integrity. Their marketing
department nowadays is tacky, untruthful and quickly becoming synonymous
with unadulterated greed on one hand and total BS on the other.

There's nothing wrong in wanting/making money - You can't evolve or even live
without them, but I think that there's a border between compromises and
pissing on one's back, saying that it's raining.

Modifié par Necroscope, 14 mars 2011 - 04:52 .

[Atilius the Hun]

I wasn't euphoric about the game at first, but nevertheless felt (from the start) that it was pretty good in it's own right.

I haven't finished the game yet, but after more than 20+ hours I feel that I have a better grasp of it:

1. The interpersonal story and dialogue between player and NPC's are terrific. This game is really growing on me as a result.

2. The cut scenes are getting better and I'm feeling a stronger sense of immersion as time goes by. The cut scenes were hard to adjust to at first but I see improvement.

3. The combat is allot of fun. Contrary to what I read here, I've had to use strategy on several occasions. In fact, combat is a bit more gruesome than before and the faster pace is a welcome addition.

4. The graphics are gorgeous on my semi high end pc. Huge improvement over DA:O.

5. I absolutely hate that Bioware has recycled several dungeons over and over again. It's too bad that the game almost exclusively takes place in Kirkwall, but to have the surrounding country side be filled with repeatable dungeons (supposedly in different locations) is disappointing.

This takes away from immersion and story-telling as exploration and discovery are integral to the wonder of an RPG story, IMO. I hope that Bioware doesn't do this again!

Currently impression that will surely change:

A good RPG that isn't nearly as in-depth as its predecessor. I'm happy with the game and that I shelled out $60 of my hard earned money for it. I just wish that Bioware had devoted more resources to the game. Story-telling is the reason why I have always loved Bioware games.  Unfortunately, it seems like they undermined their own story by recycling the same dungeon layouts and by interjecting cut scenes that take some time to adjust to. Right now, I give the game about a 7.5 out of 10.  Pretty good, but not fantastic like DA:O that rightfully deserved (IMO) a 9.5/10.

Modifié par Atilius the Hun, 14 mars 2011 - 04:57 .

[funk4shaw]

I think DA2 is good, dont understand why its recieving such negative feedback, the game has to be played on hard or nightmare its a button basher otherwise! after the first four hours it really gets going.

good points

your actions in dao affect the history of the game
the characters are likeable
the combat system isnt as repetitive in my opinion
easier to navigate menu screens
sorted out the dex/strength thing
more replayability
no glitches as of yet (15 hours in)

bad points

placing aoe effects in a pain in the arse
camera angles (xbox 360) no zoom etc

[MinotaurWarrior]

Story/Questing:

I feel that the greatest issue with this game is that it was misadvertised. I started out thinking, based on (among other things) the game's subtitle/tagline that this game was going to be about Hawke's rise to power, and the far-reaching political decisions my character made. Instead, I ended up an exile, and meer lover of the true champion of the mages, Anders. This was fine, because part way through act 1 I started calling the game "Dragon Age II: sidequest"

The secondary quests weren't just the best part of the game, in my opinion they were the game's carrying force. You stuck your nose in dozens of lives, changed them forever, and saw some of that change. I especially liked how everything was a mixed bag. I saved that kid... and sent him to live with some of the most morally bankrupt individuals in Thedas. I never felt betrayed by a surprise, all the consequences built up naturally, though some still managed to surprise me.

However, I felt like I had no power over the main plot, and it felt quite a bit like the guy in the cutscene's wasn't my Hawke. Why didn't I just kill patrice, any of the several times we were alone together at night, or far away from civilization. When Izzy ran off, why didn't I hit her with some mind-rending horror like I had with dozens of other rogue's that night? Why was I so afraid of Darkspawn wave 5 after I just killed an Ogre? I get that sometimes you need the main character to act incompetent, or just act in some particular way, to move the plot along, but I wish there had been some better justifications. Perhaps Patrice could have met me in the daytime, in public, or have mentioned that people knew she was meeting with me. Perhaps Izzy could have dashed in a more subtle way. Perhaps several Ogres could have been in that wave.

With regards to the main plot, I wish I could have lent more than moral support to my chosen cause. My strong relationships with the Viscount, the Captain of the guard, and the Arishok did very little to effect that conflict, and in act three I sided with Orsino in an argument, did a two-part sidequest, was forced to do work for both Meredith and then Orsino, and then... that was it. I didn't feel involved at all.

(Also, I felt that, as a well-known apostate living with a well-known apostate, Anders, who was working with the magical underground railroad for years, maybe the apostates I met should have realized that I was on there side)

Companions:

I didn't feel nearly as connected to my fellow adventurers this time around. They were good, interesting characters, but I didn't connect with most of them. On the one hand, DA:O, KoTOR, et cet were all really unrealistic with how your companions were just dying to pour their hearts out to you, but on the other hand, dragons are pretty unrealistic too.

I think this is best illustrated with Fenris and Allistair. Both are warriors with a troubled past, infused with lyrium to be made into human weapons. Fenris, quite realistically (AFAIK) has become quite defensive as a result. He is a heavy drinker, and quite reserved, not coming out of his shell, and putting a several-year hiatus on his relationship with Hawke when things start getting real, and he begins to remember his past. He does everything he can to put walls up between himself and the outside world, which makes sense, but isn't particularly endearing.

Alistair, on the other hand, plays at being a sad clown, but isn't afraid to be emotionally honest with the grey warden, openly discussing his great sadness at Duncan's death, and telling the grey warden his concerns about the chantry with that very pathetic DA:O sad twisty facial expression. I very much doubt that a real person would share so much with someone they just met a while back, but you know what? It made me care about him.

Another issue is the seemingly arbitrary use of previous characters, without regard to previous characterization. Specifically, I want to talk about Merril.

Merill, in DA:O, doesn't really do much. She insisted that you get keeper Marethari's permission to let that warrior tag along, and that was it. But, well, what she did do presented two character traits: a very strict by-the-rules attitude, and a concern for safety. Merril's entire character arc in DAII is based on recklessness and going against the better judgement keeper Marethari. There was absolutely no point in using that name twice, and claiming it was the same character. In DA:O Lanaya will tell you that she had to struggle to become Zathrian's first, saying that there were other apprentices who didn't get that honor. Our elvhan companion could have been one such apprentice who failed to be made First because she was so reckless.

Anders, I think, should have been called Justice, because he really seems to follow Justice's character arc far more than Ander's. But again, much of his character is changed, or abandoned. His humor is gone, as is his laid back attitude. In DA:A, he was implied to have been escaping from the circle in part because it gave him time alone with the cute templar sent to recapture him. In DAII... well, we all know how that turned out.

Now, these, and all the other similar little things, could be explained with charatcer development, and that would be pretty realistic. As I said, it makes sense that as Justice learned more and more about the world from Ander's perspective, he'd go a  bit nuts, and Justice never was a very funny or laid-back individual. Maybe Merill was just in serious mode that day because frikkin' darkspawn came out of a frikkin' portal-mirror-thing and killed 1-2 hunters. Perhaps she became obsessed with the tradgedy of it all, and became dedicated to making sure their loss wasn't meaningless. Cool, that makes logical sense, but the problem is it all happened off screen. From my perspective, Anders and Merill just randomly decided to have radical personality shifts.

Gameplay:

First off, I just want to get this out in the open: I feel incredible nerd rage towards whoever wrote "100% chance vs. any" in the description for horror and petriy. I like CC, and I understand that being able to, say, completely stunlock Meredith would be unbalanced, but it frustrated me to no end that, A) these spells had absolutely no effect on certain enemies, and the game lied about it. My prefered solution would have been to have the spell descriptions you see in the abilities screen go far more in depth with a breakdown of what chance they have against each category of enemies, and perhaps have a weaker secondary effect kick in under certain circumstances.

In this system, it might say: 100% versus normal, 75% versus elite (25% to slow), 25% to slow versus bosses.

But honestly, that's more of a personal issue I have, than a condemation of the game. Crowd control needed to be toned down, and it was still a perfectly valid choice in DAII (I beat the game on hard with Myself and Merril focused on CC, with Anders being quite fond of the glyphs). It felt like I had influence, but not complete control, over the course of most battles, and that was quite good, exactly what I really wanted.

knockdown/back's change from a status effect, to a fairly natural extension of the damage system was interesting, and added an extra level to gameplay. I really had to worry about my mages, because if they got hit once, well, they might not be able to recover in time to cast mind blast.

I also liked that they made more mage abilities passive/upgrades, so that I had some room on my abilities bar, and actually used my auto attack.

I really absolutely loved the change to wave-based combat. It stayed fresh from the begining to the end, and added another layer of unpredictability. However, I didn't like how it was (at least as far as I could tell) based on the boss's health most of the time. This turned most battles into a struggle to damage the enemy leader as little as possible. It wasn't exactly a huge struggle to do so as a cc-focused guy, but it felt kinda unnatural.

The substantially increased difference between rogue, mage, and warrior-type enemies makes me wonder if we will ever see BG style evil team of adventurers vs your team style fights in the future.

I very much appreciated the gradual change in monsters, and the lack of sudden changes in their power. Hurlocks don't become more powerful as you move on, you just face more of them, and they have more back up in the form of Ogre's and the like. It made me feel like I was actually becoming more powerful, instead of just seeing bigger numbers.

Personally, I actually liked the repeated dungeons, at least the ones that were actually supposed to be the same place. It always seemed like clearing out the vast network of caves was really just inviting new residents to take up shop. And for the unexplained repeats, well, there are definitely better places to spend your budget than a bunch of one-use areas. I would personally be very happy with a game that used BG era graphics, and used kids from deviantart to draw the levels, as long as it got everything else right. It does however seem a bit strange that they didn't seem to be using a tileset based system, seeing as that seems to be the standard solution.

On another level-design note, I really appreciated the efforts the devs put forth to guide the player, and avoid the situation I faced hundreds of times in Origins, where I was at the end of the level, and felt the need to backtrack through the whole thing to find every little bit hidden away in a dead end. All the little spider-and-treasure filled alcoves were easy to find, and hard to pass by accidentally.

I thought the cross-class combo's were clever, but poorly implemented. If I wanted to use one, I had to get a specific upgrade for one of my characters so that he'd create one of the status effects, and then another for my second character to take advantage of it. It felt very out of the way. I would of preferred it if, say, certain powers came with the effect included standard, or if perhaps each class had a special, inheret method of creating them. Say, crits for rogues, taking x amount of damage from enemies for warriors, and.... something for mages. I'm not a game designer, just a guy with an armchair and a computer

ART:

Simply fantastic. The sort of work that creeps me out, because it reminds me that people with insane levels of talent are out there... waiting to do something spectacular. Bioware, keep an eye out for demons in your art department, because these guys are wizards.

This is the first game in a long time that made me say it was beautiful. Far, far too many games go for advanced graphics without asking why; without heading for a specific direction. You did not fall into this trap. Bravo.

FINAL CONDEMING COMPLAINT:

You haven't made DA3 yet!

[devil2012]

I was kind of disappointed with da2, hated that u get all that diffrent armor drops and u cant use it on any of your party members but the main and u cant use half of it cause of what attributes u went with on the class u picked, dont think no one wants to reset there attributes just to see what a armor looks like on the main everytime something neat drops and loved the exploreing on dao but da2 it was the same place over and over even if the quest were diffrent and the area was to be located some where else on the map the area looked the same as allmost every other area ive been to and there was only 2 main places to go the mountains or the 1 city where orgins had like tons of places to go and explore wich was part of the reason i got hooked on the game and the game was to short to i mean ill play it over again after i play da1 but my opinion is I was expecting alot more then orgins from what i was reading on the site before game came out but feels like it would of been a better expansion for dao then a number 2 but thats just me, did like the new combat style but thats about all well maybe more but to much stuff i didnt like that i realy cant think of them right now,well just hope if theres a 3rd one or expansion to da2 they go back with some of the same styles of dao

[Andykg10]

This is only my opinion, but this game is ****!!

I had really high hopes for this and I preordered back in December last year.  I cant believe how disappoited I am with the game dynamics, character creation etc.

I am playing on the PC so I was expecting a game similar to DAO 1 with the way it plays, but its totally different.  For a start (and this is my first gripe) the camera on the PC version is awful!!  It is way to zoomed in and you can only zoom out a little bit, but not far enough to see the whole battlefield.  When fighting inside, the camera is practically up someones nose!!  Impossible to play.

The other thing is the obvious dumming down of the whole game.   The Caracter creation is pathetic and so basic, not at all what I was expecting when I bought this.

Cant fault the story and the graphics, but everything is is so poor.  You cant have a game with poor gameplay and expect to hit the heights of the original.

Overall, 4-5/10

[Mahrdol]

I completed the game.It is ok. I would rate it a C+. It is pretty much overshadowed in every way by DA:O. DA:O is much better I would rate it an A

DA:O is first and foremost a PC game. DA:2 is a console game ported over for the PC. I real departure from what DA was supposed to be.