3274 réponses à ce sujet

[joejoe099]

I actually enjoyed it. They promised a game where you watch a guy "Rise in power" to be the champion, and thats EXACTLY what you do. There could have been more different design in maps, but i can overlook that with how many characters they shoved into it.

They didn't have to get rid of being different race though, or add voice actor. It nearly felt like mass effect 2 in conversations, or it looked exactly like it with talking wheel. I know bioware was bought by EA but please, PLEASE bioware don't sell out like this, you guys made my favorite star wars game, NotR, so i'm hoping for stuff like that.

I played on consul, and there where a few glitches, but i can overlook them. Just the combat system was a little dry. I say keep it fast paced like it is, but make it auto attack so i don't feel like i'm playing mortal kombat.

One city i'm ok with, since it's your town, are you really going to venture through a whole damn kingdom everyweek? No! of course not! what sane being would?

all in all, i'd say it half improved, half downgraded since DA:O so i'm on the fence here. but leaning towards improvement with a little quicker battle times, plus lighting, characters, and mage combat were improved

[Broken1477]

[Frenrihr]

Shaewaros wrote...

Here's a great Dragon Age 2 review:

www.youtube.com/watch

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA ONLY THE TRUTH XDDDDD

[Frenrihr]

RoboSprog wrote...

I know that this will not be paid attention to but..
Dragon age 2, is miles better than DA:O.

DA:O was a nod back to KOTOR, clearly. The combat was slow and unentertaining. The story was brilliant, but you didn't connect to your character as much as in Mass Effect. The graphics were great on PC - I had console ver but planning to get PC ver - and had a nice style. The choice was great, most characters weren't very deep, par Morrigan, Alistair. It was a step back.

Dragon Age 2 comes back with a dark, witty, and intriguing story. A dark atmosphere and tense conversations. The combat was fast, entertaining, and fun. You felt powerful, you dominated battles at lower difficulties, but at higher it became harder. It was less tactic oriented - but this isn't Warcraft 3 or Starcraft. This is an Action RPG. And it is faithful to that.

The combat was quick. It wasn't slow, and at later levels you had a great choice of combos and abilities. The UI was simple and easy to understand,
The companions each had deep stories, and brilliant personalities, unfortunately there was not as many romantic choices I believe, and the sex scenes were lacking, Mass Effect had nudity - but no pornography, and indeed, the nudity wasn't too explicit, it was perfect. But they got flak for it and now the scenes are bad, and uninteresting.

The storyline was intriguing, dark, and as I said earlier: witty. Your voiced character adds a lot to your connectivity with the game, and the atmosphere. People gravitate around you, but we don't know why. The story ties in well, and the ending was great - people hated it for it left a few questions open.. as usual *cough, halo 2, cough*

The graphics and engine are better - however animation is worse.
The enviroments are good BUT static, and reused too much, needs more dungeon options.

(To people who say it reused them and that's bad - it is, but KOTOR reused their ver of dungeons, and so did origins.)

I would, rate Origins at a 8.1, and DA2 at a 8.7. Easily improves..

Now to all the PC elitists: I got in on PC, I loved it, and it may be a console port - but if you know anything about the industry, almost any multi-platform game is a console port because consoles make more money, has been for years. No company isn't about money, accept it, live with it.
Because it's not going to change anytime soon.

Now this is an idiot!

Modifié par Frenrihr, 15 mars 2011 - 03:44 .

[wiskeylab]

one of the things that made origins a class above the rest was in my opinion the choices you made through the game to affect not only the last part but also the ending. for instance, on my first playthrough in origins, when i got to the final onslaught and the climax i remember calling upon redcliffes knights, the dwarves, the elves and the mages to help me out. but after playing through the game multiple times figuring out and choosing my options. i got to the same place near the end and had werewolves, golems, templars and of course redcliffe knights. in actual fact during that playthrough, i made such a lot of morally wrong choices, i tainted my own soul and made the archdemon blush.

i decided to send my dog away after ostagar, kill the elves rather than make peace between them and the werewolves, sided with branka in the anvil of the void and lost my best tank in the process. during the quest for the sacred ashes, i sided with the cult of andraste, which made for an interesting battle with the guardian, wynne, leliana shades and skeletons. i killed all the mages in the broken tower, chose loghain over alistair. anyways needless to say that when i got to the archdemon i only had sten, myself, oghren and morrigan to fight the archdemon. but thankfully i called in the golems to help me on top of fort drakan which actually made the fight a little easier.

anyways i digress, the only option of that kind i had in da2 was side with templars or mages, i mean come on wheres the depth? bioware needs to sort their heads out, they are trying to appeal to a wider audience, but if seasoned rpg'ers themselves can't wait to be rid of da2 what chance does bioware have of retaining their status as one of the foremost developers in this genre, i just hope that they have members of staff who also read these forums, and that they act accordingly.

[Crunch Black]

Pretty much agree with ransompendragon. I am a massive DA:O and Mass Effect fan, really enjoyed them.

But 10+ hours in DA2 I am overall fairly disappointed so far. It's no longer a granular interesting PC RPG (DA:O great as it was, was already slick and already a little too simplified in places for none RPG fans) and instead feels more like an even more "dumbed down" console RPG. Nothing wrong with a game like that but not if it's following a stonker like DA:O and not for true detailed RPG lovers. Yes it is slicker but just seems too simplified, too bland in places.

The inventory is prime example. What I really hate is the fairly useless bland graphic icons repeated for the inventory items.  ZZZZ. I know it saves art dev time but half the fun in RPGs is finding beautiful or rare objects with a history attached and having a doubt in your head if you should use the item (in true RPG many are cursed and you don't even know ). Now it's so dumbed down most of it is all collected into Junk already to sell lol.

I agree some things are great looking (characters) but some like over re-used scenery is boring already.

The party members choosing their own armour is OK, if it was done more realistically but again that is just to simplify things less clicks on the console.

Also having to run all over the city to meet up with people that are altready following me around is a bit tedious - I understand the concept but too dull to repeat just to ask questions.


Combat is visually interesting if I freeze frame and remove the hud to pan around - super, but let the action continue and it whizzes through at 1000mph and you cannot see all the beauty.  Slow it down a little please so we can see the
glory

I know shareholders are hungry for more $ but keep your eye on the other ball which is making a game worthy of Bioware.

It seems they tried to use part of ME2 style but somehow it doesn't quite come off. I'll stick with it a while more but seriously thinking of uninstalling it . 

DA:O was fantastic with the original good solid amount of content, fabulous lavish buildings and dungeons etc and yes I still bought more DLC so that's how you make a good lasting game AND get more $ for it for your shareholders.  DA3 if it ever arrives, I will now wait for user reviews like this first.  Once bitten..

Modifié par Crunch Black, 15 mars 2011 - 03:56 .

[RaylenEX]

Well its been 4 days and I went through DA2 twice to try out the impact of different decisions. Did my second run through on casual to get over the repeated dungeons quickly.

I must say, that if Kirkwall was ruined and converted entirely into one expansive dungeon, it would have been kinda cool (Like ghastheim in good ol' ragnarok). It would have served excellently as ONE major quest, but the content given to us was far to short and limited to be DA2 in its entirety.

Also, the entire of DA2 had to do with mages. The problem is that the enemy mages were useless! They casted less spells than their demonic counterparts and there are so many interrupts available to stop them (or to kill them in one shot). In DAO, a battle with just 2 emissaries could be fatal if you didn't plan your tactics properly. In DA2, a rogue can tank 5 mages that do nothing but shoot at you with their staves. As one of the core classes of the story, this was one major disappointment.

Also there were some comments on how the escape from lothering didn't feel like an escape. Well I think the demo sums up what you can expect from the game. I remember other 'escape' scenarios in other games, like Maiev running away from Illidan as the cave collapsed all around her, or the Protoss evacuation from Aiur. These were ancient games but with whatever technology they had, the missions actually embodied the urgency of an escape. It is this lack of atmosphere, coupled with the reuse of environments, that has degraded the utility of DA2.

Such a pity for a game with an excellent foundation. There were so many advances and improvements (including good looking characters), but the developers did not realize the full potential of their creation.

Will I buy DA3? Yes, but only because DAO was really good, and because I am waiting for Diablo 3 to come out (which better not be a disappointment) and have nothing to play in the mean time.

Modifié par RaylenEX, 15 mars 2011 - 03:47 .

[Pepitobenito]

I hate the DAO fanboys that act like DA2 is so vastly different, as they place Origins on an impossibly high pedestal. Origins was great, yes, but every bit as flawed as the sequel, just in different ways...or at least this is how I view it.

It's a bit strange, however, since I was expecting basically another Mass Effect 2, in that it would improve on nearly every aspect of the game while sacrificing little. Instead, DA2 is very much give and take, improving a lot of DAO's problem areas, while subsequently making bizarre omissions or choices in other areas.

The primary problem I have with the game (23 hours in) is not that it takes place entirely in Kirkwall, but that there seems to be so few environments or 'zones' actually in the game. Reused caverns, dungeons, mansions, and even outdoor areas are fairly shameful, when you consider the sheer amount of content in DAO. Thankfully, it hasn't ruined my otherwise very enjoyable experience, though it is constantly something floating in the back of my mind.

In summary, then...

The Good:
-Combat. Vastly superior to Origins; feels much more responsive and visceral, as opposed to the trundling and clumsy feel of its predecessor.
-Graphics. Clearly much improved.
-Characters. Call me crazy, but this is one of my favourite Bioware character lineups yet. The banter ranges from amusing to fascinating to downright hilarious. Varric and Isabella have rocketed up to being amongst my favourite Bioware (and indeed other video games) characters ever.
-Story. Not so much the plot, as it's fairly straightforward, but in how it's told. Giving the protagonist a voice, a family and a personality makes all the difference in really getting invested into the main character. This was a weakness I found with Origins. Varric telling the story works out brilliantly.
-'Talents'. Specializations, skills, whatever you want to call them, my god they were pretty awful in Origins. While it's true DA2 takes away some choice and certain elements of the 'hardcore RPG' that DAO was, the talent trees are far better and far more balanced.

The Bad:
-Reused environments. I mentioned this, but it bears repeating. It concerns me that Bioware seemed to cut a lot of corners with this. I don't have a problem seeing the same dungeon reused a couple times, provided there's ample variety elsewhere, but when I enter the same cavern for the 5th or 6th time, or see the exact same stretch of coast for the 7th or 8th time, I start to wonder if Bioware really thought no one would take notice to such obvious laziness.
-DLC on launch. This doesn't really bother me much, as the DLC is fairly insignificant, however I don't think there's any excuse for launching a game alongside DLC that is neither free nor particularly cheap.

The Questionable:
-Graphics. Oh, but this was one of the good points, no? True, but they also have me a bit confused. The character models are extremely good, as are the animations, but this is to be expected as it uses the animation set as Mass Effect. Some of the areas look very nice as well, but some...just don't. Some of the texture work is fairly appalling too. Overall, the graphics are bizarrely all over the place. You got used to the consistently fairly ugly look of Origins, but in 2 it seems like two games merged into one at random intervals. Very strange, very distracting at times.
-Customization. For Hawke, it's just as good as it was for Origins. No doubt people will now point out that you can't have crap like crafting, which is fine, because the crafting in Origins was almost identical to how it is now (only you have to visit a vendor), and the other skills were just incredibly boring (More tactics slots? Oh my...restrain me lest I do something drastic in my excitement-induced fanatical high). Trimming the fat isn't a problem. However, not being able to equip your allies with the majority of the armor (and some of the weapons) you acquire is a bit of a letdown. I get that they want your companions to retain their unique look with their special, personalized armor, but I think choice is always a good thing. It would be nice to have that as an option, while retaining the ability to equip other armor to your allies.
-Respawning enemies. Sure, this was apparent in DAO, but only on some encounters. It seems like it's a part of every single fight in DA2, which I find to be a bit...odd. Sure, I suppose it technically increases difficulty, stretching your resource usage out, but it seems like a completely artificial increase in difficulty, simply throwing more cannon fodder at you for the sake of doing so. I did like being able to plan out most fights in Origins based on what you could see on the battlefield before you.


Conclusion: I like DA2 a lot. Maybe not as much as I'd expected to, not in every way, but certainly the flak it's received is absolutely ridiculous. Origins was great, but let's not delude ourselves into thinking it was some untouchable godsend from the RPG pantheon, and that DA2 daring to change that formula can only mean a heathen insult to RPG fans everywhere. Most of the clamoring over how much Bioware changed the game is just that; clamoring. The game plays very, very similarly, with certain ups and downs. I'm not finished Dragon Age 2 yet, but barring some sudden, massive shift in opinion, I would say it's neither significantly better nor worse than Origins, but rather just what the title implies: more Dragon Age.

[wiskeylab]

it's not a fan-boy thing, yes origins had flaws but overall the good parts outweigh the bad. considering bioware started on origins in 2001/2002. my point is that da2 has flaws as do most games, but in da2 the bad outweighs the good in my opinion. i said the same about ff13 it doesn't make me a fan-boy, it just means i have my own opinions about what a good game should be like, as do many other people. i myself think that origins was a much better game than da2 even with it's flaws. in my opinion origins comes closer to what my idea of a good game should be like, and i'm just voicing my disappointment at #2. does that make me a fan-boy, i wouldn't have thought so.

[Gaelem]

Running on a PC with i7-920/4gb/2xAMD4870

So DA2 is a good game, but I wouldn't have called it DA2. Something like Hawke:A Dragon Age tale would have been better and set the expectations correctly for me. It's not as enjoyable for me as DA:O was. I felt the same disappointment from ME -> ME2. I liked altering my characters armor, I liked min/maxing details. Maybe if there was a option to enable the old mode and still allow a "simpler" experience to play it dumbed down but it doesn't feel like a sequel.

Pro: Crafting is better I think didn't like running around for elfroot but you should have been able to buy it from various merchants. Except maybe rare items like lyrium shouldn't be inexhaustible. But overall this change affected me the least.
Pro: Story it is a good story but all I kept wanting to know was what happened to MY champion from DA:O. But if it wasn't DA2 then my expectations would be set correctly. It's like if Baldurs Gate 2 didn't continue with the same story and characters. Calling it DA2 draws in that emotional investment, Like if Halo3 didn't have master chief.
Pro: Graphics are much better, combat although easier is more fun, like the increased animations for mages.
Con: Dumbed down equipment, I don't like that at all, seriously slap on the ME:2 issues. At this rate I'm expecting to not be able to change anything in DA3 and maybe change colour of my armour.
Con: Reuse of levels, world felt small. Really small, I had the same issue with ME:2. What you added were making things change with time but felt small.
Con: Removal of spells feels weaker, no drain life etc. It's a small complaint but just felt simpler.
Con: Felt constrained on equipment since everything went to main character for armour and most weapons were not usable by all it just felt less a Bioware RPG.
Pro: UI was better.
Con: character movement seems worse. Noticed that around steps Hawke got stuck. I don't recall the edges of stairs being so fixed in DA:O. Felt like the stairs fanned out, just would be on last step and couldn't turn, and suddenly Hawke was confounded but the last step because he wasn't going straight. Also noticed that AI didn't know what to do when stuck behind people, they won't move out of the way. Might have been an issue before but didn't notice, maybe there are more choke points now.
Con: Shorter game, expected more content. Maybe it comes with tightening up levels but I miss the scope/size.
Con: Lost sense of advancement as character models by equipment didn't change as fast in the new game, repeating some elements on dumbing down inventory but it leads into the feeling of accomplishment..

Overall, shouldn't have called it DA2. Seriously, I would have liked the game better if it was a stand alone story set in the same world. DA2 needed to continue DA:O and the DLC. This just felt lacking because of that decision.
Really if I replay this story with the DA:O champion and worked out how the dynamic would have been affected it would have made a MUCH more powerful story. You could have voiced maybe 4-6 voices for the DA:O champions to chose from (3 per sex) and gone with that. I don't get for such a great company why you'd fail so spectacularly. And to be fair when I saw fail, I mean in carrying the name DA2. This is not DA2 in my mind. If it was separate I'd have liked it much more. if DA:O was 9.5/10 for me then this is 7.5/10. and 8/10 if it had another name.
I' have bought nearly every Bioware game and played them to death. I've gone so far as to play peoples games that licensed the engines you've built. I love you guys but I have to say I'm disappointed and this is the second time with a sequel. I don't know what you're playing at trying to hit "mainstream" but DA:O didn't need to be fixed, it was popular, same with Mass Effect. if you wanted to make it easier to play then you could auto equip characters or allow the player to control it. You could do allot of things without making the game feel less than it's predecessor. It's like you're losing your way and trying to get too cute without thinking about what brought you here.

[Smaggeis]

LIKES

• Graphic update is very nice.
• Travel betwean places improved, just click on it and you are there.
• Cross class combos was a nice addon to a degree.
• Storyline was OK. Not enthrolling but good enough.
• I liked the enchanting system better then the first one. Mainly because you could have them made from recipeis.
• Not having to collect and buy a bunch of the same stuff for the recipe system was nice as well.
• Not having to wonder if all the junk you are picking up is going to be usefull at some point. Probably could have just replaced it with more gold drops, but I guess it does add a little more to the game.

Dislike

• Not being able to change party members armor. Simply buying upgrades was lazy on your part.
• So many quest take you to the exact same room layout. Why would you do that, makes the game feel repetive.
• Romance between party members was not very well thought out.(To easy to make it happen. Why are almost all of them bysexual? You can make a relationship happen with them even if they don't like you, what is up with that?)
• Constantly having to spam a button just to do a regular attack.
• Game only being challenging on nightmare setting. Any other and your class builds can totatly destroy the enemy before the fighting really even begins.
• If you where going to take the dialoge wheel from ME2, why not have your choices have some kind of impact on the way your charecter looks as well, besides just the way they sound?(As far as the dialoge wheel I could take it or leave it. Don't really care much eather way, besides what I previasully stated.)
• This is pretty controversial I imagine but it feels more like a action game then a RPG. Trieng to make everyone happy by combing them rarely  works with a game like this. It's eather one or the other. Doing both to the extent you have made the gameplay weeker.
• Cross class combos made your charecters extremely powerfull, unbalancing the gameply.(Yes I know I have that as a like above. Becouse it was fun to do, but I think game would have been more challenging without it.)
• Seem to be a lot less interaction with the other party members as the last one.

I'm just going to stop there. I would have to say this game was not nearly as good as all the hype and ratings said it was. It's not one of my all time favorite bioware games by far. But I do enjoy it, and will probably have a few playthroughs before I am done. Would I recommend it to somone to purchase? No I would tell them to rent it first to see if they like the new version of DA before they buy it.

[draybailey]

Not a fan of the fast paced play. You can just go crazy with button mashing and be fine.

[ladyofpayne]

I want to say thahks for Rival system- NPC become like real people.

[Les_Carver]

DA2 gives some glimpses of greatness at first but then falls and breaks into pieces. What a mess!!! The story is ok (works as a "sequel" to origins), the narrative is nice, the characters are so-so, voice acting is decent (very generic and without emotion at times), gameplay is agile now, but the rest really sucks big time.

The worst of all are the quests: they are all recycled, not once or twice, but all over the game! It would've been ok to play through the same warehouse, tunnel and cave a couple of times, but it sucks they force you to play through the same scenarios over and over again!

I'm sorry, but that's really retarded, lazy, and unfair. Why should we pay full prize for a game that didn't made any effort to create different environments for its main missions?! I mean, come on! We're not even talking of the secondary quests, we're talking of the main quests!! You CANT do that to the player! you cant make the player go through the same scenario but in different circumstances over and over and over again! that's some ME1 secondary mission's dynamic, and they sucked for it. BioWare solved that in ME2, why did they screw it in DA2 like that? it doesn't makes sense.

The soundtrack. While some songs are cool, Inon Zur keeps on abusing on the same instruments and tunes. Ever since I met his style in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2003) he keeps abusing the same instruments and tunes. Someone else should've made DA2's music.

The game in general wasn't practical at all, the level design was very lazy and poor -you disagree? keep going through the same cave, tunnel and warehouse until you get tired-, variety in outfits, and character customization were incredibly low.

Dragon Age 2 has been the biggest disappointmentof the year, not because the game is bad, but because there was a lot of good potential that got ruined because of the laziness in its developing.

[Satyricon331]

(PC here) While I never expected I’d like this game as much as DAO, from the professional reviews and all the people who liked it I thought it’d still be fun for me, but it mostly wasn't.  Reading this over, it sounds worse than it was, but nonetheless I regret buying before the price fell more, it even though I got it on sale.  (Also, sorry for writing a book about it.)

Combat - Here, I have nearly nothing positive to say.

- The biggest problems are the lack of a tactical camera and the wave mechanism.  I used the tactical camera all the time in DAO and I hate not having it.  I am constantly fighting the ludicrously cumbersome camera.  It is constantly retilting itself downwards when I want to see where it is I’m aiming or going.  If I could zoom out more maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but as it is, it’s really frustrating.

And the wave mechanic is just thoughtless.  I get that sometimes you’re facing animals or alpha-less darkspawn that just won’t have any organization, but if all these super-ninjas are on the ceiling or behind doors or whatever, why are they organizing themselves into easy-to-beat waves rather than overwhelming me?  Even besides that issue, dealing with waves tactically means holding off using spells and talents – i.e., a major part of tactics now is *not to use your abilities* just in case!  I’m sorry to say, it wasn’t fun in BG games and it isn’t fun now – only now there’s no resting or modding to fix it and likely never will be.  And the tactics of positioning is now nonexistent – it’s just trial and error.  At least if they spawned in rational locations (like from doors) you could think about the issue tactically, but it’s not possible here.  Even then though, it would still just be an un-fun feature to me since it makes it so that when you think you’re about to get xp and loot, instead you get “another wave!”

- The Tactics screen is another big problem.  In DAO, you could see the quickbar, so you had an overview of what spells/talents you had to work with, and could scroll over them to see what they were.  Here,you’re working in the dark, only able to find out their names (but not what they do) from the drop-down lists.  At first I tried writing all of them down, but it just made it such a chore I gave up.  In DAO, the tactics screen was fun and felt rewarding, but here it’s simply taunting me with its untapped potential.  I will say though, I appreciate being able to drag and drop the tactics to reorganize them.

- With these cross-class combos, you’re trying to force me to have a particular party profile.  It’d be best to have both cross-class and intra-class combos, but if I have to choose I’d prefer intra-class combos for all three classes since then I would have much more flexibility in designing different parties - and since then I could still have combos even for battles where I'd prefer to micromanage only one character.

- Along that line, you nerfed my mages.

- I appreciate how pressing Tab now shows everyone’s health bars, unlike in the demo.

- The final point here is the imbalanced combat.  As some reviewers have noted, the difficulty has unfortunate, excessive spikes.

Art style

- I like how you designed the environments, although graphically they have a bit of a toyish/plastic feel.  Overall though they’re great.  I particularly appreciate is how you came up with a distinctive architectural style for Kirkwall.  I used to draw fantastical cities as kid and I really appreciate it when fantasy artists make an effort to be creative rather than blatantly ape real-world art movements.   I can see real-world influences here but it’s nothing overt and the city, the countryside, and yes even the caves look great.  If their hillside/terraced look was the payoff for getting rid of the tactical camera like I’ve heard, then I can see why you’d think it was worth it (although I disagree).

- Good lord, the people in this game are hideous.  All the humans have this ugly, blockish/potato-head look now – and I had better luck in the demo’s character creator; you took away a preset that made the face look a bit less like a Cubist painting.  Also weirdly shaped, the dwarven jaw is now a weapon in its own right.  And those poor elves are just repulsive.  I don’t understand their change at all; the lore has them as being beautiful to humans.  Getting rid of their beauty – and replacing it with scifi-alienhood – makes about as much sense as making the dwarves a tall, lanky, hairless species, or a surface species that hates tools and manual labor.  And I’m sure you don’t need me to mention the greyspawn look you gave the darkspawn.

- The battle animations make me feel like you suddenly couldn’t decide what your target demographic is.  You aimed those animations squarely at 14-yo boys.  Worse, they’re totally nonsensical.  My mage’s dexterity rating of 10 isn’t good enough for anything that requires dexterity, except moving like a super ninja.  At least with constitution, we can just imagine that these “humans” simply have troll-like health, but dexterity is now just incoherent.  I would have wanted at least a toggle for the exploding-body ugliness.

Writing – I have very mixed feelings here.

- I think it’s great you wanted to create a morally grey situation, but somewhere along the way you forgot to give me something to care about.  It would have been so much better if you had made each faction enormously sympathetic while forcing me to choose between them (you pulled it off in DAO several times, after all).  I just don’t care about these stupid factions and I have nothing to root for in DA3 – except maybe an elven insurgency that exterminates all these insipid humans and detestable, yet uninteresting qunari (but even there, I suspect it’s just because you haven’t gotten around to demonizing the elves yet).  I don’t sympathize with any of them and I feel very detached from the setting.

- However, on the plus side, I like how much of the political intrigue unfolds. 

- I like the companions, and unlike in DAO, there’s only one or two I dislike.  But while I like them overall more, the ones I like, I like less than my favorites in DAO.  I’m not sure what the difference is; I’m not a creative writer so I’m afraid I don’t have anything specific.  Aveline in particular was a nice surprise. 

- Although I liked having lots of quests, the beginning felt very disorganized.  Often I would be in a quest and realize I couldn’t remember which of the many little events that had happened had led me to that particular quest.  There's also, in the beginning, little to make you want to move forward and see the rest of the story.  Luckily, it does pick up.

Miscellaneous

- This game is frequently asking me to suspend reflection and critical thinking.  There were only a handful of points in DAO where I really had to grasp for excuses, which I hate doing.  E.g., I finally decided the reason none of your companions die of taint is that, unbeknownst to the medieval-tech denizens of the time, some people just have a natural immunity, and the companions the game shows just happen to have it (with there being other companions who did die, whom the game just abstracted away in order to present the 2-year story manageably).  I hate having to do that!  In DA2, there were so many apparent breaks from the lore like that, that I finally just gave up, which was worse.  Why is the blighted Lothering area so sunny?  Why do people not die bodily now if they die in the Fade?  Why do mages suddenly merely have to have a papercut to gain knowledge of blood magic?  Why can an elf not only live outside the Alienage, but squat in Hightown of all places?  And on and on and on.  I can come up with rationalizations for each of these points… I’m just too detached and overwhelmed now to bother.  Part of the problem is in adapting the lore to a new storyline, which I can understand, but it was an issue for me.

- I can see some value added from having a voiced protagonist, but it’s very slight since the wheel is so uninformative that it really needs the full line – but if you had the full line the voice acting would add nothing substantive.  Also, the cost is very high.  I hate having to play a human in fantasy and scifi settings and there isn’t much personality-roleplaying freedom now; if you mix up the tone in a single conversation half the time you wind up looking like a multiple-personality disorder patient, meaning I have almost only three personalities I can play.

- While I didn't have a problem with the linear spell/talent progression in DAO or here, I want to point out that the web trees here are surprisingly linear.  When a spell has two lines going into it, it needs both prerequisites rather than just one.  And worse, all those spells that require a certain number of points in the school mean that in practice there's much less flexibility than the complex-looking graphs would suggest. 

- edit: I forgot to add, I didn't mind the re-use of caves, but if you close of some of the doors or whatever in order to induce variety, please update the maps accordingly.  It's irritating as it stands now.
___

Despite how this post might read, I appreciate how much effort and work this game took.  You can see the work and thought that went into the game, and while it's not especially to my tastes, I can understand why people would like it a lot.  

Modifié par Satyricon331, 15 mars 2011 - 05:52 .

[GrooviestPine]

I'm saying this as someone who loved DA:O and was hugely looking forward to DA2 despite all the negativity directed at it--this game isn't very good.

The graphics were fairly terrible in DA:O, which I can deal with. Graphics usually don't really matter that much to me. I'd like to know why, apart from the character models, DA2 looks worse in just about every way. Nothing has any detail. Kirkwall is supposed to be this huge sprawling bustling city, but every area looks abandoned. This is especially inexcusable considering how many more environments there were in DA:O. 

Combat I'm lukewarm on. I do like the faster pacing, but the cooldown times are straight-up retarded now, and when I'm fighting large enemies as an archer (I haven't played as anything else yet) I continually have problems targeting enemies, even when they're the closest objects to me. It keeps locking on some dead body or an enemy much further away, which is REALLY frustrating and troublesome. I'm playing this on 360, so I don't know if the PC version has this same problem. I also don't like that pausing is more or less pointless now as a result of the decreased difficulty. I don't know how so many people thought that DA:O was hard, I don't even play that many old-school RPGs and I thought DA:O was easy-peasy on every difficulty but Nightmare. Combat, even bad combat, is never a huge issue for me though, because I generally play RPGs (especially Bioware RPGs) for the story and characters over the combat. It's in those areas where DA2 fails the most.

The environments and map recycling are straight-up appalling. I would expect this from some bargain-basement RPG, not a AAA title asking me for $60. At least make some effort to differentiate, don't just keep using the same 5 caves/dungeons/mansions while throwing up random arbitrary walls.

The characters are insufferable. Don't know what the hell happened to Anders. His writer said that he's the same old snarky Anders from Awakening, but I heard him joke maybe once or twice in the entire game. Other than that he's a mopey, self-centered lunatic who all the other characters were completely justified in hating. The extent of his development as a character is only found through his freaking CODEX, which is lazy and awful. Fenris looks and acts like he accidentally got warped here from some awful JRPG. Merrill's an idiot, and while her cutesy naive act charmed me at first, her actions late in the game make her perhaps the worst character in the entire game. Isabela I didn't mind too much, though she certainly couldn't convince me to give two s***s about her self-centered plight. Sebastian was a humorless, obnoxiously self-righteous tool, though I say that about nearly every character in the game. Really, the only truly tolerable and decently written characters were Aveline and Varric, who not-so-coincidentally were the only non-romanceable ones. Plus Varric was the only person in the game who seemed tired of the endless templar/mage nonsense, and boy did I sympathize.

Which leads me to the story, or the lack thereof. I was initially intrigued by the setting--taking place in only one city, and without a clearly defined villain (at least at first), over the course of several years? I foolishly thought that maybe Bioware was going for something truly new (for them, at least)--perhaps an environment that could actually change over time according to your choices, that actually made you feel like you were living a life. It could be like Fable, except, you know, good! But instead, there's nothing really driving the game--there's no real reason why any of the companions except Varric would follow Hawke for such a long time, and none of your choices really have any unique consequence. Kirkwall doesn't change, and Hawke doesn't change. For all this talk about building up and becoming the Champion, Hawke doesn't really do a whole hell of a lot that's important.

What's saddest is that none of this can really be blamed on being rushed--Mass Effect 2 had roughly the same development time, and look how much better and more polished that game is (and believe me, i was never a huge Mass Effect fan so it pains me to say this). I fear this might actually reflect Mike Laidlaw's vision. My only hope is that DA2 doesn't sell well, so Bioware is actually forced to take a step back and genuinely evaluate what worked and what didn't, since their unbelievably arrogant dev team is currently claiming that anyone who doesn't like the game simply hates change. DA:O sold huge; there was no need to water it down for a mass audience. That'll only alienate the core audience while failing to attract a new one (which, from what I've read and seen, is exactly what's happening with DA2). It's not a bad game, just a frustratingly mediocre one. I've admittedly had fun playing it, but only of the most mindless Dynasty Warriors kind. Here's hoping you guys shape up soon; you're fixing on losing a ton of fans over this game and your attitude about it and you probably don't even realize it.

Score: 5/10

[Scarzi]

6.5/10

Combat system and main character with a voice to add more character were really the only improvements. People are whining about the faster pace combat, it is vastly superior from having to pause every 3 seconds in DA: Origins. Pause button was literally the only thing that allowed DA: Origins to be as hard as it was. Pausing isn't skill, its just for downies.that need time to sort out the situation. Play without pausing tards, the combat system change is a lot more fun.

In the end. Gameplay > Story > Graphics

not Graphics > Story > Gameplay

Still haven't learned

[Sassy Ranger]

imho Dragon Age 2 is more of an extended DLC of Awakeningsthan a true new game. I was hoping for a wider range of topics to engage conversation with the companions not the modified down even from Awakenings.. In DA 2 the charactors are not built upon over time. For those that played DA O and Awakenings they at least got to know a little about Anders and a tiny bit about Isabela's background. These characters are total strangers no real way to decide whether you like them or not. Only getting to actually have a interactive conversation every three years is not much to build any kind of relationship good or bad.
Instead of DLC's give some more input into the game like the 2 Addons now available that give more of a story line and a deeper interaction with our companions. To me that is what set DA O apart from the other games I have played.

Its not too late it could still be as enjoyable as DA O.

[JackalOsiris]

Well today marks day 7 and I feel I can write an official review of this game.  Don't get excited as the feelings of the community seem to echo my own views.
Let me start with the good, since I feel like being kind to a group of a guys that have done so well in the past.  The graphics are great and DX11 is a good improvement, as DA:O did not even support DX10 settings.  The detail is increased if you download the 1gig graphics upgrade which has more support for DX11 and only affects the textures of the game, giving it a more detailed look (I think I just repeated myself).
Another positive I noticed is that there are more companions, increasing the different combination of groups you can put together, also the fact that there are more mages in the sequel is refreshing.
Third, there is no long drawn out intro.  As much as I love DA:O the origin stories became annoying when replaying and the long prologue of Ostagar became too repetitive and dry.  This time you are thrown into the world with a "camp" and able to go about your business with time to do small quests before leading up to the turning points.
A fourth positive I find is the combat.  It is much faster than DA:O, an incredible improvement and the animations are very nice.  To make up for the fast attack though Bioware threw in what I will call a wave system in some fights.  This is where you may encounter several waves of enemies in single battles, where more darkspawn or bandits fall from the roof or shade appear from underground.  Many may find the fighting a bit cartoony at first but I see it as large improvement.  In DA:O it would becom annoying as your two handed guy spent 2 or 3 seconds trying to fling his maul, now everything is fast paced, and I like it. 
I will say that the improvements in the ability tree is nice, and the concept of upgrades to ability was a nifty little insert.  Not only now do you choose the ability to send a wave of cold air freezing your opponents within a radius you can upgrade it to increase your chances of freezing and this also happens with many other abilities.
The last "good" I wanted to mention is the simplicity in inventory management, however this also overlaps with the bad.  When it comes to companion armor you cannot customize their look, give them a helmet or boots.  DA2 has done away with that and you can only setup your main character's armor.  They made up for this by including upgrades to companions armor which is to be automatically attached on acquire.  So while it is easier to not have to upgrade your companions armore and have to rearm each time you change parties it also takes away from the fact that you have lost a bit of control over what your party wears which can have an impact tactically in some cases.  Certain things CAN be outfitted though on your companions like belts, rings, and necklaces but as far as the main gear that has been taken out.
Moving into the bad I must say the whole speech wheel is stupid.  I'm guessing that Bioware believed it was difficult to tell what would happen when you chose your response they had to give you pictures, but I don't like people insulting my intelligence and dumbing things down.
I had said I enjoyed a fighting, but let me clarify, I like the pace not necessarily the combat itself.  It all moves so cartoony.  Two or three hits and the darkspawn is dead, "but you're surrounded by darkspawn!"  Yeah... but I just took out four in 2 seconds because I had each party member hit one, sad really.  So the combat is a mix of good and bad.
Another problem I have is what did they do to the darkspawn?  Their models are horrible and lloked much better in DA:O.  I loved the orc look, now they just look like a random batch of polygons. 
One major flaw I have with the game is the maps, they are cut and dry and the areas are so limited and small.  I feel like I'm running down a narrow passage scraping my elbows, there is little free reign like in DA:O with its forests and large caverns, you're stuck in the city most of the time.
My final complaint deals with how they have streamlined the game to appeal to the adventurer player.  Tactics are less important unless you play on the nightmare difficulty and that is just wrong for a game you call an RPG.  It just seems like EA is trying to get Bioware to spread out and embrace different gamers, which is what you have to do in a rough global economy but you are leaving up hard core single player "RPGers" in the dust and it hurts.  I don't want an appology or my money back.  The game is good, the storyline is nice, just that it lacks that RPG luster of Baldurs Gate or KOTOR, even DA:O was more of a tactical RPG than this game. 

Let me sum up this review with a simple true story.  A co-worker told me he had considered buying DA:O to get a feel for DA2.  I told him to go ahead and buy DA:O.  "It's a good game," I said.  "The storyline is great and the whole gameplay experience is fun, but don't bother with DA2, least not yet."  
"Why not?" he asked.
"Because it's just not as enjoyable, everything seems so cartoony and simplified.  Wait for the price to get around $20 or $30, then it may be worth it.  Play through DA:O enjoy it for a time.

[QuillKnight]

Dislikes:

- Character creation is greatly reduced from DA:O
- Combat is faster than DA:O, but dumbed down
- Healing is incredibly difficult to manage
- The dark, gritty fantasy "feel" that DA:O had is gone
- Quests get glossed over
- Romance got dumbed down
- Much less interesting little backstory tidbits

Likes:

- Party members are fun and entertaining
- Graphics are decent
- Slightly more backstory on non-Fereldan or Gray-Warden topics

The sub-screens, such as the map, character, and inventory screens, seem very very low-grade for a professional game. They are dim, eye-straining, and uninteresting. Definitely a step down from DA:O. I saw screenshots before release and had hoped that it was simply beta-stuff that would be improved upon. No such luck.

The skill map is not nearly as user friendly as in DA:O, nor as visually appealing. I feel that while there are more options for skills, you seem to be required to buy a ton of useless skills to get to anything decent. On the flip side, many of the higher level skills are essentially worthless, so you can focus on buying tons of low-level skills, instead.

As usual, Bioware has manages to make inherently interesting characters. The commentary from Varric, Isabela, and Merril are particularly entertaining and I hope it doesn't peter out as I continue through the game. Admittedly, I haven't quite gotten out of the Deep Roads yet, so I don't know how many other party members may pop up, but... three mages? Really? I mean... really?

I have to agree with the apparent majority that, so far, the storyline has been less than enthralling. DA:O grabbed you from the beginning and held you fast until you had finished two or three different complete origins and endings! Which leads to another gripe... character creation. Taking away race and origin stories seemed like a very bad move to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom DA:O gave with character creation and I felt as though the "open" storyline was ripped away from me. While on the topic of storyline, I also wanted to mention the fact that quests in DA:O were fun and interesting! Even the little side-quests were cool enough to want to read all the info about them. In DA2, you often complete quests without even realizing you did it! Where the hell is the fun in that?

And now onto combat, which is obviously the heart of the game. I do admittedly like the way the rogue leaps into combat, but I don't think the warrior should be able to rush toward an enemy in the same way. Other than that, I honestly find it repetitive, generally unchallenging, and uninteresting.

Overall, while not a bad game, DA2 is definitely a disappointment. Bioware gets a thumbs down and a glare from me for rushing this and ignoring the little details that made DA:O so fun to play. They've made great games before and can do it again, but a failure like this is nearly heart-rending. I truly hope this isn't the beginning of a new trend. I'll likely be playing DA:O and both Mass Effects for years, but DA2 will be tucked away as soon as I beat it once.

[lastpawn]

A brief review from a long-time gamer who's done everything from FPS to RTS to RPG over the years. I've played most BioWare games: I buy BioWare games because they immerse me in their world.

Dragon Age 2 is OK. However, I am probably not going to get any DLCs, and I'm probably not going to look into DA3. In short:

The move from ME1 to ME2:
-What was lost (in comparison): some
namely: ME2 sports a subpar main plot, too episodic = less epic, limited inventory customization
-What improved: literally everything else
e.g., the mode of storytelling, classes, general gameplay, HIGHLY satisfying combat (if a bit too predictably "Gears of War"), mostly interesting NPCs, and much more...
-Overall: worth my time

The move from DA:O to DA2
-What was lost: lots, far too much to list
e.g., a general lack of direction; ME1 style reusable content; limited areas to explore; a forced yet uninspired main character--compare to Commander Shepard
-What improved: some?
e.g., the combat was a step in the right direction, although it went too "Super Smash Bros. Melee" for its own good; a more nuanced look at morality
-Overall: not worth my time

While I enjoyed both DA:O and ME1, I intend to see the ME universe to its conclusion. Presently, I do not intend to do the same for the DA universe. This may change based on the quality of third installments, of course.

So that's my review. Dragon Age 2 is OK, but OK isn't enough. I won't be replaying it, and don't intend to purchase any expansions or DLCs. Life is too short to play OK video games : )

EDIT:
Because I'd like to see a better game (whether you patch DA2 up and label it "Ultimate" or just make DA3), I wanted to expand on some previous comments, specifically on combat and story.

I liked the combat. Almost all of it. What I did not like are the endless, ennui-inducing waves that everyone else talked about, and the ninja-super-cool-dragon-ball-z-power-move nonsense. There's a line somewhere between badass and ridiculous and you guys crossed it. For example, why does the mage spaz out while casting? It doesn't look dangerous, it looks cartoonish. Why does the warrior swing a massive JRPG sword like it's made of plastic? It doesn't look badass, it looks cartoonish. Why does the rogue, uhm, spinning hook kick a bomb instead of, say, tossing it? It doesn't look stylish, it looks cartoonish. 

The combat direction is GOOD, but you went TOO FAR. Reel it back in: make it both cool and serious.

I liked the story, too. In fact the main plot was better than ME2, but it just didn't click for me. I have a nagging suspicion that significant chunks of the story are left out as DLC. Whatever it is, it was disappointing because the main plot was a few steps away from truly great, yet failed because of lack of polish (in comparison to ME2 where the main plot was mediocre yet highly polished). It was a shame to see a seemingly great story fall short of its potential by a lack of polish.

Hope to continue being your customer in the future.

Modifié par lastpawn, 15 mars 2011 - 11:55 .

[Paul.E9190]

I was disappointed at the plot and the overall gameplay time.
DA:O was way, way better. The characters were quite uninteresting but the graphics, combat system and tech was much improved.
And I liked how Hawke could speak.
ME2 ftw! I hope BioWare learn from their mistakes and make ME3 awesome.

Modifié par Paul.E9190, 15 mars 2011 - 06:33 .

[Amundarken]

I have only put in about 7-8 hours of hard difficulty game play so this is more of a first impression (which, so I'm told, is the most important).

1. Definitely dumbed down. I happen to like micromanagement in a single player pause-enabled party-based RPG. The Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale series expanded the complexity as the games got better and better. This sequel does just the opposite, so far.

2. The old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" applys here. A review I read recently said that the developers appear to have focused on pleasing the folks that didn't like DA:O instead enhancing the experience of those that did. I have to say I agree so far. Personally I found little to dislike about DA:O besides occasional annoyances. There are many more of these annoyances here:
- The character generator is missing features that were present in DA:O, making it more difficult to use.
- The tactics screen that worked so well in DA:O is missing a "disable all" button, making it a major job to shut tactics off for those of us who prefer to do so.
- Reduced camera range, complete lack of an efffective 2D view.
- Most of the skills work differently, almost nothing carries over directly. There was nothing wrong with the old system.
- Upgrading armor for your party members can only be done in towns now, rather than on the fly (but maybe I haven't played long enough yet to discover otherwise?) and it's now full dress rather than components (see "dumbed down").

3. Some characters occasionally freeze when moving as a group. The only way to get them to move is to select and move them individually.

4. PATHFINDING!!! Need I say more? Possibly even worse than DA:O. Certainly no better.

5. Enemy projectile weapons actually CAN pass thru some solid objects.

On the plus side, the characters and story line are keeping my interest. Maybe a patch will address some of the above mentioned annoyances. So far, I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed but not enough to dis the game. So far, and I emphasize that this is very early on, I'm giving this a 7/10 on the sequel scale.

[Missychellez]

Wow, honestly SCM003 you read my mind! I was going to write the same thing. I'm a 26 year old female gamer and absolutely LOVED DA:O. I bought every DLC and the expansion. And was willing to spend SO MUCH MORE to see my DA:O characters continuing on possibly in another area of the map.

Here are some of my feelings about it:

I had no connection with these companion characters like I did with DA:O. I liked Anders in Awakenings and when I had first saw the relationship options before I played that game, I was like "Ugggh, really?" Seriously, the best guy out of the entire game is super churchy and you can't sleep with him. Then, I saw Anders was coming back and that got my hopes up a bit. But you guys changed him sooo much. He's just so whiney and annoying now. He used to be funny and a bit of a smart ass.
One of the big things I enjoyed was when we were creating our characters the female hair options were MUCH better. That was a big plus. Also, the fighting and combat was so much cleaner and quicker. It was great. And I liked that Hawke could talk instead of just standing there awkwardly.
I also felt like this game didn't have as much structure as the last one. While the story was pretty good, at times I had to ask myself, what should I be doing again? And the map was soo small. It really got boring having to go to the same places each time.
I loved the DA:O characters and would have loved for them to have leading roles in the sequal, but the way they were in this game, they seemed so rushed and just put in to satify the needs of others.
I know entire sites made up of thousands of girls who like me, love video games. They have sites dedicated to DA:O and their characters, who they fell in love with. I really feel like you as a company are not looking to meet the needs of female gamers. Unless you guys are unaware of what girls actually like, cause in that case I would glady spend my time telling you, honestly, because its either that or you just don't care what we want. I love fighting in games, but not as much as a good storyline and good characters. I think you guys could have made another game like DA:O and got a better response. I also think a DA:O like game would be fine with having a character with a voice like DA:2, adn I didn't understand why you guys didn't do that in the first place. Is it because it is expensive to have a voice actor do all those lines, because to have a game like that again, I'll do it for you for free.
The bottom line is: It just didn't feel like DA:O anymore. It barely felt like an RPG, I got a platformer feeling when playing it. I played through DA:O about 6 times, but DA:2 I have played through once and really feel no need to do it again. Actually, I just started another round of DA:O.
You guys had such a huge following and such amazing feed back on DA:O, why did you have to go and change such a good thing?

Modifié par Missychellez, 15 mars 2011 - 07:22 .

[Sean G]

I only had two problems with this game:

1- It seemed pretty short.
2- It didn't have an epic adventure feel. Basically the only place that you can explore is Kirkwall.


The combat and other gameplay elements are a big improvement though.