3274 réponses à ce sujet

[spookyscarlett]

Good

- Loved the companion quests, and all of the companions in their own way. Loved the romance with Fenris (both rival and friend) he was by far my favourite character of them all, Varric following at a close second for his hilarious sense of humour and bizarre obsession with Bianca.

- Loved the music.

- Enjoyed combat which made you feel like you were right in the middle of things, battling away. Also loved the excessive, ridiculous gore.

- Loved the sarcastic answers you could give in conversation, and absolutely adored the voice acting on lady Hawke.... My character speaking made me feel much more involved and by the end of my first playthrough I was loving my Hawke and the things that she came out with. I felt like part of the group.

- Enjoyed the Origin character's cameos.

Bad

- I do game a lot, but i'm a slow gamer, and even then? I devoured the content on one character within 24 hour play time. In Origins I remember putting in hours and hours of time.

- The recycled mines/sewers/houses/dungeons. What the hell was that all about? You were left feeling like you'd been there before, or thoroughly confused and feeling like perhaps you had taken a wrong turn as you'd done this cave ten times over.

- Not enough interaction with companions. I'm pretty sure there's no way you'd be able to get them all maxed on rivalry/companionship if you don't want to sacrifice your core group. Gifts in origins helped a lot with this. I wanted to see more of my 'friends' and their lives. And in the same vein, not able to talk to your chosen romance - only at certain times during different acts.

- Reused animations. WTF at all those merchants flailing their hands in the air like a swarm of bees has taken over the city.

- There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of freedom of choice. You're always directed toward certain places.

- I miss being an elf.

Overall

Enjoyed the game, but you can't compare it with origins. They're not on the same level... So treating it as a completely seperate game, I am excited about it and will end up doing a third playthrough so i've seen it from each class side.

Modifié par spookyscarlett, 16 mars 2011 - 11:50 .

[extremistsaffy]

Ok where the hell do I start here, Ummmmmthe good bits SO FAR, the siblings eg carver and Beth are brilliant, and so is Varric, the nick names he gives people was just hilarious. the inventory steamline hasn't upset me as much as I thought it would but upgrading armour, we're not MASS EFFECT we're DRAGON AGE medieval rpg or did I miss something here. the changes to some of the older characters was ok, eg leliana, Alistair ok as time has past , nate ummm he's ok.

Now the bad bits, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO THE ELVES, seriously what the **** did you do, they're ugly now and Zevran dear God he is hidious what the hell were you thinking. The conversations you can't have while walking around, instead you have to go to their house to talk even then you can't always have that. the fighting system isn't all brilliant as all i found you had to do was bash a few buttons with no real thought as to how you do it. the story also isn't all brilliant.

Overall an ok game but IF YOU DARE, I MEAN DARE CHANGE MY WARDEN LOOK WISE I WILL FIND YOU ALL IN CANADA AND GO ON A RAMPAGE, change Zev back to the way he was and complete the warden story. In essence look at origins see what made it achieve 9/10 with critics and stick with it please me and several others on deviantart are all begging you

[MDT1]

Though I prefer DAO combat (which was not perfect) and camera view on PC over the new system this is no real drawback to me as I find combat in a RPG quite secondary. So I'll explain why I personally don't like DAII as an RPG (don't know, if it even is one though).

My main problem with this game: I don't feel like Hawk is me.
- The game start feels to fragmented. Suddenly everybody seems to know my character but I don't...(this would be OK if it was like in ME2 the character of the previous game)
- Often I can't achieve the outcome of a situation I would like. So the action my character finally takes feels forced upon me (This never happened to me in DAO main plot decisions).
- I first felt the dialogue wheel was implemented poorly as the reactions to your choices seems kind of random. I later realized, that this is actually the fact because your actions don't have any real effect on the story. The lack of alternative outcomes may also be the reason for the previous point.

The ending is unsatisfying:
It is obvious for the whole game what the "main conflict" is. I would have expected, that the last act is about the time when you have chosen sides and see how it develops. When I thought "now the game gets interesting" I suddenly saw the credits. Also I despise both factions and would favour returning to Ferelden. Also 3 of the only 4 likeable NPCs die and you can do nothing about it.

The two points combined just made me feel I played (in game) years with an alien character with no actual story progression.

About game play (I know I represent a minority in these views, but for this minority DAO was made for so why not be disappointed ^^):
- most quest miss any RP element (you pick up something you know nothing about. Suddenly an NPC gets an arrow above its head and thanks you for something you didn't even realize you did it)
- I miss puzzles
- I don't like the approach of "every enemy gets waves of reinforcement out of nowhere"
- It feels strange when you enter a companions home with the companion in the party and the companion is surprised to see you. Another point of immersion breaking.
- I feel Hawk and all your companions are to restricted in ability development (Examples: I miss my strength rouge and why can only Anders heal)
- In each Act there are only 0-4 Armor items worth wearing which also out date armor of the last act, how can I customize without alternatives? (In DAo at least all mage robes were crap, so I could choose ^^)
- While I generally don't have to much problems with Environment reuse it is overdone here.
- Where is the visual development of Kirkwall over the years and is the mass-npc-muteness result of a virus that befell 90% of the population or is Hawk kind of deaf? I find nothing in my codex about this(and many other things).

All in all this game feels like a spin off into a different gender and not like DA2.

As Game
6.5/10
As RPG
3.5/10

Modifié par MDT1, 16 mars 2011 - 12:03 .

[Veex]

Finally finished my first playthrough.

The Good:

- The combat is tremendously improved in my opinion. I've long been waiting for a "hybridization" of RPG mechanics and more responsive combat systems. I was pleased to feel the fluidity of DA2's combat in comparison to Origins. This was my major gripe with the first game.

- The art style is one that I've always prefered over trying to achieve realistic graphics. I felt Origins was caught in some kind of muddled go between of painterly and photo-realism that just felt odd. The new art style really resonates with me, especially in the environments and character models.

- The story cohesiveness in regards to main plot and sidequests. Origins had me pondering why my Warden would be wasting his time with many of the various tasks he would be performing. I think DA2 did a nice job of relating side quests and companion quests back into the main plot that I really hadn't expected.

- The import feature and cameos seem to be better integrated than in Mass Effect. It seemed to me that the references made back to Origins were appropriate and tied into the story and overall atmosphere quite well. I thought ME2 tried to force in a few homages that seemed a little out of place.

- The framed narrative was a great change of pace for a BioWare game. I've grown so accustomed to the "gather companions, visist area of interest, join secret order, profit" motif that it was extremely refreshing to experience something a little different. The only thing I would have liked to see was a little more detail about what the Champion had been doing during the time skips.

- The voiced protagonist is something I've always been a fan of. Having my character be the one mute in a world of voiced NPCs has always felt jarring for me. The tonal dialogue wheel and persistent personally is also a nice addition that makes this feel like a nice advancement of a tried and tested system.

- Boss encounters are pretty interesting this time around. The tank and spank variety have been reduced and some new mechanics and tactics shine because of that.

The Bad:

- Difficulty scaling and design seems like a step back to me. It feels like the middle ground is gone from this game in comparison to Origins. In addition to that there are several enemy NPCs in Nightmare that have purely luck based abilities. I enjoyed the challenege that Nightmare presented, but I'm not sure if some of the mechanics are functioning properly at the moment. (AoEing NPCs out of stealth for example doesn't seem to work?)

- The rune system was reduced far too much. The variety that was present in Origins in terms of armor and weapon runes was cut down a bit too far. I don't mind the process through which they are applied but the options feel too few in comparison to Origins.

- Armor diversity seems to have taken a step back somehow. While Mages and Rogues now have a greater choice of visually different attire the total amount of unique armor pieces seems to have been reduced. I'd have prefered to see the armor sets brought up to warrior levels from Origins and not have them reduced across the board.

- Companion interaction and NPC interaction have been reduced too far as well. Part of what made Origins great was having a world that felt responsive and alive. Some of that feeling has been lost when there are so few NPCs and companion interactions made available. I don't mind the different approach that DA2 has taken with regards to this but there simply isn't enough of it.

The Neutral:

- Cross class combos really lose their effectiveness on Nightmare. Having mage spells that cause brittle effects also have AoE components really reduces their effectiveness and application. I love the idea of the system but it's usefullness doesn't translate as well I'd hoped.

- Kirkwall and the reuse of dungeon maps didn't bother me as much as it has bothered others. I think Kirkwall itself is a really great city, especially the Chantry and Viscount's Keep, that help create a great sense atmosphere that Denerim lacked. That said, the playable areas do seem to border on too few and a bit restrictive.

Overall:

I'm still in that honeymoon phase where DA2 is fresh but I think I may prefer the overall experience more than Origins. The combat in particular is such a vast improvement for my tastes. It will take a little more playtime and letting my impressions marinate before I can really judge between the two but, on it's own merit, I'd give DA2 an 8/10.

[AllThatJazz]

Enjoying DA2 very much, finding it a real joy to play so far. The amount of choice & consequence in this game is fantastic, the story is thoughtful and personal, the companions are enormous fun and have much more
involvement in quests beyond 'approve/disapprove'. I love the banter - the fact that Fenris and Aveline get along well, as do Isabela and Merrill. I love seeing the results of my Origins import. It's made me want to do yet another run through of Origins just to see how it plays out in DA2. C&C done much better here than in ME2. And lots more morally grey areas - lovely. 


I like that there isn't a single driving force (ie Big Bad) to deal with, but rather each Act has its own  - Prologue, escape the Darkspawn; Act 1, help your family improve their position and become a 'name' in Kirkwall; Act 2, deal with the issue of a certain group of people; Act 3 - not sure, I'm still in Act 2
(after 30-something hours) - but I'm thinking I get to be Kingmaker. Exactly the kind of story I appreciate. 



Some tough fights, even on normal difficulty. In Origins, I used to occasionally check the difficulty level in the options menu, cos it often seemed like I was playing on casual, but I'm finding the combat much more fun
in DA2. Mages have really come into their own in this game, every time I've been in a fight where only one teammate has been left standing, it's been a mage. 

I like the art style (loading screens are lovely, I would like posters of them) - harsh and militaristic with a sinister edge, just like Tevinter art and iconography should be. There seems to have been some attempt to inject some character into DA2; and while this inevitably means that some will absolutely hate it, I'm glad it looks less
bland and generic, as Origins sometimes did.



Some of the sidequests are fabulous. I loved Aveline's personal quest in Act 2; in fact she is now confirmed as one of my favourite characters in any game ever, and destined to be the absolute best friend of every single one of my Hawkes. Kudos here to the voice artist, the animators and her writer. <3 In fact the companion quests all seem to be of 'Shale' rather than 'Oghren' standard (don't get me wrong, I loved Oghren, but his sidequest in Origins was about as short as he was). Definitely an improvement.


Gathering reagents/ingredients is better. A small thing, maybe, but I'm quite happy to not have 99 elfroot taking up a slot in my inventory. 


Love the family angle - very attached to Bethany and my mum. I still care more about Ferelden than Kirkwall in general - but that's okay, Hawke is Ferelden, and Kirkwall isn't a kind place, I'm not sure it's the sort of place where foreigners are supposed to feel all fuzzy and homely. It retains an air of its ruthless history, where only those who are able to help themselves can truly thrive. What does give me (er, Hawke) a sense of being rooted and connected to this place is my family. I have felt a genuine sense of both pleasure and loss at various points in the game so far. Good stuff. 

Voice acting is excellent, I think. I've read the odd post on these forums (I'm assuming from North American players) to say they feel a certain 'disconnect' because of the British accent. I sympathise - in fact, I empathise, since this is how English speaking non North Americans feel in just about every game out there. Even in games where the protagonist is largely silent, the battle cries etc are usually done with an American accent. From my perspective, therefore, Thankyou for not relegating the various wonderful British accents to butlers, buffoons and baddies. And Eve Myles is glorious. 


I like the day/night toggle. I've missed night-time adventuring.


To me, the graphics look crisper and prettier. I'm running 2xgtx 295s with the Hi-Res pack enabled. Not the best card out there, but the game runs like a charm (2 crashes in 30+ hours) and almost everything looks lovely. Minor slowdown in cutscenes, nothing painful.



There are certainly flaws - 



The recycled areas, codex entries etc point to a game rushed through the door. What a shame. I understand why you did it, but the result is a certain amount of ... fatigue,  after many hours of wandering around the same environments and reading all the stuff I've read several times in Origins already. 



Though I quite like that companions have their own bases,  some are a pain to leave (Anders and Aveline especially) and there isn't quite the illusion of 'camaraderie' (sp?) that you got with the campsite in Origins. A decent compromise might be everyone with their own room in the Hanged Man (particularly at night), but some of them (Anders, Aveline) with a job so they can sometimes be found somewhere else.



While I enjoy seeing corpses bursting through the ground, thieves dropping from windows, running round the corner etc, I don't like waves of enemies that appear on top of me from thin air; and nor do I like the lack of reaction from NPCs in Kirkwall when I'm being attacked! Come on - they should be cowering or running
in terror, rather than wandering into the crossfire mumbling about having to buy shoes  Also don't like the removal of some enemy skills, particularly overwhelm, which made spiders and wolves genuinely frightening in Origins. 



I don't like that you can't right-click on things in the inventory and get a little description about them - some items have really interesting names, but only the ones given codex entries have a story. Another casualty of rushing the
game, sadly.  Actually the inventory design in general is the one aspect of the new art style that really doesn't appeal to me. In-game, the staves and swords and armour all look gorgeous - I am looking forward to playing a mage just so I can equip some of the beautiful staffs - but in the inventory, they're just red or green or whatever - no detail. I actually thought this was a bug when I first started playing; and embarrassingly enough posted as such in the tech forum. But no, it's a feature, just a very unattractive one, imo. 

While I think that Kirkwall looks lovely, it isn't busy enough. It still lives and breathes easier than Denerim, but there needs to be more hustle and bustle to it. Either more people, or a good in-game reason why the city is fairly sparsely populated. I say this even in the knowledge that adding more NPCs would really take a toll on my processor and graphics cards. <_<

And graphics/textures in general - most are very very nice, certainly superior to Origins, but there are a few here and there that really let the game down. Big piles of bones that just look flat and badly drawn. If you can't put in a nice, realistic looking bone pile, don't put one in at all. Please. It says something that I noticed and I'm hardly the world's best authority on graphical loveliness.



Not at the ending yet, can't comment, but not terribly worried. I've experienced many an atrocious finale in my time as a gamer, it has never yet really impacted on my appreciation of a game as a whole. Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives in my experience, largely because elements such as story and characters are the important aspects for me, and also because I'm having huge fun with this game, and that's the single most telling thing. I'm not going to score it, cos numbers are sort of meaningless in that everyone has their own kind of rating system. I will say that in a great many ways I actually prefer this to Origins. Part of a minority, I guess. 

My deepest apologies for the rambling nightmare of text. Hope it doesn't give anyone too much of a smack in the head.  

Edit: stoopid formatting.

Modifié par AllThatJazz, 16 mars 2011 - 01:30 .

[XxEm01xX]

wow, finished dragon age 2 and i loved it! i hope that there is more to flemeth, maybe the grande storyline is that she kidnapped both hawke and the hero of ferelden because there is a bigger threat and only those two united will be able to beat it? would be brilliant. also i liked it when we could talk to our companions when we wanted to as well, i was a bit peeved with that. also in relation to what i said earlier about flemeth, maybe she wants to defeat old god child or take it's powers or something along those lines, maybe in dragon age 3 we will be able to play as god child? would also be cool if we could play as qunari at somepoint, maybe bring back being able to choose your race? plus a mabari hound would be cool again

[Shaiira]

My first post here.

When I buy a game I usually buy 3 versions, one for the PC, one for the
Xbox 360 and one for the PS3.  I did this for DA2 also. Comparing the versions can be quite interesting.  However, I prefer the PC version when the developer makes available the SDK (Software Development Kit). 

When Bioware released DAO, they not only released the SDK, but shortly thereafter released the head morphs for the characters.  The modding community not only spruced up the game, but "fixed" much of the game play and offered many alternatives.  I usually "fix" what I don't like via the SDK, but sadly, we don't have one for this game.
I finished the game yesterday evening and I'm not even going to bother playing it on either console.  I'm going to write the whole thing off as a bad experience.  Additionally, I'll not be purchasing any EA games in the future.   

Bioware was a great company for RPGs but they are no longer Bioware.  They have been EAized..
EA's fiscal year ends on March 31 and they have posted $2.2 billion in losses over the last three years.  I suspect the release of DA2 in March had a lot to do with booking the sales in this fiscal year.  A couple more years of development would have gone a long way to making DA2 somewhat memorable.  I'll be interested to see how they talk about DA2 sales in their 10Q and   as a side note, EA is carrying $1.1 billion of "goodwill" on their balance sheet as an asset.
 
Back to my modded DAO and anxiously awaiting 11/11/11!  Bethesda has already announced they are releasing the SDK for Skyrim. WTG guys!

My nephews who are  in their early teens playing on the PS3 said "that sure wasn't as much fun as the first one, can we play Modern Warfare?"

I purchased all the DLCs for DAO, all but one of the DLCs for ME1, none of the DLCs for ME2 and I won't be purchasing any DLCs for DA2.  Cancelled my preorder for Crysis 2 (all 3 versions) based on how EA has managed to totally destroy DAO and ME franchises.

What a shame.

Rest in peace Bioware.

[Madelle]

Well I finally managed to beat the game yesterday.

I have played pretty much every Bioware game on PC since Baldur's Gate, and I enjoyed Dragon Age 2 as well. While I did enjoy it however, ultimately I found it a bit disappointing and underwhelming. In a lot of ways the game honestly reminded me more of Jade Empire, which I enjoyed, than Origins. Mostly in the combat and especially with the combo system, which I found to be extremely similar to Jade Empire's Harmonic combos.

My main gripes with the game are probably the combat, which I honestly found incredibly tedious, and the recycled areas. While I am not against the idea of essentially setting a game within the setting of a single city over a decade or so--and even find it interesting, that is no excuse for blatantly recycling the same map when it comes to the interiors, basements, sewers, caves and what not that you get to explore. It just reeks of laziness and kills the immersion. At least for me.

The city of Kirkwall also never really feels like an actual place. It just feels dead. Even during the day the streets are nearly empty. Places that are supposed to be cramped and bustling with people--such as the Elven alienage, are all but empty. This was also an issue with Origins but it is arguably made worse here by the fact that you are essentially stuck in Kirkwall. To add to this the city itself is relatively dull. There is not really any interesting or memorable archetecure and as a package it simply is not very immersive.

As for the combat, the constant reinforcements just kills any enjoyment for me. It is not that I am unable to handle it, I just find it so incredibly tedious to the point where cutting through waves of bandits becomes a chore. When assassins and archers suddenly appear out of nowhere behind my spellcasters/archers I only have a couple of seconds to react before they are dead. While this can provide added tension and challenge, which may very well have been the intention, I simply found it to be a source of annoyance. There are certainly enjoyable combat elements, however. In general I found the animations to be great and the spellcasting in general to be satisfying. There are also a couple of very memorable boss fights.

The story itself, however, is not particularly memorable. There are certainly a few memorable moments and choices in there but taken as a whole it lacks cohesion. I found that the story essentially had much more potential given how the complex issue of Templars versus Mages was built up throughout the game. However, by the end it was resolved in an unsatisfying and seemingly simplified manner that seriously jumped the shark on the otherwise very compelling issue of morality that lay at the heart of the oppresion of the Mages. Instead it all seemed to come down to insanity.

With that said, even though I found the overall narrative lacking, there are still a couple of moments in the game that I found to be extremely interesting, compelling and funny. My female Hawke's "accidental" date with a guardsman on behalf of Avilene was one of the funniest moments I have seen in a game in a while and the fate of a particular character was almost as disturbing to me as Henry's fate in Mafia II. There are others as well.

Unfortunately, the characters, which are often the best part of a Bioware game, were underwhelming. With the possible exception of Varric, I did not find any of them particularly memorable and some of them to be downright annoying. Most of them seem a little too simple with no one as complex as say Morrigan or as alien as Sten, which is a shame.

I do not really mind the simplified inventory and crafting systems all that much. To me, it kept focus on the main aspects of the game, which were the combat and the narrative, and simply provided a very minor occasional distraction on the "journey". I understand the people who have greater objections towards it, however.

A minor issue that I have with the series is the continued absence of a new game+ feature in Dragon Age. An absence that is all the more puzzling given the fact that it is a great feature in the Mass Effect series. It was also a feature in the older Infinity Engine games. Why is it so difficult to implement?

Overall, I enjoyed the game. As a Bioware game I would probably put it somewhere at the lower end of the pack but still over the original Neverwinter Nights (as a single-player game) and the original Mass Effect, which I still find to be very overrated. Dragon Age 2 is by no means a bad game, nor is it some sort of betrayal of the series. It is not really a great game either, however, and I personally enjoyed Origins more. I simply found the sequel to be too inconsistent. As such, I would probably rate the game somewhere around a 7 out of 10.

Modifié par Madelle, 16 mars 2011 - 01:47 .

[RJ Eleven]

I am playing the 360 version.

Overall, I am enjoying the game, but I must say I am not a fan of the move to a "more streamlined RPG."  The shift was much more controlled than that of Mass Effect, but in my opinion it was still too much.

Likes:

• I am enjoying the artistic changes - save for Darkspawn, but I will discuss that later - the graphics may not have been as much of an improvement as some players wanted/expected, but I like (most) of the changes.
  
• The setting - I think this part of Thedas has been presented very well.
  
• The writing and dialogue - though I do miss the flavor-text in the equipment.
  
• The new talent-tree for advancement - this is MUCH better than DA:O's grid.
  
• Supporting cast members automatically earning specialties in line with their stories is really neat; this was an expert use of streamlining that doesn't hamper the experience at all.
  
• The icons that show the feeling of the responses you give.  Nothing was more frustrating about Mass Effect 2 than selecting a response you thought was thoughful and caring, only to have Shepard zing the NPC with a sarcastic one-liner.  Summarizing the responses is all well and good for minimizing what is on the screen, but when words can mean different things to different people, it resulted in a lot of "swearing at my TV" because Shepard wasn't saying what I told him to.  DA2's use of "feeling indicators" was an amazing addition that should never be left out of a BioWare game, thank you very much for adding them.

Dislikes:

• The basic attack:  There is nothing I like about mashing the same button over and over to deal a basic attack.  It did not create a sense of it being "an action game" or make combat "more engaging."  If there was some strategy to it, like a light attack button and a separate heavy attack button, that would be different.  As of now, there is just tedious work happening between my use of talents and spells.
  
• Stripped down equipment assignment for supporting cast:  Not being able to put armor on the other characters in the party just makes 2/3s of the equipment you find in the game the same as the vendor-junk, except that you are first intruiged by awesome names and then let down by seeing it is for a different class.  On top of this, a substantial chunk of the pre-order/companion product freebies are useless to you if you are a mage, because you cannot give them to party members (Blood Dragon Armor and Ser Isaac's Armor, namely).  Upgrading their outfit with drops/purchases is a nice attempt at making them feel like they are matching pace with the main character, but ultimately this decision made me roll my eyes the instant I encountered it.  Please do not do this again with the next game.
  
• The look of the Darkspawn: something engaging and terrifying about the Darkspawn in DA:O was that they were dirty scavengers.  They looked like icky, corrupted people who picked the corpses of their victims for their equipment.  The new Darkspawn seem to have uniform equipment, and the new design for their faces make them look more like twisted harlequins of the races they imitate - not greasy, dirty mutations.  This made them look too clean, if that makes sense.  Having uniform equipment also took away their horror - they are now just going to stab me and move on.  DA:O's Darkspawn were going to stab me, fight over my body and then violently pull me apart while trying to get my shirt.  I can try to explain this better if my point is not clear enough, but basically "less uniformity, more gross, please."
  
• [NO PLOT SPOILERS, JUST MAP-USE SPOILERS, if there is such a thing?] Too readily reusing map elements: It was disappointing to learn that the caves in Sundermount and the Wounded Coast started out identically - and it was a much larger disappointment to learn through this that the door I could not open in the first Sundermount cave was because there was nothing on the other side.  Until I went into the cave at the Wounded Coast, I thought I was going to return to the first Sundermount cave later, to be rewarded with more exploration.  In the Wounded Coast cave, when I saw the first couple rooms, I immediately knew that door would open here, and that the one in Sundermount was never going to.  I know that videogames reuse elements constantly, but this was so poorly hidden that it was very damaging to the experience.
  
• The stark difference in the appearance of a character from the first game:  I will word this vaguely as to avoid spoiling anything, but the first major NPC you meet in DA2 is from DA:O and the difference in their appearance from the first game is honestly laughable.  Yes, they look neat.  Yes, they may have gotten dressed up for the occasion.  No, this was not enjoyable.  It was too radical a change, and stole a lot of the character's charm to be gussied up like a super-cool-fantasy-art-person.  I have more specific statements on this, but to avoid spoiling who it is I must leave it at that.  Those who have already played should know exactly who I am talking about, however.
  
• Gifts: I am not entirely through the game, yet, but I have yet to find a single gift.  This was a disappointment, as the plot-gifts in the first game were very enjoyable, and the point-gifts were useful for building friendship with characters that might not have fit your playstyle (so they were not in your party when you would have earned points through roleplaying).  If the game took place over six weeks, it would totally make sense to say "if you don't use the party-member, you can't really befriend them because you never spend any time with them" so you could limit friendships/rivalries to characters that are actively used (thus making achievements more challenging to acquire, etc.) and it would make sense within the context.  That said, in a story that spans a great deal of time, with implications that the characters are hanging-out together off camera (as heavily implied by their intra-party dialogue) it is a bit annoying that they only way you can influence their friendship/rivalry is to have them with you when you are talking to NPCs.
  
• Not being able to use targeted spells/abilities outside of combat: This is a HUGE one, tactically and immersion-wise.  I begin with a caveat:  I believe that the likely reason for this is to eliminate some of the exploits possible in DA:O.  As someone who only plays the game on Nightmare, I will fully admit that in DA:O I used spells like Tempest as a form of SONAR, sweeping the target ring out into the black of the unknown to get enemy names to pop up so that I knew what to expect when I opened a door - and I also did my share of encountering a locked door (or other obstacle), filling the room on the other side with an Earthquake, Tempest, Blizzard and Inferno to whittle down the enemies on the other side.  Were these unintended exploits?  Probably.  Did they hurt the game? Not at all.  Nightmare was still very challenging, despite this (and some other exploits possible), and it made the mage class feel in-line with the story about why people fear them.  Yes, I died and had to reload a lot, so the game was still hard.  But when I walked into a tower, and could wipe out foes I had never met, I understood why no one trusts mages, and why they keep them locked away.  Now, because all my talents and spells are unavailable until the fight begins, I just feel like I am being limited.  How can you ambush someone, if your crossbow safety just won't disengage until they know you are there?  How can a mage be feared if you must announce your presense before you begin to rain hell upon them?  Game balance is certainly important, but from a roleplaying standpoint it just makes my characters feel stupid that they don't know how to use the element of surprise.

These changes did not make DA2 a bad game, but they did feel like a step backwards from the first.  But again, at least it wasn't the cataclysmic dumbing-down of Mass Effect 2.

Modifié par RJ Eleven, 16 mars 2011 - 02:08 .

[CptPicklicious]

jacobdg wrote...

I havent got it yet, but I'm pretty sure its going to be epic.
I'm annoyed with all the potheads that keep saying DA:O is better.
Heres a fact;
DA:O Was made in 7 years
DA II was made in 2 years
Of course it would be more dumbed down but that doesnt mean you wont enjoy it!

I haha,  I'd love to blow smoke in your square face.

PS- DA:O was better.

Of course just cause I like one more than the other doesnt mean I don't like DA2.  I'm loving it.

Pros -
Good spell system (sorry, Im a mage so I mean skill system). 
Good enough graphics - I was never bothered by this in the first place.
Conversation wheel - its an improvement.  I like having a voice.

Cons -
Lack of varied environments
small errors - such as inventory items simply marked as 'ring', 'amulet' with no clue as to its benefit.  I would like to see the affects directly when viewing in inventory. 

Modifié par CptPicklicious, 16 mars 2011 - 03:06 .

[cimerians412]

I did bash the game and I also praised it for what it is.

Here's my FINAL thought as I'm halfway into it:

Its a far,far less ambitious game than the 1st one.

I'm about about 8 hours into it and thats exactly what I'm feeling right now.

Forcing me to be a specific character kind of kills the fun of having your OWN character. What RPG's were really designed to do from the old days. Play a story using your character and not someone else's. I dont want to BE Hawke.

One thing I really miss that Origins had:

Having so many different choices at the start of the game. Different storylines. Different races and classes you could be and even if you change your sex to female the story would alter at the start.

Origins was truly a masterpiece. Makes you appreciate it all the more.

Modifié par cimerians412, 16 mars 2011 - 02:29 .

[Hatchetman77]

I finished the game as a male tanking warrior on the PC, so other people's gameplay may vary.  I found the story to be lazy and haphazard.  It seemed that the story was independent of the character, where the character would pop in to the story at a climatic moment then leave the story until the next climatic moment.  I'm all for moving away from the "action movie" format that BioWare has used and been successful with in the past, but my character still needs to be part of the story.  If we looked at the main conflict independently of the player character then the story would have been resolved by an incredably minor character in the story (your character) who did busy work for the main characters (being the leaders of the two factions). This is getting pretty close to entering Deus Ex Machina territory.  What is mostly preventing it from being so is that nothing is really resolved at the end, so you can't say that this character that came out of nowhere resolved anything.  I get where BioWare was going with the story and it is very good conceptually, but it was VERY poorly executed.  The story, while having a lot of potential, needed a lot more focus.  Also, villian motivations were very lazy.  Qunari did what they were doing because... well, they're Qunari doing what Qunari do.  Despite this I would have easily accepted this if an equal amount of laziness wasen't taken with the other villians.  Everyone else is doing what they do because of one magical mcguffin or another, be it demon possession or some other magical dohingey.  Loghaine was an excellent villian in Origins who was doing what he did because he thought it was the right thing to do.  Why couldn't that quality of writing be applied to DA2 villians. 

The romances (at least male romance options which I guess don't vary too much from the female ones) were absolutly abysmal.  Isabella wasen't a character, she was a teen boy's wish fulfillment.  I understand she has a lazze-fair attitude towards sex.  It doesn't have to dominate her personality.  The woman was a leader, being a pirate captain commanding groups of cut throat mercenaries.  Give her a bit more of an edge.  Mixing in some of Miranda from ME2's more ****y aspects and mabey a very, VERY little amount of Jack's dysfunction (also from ME2) into Isabella would have made her a more well rounded character (no pun intended with the "rounded" part).  Merrill was ok.  She had that non-threatening, quirky personality that appeals to the non alpha personalities out there, especially the teens who can relate to her uncertainty.  While she may not be my cup of tea I can understand where they were going for with her.  If they had a romance option that didn't pander to teen boys as an alternative she would be acceptable. He-man chick (forget her name)  was probably the most unappealing female romance ever in a video game.  She was very serious and all business, mostly because she had no ability to function in a social setting.  She was socially awkward, but not in a cute way, as well as having a very conservative outlook that made her boring as hell.  She is basically a 1950's male archetype.  It was boring for women in the 50's (despite the media repeatidly telling them that this was their ideal man) and it's boring for guys in the 10's.  I never had the urge to have sex with John Wayne myself.  All three of these romances would have been acceptable if there was just some more appealing and complex female romances to balance them out.  Since I have no interest in the male romances I really don't feel qualified to say what was or wasen't appealing about them.  Perhaps someone who finds the male romance arcs appealing can comment and givetheir opinions.  The three female romancable characters should have been the "fringe" romances.  A female character with the personality of your sister (yet not your sister) should have been included as a more mainstream option. 

The companions in general were ok.  I wish their personalities were fleshed out more than just what was necessary for the game though (with Verric being the main notable exception).  DA:O characters had motivations independent of the main quest (and some, like Sten and Morrigan you have to find out later in the game).  In DA2, we have Anders, who is the oppressed mage, Fenris, who was oppressed by mages and Merrill, who is a constant reminder that bloodmages are people too.  Your companions seem to have more of a vested interested in the central conflict than the main character does.  I liked the part banter (I unexpectidly laughed when Merrill asked Anders "who knighted Sir-Pounce-Alot") but I wished I could have talked to them more throughout the game.   I played the game without any DLC on my first run so I don't know anything about Sebastian.  Verric was just awesome.  Fenris got on my nerves though.  Are we sure he escaped from Tevinter and not from Final Fantasy? 

Also, DLC at launch.  Really?  The fact that the DLC was free if you preorder makes that even worse.  You're BioWare, and you're using tricks that bad games use to try to get people to buy the game without trying it first.  That is just downright shady.  Don't penalize people who want to make an informed decision before purchasing your games.  Give the people who preorder a very cool looking set of armor or something else in game that nobody else can get.  Reward your preorders but don't penalize everyone else.

Combat was awesome and a huge upgrade from DA:O.  I actually had fun PLAYING the game and not  drudging through the combat so I can see the next cutscene.  It did kind of get boring as the game progressed, but I attribute that more to the reuse of the environments than the combat itself.  If you were fighting in more than the same 10 or 12 places over and over and over again then I don't think that boredome would have crept in.  The "Sell All Junk" button is a GODSEND!!!  In fact the entire user interface is greatly improved.  I hate that we can't customoze our companions with dropped gear though.

My final verdict is that I enjoyed the game, but it was nothing special.  It was a lot more generic than other BioWare games.  Combat WAS good, but many other games do it just as good if not better.  If I wanted to play a game for combat alone I'd play one of those.  I play BioWare games for the story, and this was very lacklusted for BioWare standards.  I bought the game because I loved DA:O.  If this was a stand alone game with nothing to do with Dragon Age, then I'd probably have given it a pass.  It's still a good game, but not what I look for when I buy a BioWare game.

[ArCaNeH]

this game sux mad bugs and laggy half the time and im not even playing online on my xbox animation all the same u feel like u have been there b4 and now im stuck cuz i did all my quest and cant go do isabella's quest worst of all i need 4 more sovereigns to go into nxt main plot quest T_T and i have no available quest to do can anybody help me out plz if so thanx

[Aanna]

I'm at least halfway through Act 3, and I'm losing the will to continue... which is a strange feeling for me, because I played Origins completely through 8 times.

Cons:
1. The story has me utterly depressed, and I feel that I have no effect on the outcome.  MInd you, I cried for half a day after my first play-through of DAO, but at no point did it feel as utterly hopeless as DAII does by Act III. 

2. The companion interactions are mostly dead feeling.  I can only talk to them at particular times, so I have no control over how and when we discuss different topics.  Even the gifts that I find are "automatically" given, and I can't wait to give them after I've insulted someone, for instance.  The companions become just another pre-assigned destination.  Yes, in DAO I ran out of conversations half-way through on my first playthrough (before I learned to pace myself), but I felt much more that I was having some input in the friendship, even so.

3. As an adjunct to that, my flirting and relationship is no fun at all.  You say a couple of flirtatious things and suddenly the person is the love of your life?  Where is the courtship?  You would think that, over 10 years, you would have more to say to your significant other...  And there seems to be no way to break up.  There's not even a way to initiate a kiss.  I'm all for using one's imagination to flesh out a story, but this is really going too far down the austerity path.

4. The inventory is just annoying.  The biggest issue I have is the inability to tell the values of things outside a store setting.  Inventory fills up VERY quickly, and in the field there is no way to know the values of junk that you might need to destroy.  PLEASE give us values SOMEWHERE!  The right clicking for more information in Origins was great for that.

5. The lack of a "View all inventory" is frustrating, too, especially at stores.

6. It is hard to tell different rings/amulets/belts apart.  Sure, there are many more than in Origins, but they begin to feel like a burden rather than a benefit.  "Oh no, I need to check *again* to see if everyone is upgraded properly."  All the armor except the one or two pieces that your char can wear per act are thrown out, and it just feels awkward and oppressive rather than fun and rewarding. 

7. No place (like camp in DAO) where you can see *all* your companions inventories at once.  Frustrating to have to deal with so many companions in separate bunches.

8. Combat is too manic and bloody, though I'm learning to deal with it.

9.  The reused dungeons and buildings are already getting REALLY old even on a first playthrough.  It makes the world feel really small and boring.  "Oh, I know this hallway. There is never a fight here so I can just zoom down to the next room."

10.  Lack of an overhead camera never gets any less frustrating.  Often targeting individual mobs ends up a pixel hunt, and trying to target AoE spells (especially in low ceiling areas) is a lesson in frustration.  At best you wobble the cursor around and try to get some mobs targeted with it, but if you're trying to target ahead a bit because the mobs are moving you're SOL.

Pros: :happy:
1. It's a beautiful game

2. I liked how the companions would react to my character's life events.  Often in Origins I wanted them to acknowledge *my* struggles, so it was nice to see that they did in DAII

3. I like the increased party banter.  It also feels a little less "cross this bridge to get a dialogue!" Though I miss the party banter centering on my romance (yes, I'm a DAO romance junky).

4.The mages get really cool staves.

5. I really like the companions a lot (with one major and super-disappointing exception).  It makes me want to hang out with them more to get to know them better.  (Which makes the pre-assigned conversations all the more frustrating).

Suggestions:
1. Perhaps mix the DAO and DAII styles of companion interaction?  So, you have nice dialogue trees (I prefer trees to wheels), and can visit the companions when you like and usually have something to talk about with them (as in DAO), but add some conversations that are timed with the game (as in DAII).  Add back in some player-initiated romance, too.

2. Go back to the DAO inventory system.

3. Perhaps reuse dungeons when one is actually going back to the same place, but have different dungeons/houses for "one-off" quests.  For instance, the Bone Pit and Wounded Coast were successfully used several times, and they didn't need to change.

4. PLEASE bring back the top-down view for battles.

5. Is there a way that the ground-circles can be used for targeting during battle? That would make targeting individual mobs less of a pixel-hunt.

Thank you for a very beautiful game, and I hope you continue to produce great RPGs.  Now if only I could get someone reassure me that it's not just going to get more depressing so that I can bring myself to finish...

[nerdy22]

what I didn't like about Dragon age 2 is that It is so much different than Origins.

what I loved about origins is that you had all these different choices and that you had a lot of freedom.
first you had to create your own character.
race gender appearence class origin.

yes you could create your own character to in dragon age 2 but you have less choice.
the voice your character has is created for the preset Hawke this means you have to create a character that suits with the voice. (this means for me that i always use the preset, like i do with mass effect.)

another thing that differs is the story line.
in origins you could choose what to do now and what to do later.
want to cure the earl? hell no I want to save the tower of magi.

in dragon age 2 the story line is very tight.
the only choices you can make is how you want to complete the main quests.

in dragon age origins side quest feel like little adventures.
in da 2 it feels like they are chores and character developments.


don't get me wrong, I like Dragon age 2.
but I love origins.

there are 2 things that i hate about da 2.
- trash items with no discription no icon and no purpose (why would you pick up worthless trash?)
- I want the slow killing animations back. this feels like fake hacking and slashing action killing spree battles (people dont fall in 30 pieces if you cut them once very hard)

[RazorrX]

My review of the game:

 Firstly understand that I was originally going to cancel my preorder as I found out more and more
about the game.  I wanted to absolutely hate it.  I did not want to sound like
the rapist in my city elf origin; I did not want to be forced to play a premade
character, etc.  I actually thought EA had cancelled my order as when I went to do so it never showed up (I never
checked my credit card for the payback).

That said, I tried the demo when it came out to see how HORRIBLE it would be.  I loved the game
play.  Combat was really freaking fun.  So I decided to go buy a copy when
it released and see how it went.  As it turns out I got my predownload email from EA and have my signature dl
edition.  I have played through as a mage and half way through as a rogue (before starting over as a rogue because I wanted to change some things). 

Likes:

Combat is very fun.  I
really love the combat mechanics.  Yes I miss the cool spell combos (really wish those would come back).  I love the way you get into the fight more than the first one.  For me, this is the way to go, much more immersive.  Combat is the first thing that pulled me over to the dark side of liking DA2.

Companions.  The companions are AWESOME.  Even the ones I absolutely
hate.  I hate them because of who they are vs. a game mechanic.  The companion
quests, the way you interrelate to them and they interrelate to each other,
everything was better to me.  Watching Varric with my sister was touching, he was like a brother.  Isabela has replaced Morrigan as my all time favorite female companion.  We will not talk
about Anders.  Grrrrr.

Qunari look freaking cool as hell.  I loved the whole of act 2 for the
qunari.  The new look works for me as it was implied that ogres come from them, and now they both have horns, etc.  Very awesome stuff there.

Varric's tale to the Seeker.   While this tended to constrain the game, it also gave some very funny
moments in my play through.   When he does the exaggeration later in game, that was funny as hell.

Flemeth – Flemeth was awesome in what little she is in the game.

New Character.  Yes I like that it is a new tale.  My warden did his job and that story is over, I would like to continue to explore Thedas as it is very cool.  I like the new character approach, and hope that it continues.

Ambivalent:

Voice over.  Not a huge fan of it. 

Pluses for having voice over is that it gave the game a more cinematic feel and you could interact with your party more.  It puts you in the game more in that sense.  I understand that.

Drawbacks were that the wheel is still a paraphrase and not what you get.  Not nearly as bad as ME1
but still not quite ‘spot on’.   Also no voice actor sounds the way I see my hero sounding.  I am more of a Vin Diesel Deep voice guy than the Rapist of Elves Vaughn. 

Another thing with Voice over is that it is one of the things that did not allow for the choice of races, etc.  


I just wish there was a way to have a couple of voice choices (deep, mid and high range) as well as still be able to have multiple races to play. 

Disliked:

Had to play a premade character.  Yes I have played ME1 and ME2.  Yes they were fun.  I did not enjoy being stuck as Sheppard.  It fit those games, but those games were not billed as the successor (spiritual or otherwise) of BG.  Those games are more shooter with RPG elements (like splinter cell).   I would have loved to play a quarian in ME (but understand that was not the story they were telling).  For fantasy I want to be
able to play as an Elf, Dwarf (some of the best origin stories were the city elf and dwarf noble  imo), Qunari
Tal-vashoth, etc. 

Lack of ‘free will’. 
Even though DA:O always ended up with an army fighting the blight at the end, HOW you did that was up to you. 
Your decisions mattered.  IT seems that is gone in DA2.  NO matter who I side with I have to fight group A, then B, then C, then … I side with the mages and they attack me on sight, if I side with the templars the mages attack me on sight.  Basically I ended up feeling railroaded.  I remember a round table that Obsidian gave regarding Alpha Protocol where they said for every decision/branch it was like 60+ hours to deal with, so that makes sense that
you have LESS choice considering the turnaround time of the game, something had to give.

Elves – While I like the face to a point, the whole change seemed off to me.  They are always
mentioned in the books as being beautiful and instead they look alien.  Some look pretty good (the dalish keeper and the smuggler at the beginning) but some look really bad.  It seems that to make them different just to
be different went a bit too far.

Appearance of Origins characters – with the exception of Isabela (who looks awesome) and 1 or 2 others, the rest look bad.  And when I say bad I am not saying different – I mean BAD.

Anime weapon styles – I hope Allonday gets a pack out to change the weapons soon.  WOW influence
is not my cup o tea.

Over all though, I really enjoyed the game (so much so that I did immediately start a new play through) and intend to play it a few times, and get the DLC when it comes out.

Modifié par RazorrX, 16 mars 2011 - 04:15 .

[Grammarye]

Having got a bit further in the game, I thought I'd chime in with a much shorter review than the one I posted earlier. This is intended to be a concise, constructive, maybe humourous, list of why some things in DAO I liked, and why I miss them in DA2. For anyone waiting to pounce and say 'yeah, this isn't Origins', my pithy response would be 'why call it Dragon Age 2 then?'. Experimenting and doing different things in games is great - doing them to a sequel of a well-established game is rather silly unless you know that your existing fanbase is actually going to like them.

DAO: Hmm, Alistair's over there, maybe I'll go talk to him; perhaps he'd like that neat helmet I found.
DA2: *tannoy* ALL COMPANIONS MUST REPORT TO THE HANGED MAN AT 2 PM TO EAT PIZZA WITH THE CHAMPION. NO TALKING IS ALLOWED UNTIL THEN.

DAO: Dwarves, elves, human cities, deep roads, forests, dungeons, temples, caves, the Circle, the Fade.
DA2: Kirkwall. A cave. A house. Repeat.

DAO: Hmm, so if I place that blizzard there, and have that archer at that point, I can get that group in a cross-fire.. hmm, what if my tank gets knocked back to there...
DA2: Oh just attack already - great, my warrior is busy being awesome instead of helping me...

DAO: Warden, a high dragon is not an easy foe. We should be well prepared. *some time later* Well damn, we made it!
DA2: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am. There was a dragon, you say? Well everyone seems to think it's perfectly normal.

DAO: This relatively inconsequential seemingly unrelated quest here? Why, it's the lynch pin of the whole crazy scheme to help defeat the Blight! You'll see, in about thirty hours time!
DA2: Champion available, apply within. Lost dogs found, miscellaneous items picked up, NPCs insulted (no charge), mages empathised with, mages defeated, blood mages routed, blood mages romanced, templars helped, templars killed.

DAO: We've got to save the realm (and with any luck, get lots of neat loot, save the queen, and go to loads of neat places)!
DA2: Well I needed the money, and the Blooming Rose wasn't hiring, so I did odd jobs for a decade or so, with this dwarf following me around noting things down. He must be writing a book...

DAO: Well, I like you but I'm just not sure. *days later* Well I like you, perhaps it might work. *days later* I've been thinking about you. *days later* Ok, maybe I really like you. *days later* Maybe after the Archdemon is killed (what!?! after the game finishes?!?) *days later* Would.. would you think worse of me if we did something before the Blight is defeated? *decent sex scene, inexplicable underwear, fade to black, much smirking by companions*
DA2: Consider this foreplay! *fades to black*

DAO: This sword is a fine steel bastard sword, and it has a ruby in the pommel. I dare you to be on the wrong end of this and not tremble!
DA2: What do you mean 'you'll have someone's eye out'? The blade's only thirty feet long! Final Fantasy had them much bigger!

DAO: Hey those guys haven't seen us yet? Rogues, go stealth-backstab a few, whilst I whip up a nice Inferno.
DA2: For safety reasons, all spells & weapons can't be used until the enemy has been politely notified by letter in triplicate that you are nearby and have hostile intent.

And just to prove I'm not entirely negative about the whole thing:

DAO: What the!? How are you doing that? What are you doing? I can't see a damned thing! Why aren't you drinking that health potion I told you to?! Stop dying and pay attention!
DA2: You, over there. You, go there, You, hit him. I'll be over here causing mayhem.

DAO:
Hey Grey Warden, how's it going?
*silence*
You know, it's really good to see you again
*silence*.

DA2:
Hey Hawke, how's it going?
Why it's going just fine.
You know, it's really good to see you again.
Why, I'd love to go to bed with you. *at this point the player pressed what they thought was a neutral response on the dialogue wheel*.

In summary: If Bioware needed the quick cash of making a cheapened rushed game to satisfy their EA overlords, why not just make this game and release it through some subsidiary as Dragon Age: Hawke, and get on with doing a proper sequel at some later point?

Blizzard released all sorts of Warcraft & Starcraft games, but they made a point of waiting and getting Starcraft 2 (mostly) right. Why didn't you?

Modifié par Grammarye, 16 mars 2011 - 04:46 .

[Osyron]

As fair as i can be... Almost a week ago this 35 year old man sat sipping an early morning coffee in egger anticipation of the postman visiting his door, because on this morning two great things where happening... 1. the day off work (not to mention the following three as well) 2. the much anticipated Dragon age 2 signature edition was arriving.

I was planing on writing an in depth, insightful review but instead i am just going to list pro's and cons and a brief summery at the end. Pro's - Graphically its very good, the characters and landscapes are done with a very high level of detail i was only playing on medium settings and found some of scenery quite stunning at times.

The spirit and mood of DAO is there at times, it pops its head up to say hello now and then, not quite frequent enough for me to fall in love all over but often enough to keep my hopes up that it will blossom and flourish any minute now.

the cast - i really liked the cast and supporting companions, i seem to be very loyal and stick with the first /tank/mage/healer that i come across in games and my fear was in this i would not take to the new characters as i would be missing the old ones to much but they grew on me instantly in most cases and for me the real reason i will revisit the game will be to tryout the characters that i did not use often in my first play through. combat - right this is tricky, im going to list comat in both the pro's and cons of the game because i do believe that improves have been made in some areas but bioware have dropped the ball in others, but as this is pro's lets stick with those first. First thing you notice is the visuals of certain abilities and spells, i played rogue in the original and in this one as well and the dynamic of this has been greatly improved, in DAO to perform backstab you had to position yourself behind your target and low and behold you could perform backstab, but targets dont often like to stand in the one spot so your character could end up chasing thenm around till they hold still long enough for you to perform backstab rendering it useless very often. In DA2 its a different story, at the click of a button you vanish, appear and perform backstab all in an instant making it a viable talent and much more pleasing on the eye . The other great thing about combat is the talent trees, there are at least six yes thats right six trees to choose from meaning you can play the same class over and over but have very different characters, experiences and results.

Con's - Repetitiveness on maps, i wanted to play the whole game so i made sure i did all side quests before moving on the the main quest/storryline. I found myself repeatatly visiting the same cave/house/coastline to kill bandits/spiders/mercenaries (very similar to the bandits from where i standing) and after a while this felt like a chore rather than a joy, the quests themselves had very little imagination and where pretty much forgettable for the most part i can only compare it to my experience grinding in MMO's for money/XP. Something i have never before experienced with any bioware game before. combat - its easy, way to easy i was worried by my lack of a healer in the party and kept hoping to meet one down the line but i never did nor did i need to, i can only recall using 2 health potions outside of boss fights and this is with no healer in the party remember, this made fighting tedious, there was no feeling of danger at any time and the fights consist of hordes of mobs coming at you in waves but you feel like a man fighting toddlers, i personal felt like a bad ass for the first few fights but the novelty soon wore off and it became a bore, fights became something in the way of me getting to where i wanted to go.

Epicness - I keep comparing it to DAO which is slightly unfair but understandable as this is it's(supposed) successor but it just lacks the depth, variety and feeling of Epicness, overall the game still feels really good but when your riding on the coattails of "epic" really good just does not cut it..

Summery - Had this not been the follow up to Origins or a bioware game i think it would have been far better revived, i personally think Origins as close to a gaming masterpiece that you can get. and those are impossibly big shoes to fill but if anyone could i had faith bioware could. They did it with Baldurs gate, the squeal improving on the original in many ways yet keeping the same things that made everyone fall in love with the original, they did not pull that off this time.
I just have the feeling bioware have gone from setting the standard to following the standard, taking the extraordinary and making it ordinary. Is this down to EA ? the timing of their involvement with bioware cant be dismissed as coincidence in my eyes given biowares excellent back catalogue of games it strikes me as odd the would go from "sublime" to "quite good" all of a sudden on their own but maybe EA are an all to convenient scapegoat but wherever the reason i dont thin this game worthy of the title "dragonage".

compared to DOA 4/10
by its own right 7/10

[misterdde]

I said it on numerous part of the forum but as this is the official review topic here it goes.

The main problem i have with the game is not the game on itself, but it shouldn't had been presented as a sequel to origin.

Basicaly, da2 lost the BG soul and became an really action oriented RPG, if not an hack'n'slash.
Also, the lack of toolset, and even a news about a possible toolset instead of the "... " politics is kind of irritating and thus reduce the pleasure of the game has i keep thinking " I wish i could have done this instead of that. Mm don't really like it, too bad i can't chagne it now. " As a result i nearly stopped playing it until I could change the details I want. This said, let's attack the big part.

1 companions. They are fun, decent, buuut they are missing some depth. I mean they are really straight-minded and I even guessed what happend on the act 3 short before it's arrived. The lack of depth is also saw in the dialogue possibility with them. we can''t speack to them as we could in origin. It added a great immersive power to be able to chit-chat with them and knew them better. As a result, they seems much more flat now.

2 interactions & wheel of dialogue.

This is a good stuff. Now I can really set a persona properly for my caracters. It's help for the immerssion alot. The voiced main caracter is a big plus IMO. But what could have added even more to that, a little " pitch " that allow us to have a lower or higher (basse où aïgue. pardon me but i'm not sure of the english terms here. ) voice for our caracter. And the fact we can now drag them into interact directly with the NPC we are talking to, it's pure genius.

3 : Story-plot and narrative system.

Nothing to complain about. the story is good and as much interessting that the whole blight thing. Juste having some troubles following the main stream drawn under irrelevent-like quest even if they turn to be main quest related.

4 freedom of choice.

Virtualy almost infinit, But after i play the game twice, I saw that you can only change minor details. It just turn out that i'm a slave of the event no matter what i'm doing. I can't spoil here so it's difficult to make my point but all in all, every choices leaded me afar from where I wanted to go in my second play. I just feal on a leash no matter what.

5 : maturity. Well, as the game was rated pegi 18+ I was awaiting more adult content. And when i say that, i'm not talking about virtual porn session during romance, even if showing more flesh and even a movie-like bedscene with an option to activate it or not would have been a great addition. But I was expected some more pshycological assault. Really disturbing choices. Yes i loved the scene that endend the white flowers ( hope i don't spoil with that ) And the death of on sibling would have had much more impacte if only it would appears after you have tu time to actually " bound " with him. Now i see the ogre tear him/her appart and i'm like " boarf another blight victim. too bad. " Same goes for the avaline husband. ( as it is in the demo, i don't consider it as a spoiler, if i'm wrong i apologies.

6 : maps. Already debate, nothing more to add.

7 : fight. Because of the mass use of the ennemies wave, i really tend to see da2 as an hack'n'slash. If you could couple origin gameplay with da2 animation /skill tree, it would be great. But with all the specialisation present in origin.

Overall : 7/10
As part of the dragon age saga 2/10

This kind of game is good, but it should have it's own series.

[victor moses 11]

Okay first off i'm a massive RPG fan i've played many games DAO/KOTOR/ME/ME2/Fable/Oblivion/Arcania/Final fantasy/ TFU and others. The best of the lot by a mile is DAO, theres no other game like it, it has everything in one game you could ever want.

The story is excellent, there's a main goal and from the start you can just tell how good the game is going to be. The storyline was the best part of DAO, it felt like the whole game you were trying to build an army/friends which was leading up to something massive at the end of the game.

The mission's/quests were cool, you actually had objectives and not one thousand errants to run. Which made it even worse in DA2 it felt like you were in same place the whole game no atmosphere at all. It was fun exploring several places and not being stuck in kirkwall. I actually preffered the DLC for DAO then this game.

DA2 is a completely different game to DAO, if i'd never of played DAO i wouldn't of been shocked at how bad this game is, instead of taking everything good from DAO.:
-Interactions with companions
-Excellent Storyline
-Adventures/exploring(Not being stuck in a town)
-No atmosphere
-Removed the variety
-Shorter story length
-Equipment;
Just like everyone else i preferred DAO, being able to equip everyone in the party was excellent and i just don't understand why you'd remove that option? Also the wide range of weapons was removed, to weapons/items with the same but different abilities. Although I do like the stars next to the item which is a good addition to the game.
-Many more....

Improvements;

Gameplay-combat/graphics;
Thats the only thing DA2 has improved on since DAO, the combat system is great and the graphics look quality.

DA2 for me is a massive step back, but that's because i enjoyed DAO. DA2 i'd of been happy with as a DLC but not a full game... And this is why:

Unlike other games Gears/cod the story mode is short 5-10 hours max, in dragon age O/2 it can take you from 20 hours to 35-50 depending on your style of play to complete the game. But Once you've finished a DA game theres not alot more you can do, where as games like gears/Cod you can go online and play for hundreads of hours depending on the gamer. This is where DAO was better than DA2 also, as the changes you made actually effected the game, which ment that each time you played through you'd get different outcomes depending on what you did during gameplay.

I also heard a while back there was going to be alot of DLC for DA2. You can clearly see why, it feels like one fifth of a game. This game has been rushed and if EA have been included you can see why. Games like FIFA come out broken every year and many of there games do not get fixed after release. All they want is money and if they force one fifth of a game to be released with the other four fiths to be kept back as DLC to make more money they will.

My bad for the massive post, i just really liked the first game. I've been reading this forum for a while and thought i'd add my opinions, i know theres some people who will worship DA2 becuase Bioware made the game but it's a massive let down IMO.

Modifié par victor moses 11, 16 mars 2011 - 06:31 .

[IamSithari]

Ok I've been with the repeativeness of the game until the three years after the teasure hunt. I understand that kirkwall is an old city and the mines they made work well to be the same. Ok why the hell those everything look the same three years later everybody except bethany looked the same after the mission and I'm pissed how templars took her and I couldn't fight for her. I still like game because it let's me get to the meat and potatoes of the adventure, the next upload to da2 better be a refresher of everything in the game.

[Quarz666]

I was new to the Dragon Age games when i bought this, i had only watched my friends playing origins, and at first it was very unappealing to me but i watched the trailers for Dragon age 2 and bought it because it looked awesome. Now im halfway through my second playthrough of it, and i gotta say even tho there are some small bugs now and then, its probably one of the best games ive ever played. I loved the gameplay and there were only 2 things that annoyed me greatly;
1. First boss encounter was a difficulty spike since i wasnt prepared.
2. You couldnt walk around the city after completion.
Other than that, i really enjoyed this game, probably gonna play through it a couple more times, so i have done it with every class. And i hope and pray that you decide to make a add-On and not add-In so you can continue from where it ended. Anyways great job, this game blew my expectations and took it higher than i thought possible!
Sincerely The Rogue

[backrow]

My 2 cents (360 SE) (no particular order of my points) 

The Good

• Nice change in a story line, not saving a world for once! 
  
• some Codex pop up straight away, you can read it or discard it.
  
• new art style (excepting few things listed before)
  
• new combat (excepting auto attack not being there on xbox, big bug!)
  
• Kirkwall is pretty impressive.
  
• Companions are pretty well written and you got to take their personalities into the account when trying to get their friendship
  
• Great job voicing Hawke's
  
• Music, as in DA: O (and i simply can't wait for ME3 with Clint Mansell!)
  
• Night/Day toggle is a welcome addition

The Bad

• Mute people with no possible interaction, they don't even talk to each other on the most part. And they have no reaction to huge 4 on 20 fight with aoe's going all over the place. Kirkwall must be getting this all the time if people are so used to it...
  
• Star system: quite silly, no need for that
  
• Names of rings amulets or rather lack thereof
  
• Items short description/story when inspecting
  
• Unable to customize companions armour (although i understand the reasoning behind it)
  
• No persistent gore (bodies, bones) that are left in the aftermath of the battle
  
• Quests: err, "i found this, you seem to have misplaced it", "oh i was looking for it". No interaction.
  
• Scripted companions interaction. Why not be able to always talk to them? 
  
• Not enough armour variety (warrior playthrough, i know that rogues and mages get more)

The Ugly

• Darkspawn new look, not menacing, uniform, silly and didn't they use to have many different varieties? Where did it all go? (i know they are not the main enemy here but still a huge step back)
  
• Ridiculously oversized, anime weapons... more realism please
  
• Fenris look... he looks like he should go back to FF Xwhatever. Not a Dragon Age universe character!
  
• Fatalities are not as cool as in the DA: O. why the hell does everyone EXPLODE when hit with my sword? Give us some realism back please, it is fine with magic spells but as far as i know there's no disintegrating effect on my blade!
  
• no auto attack bug (hopefully soon to be fixed)
  
• Recycled maps... it's been mentioned before, so i won't go into detail.

[*]To sum up, not a bad game, an entertaining one for sure, few great changes but overall too far from the spirit of the Origins.
7 compared to origins 9.5.
Lacks the soul and the depth of the originals, whereas if it kept those qualities with the improvements it made, it would be a true classic and possibly the best rpg game ever.

Modifié par backrow, 16 mars 2011 - 06:29 .

[Hatchetman77]

Grammarye wrote...

Having got a bit further in the game, I thought I'd chime in with a much shorter review than the one I posted earlier. This is intended to be a concise, constructive, maybe humourous, list of why some things in DAO I liked, and why I miss them in DA2. For anyone waiting to pounce and say 'yeah, this isn't Origins', my pithy response would be 'why call it Dragon Age 2 then?'. Experimenting and doing different things in games is great - doing them to a sequel of a well-established game is rather silly unless you know that your existing fanbase is actually going to like them.

DAO: Hmm, Alistair's over there, maybe I'll go talk to him; perhaps he'd like that neat helmet I found.
DA2: *tannoy* ALL COMPANIONS MUST REPORT TO THE HANGED MAN AT 2 PM TO EAT PIZZA WITH THE CHAMPION. NO TALKING IS ALLOWED UNTIL THEN.

DAO: Dwarves, elves, human cities, deep roads, forests, dungeons, temples, caves, the Circle, the Fade.
DA2: Kirkwall. A cave. A house. Repeat.

DAO: Hmm, so if I place that blizzard there, and have that archer at that point, I can get that group in a cross-fire.. hmm, what if my tank gets knocked back to there...
DA2: Oh just attack already - great, my warrior is busy being awesome instead of helping me...

DAO: Warden, a high dragon is not an easy foe. We should be well prepared. *some time later* Well damn, we made it!
DA2: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am. There was a dragon, you say? Well everyone seems to think it's perfectly normal.

DAO: This relatively inconsequential seemingly unrelated quest here? Why, it's the lynch pin of the whole crazy scheme to help defeat the Blight! You'll see, in about thirty hours time!
DA2: Champion available, apply within. Lost dogs found, miscellaneous items picked up, NPCs insulted (no charge), mages empathised with, mages defeated, blood mages routed, blood mages romanced, templars helped, templars killed.

DAO: We've got to save the realm (and with any luck, get lots of neat loot, save the queen, and go to loads of neat places)!
DA2: Well I needed the money, and the Blooming Rose wasn't hiring, so I did odd jobs for a decade or so, with this dwarf following me around noting things down. He must be writing a book...

DAO: Well, I like you but I'm just not sure. *days later* Well I like you, perhaps it might work. *days later* I've been thinking about you. *days later* Ok, maybe I really like you. *days later* Maybe after the Archdemon is killed (what!?! after the game finishes?!?) *days later* Would.. would you think worse of me if we did something before the Blight is defeated? *decent sex scene, inexplicable underwear, fade to black, much smirking by companions*
DA2: Consider this foreplay! *fades to black*

DAO: This sword is a fine steel bastard sword, and it has a ruby in the pommel. I dare you to be on the wrong end of this and not tremble!
DA2: What do you mean 'you'll have someone's eye out'? The blade's only thirty feet long! Final Fantasy had them much bigger!

DAO: Hey those guys haven't seen us yet? Rogues, go stealth-backstab a few, whilst I whip up a nice Inferno.
DA2: For safety reasons, all spells & weapons can't be used until the enemy has been politely notified by letter in triplicate that you are nearby and have hostile intent.

And just to prove I'm not entirely negative about the whole thing:

DAO: What the!? How are you doing that? What are you doing? I can't see a damned thing! Why aren't you drinking that health potion I told you to?! Stop dying and pay attention!
DA2: You, over there. You, go there, You, hit him. I'll be over here causing mayhem.

DAO:
Hey Grey Warden, how's it going?
*silence*
You know, it's really good to see you again
*silence*.

DA2:
Hey Hawke, how's it going?
Why it's going just fine.
You know, it's really good to see you again.
Why, I'd love to go to bed with you. *at this point the player pressed what they thought was a neutral response on the dialogue wheel*.

In summary: If Bioware needed the quick cash of making a cheapened rushed game to satisfy their EA overlords, why not just make this game and release it through some subsidiary as Dragon Age: Hawke, and get on with doing a proper sequel at some later point?

Blizzard released all sorts of Warcraft & Starcraft games, but they made a point of waiting and getting Starcraft 2 (mostly) right. Why didn't you?

I give this review a 10 out of 10.

[MelfinaofOutlawStar]

Yeah the odd item you find and return quests were strange. Also all the vendor trash, so much worthless stuff clogging a tiny inventory.