1012 réponses à ce sujet

[santyklaws]

Played Xbox 360 version.

For some reason it felt like
there was C&C for the minor stuff, but really none for the major events,
except for the fate of Hawke’s surviving sibling.  I assume the fixed points in Hawke’s life are
arriving at Kirkwall, losing his sibling, mother murdered, becoming champion
and finally having Anders blow up the chantry. 
Not really positive or negative, but that’s what I took from the game. 

Positives[/b]

Music was fantastic.

Art design was definitely
more distinctive then DAO.

Enjoyed the C&C in some
of the sidequests, especially in the Night Terrors questline.  The scene with the Dalish Keeper Marethari entering
the alienage, and the city elves bowing deferentially to her enhanced  the melancholy tone of the plight of the
elves. 

The conflict between
Sebastian, the PC and Anders after destroying the chantry.

Isabella and Aveline during
Aveline’s romance quest.

The concept of family, not the
execution of it.

The icon to select and move a
character to a different spot made it easier to control party members.

Crafting, potion and poison
making was fine.

Using revival items instead
of dragging along a mage-healer.

UI was good, clean, and easy
to manipulate

Champion statue in act three
in the docks was a nice touch.

Aveline, when she rebuffed
Hawke’s advances.  This was a pleasant
surprise and added another layer of depth to her character, which is why
everyone doesn’t need to be romanceable. 
I’m harkening back to Baldur’s Gate, although romances seem be a
hallmark of Bioware games since Shadows of Amn for bringing in a wider
audience.

Combat mechanics work
fine.  . 


Party interaction while Hawke
isn’t involved was done well.  Isabella
and Merrill playing cards in the Hanged Man. 
Anders swapping stories with Varric, Sebastian interacting with Elthina.  The snapshots of Hawke’s companions’ lives
were done well.

Cameos loved them, but
unfortunately I was more intrigued by what was going on outside of Kirkwall than
inside.

Realtime traps were a nice touch.

Voiced PC, didn’t make a
difference.  I read faster than listen to
dialogue.

Negatives/Mechanics[/b]

Reading the message boards from
various websites and discovering siding with Templars makes the most sense toward
the end game.  I suppose with Leandra’s
death, players were nudged to play that way.

Static city.  A city should change in ten years.

I selected info floaters in
the options menu, and still didn’t understand how the game mechanics work.  All I do know is the numbers for armor went
up and I did a 1000 damage a couple times.

Bring back the ability to swap
party members in and out on the fly, especially in a city or non-combat zone.  Cuts down load times if I can grab a
character at the quick party screen, instead of map traveling or entering the
bar. 

Bring back the ability to
drag the switch weapons icon into a quick slot. 
In DAO I put the switch weapons icon in my quickslot to add more slots,
so instead of six I had ten slots to use abilities w/o pausing.

Combat was sticky toward the
end, targeting became frustrating.  Hawke
spent too much time twirling his staff , forcing me to pause to actually select
the target.  If your aiming toward an
action orientated crowd make sure the aim works.

Rework disarming traps I had
high cunning (always +3) until I hit fifty for Varric and still didn’t
recognize immovable traps until the team was knocked over onto the ground.

Picking up ‘Junk’ needs to
go.

Friendship/Rivalry;  Found myself gaming it for friendship,
because rivalry doesn’t do much for the PC.

Bring back cunning +coercion
to open up conversation branches or non-violent paths.  That was the point of the renegade, paragon
meter in ME, not that I like the meter concept in DA, but I thought this was
the direction the team was going for in DA2. 


Armor:  Let me know when I pick up a piece, who the
armor is for.  I’m still not sure if the
armor appearances of squad members are supposed to change after finishing their
loyalty mission, or picking up all four pieces. 
The only two armor changes observed during my playthrough were Merrill
and Anders. 

Hold should hold, not follow
the controlled character at a certain distance. 
Trying to set up an ambush became a chore at certain points.



Bugs: Merrill talking about
killing the Dalish before triggering the questline.  Hawke’s attack and spells were slowed down to
the breaking point.  Broken questline for
the kidnapped noble in act 3. 

Story telling[/b];
Never understood why Anders and justice merged to create vengeance.  What was supposed to happen with Merrill’s
mirror?  Aveline does a sudden about face
after Hawke plays matchmaker.  Carver
never talks to Hawke after the mother’s death. 
Orsino and the blood mages/templar attack Hawke after Hawke sides with
them.

Blood Magic- Seeing so many
blood mages as part of the circle felt odd. 
Be more explicit in linking blood magic with the thinning veil, instead
of burying a salient plot point in the codex entries.  I was confused until I read message board
comments on the game story and found out for it to make sense you have to find
the band of 3 entries.  The only time I
remember Hawke mentioning the thinning veil was when finishing Varric’s
companion quest in his brother’s mansion.

Blood magic, if it’s so grim
and an act of desperation; next time make the Mage PC have some actual
consequences for using it.  Maybe do
something similar to the text the PC got when changing into Slayer in Shadows
of Amn.  Have it  influence dialogue.  Do something to make it matter.

Companions, I think they’re
watered down.  Maybe it was because in
other Bioware games the PC had the ability to harden, persuade or change a
companion for better or worse.  Maybe I
missed out on interaction because I didn’t flirt or romance every male or female companion
in the game.  Three did stand out; Isabella,
Varric and Aveline, and I didn’t romance Isabella. 

Marketing - Never felt like Hawke
was the Champion of anything, just felt like an average guy swallowed up by
world events.  After the entire party +
Templars fought Meredith and her statues I thought; why would the seekers care
about this guy?   

Missed out on Fenris b/c I
assumed he wouldn’t be relegated to a secondary quest, especially a secondary quest,
which adds rivalry points.  Once I discovered
Carver disappears regardless of what Hawke does, I reloaded the game at the
third chapter to start back at the beginning to pick up Fenris. 

In the ten year timespan, it seemed
the characters in DAO changed more then the characters in DA 2, Aveline not
withstanding.  Leliana’s a seeker, Zevran’s
waging a one man war (I think).  Alistair
is cleaning up and going back to Ferelden with Teagan, while the DA2 characters
kind of hang out in the city for every three years with the exception of
Isabella after Act 2.      

Future DLC[/b]; Experiment
with some actual non-action role playing quests.  Are the Templar influenced by blood
mages?  A Tevinter plot?  Answer some of the overarching issues hinted
by Leliana during the meeting with Sebastian at the viscount’s throne room.  Shed light on the Wardens’ mission in the
Free Marches.  Bring Flemeth to the forefront.  Have Hawke team up with his brother/sister
and see first hand how bad things are in the gallows.  Give us some more insight to Meredith’s
madness.  Let’s see some of the circle
experimenting with blood magic. 

Sound 10, Graphics 7, Gameplay
7, Story 7

 

[Purple People Eater]

I like the game alot. The combat is fun and solid, I like the characters alot as well. The story was pretty good, but maybe not as well thought out as id hoped. Im sure alot of this had to do with a much shorter development time. If there is one thing I wish would have been different about DA2, its the repeated environments, and im not necessarily talking about Kirkwall, though if you're going to do just one city, it could have been alot bigger, and more diverse in design. Its the lack of places to visit on the outskirts of Kirkwall that were disappointing to me, and the few that were there  just felt like lifeless placeholder environments.
Other than that, I really dig the game. I had fun playing it, and I will do so again, but more diverse places to go, and things to see would have made the world feel more expansive, instead of limiting.Its like, the quest are good in the game, but when they take place in the same three areas, it gets a bit monotonous by default.

Id give the game an 8.

Modifié par Purple People Eater, 17 mars 2011 - 06:58 .

[Tigress M]

I'm glad to see Bioware is looking for honest reviews from us.  Thank you for giving us a place to express our opinions.  

Companions

I'll start with this because it's the most important aspect of the game, to me.  I loved the companion interaction in Origins and was pleased to see some things improved in DA2.  But, I felt more could have been done to make our relationships (be they family, friends, or lovers) more realistic and entertaining.  

What I'd really like to see is a combination of Origins and DA2 in DA3. To me, a perfect system would be something like this:

-- Give us more companion interaction. Let us go visit them for a chat when we feel like it (at least once an act) as well as when they want to talk. A combination of PC initiated chats and NPC initiated chats would go really far in helping to build a better feeling of connection, I think. 
-- Continue giving us companion reaction (especially LI) to events. I was very very pleased to see Hawke's LI come console her after her mother died. I want more of this!  This was sorely lacking in Origins and I hope we get more of it in the future.
-- Keep it coming with the party banter.  DA2 improved on an already awesome aspect of DAO and I just want to see more of it.
-- Have our LI's make a few moves once in awhile (give us a rose or recite bad poetry).   I really missed this in DA2.
-- Continue restricting conversations to home or camp, or at least non-combat areas.  I appreciated not getting ninja rosed by accidently clicking on Alistair while trying to loot a body after a fight.  Thank you. 
-- Continue to allow us glimpses of our friends interacting with each other.  This was a great addition to DA2.
-- Let us keep friends who agree to disagree. I really like the rivalry as opposed to the hate stuff in DAO.

Story

-- Plot.  This was good.  Frustrating (which I'm sure Gaider loves to hear) but good.  I hated feeling like there was no "right" answer, but hated it in a good way.  
-- Questing.  Very enjoyable except when it came to fighting people I didn't want to fight.  I'd like to have been able to have the option of talking some people down, espcially when you've got mages and Templars trying to work together.  
-- Timespan.  I really enjoyed watching my character grow over a number of years.  However, I felt we were cheated out of three years since the tout of a ten-year story really wasn't (at least not yet).  I also would have liked to have seen some things change in Kirkwall in those seven years.  New barkeeps, new merchants, Fenris fixing up his mansion -- things like that would have really helped convey the passing of time.  

Graphics and Sound

I'm not sure how many of these are bugs or just the way things are, but a few things really broke immersion for me in this department. 

-- The gamma issue.  I was playing with DX11 and graphic cranked up, but comparing screenshots of Alistair in DA2 to Origins revealed just how flat DA2 looked.  I tried turning down my gamma but even a 10% decrease made things too dark to see.  
-- The body types.  I love the new look of Flemeth and the Quanari.  However, women, human and elven, look deformed in the shoulders.  I realize you were trying to get rid of the manly look females had in Origins, but honestly I'd have preferred the broader shoulders to what we wound up with in DA2.  
-- Faces.  They may be more realistic looking now, but I'd much prefer pretty over realistic.  
-- Sound issues.  I love the music in games but I had to turn my music and sound effects down over 1/2 way to be able to hear and understand the dialog.  And even then, I can no longer play under a headset because even forcing stereo, I can't hear what's being said in cutscenes over the music and ambient sound.  

Game Play

--Nodes.  Love 'em.  Glad we're no longer pretending to traipse all over a map. 
--Maps.  I was a little annoyed at the reuse of areas, but eventually got used to it.   What'd I'd like to see is the maps reflecting the actual area we're in so it doesn't look like we have more to explore when in fact, that area is blocked off.  
--Combat.  I liked the feeling of pushing a button and something happening.  I like the new skill trees.  I'd like to see a better targeting system.  It was difficult to do an AOE and then have to make sure I was clicked on an enemy to hit them with a single target skill or spell.  A tab to target option would be really great.  
-- Dialog wheel.  Loved it.  The only improvement I could see would be to have numbers assigned to the wheel so we could use the keyboard to select our replies vs being forced to use the mouse.  

Modifié par Tigress M, 17 mars 2011 - 07:03 .

[Briiel]

I second Tigress on what she wrote! Very well said my dear !

[mousestalker]

Some excellent points, Tigress M!

[stuboy52]

First of all this is with respect to the PC version i played.

Graphics;

-Graphics were much improved in all regards textures for pc had choice of high res which i used so very good detail.
- Faces showed more emotion far better than DAO which supported the story well
- Magic effects along with all new anmations for enemy deaths gave feeling of power for mages.
- Areas as nice and immersive as they were could be repetitive but minor issue.

Story

-Acts 1 and 2 did well to layout clear arguements for and against mages which finally came to the big choices of taking a side in Act 3.
-Hawke due to choices with who he/she help influenced what other characters expected of his personality either merciful mage supporter or ruthless templar supporter or somewhere in between.
-Relations with companions do well as you could have interesting arguements about which side in kirkwall is right of wrong or both as companion backgrounds influenced there opinion which could change depending on your actions or even your class.
-Love interests very well done and balanced for many different character personalities and sexual orientations and nice to have companions comment on it and even be jealous.
-the finale both shocked and brought excitement as i didnt see the big event coming and finished on good note with plently of opportunity for dlc, DA3 or even an expansion.
-Finally companions had scenes of interaction between each other which was cool showed they dont just stand in one place waiting to speak only to hawke.
-loved the ME style dialogue wheel with the twist of actions not being about good or evil but about perspective and some key choices didnt idicate what kind of speech they were making me think before choosing.
- in all writers did a brilliant job with the story as in DAO good and bad was clear but in DA2 it is about perspective with adds wieght to chioces.

Sound

-what can i say bioware always has the best voice acting hands down perfect as expected nice to see many notable actors lending their voice talent.
-Music by inon zur great especially the qunari battle music stood out as epic and all music suited the setting but again i expected nothing less from bioware.
-only issue was volume at first was messed up but easily fixed with sound sliders it was at first could hear voices in combat.

Gameplay

-Probably the most improved aspect as far as many bioware games are going towards now the action was faster paced with lovely gore as you cut enemies to pieces your really felt uniquely powerful.
-nice use of waves of enemies with allow for large battles without slowing frame rates with that more on screen models overall in battles was great.
-all classes more defined with each having a clear role which maybe adapted within each class with rouge able to be support or boss killers, mages again could be healers for support or both damaging enemy stats or just blowing them to pieces and finally warriors best decribed by tanks like aveline or berserkers like fenris.
- crafting simplier and less frustrating allowing for nice advatages if you want but no harm in ignoring them.
- glad tactics were kept as the worked before and work now but allow for in depth stategy if one demands.
- only thing i would add here is maybe kotor style dueling animations between characters maybe just for high rank opponents

Verdict

in all like any bioware game i enjoyed every minute and was only annoyed as the game ended as i have to wait with great anticapation for first dlc and eventually the next DA game. Dragon Age 2 met all my expectations and more as the took all that was good about DAO and improved upon while added new aspects to further experience.So well done bioware you have made another game to be proud of.

[Solitas777]

Vekelos wrote...

Overall I enjoyed the game but it was still a let-down. The combat was fun, but the final product didn't hit me as an AMAZING game the way Mass Effect 2 did.

ME2 was one long companion side quest, smaller levels, and less immersion (background noise, music, etc). Gameplay and graphics were tighter but I see ME2's story quality decline the same way I see DA2's story decline. It's almost like bioware sacrificed story for tighter gameplay and better load times.

[AStephen]

Beat the game yesterday. Glad to see feedback is encouraged; I think I have three significant criticisms, which I'll present from the simplest to the most complicated. (That doesn't mean this'll be short; apologies in advance.)

First, glitches. Technical mistakes are like typos in a book: the most competent people can make them, but the more numerous and jarring they are, the more it starts to look like someone just wasn't taking enough care. The most annoying glitches were the ones that broke Merrill's storyline, although both Demands of the Qun and (especially) the Last Straw required (multiple, in the latter case) restarts to complete. And I was disappointed that my Origins save didn't load right when it counted: I'm glad the game remembered that I picked Bhelan over Harrowmont, but I would have preferred its recognition of the fact that I didn't kill Nathaniel and that my Origins hero had romanced Leliana (to have her cameo only to say, "Oh yeah, we sort of knew each other a long time ago, but whatever," was pretty jarring). Especially if subsequent games are going to build off a long string of imported save files, I'd appreciate some way of making sure storyline bugs like that can be corrected.

The second criticism is pretty specific: I was shocked, awed, and infuriated by Anders' role in Act 3, and I applaud the writers for it: it was a gutpunch like no other. But, well, after spending 20 minutes debating over what to with him and making the final agonizing decision that he had to die... I reloaded an autosave after about 6 minutes and picked the opposite choice because I couldn't get anywhere without the only character equipped to serve as party healer, and so the (amazing, amazing) emotional effect was almost totally neutered, especially because then I have no other option but to listen to him go, "You believed in me! You can lead the revolution!" I don't believe in you, man, I think you're a crazy terrorist, but I also want to get past that fight with the pride demon at the docks, so... I guess my point is maybe don't make story conflict with gameplay quite so much? In the equivalent choice in Origins you guys made sure we had a decent tank no matter which choice we decided to make, whereas here... I'm glad I get to keep Sebastian, but he can't cast Aid Allies.

The third criticism is significantly more complex, so I'll start with the good (here instead of at the beginning like you're supposed to, but forgive me). I thought this story was a marvel. DA2 was billed as "more personal," and you guys delivered on that in the best way. I didn't care if Hawke mattered to history: Hawke mattered to me, and that was all I needed. When I first got started, I was saying to myself, "I only get to stay in this one city? Lame," but before long that didn't matter to me at all. I didn't just get to know the city like the back of my hand; I grew to love Kirkwall, to care about its fate and about my role in defending it. And as for the companions, they were quite simply one of the greatest, deepest, most nuanced group of people I've ever encountered, and I absolutely loved going through the years with them.

So, you might well ask, what's the problem? Well, everything was fabulous... until about the last ten minutes. I have many problems with the ending, but I'll try to just point out the biggest. As many people have said, the ending proves the illusion of choice to be just that. Origins had, as you guys are fond of saying yourselves, countless endings; DA2 has... two, and really only one, and even that one isn't really an ending, as I'll explain in a second. No matter what you do, you have to kill Orsino and then Meredith, for reasons that don't always make a lot of sense depending on how you reached that point. Well, okay, a bit of a letdown, but I'd be okay with it... if the story didn't just screech to a grinding halt right there. Given the lack of choice in conflict resolution, the two different endings seem silly: if I supported the crazy lady before killing her, I get to be viscount, but if I'm against her crazy from the start I get run out of the city I just saved, even with about a gazillion witnesses (um, Cullen) to the depths of her crazy?

But the biggest problem with the ending is that it... isn't, really. Varric says, "Well, either the Champion left the city right away or ruled for a while and then left for unspecified reasons, and all his/her companions left him/her (except for the LI if you had one--thank god for that at least), and then... the end." There's no epilogue whatsoever--I understand leaving some loose ends, but this is just a gaping hole. The Champion of Kirkwall left Kirkwall and... did some stuff. No one knows. Probably s/he's not dead, though! So basically what you do is take the two things you made me care about the most--the city and my people--and strip me of them, leaving me... I don't know, in the hinterlands somewhere? I don't even get to know what happened to my companions--did I get Isabela her ship? Did I keep the lyrium shard away from Varric? What about the life I helped Aveline build in Kirkwall? Well, none of that actually matters, because the same thing happens no matter what, and that thing is... well, we're not sure. So I was left feeling as I'm sure Cassandra felt at the end: Well, what was the point of all that?

At the end of Origins, King Alistair asked my character, "What are you going to do now?" And I got to answer that question however I wanted, and I thought it was the most amazing thing. I had never seen anything quite like that before. And that hero's story didn't feel finished in the sense of resolved and exhausted--let me be clear: tomorrow you could ask me to slap down some more money to take that character out for another spin and I'd do it with a cheerful heart--but I felt, and still feel, that if I never learn anything else about that character, that's okay. But with Hawke... I want a real ending to the story, and that doesn't mean some Awakening-style expansion where you put me in a totally different place with totally different people, none of whom I care anything about; I want Varric to finish the story he started. And if we're just supposed to move on to a new hero and leave Hawke hanging... well, I may just have to pretend to myself that Varric's lying through his teeth, and he and the others know exactly where their Champion is. You've got to admit it's something he'd do, at least.

[greyman33]

My pair of pennies:

I thought it was, overall, a disappointment to be perfectly honest. A reasonably pretty, disappointment, but that's where I stand.

I purchased what was billed as a roleplaying game and instead found myself in an action/adventure.

I felt, throughout, like I was wandering through an interactive graphic novel. The story, while not perfect, was well told and relatively tight, which is nice in a way, if this was an action/adventure or graphic novel. The problem, for me, was that the story was far too linear to make a satisfying roleplaying experience. I felt, at several points, that the story was being forced upon me and that I was just along for the ride. That kind of storytelling is what turned me off the jrpg genre years ago. It's just not something I care for.

I felt like no matter what I was doing, the game was just going to force me to do it 'their way', which included seemingly every quest requiring bloodshed where it seemed for all the world that there should have been some solution that could have avoided it. There was no option to diffuse and situation, just exacerbate things and fight your way out of the mess afterward.

Gameplay-wise, things certainly look nice and crisp. Combat is a little hectic, and targeting was a recurring issue, but after some getting used to it was bearable. The fortitude mechanic is broken, however. I wound up reloading the game during the dragon fight in the Deep Roads at the start of Act 2 because I was in a stalemate with the dragon. Anders' regeneration ability was active (and still working after Ander's death, which I would assume is a bug) and I was down to just one Verric, pinned against a wall by the dragon. The dragon couldn't pile on enough damage to prevent Verric from regennerating to full health every few seconds, but every one of his attacks knocked Verric to the ground, preventing the slow firing dwarf from ever getting a shot off. It was beyond frustrating.

Speaking of walls, the reuse of maps on the scale that is seen in this game is ridiculous. There is no excuse for a player to be seeing the exact same map reused 3-4 times as 'new' locations in the first two hours of gameplay.

After one playthrough, I felt like they had done a decent job with the illusion of choice, even if it was still a forced, constrained sort. That was until I went back and started again, making different choices and discovering that there was, almost literally, no difference whatsoever in the outcome of anything. I find no point at all in replaying this (by contrast, I played DA:O start to finish from every possible origin taking different paths to victory in each, and really felt like I had a truly different experience each time), and because of the presentation of the story, and the detachment I felt because of it, I really don't give a nug's rear end if Hawk returns from wherever he wanders off to.

Overly critical, probably, but I feel what I feel. I have to say, that had this been packaged and sold as an interactive comic book style adventure, I'd be applauding their A+ efforts at creating a wonderful example of such. As an RPG, however, I feel like it's, at best a C in my book.

[gombie]

for what it was, it played well. however there was little choice in comparison to other games, but it played out a well told story. the biggest flaws where that it was unpolished, and rushed. The game could have been made amazing, but settles on okay/good, because the presentation just didnt do the concept justice.

pros:
-Combat is good, solid. best combat in an RPG for a long time, quick and tactically.
-Telling the story through 10 years makes it feel his/her journey to greatness, the underlying plots with dragon age origins, and a voiced main character make your character feel part of the story.
-companions interactions were great.

Cons:
-Presentation could have been better, (not just the graphics), recycled maps is just lazy, the gangs that spawn all around the place, and citizens do not react where you destroy them, breaks immersion.
-Theres little variation in quests, always involving killing or talking and not much of anything else. Only 1 or 2 quests really felt memorable or really exciting.
good dialogue choices,
-The city never changes, between the years skipped the same merchants are there, same buildings, people after 10 years.... if there was more time taken into the game to change the maps a bit, with new buildings after the attack, and stores/npcs. renovations, introduce new characters yourve met in between the years... the idea was great, but it wasnt executed like it could have been.

Overall it seemed like the game was not properly evaluated before it was decided to be completed.

[StuartMarshall]

+ Good storyline, quite intelligently written and will probably be underrated because of the other problems the game has. I liked how even side quests often entwined with the main story arc, so that you could almost create a tree with the main storyline at the heart and each sub-plot branching off.
+ High quality professional voice acting as you would expect.
+ The day/night cycle was well implemented. Not original as games have had day/night cycles for a long time but the way the city changed at night, becoming more dangerous and seedier was good.
+ Hawke was a good main character, quite likeable on a good guy playthrough which I did in my first play.
+ Varric, one of the better companions from the two games.
+ Sandal.

- The combat has been popamole'd to the extreme, very little tactical value, dumbed down, felt more like God of Wars with randomly exploding bodies even when using daggers.
- Enemy "waves" were an appalling idea. Beat one lot and another spawns out of thin air. Everyone seems to hate this concept so I'll say no more.
- The re-use of areas and recycling of maps is perhaps the worst aspect of the game. It strips the game of any real individuality and makes sidequests a grind at times and incredibly dull on the senses, as you go through the same area over and over again even if two areas aren't technically the same (but re-using maps). The Wounded Coast was so small and yet I must have gone back there 10 times for quests.
- Bugs/glitchiness. Random freezes, crashes, quests that can't be finished - really? How did multiple quests become impossible to finish? Surely the game was tested, how did a single QA person not spot, for example, the freezing problems that seems to be plaguing hundreds of players.
- Some cameos were nice but by the end it felt like they were trying to force everyone in. I was surprised they didn't have Morrigan appear even.
- Basing the entire game in a city (with very few quests outside) was an ambitious idea but in the end just felt lazy and almost an excuse to save resources by having us re-tread ground over the same old maps. I was really sick of Kirkwall by the end and missed the expansive exploration of DA:O. Such a big, rich world has been created and in the second chapter most of it takes place in one city?
- The lack of a "camp" and a lengthy adventure around the world made some of the companions seem... dry, impersonal, not quite as memorable as DA:O's crew. Varric was the main exception.

How was the Sebastian DLC? I bought every piece of DA:O DLC except Feastday but felt no impulse to buy the Exiled Prince DLC. Is he an interesting character and how much game time does it add?

Modifié par StuartMarshall, 18 mars 2011 - 12:07 .

[Alex475]

I kind of liked the game "but" there's some things that really really annoyed me to a point...

First the good things, which is the new character creation, the main character now speak. I loved how the game follow your character's tendencies in personal character build for your Hawk, being funny cranky or a nice guy. The dialoge wheel from ME is another cool change, as it is the new graphics.

But now... there's things that really annoyed me, to a point that kind of broke the game for me.

First is the no new game +, our character is pretty much dead at the end of the game without it, so there's no real reason to play it again unless try the other two classes and that's it(which it was a huge strike, after having played other BioWare games that had so much replay value for me). I also had hoped for the option to continue the game, after the main quest was done (just like ME2 had, which I think was the main reason I liked it better than ME). There's a few other things but nothing broke the game more than the lack of new game + or the option to finish the side quests past the end. There's also some lack of choices for the player as well, in some quests that no matter what the player do, the outcome will be pre-set with no way to change it, which it was a let down for me. To have something bad happening because of a player's mistake or own choice is cool but to have it happen either way just to make it "look" cool... Is not really cool... makes me feel I'm playing some generic first person shooter with some Hollywood drama that no matter how many times I play, it will always be the same old thing (trying not to point fingers here).

I finish the game already and there's not much to do really... Since: The prince DLC won't work because the map is locked (I bought it after finishing the game). To start a new character seems kind of a waste of time, since you'll reach the same level or close to it, without the option to import your previews character and continue from the level we are. Plus I probably would have to delete my previews character as well, since I can't use it for anything else. I really don't understand how something like that is not present in DA2, it's like removing the engine of a car, not much point in having it like that right?

I played ME2 a lot, and I mean a lot really, on 360 and latelly on PS3. The thing I loved the most was the freedom to play it how I wanted, usually beating the Collectors first and than going for little side missions.I had a lot of fun with it trying different playthroughs, since to me the most important thing was to finish the main mission first "which seems more logical". And to be able to do just that was awesome. Now after playing DA2, I feel this is not even a BioWare game, it feels strange somehow...

To make it simple the game would probably be a 9 out of 10 just because it looks great and there's some fun on your first play, but -5 from the lack of continue unfinished side quests after the end and -5 from the lack of NG+...... Leave DA2 with a 5 out of 10 ,just because of how nice Bethany was as a game character.

I still have hope for a game patch to fix it...

[sgreco1970]

everyone here is saying all the same things. Bioware's audience is shrewd and savvy and knows that everything they loved in previous titles was truly missing from this one. it felt like some other company made the game. This surely will not sweep the game of the year awards like so many other Bioware titles have. In fact, I do not recall ever seeing this much discontent in a Bioware forum. I'm stunned, truly gobsmacked, that this wore the Bioware label. This had best be a one time blunder.

[Biotic Sage]

Let me first say that Dragon Age 2 (although I’m still wondering why the title is so bland and not something like Dragon Age: Rise to Power, which would make such obvious sense) accomplishes what I believe was its primary goal: a more personal story set in the Dragon Age universe. DA:O definitely gets the nod in terms of classic, high fantasy epic adventure, but I felt much more connected to the protagonist in DA2 than The Warden. I attribute this to giving Hawke a voice (great voices by the way, for both male and female Hawke) and completing a rags to riches journey in an intimate setting over the course of 7 years.

Here is my list of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:

The Good:
+ A more mature look at Thedas with a deep exploration of the main issues, political and moral, plaguing the world (what to do about magic, racial tensions, religion’s role, nation politics)
+ Amazing voice acting throughout
+ Tight focus during each of the three Acts, but still good foreshadowing/response to other acts; for example, you could tell something was up with the Qunari during Act I, and throughout both Acts I and II, you hear about Meredith to the point that she becomes this larger than life figure, culminating in a completely awesome “official” introduction when she fights alongside you and Orsino in the Qunari uprising
+ Skill Trees = Perfect; whoever designed these deserves a batch of fresh baked muffins (and a pay check, I suppose); each of the abilities had a unique feel and still fit with the Dragon Age lore (mage still drew from entropy, creation, spirit, primal); allowed for a great amount of customization too which is a must for a great RPG
+ Combat is well done; good changes include potion cooldowns and waves so that you can’t obliterate every enemy before they can even move
+ All of the companion characters were interesting (no Ohgrens this time; I really, really hated him; maybe it’s just me)
+ Hard was actually hard!
+ Choice and response; you make a choice, you see the results in THIS game; if you guys keep the bar set to this level you can’t go wrong
+ Cleaned up the interface a lot from Origins, which was nice
+ Emotional investment: achieved; when the “Kirkwall Killer” abducted my mother, I thought, OK they went there, but then when it was a blood mage who had used her head as the final piece of his twisted living doll, I thought, OK they went THERE; I honestly felt horrified, sad, and disgusted through that entire scene; way to bring Dexter to Thedas; also, of course Anders’ betrayal...just wow, great writing
+ Good sounds (especially from bows and arrows firing!) and usually great music (Hanged Man night music was my favorite)
+ Better graphics than Origins, but we’ll talk more about this in the Bad section...

The Bad:
- Lack of armor options, and most weapons look the same; there really could have been more visual customization choices in terms of Hawke’s equipment
- Not enough conversation opportunities with companions, and when you could talk the conversation was too short; I stopped by Merrill’s house to get to know her and I think I only had the opportunity to give 1 or 2 dialogue inputs before I was rushed out...does she have an appointment?
- I know everybody says it, but I have to say it too so Bioware will get the hint: CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS FOR COMPANION ARMOR. And no, PR guys, runes, belts and rings don’t count. If you want to make a game more visceral, adding +35 to attack doesn’t really contribute to this; stats AND visuals should be up to the player
- DLC exploitation; I don’t know if EA is to blame for this, but please don’t design games around DLC; certainly you can include DLC, but the ending of DA2 felt rushed and incomplete; you obviously want to do more with Hawke and know what you’re doing, and if this were the old days when games were released with all of their content included to begin with, I bet you would have included a more complete ending
- Art style does not reflect tone; I appreciate Bioware taking the time to further differentiate the races, as it was much needed, but DA2, if anything, needed to get grittier than its predecessor, not more colorful and cartoony; after all, it is not as romantic or fantastic by nature, so the art style should reflect this

The Ugly:
- Recycled maps are lazy. Period. If it’s somewhere I haven’t been before, it should look different. I’m no spelunker, but every cave looking the same seems highly unlikely to me.
- Having no auto-attack option is killing my XBOX controller (and I think we were promised this option...)
- One healer companion? At least give Merrill ONE heal spell...I shouldn’t be putting Anders in my party just because I HAVE to, I should do it because I want to
- Automatic junk loot...purpose? Either make more usable loot or just give gold...
- Too addictive; I already hate working enough Bioware, stop making games that are so addictive that I end up hating work even more.

Final Rating: 9.3/10

Modifié par Biotic Sage, 18 mars 2011 - 01:16 .

[Mikozilla]

Let me start out by saying that before DA:O came out, it had been a very long time since I feel so deeply in love with a game. Don't get me a wrong, I am a huge ME fan, but DA:O just.. Hands down, did it for me in so many ways. I played through it time and time again, due to how very different it could be each time. I loved the characters, the story, I had very few complaints. As such, I had been anticipating the release of the sequel and had such high hopes for it. I wasn't disappointed really, just left feeling unfulfilled.

That said, there were a lot of things I loved about the game. When I played it for the first time at PAX last year I knew we were in for a real treat in terms of superior graphics and an upgrade to the combat system. You guys really nailed that on the head. The environments and characters looked amazing. The combat system was completely refreshing and the changes were exactly what the game needed. I see some complaints about the character customization, and as a HUGE nerd when it comes to that sort of thing, I enjoyed that we had a few more options than in the first game. I also loved having the option to change Hawke's appearance at any time, via the Black Emporium. Now, when it came to the story (which is by far the most important topic to judge, imo), I really enjoyed it. Until Act 3. I know you guys are going to hear this a thousand times, but here we go!

First let me start by explaing how enthralled I was up until the third act. It took some time to adjust to being confined to just one small area in contrast to the expansive list of places we could explore in the first game, but you packed in so many interesting quests that I soon forgot all about it. I was never bored, there was never a moment that I wanted to stop playing. I had to force myself to turn off the console most of the time. Part of this was the amazing story you had crafted. I was so emotionally involved with the game that certain events just stopped me right in my tracks. I think I texted a hundred people after seeing my mother's head attached to that potpourri of limbs and pieces. I had to make a phone call after the Anders incident. I nearly lost my mind. Another huge part of this also, of course, was the companions. In DA:O I LOVED Alistair, I adored Morrigan and Wynne. Other than that, I just never really cared for the others. They were just there, to me. In all of my various times of playing through the game, I never once romanced anyone else but Alistair. Now, in DA2? I won't rest until I've romanced EVERY LAST ONE of them. You created a cast of amazingly deep, rich characters that I couldn't help but care about. I wanted to talk to them every chance I could, do every little quest that would lead me to find out more about them. Each character really made me question how I wanted Hawke to react, I needed to get everything just right to craft the story I wanted. Which brings up the things that really let me down..

The ending. In DA:O I got to see how every little choice I made affected the world, the characters, the Warden. The end to my game was truly MY ending. You could see all of the repercussions of my actions quite clearly. I was ecstatic when Alistair mentioned the queen as the old "ball and chain" in DA2, to hear talk of the Warden Queen. Where was that level of depth? Why did I even bother debating my choices? Why build the bonds with my companions? It all seemed so useless by the time the credits started to roll. I fully realize that more than likely all of my actions will come to fruition in DA3 (or so I would hope), but couldn't we get at least a little closure? A little more than, "We all eventually ditched the Champion except for Isabella. Is she dead? Naw. No clue where she is though. THE END." Why did I romance the hell out of Anders and save him from certain death? Would he really leave my version of Hawke, after all that? That just discredits everything. Some people had Hawke become the Viscount. Then, what? The Viscount just leaves town? Again, I have faith it will all come around in the third game, but I felt so cheated. It was more upsetting to me than Halo 2. Seriously. And honestly, had the ending sequence remained the same, but instead of Isabella it was whomever you chose to romance, that would've helped calm my rage somewhat. This, on top of the lack of being able to make any sort of real choices in Act 3 (minus the 'to kill or not to kill Anders', kudos to you on that story point), just killed it for me. No matter what you chose to do through out the game, support the mages or support the Templars, you still have to kill both Orsino and Meredith. I'm making this a little long, but the point is, there was really no personalization to the end of the game. Which is what I've come to expect after DA:O.

Outside of my massively long complaint about the story and it's end, I would've liked to have seen a lot more environments. I think I just ran through the same cavern about 100x.. Customize of the companions armor would have been nice, I enjoyed being able to use the pieces of gear I picked up for more than just myself. Though, the alternate costume you can 'unlock' is nice, I still prefer the latter. That always bothered me in ME.

All in all, I loved the game, I really did. You guys never fail to make a great game and it's far better than a lot of other RPG's that have come out lately. I'm going to play through it many more times, but every single time I reach the end.. That little fire of rage and frustration is going to swell up in my stomach. Along with that rage though, is that spark of anticipation for the next game. Simply put: I hate you guys but love you even more. And I realize, more than likely, once I play DA3 I'll be worshipping you and crying tears of joy.

Mini Edit!
I'm hearing now that, apparently, getting a little something from Isabella bugs your ending and this is why Anders didn't stay with Hawke for me. In that case, I'm more upset with the bug than that piece of the ending and I felt the need to make minor note of this. I encountered a few bugs in DA:O that just made me rage, but hadn't had too much trouble with DA2. Not the case, it seems.

Modifié par Mikozilla, 20 mars 2011 - 04:01 .

[Morgora]

I finished my first playthrough on Casual mode and here are my thoughts on DA2 (for the PC):

(1) I wish there was a central location to hand out weapons/accessories and level up companions (like Party Camp in DA:O).
(2) More mobs need to drop coin, items, or junk. After killing 20 mobs, there should be more than 4 to 6 mobs that drop loot.
(3) Boss mobs should drop way more loot. 26 silver off a boss mob is miserly. (The Awiergan Scrolls: Pride Unbound)
(4) While I understand that selling an item will result in less coin received than the resale value of the item, the buy/sell ratio needs to be a little more favorable to selling. There were several armor/weapon upgrades I could not buy due to lack of coin.
(5) When holding down the [Tab] key to reveal items in an area, the text description is not visible if the item is behind a ruin / building / rock formation, etc.
(6) The rogue's detect trap radius is too small. This is with Cunning at 40.
(7) While going thru the Tactics menu, some tactics options disappear. For example: I have a mage set to Controller. If I scroll thru the options of Damager, Healer, and Custom, the Controller option is no longer there.
(8) The rating system for weapons and armor is not consistent. For example: I have a 3% physical damage belt. My character finds the exact same belt on a mob. Comparing the two identical in description belts, the one my character wears is rated 3 stars. The one my character looted is rated 4 stars.
(9) In order for my mage healer to actually heal a party member, I have to set the condition to greater than or equal to 50% health. This was most evident with the Mine Massacre quest. My suspicion is that the healing problem I encountered might have more to do with the Heal spell and potion cooldown timers.
(10) While I understand that certain stats carry more weight than others, having items drop that require a respec is a bit disconcerting. For example: I have a 2H warrior with 35 strength. A very nice 2H weapon drops and requires 41 strength to wield.
(11) I'd like to see more armor/weapons with rune slots or more armor/weapons with defenses/resists built-in. Prior to Act 3, I can't give my character or any party member a good combination of defenses/resists that covers all stats. Because of this, my character and party members get a whole new set of runes with each new boss fight.
(12) When my character dies and I'm switched by the game to Aveline, I notice that all her sustained abilities are off. This makes me wonder if her tactics are actually working as intended.
(13) Within the Tactics menu, I'd like to see an actual Save button with confirmation to save as Custom (like in DA:O).
(14) For all menus, white text on black background takes up a lot of screen space. Bring back the tome (from DA:O).
(15) Act 2 needs more quests with storyline.
(16) Act 3 needs lots more quests with storyline.
(17) I wish character customization and NPC faces had more variety.
(18) My character can't initiate romance chats or flirt with party members (like in DA:O).
(19) My character can't initiate any "get to know you better" non-romance chats with party members (like in DA:O).
(20) Leliana's brief cameo in the epilogue needs better graphics rendering. She looks fuzzy and/or out of focus.
(21) I can understand reusing maps but a little more variety is needed.

I'm in the middle of my second playthrough and can add:

(22) I don't feel connected to my character or her companions (like in DA:O).
(23) No matter what you do, the end result in each Act is always the same.

Modifié par Morgora, 28 mars 2011 - 04:52 .

[EthanDirtch]

Ethan Dirtch's personal review of Dragon Age 2 upon completion once:

I'll do this backwards.

Conclusion: Great game, all things considered! It's a little rough here or there with some glitches and bugs, but to be expected so early after release. I was a little worried about the narrative style, as well as the storyline involving a new protagonist that existed *during* the events of the last game, but in the end I loved it all. The only complaint I have is the voice acting. I'm not saying the voice acting for the protagonist (male and female) is bad, they're actually very good. It's just that--like in ME and ME2--I found it really difficult to create a face that matched the voice.

Gameplay: Combat was great until I got the main-char animation bug that slowed him to a stand still (well, near enough). I loved the -/= for the health and stamina/mana potions, and I'm glad it's all condensed down to just one kind of each (as opposed to the, like, 6-7 kinds for each potion you get by the end of Awakenings). The 'R' key for auto-targeting and auto-picking up stuff is great, unless you get locked 'outside' combat, but that's a known issue.

Abilities/Attributes: I kinda miss the 'Talents' tree we got from the first game, but at the same time, I kinda like how much simpler the system is now.

Spells and Skills and Potion use: For the most part these are all good. I was a little miffed at first that my health/stamina/mana potions had a cool down, but I guess I can kinda see why it was needed (to enhance strategy and balance).

Inventory: I'm a little miffed that I can no longer affect ally equipment to the degree we were able to in the first game. It's a little jarring. It didn't seem to affect combat, though, so I'm thankful for that. Still, some more options as time went on in-game, like having the ally either change attire outright between acts, or have the armor add-ons they get have an impact visually in some form, would have been nice. And maybe, like in ME2, have alternate appearances that the player can select from. Otherwise, the inventory is so much neater now than it was in DA:O. I liked how we have a full blown 'Junk' section to the inventory Oh, also, I kinda miss being able to switch weapons on the go. Of course, this only really matters for archer/rogues and two-handed/shielded characters.

Protagonist Armor: For the most part these are all cool. Although I kinda miss having more item sets than just the 3 you get (Stonehammer, Fallen, and Champion, for warriors).

General UI: Love it, absolutely love it. It's less cluttered looking, less dated, and less in the way! And the dialogue wheel, awesome! I love how there's really no clear cut 'Paragon' or 'Renegade' answers, just nice, funny, and violent. And thne there's those situations where you don't even give us that, that's awesome!

Graphics and Animation: Some major leaps forward here, at least to my unprofessional eyes. Graphics got a decent upgrade over the last game, especially the textures and lighting and taking advantage of DX11. It's in the animations, though, where the game totally rips apart the original DA. The combat anims are more brutal, and just the walking/running looks so much better. I found it kinda humorous, though, that when enemies die messily, they just sorta explode at the joints and fall apart, literally I didn't remember that from the demo (where the darkspawn would be cut in half, as opposed to just falling apart at the joints, including the hair and helmet). Maybe it's a bug, but I don't know.

Story and Characters: Ahhh, the meat and potatoes of any BioWare game. The narrative style is an interesting choice, one that worried me at first, even though the Prologue and Act 1. I was worried about all that 'time' we miss as the 'years' go by, and when we get back in control we're suddenly friends with people we never knew (i.e. Lady Elegant, Worthy, etc.). But this became less and less an issue as we rolled on. The story woven is excellent, as always (to be expected of BioWare, of course!). The characters (namely, the allies/party members) are awesome. I think, in a lot of ways, they're better than DA:O. I'll always be fond of the Origins cast, I loved them all and would love to see more of them again in the future. But this new cast has such a depth to them, and how they continue tohold onto their opinions, and how they react to the opinion of the protagonist and other characters, is awesome. I like how they all have a mind of their own, regardless of the response you give them. Whether you're nice, funny, or violent, they'll have their own say. Well done!

Last comments: I've only played through it once at this point, and already I feel like I have to go back to Origins and play that over and make different decisions just to see how that affects DA2. The way DA2 'interacts' with the first game is good, and I liked seeing old faces in new situations (and updated graphics!). I still miss my Warden/Hero of Ferelden/Warden Commander/whatever other titles she has. It'll be interesting to see what BioWare does with the Warden and the Champion in the next installment, whether there'll be a third protagonist, or if they'll some how work both the previous heroes into the mix. I still want to see if there really are NPC romances in the game (of course, I could be confusing NPC for 'none PARTY characters' ). They've really done a good job of incorporating your decisions from the first game while allowing your Hawke to make his/her own decisions on top of that. I can't wait to see how all these decisions affect game 3!!

Great job, BioWare! Thanks for taking yet another 60 (and counting!) hours of my life

[Jackel159357]

Game needs: Isometric view. so many situations were trying to place the aoe correctly was the hardest part of the battle.

A party 'camp' where i can find all my companions rather than having to run around everywhere to find them.

Lack of kill moves was upsetting, I loved decapitating Darkspawn.

The inability to customise your companions really reduced the number of play styles availiable.

Alot of the dungeons felt really short, i loved the really long epic dungeons of origins, these where missing in DA2 and replaced with shorter Dungeons that didnt feel unique at all. Thankfully they where short.

Modifié par Jackel159357, 18 mars 2011 - 02:58 .

[Nepenthe87]

Pros:

the combat system. This is probably the best thing i can say about the game. It was very fluid and fast paced each ability felt unique and chaining combos and synergizing abilities was a lot of fun.

Anders. I found dragon age II Anders to be one of the best characters ever created by Bioware. seeing the kitty loving alistair copy become a conflicted abomination-like freedom fighter who triggers the event that changes the course of thedas forever was intense to say the least.

Kirkwall. the city was great. I loved running through it, killing cirminals, doing quests, and just taking in all the details. Kirkwall and the surrounding areas were more alive and detailed than most places in DA:O.

Flemeth. Seeing Flemeth again was really cool and reminded me why i love that batty old woman. also her new look is awesome. I really hope to see more of her in DA:3 (major story element/enemy please!).

The qunari. Learning about and interacting with the qunari was the absolute best story element of the game. The conversations with the Arishok and the tensions between them and the citizens of kirkwall were really great insights into the lore of the Dragon age world. I was sad to kill the Arishok and even more sad when i realized the qunari would no longer play a part in the game.

Cons:

Everyone but Anders. The characters really felt recycled and boring except for anders. Isabela is the biggest culprit of this being morrigan sans the magic and more sex-driven. I found her to be so boring that when it came time to help her or give the book to the qunari I chose the qunari without a second thought. When she stole the book I was only angry that I couldn't murder her myself.

Hawke. I can understand the direction that was being taken with hawke. to Create a more compelling and less broken up story by having a definitive main character, but unlike shepard I just dont care about hawke or his story. I cared about my DA:O character and his struggles because they felt like my struggles. In DA: II that's not the case. Hawke being the main character of the Dragon Age series leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Simplification. Mainly the inablity to put gear and equipment on your party members. You cant customize anything but Hawke in this game and i found that to be very boring. I liked customizing and tailoring everything for all my characters in DA:O to suit my style and preferences. the Talents are womewhat of an exception to this and are decent.

the ending. I didnt feel a sense of accomplishment or even an "oh no what is going to happen in DA: 3?." I was angry when the game ended because it had ended. "that was it?" I thought to myself. It had no feeling of epicness or player controlled outcome. "mages rebelled, we stayed together for a while then went our seperate ways" is a boring ending and makes me care even less about Hawke and his crew.

Overuse of area maps. Even though they looked better in DA II; Origins had many times more original and varied looking areas. I tired of seeing the same foundry and underground area when supposedly im supposed to be in different parts of kirkwall.

Mass effect. all in all I felt disappointed that this game really felt like a Medieval mod for Mass effect 2. It felt so different from origins that it is hard to see that they are in the same series. It felt like everything established in Origins was glossed over for a more approachable game and I feel it hurt the game a lot.

The length. I beat this game in less than 1/3 of the time I beat dragon age origins. it felt much smaller and even though I know I missed a lot I probably still did about 75% of game including the main story and side stuff. Kirkwall was really small and I would have liked to see a lot more "fodder" fetch and kill quests to extend the game some.

all in all I was disappointed with the game. I liked it mostly but there are really apparant differences from origins that I dont like and too many aspects of the game which are drawn from mass effect, which I absolutely hate.

Modifié par Nepenthe87, 18 mars 2011 - 04:27 .

[KingJason13]

   Wow, Just finished the game and must admit that I'm more than a little stunned by the the overall experience. And not in an entirely good way. I'm torn. There are things about the game that I quite enjoyed, but found the overall experience to be marred by a lazy, rushed, approach to world design. For every improvement, or decent new idea, there were several poorly executed ideas to offset them.

  Riffing on an earlier comment... this game should realy be called "Cut and Paste: the Kirkwall Chronicles"...     
because, MY GOD, is there a lot of immersion breaking repetition. The same cave, sewer, beach settings are used upwards of 10 times EACH!?! This is either due to Bioware being pressed to release this product ASAP, my personal hope, as I love Bioware, or, a massive, middle finger to the gaming community, degree of laziness that usually foreshadows the demise of brand names! 

  I mean, it must be considered criminal to release as many first day DLC, as Bioware have, for a product that mindlessly cuts and pastes so many locales, side quest types, and situations. Act 2 and Act 3 unfold with the exact same story arc. You even have to run through the exact same burning levels at the end of each!?! (cut and paste, people... CUT AND PASTE).

  Is Bioware's niche simply becoming commercialised? Will we see releases rushed to meet 6 month to 1 year production cycles so that we can have a new Dragon Age every year? "Yay, DA 2012 is out"! With less content, fewer options, no soul, lack of thought, and beta level game code... But... DAMN is it shiny. Hell, I can almost hear Sandal proclaiming, "I like Shiny" somewhere in the background!

  I blame the reality of business models, here, rather than BW, whom I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt to (this time). The Movie, Music, Television, and even the once unassailable News, Industries attitudes toward business have turned their output into generalised mass market pablum, so, they can force feed it to the masses via slick advertising campaigns... And, now, it feels like it's Video Gaming's turn. I can imagine the conversations had with suits over what to cut to attract new consumers... "Party equipment screens scare away casual gamers, cut that", "Can you imagine how much money and time we can save by just reusing the same locations"! Well, I ask, what about the people who got you to this point in the first place? What about your art? What about... ARGGHHH!!!

  Alright, alright, I'm done my rant (for now)...

Pros:

+ Great Graphics          (offset by how much work it takes to get them there... Hres packs, beta drivers, and all...)
+ Solid Voice Acting      (offset by how little the variations in temperment actually effect anything)
+ Enjoyable Combat       (please, slow it down just a little next time)
+ Decent Characters: Companions actually act out their own agendas (behind your backs, even, little *%$*'s)
+ Still the closest I'll get to the golden age of CRPG's

Cons:

- So many returns to the same lacklustre, copy and paste, RPG on rails, environments, that I felt no sense of excitement, or wonder, at explorating the world past Act 1.
- Many of the subquests feel like repetitive excuses to pad game time. Several are broken.
- Act 2 and Act 3 have identical story arcs. Just replace the Qunari with the Templars and the Racists with Mages.
- The Friend/Rival system caused certain party members to become extremely one dimensional... and foreshadowed a great deal of the story."Hmmm, why so much emphasis on Mage/Templar opinions... unless..."
- The romance convo options feel entirely out of place due to the lack of the fleshing out of the story between leaps in time.
- If you're going to use a storytelling device, like "10 years in the life of", than make it feel as if time has passed! (More than Aveline's Guard Captain now).
- The more interesting plot points of the series, like Flemeth, Morrigan's child, etc., are left nigh untouched!
- The game ended exactly when it started to get interesting!?

Summary:

  I don't know. This game makes my brain hurt. I'm torn between loathing how easily Bioware fumbled a game style that should, really, be a walk in the park for them by now, and, how happy I was to play anything with the name Dragon Age stamped on it.
 The improvements are all superficial ones (being graphical, interface, etc.)... whereas, all of the failures are in important areas like depth of choice, world design, story flow, customisation... All of the things that identify this genre.
 I can't help feeling that, given more time, Bioware could have fleshed the world/story/quests out enough that all of the games little nagging faults could have been ignored. Just like DA:O... Unfortunately, just too many opportunities have been missed here to make up for it. I guess it wasn't meant to be.
  And.... yet... DA2 is still head and shoulders above the rest of the pablum burps that pass for games these days. Go figure.

Verdict:  6 / 10               (TEST IT NEXT TIME)

Modifié par KingJason13, 18 mars 2011 - 05:41 .

[JackFace]

Just finished the game, myself, and I'll say firstly that I really enjoyed the game. I expect great things from BioWare and you guys have never failed to deliver. I suppose it would be cleanest just to lay down the good and bad.

Didn't like:
- My biggest problem with the game is that I feel like I missed out on a lot of party interaction. Now, the party is always one of my favorite parts of a BioWare game, along with the rest of the characters, but I was never sure about where I was with my party in this game. I'm not exactly sure what the difference in this game and the rest was - maybe not having the party in one place (not a bad thing, but the execution of it can probably be better), maybe not always having dialogue wheels for them, even if they don't always go anywhere. Whatever was the cause, I feel like I missed a bunch of quests and interaction with my party and, consequentially, felt quite distant from a couple of characters.
- As well, the ending left me clenching my fist and cursing the heavens at the complete lack of epilogue. I don't mean to say that I want t know exactly what happened to everyone for the rest of their lives, but I don't think it would have been anything but an improvement to be able to speak to important characters after the final battle. Have a scene with Isabella and Hawke, at least (or whoever you romanced). Some goodbyes for people, or whatever. Just walking out, though, and getting absolutely nothing else... I feel like there could have been better execution.
- Junk. I didn't understand it in Origins and I still don't in DA2. Just give me the money if all I can do is sell it, anyway.
- I miss the descriptions of weapons and armor. Some get codex descriptions, but even a little description for all the weapons goes a long way, especially when I don't have to switch over to my codex and match up weapon name and description from memory.
- Leliana didn't recognize my Warden's romance. I know it's a bug, so I don't really count it against the game itself, but it irked me. As long as it's fixed by 3, if it has any importance in that game.
- Lots of reused maps. I don't mind sticking around Kirkwall the whole game - you can tell a great story in a single city - but surely there could be a little more diversity in the side quests.
- I could have done with a couple of more party members, but that's a just personal preference.

Like I said, though, I really liked the game. A little more specifically:
- Graphics are better. Always a good thing.
- Voiced Hawke. I was on the fence before the game, but you guys really pulled it off well.
- Voice acting. I loved Hawke's actor - better than Shepard, the only comparison I've got so far as voiced PCs. He really brought the character to life and made him likeable. Everyone else had great voice acting, as well, but I expected that. Kudos.
- Quest resolutions. Hard stuff happened. Killing the Keeper/Dalish, Anders blowing up the Chanty (but that one doesn't count, I guess, because he does it anyway), etc. I enjoyed that I couldn't just fix everything that happened. It's a fun game that lets you do that, like Origins did, but it's a fun one that doesn't, either. Sometimes bad stuff just happens. As long as consequences are different, they don't have to include a "happy" ending.
- The Qunari. They're awesome. It's always unfortunate to have to kill a fellow who you could have been friends with in different circumstances, but it makes for good storytelling.
- Combat. Carving people up in the game is very fun. Well done, there.
- Rogue armor! I hated wearing the exact same armor for the entire game in Origins.
- The story. I liked that it was just a story about Hawke, as opposed to saving the world. Those stories belong, too, but something different is nice every now and then.
- Much more. It's always hard to think of things you like about things, as opposed to the things you dislike.

Miscellaneous:
I'll give you this ending, BioWare. It made the game feel like an epic prequel for a grand tale that will hopefully be DA3. So having a cliff hanging ending is fine, but you have to promise to deliver in DA3. You've set the world up masterfully, but if you're going to keep us hanging, I expect even more out of DA3. But I don't doubt that you guys will pull it off. I'm looking forward to DLC and the next game. In the mean time, I'll start a warrior playthrough.

I know I can't very accurately rate the game until I've played it again and have had a cooling off period, but I'll go ahead and drop a rating anyway.

89/100 to DA:O's 95/100

Modifié par JackFace, 18 mars 2011 - 06:58 .

[Big_Choppa]

I beat this game and I'm not sure I can play through it again. I didn't feel connected to the story because it keeps skipping years at a time. It really had me getting upset because it was determining what I did in that time. It killed the immersion. I'd rather have had no one saying, "Oh, a few years later..." just let me play the dang game! I thought the game was boring and lackluster until the end, where the battles were great and I thought the ending was really cool. Otherwise, it's a miss on the story. Thoroughly disappointed on the story line. The cut scenes with Varric also killed the immersion.

Adventuring areas? Good lord this was one of the most excruciating things for me. The times I had to go through the same areas with the EXACT same maps was terrible. I felt like I under house arrest around Kirkwall. There was no adventure in this. I just felt like a noble lord rise through the ranks and kill people. Area recycling killed the wonder that the first had, which had many uniquely crafted areas. Sure the first had a lot of similar areas, but those were rare.

I'm honestly going to say I liked the combat in Dragon Age: Origins much more. It felt much more tactical and challenging. Mages, who used to be deadly can get massacred in two seconds by a capable rogue. Mage defences are terrible, therefor making dispell magic absoluetely worthless. In the first, spells like that were amazing. It really does feel like an action RPG. I'm not sure how to fix it, I feel as if too much was gutted from DA:O.

One of the biggest disappointments was playing only human. This was to get voice acting in, but I'd rather have my text dialogue back along with the races from Origins. I think Qunari would have been an awesome race to play as. But honestly, one race for an RPG that's supposed to be a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate? This isn't the case anymore, sadly. If voice acting is going to strip things out of the game, just can voice acting for Dragon Age for the main character.

Dragon Age 2 has no wonder to it. No massive splendor, exploration or intrigue. I was just busy running around handing things to people and trudging to the next area for more XP and money. I just felt a disconnect with the areas because all I did was keep running back and forth in them.

This would have been a good expansion, but it ultimately fails for Dragon Age. It's just Dragon Age with mechanics taken from Mass Effect. I'm hard pressed to give this game a 3/5 but I shall. It deserves no higher than that. Dragon Age: Origins was completely amazing. Dragon Age 2 is just bland.

If Dragon Age 3 is going to be the same deal, I'm not even going to bother. You made me a devoted fan with Dragon Age: Origins but you're losing my interest with Dragon Age 2. I guess it's time to replay Dragon Age: Origins.

P.S. - Tevinter Imperium would be an awesome area for Dragon Age 3. Please, get it right next time, Bioware.

[Glorfindel709]

Well, I'm going to give this a shot.

Disclaimer: I am not intending to use this post to bash Bioware, EA, the Dragon Age Franchise, or anyone elses opinions. All criticisms, things I enjoyed, nitpicks, and technical issues are soley based on my perception and opinion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let me start this by saying that I am a console player on the Xbox 360 who has been playing Bioware games for a little over a decade, my favorite being Dragon Age: Origins.


The Good.

The Art was improved on the asthetic sense in regards to the environs and *some* of the character models, and comparing the visuals of Hightown and Lowtown and Darktown was both a perfect way of showing just how different and varried the denizens of Kirkwall were and the type of life that thrived there.

The music, much like Dragon Age Origins, was also very good. I am particularly found of the music played inside The Hanged Man as well as the track Rogue Heart. The music tried and mostly succeeded in giving an epic score to some very important crysis points in the game (Qunari Rising, for example)

The combat flowed very well, giving vigorous and fast paced battles (until the third or fourth wave in which it approached the realm of button mashing)

The Party Banter was, as always, particularly inspiring and funny, I was entertained just by walking through the areas of Kirkwall to hear all the different possible conversations.

The Inventory automatically sorting the "you can sell this!" to the junk section was nice, made shopping so much easier....

Varric - simply put, that Dwarf climbed through the hell of cynicism and is tied for the crown of my favorite RPG companion in any game, ever.

Act 2 was masterfully done. The Night Terrors plot resolution with the death of Leandra for the first moment in the game evoked an emotional reaction that made me go in my head "Yes... this *is* the Bioware game I prayed it would be. Thank you, Gaming Gods!". It only got better, with the rising tension between the City and the Qunari, the discovery of just what Isabelas mysterious relic was, the death of Saemus, and of course the battle for Kirkwall against the Qunari. I ended that fight with a shout of "Hallelujah, Bioware has delivered!!!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nit-picking

The Geography of Ferelden - .... guys. You created this world. Hawke and his Family left Ferelden from Gwaren and apparently travelled north across the Waking Sea to get to Kirkwall..... Gwaren is in the south east of Ferelden near the edges of the Brecilian Forest. If anything they'd need to sail east out into the Frozen Sea before turning North and skirting along the coast of Ferelden on the Amaranthine Ocean before taking a trip West through the Waking Sea, by passing Ostwick infavor of Kirkwall. I understand that shortening it was better for dialogue, but it was just so innacurate it made me stop the game and flee to the Dragon Age wiki to make sure I hadnt misheard.

The Cameos of Origin Companions - It was nice touch of fan service, a nod that the game we imported actually did happen, as it seemed that except for a few brief mentions (and even some of those mentions were bugged), the decisions in Origins didnt really have any sort of even minor or mentioned impact on the game.... but that's all they were. Fan service. They didn't serve any greater purpose, they didnt even really count as a mission. I spoke to King Alistair for all of a minute hearing about how, yet again, swooping is bad and a possible war with Orlais. I met Zevran on the run from some Antivan Crows. Nathaniel Howe is still with the Wardens doing missions in the Deep Roads (even though after I *killed* the Architect he left the Wardens forever.....) Leliana is now serving as the left dark hand of the Divine?!

For the most part, all of these cameos came off as shameless "Look at me, look at me! That game that you spent upwards of  250 hours on? Yeah, it DID happen!! See, and we even included the joke! Swooping guys! SWOOPING." If they had served a greater purpose, it would have been awesome, but they didnt so they fell flat and just made me wish I was playing Origins again.....




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, inevitably, I must go to the bad.

Blessed are those who stand before the corrupt and the wicked and do not falter.....

Bad.

The recycled use of the level designs. I know that this has been stated many times, but I cannot stress just how much it *kills* the immersion to realize that every mansion you walk into has the exact same stack of crates and barrels and rubble and crooked paintings as the last. Or how every cave is the exact same cave, but I can't walk through some doors even though the map acts like there's a whole new world on the other side that I just can't get to.. I laughed hysterically when I got the Spelunker achievement when in reality, I was in the same cave 10 times.

The endless errand quests. It sometimes felt like I was in an MMO grinding at the beginning of every new area. The worst was every time I picked up a bottle or a trinket or, I kid you not, a *corpse* I was sent running to go give it to some random NPC as if I had found their wallet. One of the most recent Ctrl+Alt+Del comics says it perfectly. I understand that in Act 1 it was a easy way to help the player get the money needed for the expedition, but it bordered on the ridiculous at times.

The Button Mashing... I have nothing else to say, the title of this complaint truly says it all.

The Ninja Waves of enemies. It was so incredibly annoying  to be on the last enemy and suddenly have a group of 15 drop quite literally out of the sky like some bastardized version of The Foot. Infact, I'm going to tack on the general concept of 4-5 waves of enemy per fight as something that was incredibly annoying. I understand that it was basically XP cannon fodder, that it helped to extend fights and give us more room to practice the art of "Press a button and make something awesome happen" but there are good ways of allowing multiple waves to happen in a fight. Have them burst out of a house, or come up some stairs, or out of a cave. The enemies dropping from the sky like ninjas all across the area just made me facepalm and frantically tap the basic attack button until my lyrium potions clock allowed me to take some more of the stuff to spam the enemies with a firestorm and Fist of the Maker.

The lack of ability to converse with my companions beyond their quests in any meaningful way. It made me feel like by the end of Act 3 I hadnt even known some of these characters, because I only got to experience them at their crystalizing moments or moments of crysis. The thing that I so loved about Origins was being able to strike up a conversation with a character pretty much whenever and learn more about them. If you had kept that but restricted it to their home base, even that would have been adequate. It just made every companion that I didnt usually quest with beyond their companion quests feel shallow and barely capable of being called two dimensional.

Family Matters? --- For a game that was touted as wanting to focus on family, it didnt really do it very well in practice. Bethany died at the beginning. Apart from two mentions by Leandra and a comment by Carver that it was all my fault, it was never brought up after it actually happened in any cutscene dialogue. When Leandra died and Gamlen went to tell Carver, there was a literally *perfect* moment in which a brother confronts the other about the magic that he feels has ruined his life and quite literally killed their entire family, but that perfect moment never happened. She was never mentioned again unless you clicked on her door.  I was more affected by the deaths of the Couslands or the leaving of the Mahariel clan in the first hour of playing Origins than I was in any of the character interactions with my family that I went through in 39 hours of playing Dragon Age 2.

The entire game taking place in Kirkwall -- This could have worked, had you actually fufilled the promise that we would see Kirkwall change as time went by and our decisions changed it. The only thing indicating the passage of time was that I found myself in a mansion wearing Hugh Hefners pjs and Varric told me so. Same environs, same stores, same locations, same NPCs saying the same damn thing.

The Bugs... between the import flags not flagging correctly, the constant jumping and skipping in graphics during the cutscenes whenever a character moved, the hanging eyeballs, the magical glowing effects putting glowy red or blue eyes on their cheeks, the disappearing companions, the invisible enemies that were on the map but were anywhere in the area, Merrills final cutscene for her big companion quest triggering before I even had the ability to do the quest, and a whole laundry list of other problems had me quite literally tearing my hair out and fighting with myself to keep playing. You simply cannot release a game with that many issues without having a first day patch planned. It made me skip cutscenes, rage quit, or threw me out of the brief moments of immersion I was getting, the few times where I actually thought to myself "my hawke" rather than the puppet I was poking in the back of the head.

The Voiced PC and the Dialogue Wheel -- it absolutely killed the immersion for me. What was miraculously nice about Kotor and DA:O was that I felt like I really was Revan or The Warden. I put my own thoughts, my own voice, the tone I would use or the actions I would take into those characters. They were me - I was no longer some guy sitting in his crappy apartment, I was running around Tattooine or questing across Ferelden. The people, my companions, the entire country or galaxy mattered to *me* because *I* was apart of it. In Dragon Age 2, I felt like I was a puppet master controlling my puppet through a shock collar. I had three word summaries that turned into solliquoys. I had no idea what Hawke was going to say at any given time, and I honestly felt like I was playing a single player shooter (this as a mage was particularly tedious) with the option to talk to people. I didn't feel like any of my decisions mattered, I didn't care about Kirkwall or the people I was questing with beyond Varric, and I felt disconnected from the entire game. It wasn't an RPG for me, I wasn't playing a role. I was controlling Hawke, a person with a set in stone set of circumstances where no matter what option I choose all roads seem to lead to the same path. There was no immersion in this game outside of the tail end of Act 2 for me. 

Which brings me to my biggest complaint....

The main plot of Act 3....... I don't know what to say. To have gone from the gloriousness of Act 2, to the utter pointlessness of Act 3 was mind boggling. We were faced with a decision, to either support the mages, or support the templars. The decision was, in all seriousness, a choice between two piles of crap. One pile was hypocritical and insane, the other was self righteous and insane. The entire main plot frankly reaked of poor character and story development.

The reason to side with the mages: "We're not all evil, blood mages, insane, abominations, abominations waiting to happen, or murderous bastards." Yet.... nearly *every* single NPC mage in the game that you encounter is either evil, a blood mage, insane, a murderous bastard, an abomination, or an abomination waiting to happen. Hell, even your mage Companions fit that bill. In the end, they had no redeeming qualities for them in anything beyond their conversations about how they can be good upstanding citizens, when the game mechanics forces them to become semi-big bads.. (and yes, I realize that they turned to blood magic or demons out of fear of the Templars, but for gods sake you cannot claim that mages can be good people in conversation and then deny them that in game mechanics, it  rips me from the games immersion into the story telling and makes me go "Huh... they're all either tossing around blood wound or turning into *pride* abominations and summoning demons. Dumb.") ORISINO BECOMING A HARVESTER AND KILLING ALL OF THE MAGES IN A FIT OF "THEY WANT BLOOD MAGIC? FINE, THEY'LL HAVE IT!!" This is not story telling, character development, or even good gameplay. This was shoe-horning in a big bad while trying to give you the message that you did indeed eff up by choosing who you did, since they werent going to bother with an epilogue screen that would tell us Orisino escaped only to lay waste to all the villages and dells north of the Free Marches.

The reason to side with the Templars: "We're doing what we must to protect the city from Maleficar and apostates (though you yourself are one.... go figure) and demons!!" And yet...... the Templars are led by a paranoid schizophrenic who quite literally turns Dragon Age 2 into Devil May Cry in her final fight with a hint of the Terminator big bad in ME. The point is made time and time again that Mages are turning to forbidden magicks because of the harsh reprisals that the Templars are coming up with. The Tranquil Solution (and I would like to say that I never before encountered such blatant ****sm in a video game not pretaining to the ****s themselves), the forced tranquil branding of mages, the order to kill every mage you find.... these are not benevolent protectors. Every one of them except for Cullen, Thrask, Carver, and Keran come off as sadists who take too much joy in the power they have over the "evil cursed blights of the maker". That final fight with Meredith.... I quite literally wanted to cry at how ridiculous it was.

And let's not forget, that the *entire* mess happened because Meredith decided to Anull the Circle due to an apostate mage blowing up the Chantry. An apostate mage who was, quite literally, within arms reach. I understand she was being driven insane by the lyrium idol (which is the biggest piece of unexplainable tripe ever to be brought into a bioware game.....) but for the love of the Maker, even the insane would go "So.. you blew up the Chantry? *stab*"

There was no classic Bioware ambiguity. It was two choices of "Eat Sh!t and die" for Hawke, and it was all so trivial and meaningless. There was no grand lead up to the conflict, there was no real reason to side with either of them. I was hoping for the third Cartman esque option of "Screw you guys, I'm going home." but I ended up deciding that since I was playing a mage, the character I just spent 39 hours directing to get sovereigns and reply either olive branch or comedy theater face would probably be killed by Meredith "just to make sure" if I picked the Templar option so I went with the Mages.

The act ends with me just walking away... apparently an Exalted March is in order, the Templars are now headless, every mage in Kirkwall has been slaughtered, and I was left adrift without any of my companions except Isabela (even though I romanced Merrill?). The whole world is going to hell, my Warden is being mentioned as lip service to the fact that the game I loved actually happened, and apparently the character that I just spent 39 hours playing will be needed again in what will no doubt be expensive and pointless DLC.




I feel confused, betrayed, unfinished, and mostly just stupefied by how this game ended.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Conclusion

This game, as much as it hurts me to say it, was disappointing. I waited eagerly for months since the announcement, pre-ordered 6 months before release, and waited anxiously, ignoring the cynical little voice in my head that kept adding doubts every time information was released. I kept hoping that Bioware would deliver a game like they always had previously - a game where I could get into the story, immerse myself in a wonderful new world, and live a life in which I experienced wonders and trials that I would never get to face in my real life.


Never before in my life had I played through a game to the finale, put my controller down, and asked myself "What was the point?". And then I played Dragon Age 2, and that's exactly what happened.

I'm going back to Origins I guess *shrugs* So it goes.

Overall rating of DA2: 3.5/10
Overall rating for DA:O: 9.5/10.

Modifié par Glorfindel709, 18 mars 2011 - 09:40 .

[Janko1200]

Big_Choppa wrote...

I'm honestly going to say I liked the combat in Dragon Age: Origins much more. It felt much more tactical and challenging. Mages, who used to be deadly can get massacred in two seconds by a capable rogue. Mage defences are terrible, therefor making dispell magic absoluetely worthless. In the first, spells like that were amazing. It really does feel like an action RPG. I'm not sure how to fix it, I feel as if too much was gutted from DA:O.

Yep, i think the waves of standard enemies without interesting abilities is a huge problem of Dragon Age 2. In Dragon Age 1 a single Crushing Prison could kill a party member, BUT the party had the option to remove the spell with Dispel Magic.

Modifié par Janko1200, 18 mars 2011 - 09:26 .

[DarkAnya]

I'm glad to see so many people voicing the same opinions as I have.
The idea behind DA2 was good, but sometimes putting ideas into practice will show the idea's faults.
I'm sure Bioware meant us all to be very invested into the city and the characters and be impressed with the changes time brought. Sadly, it was half-assed. The city did not change appearance, it was cold and impersonal beginning to end (even my home was boring and simplistic and devoid of personality - it would have been nice to see different interiors based on class), the random 'walker' NPCs said the same lines years on end, (Viscount dead and one person in the Keep goes 'how much longer do I have to wait?' Uhhhh, an eternity, I guess.) and the party cast stayed unremarkably similar in appearance. Seven or however many years later and everyone's wearing the same outfit? Must be pretty stinky by now.

Also, to find out that in the end everyone was insane (I'd have preferred to see that when you pick a side, it would change who was right and who was wrong) was disappointing. It left me feeling like 'well, that was a waste of my time since the mages will do blood magic anyway and the templars are ruled by a possessed idiot'. Orsino doing blood magic when I, as a mage, have stood by him throughout the game was the most misguided decision BioWare has made in their games so far. It's one thing for characters to betray you, but we don't play games to be faced with the exact same gray murky reality of real life, where there's no good and no evil. We play fantasy because it's called just that.

Sadly, this game had the elements of a good story, but it fell flat and un-epic. It felt like a big waste of energy.

Modifié par DarkAnya, 18 mars 2011 - 09:37 .