1012 réponses à ce sujet

[Revakeane]

One more negative thing about the dialogue wheel: choosing different responses sometimes made me feel like Hawke had multiple personality disorder... earnest nice guy one minute and snarky ass the next. Too jarring and somewhat inflexible considering the wide range of emotionally-charged situations Hawke encounters.

[William Bell]

i was the one who didn't like the demo at all, but the full game was epic. good job bioware .
Sandal was hilarious, ENCHATMENT?

The game was abit shorter, took me 25 hours to beat it, but it doesn't matter. i loved it!

The final decision to side with templars or mages was really tough, i was staring at the screen for like 10 min wondering what to do.. because both sides were right and wrong (i sided with templars in the end). That decision was really cruel.

I hope you are working on expansion!

[Exitus0]

Well I was generally happy about the game, but I do have 3 small complaints:

1. In Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 you can take the character you beat the game with and start a new story with all of the experience and equipment you packed from the previous. It was actually one of the main things that people complained about in DA:O, and it wasn't fixed here... Just saying that I would be happier if they set the level cap at around 25 or 30, but allowed you to replay it with the character you invested so much time into.

2. Not necessarily a complaint about the conversation wheel. It's actually a breath of fresh air to hear your character speak, it seems like your watching a movie. But when it comes to your companions it just seems like there isn't alot to talk about. In DA:O and both Mass Effects you could go and talk to anyone you wanted at any time, and kiss your romance option at any time as well, etc. You don't have that option in this game.. you do it once and poof, all over.

3: Finally, one of the really things I liked about the Mass Effect series is that when the game ended, you could still travel wherever you wanted, not JUST have to deal with the DLC. There was even some things in ME2 that you couldn't do until you have actually completed the main storyline. In DA2, once the story is over, it's all over. That's it. Poof, everything is gone. All that time you invested in that character just to have the story end in "everyone went their separate ways." It just seems like an ending that allowed you to keep going could have most certainly fit, but just wasn't put in.


But other than that, in comparison to the first DA, this was a major improvement.

- The voice acting was awesome
- The combat was fast paced and strategic at the same time. The fights on any mode but casual are pretty challenging to keep you on your toes. Which is a good thing.
- The specializations and builds were incredibly thought out. They intentionally put talents in other trees meant to compliment/replace other talents for the best effect. For Example: The Shadow Talent 'Predator' was a huge damage dealing move that outright replaced the Backstab talent that guaranteed a critical hit. Leaving you to put points into whatever you want, like Cunning. Another example is how Decoy worked with Blindside, allowing you to solo fights and still get the 20% bonus. Just very well thought out.
- Clever humor. Nuff said.
- As for the equipment for companions I sort of liked the new system of their clothing leveling as they do. It makes it easier to tell what items to sell or keep, and makes them more micro-manageable. Some may complain about it but I see it as a general improvement not having to worry about it.

That's my 2 cents. Great game overall. Hope more DLC gets released soon.

[bastian moon]

i really liked this game. not as much as the first one but very close. what i didnt like about it was that my companions couldnt change armor. i liked seeing each character in different armor that i could change how i see fit. also i really wish the class system would have stayed the same as the first one. i wanted andres to be able to be a force mage or blood mage or spec it how i see fit, not only have the basics and his own spec.
i am not all the way done playing yet but i love the different chapters and how the quest system is set up. i cant wait for some add-on missions.

[Fault Girl]

When i first saw all the reviews and people apparently completed it in 15 hours I was a bit worried but just completed it and

WOW

it was brilliant, I played on casual did 98% of side quests and still got 30 hours worth of play. The ending was brilliant, not sure what people were complaning about, the only issue i had was Nathanial saying my warden kept the architect alive when she didnt!

[VienxInq23]

I definitely feel cheated after playing this game. Before the game came out Mike and the other devs were talking about how DAO was over a total of about 12 months and DA 2 would be over a decade. After completing the game content wise it was not. Sure time skipping you can state it but content wise that is a negative. Kirkwall looked great. I liked the map. Goin from one area to the next not at first but I think it is something Bioware can build on.The UI I liked better, fresh, but a lot like ME2. The quest system was a much needed overhaul and it worked well. I was able to tell what area the quests were in. Going from day & night, and hovering over an area to see what quests were there made it easier complete quests. The conversation with allies fell far short for a sequal. I accidently started a romance with a male character. It was my fault for looking at what I was saying and not the response icons. I mean, what matters more what you say or how you say it ? I seem'd to be able to start a male romance waay before a female one. Oh well, my character became bi. Anyway, items were a little better then DAO but by not much. The consumables were definitley much better. Not being able to fully equip my companions was a let down but I guess it let me focus a bit more on my main guy.The story was draby. I mean I enjoyed side quests but it became increasingly annoying onto the end of the first ACT. After finishing all the side quests in ACt 1 the following acts were empty. It seems like half a game. I bet the exspansion will be the other half. I really am trying to write an overall good review but it is hard. Dragon Age 2 does not seem to be a sequel but more of story chronicled from an up and comming champion. Thus this game was given the tittle, " Dragon Age the Kirkwal Chronicles ! This is a story that had parts from games pasted to it. I won't be pre-ordering any more content from bioware. I will wait and see vid's and read reviews.

Modifié par VienxInq23, 12 mars 2011 - 07:47 .

[Serwayn Fletcher]

Like with anything, I was happy about some things but really disappointed with others.

The good: simplification of crafting, inventory, spell tree; kick-ass new spell and combat animations; detailed environment and cool creature re-designs (have you seen the close-up on a dragonling's skin????); the boss battles are epic.

The disappointments:
Having to zone all over town to talk to your companions is a serious time-waster when you ought to just have a tavern or a campsite. The cooldown on potions and heal spells is ridiculous. When you've clearly chosen a side in a battle, there are times when you still have to fight both sets of creatures anyway...which turns it into a purposeless blood bath (literally). I have always preferred playing non-human characters, and that isn't even an option here. Shapeshifter and creature summon also appear to be things of the past.

This felt like a module and not like a major release. I found it really repetitive, as in, "Rescue (insert NPC name here) from (creatures you've already fought 25 times) at (cave you've already fought your way through 5 times, re-populated and re-named)." The storylines, locations, characters were all better in Origins/Awakening because they were more imaginative, more varied, and affected me on a much more visceral and emotional level.

I thought the romance and the companion characters were weak, considering this is the same company that brought us Khelgar Ironfist and HK-47. Much of the comic relief is gone this time because so many of the characters are emo. Maybe the reason I wasn't as outraged about the ending is that I didn't care enough about most of these characters to give a crap what happened to them. You know things aren't going as well as you'd hoped when you find yourself really missing Grobnar.

Bottom line: Origins was SO much better. Maybe this will wear better for me on re-play, or someone will write some more entertaining mods.

[Carmen_Willow]

UPDATED

I finished my first playthrough last night and would like to add the following to what I said earlier:


[quote]Carmen_Willow wrote...

MAJOR SPOILERS: ...
I've played over ten hours into the game so far. Here are my thoughts:

STORY:


1. It was very difficult to "get into" the game. If I were not such a fan of Dragon Age Origins (and Awakenings), I would have put it down after a couple of hours.

2. I do not feel any kinship with my character...

By the end of the game, I was into it more.  Second and Third Chapters are much better than the first.  Problem is, unless you are a die-hard DA fan, you may not have been able to wait out the boring first chapter to make it to the good part.

3. I felt no kinship with my crew/oops companions....

This got better over time as well.  I still cannot stand what you've done to the elves; however. The look like ETs who have been starved for a month.

4. The art style is immersion breaking....

No change.

5. Just about the time I was beginning to care enough about my brother ....

Thanks for bringing him back, but did he have to come with the one grey warden I wanted to run away with? 

6. Why did you make the women run that way? ....

Please, please fix this!

7. Gentlemen: A woman with the breast size of Isabella would never be a decent duelist.....

No change.

8. It doesn't look as if I get to change my folks' specialty.....I hate that.

I still hated it at the end of the game.  And I would like the instant switch between weapons back.

9. Wish I could talk to my folks more often.

Still wish this.  Wish that my LI had more than 2 phrases to use.

And come on....the romance scenes were from the 1940s.  Fall on the bed fully clothed and fade to black.  And why can't I kiss my fella from time to time.  Or get a hug?  Do the writers ever live in real relationships?  Kissing and hugging just for being close is one of the perks.

10.  NEW - Are you trying to depress me?  My sister dies, my mother dies, I get to execute my LI (who's become a terrorist bomber).  I don't get to talk about that, I don't even get to cry about that.  No, "I love you" at the death scene......Geeze....who else gets bombed out of my life next time?  Way too much angst. 

GAMEPLAY:

1. I do believe that the baton twirling move I make with my staff is killing me....at least virtual me.

Still annoyed me right to the end.  Templars charging me, and I'm twirling my staff....right.  Like that's going to happen in real combat. 

2. I resent having to wait so long for both health potions and heal spells to cool down.

Didn't lose my resentment.  And I hate that not every mage can heal --ah, guys I don't believe it, not even in a fantasy world.  If you're a mage in real fantasy life, I would think that would be the first spell you would practice until you got it right.

3. I hate that I can't take all that lovely armor, weapons, etc. and use them for my team.
 
Still hate it. I HATED HAVING GREAT GEAR THAT I COULDN'T LET ANYONE ELSE WEAR?  WHOSE BRIGHT IDEA WAS THAT?  TAKE THEM OUT AND FIREBALL THEM FORTHWITH!

Things I didn't get to say before but would like to say now:

It was better than I thought it would be from it's first impression. I'm just afraid you may have lost the very crowd you were courting by having a slow start.

"The evil lyrium sword made me do it," crap was a cop-out and made the drama laughable.  Humans can become power mad all on their own without any help from a magic idol made into a sword. We don't need magic to delude ourselves into narcissistic behavior.  Meredith could have gotten to that psychological  place all by herself.  She didn't need any help.  You didn't need to add that.  She was more evil and scary when it was just her going over the abyss into the deep.

The game is buggy.  I had three quests that simply wouldn't start no matter what I did.  And the cut scenes do a weird flashy thing in the signature edition disk.

Finally - I really like Flemeth.  I really do.  I killed her a lot in DA:O for the experience points, but I never felt quite right about doing it.  It's not that I think of her as either good or evil.  She is SOMETHING ELSE.  Like perhaps an old god that also made it out without being tainted.  Old gods are beyond good and evil.  I am eager to see what Bioware has to tell us about her in the next game.

[operageek]

There
seems to be a pros/cons kind of thing going on here so I will adhere to the
formula.

Cons 

Characters
First of all, I love all of the characters, and I thought every one was an inventive and intriguing creation. But I was endlessly frustrated by my inability to get to know them better.  We rarely find out anything about anyone’s past - despite romancing him and ostensibly living with him for three years, I learned far more about Anders’ life story from the conversations with him in Awakening than DA2.  I found out most of what I know about these characters from overhearing their interactions with others, rather than conversing with them myself.  And the fact you cannot approach them with questions bothered me immensely.   You cannot ask about things that seem like very obvious questions.  One random example that bothered me was Isabela’s mysterious disappearing act around the Qunari.  I realize that had I had the option to ask she would have avoided answering or made up something until the time for the big reveal came, but to have had that option to still ask and receive an evasive answer would have made my interactions so much more believable. 

Not being able to speak with your companions on your own terms, but rather having to wait until a quest pops up, seems problematic for everyone.  If you prefer an action-oriented approach with less talking and dialogue, you still have to talk to someone every time you have the option in case they have an important quest
for you.  If the character interaction is the highlight of the game for you – as it is for me – then you are very limited.  Don’t make such interesting and intriguing characters, and then deny us the ability to get to know them!!  After the coronation in Origins, I had this wonderful, bittersweet feeling when I said good-bye to all the companions.  It felt like I was saying goodbye to old friends.  In DA 2, the only people I felt that way about were Aveline and Varric, who have the benefit of more screen time than the other characters.  Even with them, I would have given anything to have had the option to ask Varric to share stories with me the way Leliana would, or take some time after Wesley’s death to talk about how Aveline met him, or any number of other things like that.

The Ending
I realize now that my greater problem is not the ending, I think, but the fact that I was expecting a much longer game.  I had read somewhere that DA2 was shorter than Origins but longer than ME 2, which for me is somewhere between 40-80 hours.  I also knew it was supposed to span a decade, so I thought there would be one more time jump to play after year 7.  So when the credits started rolling at 32 hours and 7 years, I was caught off guard and disappointed.  And this grieves me, because I enjoyed the game so much while I was playing, but the ending left me cold.  I appreciate a good cliffhanger, but my feeling at the end was basically, well what the heck did I accomplish in the last 30 hours??  As far as I can tell, get some money, destroy a city and start a war.  It feels like Kirkwall would have been better off if I'd never stepped foot in it.

I would have preferred a longer period oft ime between DA:O and DA2, and the story was longer and had a greater sense of closure.  The ending makes the story, and essentially there was no ending to this one.  As such, it has left me feeling distinctly unfulfilled.  It is the first time I’ve ever finished a BioWare game and not felt the desire to start a replay immediately.

Pros

• ANDERS.  I love the arch for his character.  And I
  am impressed (In a very disturbed way) that you made terrorism seem like an option.  It has been more than a little horrifying to negotiate the forums today and find the people who totally support and defend Anders.  This is the kind of logic that leads to TERRIBLE TERRIBLE things!  Which makes it extraordinary that you were able to sway people into thinking that way, and also makes me afraid for the world.
• Act II.  I very much liked the sort of “I respect you but I’m probably going to have to kill you eventually” relationship that develops between Hawke and the Arishok, and the ending was very rewarding.  By far my favourite part of the game.
• The art direction; everything looked beautiful and ran very smoothly, and I thought the city was well-crafted.
• The new combat; loved it.  The dual-wielding rogue was a crazy amount of badass.   And the Champion’s Armour was so pretty to look at as well as being super useful.  I like this because I am often faced with the choice between ugly armour and less-useful but pretty armour, and sad to say, I inevitably choose pretty.  Then I feel superficial and develop self-esteem problems.  Just kidding.  But I liked that it was pretty.
• The music, times a bajillion. The music for DA:O got repetitive after a while, and was very brassy, full-orchestra, epic sort of feel.  It worked for that game, given the epic scale, but for less epic and more personal moments in DA2 I absolutely adored the more minimalist approach to instrumentation.  But I do, very badly, wish that the music
  wouldn’t cut off prematurely during particularly heartwrenching scenes, as it so often does.
• The party banter.  It is good there was so much of this since you couldn’t converse with the party on your own as much.  It was the best way of finding out about what was going on in everyone’s lives, and often hilarious and/or thought-provoking.
• The death of Leandra.  Beautifully done, and an excellent way to make for some potential role-playing drama. 
  Without that death, I doubt that I would be able to role-play a pro-templar character.  I was plagued by thoughts about all the actions I have taken and wondering whether I could have changed anything to save her, and then it struck me how eerily reminiscent that is of dealing with death in real life.  So that was great.  Depressing, but great.
• Personally, I had only one noticeable glitch (that rescue mission in Act III) during the entire game, which I thought was very impressive.  And as a Mac owner, the quality of the DA 2 port is VASTLY improved over DA:O, so way to go, Transgaming!

 Overall
Almost everything was better than DA:O; unfortunately, the two things which I thought were substantially worse are the two most important to me – characters and story.  The conflicts were well-written and exciting, but after so much time anticipating this game, I felt like I had been cheated by being given the prelude to a great story, rather than the actual story.  The characters were fantastic, but despite the ten (or seven?) year time frame, it felt like we were still getting to know each other when the game ended. I like the streamlining of inventory and combat, and how beautiful everything was, and the frame narrative.  There were things that I would have preferred to have (more customization of companions weapons/armour, fewer recycled dungeons) but which are totally forgivable and basically negligible in their effect on my overall opinion.  There were wonderful moments; I laughed... and I even cried (see Leandra's death, above).  Unfortunately, I lacked the feeling of accomplishment and companionship which made DA:O so satisfying, and while I would need to reflect more to come to a final decision, there is no doubt which of the two games was a more rewarding experience for me on the first playthrough.  That said, thank you for all of your hard work on putting out great games.  DA 2 may not be my favourite game ever, but I really appreciate the effort that went into making it different and edgier than origins.  And if BioWare combines the deeper character interactions and longer playtime of DA:O with pretty much everything else from DA 2, then Dragon Age 3 will be the most awesome thing to exist ever.

Modifié par operageek, 12 mars 2011 - 10:10 .

[Serwayn Fletcher]

Adding...
--Because I never found a companion whose primary function was healer, I had to leave Anders alive and bring him with me for the final battle. NOT what I wanted to do.
--While there were a couple of cases where a decision you made on a side quest in Act I came back to get you later, none of these were the epic, WTF, life-changing moments you could have made them, and that's a shame. You know...fail to help Feynriel and he comes back later and blasts everyone into the Fade.
--Male elf ho in the brothel had a quest marker over his head but I was never able to access the quest.
--Distractingly inconsistent voice acting for Varric, who seems to have a completely different voice during battles than he does in any other situation.

[MKDAWUSS]

I preferred Origins a lot more than DA2. For all the hype about the combat, I found it to be a lot better in Origins than in DA2. For one heals seemed to be gimped and mages performing any signficant AOE attacks were gone. I also soon found myself out of places where I wanted to develop my characters.

Speaking of characters, I thought they weren't established that well at all, especially the power players at the end. As for the minor characters, when they returned talking about what I had done for them, I had totally forgotten what I did to help them. I felt little emotional attachment to any characters, especially those where there was supposed to be a reaction from the player (there was one moment that I was a little sensitive to, but that was more because of me than the game).
As "dark" as DA2 was supposed to be, I must have missed that - especially at the end. The ending bordered on campy. Was I playing a game for mature audiences or was I was playing something that I would have seen in a Saturday morning cartoon?

There were a few quests I couldn't complete because they bugged out, and there were a few bugs in the import process, as a handful of events were vacant.

Codex and locations - BioWare mailed these in. Codex entries were a copy and paste direct from Origins, right down to the developing inconsistencies (ie, Thedas Calendar, where it states that it's 9:30, when by the time you read it it isn't). The locations were redressed and reused way too frequently. Sure, Origins did this, but it wasn't nearly as bothersome as it was in DA2.

It's a decent game, but not quite on the level of Origins. Whether or not I'll be playing this again, it'll probably be a while from now, when mods and patches are released.

[ArcanistLibram]

Pros:
- The story is much more coherent than Origins' and everything feels more personal. Setting the game almost entirely in Kirkwall was the correct decision. Other cities wouldn't have contributed anything meaningful.
- The party members aren't just satellites that revolve entirely around Hawke. They actually have lives of their own and they don't just let Hawke make decisions for them.
- Decisions have consequences that affect Hawke personally.
- Side quests and dungeons take just the right amount of time to complete.
- I'm very excited about replaying it and trying different things.
- Personality tracking and Friendship/Rivalry are a huge improvement over Origins.

Cons:
- Inventory and Crafting still felt like too much of a hassle. No real improvement from Origins here.
- There are no words to describe how disappointing the ending was.

Overall, Dragon Age 2 is a huge improvement over Origins - better story, better characters, better graphics, better quests, better replayability and less tedium. But because of the ending, I can't call it a good game. Seriously, the ending is completely unacceptable. It doesn't resolve anything and it doesn't make me excited about seeing what comes next. There should have been a fourth act about Hawke becoming viscount and putting Kirkwall back together. The Dragon Age team needs to put some serious effort into making quality DLC and expansion for DA2, or else I think I'll have to wait for the Dragon Age 3 Ultimate Edition before buying the next game.

[SnakeHelah]

Ooooooook. So I thought I'd just put in here my little review. Since I did not know what to expect because I was pretty skeptical right from the point where DA2 was announced and all of the changes were introduced, the ending result was pretty much a slap to the face. I just don't know what to make of it.
As many of you may have heard these little rumors that DA2 was rushed, I kinda suspect it is true. Some parts of the game feel VERY VERY overused, aka me entering the same looking caves all the time, etc. Of course That doesn't bother me as much as some other things, for example more story related stuff, like companions... Just how much dialogue did they have in DAO and now how much they have in DA2? I mean sure, it's fine to limit us to talking to them because in Origins it was like After Lothering you could go there and talk every one of your companion out of half of their game dialogue, but was this really worth it? The whole quest talk thing didn't really appeal to me. It just doesn't have that kind of Origins companion depth vibe to it anymore. Sadly, because I really enjoyed it, it added much depth to the whole story overall, ah but nevertheless, the limited amount of talking at least had it's pluses, for example it's fun to see how you go on with the characters over the years... That brings me into the whole 10 year thing.
Well, this is a very good jump from Origins indeed. This kind of story telling let's you see your own damn decisions which have consequences! Something Origins lacked, I could do anything I want but I couldn't really feel something backfire for that incorrect decision... There is another thing about this though, That adds a WHOLE new "Oh my god what should I choose here to not to **** up something?" sometimes, I ended up WTF!? with some things and had to reload. Speaking further about companions, the romances were a bit different, and I have only done 1 playthrough so far (50 hours) - Fair enough on hard?(Come on, you have to give me credit that High dragon fight was something like 40 minutes or something...) but on that playthrough I decided to romance Merril, (been some time since we had a cute little elf romance btw). But uhhh the feeling of the game being rushed comes back... After the whole *spoilers for merril romance* "Demon Eluvian mirror thing" The keeper dies (duh if you don't want her to die obviously don't let her do it) and Merril goes all puppy eyes and crying, but you can't even say anything after that? Nor does she comment and no quest to "talk" afterwards? Really? I know this isn't really important and most people don't go to romances but this game defeats and yet loses to Origins in major departments... I'll try to stop complaining and list stuff 

• Graphics: These improved to the better. I am playing on medium settings since my pc isn't a beast and I noticed an improvement already. Clearly it must be stunning with the high texture pack and dx11 and all. Can't comment on consoles though.... Speaking about looks... some redesigns look ridiculous, like the Hurlocks for example, Or the elf redo... Not really my taste, but some people might like it better. Fair enough I suppose. Definitelly better than in origins.
• Story: Now this one is tricky, Like I've said, I don't really like what they did with the companions, but at the same time, they did something new - Anders for example, his whole "help me" - I thought, was just a simple cheap companion quest, well, later I did suspect something because he lied the first time with that potion to be normal thing, but after doing it it slipped my mind. When the chantry blew up I was truly in a state that confines "WTF" . Felt like someone stabed a knife up my stomach and jerked it around. Another very big WTF moment was about Flemeth, Hooray we resurrected her! ... Well Good job on these sort of moments But some deaths... Like Mother dying... Was it really neccesary? I for one, didn't cried rivers when that hapened, was angry to say the least, but I honestly think there would be more people who would have liked that she lived, seen Bethany survive and all. This is a bit of a downfall: "We make you be human because it has more depth and so yay ! Hawke has "Family" that doesn't die in the start of the game!  But then we take it and kill most of it off later, Don't worry!. Just what is the point of that? This game really put me into a totaly different postition about deaths than in Origins, for example in Origins you could save almost everyone from being killed where you had the choice, (for example Connor, you could choose the best option with the mages and none of his family members died) here it's good since it's lost that kind of thing, you get death thrown at you a lot... Better plot twist. Speaking of plot twists The ending is what I could say.. dissapointing for me yet cool at the same time... "He dissapeared! Just like the Warden!"  To end the game but then explain how the hero dissapers to nowhere.... At least Varric mentioned "with Merril"... What I also am in fear of the ending is that it leads me to believe that they will use neither Hawke nor The Warden in the third game... If one comes to fruition... It's getting anoying really, I come drawn to my character and all, but then you just end his story without any closure at all by just saying he dissapeared with his lover, (or any scenario you might have) and just doing something else in the third game again? I hope that's not the case, with the Warden, I suppose it wasn't really possible like that you wanted to add a main character voice actor, etc in DA2, I understand, but now... Oh I don't know, The ending doesn't make me feel any good at all, aching for more most likely... Overall the storyline is very jumpy and not so stable, in Origins it was something clear. The blight, and you must stop it because it endangers the world (cliche, I know, but hey, I'm weak to good old cliches) Here? It's always fuzzy and unclear. But.. I suppose what kind of story is to be when you have to cover 10 years... Ah well. Really enjoyed seeing my decisions being thrown at me, Much learned over the Qunari at this game, though I don't know what to make of them, they are like comunists or something? Ah well. Maybe I should add that the main questline was a TAD too short. Something you'd expect from a rushed game. Better, than in origins, and in the same time much much more dumbed down and worse.
• Combat.... Well done! Much improved over the first one. As much as I'd like to point out to all those idiots who were like poison when they saw the trailers... It's not an action rpg thing. It is just not, I Have managed to get the game completed on Hard. Please, do not use tactics on hard, I would GLADLY want to see that. Overall there are some... Misunderstandings about it... Some enemies are way overpowered - Inbalanced to say the least, it was easier fighting The High Dragon (Well longer... 40 minutes.... Eeehhh) than some enemy rogues who just vanish into nothing and 1 hit my mages... Playing as a rogue was pretty fun, but having a tank on hard was a must, and I should say, I was really frustrated, with what you have done to the warrior tree, Putting on "tanking" skills on Aveline... Oh god, I saw no real tanking build whatsoever. To use taunt, most of the time, I had to use a stamina potion EACH TIME, it was a real mess with that, but otherwise, nice work. Heh! Much better than In Origins, once I mastered it anyway, doing the Hard difficulty on my first playthrough was... Quite the task indded.
• This game overall feels rushed, the ending leaving at a big cliffhanger (in my story, mages running loose and doing bad stuff, Champion dissapearing), the story somewhat like peices of something all thrown in together and blended violently but stil satisfying.... Completely opposite to Origins... Yet the graphics have improved, the combat isn't so boring anymore, and the 10 year thing with your consequences and the plot twists win over... Completely different than in Origins too. I don't know what to make of it all. Seems like they had little time or resources or something to do with DA2 so it all feels like a mess. But we all know that even a mess feels godly, a mess that is from Bioware. Thank you.

Modifié par SnakeHelah, 12 mars 2011 - 09:52 .

[Piecake]

Serwayn Fletcher wrote...

Adding...
--Because I never found a companion whose primary function was healer, I had to leave Anders alive and bring him with me for the final battle. NOT what I wanted to do.

Yea, I didnt like that either.  I had to keep Anders alive because I was playing on hard and had absolutely no other healers.  Kinda ruins that choice because if I didnt need him from a gameplay perspective, I would have told him to get out of my sight.  Don't know if I would have killed him, cant really see myself being the judge, jury and executioner .

[atwatters]

I can't believe more people aren't derailing the combat in the game. Not the combat system itself, but the battles are all wave based. How is that fun or tactical? DAO I actually had to PLAN fights based on enemy positioning. In this game enemies randomly spawn everywhere. I'll kill off a few thieves in the city and then 10 just appear. What the heck is the point of that? Can't you just make the enemies I'm fighting harder? Wave based combat is pathetic and lazy. It also gets really old really fast. I haven't even been able to force myself to beat DA2 on easy because the combat is so bad, the environments are recycled, and it all feels the same.

Not to mention the fact that it's barely an RPG. I can't use any gear other than the default equipment for my teammates? Combat text without being able to see the health of your party during a fight? The game is such a let down. Even if I wasn't expecting a more classical RPG (which I was), this would be hybrid is a monstrosity and would have made a better expansion or set of DLC's than a sequel.

[bowery tuff]

This was tough for me. I loved both games and both have pros and cons but I'm not really getting the hate toward the story. To be quite honest I cared a lot more about Hawke and his family than I did the Warden. The only origin that even came close for me was a female City Elf. Hearing Hawke's voice also felt a lot more personal for me.
As far as the companions I thought Dragon Age 2 was pretty successful and here's why: In Origins, I was able to give gift after gift and party members loved me save for a few friend-ending decisions. In 2 there was not one right way to friend the party members. You can't please everyone all the time. Furthermore, I found myself just hating some of my followers in DA2 based on the decisions they made. This is a good thing for me. It felt more like they had their own personality and they were going to keep it. Usually when I play a game like this I try to keep everyone alive and happy. But when a certain mage made a rather drastic decision at the end of the game, I killed the crap out of him despite siding with the mages. I don't know, the whole thing just felt more personal.
While I actually do like the new gameplay, I can understand wanting auto attacks and I think it was a mistake not having it on the consoles. Hopefully that changes. At first I found it a bit repetitive but it grew on me as I unlocked more skills and was able to mix it up a bit.
As far as setting, Origins had a much broader world to explore and was more varried. I actually liked getting to know Kirkwall and by the time the game ended I felt pretty connected to it. However, there was definitely a lack of variety in exploration in DA2. I understand repeating a few dungeons but even quest-related missions repeated the same buildings and underground caverns. After a while, I enter a cave on Sundermount and I just think, "oh, this place again."
The ending felt like it was just leading into Dragon Age 3. I kind of missed the epilogue and celebration (if you lived) that DA:O offered. Not a huge deal though. I still thought the ending was satisfying overall.
I understand why some can be disappointed in the game. I was not. I was hooked and finished in a few days and without a good story, a game just can't make me do that. I played Oblivion for a few hours and though the gameplay was fine for the most part I was just bored by the lack of story or connection to anyone. I still think Bioware is one of the great story tellers in video games. Not everyone's going to agree, but overall I loved Dragon Age 2.

[Elsariel]

I'm sure my review will be lost in the wall of other reviews but here it is... for what it's worth.

Character Creation

-  I was disappointed that the presets were.... unappealing.  But, making a good looking character wasn't too hard.

- What is up with women's lips?  Either both top and bottom are thin or thick... no option for thin top and thick bottom li which is what I like.  Also, they don't seem to have much definition.  The men do, but the women's lips don't.  They look flat. 

- When I move the eye height it appears that the eyeballs don't move along with the socket.  So, if I move the eye height down, then my character's face looks like she has heavy eyelids.  

- I didn't care too much for DA:O hairstyles and was disappointed to see them in DA2, however, I did actually like some of the new hairstyles although some of them looked like they came out of a 70's fashion mag. 

- I LOVE that the hair now moves a bit in-game.  Very cool.  I still wish for longer hairstyles but I understand that's not easy.  At least make a long ponytail that swishes when I run. 

Combat

- I actually really loved the combat.  Being a mage was extremely cool.  I've tried the other two classes but nothing compares to the awesomeness that is the mage class.

- Playing on Casual, I'm happy that I didn't have to do much with companion tactics.  I'm not a fan of it so I'm glad the game was smart enough to give my companions appropriate tactics for what skills I gave them.

- Healing was.... different.  I usually play a healer and was surprised that most my healing spells had such long countdowns.  Although, playing on Casual, the need to use my healing spells wasn't very frequent.  I can't imagine what it was like on harder settings, though.

Environment

- Well.... I like the city.  I love how we can see all aspects of the city and the people in it.  Kirkwall had its pretty and it had plenty of its ugly, too.

- I hated the recycled dungeons.  Just hated it.  

- Loved having my home upgrade.  I was hoping my companion's homes would look different after a few years... I was bummed that wasn't the case.

Companions

- I loved all the party banter.  It triggered often and was always intersting to hear.  And it wasn't always funny, either. Some were heated arguments.  I loved that.

- I am bummed that I couldn't talk more with my companions.  I wanted to be able to visit them and chat and chat and chat with them.  I couldn't do that and that made me a sad panda.

- I love all companions.  There was not one I didn't like... well, except Bethany.  I'm not really a fan.  She's just not that interesting to me.

- Aveline's quest to woo Donnick was FANTASTIC.  I loved every minute of it and I applaud the writers for this gem in the game.  I can't even tell you how many times I went AWWWW....  I wish some of the other companion quests were this fun.

- Anders.  Oh... my sweeet Anders. What have you guys done to him???  I'm just beside myself in grief.  I stuck with him in the end but I couldn't help but feel completely dirty for doing so.  His cause was just.  His actions weren't.  I just.... I don't know.... I hope..... ugh.

Romance

Romance was flat for me.  At least with Anders.   Not nearly as awesome as DA:O.  What was there was really hot and sexy.  There just wasn't enough of it.

Story

So much I could say about this I don't know where to start.  I'll start with the end.

Anders. Again.... Anders.  I just can't believe you turned my beloved Anders into a terrorist.  And made me feel so attached to him that I still felt sympathy and love for his character, even after his heinous act.  Nice work. 

I have to agree with those who felt cheated siding with Mages.  I played my Hawke as wanting more freedom for mages and kept saying that not all mages evil blood mages and what happens in the end???  Every dang mage is a blood mage!  I'm just boggled by the stupidity.  It really made me feel terrible for siding with mages.  I just felt like.... what was the whole point??  I'm really hoping the expansions will help me feel a little better about this.

There are a couple things I'm bummed with:

- No way to save Mommy.   There should be this option.  Some dark ritual.  Some crazy potion.  Something.  Just, at least give us ONE way out.
- No way to prevent Anders from being a terrorist.  I was really hoping for a way to cure/change Anders back into the lovable dude he was. 

All in all, I really loved the story, though.  Good job. Bioware.

[Illisium]

Just in case anyone reads this, I want to say up front that DA:2 is not a bad game. I enjoyed it. I thought the illustration of the conflict between the templars and the mages was fantastic and a vast improvement over the scattershot thematic approach of the first game. I liked the new visual style and the increased distinction between various races. And the party was more engaging than the characters of DA:O: Varric is an awesome character, though I felt the use of a framing device was unnecessary and distracting. That's a minor complaint though. I have some complaints that are not so minor.

I hate to resort to this, but it honestly does feel an awful lot like you took the same ideas that made Mass Effect 2 so fantastic and just slapped them onto Dragon Age. The combat feels fast and fresh at first but it gets old fast. I'm no traditionalist: if you wanted to do action-RPG combat, why not throw in some rolls, combos and such? And if you didn't, what s with the action stuff at all? Why do I have to hit a button every time I want to attack?

Still, that's not as bad is the ending. Really Bioware? After all the loose ends from the first game, you decided to hit us with a ridiculous cliffhanger? Are you going to give us SOME clue what's up with Morrigan and Flemeth, or are you just going to string us along till Dragon Age IV? If that's your plan, please let me know now so I can come back to the franchise then.

And then there's the bugs. The game froze three times on me while I was playing. I'm out a hundred and thirty achievement points because my achievements for Sebastian s quests didn't pop. These are not minor inconviences: these are major problems. Did none of this come up in QA? If so, WTF and if not, maybe you need to have a chat with your Lead Tester.

Anyway. Liked the game, but disappointed. Reminds me of Jade Empire, sorry to say.

[bowery tuff]

Illisium wrote...

And then there's the bugs. The game froze three times on me while I was playing. I'm out a hundred and thirty achievement points because my achievements for Sebastian s quests didn't pop. These are not minor inconviences: these are major problems. Did none of this come up in QA? If so, WTF and if not, maybe you need to have a chat with your Lead Tester.

Anyway. Liked the game, but disappointed. Reminds me of Jade Empire, sorry to say.

I loved the game but I agree. The bugs got to me at times. I have it on PS3 and it froze 3 or 4 times. On the plus side there is an autosave that kept me pretty close to where I was, but still ...

The biggest bug for me would be that I entered Merrill's home at one point and she was crying in front of the mirror about her clan and the Keeper being gone. I was like, "Geez, did they really have this happen off screen?" Then I actually got to the mission where the the Keeper sacrificed herself to the demon and the Dhalish turned on me. Then I didn't get the cut scene afterwards. So, that was kind of a pain.

[LifeBlood]

I loved the combat, and the storyline.

However, i absolutely hated the lack of content.
We were told that the game was a small file size because the devs were getting better at coding, which i now very much doubt.
I completed the game in 15 hours. I completed absolutely every sidequest, never skipped any text, excetera excetera. I did the exact same thing with Dragon Age: Origins, and that took me 50-60 hours minimum.
The thing i find bad about this is that i saw a quote, from either a developer or an official reviewer, saying that it took him shot of 50 hours to complete this game. I do not see how that could be possible at all.
The game is entertaining enough for a few more playthroughs though, so imagine i'll get my moneys worth.

[Piecake]

LifeBlood wrote...

I loved the combat, and the storyline.

However, i absolutely hated the lack of content.
We were told that the game was a small file size because the devs were getting better at coding, which i now very much doubt.
I completed the game in 15 hours. I completed absolutely every sidequest, never skipped any text, excetera excetera. I did the exact same thing with Dragon Age: Origins, and that took me 50-60 hours minimum.
The thing i find bad about this is that i saw a quote, from either a developer or an official reviewer, saying that it took him shot of 50 hours to complete this game. I do not see how that could be possible at all.
The game is entertaining enough for a few more playthroughs though, so imagine i'll get my moneys worth.

How did you do everything in 15 hours?  I wasnt even done with everything in Act 1 when I was past the 15 hour mark.  I believe my playthrough was at about 50 hours when i finished it.  Admittedly, I like to take my time with games, but I can say that only a few hours of that time was spent doing basically nothing (no sidequests, quests, dialogue, ect) or away from the computer.  

Another minor complaint I have about the game, I do not like exploding enemies and enemies bursting into gallons of blood.  I just find that ridiculous.  Thankfully, we had a toggle for the blood splatter, I just wish we had a toggle for other ridiculous animations.  Since that is likely impossible to toggle, no more blood bursts and crazy acrobatics in DA3. 

Do not revert back the the slowness of DAO though.  I like the faster pace of combat, just get rid of rogue flips, kicking flasks, blood bursts, and what not.  I didnt mind the poofy backstab move. 

As for waves, I think the problem is is that there always were waves after waves of enemies.  Keep it varied.  Have a few waves of enemies occassionally, especially when it would make sense.  Like during the beginning when there are mobs everywhere or when the city is in chaos.  I do not want to see waves of enemies when I am inside a room, fighting a normal battle at night in the city, or fighting some random battle in a dungeon.  It just feels like a force gameplay mechanic an got a bit tireing after a while.  So, waves are fine, just use them sporadically, and at the right moments, not all of the time

[bowery tuff]

Piecake wrote...

Another minor complaint I have about the game, I do not like exploding enemies and enemies bursting into gallons of blood.  I just find that ridiculous.  Thankfully, we had a toggle for the blood splatter, I just wish we had a toggle for other ridiculous animations.  Since that is likely impossible to toggle, no more blood bursts and crazy acrobatics in DA3. 

Do not revert back the the slowness of DAO though.  I like the faster pace of combat, just get rid of rogue flips, kicking flasks, blood bursts, and what not.  I didnt mind the poofy backstab move. 

As for waves, I think the problem is is that there always were waves after waves of enemies.  Keep it varied.  Have a few waves of enemies occassionally, especially when it would make sense.  Like during the beginning when there are mobs everywhere or when the city is in chaos.  I do not want to see waves of enemies when I am inside a room, fighting a normal battle at night in the city, or fighting some random battle in a dungeon.  It just feels like a force gameplay mechanic an got a bit tireing after a while.  So, waves are fine, just use them sporadically, and at the right moments, not all of the time

I agree for the most part. I did find it a bit odd that a dude's torso exploded after I jabbed two daggers in his chest. I think that should have stuck with the opening to add to the embelishment. One thing I loved about DA:O was the occasional decapitations and other finishing moves. Maybe a middle ground can be found in DA3.

As far as the acrobatics, I actually like those for the rogue. I see the rogue as more of the quick, agile type so I was totally fine with it.

[YamiSnuffles]

Okay, so there are already plenty of posts, but I figured I would add my two cents. Since I have beaten the game, obviously there will be spoilers. I could rant forever, but I'll try my best to break it down into my main pros/cons.


PROS:

-Dialogue wheel. I don't think there were any moments where I said something I didn't want to.
-Voice acted PC. Perhaps it feels a bit impersonal to some but it felt a lot more natural to me to have my character actually respond verbally to people. It was weird to have people talk to my Warden and then she just stares blankly at them. It felt like she had telepathic powers sometimes.
-Longer time period for the game. I seriously stressed over every single decision because I was surer it would come back to bite me in the butt at some point later on. Thus, unlike Origins, even side quests had weight. It would have been nice to see more changes to Kirkwall, Hawke, or my companions, but mostly well done.
-Combat. I loved it. Since I most enjoy playing as a warrior, it was very nice to actually feel like I was up and in the action this time around. Fighting in Origins felt really dull most of the times and stalled out most of my replays.
-Shorter/broken up quests. The one thing that makes it hardest to replay Origins is the huge quests. The Deep Roads always take an age unless I don't explore at all, in which case I miss out on a bunch of gear.
-Romance scenes. I literally laughed out loud at the romance scenes in Origins. I cannot speak for all the scenes in 2 as I've only romanced Anders, but I thought it was excellently done. It was tasteful and emotional.
-Companion armor. I know this will put me in the minority, but I actually liked that my companions had a personal style that really fit them. Usually it just felt like a hassle equipping everyone in Origins, especially since I usually put them in the exact same thing every plathrough. It would have been nice for characters other than Anders to change their clothes in some way over all those years, but otherwise I thought it was nice.

CONS:

-Lack of significant choice. While I could make a lot of decisions, after a while I started to feel like none of them mattered. Almost every time I helped someone it came back to screw me over later. The story frame let me know right away that there was impending doom but I thought I could have at least had doom with a silver lining. Instead I felt like an idiot with good intentions who was just screwing everything up instead of ever helping. Despite siding with the mages at every opportunity, they still would attack me and be convinced I was with Meredith. Why?! Then the ending topped that all off. I side with the mages and then they all turn out to be just what Meredith claims. Seriously? All of them turning into blood mages? And the only non-blood mages are Bethany (if she has survived) and Anders, who is now a terrorrist so I doubt anyone will care that he never chose to be a blood mage.
-Tied to the above, lack of choice with companions. While this is tied in some degree to all of the companions, it was strongest with Anders. Although I loved him in Awakenings, I was okay with and could understand his character change. However, there is absolutely no way to stop the man from turning to terrorism. Honestly, either I help or I don't and he does it anyway. Seriously. I romanced him. He should have known I fully supported the mage cause and yet he doesn't trust me in the slightest to actually do anything about it. On top of that he uses emotional blackmail. If I'm some supposed Champion and my voice is supposed to hold weight, why can't I do or say anything that actually matters? Instead, despite his constant talk about hating blood mages because they make the general mage populace look bad, he goes and does something that will make mages look even worse.
-Almost no interraction with companions. Unless you played just so, you barely got to know anyone. I had next to zero dialogue with Anders despite him being my LI. I virtually never talked to Isabella so I didn't care when she up and left. Even though I tried to talk to people, I guess I did something wrong because I never did whatever the heck was necessary to trigger most dialogues. I ended up talking a lot to Merrill and Varric, but no one else. Pretty much the entire reason I loved Origins was the character interractions. By the end of that game I loved everyone, even if I didn't agree with them. With the improved combat system in DA2 I had my hopes up for an amazing game. Instead, I felt like I would have traded in all of the improved combat to get back more character dialogue.
-Bugs. The game froze on me a few times, cut scenes were twitchy or even repeated themselves, textures warped out of existence to be replaced by white boxes, some side quests were uncompleteable, and as others have mentioned, Merrill's quest was either bugged or she apparently didn't care about her whole clan dying because she was stupid/stubborn. Also, as has been mentioned, although my import specifically listed me having killed the Architect, I spared him according to Nathaniel. Considering I bought Awakenings specifically to kill the Architect after reading the books, this drove me mad.
-The end of the game. First, as mentioned, no matter what I chose, everything went to complete hell. It couldn't have been bad enough for lots of mages to die? Did they really all need to turn into blood mages/abominations so that I had to fight them even while siding with them? Second,  it felt like it just cut off. I don't think it necessarily needed all the epilogues like Origins, but some final scene of Hawke with LI/other important companion would have been nice. Instead you beat the last boss only to get a few quick lines about Hawke vanishing. Third, it ended at year seven for some reason instead of ten? This is what really made me feel cut off. I kept expecting a final time skip but it never happened. Finally, I felt cheated. While DA:O could stand on its own, DA2 just felt like it would never be complete until DA3 comes out or there is some major DLC/an expansion.

NEUTRAL:
-New art style. I liked it and disliked it at the same time. It gave the game a more distinct flavor but sometimes the results were just weird. For example, I didn't mind the change in the Qunari but I think that was just because I was used to it by the time the game came out. It also made more sense for them to look more... monsterish I suppose, considering how so many people consider them animals or whatever. The Elves, on the other hand, were constantly jarring. The Dalish suddenly all had accents they didn't have before and they look like aliens. I could understand making them look less human but it took til near the end of the game for me to get anywhere near used to it. That said, Merrill always looked good and Fenris looked fine when I got over how long his neck was. Zevran, on the other hand, was almost entirely unrecognizeable. Had it not been for his voice, I honestly wouldn't have known it was him.
-Character creator. The only reason I made use of the Black Emporium was to tweek my Hawke a half dozen times. She would look fine in the creator only to look really weird in game. Having new hairstyles was nice, but I still hated about 90% of them.
-Hawke's family. I didn't care in the slightest when Carver died because it happened before I knew anything about him. Losing Bethany had more of an impact since I knew and liked her. However, it felt forced since- as has been mentioned- how did she ingest darkspawn blood when she should be highly unlikely to as a mage or get caught by the Circle after so many years of hiding successfully? Finally, though some people might have hated it, I loved Hawke's mother's death. It was an emotional rollercoaster since I was afraid I had let the serial killer go years before and was devastated when I lost her since she was my only remaining family member. On top of that, having your LI comfort you and then other companions mention it was amazing.
-Characters. I wanted to like them but since I couldn't talk to them despite trying to wander a lot with various people, take up as many side quests as I could, etc. In the end, I could only honestly claim to care about half the characters. Aveline because she was really well written, had plenty of screen time, and romance quest was gold. Varric and Merrill because, as stated above, they were the only two I got lots of dialogues with. And Anders, but only because I was attached to him from Awakenings and romanced him.
-Romance, aside from the actual romance scene. I liked that flirting had been made really clear, but a lot of times I ended up choosing not to flirt with Anders because the timing seemed horribly innappropriate. This would have been solved simply had I been able to talk to him a little bit more. Then he moved in with Hawke, which was awesome but became a statue, which was lame. Once he moved in I figured Hawke would be able to kiss him/drag him off to bed like the Warden could with their LI. Finally, every romance option seemed full of too much drama but the Anders romance felt like the ultimate gut punch. I already knew he wouldn't have a fairy tale end considering all the madness surrounding him, but the only way to end up with him was to at least partially condone his terrorism.
-Friendship/Rivalry. It was a good concept, but my companions sometimes seemed very spastic about it. Thus, though I thought I was consistant in how I played Hawke, I usually ended up with equal friendship/rivalry points from most characters. For example, brought Fenris with me a lot, but he seemed to not care about me constantly helping mages. Thus, in the end, he never made it to full rival. This problem was compounded by never even getting sidequests for half the characters so that I could get more points either way.
-class specialization. I have to be neutral on this, because I literally have nothing to say on the matter. I never got a specialization. I don't know what I did wrong but it just never happened. Then again, considering one of my sparse options was to be a highly inappropriate Templar dating a Templar hater, perhaps it's for the best.

Overall:
I thought it was a good, engaging game but it was a huge let down. I had plenty of fun with one playthrough, but I don't know that I'll ever bother with a second since it seems all my choices will lead to the same ending no matter what I do. Now that I know exactly how screwed up Hawke will make everything, why do it again? If some of the bugs were fixed and I could reload my Hawke to try to get things the best I could for her, maybe, but I can't see investing time into making a new character.

Modifié par YamiSnuffles, 13 mars 2011 - 12:58 .

[AirWolf856]

I tend to judge games on whether I had fun playing for the money I payed.  I paid $51 from D2D so I can think it was worth the money but not the $60 others were asking for.  DA2 just didn't seem as EPIC as DA:O.  The battle at the end was kinda flat.  It all felt more political than EPIC.  To really enjoy this game I suggest you play it with a DirectX 11 video card. The outside environments were fantastic as compared to DA:O.  I didn't see any stretched textures on the mountain sides and everything looked crisp and sharp.  I really wanted to interact with my companions more and I kinda missed the camp that was in DA:O.  I hope for DA3 that Bioware takes a little more time in putting the EPICNESS back in and allowing us to interact a little more with our companions.  Overall, it was an enjoyable experience.

P.S.:
One of the funniest lines I heard was when Isabella was talking to Aveline about spicing up the bedroom and Isabella mentions that Aveline should stick her thumb up her husband's ass.  I nearly died from laughing so hard.