I've always loved Bioware games. Ever since I stumbled across KOTOR 1, worked my way back to the Baldur's Gate series and then eagerly awaited Mass Effect I have truly loved them. I've had a difference of opinion on some points as to what things could've been done slightly different or perhaps (and I can't believe I'm really saying this) with a little *less* polish than usual, if only to give a game a bit of that indescribable 'roughness' that comes from the player having to figure things out on their own rather than the game leading them through the path every step of the way...but in spite of that (or perhaps because of it), I always have been a fan of Bioware games.
When the Mass Effect series came out I was at first intrigued but a bit skeptical, but by the second installment I had no doubts - it was near perfect. And when the Dragon Age series opened up with Origins it was a bit like the exact opposite. With Origins AND Awakening expansions both I was 'Yes! This is very much like an RPG feels like to me, just without the D&D system having to be slapped on' but with the announced changes in Dragon Age 2 I was skeptical. Won't this be too much like the Mass Effect series? You see...I had this notion that ME games should pursue the cleaner, precise and highly polished route whereas the DA games should perhaps try for that 'rough' appeal I was talking about. For perhaps a more open-world feel rather than a focused one.
And you know what? DA 2 actually won me over and I must say...I did not expect it would. Kirkwall and its environs at first seemed like far too narrow a playing field for me to give me that RPG feel - but a story that evolves over several years? That's certainly something that seems to work! I mean...sure you get to save a lot of time on designings different maps since you can basically use the same ones for essentially the same area (I c wut u did thar
) but just because it's quicker does not mean it doesn't work. It does and the characters feel, as always, great only this time evolving over several years, including your own family within the game. And the gameplay! You know what? I think you just might've genuinely created your first game to seriously challenge me since the Baldur's Gate series.This was one of Bioware's slight flaws for a long while. Great stories, brilliant delivery, awesome polish - but the gameplay? Often rather well...standard. Even ME 2's gameplay, which was something I never expected to see in a Bioware game and which worked damn well, still ultimately felt a little...too straightforward on its Insanity difficulty. And Dragon Age: Origins' difficulty was also tricky at first, but after I got into the min/maxing game even Nightmare difficulty was ridiculously easy for me. But DA2? Nightmare is EXACTLY what it says it is. For me, Hard difficulty is kind of like Normal, but Nightmare really does demand absolutely everything out of you. So yes, perhaps you traded some of the 'open-world' feeling in DA2, but in exchange you managed to create a game that is genuinely difficult when it says it is going to be, even IF you decide to min/max like I have.
And for that, Bioware, I salute you because yet again - you proved to me that you are not quite content with just resting on your laurels, nor willing to cave in to all the naysayers who, without them even knowing it, demand design choices from you that actually WOULD have you resting on your laurels. If you had listened to all of the crying over the forums, then DA2 would not come out HALF as awesome as it did - and for this you truly do deserve praise upon praise. Because while you listen to your audience, you don't just 'give people what they want' but also what they might need. And often...you are right in the judgement of what they need.
***Now all this praise I have lavished upon you in my mind, and that I now spill onto this page, leads me to a question. WHY do some of you feel the need to write 'stellar' reviews on sites like metacritic? WHY are you discontent over the general public's perception of you? And most important of all...WHY do some of you read the opinions of well-intentioned, but ultimately uninformed, misguided, self-righteous ****s on forums such as these as WELL as the professional trolls (sorry - reviewers) who do essentially the same thing, only that they get paid for writing their reviews?***
I felt like I needed to write this, because I was under the impression that Bioware still knows that the public ranting and raving like lunatics at what goes against the credo of ***TRUE*** RPGs is most assuredly not something worth getting worked up over. And yet reading about things like your engineer writing that 'stellar' review on metacritic leads me to believe that there actually *is* some discontent over on your end of the side. Maybe that review was written (and the author's employment at Bioware concealed, by the way) beacuse you genuinely despise metacritic while noting that its scores and reviews are regardless considered to be valid (a sentiment I share by the way). Or perhaps that employee simply had enough of the whining and felt like they had to do something to counteract it.
To you, Bioware, I impart this. There are many reasons that I've listed why I love your games. Your polish, your design choices, your pacing and above all else the thing you yourselves have every right to be proud of - your stories. But one thing, that has throughout all of your games marked them different from the pack, was to me that you were proud of your craft. No matter what others might've said of you, no matter what moronic vitriol-infested opinion, disguising itself as relevant criticism, was thrown at you, as a company, you've held fast and proceeded to do what you wanted to, without caving in to the demands made by people who weren't involved in the process of making your game.
I'm sure it hasn't been apparent as of late. Ever since the major changes to DA2 were announced I've preferred my skepticism about your decisions while absolutely *HATING* the horrendous torrent of forum hatred spill here and there along the internet. And because I was comfortable in remaining a quiet skeptic I could be surprised by how good DA2 actually is. So next time one of your employees reads something and feels the need to write up a 'review' on Metacritic or some other troll-infested dump on the internet, please remember that for *every* dissatisfied mongrel that just rants and rages on his biases on the forums or anywhere else, there is at least one if not multiple people like me, who hardly ever make themselves known on your forums, but absolutely adore your work.
There's no need for you people to demean yourselves at all. Because if there's one other aspect, beyond humility, that Bioware as a company seems to ooze it is dignity. Please preserve it by remembering that you do something most of us only dream of doing and that 99% of the naysayers (including the ones that coined the phrase Bio-tards) truly are merely jealous of your stature or of what you stand for.
Then again...it's perfectly possible that the whole thing on Metacritic *wasn't* a result of the negativity getting to you guys at last and that it was just some PR stunt. In which case...DISREGARD ALL I'VE WRITTEN! I SUCK AND BIOWARE DOES TOO! BOOOOOO DRAGON AGE 2! BLAAAAAAAAAM THIS PIECE OF CRAP!!!!!!
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