131 réponses à ce sujet

[Pwnsaur]

This is a topic I posted in the General discussion area. Someone mentioned I should post it here so the 'right' people may read it. I hope it captures the thoughts of some of my fellow BioWare friends here...

Before I begin, I'd just like to provide some background information. BioWare turned me into a 'nerd.' The game that changed my opinion and expectation of what a game could be was KOTOR. It literally blew me away, and I told everyone I knew about it, still to this day. I have played, loved, and beaten KOTOR 1-2, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1-2 and DA:O. I have convinced no less than 40 people to play/buy a BioWare game in the last 10 years. I am a BIG fan.

What I have come to expect is a world and a story that becomes personal, one that I can reach out and touch. DA2 has let me down in a way that I thought impossible. I am only 26yo, not a jaded old-school gamer by any means, so I feel like I am in the target demographic. This game is so cold, clinical and barren. It feels like a corporate product and not a lovingly crafted piece of art. It is just so shallow, I can't believe it's from BioWare.

What has happened to the NPC interaction? WHERE is it? I run around a huge city, run room-to-room in a tavern, chantry, etc and I talk to NO ONE. There is no one to talk to at all! I remember all the ways that I touch and interact and affect the game world in DA:O and KOTOR and Mass Effect and it's all GONE from DA2. I no longer come upon someone in need, learning a bit about them before deciding if and how I can help them. The seemingly small, intricate little stories that make my gaming experience personal are all gone; Replaced with NPC's standing and uttering one-liners ad-nauseum and gesturing towards nothing and no one.

Gone is the cool little story about a Dwarf girl arguing with her merchant father about studying magic at the circle tower. Gone is the waitress being subjugated by her domineering and rude boss, who has dreams of owning the bar herself one day. Gone is the Dalish Elf who is trying to cure her sick animal and needs the calm words of someone with an understanding of nature. Gone... All gone... But WHY? All these things are what make the story personal, special, and our own. WHY have they been erased?

The quests.... What happened.... I run through buildings picking up random objects that I telepathically navigate back to their owners who DON'T EVEN SPEAK TO ME when I inexplicably return them. This is such an obvious lack of love and effort put into the game. The whole world is so incredibly callous and disconnected, almost completely ignoring the character and our story in every way. We are just funnelled from one quest to the next, not leaving our mark or affecting anyone in any discernible way. It makes me so sad...

Of personal taste is the story. It feels so disjointed and unfocused to me. I don't think there's anything less compelling than hearing my sister spur my progress with 'We need status and coin.' I can't imagine a less noble, and less heroic reason to play an RPG. Maybe we don't need to be fighting against the end-of-the-world everytime, but I feel that the motivations in DA2 are.... like the rest of the game... shallow.

The rest of my issues have already been covered by others, so I will leave them out of my post to avoid sounding hyperbolic. I am sorry that I am so negative towards this game. I am not a 'hater,' or an angry 'PC Gamer' or any other miffed stereotype. I am just a guy that KNOWS BioWare CAN and HAS done so much better. It is so hard to believe that I will finally NOT be recommending this game to everyone I know and talk to.

BioWare has built a reputation that has been spread by US, the people most affected and most positive about their games. Their success as a developer has been facilitated by the growing core fan-base whose word-of-mouth advertising has introduced gamer after gamer to our favorite games. I was once one of these unsuspecting people, who was introduced to KOTOR so many years ago. In chasing the casual fan, and compromising their original vision they have hurt and disappointed many of the fans that have been there for 10+ years. I know I am just one guy, and that my tiny voice can only cry so loud; But I, along with so many others, have built the reputation that BioWare now enjoys as the foundation of their success. Next time, please don't forget your most loyal customers, our money is just as valuable as any one elses.

[cipher86]

Good points. I really agree with the lack of quest connection in DA2. DA:O had a lot of side-quests but they were discovered through world items or discussions with NPCs. In DA2 you get most of them as letters/rumors from Varric and very few of them seem to have heart.

[Soylent]

It's a quick cash grab for EA/BioWare, simple as that. Look how it's practically built around DLC, and there's even a really crappy Facebook game that actually has an option to spend $100 on crowns! What is wrong with these people? They really expect people to blow a hundred bucks on a sorry little Facebook game?

[NRO TYN]

Seriously dude , Its a sin to make a wall of text that painful

[mnomaha]

*claps loudly* Well said. Very well said indeed.

[NorseWrath]

II That Burn In Ya Ass II wrote...

Seriously dude , Its a sin to make a wall of text that painful

Lol then why comment?

i agree OP.

[LordJhiaxus]

I agree with the OP, I am playing the game, because I paid for it, but it is not the must play attitude I got in DA:O, Jade Empire, KoToR, ME1 + 2, and even Icewind Dale and Balders Gate 1 and 2. I hate to think that this game was merely a way to sell DLC, and keep a title out there until Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3.

[Mister Swamp]

Well said OP, I agree 100%. I just try to enjoy the gameplay in order to ignore the ****ty side quests

[Lee T]

I'm 10 hours into the game (still in Act 1) and yep I do agree, NPC interaction is lacking. The "find object and bring it back" quests are especially disapointing. They could have been an opportunity for one or two "wheeled" discussion, getting to know the citizens of Kirkwall; put some flesh on the bones of the skeleton town.

[Encarmine]

OP you nailed it on the head. I agree 100%

Such a shame, for me DA:2 has tarnished my view of Bioware, they were my favorite team since the glory days of Rare and goldeneye 64.
I will be treating their games with suspicion now, I wont be getting excited about Mass Effect 3 untill ive seen PLAYER reviews on it. As thats another thing, the bias reviews by the big game reviewers was disgusting.

The Marketing for this game, offering DLC items like a carrot on a stick left a bitter taste as well.

[acidproof]

I agree with the OP as well. Very "corporate" indeed. Working in the corporate world makes this all feel very familiar.

[fallingseraph]

I blame EA a lot for this.

I own all the Bioware games, and was looking forward to Knights of the Old Republic MMO, but I'm not pre ordering that now.

[Ylvena]

I agree with OP, very well said.
The problem for me is not the changing of stories, people and setting, or even game mechanics. I suck up pretty much anything new if it has an engaging story. Its taking away the ability to control interaction, the character, and the enviroment around you. It feels too mechanical and i dont feel anthing for the main character. And for me that is rare with bioware games.

Modifié par Ylvena, 17 mars 2011 - 12:50 .

[Obsidian Gryphon]

Thumbs up for the OP, agree with his points.

I've not finished the game yet. My current mood is: let's get this slash and hack over with as fast as possible so I can see the ending and wash my hands off it. I don't feel anything for any of the NPCs, chars for inter-relationships felt forced and rushed: met for the first time and the next ...ooo, team mate is soooo attracted by PC, all ready to love on the basis of one or two sentence. Wow, that's fast.

Environment is akin to the first ME: see one and you see them all. What's missing is a Mako. Heh.

[misterdde]

just as same as everybody else here. I really fell left out with this game. All little thing that made origin the game a lot of people loved have vanished. I'm not againt changing and refreshing a game series... but i would have prefer have an almost copy/paste of origin rather than a rise to power . If Bioware had to sacrifice da2 for any reason, i can only hope an praise whoever will listen to this kind of thing that da3 will not be desacralised as well. But all in all, I still got some faith in bioware. One accident does not define a rule, let's encourage them to make better game rather than burie them.

[dwiestopy]

I`m going back to Origins. I have to kill archdemon with my bad-ass archer Dalish elf. Dragon age 2? where?

[JamieCOTC]

Very well said, OP. There were elements of DA2 I did like, but over all, it left me wanting. A shame.

[Iokastos]

I am so disappointed...

[soldierofhate]

I agree with alot the OP said. The NPC interaction was pretty much non exsistant, you didn't even speak with the Merchants to buy their wares. That's pretty sad when even the Merchants don't talk to you, you just dig through the recepticle by them and leave the gold for what you take like an honor system or something? I thought some of the Companion dialoge was ok, what little there was but I didnt' feel the connection or care about them like I did in DA:O. I felt like the motivation to do anything in this game was just to level up and get coins. There was slightly more character interaction then a dungeon crawler like Diablo.

The friendships and romances are pretty lack luster compared to Origins too. Aside from the sex scenes there is no indication that you are in a relationship with that person otherwise. Sex always changes a friendship for better or worse, they would act differently around you after. At least in Origins your Friendships and Romances affected the dialouge and your party's disposition towards you. You could even just stop and chat with them during a quest or ask them if they knew about a certain area based on their background and education.

Just so my reply is not all negative, I did appreciate some of the storyline. Flemeth's involvement was cool as was some of the other guest apperances from Origins (which I wont spoil for those who dont know) were cool too. I also liked how they concentrated more on the war between Templar and Magi as opposed to the darkspawn threat this time. Refreshing change I thought. Still overall I do agree with the OP even if there is not much that can be changed about it now. The one thing I do hope they do is fix all the damn bugs most importantly the Isabela and Sebastian friendship bug. If your gonna cut corners on dialouge can you at least make sure the game mechanics work?

[Valcutio]

I couldn't agree more. This game has no heart. One of its many flaws. I'm just grateful that we have DAO and the ME series.

[mokponobi]

very polite and well said.

[halO bendeR]

I think this is the best criticism I've seen of Dragon Age 2. I hope someone from Bioware pays attention and keeps this in mind for the next Dragon Age installment.

In general, I did like the story. I was glad that Bioware ventured away from the hub-and-spokes formula and I liked the heavy emphasis on politics. That said, I did miss the smaller moments as well; Learning everything you can about your companions --I mean you've known them for near a decade-- and the quirky side quests that don't really factor in to the rest of the story.

[Belevorn]

After finishing the game, I agree with most of the points from the OP. This game is a very good game and I liked the story overall, but I think they could have done better.But I'm not disappointed though, Bioware has proven over the years that they know how to make RPGs and I'm sure that if they don't improve DA2 through patches-DLCs-expansions in the way we would like we still will see a lot of epic games in the future.

That said, like I stated, I think the story is good (thanks David Gaider for the focus on politics!), but if they took more time to release DA2 and improve the depth of the sidequests it would have been a masterpiece.

[oldmansavage]

Very well put.  I went and bought this game as a present to myself for my birthday.   Worst birthday ever...

[xenn]

We don't yet have the figures but i bet the game probably made them thousands of new fans and sold more the the first. For every one disappointed player i meet, i meet two more who like it. Despite all the criticism DA2 is a success. Personally i preferred the first, and im taking from what i read on these forums that most of those that where disappointed had high expectations for DA2 and where expecting more of same. I was a little upset too, i guess im an "angry 'PC Gamer" as you put it. But everyone has varied and different criticisms on what they didn't like. My only grievance was the combat didn't convert well to keyboard and mouse, apart from that it wasn't a bad game. Enjoy it for what it was and move on.