Not that the game was bad mind you, far from it. It was just so mind numbingly grindish at times, that I just couldn't play for extended periods of time. The lethargic nature of the combat didn't help much either. In addition to me being a very busy person, if a game doesn't manage to hold my interest, then it will either take me forever to beat it, or it won't be finished at all. So many games have met that fate, including lauded titles such as Icewindale, NWN, NWN2, Assassin's Creed, Crysis Warhead just to name a few..
With that said, I will never complete, or even attempt another playthrough of Dragon Age Origins......and yes, Orzammar was literally like torture!
So knowing how I am, it was with trepidation that I ordered my copy of Dragon Age 2 (signature edition). I had a lot of reservations about the game, it bearing the "Dragon Age" title and all......but I was suckered in to buying it after watching the trailers and seeing the new flashy spell effects and combat, and the improvement in graphics.
<< graphics ****!It bothered me to no end that the graphics in Dragon Age Origins were absolutely TERRIBLE; even on a very high end PC. I never expected a game that was developed primarily for the PC platform, and released in 2009, would have such craptastic graphics. If it wasn't for community texture mods and other enhancements, I would never have finished the game most likely due to the sheer disgust I felt when I looked at DAO's graphics..
And when Bioware said DA2 would feature DX11, I became a lamb being led to slaughter. As long as Bioware has been developing games, they've never taken advantage of the latest 3D technologies. Interesting characters, plots and storylines have been their bread and butter, so to hear that they would be using DX11 in DA2 was shocking; but in a good way!
So after playing DA2 to completion (45 hours of play), I can honestly say that I enjoyed this game A LOT more than Dragon Age Origins. It consistently managed to hold my attention (no small feat), that I found myself playing for 3 hours at a time; which is a lot for me seeing as I don't have much time for gaming these days.
The combat is far and away superior to Dragon Age Origins in terms of excitement despite it being a bit over the top. At first I was annoyed with how much faster the combat was in DA2, but after getting use to it, I couldn't imagine going back over to Origin's pace of combat. The game also managed to retain it's strategic element despite the much faster gameplay, especially on higher difficulties.
The graphics in DA2 is significantly better than DAO (particularly the spell effects), especially when you use the high rez texture pack and enable the extra eye candy ie ambient occlusion etc.. As I mentioned earlier, I'm a graphics **** so I scrutinze the graphical elements a great deal. While DA2 still does have a lot of flaws in this regard, none of them are truly fatal.
The excessive reuse of textures is definitely the worst graphical flaw. While all games reuse textures to an extent, Dragon Age 2 does it with a gusto that few can match. Not only do you spend most of your time in a single location, but to add insult to injury, the glaring reuse of textures within that single location is appalling!
In regards to the actual plot, I thought it was very good overall. Sure, there were an inordinate amount of the usual fetch this, kill that quests, but the main plot was as I said, very good. Choosing between the templars and the mages wasn't as easy a decision as I thought it would be, although I still wish there would have been a neutral option.
I also enjoyed the more personal nature of the POV character. I'm not one to identify with video game characters to begin with, but Hawke did seem a lot more real to me than the Warden. I think giving Hawke a voice played a major role in me feeling this way.
So all in all, I'd have to give DA2 a solid 8. It would have received an 8.5 if the environments would have been more varied. As I mentioned above, every game reuses textures, but DA2 took this to a whole new level. For a AAA title, there should have been a lot more diversity and there's no excuse for this at all..
And if anyone's curious, I gave DAO a 7.5..
Modifié par Carfax, 04 mai 2011 - 10:12 .
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