LegendaryBlade wrote...
Sure thing professor. Dragonage 2 works on a very much higher-spawn rate lower-health system that gives it more of a 'wave' formula than the original had. Instead of pausing a fight when the encounter begins and positioning or formulating a strategy the majority of the time is spent targeting and focus firing an enemy, which occasional heals and AoEs spread through out the fight.
This is 100% encounter design and not gameplay mechanics. The encounter design was bad, yes, but it's also a seperate thing. Also, aside from the repeated environments, I also think it's the biggest flaw in the game introduced by the rushed, 11 month development window. But you don't have to believe me.
However, it's still not mechanics. If you put the same encounter design in DAO, it would have been just as awful, but it wouldn't suddenly make it an action RPG. Moving on:
LegendaryBlade wrote...
The random spawn point generation makes positioning entirely useless. Often times backstabbers and rogues will randomly spawn behind party members, and they don't seem to follow any logical progression. The way combat functions relies a lot less on skill use, even as a mage you'll usually find a niche of three or four spells that you use in succession while watching cooldowns.
...why is enemy mobs using backstabbing attacks that are unpredictable a bad thing? The player/party is allowed to backstab unpredictably. Why not enemies with similar talents?
LegendaryBlade wrote...
The way armor functions reduces a huge amount of thought process that goes in to putfitting and preparing characters, and how you want them to play or function.
Inventory and customization is definitely an issue, and I think it is telling that the very first thing we heard in relation to what we all knew was DA3 was addressing it.
LegendaryBlade wrote...
Lets compare a regular fight in DA:O wil one of DA2. The engagement begins, most players immediately pause the game and consider positioning, where and what the enemies are, etc very quickly before assigning how they want character to work. Due to the higher difficulty, fights will be a lot harder without that. You may assign your mages and rogues to the back row (backrow, of course, not even existing in DA2) and put your fighters up front. There's also a lot more consideration in party build. Two mage two frontline, three mage one warrior, etc etc.
Actually I played both games in real-time at all difficulty levels using Tactics. Pausing was for uniquely difficult encounters only, of which either game had few. No longer being able to queue actions one could in say, KOTOR, contributed to this decision. Plus I just think it's more fun.
Furthermore, since you mentioned difficulty, it is misleading to describe one game as easier and one game as harder unless you are comparing Normal to Normal. In DAO's Normal, there is friendly fire. In DA2's Normal, there is not. However, DAO's Nightmare was a childish cakewalk compared to DA2's Nightmare, for a variety of reasons including the introduction of a mechanic DAO did not have: Melee-based friendly fire. So it's hardly something you can just say is easier based purely on the presence of mechanics alone, as this is not the case. That's not even mentioning the Fortitude mechanic, which wasn't present in DAO either. Nor has the introduction of cross-class combos been mentioned. That's three things DA2 added.
LegendaryBlade wrote...
In DA2 a fight will start, you'll usually target whatever enemy is the most immediate or highest thread, and will just begin tapping skills on cooldown and hack-n-slashing. I went through my entire first playthru(on hard) and only ever switched to my companions when they were dying. Which was incredibly rare.
That's pretty much how I played DAO as well as DA2. With the exception of DA2 on Nightmare.
So if we're keeping score:
DAO++ Encounter design
++ Free camera (you didn't mention, but it's my biggest issue)
+ Mobs in general had less HP (hence, not a lazy way to add difficulty)
+ Difficulty level curve is shallower including friendly fire at normal
+/- Enemies can sometimes behave more predictably?
+/- Different injury mechanic
+/- Backloaded damage results in "shuffle" but you can interrupt actions
+/- No cross-class combos, but has spell combos
- Highest difficulty level easier than DA2
- Potion spam trivializes health and mana (didn't mention, but something they definitely changed)
- Lacks fortitude
- Lacks melee-based friendly fire
DA2+ Highest difficulty level harder than DAO
+ Fortitude mechanic
+ Melee-based friendly fire
+ Potion spam is not an option
+/- Enemies can sometimes behave more unpredictably?
+/- Different injury mechanic
+/- Frontloaded damage cuts down on "shuffle" but can't interrupt actions
+/- No spell combos, but has cross-class combos
- Lower difficulties are very easy
- Many fights, especially boss battles, end up being about wearing down huge HP levels
-- No free camera
-- Encounter design
So while I'd say they are both pretty different, they're hardly different in the way you're implying. Furthermore, the differences listed do not give any evidence whatsoever of some kind of genre change. There is one feature and one feature alone that neither of us has mentioned - apparently you don't remember so it must not be something that shook to the core your very faith in BioWare - that moved DA2 towards action RPG. You can active dodge. Yes, if that big ogre is about to smash you in the face, you can simply move out of the way and he'll miss because your toon is no longer there.
That's it. That's the "action RPG" change.
Modifié par Upsettingshorts, 18 septembre 2012 - 10:32 .
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