So I really like Dragon Age 2

C

Cali3350

Supreme [H]ardness
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I berated this game, but the more im playing it the better it seems. The combat is actually pretty fun and the dialogue and story are keeping me very interested (I just got to Act 3).

The game isn't nearly as good as origins, and the spawning mechanics are utterly god awful (they drop on your head, no kidding) but the actual RPG in this game is pretty good. If youve been avoiding it check it out when it hits the cheap bin, its certainly worth the $20 i paid for it.
 
I agree. I bought at launch but didn't have time to play it until a couple of weeks ago and I'm thoroughly enjoying the game. It's very different from Origins but as a stand alone game it's pretty damn good, not great, but enjoyable as hell. I think I'm going to replay it once more as a female/mage to keep me busy until The Witcher 2 comes out :)

I think characters make the game and the interaction between the characters in this game feel a lot better than its predecessor.
 
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third...

I don't know why this game is actually receiving all the hate, I've enjoyed it, but I'm also somewhat green to RPG's
 
I don't hate Dragon Age 2 but the story is very erratic and doesn't feel very involved like in Origins. And the worst part.... the actual "world". If I wanted to repeat 2000 missions in the same city, I would have just played the demo or something.
 
Watch out for the incomming hate!

Ive been saying it in every DA2 thread:

As a sequel to DA:O it is disappointing. Too much depth was removed and the story is not as epic. However, the game is still fun and worth playing. I view it as an action oriented spin off.


Also, I believe they retained more than people give them credit for:
  • Much of the looting associated with an RPG remains, but is scaled back so you cant dress your party members
  • Party based combat with the ability to pause and issue commands remains
  • Setting AI Stratagies and Tactics for your party members remains
  • Skill trees remain - In some ways they are less than in DA:O but in some ways they are more refined and more complex
I liked DA2 with respect to DA:O more than I liked ME2 with respect to ME1.
 
mtbush said:
I don't know why this game is actually receiving all the hate, I've enjoyed it, but I'm also somewhat green to RPG's
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I think it's a combination of people having really high expectations after the first game which were not met, and also groupthink. It seems like once 3-4 folks on here vocally and repeatedly voice their displeasure, a whole other horde of people pile on whether they enjoyed the game or not.
 
I enjoyed the graphics and the combat, but the story was abysmal. The world was tiny and repetitive. Kirkwall, the only big city in the game, felt relatively empty. The game was clearly rushed out.
 
I'd give it a 6.5-7/10, tops. The ability/skill tree being a major deciding factor on why I would score it so high, that was the most well thought out part of the game. This would have made the combat actually fun had there been some thought put into encounter design.

SPOILER!



You can easily deal with 99% of the spawning on your head waves of enemies by "pulling" like in a MMO. Never storm a room, keep your party held in a previously cleared room or hallway some distance away, have 1 character go in for agro and run the enemies back to your pull room. Enemies always spawn in a fixed location. The only difficult encounter in the game for me was the Rock Wraith. Even the High Dragon was fine if you play crowd control like you would in EQ or WoW.
 
$20?

That's the price I'm waiting for. Where'd you get it for that price?
 
I'll probably get around to playing it eventually, and as long as I don't hold on to my expectations of it being a sequel to DA:O, I'll probably get a good amount of enjoyment out of it.

I do feel that even though it will probably be an enjoyable experience, it was worthwhile to wait until the price is down and their initial profits have been determined, just to send what little message I can of disapproval in the direction they took.
 
I really enjoyed DA2, but I don't go into games looking for flaws, I play 'games' to have 'fun'. Heck, I even liked Final Fantasy XIII, even though everyone said it was on rails. So what, the games are fun and had a great story.

I was actually happy with the lack of companion customizing, one less thing to try to min/max/metagame.

@LeninGHOLA
That dragon just before the Rock Wraith caught me completely off guard, I went down with just Merril, Anders, and Varric. After the fight I realised Anders was in healing mode the entire time and couldn't cast offensive spells, whoops.
 
drako said:
I think it's a combination of people having really high expectations after the first game which were not met, and also groupthink. It seems like once 3-4 folks on here vocally and repeatedly voice their displeasure, a whole other horde of people pile on whether they enjoyed the game or not.
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Groupthink and the echo chamber effect are a big problem with a lot of things like this. People hear bad things about something and then they start to decide they don't like it, because of that. Then they start talking bad about it forgetting they've never actually tried it.

I saw that shit intensely with Windows Vista. Putting aside how good or bad you feel it actually was/is, I would say that 90% or more of the people I talked to that "hated" it had never used it. They'd just heard it was bad and were echoing that. Of course more people doing it lead to even more people and so on.

Same sort of shit with DA2 it seems to me. A lot of the hate I see for it comes form people who haven't. I see people criticizing it for what they've "heard" or "seen" about it, but not with actual experience. Now while I am completely ok with the idea that you look at things and see if you like it or not before you buy, you don't go and then try and use that as a basis for an opinion you express to others. The people who've actually played it on a whole seem to like it better.
 
I'm on my second playthrough so I obviously like it. My first time I was a rogue and my party was generally:

Myself (Rogue)
Isabela (Rogue)
Varric (Rogue)
Merrill (Mage)

On hard difficulty it really was pretty easy, I did insane damage to a single target with twin fangs. One of my favorite parts was when Varric told the seeker that he went into his brothers house alone and faced down all those guys like dirty harry or something with a crossbow. I got a kick out of that.

This time around I am a Tank and I don't do quite as much damage to a single target as my rogue but with my 2 hander I rip a crowd a new one. Like taking on 6-7 guys pop a whirlwind half the time it kills the weaker guys first hit. My main group this time is generally:

Myself (Tank - 2 hander)
Merrill (Mage - DMG)
Anders (Mage - Healer)
Fenris (Tank - 2 hander) or Avaline (Tank - offtanker)

Normal fights are generally faster than my rogue group because I can hit so many guys at once with the 2 hander and I have pimped out STR and a good weapon. Boss fights though take much longer...the High dragon fight being an exeption for some reason. I have immunity to stun, knockback, critical hits etc so besides when the dragon would pick me up in his mouth and toss me around I could stand there and wail on him. The babies were much easier with the 2Hander than with the rogue as well.

When I went into the Fade to try and save the one mage boy from the demons I went and solo'd it with my tank for giggles. I have to say I did miss Isabela's line "I like big boats I cannot lie" which was hillarious on my rogue playthrough.

I am getting close to the end with my tank now though so I am interested to see how hard the final fight is. With the rogue playthrough I lost everyone except my main guy at least once, it's like an insane never ending fight against the Knight-Commander.
 
Sycraft said:
Groupthink and the echo chamber effect are a big problem with a lot of things like this. People hear bad things about something and then they start to decide they don't like it, because of that. Then they start talking bad about it forgetting they've never actually tried it.

I saw that shit intensely with Windows Vista. Putting aside how good or bad you feel it actually was/is, I would say that 90% or more of the people I talked to that "hated" it had never used it. They'd just heard it was bad and were echoing that. Of course more people doing it lead to even more people and so on.

Same sort of shit with DA2 it seems to me. A lot of the hate I see for it comes form people who haven't. I see people criticizing it for what they've "heard" or "seen" about it, but not with actual experience. Now while I am completely ok with the idea that you look at things and see if you like it or not before you buy, you don't go and then try and use that as a basis for an opinion you express to others. The people who've actually played it on a whole seem to like it better.
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So I suppose games like Portal 2, Half-Life 2, Starcraft, etc are only highly acclaimed because of "groupthink"? :rolleyes:

Here's something I see: people who like DA2 can't argue with those who don't like it on the merits, so they try to belittle or invalidate their opinion by saying "oh you didn't play it", "you're just following the leader" or "you didn't buy it". If you like the game fair enough but telling people who disagree with you that their opinion is invalid or accusing them of having no actual experience is just desperate.
 
I thought it was good game when I played through it, most of the hate I think was because it wasn't DA:O 2.. ie people wanted the same game with another story and hated the very idea of changes to the gameplay.

I believe both DA2 & DA:O have their good points, I liked the streamlined inventory for companions in DA2 for example while I preferred the more zoomed out tactical view and overall epic feel of DA:O.
 
Plague_Injected said:
So I suppose games like Portal 2, Half-Life 2, Starcraft, etc are only highly acclaimed because of "groupthink"? :rolleyes:

Here's something I see: people who like DA2 can't argue with those who don't like it on the merits, so they try to belittle or invalidate their opinion by saying "oh you didn't play it", "you're just following the leader" or "you didn't buy it". If you like the game fair enough but telling people who disagree with you that their opinion is invalid or accusing them of having no actual experience is just desperate.
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That's not what he was getting at though. If you read though the Crysis 2 thread there were a ton of people who were criticizing the game (myself included at first) for gameplay issues without ever trying the game. That's just unfair. If you've played it and don't like it, that's fine. But if you haven't given it a fair shake and are just repeating what others are saying, it really just adds to the noise.

And likewise, if here was a thread on here of people gushing over HL or Starcraft without ever playing or even intending to play the games, it'd be equally as ridiculous.
 
drako said:
That's not what he was getting at though. If you read though the Crysis 2 thread there were a ton of people who were criticizing the game (myself included at first) for gameplay issues without ever trying the game. That's just unfair. If you've played it and don't like it, that's fine. But if you haven't given it a fair shake and are just repeating what others are saying, it really just adds to the noise.

And likewise, if here was a thread on here of people gushing over HL or Starcraft without ever playing or even intending to play the games, it'd be equally as ridiculous.
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Precisely. My opinion on Dragon Age 2 is it looks like a game I think I'd enjoy. That is the extent of it because I have not played it so I cannot form an opinion on how good or bad it is.

My observations on people's opinions have been from reading sites like Hardforum. Most of the positive feedback seems to come from people who have played it, most of the negative feedback seems to come from people who have not. That isn't universal, of course, but my observation is that it is the majority.

Well you can't really give accurate negative feedback on something you haven't played.
 
Sycraft said:
My observations on people's opinions have been from reading sites like Hardforum. Most of the positive feedback seems to come from people who have played it, most of the negative feedback seems to come from people who have not. That isn't universal, of course, but my observation is that it is the majority.
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You can also add to that the hate people give a game before the game is even released, usually because they have some vendetta against it due to a change made or the company releasing it.

In my opinion, if you haven't played the game and you say it sucks, then your opinion is invalid. How can you have an opinion on something you never experienced?

People were hating on Crysis 2 before it came out, those people didn't buy it and still hate on it...yet, in a vacuum, it was a good game...the story was terrible, but the gameplay was very solid, the game was polished and it was fun. Was it Crysis? No...but if the game was called Babble, would people have hated on it as much?

I have DA2 sitting in my library and haven't had time to touch it yet...so can't comment on it, but I'm glad I'm seeing better things about it now outside of the venom it received when it first came out (consolized meme and everything.)
 
Bought it (D2D discount though), played it, didn't like it. The game did have its strengths, but it just felt like a hollow combat sim to me. Very few of the characters in the game weren't over the top caricatures. Only twice in the game was I actually surpised or interested in the writing. I never really felt connected to Kirkwall, it just felt like an empty shit-pit where I wasn't sure why I needed to care about saving it, other than that was where I lived. The last few hours of the game just had me making a sour face, wondering if their writers had worked on Dragon Ball Z before this job.

Other than the lack of passive out of combat abilities, I did think the skill trees were easily twice as good as in Origins, though.
 
DA2 did a horrible job connecting you, the gamer, to your character in the story. You wash up on the shores of Kirkwall and....go! The combat was fun and the spell effects were especially good. Other than that I can't say too much that is all that great about it.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it and got 1/2 way through a 2nd playthrough before going "Meh." But there is quite a bit wrong with the game that another 3-6 months of time in development could have easily fixed. The core of a great game is definitely there. Open up the world, more items and a little tweaking to the story to better tie you into the world.
 
Sycraft said:
Groupthink and the echo chamber effect are a big problem with a lot of things like this. People hear bad things about something and then they start to decide they don't like it, because of that. Then they start talking bad about it forgetting they've never actually tried it.

I saw that shit intensely with Windows Vista. Putting aside how good or bad you feel it actually was/is, I would say that 90% or more of the people I talked to that "hated" it had never used it. They'd just heard it was bad and were echoing that. Of course more people doing it lead to even more people and so on.

Same sort of shit with DA2 it seems to me. A lot of the hate I see for it comes form people who haven't. I see people criticizing it for what they've "heard" or "seen" about it, but not with actual experience. Now while I am completely ok with the idea that you look at things and see if you like it or not before you buy, you don't go and then try and use that as a basis for an opinion you express to others. The people who've actually played it on a whole seem to like it better.
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Or maybe you're a fan of a different genre? RTS possibly, but any self respecting RPG player doesn't like to be led along on a string. Not saying its a terrible game, they simply should have marketed it differently and possibly called it something different.

Gamerankings pooled score of professional reviews:
DA 1: 90.5%
DA 2: 78.9%

Gamespot user rating, pretty reliable given the massive sample size (3000+):
DA 1: 9.0
DA 2: 7.2

Whaddya know, pretty much right in line.
 
I'd say those scores are about right. Anything 7/10 or higher is a good game if you like the genre. We were all just hoping for another 9/10, which is where a lot of the bitterness comes from. Hopefully someday they'll give us another 9/10 DA game.
 
Just finished it yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Certainly not as good as the first one, but still very fun. Those scores are right where I'd put it too, really good but not great.
 
The problem with the game is simple.

Its not an epic game.

In every other Bioware roleplaying game you are the hero of the day, and are called forth to kick ass and take names for the righteous. In this, you feel like the leader of a glorifed street gang of whores, gay elves, creepy little girl elves, and crazy ass dwarves, and a couple of chicks. The only hot chick in the game is your sister for crying out fucking loud.

Instead of saving the world from the darkspawn yourself or better yet walking trough hell and fighting a fucking archangel alla planescape torrent, you play a small to medium sized part in a stupid mage war, you can't even stop the blue dudes (its been a while and I forgot their names alright?) from destroying the city due to it being a scripted event.

I really hope Bioware gets its shit together.
 
AdamNesvick said:
The problem with the game is simple.

Its not an epic game.

In every other Bioware roleplaying game you are the hero of the day, and are called forth to kick ass and take names for the righteous. In this, you feel like the leader of a glorifed street gang of whores, gay elves, creepy little girl elves, and crazy ass dwarves, and a couple of chicks. The only hot chick in the game is your sister for crying out fucking loud.
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I agree with you except on 1 major point; only hot girl is your sister? You're not into Isabella?
 
TwistedAegis said:
I agree with you except on 1 major point; only hot girl is your sister? You're not into Isabella?
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Isabella was a gross STD skank. There wasn't anything classy or interesting about her, her ony dialogues were about filling her hairy hatchet wound with whatever she could get a hold of. :D
 
LeninGHOLA said:
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Isabella was a gross STD skank. There wasn't anything classy or interesting about her, her ony dialogues were about filling her hairy hatchet wound with whatever she could get a hold of. :D
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They didn't have AIDs back then and I had a hookup at the clinic for anything else I might pick up on my "adventures". I wasn't talking about her personality. ;) :D
 
Just finished my 2nd playthough as a warrior, I picked up that 35% speed rune and sandal's special run and put it on my battle axe (Bloom) and became a total wreaking machine. Stuff just started melting in front of me so much faster than as my rogue. Having that King Somthing the Forgottens Armor and a few other choice pieces made me dam near invincible. Immune to stun, flanking, critical hits, knockback and the sustained mode that cut down spell damage by something like 60%. Was so much easier doing that last fight with a tank. We were killing all those adds before they even had a chance to charge. Was no where near as epic a fight as with my rogue though.
 
So I just finished the game. I give a 7/10 overall. Combat was good but the spawning enemies totally kill it. Story was good. Graphics were ok.

I cannot express how much the spawning enemies destroyed this game for me. Could care less about the recycled envireonments and all, its just the damn spawning enemies everywhere.
 
Having already said I enjoyed the game. It still left me disappointed compared to the first one and I don't think it was worth the full price I payed for it (should have waited for a price drop). What really makes me angry is that there's no toolset out for the game - that's just ridiculous.... and couple that with the first DLC being ITEMS only... WTF. EA doesn't want a toolset so they can sell you 5 pieces of weapons/armor for 5 bucks. I think a lot of people bought this game on good faith that was built up by Origins and Bioware in general and got screwed. I'll be a lot more careful with buying another Dragon Age game :/
 
its a great game if you are one of those who do every quest, explore everything... if your a power game that just has to go to the ending... ignoring all else you can be dissapointed... I personally loved it, but da oragins is better, but da 2 is good too.
 
Sorry for the thread necro, but after doing a full Mass Effect + Mass Effect 2 playthrough, I loaded up DA2 for a bit on my new computer. After that playthrough, which may have been the best gaming experience I've ever had, I fully feel the letdown of DA2. Bioware is capable of incredible things and DA2 was way too generic and pointless.

Anecote that sums up the game (DA2)? You find someones remains and give it back to them, at which point you make some flippant remark that isn't even relevant and the guy makes another flip remark back about having lost it somewhere. "Hey found your fellow clergyman's body, be more careful next time!" "Oh haha thanks I knew I dropped it somewhere." :rolleyes:
 
The guy who runs the show for the ME project seems to always be behind most of Bioware's greater successes. Can't remember his name, but he's skilled as a programmer and as a designer.

Nevertheless, I'm sure I'll get some good enjoyment from DA2, when the ultimate version hits the bargain bin ($5-$10), and hopefully some nice mods that address the shortcomings.
 
Well, they pulled some of the more prominent talent off of the ME team to work on KOTOR, so we'll see how the 3rd installment fares.
 
It might not be a complete disaster, but I cannot support developers who deliberately degrade good games in order to gain more casual gamer appeal, or make a quick buck.

Not for any price point, you couldn't pay me to support this game.
 
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