Dragon Age 2

[black_knight1337]

ok i finally got around to finishing dragon age 2 the other day and overall it was a pretty damn good game. to sum up the game you play is a hero referred to only as Hawke. it starts of as your family escaping ferelden due to the blight. you escape ferelden and travel to the free marches where you spend the rest of the game in a city called kirkwall and its surroundings. trying not to spoil anything you do stuff involving the dalish elves, deep roads, quanari, templars and mages. dragon age 2 improves on alot of origins but then it also fails miserably in other areas. its combat is vastly improved making it alot quicker and a bit more flowing. the graphics are a fair bit nicer but clack in some areas.

the story in dragon age 2 is complete and total rubbish. it is one of the most confusing things that i have ever come across. the game is split up into three distinct acts and each of them are pretty much an entirely new story. there are small hints at what is coming up but i never figured out what the game was leading me to until i was about two-thirds through the game. each act on its own works pretty well but when you try to link them all together it doesnt work to well. however i did like the ending to the game, it raises a tonne of questions that can then be answered in the next instalment. one thing that really got on my nerves is the lack of choice relating to the major parts of the game, im not gonna go into detail as there would be pretty big spoilers.

the combat has been improved vastly. the game has been sped up and the "tactical view" has been removed. the combat is filled with more action and is much more satisfying for an arpg fan like myself. the inventory isnt that good compared to origins. all of your party members have fixed armour so they dont lose their unique look. throughout the game i was barraged with pointless pieces of armour that would only be useful to the other classes meaning that all i could do with it is sell it. the problem with this is that by the time i reached the half way point i had more money than i could of ever needed. considering the shop bought weapons and armour are usually pieces of shit then there is no point to me needing this much money.

the companion situation is a highly debatable topic. in both games you have a like/dislike meter which shouldnt be there at all but in da2 there is a point other than romancing. if you max it out either way you get a special bonus which effects your companion and sometimes you as well. each of the companions have their own side story spread out over most of the game. some of these directly affect the outcome of the game where others have very little impact beside your like-o-meter.

so overall i found dragon age 2 to be a highly enjoyable game and is a must for lovers of the genre.

EDIT: To clarify what i meant by lack of choice is that no matter what you chose in the major parts specifically the ending it had the same outcome.

Spoiler

If you chose to help out the mages you kill everyone, if you chose to help the templars you still kill everyone. also with the whole qunari situation i sided with them on everything and they still try to kill me so i ended up killing them as well.

also saying the story was complete and total rubbish is a poor choice of words however it is the main let down of the game.

 

[Zenron]

I'm not going to lie, I find myself disagreeing with you on most points in this review. I didn't find the story to be confusing at all. It lacked pace and structure for part of it, but that didn't make the story hard to understand. It was kind of obvious which two parties would clash at least.

I agree about the combat, I think it's vastly improved from the first game as well. However, I don't agree about the friendship meter which is used, because it gives you a reason to get to know your companions and also gives consequences to vague moral choices. Not to mention he fact that the romance thing would fall flat on its face without some sort of indicator to how much the person likes you.

I don't agree with way you view the ending either, but I guess that is purely subjective. I can't really fault your reasoning on that one, you just like something that annoyed me. I felt it left open too many plot holes. There is no sense of finality which felt unsatisfying to me.

 

[Sozac]

Just to add, but if you haven't played the first one, get it and maybe awakening too, both are very good. However awakening and DA2 both had a major problem that I hated. There is just a ton of side quests they throw at you in the beginning instead of spacing them out throughout the act. For example in awakening i finish the intro go outside the castle to find at least 9 new side quests. Same thing happens at the beginning of a new act. Also, all the old areas you already went around have new loot in new areas which makes it a ***** to do the whole get every ingredient quest. So yeah there's a lot of of boredom going around starting quests. Idk how but origins never gave me this problem. It was probably because the map was bigger and you'd be traveling less often while in Kirkwall everything important starts in the city, usually Hightown and your house. Then it would spread out to every different place it could. All in all I like dragon age origins much more.

P.S. Glad they fixed the eyes for Justice and the finale that just bugged the shit out of me.

 

[Super Toast]

Aside from the annoying retcons, the copypasted dungeons and the occasional glitch, I thought it was great. The combat was fun and tactical (on Hard and Nightmare, at least), the story was good and the characters and writing were top notch. Is it as good as Origins? No. But it gets fairly close.

 

[Bebus]

I agree with you on most points. All of the criticisms you level point towards one thing: the game was a rushed job. I would rather have waited another 6 months and got a story with a little more flow, unique dungeons, a better companion inventory system and slightly more polished battles which did not follow the mob-reinforcements-more reinforcements structure every single time.

However, my biggest gripe, and one you don't really go into detail, is the huge number of false "choices". No matter how you approached the main plotline of each act, who you sided with or what you did, the finale(s) played out exactly the same as if you had done the opposite. It made me wonder why they bother letting you make the choices at all. This is often a case with Bioware games but it really felt obvious this time.

That said, I very much enjoyed the game. It was a bold move to focus purely on the story of one man/woman, in one city, over such a period of time and I think it could have been truly great with a little more care.

 

[Anachronism]

the story in dragon age 2 is complete and total rubbish

...

so overall i found dragon age 2 to be a highly enjoyable game and is a must for lovers of the genre

Maybe I'm being picky, but your review doesn't seem exactly consistent. You begin and end by saying it's really good, and yet in the meat of the review you pretty much tear it a new one; the only thing you appear to like is the combat. Is it really good enough to make up for the story being "complete and total rubbish"? I would've thought that "lovers of the genre" would care quite a bit about the story; I love RPGs and, to me, the story and characters are the most important part of the game. I'm just not quite sure how you can recommend a game specifically to RPG fans when you say the story is terrible.

Other than that, I'd suggest using a spellchecker. Maybe think about using longer sentences to go into a bit more detail on your points; as it is, your sentences are really short and abrupt, and don't really flow well. It's a little hard to follow at the moment. Also, capital letters are your friends. Use them.

Apologies for the criticism, but it's with a view to helping: the bulk of the review, and the points you make, are basically sound; with a little more polish and consistency of opinion it could've been very good.

 

[Susurrus]

Proper grammar and punctuation will also help your view appear more considered, intellectual, and thus imply that it is worth reading. What you're saying is fine, but the way you say it also conveys a lot - if you want people to read it, bear that in mind.

Other than that, as an RPG fan I thought the combat was rubbish, though granted I only played the demo - I found the waves, and what I felt was a lack of tactical choice (particularly in spells) compared to say Dungeons and Dragons, hampered, rather than improved the mediocre combat of Dragon Age 1.

Whilst I can't speak on the story, as again, I only played the demo, that's the bit that's important to me, and if you're saying it's rubbish, that's not a good recommendation for a game, at least not to me (and certainly not enough to say its a great game).

 

[SageRuffin]

The only thing I disagree on is the story. The story isn't bad, it was just poorly executed; you don't really know what's happening until the final act. The Deep Roads expedition would've worked better as a prologue, and the issue with the Qunari would've been better as a major - and possibly optional - subplot; neither really have any relevance to the whole Mage/Templar political machinations that come to fruition in the final act.

I don't get the whole "lack" of story choices too much. In fact, I found it quite refreshing that everyone goes insane on both sides from bullshit-ass politics. And I liked the ambiguity - it was hard to side with the mages because almost all of them only reinforced the Templars' fears. And it was hard to side with the Templars because they all seemed to just want to imprison or kill every mage in sight without hesitation, blood magic or otherwise.

It was a bit of a hack-job, if the lead composer's interview is to be believed. But I have faith in BioWare; I'm eager to see how DA3 turns out (though hopefully they'll take they're time and iron out most of the wrinkles this time).

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I quite liked the story, it seemed (to me at least) that Hawke was going from problem to problem fumbling his way through and making a hash of it, good intentions or otherwise, just trying to get on with his life.

Though I didn't like how they just dropped the whole Qunari bit, it made it a tad disjointed.

And I thought the combat was a hell of a lot better than it was in DA:O.

 

[Shanshu_Prophecy]

Just a small point. You mention having a ton of money and nothing to spend it on. As the game progresses, vendors update their inventories, and more expensive and useful items are available for purchase. This is especially true if you have the Black Emporium DLC, which is basically a free add-on for those who purchase the game new (at least on PC) and not second-hand.

There is also one vendor named Bonny Lem who can be found in the sewers under the Docks who will have some very expensive items for sale (in Chapter 2 he had a 99 Gold item for sale). The gold received in game is actually insufficient to buy everything, and you can buy a few choice items each chapter as they don't carry over to the next chapter (except Black Emporium).