Dragon Age II: Barely Longer Than An Expansion

[D Moness]

I assumed he meant Gears of War. But in either case...very different game genres.

yea, I agree. This just got me to thinking.... We need to clarify this in the gaming community. I say, GoW is God of War, and GroW is Gears of War... no, Gears of War is just Gears. Whose with me?

How about the game that got released first will get the GoW abbreviation. I always find this annoying most of the time it is obvious what people mean though

 

[Snowalker]

I assumed he meant Gears of War. But in either case...very different game genres.

yea, I agree. This just got me to thinking.... We need to clarify this in the gaming community. I say, GoW is God of War, and GroW is Gears of War... no, Gears of War is just Gears. Whose with me?

How about the game that got released first will get the GoW abbreviation. I always find this annoying most of the time it is obvious what people mean though

Umm God of War was released first....

 

[Boom129]

Fun fact: I just got GoW2 for the first time, sat down, and beat it in one go. Does that mean I'm gonna go WORST FECKN GAME EVAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! rage over it? No. Everyone plays at a different pace. If you blow through games quickly, and don't feel replaying it is good enough for you, play MMOs.

Gears 2 or God of War 2?

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Alright, after just now finishing DAII, I can see where a lot of the hate comes from. But instead of making a big long list, I think one thing that many people have glossed over should be pointed out more frequently;

Even playing on Hard, DAII, a $60 full game, takes barely a few more hours more (2/3) to complete than DA: Awakenings, a $15-$25 (depending on when/where you got it), an expansion for DA:O.

Why in the hell does a full sequel game take almost the same amount of time to complete as a simple expansion to it's predecessor?

Someone is definitely lying here.

I've played it on Casual and Hard, and the game took me about 30 hours to complete (on Casual). Doing everything. I honestly can't comprehend how someone would beat the game in 2-3 hours without doing.. no, not even. The first chapter takes at least 4-6 hours. And that is only doing half the bloody content in the first chapter. The combat itself might be fasted paced, but that only shaves off at least an hour or two at max, depending on how often you win the harder encounters (High Dragon takes at least half an hour to an hour at max to kill, and that is one encounter).

Honestly. It's literally impossible do beat the game in 2-3 hours.

Edit:

Its not the only problem the game has; but something like this just complicates it further.

I could go on for some time about the terrible characters, terrible storytelling, the fact that you literally only go 5 different areas the entire time, the bad character customization, the linearity that makes FFXIII look like an open-world MMO, etc., but this really breaks the whole package with it.

Also, that is entirely a subjective experience for you. And honestly, I'm about 10% convinced you actually did anything save the main plots and left everything else behind just to ***** about it.

 

[OldRat]

Combat. Im serious the sole reason that the game takes so much less time to complete then origins is because of the combat system. They speeded up everything about it making it much more fast paced. This all adds up taking multiple hours off of the game. But when you actually look at it it has about the same amount of actual content that origins did. The main story is shorter but there is atleast twice as many sidequests now, but there does seem to be less actual areas to explore.

Yeah. The combat is one thing, and there's also the fact you're NOT TRUDGING THROUGH ENDLESS CORRIDORS IN ORZAMMAR. Or suchlike. Like you said, the game is all around faster.

Anyhoo, to add to the chorus, Steam tells me I'm 18 hours in, and I just finished the Deep Roads expedition.
Considering NWN2 Mask of the Betrayer, which I found nothing short of incredible, and from what I read and recall was supposed to last about 15 to 20 hours, I don't really think I'm having troubles with length.

I grew up with my old giants, the good stuff like Fallouts, Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment and what have you, and yeah, they tend to be pretty damn long games all in all. But I think these games have a different style and approach to it all, and I can't really make comparisons like this between these.

 

[Hisshiss]

You sir, are full of shit. Im on hour 33 of this game and am STILL plowing through random side quests in an attempt to cull my monstrous log.

How about you stop bum rushing through games just for the right to complain about its longevity.

 

[Ian Caronia]

Look, I think we're all forgetting a very important factor here: Skyrim will erase Dragon Age from existence

Just screwing with you. I think EA is evil and Bioware sucks, so wait until the game goes down in price and buy it used. Simple! EA doesn't get a cent of your money (since used games is apparently equivalent to legal piracy) and if the game is actually that much shorter or crappier, it won't matter because you bought it cheaper!
Buying games new is only good for voting with your dollars and supporting the developers of the game. Like how I'm buying Catherine new (pre-ordered) and God Eater new because I like Atlus and BandaiNamco. Might buy Skyrim new if I get enough money...
But I don't like EA or Bioware, so, I'll just buy it used once they eventually knock 10-15 bucks off.

Used Games: Because whether it's shit or the devs and/or publishers are pricks, you can always have your cake and eat it too.

EDIT: Obviously I'm interested in the game itself, otherwise I wouldn't consider buying it at all.

 

[NickCaligo42]

Dead Space 2 took me 8 hours to complete on a difficulty above normal... It cost me 60 bucks and it still was one of the best games I've played the last couple of years.

It's not about length it's about gir... I mean quality.

Ehhh. With an RPG, especially one from Bioware, who's reknowned for the amount of content they put in their games, there's a certain expectation of how much there'll be to explore. For an action game like Dead Space 2, yeah, 8-10 hours is the sweet spot. Bayonetta I let get away with 10, personally, Bioshock weighs in at maybe 10 hours, but these are different kinds of games with a different kind of structure. If they were over 20 hours they'd overstay their welcome and run out of tricks. Here it seems like we're talking about a game that felt shallow--shallower than any of the games I just named--cheaply put together and didn't feel like it lived up to the potential in what they did implement. On top of that it's easily the most badly written Bioware game I've ever seen; almost on par with Final Fantasy 13 for awful storytelling from what I've played so far. Note that I'm not finished with it yet, so I don't know if it gets better, but I'm not thrilled with this first six hours...

 

[Knight Templar]

I am as of now 37 hours in and not finished.
How long did it take you to do awakining?

Also I'm starting to notice one hell of a spread in game times, whats up with that?

 

[Wayneguard]

I have 27 hours in DA2 and i haven't finished act 2 yet. I think you're doing it wrong... >_>

 

[EGtodd09]

Games like Mass Effect 2 are good. On normal, doing every side quest and exploring every planet, it's a relatively small 30 hours, so a week or so for the average gamer. For an RPG (although ME2 can hardly be called one) that's pretty damn short, but it has massive replay value. I'm currently going through the game for the fifth time, each time playing it differently, with a different class, background and personality. This is great because people who don't spend much time on games can still finish it completely with one character, and people who have a lot of spare time on their hands can play the shit out of it until they've picked every single conversation option. The lack of a jump function is fucking annoying though, really fucks up the clipping.

 

[meowchef]

Dragon Age 2 takes as long to complete it as you want.

Dragon Age Origins Awakening was at least 40 at launch.

 

[DaJoW]

Awakening costs $40-$50 here right now, so I'm kinda questioning your price figures.

DA2 might not be as long as Origins, but there's next to no travel time and it doesn't take several minutes to kill a couple of trash mobs, which felt like it added a dozen hours or so to Origins.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Here you go.

It took me 18:20:36 to beat Dragon Age II on Hard. I only skipped the Merrill and Bone Pit Quests. I didn't even reach Level 20; it was that easy. Also, I mis-remembered the DA:A price, because I got it from Amazon with a pre-order discount.

Sorry the picture is blurry, but the only camera I have is on my iPod Touch. Also, the game thinks I'm several months in the future, apparently.

 

[Zhukov]

I'm... *checks*... 23 hours in and I haven't even got down to the deep roads yet.

(And I have no idea what all the hate is about. Apparently gamers really are just whiners.)

 

[jackpipsam]

DLC, nuff said

 

[Knight Templar]

Here you go.

It took me 18:20:36 to beat Dragon Age II on Hard. I only skipped the Merrill and Bone Pit Quests. I didn't even reach Level 20; it was that easy. Also, I mis-remembered the DA:A price, because I got it from Amazon with a pre-order discount.

You must have skipped quests without realising, I cannot imagine how else you could finish so quickly. Shame DA2 doesn't have a stat telling you how much of the game is completed.

DLC, nuff said

I don't understand.