Dragon Age II Review

[Necromancer1991]

Oh don't get me wrong, EA and Activision aren't the only devil's in the mix. Pretty much all the large players these days have drained the creativity out of gaming by buying up great IP's and driving them straight into the ground. As well as breaking up creative teams that were proven to work, but internal stupidity made a call. I'm disgusted with the large majority of game publishers and even some developers at this point. Most gamers my age just don't bother to care enough anymore to say much of anything. Most days I wonder why I do as well .. as it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

And I like IP's from both EA and Activision, but I know they could do so much more with them. But they don't, because they can, and they'll still make money. So quality really doesn't matter much anymore. I guess I'll go back to older games for now until the cycle finally hits bottom and starts to go up again, but I have been waiting quite a while now. So I'm understandably not too happy with them.

I must admit I'm enjoying this back and forth, haven't had one of these in a while and it's refreshing, I can see where you're coming from, you hate watching good IPs get ground into the dirt with each successive sequel which I can totally understand, Guitar Hero as a franchise got milked to death and Rock band is just too damn similar IMO, I'm not saying the games are bad, but they seem to scraping their hands raw against the lid of the coffin they got themselves into. Yet despite the sequel mania that is gripping the industry ATM, people just love their sequels (Me included), they are a nice and fairly reliable way to be entertained, I don't play games to be the best or make a career out of it, I play them to be entertained and good sequels are almost guaranteed to entertain, I do love when a good developer makes a good ORIGINAL IP, I really do, but the market is based on sales and sequels put money in pockets. Until more people take risks expect more sequels to be pumped out of the dark dank hellish place that is EA's and Activison's Corporate HQ.

 

[Antari]

snip.

I must admit I'm enjoying this back and forth, haven't had one of these in a while and it's refreshing, I can see where you're coming from, you hate watching good IPs get ground into the dirt with each successive sequel which I can totally understand, Guitar Hero as a franchise got milked to death and Rock band is just too damn similar IMO, I'm not saying the games are bad, but they seem to scraping their hands raw against the lid of the coffin they got themselves into. Yet despite the sequel mania that is gripping the industry ATM, people just love their sequels (Me included), they are a nice and fairly reliable way to be entertained, I don't play games to be the best or make a career out of it, I play them to be entertained and good sequels are almost guaranteed to entertain, I do love when a good developer makes a good ORIGINAL IP, I really do, but the market is based on sales and sequels put money in pockets. Until more people take risks expect more sequels to be pumped out of the dark dank hellish place that is EA's and Activison's Corporate HQ.

With all the advancement in computing power and programming capabilities, they have no excuse. In any other business. They'd be out of business.

 

[Kilgengoor]

"Hawke."

"Wrex."

oh yes.

 

[Togs]

TOO. MUCH. HYPERBOLE.

And whilst I love the game, you cannot call it pretty compared to current gen titles.

 

[War-hamster]

I love how many people just stopped giving a shit about this when Skyrim was announced.

Actually the same thing happened in 2002. Bioware released Neverwinter Nights in the spring, and in autumn, Bethesda released Morrowind. The result - NWN is basically forgotten, Morrowind still has quite large and very active community with dozens of mods coming out every single day.

Uhh, that's not true.
Yes, Morrowind still has a wonderfully vibrant community. But to say that NWN is 'basically forgotten' only shows that it's forgotten by you. The community is still quite active with NWN. Tons of servers are still running, MODs are still being released regularly, and tons of people play it.

It's very far from 'forgotten'.
It's not even 'forgotten' when compared with Morrowind's community!

Both are absolutely still alive and kicking.

I apologize if I made a mistake, before posting, I checked both Bethesda and Bioware forums, it looked like NWN forum section is pretty much dead while Morrowind section at Bethesda's forums is very active. If NWN community has moved somewhere else, I'm not aware of that.

In any case, I didn't mean to bash NWN, I enjoyed it very much (though I enjoyed morrowind more).

 

[Noshaq]

I really cannot take this review seriously in any way, shape or form. It is laughable. And it also stinks to high heaven.

The pinnacle of RPGs does not have ;

Several cut and paste dungeons
Shallow characters who I you care little for and a protagonist who you care for even less
Far too regular fights that are basically hack'n'slash
Companions who can upgraded only in limited ways
Tons of junk serving no purpose whatsoever
Environments stripped of any character
A storyline that is dull and forgettable after about 5 hours
Dreadful artwork in places

And several other things that I've hopefully forgotten because I stopped playing it after 9 hours.

This game is worth at most a 7 by anyone's standards.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

People are getting way too worked up over this game.

I'm actually liking it better than DA:Origins.

Bioware really polished things up in DA2 that were problematic in Origins. DA2 is somewhat faster paced thanks to the wonderful new dialogue set up. Picking out stats and upgrades feels better too.

The characters are just as interesting in DA2 as in Origins.

I haven't encountered anything that I would consider a problem, so I believe it deserves the score that the Escapist gave it.

Besides, it is just a game, no need for riots and pitchforks. Most of the problems I have seen people complaining about in this thread are opinions not fact. Opinions are just that, opinions, just because so and so believes the game is bad and messed up, doesn't mean that another person that loves what has been done with the game is wrong.

Everything is just being blow way out of proportion of how much relevance any of this has on anything. The whole situation is rather childish.

 

[Noshaq]

I really cannot take this review seriously in any way, shape or form. It is laughable. And it also stinks to high heaven.

The pinnacle of RPGs does not have ;

Several cut and paste dungeons
Shallow characters who I you care little for and a protagonist who you care for even less
Far too regular fights that are basically hack'n'slash
Companions who can upgraded only in limited ways
Tons of junk serving no purpose whatsoever
Environments stripped of any character
A storyline that is dull and forgettable after about 5 hours
Dreadful artwork in places

And several other things that I've hopefully forgotten because I stopped playing it after 9 hours.

This game is worth at most a 7 by anyone's standards.

ok so here we go:

1. its not as bad as you think, it does happen, but thats not a huge detriment to the game
2.this is opinion, i find that i like most of these characters
3. its a video game fights happen, as for "hack n slash" its not like that on the PC
4. they can be upgraded in a bunch of ways, weapons and belts, rings,necks, its the armor that can't be upgraded regularly
5. its loot, the original had this too, useless crap that served no purpose but to fill your bags
6. opinion, i like the look of Kirkwall
7. opinion again, I'm liking the story so far, just got done act 1, about 12 hours into the game.
8. not sure what you mean by artwork, textures? they are a bit buggy, but this is a Bioware game they're all a bit buggy.

and lastly:
"This game is worth at most a 7 by anyone's standards"

you mean the game is worth at most a 7 by YOUR standards, most of what you said was just an opinion, not a fact.

Who said anything was a fact (apart from the copy and paste dungeons)? Yeah the rest is opinion - I've got a medal here for you for noticing that. These forums aren't up to much without opinions.

Here's one more fact - my opinion is not going to change. At best this review is dreadfully misguided and at worst - well I'm sure I don't need to tell you.

 

[Necromancer1991]

Okay guys here's the review from Game Informer [http://www.gameinformer.com/games/dragon_age_ii/b/xbox360/archive/2011/03/08/dragon-age-ii-console-review-amid-improvements-bioware-leaves-story-behind.aspx], which while not quite as willing to heap praise as the Escapist one was (They still say Origins was better), but still give it the seal of approval. It got an 8.25 out of ten (Good but not necessarily ground-breaking)

 

[Zan Lynx]

The game looks like shit even on the highest settings and with the high-texture pack. But it runs like a one legged dog on my computer ( Intel i7 920, 6 gig 1600mhz ram, Win7, HD5850)

I have almost the same hardware as you except with an ATI 5970. I'm even running on a 30" monitor at full resolution (2500-some pixels). With the high texture pack the game looks awesome and runs really smoothly. So I have to wonder, what the heck is wrong with your system or is a HD5850 really just a piece of crap?

Oh yeah, video card reviews tell the story. The HD5850 is a piece of crap.

 

[Baresark]

I would have rather seen a Zero Punctuation review for this game. I find that all the reviews are missing out on a few very annoying things. Mostly how you reuse every map over and over again ad nauseum. I think he would have torn apart this game pretty well actually. It's great and incredibly horrible in other parts. It's mostly great. The graphics are fantastic, but the hair looks retarded on people. Also, you shouldn't need to download the HD texture pack, it should be installed with the game.

All in all though, it's still a good game. I just don't think it's the perfect piece of software architecture everyone makes it out to be. It literally feels like, Dragon Age Effect. I feel that it has partially lost it's identity.

 

[sumanoskae]

How heavy is the "future" narration, judging by the demo it seems like the story is told partially through cut scenes from the future just narrating your actions, for me that is probably the worst story telling method in games, and in a rpg thats a make or break for me, i was already bothered by the mass effect dialogue options, it seems like the only thing they didn't take from mass effect was the inventory system or lack thereof, which was the only thing i hoped they would use.

If they go easy on the future narration (there must be a better term for it) its still a must buy for me, otherwise i might get it once it goes on sale.

Don't worry, at times you forget that the narrative is framed.

The time skips happen at the equivalent of finishing a main quest area(Red Cliff, The Mages Tower, so on) in the last game. They aren't the crux of the story, they just fill in the blanks

 

[Kilgengoor]

It literally feels like, Dragon Age Effect.

I agree with you on that, and it's, at least to me, a step in the right direction. I find the radial dialogue trees a really intuitive way to choose your options. As for the other "Masseffectization" symptoms, I think it's actually a pretty clever design choice. I liked how the first game let you choose race and origins, but after the prologue missions (1 hour, 2 tops) all the story was logically funneled through the same storyline, which felt kinda hypocritical to me. Also, it allows the character to actually speak and act, and I think it's something instrumental in making the player feel attached to the main character in some way. It's nice to imagine how your character will speak and his accent, but unless you like to imagine A LOT, this gives DA2 a more cinematical feel, and I can't see how streamlining like that would affect a game with a strong story. Yeah, there isn't as much liberty and it feels less RPG than other, more strict, games. But it's a better told story in my opinion. Some people might like it, some won't. I like it.

Oh, and by the way: Mass Effect (1) had A LOT of cloned "dungeons". It never bothered me much.

Anyway, got the demo to finally work. Everything seems to run pretty smoothly -if some stutter is still present- in my CoreDuo 4Ghz - 2Gb RAM - 512mb ATI card on Medium settings, which I frankly consider a miracle. Combat seems to be the same ol' confusing mess though, so I'll probably run a Tank character so I can have reasonably more control over the battles without leaving my character on auto-attack. Overall, I think it feels more like KOTOR's logical evolution if you let it evolve enough, and the more I think about it, the more sense makes to me. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Still can't understand all the hate, though. I can see why people could ***** about the graphics, but the gameplay? What exactly did you expect? I was surprised about how much this game ressembled the first one after reading so much rage from the comments in here.

It's a Bioware game, fellas.

There won't be any freeroaming, there won't be super-innovative battles, there won't be super-complex combinations and it won't be the prettiest girl in the ball. KOTOR wasn't, Jade Empire wasn't and Mass Effect wasn't. Their strong points? Story, characters and an "alright" feel to the game. I find it's your Skyrim impatience what's getting the best of you, from what I can see in this thread.

 

[NickCooley]

Then one thing that keeps popping up in my head reading these comments is, "My God these people are pathetic" I'm glad my life isn't so shallow and empty that I resort to the dramalicious "I'm leaving this site forever because of this review!!!"

Although accusing the Escapist of taking bribes just because you disagree with the review (dispute it all you want, that's what it comes down to) is just plain and simple bullshit. If thats how you feel then kindly just fuck off. You won't be missed.

 

[sumanoskae]

I really cannot take this review seriously in any way, shape or form. It is laughable. And it also stinks to high heaven.

The pinnacle of RPGs does not have ;

Several cut and paste dungeons
Shallow characters who I you care little for and a protagonist who you care for even less
Far too regular fights that are basically hack'n'slash
Companions who can upgraded only in limited ways
Tons of junk serving no purpose whatsoever
Environments stripped of any character
A storyline that is dull and forgettable after about 5 hours
Dreadful artwork in places

And several other things that I've hopefully forgotten because I stopped playing it after 9 hours.

This game is worth at most a 7 by anyone's standards.

I'm sorry but... you stopped after 9 hours?... that's not even a third of the games length. The characters get a lot better, it takes it's time with their development and they deepen greatly after you get to know them.

So you're saying that the fighting happens to often... as opposed to what?, it's an RPG, it's a combat based game. P.S are you playing on easy?, if you try to "Hack,n Slash" against those mercenaries I fought recently, or that dragon, or anybody on hard or normal, then you will literally be dead in seconds

With the black emporium DLC, there's a potion that lets you basically remake every character on the team. You could make Aveline a damager and Fenris a tank if you wanted to. Besides, how is this different then any other party based RPG?. You couldn't make Bastila a smuggler in KOTOR.

Yeah, there is a lot of junk, but that's a minor complaint. It doesn't really hurt the game that much and it's labeled as Junk so you can dump it all at the store. And again, how is that any different from other RPG's?

I personally thought the environments and artwork were quite nice for the most part, certainly a step up from Origins. Still nor as breathtaking as Mass Effect though, I'll give you that.

I guess the story is just a matter of opinion, but how can you call it forgettable when you didn't even see half of it?

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

I love how many people just stopped giving a shit about this when Skyrim was announced.

Actually the same thing happened in 2002. Bioware released Neverwinter Nights in the spring, and in autumn, Bethesda released Morrowind. The result - NWN is basically forgotten, Morrowind still has quite large and very active community with dozens of mods coming out every single day.

Uhh, that's not true.
Yes, Morrowind still has a wonderfully vibrant community. But to say that NWN is 'basically forgotten' only shows that it's forgotten by you. The community is still quite active with NWN. Tons of servers are still running, MODs are still being released regularly, and tons of people play it.

It's very far from 'forgotten'.
It's not even 'forgotten' when compared with Morrowind's community!

Both are absolutely still alive and kicking.

Well, I even forgot about Neverwinter.

 

[Mirrorknight]

Ok. So my character is an apostate mage. Must be hard, walking around a city. Wearing mage robes. Spinning around a mage staff whilst running threw through the streets. Oh, there's a Templar Knight-Captain, getting attacked by demons. I shall call down lightning from the sky and mystical bolts of energy to destroy the demons.

HE DOESN'T EVEN BRING IT UP.

This is just one of dozens of things that have seen it this game (a few of those dozens is actually just the same dungeon. Over. and. Over. Again.) that just want to make me go YAYAYGVHAHFASDFALJYRGGGHHH...able. If they wanted to make a hack and slash, they should've just made a hack and slash. If they wanted to make a RPG, they should've made a RPG. They should not have made a game that half-asses both.

I should've gone with my gut instinct and not have bought this game.

 

[Hulten]

I don't see what everyone is complaining about? I bought the game yesterday and its not as bad as people make it out to be.

Why is everyone making a big deal out of it? It has all the RPG elements it had before? It even takes more strategy this time around (Well if you boost the difficulty. I started over and switched it because the battles were way to easy on normal.) and the battles are way more fast paced. The story is meh so fare though. Also going through the same city all the time loses its Aw when you pass through for the twentieth fucking time.

I just think some fans are just being assholes at this point.

 

[Fret098]

o0 This review seemed alittle fake..either that or this person's love of dragon age is unbecoming for a serious unbiased reviewer.