Dragon Age II Review

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xqtr

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Mar 8, 2011
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Skyweir said:
However, at least you have more freedom than in the Witcher, were you "roleplay" a character which has been the main character in several books and is so deeply defined that anything you do must by defintion be either extremely limited or grossly out of character.
Have you played The Witcher? This game had no concept of "good/kind versus evil/mean". Most of the time player finds himself choosing from the lesser of two evils (side with humans that are opressing nonhumans (elves and dwarves) or side with nonhuman resistance that uses terrorist methods). The game even offered you possibility of staying neutral and taking care only of your own problems. There was no such thing as acting out of character, as you imply. YOU decided what was good or bad or if you should even care. I've seen forum discussions, where people argued which choices should be considered "good" or "bad", and everyone had his own opinion.
Other thing that The Witcher had, is that consequences of your choices appeared only after many hours of gameplay (for example, choice made at the end of the first act (side with the villagers that have done some baad things, or side witch the witch, that helped them in some way, and now is blamed by the villagers for everything) has some of the consequences appearing in the fourth act) (there is an animation, explaining which of your choices caused this consequence). And often those consequences were totally unexpected (just like in real life).

EDIT: Witchers are, by default, neutral. And so is Geralt at the start of the game. You are between the two sides of the conflict, and from there you can choose if you will help one of the sides or stay neutral (and concetrate on the quests that deal with your own problems (that were introduced in the game's prologue)). That's why The Witcher gives you MORE freedom of choice than Dragon Age (where you are forced to fight against darkspawn).
 

draythefingerless

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Jul 10, 2010
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Canadish said:
draythefingerless said:
MellowFellow said:
Talvrae said:
MellowFellow said:
I can't wait to play it tomorrow, glad to hear the game will be enjoyable. Now I just need to decide whether I want my character to be a tank or a two-handed wep warrior.

Does anyone know if you can be a dual wielding warrior because that's what I played in DAO. In the demo you couldn't play as a dual wielding warrior, so I don't think you can be one, which makes me a little disappointed but it's not that big of a deal.
No dual wielding is exclusive to rogue now... they did to make all classes different
Aww man. I thought this would be true, oh well, I will just have to play a rogue on my second playthrough.
Dont listen to that comment. There is double bladed warrior(ITS ONE OF THE GODAMN SKILL TREES, FFS).
No its not. Double check it.
Only Sword and Board/Two handed Buster Swords.
I edited my post lol. Go see.
 

andeve3

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Jul 14, 2010
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Why must we Europeans wait, what did we ever do to deserve this?

Y U NO LUV US BIOWARE >:eek:
 

KEM10

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Skyweir said:
The main problem with the dialog wheel combined with a voiced protagonist is that you will never be sure what your character will say or do. Then it ceases to be your character and becomes something else. Bioware has been moving this way for years, and frankly I find it a step back for my enjoyment of their games. With the old lists, at least you have more options to interpret your characters personality instead of relying on icons and hard-coded "personality" types.

However, at least you have more freedom than in the Witcher, were you "roleplay" a character which has been the main character in several books and is so deeply defined that anything you do must by defintion be either extremely limited or grossly out of character.

And save me from Oblivionesque "freedom", were you have the freedom to do anything and it means nothing. No one cares,and so it makes no difference.

So if those are my choices, my pick is still Dragon Age and Bioware. At least they seem to grasp that the essence of roleplay is choice, meaningful consequences and character development.
I am going to disagree on the conversation wheel. There were numerous times that when I was playing a charismatic character who I envisioned to be funny would end up insulting team mates because he wasn't being sarcastic but flat out insulting them. In pure text you can't account for tone so I think there is a bonus in the pictures. Also, Oblivion is a sandbox game, I have yet to see anyone actually play the main quest outside of the tutorial.
 

Cavouku

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Mar 14, 2008
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You're makin' me cry, here. My mall isn't even opened yet, but I put down all the money on the game. And I have to go to school today... and I need someone who is 17, as I am a few months shy of that age.

...Eeeeehn, I want it now... Eeeeeeehn!
 

The Zango

Resident stoner and Yognaught
Apr 30, 2009
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Dammit! I have to wait until my birthday to get this, 14 god-damn days! Its just like waiting for DA:O, expect this time I'm not ordering it from Thailand... That was a tough two week wait.
 

8bitmaster

Devourer of pie
Nov 9, 2009
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i'm still against this game. It is not an rpg! Its an action game! They ruined dragon age! origins was great. A bit hard, but a fun and interesting game nonetheless, and now they turn it into a mass effect style character with a much more linear style story. No thanks. Not until its below 30$ anyway.
 

PlasticTree

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May 17, 2009
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Hey Greg, a little question: is Dragon Age 2 on 'hard' about as difficult as Dragon Age: Origins on 'normal' (on pc), or is there a difference?

Nonetheless, can't wait to play this game.
 

Ulairi

One of the Nine
Dec 2, 2003
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I just finished the review. Did you complete the game? From the text, there is no evidence that you actually finished the game.
 

HyenaThePirate

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Jan 8, 2009
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Dang it...

What about importing your game saves from Origins and Awakenings?
Most importantly, where is the information about the ability to transfer game saves across platforms?
I recall them saying that they were absolutely making it capable, so that if you played Origins on the PC, you could transfer the save to say, the PS3, and vice versa... in case you wanted to get the new version on a different platform.

I'm only interested because I made the mistake of getting the PS3 version of Origins, but I'd much rather play the PC version of Dragon Age II.

Anyone know?
 

Shirokurou

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Mar 8, 2010
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BlindChance said:
Shirokurou said:
The guys dual-wield weapons you'd never dual-wield. Their swords are always HUGE, even when using the sword/shield tandem. Even mages have a blade attached to their staffs.
All of that was true of DA:O, though. Did you see what a 'dagger' was like in that game?
Seriously, even 300 had the spartans with short swords.
 

Karacan

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Jun 28, 2009
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I don't know what it is that leaves me cold.

I loved Dragon Age 1. I loved Mass Effect 2. I don't want Dragon Age to turn into Mass Effect 2.

I do not want to click on colour-coded dialogue choices.

I do not want to have a "click button to attack"-combat system in my group-based tactical RPG.

I do not want to play a human, I loved the City Elf background from Dragon Age 1 too much.

I want replayability and not a linear "event-to-event" chain where I have no impact on how my story develops. At least in DA1, I could find out how the Mage Tower played out after doing the other areas first to unlock their characters for my party.


I should be excited about the game, but the demo just left me cold beyond belief. I'll still pick it up, eventually. One day. It's BioWare after all, and with the exception of the first NWN Expansion, BioWare does good stuff.


I just wish they'd give me stats and real skill trees and item-and-tactics micromanagement and really, really difficult games that are not difficult because of the billions of hitpoints the opponents have.

Give me back Baldur's Gate and PlaneScape Torment, damnit.
 

Bugerion

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Jan 10, 2011
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Karacan said:
I don't know what it is that leaves me cold.

I loved Dragon Age 1. I loved Mass Effect 2. I don't want Dragon Age to turn into Mass Effect 2.

I do not want to click on colour-coded dialogue choices.

I do not want to have a "click button to attack"-combat system in my group-based tactical RPG.

I do not want to play a human, I loved the City Elf background from Dragon Age 1 too much.

I want replayability and not a linear "event-to-event" chain where I have no impact on how my story develops. At least in DA1, I could find out how the Mage Tower played out after doing the other areas first to unlock their characters for my party.


I should be excited about the game, but the demo just left me cold beyond belief. I'll still pick it up, eventually. One day. It's BioWare after all, and with the exception of the first NWN Expansion, BioWare does good stuff.


I just wish they'd give me stats and real skill trees and item-and-tactics micromanagement and really, really difficult games that are not difficult because of the billions of hitpoints the opponents have.

Give me back Baldur's Gate and PlaneScape Torment, damnit.

Pretty much what I wanted to say and also some story would be nice but its not the full review maybe he mentions the story later
 

Geo Da Sponge

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May 14, 2008
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I've checked zabout half a dozen reviews now, and none of them have been below 8.5/10 (roughly speaking, several of them aren't on the number system).

I'm calling it, Dragon Age 2 is the Escapists new Halo.
 

Slycne

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Feb 19, 2006
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Soviet Heavy said:
Justin "Sir Pounce-a-lot" Clouse?

You've been playing with Anders too much.
Heh, maybe. I'm totally on board if Bioware makes the Adventures of Ser Pounce-a-lot, Barkspawn and Snug the Bronto.
 

RobCoxxy

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Feb 22, 2009
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Greg, thanks for getting me more hyped up about it. I want this game, but can't be bothered finishing the Fade in DA:O, and have plenty of assignments to do for University.... don't make me get DA2! :p
 

Karacan

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Jun 28, 2009
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Geo Da Sponge said:
I've checked zabout half a dozen reviews now, and none of them have been below 8.5/10 (roughly speaking, several of them aren't on the number system).

I'm calling it, Dragon Age 2 is the Escapists new Halo.
The German review over at Golem.com is pretty "meh, this is nice, it could have been better".

I love Golem.
 

Geo Da Sponge

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May 14, 2008
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Karacan said:
Geo Da Sponge said:
I've checked zabout half a dozen reviews now, and none of them have been below 8.5/10 (roughly speaking, several of them aren't on the number system).

I'm calling it, Dragon Age 2 is the Escapists new Halo.
The German review over at Golem.com is pretty "meh, this is nice, it could have been better".

I love Golem.
I wasn't suggesting negative reviews were literally impossible...

Anyway, if the worst review you can find is "it's nice, but it could be better" then that's not too bad.
 

red_one

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Jan 25, 2010
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The demo didn't convince me either. All areas I've seen so far looked bland.
And what's up with big bosomed colorful females with big swords? Is this a jRPG or what?

The marketing of the game didn't really do it for me either.

Don't get me wrong: I pre-ordered the game and look forward to it. But so far I'm a bit sceptical