How's Dragon Age 2 treating you?

[nomzy]

Picking up my copy tomorrow.
I'm not expecting it to be on par with origins though.
Just have to wait and see though.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Getting a little sick and tired of all this PC elitism bullshit.

What does that have to do with this thread?

One of the arguments behind why DA 2 is 'dumbed' down, is to cater to the console crowd. Because we're all morons apparently, who dislike micromanagement, even if said micromanagement is a broken mechanic (See: Herbalism, survival, crafting etc).

Sounds like it was too difficult for you to manage, yet you call others morons.

Personally, I find it hilarious that opinions that are not "in the green" (positive) are disregarded and assumed as a troll post.

Difficult? Hardly. Pointless? Yes. Coercion was the only skill worth investing points in, all the other skills were rather redundant. And please, if you're going to quote me, at least read my post first, I didn't call anyone a moron.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

It seems like a lot of people are jumping to conclusions, I honestly don't yet own the game but it seems like a lot of things are actually improved.

If it mainly takes place in one town/city then it's just a matter of doing it right, if there are many districts and the areas are varied and interesting then it may as well be several different cities.

The button mashing was a weird thing for me, on the console I have to tap A to attack normally, but on the PC I can simply press it to do it for me, I have no idea why they had the console version as button-mashing, especially when the only button you'd be tapping in rapid succession is A. They may have changed this in the actual release of the game though, I don't know.

It sounds like the equipment system might be somewhat downgraded, to simplify it (or as some might say, "dumbed down"), I hope this isn't the case as I love varied loot and I know Mass Effect 2 did away with loot too :*(.

Personally, I find it hilarious that opinions that are not "in the green" (positive) are disregarded and assumed as a troll post.

I kind of agree with this, I'm not specifically talking about any posts on here, but as long as a post does address problems, even if said points are negative it shouldn't really be ignored because people don't like to hear that not everything is perfect.

 

[Jandau]

How is the gameplay compared to the first one and would I have to have played Origins to get the story here?

Better gameplay in almost every way. And no, you don't need to play the original. I'd suggest reading the plot summary on wikipedia or Dragon Age wiki, just so you have a better idea of what's going on, but the story is mostly stand-alone.

I dislike how poorly my tank holds aggro though, I feel like once she unloads her Stam pool, I can either have her keep chugging potions or just have her forget about aggro for a while. Sustainables eat 80% of Aveline's Stam pool.

Story has been mediocre so far. Nothing has really happened, although I have spent most of my time on side quests thus far. I still don't really have a main antagonist to worry about, nor do I really know what direction the game is taking me.

For stamina problems on Warriors, I'd suggest looking into the Battlemaster talents, there are several that adress that very issue.

And I agree, the story takes its sweet time. The sidequests are fun enough, but there really seems to be a ton of them before you get to the Deep Roads. On the bright side, at least they had the decency to drop all your party members on you straight away instead of sprinking them as you go along. Much better this way.

Personally, I find it hilarious that opinions that are not "in the green" (positive) are disregarded and assumed as a troll post.

Well, that's because a lot of them are. Not just in this thread, a lot of people seem to be exagerrating the changes or outright making stuff up (I've seen people claim that the tactics system was removed...). Also, most of the "not in the green" posts are one-liner flames, so no wonder people don't take them seriously.

 

[Sabiancym]

-The dialog is now summarized response text instead of the entire response.

How is giving the player the gist of something removing the RPG elements?

-There are less ways to equip your character. Restrictions on non PC equipment

There weren't that many ways to equip your character in DA:0. If your PC was a warrior, your choices were the two top choices in terms of protection with a DPS warrior probably favoring the lighter set and the tank favoring the heavy set. While there were many sets of armor in these categories, in general if you found a piece of the correct weight that was of higher tier, there was no reason not to swap them out. Most "choices" are instead simple calculations, and the truth is, if you were a tank then the only armor you ought to wear is Juggernaut. Failing that, Blood Dragon. And if you didn't want to collect the Juggernaut and did not have access to Blood Dragon, the custom Dragon Bone plate you can get. And, if you somehow chose to not do the required quest to do that either, that leaves you with any heavy armor made of dragon bone.

This repeats itself at length for every character and class.

-Gift Giving isn't as open anymore.

In DA:O all you could do was give gifts to the correct person for a +5 to + 10 bonus, or give it to the wrong person for a +1 to + 5. Even if you took every non - major gift in the game and gave it to the wrong person, simply giving two correct gifts offered a more substantial bonus. This isn't open so much as it punishing not correctly guessing who might like a faded painting or who would be most pleased if they got a gold ring.

-Fewer tactic slots

You are still fully capable of directing the actions of your party. If anything, this requires people to better micromanage their party members.

-Game takes place in basically one area

I'm not sure how this indicates the game's RPG elements have degraded.

-Fewer skills. Herbalism, Poison making, trap making, etc. have either been removed or combined.

This is largely thanks to the fact that many of those skills were either entirely useless or only served a limited function. Trap making offered no better means of crowd control and damage than other options available. Poison on the other hand offered a means to increase damage output of a character and eventually netted useful options for dealing with various specialist enemy types. Herbalism was largely useless unless one played for extended periods without a healer mage in the party as the various potions found in the course of the game were more than sufficient for emergency healing duties.

Yes, I know that people want to have more options in an RPG, but the fact is most of the time people lament a loss of a choice that was not a choice at all.

It's amazing how many fanboys come to the rescue whenever I criticize a game.

Why do you people care so much if I dislike a game. Every time I say something negative about one I get a response that basically says "Nuh uh, you're wrong."

It's a freaking opinion, it's what good games are built on. Stop trying to crush any and every criticism out there. It will only lead to stagnation in games. If everyone only said how much they love the game, it would never improve.


I'm just amazed at how many people will defend this game no matter what is said. It's a fine game, but stop acting like it's Jesus reincarnate.

 

[manythings]

I want to play it but have issues with the gameplay, and I cant play it until its atleast £25 becuase I feel BW need to lose money for cutting content to use as dlc.

So I will play it eventually, but the more I hear the more I hate.

Less that half of what you pay for a game goes to the developer. The rest goes to retailers, transport, storage and a dozen other things. The DLC is a measure to try and get people to buy new games over trade-ins which give a grand total of 0 to the developer.

 

[SirAxel]

Well so far it has been awesome, although it's getting alittle repeatable but I can see that changing in the next hour or so.
Anyway am I the only one who finds the Nightmare difficulty actually hard ( I'm talking about the "big" early encounters )?

 

[Souplex]

They're forcing me to play as a human in a fantasy game. This is like forcing me to play an accountant.

 

[Actual]

Well so far it has been awesome, although it's getting alittle repeatable but I can see that changing in the next hour or so.
Anyway am I the only one who finds the Nightmare difficulty actually hard ( I'm talking about the "big" early encounters )?

Nightmare shouldn't be hard, it should be raping your unborn children. It should be tearing your spine out, clubbing seals to death with it then fashioning their sinews into a looming siege catapult to pelt your twitching body with their stripped skulls. It should not just be a little hard on the boss fights!

Also; +1 to Souplex^ above, made me laugh.

 

[Tzekelkan]

It's amazing how many fanboys come to the rescue whenever I criticize a game.

Why do you people care so much if I dislike a game. Every time I say something negative about one I get a response that basically says "Nuh uh, you're wrong."

It's a freaking opinion, it's what good games are built on. Stop trying to crush any and every criticism out there. It will only lead to stagnation in games. If everyone only said how much they love the game, it would never improve.

I'm just amazed at how many people will defend this game no matter what is said. It's a fine game, but stop acting like it's Jesus reincarnate.

Aw, come on, man. Your post made me laugh. Let them defend their game, it's their right, especially since you said:

-Game takes place in basically one area

Your other complaints are just personal preference but this one I don't get... Yes a large part of the game takes place in Kirkwall but it's pretty huge. There are stark differences between the different parts of the city.

Personal preferences? He asked how the game was dumbed down....I told him. Are you telling me that removing skills isn't dumbing down the game?

And the first game took place over an entire region in multiple cities.....quite a difference.

Make up your mind. Are your criticisms your own personal opinion, or stone-cold fact? I'm not saying you shouldn't criticize. By all means, flame away. But I'm trying to make you understand that people have a right to defend what they like as well. Sure, freedom of speech blah, blah, blah. But it's not speech without the possibility of a reply.

Nobody's acting like the game is Jesus incarnate. I haven't read a single post in this thread that has said the game is perfect. Everyone agrees Dragon Age 2, like Dragon Age 1 and like every game, has its flaws. You disagree with some people about what these flaws are.

There's no reason to "be amazed" of how people defend this game, not any more reason than people would have to be amazed that you criticize it.

 

[Sabiancym]

It's amazing how many fanboys come to the rescue whenever I criticize a game.

Why do you people care so much if I dislike a game. Every time I say something negative about one I get a response that basically says "Nuh uh, you're wrong."

It's a freaking opinion, it's what good games are built on. Stop trying to crush any and every criticism out there. It will only lead to stagnation in games. If everyone only said how much they love the game, it would never improve.

I'm just amazed at how many people will defend this game no matter what is said. It's a fine game, but stop acting like it's Jesus reincarnate.

Aw, come on, man. Your post made me laugh. Let them defend their game, it's their right, especially since you said:

-Game takes place in basically one area

Your other complaints are just personal preference but this one I don't get... Yes a large part of the game takes place in Kirkwall but it's pretty huge. There are stark differences between the different parts of the city.

Personal preferences? He asked how the game was dumbed down....I told him. Are you telling me that removing skills isn't dumbing down the game?

And the first game took place over an entire region in multiple cities.....quite a difference.

Make up your mind. Are your criticisms your own personal opinion, or stone-cold fact? I'm not saying you shouldn't criticize. By all means, flame away. But I'm trying to make you understand that people have a right to defend what they like as well. Sure, freedom of speech blah, blah, blah. But it's not speech without the possibility of a reply.

Nobody's acting like the game is Jesus incarnate. I haven't read a single post in this thread that has said the game is perfect. Everyone agrees Dragon Age 2, like Dragon Age 1 and like every game, has its flaws. You disagree with some people about what these flaws are.

There's no reason to "be amazed" of how people defend this game, not any more reason than people would have to be amazed that you criticize it.

There's a difference between saying..."Yea, I see how you could have that opinion about the game" and just flat out saying "No, your opinion is wrong."

 

[Tzekelkan]

There's a difference between saying..."Yea, I see how you could have that opinion about the game" and just flat out saying "No, your opinion is wrong."

Yes, I see how you could have that opinion about what he said, but still, this is what he said:

-Game takes place in basically one area

Your other complaints are just personal preference but this one I don't get... Yes a large part of the game takes place in Kirkwall but it's pretty huge. There are stark differences between the different parts of the city.

Nobody said your opinion was wrong. However, you yourself implied that what you had stated was not personal preference, but fact. You were saying, "No, your opinion is wrong."

It doesn't matter to me, all right? You can say that all you want, whatever. But be aware of what you're saying and don't diss others of the same things you're doing as well.

 

[Tzekelkan]

Double post all the way, across the sky.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

It's amazing how many fanboys come to the rescue whenever I criticize a game.

My response was not the result of my being a fan of the original game but rather because the argument you presented supporting your thesis failed to convince me. I was merely presenting a counter-argument for each point.

Why do you people care so much if I dislike a game. Every time I say something negative about one I get a response that basically says "Nuh uh, you're wrong."

I don't care even slightly if you don't like something. The problem is, you are trying to convince me that your opinion is correct. There is no shame in such a course and I do not begrudge you for doing so. When reading your post I simply found that it did little to convince me and presented a counter point view.

I had though that, by posting such a thing in a public forum, you would expect conversation to ensue.

It's a freaking opinion, it's what good games are built on. Stop trying to crush any and every criticism out there. It will only lead to stagnation in games. If everyone only said how much they love the game, it would never improve.

I do not begrudge your opinion but I do resent your attempt to take the moral high ground by asserting that my argument which defended various changes made to the game is somehow a part of a slippery slope to stagnation in an industry. This is especially vexing considering that stagnation implies a lack of change, which is precisely what your argument supported.

I'm just amazed at how many people will defend this game no matter what is said. It's a fine game, but stop acting like it's Jesus reincarnate.

I did not act like it was Jesus. I did not offer a judgment regarding the quality of either DA:O or DA2. What I in fact did was argue that the changes that were made had little impact in the end save reducing extraneous parts that only had limited utility.

 

[Gultark]

Adding on to this line of discussion, personally i don't find confining the game to one area an example of dumming down.

I feel in a RPG it's the story of the character and the world which is developing around me as i am developing around it that drives me on. a good example of Size/location to richness of gameplay would be the origin missions in the first game - yes they were short and took place in pretty much one or two areas, but the value of these missions on roleplaying were massive, i found my own opinions coloured by how my elf had been treated by humans in my in game interactions and so forth, but back on topic before i veer too far away -

I would much prefer a tighter story and world allowing for deeper roleplaying than rather flimsy reasoning to jet around to exotic locals for very little reason other than artificially padding game length or size.

However not to say the game does no wrong the lack of origins stories and a fully voiced and realised hawke does diminish the roleplaying quality by a large margin.