So, I actually liked DA2.
- Thread starter jackinmydaniels
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I quite liked it too. I never liked either DA as much as other Bioware games like KOTOR or Mass Effect, but compared to the first DA, honestly 2 was about as good. The combat seemed pretty similar, I enjoyed the storyline much more than the generic 'epic quest to save the world' thing in the first game, the characters were pretty interesting (though I really missed Alistair, to be fair - he's still the funniest, most likable character Bioware ever made to me). The constant recycling of levels did bother me after a while, but honestly, a lot of the other stuff was superior to the first one, so I think I like both about as much overall.
But then, I enjoyed TOR more than most too, and found the backlash about ME3's ending far more irritating than the ending itself, so maybe I'm just too attached to Bioware.
But then, I enjoyed TOR more than most too, and found the backlash about ME3's ending far more irritating than the ending itself, so maybe I'm just too attached to Bioware.
I liked it too, sure it was full of problems like repetitive dungeons and stupid story details but it was enjoyable. Not as good as origins but all right, as a game it's pretty average. A lot of the hate comes from high expectations after all this is a bioware game.
I liked DA2 right up until I finished it and tried to start the game over only to realize that basically nothing changes, it's boring, repetitive as well as a lot of other problems I had with the game that made me hate it.
I willingly overlooked things like the lack of companion gear customization, crap story, crap dialogue options, repeated environments and cut down effects (By that I mean exploding bodies which are a fairly obvious method of saving memory for low memory systems i.e. consoles.). Everything hit me like a brick wall after I finished it.
DA2 was also the FIRST Bioware game I couldn't play through more than once, ME3 being the second.
I willingly overlooked things like the lack of companion gear customization, crap story, crap dialogue options, repeated environments and cut down effects (By that I mean exploding bodies which are a fairly obvious method of saving memory for low memory systems i.e. consoles.). Everything hit me like a brick wall after I finished it.
DA2 was also the FIRST Bioware game I couldn't play through more than once, ME3 being the second.
Eh, I kind of agree on the combat front. DA2 was better for me simply because it was easier and was over quicker so I had to spend less time doing it. RPG combat has never really been my favorite thing DA:O was just about the worst (Fucking Deep Roads). So I liked it due to there being less of it.
I did feel like the simplified dialogue was a step down personally. I'd much rather have a lot of dialogue than voice acting and unfortunately Bioware has been opting for the opposite as of late. I even dislike it in mass effect.
Other than that, it was fine until the third act were literraly everyone dies for no reason other than the writers couldn't wrap everything up otherwise.
Bottom line: I don't think I'll be playing it again anytime soon, if ever.
I did feel like the simplified dialogue was a step down personally. I'd much rather have a lot of dialogue than voice acting and unfortunately Bioware has been opting for the opposite as of late. I even dislike it in mass effect.
Other than that, it was fine until the third act were literraly everyone dies for no reason other than the writers couldn't wrap everything up otherwise.
Bottom line: I don't think I'll be playing it again anytime soon, if ever.
Both Dragon Age games are awful. I hope 2 killed whatever promise the series held in the eyes of EA.
The only streamlining that registered was that the series went from insanely long 2 hour dungeons, to insanely long 30 minute dungeons with two-hour fights between the respawns.
Everything else, meh. DA:O had it's fair share of problems but as it turned out it was the last game the old BioWare made.
Everything else, meh. DA:O had it's fair share of problems but as it turned out it was the last game the old BioWare made.
I'm not going to argue something subjective since you've already said you could care less about its problems, I'm just going to say I really missed traps, they made replaying saves after you die always end different, I too am in the group that never finished DA2.
It's like where the same person... For this particular subject.Daystar Clarion said:
You're right, but considering that Dragon Age: Origins had you saving the freaking world, whereas Dragon Age 2 follows the struggles of one family, it should come as a surprise to no one that most fans of the first game were mightily unimpressed.jackinmydaniels said:
That would be like if they made a sequel to Return of The King, that's not about the One Ring, Sauron, or any lingering evil, and instead it just tells the story of Warrior No.126570, who might've fought in the background at some point. I mean, yeah, I guess there are people out there who might enjoy that, but I think it's fair to say that most fans of the series would be more than a little unkind to the whole prospect of having the franchise they love receive a completely unnecessary sequel, that's not even on the same scale as the rest of the series.
I liked 2 more than 1 mostly because I thought combat was a lot more fun, the characters were better written and the world struck me as more interesting. I just wish they spent another year making it so that your choices actually mattered and you didn't always have to go through the same fights and consequences despite your enemies having no reason to attack you.
Understandable, I can understand why people would be upset that they went from 'hero of the land!' to 'just some guy'. It certainly is less big in scope, but personally that's why I enjoyed it, I've saved the world more times than I can count and, though that's certainly a self esteem raiser, I wasn't opposed to experiencing a more personal and tighter story.Spitfire said:
I view Dragon Age 2 as being...meh. It's 'ok' but, for a Bioware game and sequel to a game as excellent as Origins, Ok is completely unacceptable in my opinion.
My main issue with the second game actually comes from the City of Kirkwall itself: Environments are repeated ad nauseum and you unlock the place all from the start which is part of the issue i think.
In my opinion, they should have taken some Cues from Jak 2's haven city in regards to making the place gradually unlock so we could see more distinct and interesting area's become available over Game time: Hell, just use the excuse that the place is locked down due to 'criminals/disease/etc' or blocked off due to maintenance so we could explore more of the district much later. They could have made a varied and interesting city and surroundings, but instead we got a bland and static environment that, by the end of the game i wanted to see burnt to the damned ground just so i could escape it to more interesting locations.
The story is also a problem. I understand that Bioware wanted to go with a smaller scale and not just "SAVE DAH WURLD!....again" so that they could instead focus on a more personal problem of having a small, piss poor family try to scrape by in an unforgiving metropolis. But, and here-in lies the issue, i felt like everything i did in the second game was utterly pointless. I felt as though i was just killing time between games until something more exciting happened and that something more exciting was going to rear it's head. It just felt like filler. And there-in lay the second worst problem: Bioware didn't make the plot feel like it mattered. The struggles, the characters, really everything just felt like an intermission for something. Even the end was just setting shit up for Dragon Age 3, and i even outright said "Why didn't you just make this a movie?"
It's like having the choice of your adventure being either (A)"Pay Grandma Smiths rent in the next city for a "Free Sundae at Wendy's" Coupon" or (B) "Destroy the demon lord that seeks to bring about untold destruction to ensure you see tomorrow and secure your name in the pages of history and likely setting yourself up for life if you succeed". Let's be honest, which one would make for a more riveting tale?
So lesson for any aspiring developers: If you want to do a small scale story about, say, helping your deposed family try to get their lives back together...don't do it when the background story is about, say, an evil dragon god that's gone mad and is about to destroy the world and try to undermine it's importance. Because, let's face it, Gamers are going to likely take that first opportunity available to throw off the main plot to take care of this potential world ending disaster as per gamer instincts.
I'll admit the above mentioned scenario isn't quite accurate in representing the plot of Dragon Age 2. But, it still bares mentioning that alot of the more important events kind of end up side-lined or underused in potential or just end up deflating in importance as the game goes on. I honestly found myself more curious about what was going on in Fereldan and wandering the full extent of my Dalish Wardens actions, but we never really found anything out about that so...yeah.
Clannad (although Primarily After Story) handled smaller scale events and a tighter,character driven story much better then Dragon Age 2 did. I think if they'd taken some more cues from that, i would have enjoyed the story much more.
Alright, enough negative ranting about the game...now what did i like?
The Party members weren't that bad and i found them tolerable. Oh sure, they weren't the BEST adventuring group i've had in my career but...they were still better then the party featured in "Square Enix's Corridor treking turn based action simulator" (Or, Final Fantasy XIII for the uninitiated). Only one i really didn't like was Anders. But i blame that one on poor writing and Character Derailment. Overall, i can say i was glad to have seen this game through with the party i had.
I also didn't mind my Hawke that much, then again i played her as a completely Sarcastic jerk with a heart of Gold so I'm happy.
The Combat MECHANICS i enjoyed. Constant mobs of people coming out of the woodworks to destroy you aside, the overall MECHANICS i enjoyed and i liked the more active role in Combat. They just needed to have given it more strategy, and likely worked on making the encounters more interesting and Dynamic rather then just throwing Wave after Wave of NPC's at us (This isn't Drakengard Bioware).
Overall, my opinion on the game is just: Meh. I thought it was ok, but it's problems definitely held it back and i thought it could have been far better. And it, plus the Mass Effect 3 debacle mean I'm now keeping a cautious eye on Dragon Age 3 and am waiting for user reviews before considering purchase.
My main issue with the second game actually comes from the City of Kirkwall itself: Environments are repeated ad nauseum and you unlock the place all from the start which is part of the issue i think.
In my opinion, they should have taken some Cues from Jak 2's haven city in regards to making the place gradually unlock so we could see more distinct and interesting area's become available over Game time: Hell, just use the excuse that the place is locked down due to 'criminals/disease/etc' or blocked off due to maintenance so we could explore more of the district much later. They could have made a varied and interesting city and surroundings, but instead we got a bland and static environment that, by the end of the game i wanted to see burnt to the damned ground just so i could escape it to more interesting locations.
The story is also a problem. I understand that Bioware wanted to go with a smaller scale and not just "SAVE DAH WURLD!....again" so that they could instead focus on a more personal problem of having a small, piss poor family try to scrape by in an unforgiving metropolis. But, and here-in lies the issue, i felt like everything i did in the second game was utterly pointless. I felt as though i was just killing time between games until something more exciting happened and that something more exciting was going to rear it's head. It just felt like filler. And there-in lay the second worst problem: Bioware didn't make the plot feel like it mattered. The struggles, the characters, really everything just felt like an intermission for something. Even the end was just setting shit up for Dragon Age 3, and i even outright said "Why didn't you just make this a movie?"
It's like having the choice of your adventure being either (A)"Pay Grandma Smiths rent in the next city for a "Free Sundae at Wendy's" Coupon" or (B) "Destroy the demon lord that seeks to bring about untold destruction to ensure you see tomorrow and secure your name in the pages of history and likely setting yourself up for life if you succeed". Let's be honest, which one would make for a more riveting tale?
So lesson for any aspiring developers: If you want to do a small scale story about, say, helping your deposed family try to get their lives back together...don't do it when the background story is about, say, an evil dragon god that's gone mad and is about to destroy the world and try to undermine it's importance. Because, let's face it, Gamers are going to likely take that first opportunity available to throw off the main plot to take care of this potential world ending disaster as per gamer instincts.
I'll admit the above mentioned scenario isn't quite accurate in representing the plot of Dragon Age 2. But, it still bares mentioning that alot of the more important events kind of end up side-lined or underused in potential or just end up deflating in importance as the game goes on. I honestly found myself more curious about what was going on in Fereldan and wandering the full extent of my Dalish Wardens actions, but we never really found anything out about that so...yeah.
Clannad (although Primarily After Story) handled smaller scale events and a tighter,character driven story much better then Dragon Age 2 did. I think if they'd taken some more cues from that, i would have enjoyed the story much more.
Alright, enough negative ranting about the game...now what did i like?
The Party members weren't that bad and i found them tolerable. Oh sure, they weren't the BEST adventuring group i've had in my career but...they were still better then the party featured in "Square Enix's Corridor treking turn based action simulator" (Or, Final Fantasy XIII for the uninitiated). Only one i really didn't like was Anders. But i blame that one on poor writing and Character Derailment. Overall, i can say i was glad to have seen this game through with the party i had.
I also didn't mind my Hawke that much, then again i played her as a completely Sarcastic jerk with a heart of Gold so I'm happy.
The Combat MECHANICS i enjoyed. Constant mobs of people coming out of the woodworks to destroy you aside, the overall MECHANICS i enjoyed and i liked the more active role in Combat. They just needed to have given it more strategy, and likely worked on making the encounters more interesting and Dynamic rather then just throwing Wave after Wave of NPC's at us (This isn't Drakengard Bioware).
Overall, my opinion on the game is just: Meh. I thought it was ok, but it's problems definitely held it back and i thought it could have been far better. And it, plus the Mass Effect 3 debacle mean I'm now keeping a cautious eye on Dragon Age 3 and am waiting for user reviews before considering purchase.
No you are not crazy. While DA2 was by no means a great game, IMO it really was not as bad as some people make it out to be.
Actually no, that would be me for thinking we could make it a few posts before we get to the obligatory "sneer sneer snark your taste sucks/you are are an idiot" postsResonanceSD said:
