Do they add more enemies on higher difficulties? or are they just harder. Also this is why I play every new game on the easiest setting.Madkipz said:
So I've been playing Dragon Age 2 for the first time recently.
- Thread starter CardinalPiggles
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i will admit the game had plenty of faults,but its good to see other admit its good.CardinalPiggles said:
alot of it was fun and while the copy paste job on the caves sucked didn't change that the game was fun,and yes it did require knowing how to balance your party(which most don't know how to do since everyone could do anything in their class in the last one) but it was a good thing.
the characters were well defined and each seemed like their own person,rather then a statue with abilities.
Most, if not all, of the quests that had recycled areas in Mass Effect were either non-essential and had little or no impact on the story and could be skipped, or were situated in a spacestation/ship or some modular underground facility were it somehow made sense it had the same layout(it can be observed in real life, too!). At least they had the sense of actually moving furniture around inbetween locations in Mass Effect.kaioshade said:
The same thing could not be said about Dragon Age 2.
Anyway, DA2 did alot of things WRONG, very very wrong.
What do you mean, I can't dualwield axes with my rogue?! What do you mean I can't make any of my mage characters a spirit healer (I beheaded Wynne, and thus, Morrigan took her place, shapeshifting was pointless most of the game)? What, I can't give Isabella a bow(okey, that wouldn't make much sense)?! What, I can't give my brother a shield(what's'his-name, I couldn't muster enough "care" for him before he was gone anyway) What, the overview and itemization made worse? Two stars equal your own level, makes absolutely no sense, what is this, Fable!? What about the relevance of stats to your specialization or class??
In Dragon Age: Origin, stats on items were absolute, and did not change over time, in essence, *if* you had the money to do so, you could buy the best weapon/robe/armor in the game as soon as you reach Denerim, and never switch for another for the rest of the game. Here you have to manage your inventory every other quest just like you had to change Blaster Pistol IV to Blaster Pistol V in Mass Effect, which is a step back. Instead of having a meaningful inventory and meaningful items they gave us the shit from Mass Effect instead, with a bit of Fable spice.
One step forward in one area, two or perhaps three steps back in others. Personally, I can forgive bad game design and even plotholes in my games as long as they have the charm and atmosphare. Even that is gone in DA2, but that's what you get when you cut corners. I guess Brent Knowles leaving Bioware and EA's claws really shows.
According to an interview(cut from Wiki) with Mike Laidlaw;
"[despite Dragon Age's players' criticisms] continue to tune and capitalize on that 'fusion' between the Origins experience and Dragon Age II". Additionally, he also noted that a return to the more hardcore RPG style of Dragon Age: Origins is unlikely, proclaiming "The big key is to not adjust 180 degrees again, because we've done this."
Unless they include Morrigan somehow, I won't be going back to Dragon Age, anytime soon.
Edit1: And where are my fatalites!? The combat may have been slower and clunkier in DAO but the feeling of choping the head of your foe still makes it more fun than the more fluid and responsive controls in DA2.
I have to say that my biggest complaint with dragon age 2 would be that when you are playing through the game the environmental design feels rushed and feels overused when you see some of the environments overused in so many different situations which hinders the immersion process but one other problem i have with the game is that it is very easy to miss the recuitment of Fenris and Isabela as you have to take side missions to recuit them which you may avoid on the 1st playthrough in order to play through the story.
One other ting before i forget would be the most colossal mistake of the entire game which is the overall story of the game which when you play through it feels like you end up playing through three different dtories which does not lend to the story telling at all.
If you do not know wht i mena the next time you play though the story look at the overall story telling format and i guarantee that you will see at least one personal improvement which you would improve. For me it would be to see Meredith and Orsino earlier in the game as it would relate to the later theme.
Aso, quick question, does anyone have any problems concerning the achievements on the 360 for the exiled prince dlc as i have done all of them but they have not unlocked. Any solution welcome.
One other ting before i forget would be the most colossal mistake of the entire game which is the overall story of the game which when you play through it feels like you end up playing through three different dtories which does not lend to the story telling at all.
If you do not know wht i mena the next time you play though the story look at the overall story telling format and i guarantee that you will see at least one personal improvement which you would improve. For me it would be to see Meredith and Orsino earlier in the game as it would relate to the later theme.
Aso, quick question, does anyone have any problems concerning the achievements on the 360 for the exiled prince dlc as i have done all of them but they have not unlocked. Any solution welcome.
The characters were fine, the writing and dialogue were fine, the combat was fine... But the level design and overarching story just put a damper on the whole project.
The copy/pasted levels, the story that stopped and started like 3 times, almost never leaving the same freaking city...
It just all detracted too much from the good points of the game, and simply turned it mediocre.
The copy/pasted levels, the story that stopped and started like 3 times, almost never leaving the same freaking city...
It just all detracted too much from the good points of the game, and simply turned it mediocre.
Dragon Age 2 was pretty mediocre to be honest. It didn't anger me like some other people though, I mean, I liked Origins enough to give it quite a few playthroughs but it wasn't my favorite game ever. I had pretty low expectations on how they would be handling the RPG elements of DA2 after Mass Effect 2 (I'll admit though I did really like ME2). Dragon Age 2 more or less met those expectations, still I don't think I'm going to buy Dragon Age 3. Story was forgettable, only a few interesting and likeable characters in the cast, and with Act 3 the entire game fell apart. The repetitive enviroments were the worst thing about it though, I mean Origins was pretty ugly, but at least it had some variety in locations.
I still think that the only reason you can't change companion armor is so BioWare can sell us costume packs further down the line.
Best thing about that game was the banter between the different party members though, that was pretty cool. Gave them more characterization and I know Origins did this too, but I think it was utilized much better in 2.
Still, if you enjoy the game good for you I guess.
I still think that the only reason you can't change companion armor is so BioWare can sell us costume packs further down the line.
Best thing about that game was the banter between the different party members though, that was pretty cool. Gave them more characterization and I know Origins did this too, but I think it was utilized much better in 2.
Still, if you enjoy the game good for you I guess.
Okay I'll keep it brief since we were over this so many times.
DA2 is 1/4 of the game DA:O was and yet the same price, so imagine they serve you 1/4 of a meal and charge you for the full thing, some people might get upset over that.
DA2 is 1/4 of the game DA:O was and yet the same price, so imagine they serve you 1/4 of a meal and charge you for the full thing, some people might get upset over that.
Bioware has been making the same game over and over again; the same basic plot structure, the same characters, etc. etc (I won't go into details but any Bioware fan knows it's true). If you don't mind that, or never played much Bioware titles, you won't mind at all.
My opinion is that Bioware devs were/are getting sick of their own games, and tried to do something different with Dragon Age.
The first Dragon Age imo was okay. Masses praised the game, but I think much hype was involved and it was played by many people who weren't into RPGs, and by comparison to other popular games (obvious example: FPS games), RPGs are in general far superior. BTW that what I think also happened a little with DA2 - I mean even Two World will seem great if you never played an RPG.
The thing Bioware devs wanted to do with Dragon Age Origins was tell an original, non-linear and epic tale, set on a very dark dark and mature fantasy-universe, with charismatic companions, and a very class-balanced combat system with a huge focus on strategy and tactics.
While I don't think they completely failed, the story wasn't that original, it completely loses focus (ex: a blight is invading the country, you're the only grey warden alive, you need to stop it at all costs... so you decide to go on a quest to find mystical ashes from a dead prophet to cure a dude so he can back you up to turn the nobility against another dude who turned himself king); although there are some important choices mid-game only two origin stories make sense and they all converge into the same plot after the turorial quest.
The dark tone and maturity of that universe makes the game a Witcher-wannabe and shows the game had different development stages (look at the first early CGI trailers and the final product)... I mean ketchup-blood all over your body doesn't make the tone of the game darker and in-your-face sex doesn't make it more mature; the game wants to be grim so bad sometimes it's silly and, to make things worse, it isn't.
Besides the voice acting, I wasn't particularly impressed with the characters because they're just 'copy/paste's from many other Bioware titles; the combat is a mess, and when devs realized their masterpiece combat system was a poorly imagined D&D-copycat failure, they decided to somehow fix the issue by making it insanely difficult...
They tried to not fail so much with Dragon Age 2. But they failed even more, to a whole new level.
DA:O looked like shit and felt kinda generic - DA2 looks more or less the same, textures look particularly worse, scenes/levels lack detail and artistic input, places feel empy and at the same time claustrophobic; they changed one or two things in one or two character/race designs, but everythink as still the same look, so it's weird. So, now, it looks like shit and feels like a poor effort.
The combat didn't work that well in DA:O - some moron at Bioware thought that adding cooler animations would fix things, and what the game was really lacking was "enemy wave" system (people also complained about not having a high camera, but that's stupid because it didn't make the not-that-strategic combat system of DA any more strategic). So, yeah, DA:2's combat system isn't all that great again, but now it's like devs don't even care.
The loot - devs tried to make things more immersive and personal in DA:2; they failed at every attempt: one of those is that empty, boring and pointless house with those three/four static persons; another one is not letting you change your party's gear - that's retarded. It's a terrible execution of a (maybe) good ideia that also ruins things like looting (you get tons and tons of gear and you can't use 70%). Again, you need to be a moron to come up with such things.
The levels. I won't even get into that. That's the main thing everybody complains about.
The story - nobody here thought "Wow! Merrill dialogue sounds exactly like Tali's from Mass Effect"? This is the laziest work from Bioware yet; there's no real story, many things just don't make sense (try playing like a mage), the ending is anti-climatic, the characters are dull, the gay options feel brute-forced into the game, the story within a story thing was a waste (they ONLY FUCKING used it to make a gag-level with Varric... WTF!?), Varric isn't the rock-star they want him to be, the Mass-Effect-style dialogue system could have been good if the dialogue options weren't inferior to those of Mass Effect.
Framerate drops; the scenario repetitiveness leads to lots of backtracking; the import-save system was only used to make two cameos/gags; major retcons depending on your choices in DA:O (ex: Leliana's head, Flemeth cloned herself, etc.).
The game isn't bad... but it's clearly a disaster, and it caused a huge hate-storm from fans of the previous game.
My opinion is that Bioware devs were/are getting sick of their own games, and tried to do something different with Dragon Age.
The first Dragon Age imo was okay. Masses praised the game, but I think much hype was involved and it was played by many people who weren't into RPGs, and by comparison to other popular games (obvious example: FPS games), RPGs are in general far superior. BTW that what I think also happened a little with DA2 - I mean even Two World will seem great if you never played an RPG.
The thing Bioware devs wanted to do with Dragon Age Origins was tell an original, non-linear and epic tale, set on a very dark dark and mature fantasy-universe, with charismatic companions, and a very class-balanced combat system with a huge focus on strategy and tactics.
While I don't think they completely failed, the story wasn't that original, it completely loses focus (ex: a blight is invading the country, you're the only grey warden alive, you need to stop it at all costs... so you decide to go on a quest to find mystical ashes from a dead prophet to cure a dude so he can back you up to turn the nobility against another dude who turned himself king); although there are some important choices mid-game only two origin stories make sense and they all converge into the same plot after the turorial quest.
The dark tone and maturity of that universe makes the game a Witcher-wannabe and shows the game had different development stages (look at the first early CGI trailers and the final product)... I mean ketchup-blood all over your body doesn't make the tone of the game darker and in-your-face sex doesn't make it more mature; the game wants to be grim so bad sometimes it's silly and, to make things worse, it isn't.
Besides the voice acting, I wasn't particularly impressed with the characters because they're just 'copy/paste's from many other Bioware titles; the combat is a mess, and when devs realized their masterpiece combat system was a poorly imagined D&D-copycat failure, they decided to somehow fix the issue by making it insanely difficult...
They tried to not fail so much with Dragon Age 2. But they failed even more, to a whole new level.
DA:O looked like shit and felt kinda generic - DA2 looks more or less the same, textures look particularly worse, scenes/levels lack detail and artistic input, places feel empy and at the same time claustrophobic; they changed one or two things in one or two character/race designs, but everythink as still the same look, so it's weird. So, now, it looks like shit and feels like a poor effort.
The combat didn't work that well in DA:O - some moron at Bioware thought that adding cooler animations would fix things, and what the game was really lacking was "enemy wave" system (people also complained about not having a high camera, but that's stupid because it didn't make the not-that-strategic combat system of DA any more strategic). So, yeah, DA:2's combat system isn't all that great again, but now it's like devs don't even care.
The loot - devs tried to make things more immersive and personal in DA:2; they failed at every attempt: one of those is that empty, boring and pointless house with those three/four static persons; another one is not letting you change your party's gear - that's retarded. It's a terrible execution of a (maybe) good ideia that also ruins things like looting (you get tons and tons of gear and you can't use 70%). Again, you need to be a moron to come up with such things.
The levels. I won't even get into that. That's the main thing everybody complains about.
The story - nobody here thought "Wow! Merrill dialogue sounds exactly like Tali's from Mass Effect"? This is the laziest work from Bioware yet; there's no real story, many things just don't make sense (try playing like a mage), the ending is anti-climatic, the characters are dull, the gay options feel brute-forced into the game, the story within a story thing was a waste (they ONLY FUCKING used it to make a gag-level with Varric... WTF!?), Varric isn't the rock-star they want him to be, the Mass-Effect-style dialogue system could have been good if the dialogue options weren't inferior to those of Mass Effect.
Framerate drops; the scenario repetitiveness leads to lots of backtracking; the import-save system was only used to make two cameos/gags; major retcons depending on your choices in DA:O (ex: Leliana's head, Flemeth cloned herself, etc.).
The game isn't bad... but it's clearly a disaster, and it caused a huge hate-storm from fans of the previous game.
F*ckin Merrill. Could a character possibly be designed to pander more to creepy people? I really liked DA:O, and that (along with enemy waves) was sort of thing that convinced me not to buy DA:2. I'm not going to buy a tactical RPG if it makes me listen to annoying characters spout poorly-written dialogue in between fights.9Darksoul6 said:
Although I don't really have to bash her, I'll just let Bioware speak for itself:
Yeah, I agree that while Dragon Age: Origins is better story-wise than most games, its efforts to construct a believable lived-in fantasy setting often fall flat. I don't want to compare it to the Witcher series for fear of starting another flame war, but you kind of have to - the games aim for very similar objectives in terms of world building, and Witcher is by far the superior IP in terms of achieving the atmosphere and level of maturity it's going for.
Dragon Age: Origins does have some glimpses of sheer brilliance, though. The qunari are really interesting (and I like the DA2 redesign), Orzammar and dwarven society in general is extremely well-realized, and some of the political stuff (for instance, Alistair as a reluctant king, especially if the Warden's in a relationship with him) is well done. If everything in the game had been political machinations, classist dwarves, pseudo-confucian giants, and so on, it would have been something I could like without reservations.
If you don't take Bethany/Carver into the Deep Roads they will survive, or if you take them and Anders they will survive but be a Grey Warden.