Trailers: Dragon Age II Combat Walkthrough
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What one might call over-simplicity, others might call smoothing out the game. I hated the inventory management in Mass Effect, and it needed changing a lot (speaking as a reluctant 360 Mass Effect player- I wanted to play it on PC, but wasn't aware it was getting ported and my rig couldn't handle it anyway), but BioWare did go too far in ME2 by swinging to the opposite end of the spectrum.Onyx Oblivion said:
To me, DA II looks like the bomb. The combat looks really top-notch, I just hope they haven't let up on the games length and storytelling.
Stop talking nonsense pleaseZechnophobe said:
Thinking Mass Effect was mediocre is an opinion, don't ever try to fool yourself into thinking otherwise
What is fact however, is that they did simplify the game alot
Whether this is a good or bad change is entirely up to you
Personally for me, turning the game from a more free roam game into shooting galleries wasn't a good change. Still a good game though
Quoted for truth. I've felt the same way ever since this game was revealed.Onyx Oblivion said:
OT: A system like this sounds good on paper but it will difficult to balance. I'll just wait and see how they handle it.
That's sick as hell man, anyone who still thinks they ruined the series(if it can be called that) forever is a lunatic.
I'm now officially pumped for this game.
I'm now officially pumped for this game.
That looks alright. Although the bit cartoonish jumping around and hasty pace doesn't appeal to me. I just might give the action RPG -style more of a try. In DA:O the easy setting (on PC) could already be played quite like an action RPG; it's just massively easier compared to medium difficulty, so you don't need to pause the game and think what you're doing so much.
I don't like that you can only play as Hawke. I don't mind if my character doesn't have a voice. I much more appreciate if I can decide his appearence myself.
And if it's going to be much more streamlined, simple and console-like than DA:O, then just fuck it.
I don't like that you can only play as Hawke. I don't mind if my character doesn't have a voice. I much more appreciate if I can decide his appearence myself.
And if it's going to be much more streamlined, simple and console-like than DA:O, then just fuck it.
I can't speak for everyone, but, I feel like, rather than focusing on RPG elements for ME2, they instead focused on making the game more palatable for people coming from shooters.LivingInTheSixties said:
The problem I have with this is that, I don't buy Bioware games because I want an action shooter, I buy them because I want a good RPG with a good storyline, and I just felt that ME2 was a shooter with RPG elements, rather than the other way around.
Stuff like, rather than fixing the inventory system, just completely removing all weapons from the game, all armour and all upgrades, and instead, not having any armour at all, having 2-3 weapons per weapon type and having some of the upgrades be replaced by skills kinda killed it for me.
They turned it into a 3rd person shooter with upgradeable class abilities. Everyone is proficient in 2 types of weapons (except the main char), every weapon type has 3-4 weapons (more with DLC) with the later ones being slightly better but mostly operating differently from the first one. For example, the first rifle is a standard full-auto assault rifle, the second is a more accurate 3-shot-bursts rifle, the third is a high-ammo-capacity machinegun, a DLC weapon is a very accurate semi-auto "battle rifle" of sorts, etc. So it's less linear progression and more diversity and strategic choice.LivingInTheSixties said:
Basically, what shooters, not RPGs, rely on. And it's one of the finest, smoothest and most balanced shooter gameplays I've ever played, with upgradeable abilities making a significant impact, but mostly relying on skill and squad tactics. So, a damn fine shooter with 50 hours of gameplay.
I personally do not like what they did in this video. The action-RPG stuff looks rather boring. As if they tried to make a God-of-War mode and it turned out like an MMORPG. How do they expect one to use a character's average of 10-15 abilities? Do we have to mash 1-10 while we're moving and slashing real-time? Or will they designate just one button for "ability" and you have to cycle through abilities on it like in Oblivion? It's like an admission of "our typical combat is boring, so as to not put you through another Orzammar, we'll add this speed-mode so that you don't fall asleep when fighting regular goons."
For the record, I liked both ME2 and DAO, and I liked DAO more because its main story wasn't an insert-coin-to-receive-dialogue-dump-from-NPC-jukebox-at-regular-intervals game. But ME2 has an incredibly engaging gameplay (when compared to the combat in ME1, which was HORRID), and I wouldn't fault DA2 if they made the entire game a GoW clone with levels and abilities.
Then again, the canon/voiced protagonist thing was really uncalled for. See how many people think their Shepard is the best character in ME2. On the other hand, I loved my character in DAO, because I could imagine a lot of what made him. And it sure helped that the game didn't have that stupid conversation wheel.
EDIT:
Aww, come on, it's still a fantastic shooter! And one with two weeks of gameplay and the best-written characters in existance! If it was coming from Treyarch and marketed as "try out this new shooter of ours", people would go "HOLY SHIT this is like twenty typical shooters all packed into one and with better story and world-building than all modern FPSs combined!". Alas, it's a BioWare title so people approach it with a different perspective.Cingal said:
Well, okay, I should say "best characters and world-building than etc. etc.", since I thought the main plot of ME2 was pure recycled bullshit. They wasted the middle of a pre-planned trilogy on an inconsequential episode that starts and ends in a status-quo. That's Star-Trek-Voyager levels of bad writing.
But yes, complexity is welcome when it adds something to the game. The inventory system in ME1 was one of the worst I've ever had the displeasure to use, as are the skills in DAO (who the hell uses herbalism and extra tactics when you have to buy persuasion on your main anyway?!), and the MMO-like ability toolbar. Sometimes less is more, especially if the more is so unwieldy it takes you right out of the experience.
Also, did anyone think that the game looks... well, extremely bad in this video? I mean look at it, same dull grey and black palette, enemies looking like indistinguishable brown-black silhouettes, jarring character animations...
I admit I didn't like how minimal ME2 became, but mass effect's combat system was difficult and slow, in need of re-tuning. Now having read Susan Ardnt's (is that how it's spelt?) Dragon age 2 preview I'm more sure than ever that bioware is taking Dragon age in the right direction.Onyx Oblivion said:
But yeah, i can blame sceptics for their rushly made decisions. Not that it's anything to be ashamed of, but I don't like it when people stab at something I enjoy before much info has been released about it.
Looks good,but one thing confuses me, surely the whole point of tactical combat that needs micro managing in party based RPGs like Baldurs gate and Dragon age origins is the game is hard and if you do not manage the fight carefully your party will get killed. Now if the game is easy enough that you can just run in and play it like an action RPG then having the option to play it tactical and cautious is meaningless and unsatisfying because you dont have to to succeed. That style of combat is only fun if the game is truely challenging.
I did not say that was what I was looking for I was simply pointing out that these two vastly different gameplay styles require very different game design and I cannot really see how Bioware can claim that both are well implemented in Dragon Age 2. I merely used BG as an example of a tactical party based RPG.SevenForce said:
Aw, I was hoping they had improved the combat like they did for mass effect 2.
Though it might not be everyone's cup of tea, I would have enjoyed it more.
Though it might not be everyone's cup of tea, I would have enjoyed it more.
I agree with you, they're trying to make two different games and i just don't think that can be done well unless they ACTUALLY just make two different games. And as for what i said, i've been waiting for a d&d rpg even nearly as good as bgII for years. No one seems to be stepping up to it though.Mandal0re said: