[updated old topic] Finished Dragon Age 2, here is what can confirmed.

[lucky_sharm]

[this is an old topic with edits added in. I made this while I was this still in the middle of the game]

I just finished Dragon Age 2, and this is what I can point out for certain. Bear in mind that I'm playing the PC version on Hard mode, so maybe some of these things may not apply to the console versions.

Combat hasn't been dumbed down that much.

I don't know why people keep talking about how everything has been dumbed down. You auto attack by right clicking on enemies, you set tactics for your non controlled party members, you can pause the game in order to deliver commands to your companions strategically, and you can use skills and abilities by hotkey or mouse. Same as the original but faster and more fluid, pretty much.

Abilities have been remade somewhat, individual enemies with normal and elite ranks have greater amounts of health and spawn in waves, so you'll be pausing more often in order to get yourself out of difficult situations. The bosses are actually difficult(High Dragon, Rock Wraith), too, especially now that you can't just chug all four types of Health poltices on your characters anymore. Now all of your health and stamina/lyrium pots share the same cooldown.

DA2 is in some aspects more difficult than DAO (based on playing on mostly Hard difficulty)

This game is for the most part harder, too, and it has nothing to do with remade abilities, stats, and remade animations. You know how mages and archers in the first game could have their attacks interrupted? Well in this game all of your characters can be interrupted or even sent flying away depending on your Strength stat. This makes positioning your support characters in battle even more important now that they can be stunlocked from almost any attack.

The lack of friendly fire on Hard won't make things much easier, either, what with the respawning waves of enemies that appear after you kill a certain amount during some encounters in the game.

There is inventory management in this game as well as being able to customize the appearance of Hawke.

I don't know where people got this assumption from. You can indeed customize the appearance of Hawke and equip items on him or her with a wide range of armor, helmets, rings, amulets, belts, and weapons. The only difference is that armor can't be equipped just by your Strength stat but sometimes by both Strength and Consitution which apply to heavy armor or Cunning and Dexterity which apply to light armor.

You can also equip your companions with amulets, rings, belts, and weapons but not their default outfits, but is that really a bad thing? Can you really picture Morrigan wearing a First Enchanter Robe or Isabella wearing heavy plate?

Dragon Age Origins gave the player the illusion of having freedom by giving them the ability to change companions into whatever armor sets and weapons that they liked, but in truth there wasn't much freedom at all. Leliana starts out strictly as an archer, Sten a two-handed swordsman, and Morrigan a mage. Yeah you can equip Morrigan with dual daggers and Sten with a sword and shield but that wouldn't be very efficient, would it?

The game was no more linear than Dragon Age Origins and Awakening were.

Basically, the gist is that there are still rival factions to choose between, a wide assortment of main plot quests that can be undertaken at any time, and loads and loads of side quests to complete.

And now here are some criticisms that are genuinely true for this game.

Not as many persuasion or cunning options in dialogue.

A minor complaint, but still bugged me a bit. Running into special kinds of dialogue options that offered better rewards or unorthadox outcomes were always kind of a nice thing to have.

The game tends to get repetitive at times, going through side quests that consist mostly of talking to people and killing things.

Pretty self explanatory, and was also a problem that Dragon Age Origins had.

Companions weren't quite as dynamic or memorable as Origins's companions were.

I don't know. To me the characters you get in Dragon Age 2 have the potential to be very compelling and interesting but most of them are never fully fleshed out or characterized. I think they could have gotten the player more attached to these companions if they would let you converse with them more often.

Reused Enviornments

A huge, inexcusably bad flaw that Dragon Age 2 has. Even some of the most important events that happen such as entering the serial killer's hideout take place in a copy pasted area. Dragon Age Origins and Awakening reused enviornments as well but not nearly as much atleast made the effort to look and feel different.


In short TLDR, Dragon Age 2 is a fairly decent RPG that is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. It's a bit weird how seriously people take the changes that were made to Dragon Age 2. They hate it so badly that they'll even make multiple accounts in order to bomb the game with 0.0/10 reviews just for the sake of lowering the score.

 

[Travis Austin]

Finally! Someone who understands.

Honestly, I think most of the hate comes from PC elitists who are angry that Bioware improved on the console instead of just focusing on the PC, and also people who feel they should have just release Origins again.

I also found it more difficult.

 

[lucky_sharm]

Also, DA2 is HARDER than DAO

Uhhhhh.....nnnnnnnno.

This should be in the user reviews section, maybe.

Could you please explain? If I'm wrong, then would it not be reasonable to elaborate on what I've been mistaken on?

 

[lucky_sharm]

On Normal, the first game required a tank+healer combination to play effectively. I've finished DA2 once (now playing it a second time) using a two-handed sword warrior with Taunt and the defense aura as my tank.
In the first game, on Normal and Hard, area of effect spells could damage your own party. In DA2, they do not unless you're playing Nightmare.
Add to that the speed at which the enemies die, the lunge attacks, class combos with devastating effects and the fact that choosing spells has been made far more accessible and streamlined, and you have an easier game. The only difficult element in DA2 are the mobs that stealth and backstab your support characters, but even those are easy to take care of with the huge amount of crowd control spells.

For me, they balanced out the lack of friendly fire by making potions and healing a lot less abusable and making the enemies more numerous and damaging. Healing was pretty game breaking in Dragon Age Origins when you could use four different types of potions consecutively in battle and not to mention all of the healing abilities that your mage companions could have.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Also, DA2 is HARDER than DAO

Uhhhhh.....nnnnnnnno.

This should be in the user reviews section, maybe.

Could you please explain? If I'm wrong, then would it not be reasonable to elaborate on what I've been mistaken on?

Yes, i can explain. The difficulty of DAO was acknowledged by even the developers of being too hard. There was a patch soon after release that improved the stats of your party.
On Normal, the first game required a tank+healer combination to play effectively. I've finished DA2 once (now playing it a second time) using a two-handed sword warrior with Taunt and the defense aura as my tank.
In the first game, on Normal and Hard, area of effect spells could damage your own party. In DA2, they do not unless you're playing Nightmare.
Add to that the speed at which the enemies die, the lunge attacks, class combos with devastating effects and the fact that choosing spells has been made far more accessible and streamlined, and you have an easier game. The only difficult element in DA2 are the mobs that stealth and backstab your support characters, but even those are easy to take care of with the huge amount of crowd control spells.

Actually, only hard and above had Friendly Fire in DA:O. Also, the spell choosing being easier and steamlined didn't make the game easier, it made it easier to play. Completely different effect.

Also, your mileage may very on DA:O's difficulty. I was fine on Normal and Hard without ever using a dedicated healer, even pre-difficulty patch. DA:O's difficulty came from a few specific fights in the game that, if you did not plan for or use a very specific strategy, were stupidly hard. Most of the encounters were pointlessly easy, especially if you were using a mage or 2. DA2's solution isn't especially elegant, but I did find the game generally more difficult with the inclusion of random spawns in fights and endless mobs while fighting bosses.

 

[lucky_sharm]

On Normal, the first game required a tank+healer combination to play effectively. I've finished DA2 once (now playing it a second time) using a two-handed sword warrior with Taunt and the defense aura as my tank.
In the first game, on Normal and Hard, area of effect spells could damage your own party. In DA2, they do not unless you're playing Nightmare.
Add to that the speed at which the enemies die, the lunge attacks, class combos with devastating effects and the fact that choosing spells has been made far more accessible and streamlined, and you have an easier game. The only difficult element in DA2 are the mobs that stealth and backstab your support characters, but even those are easy to take care of with the huge amount of crowd control spells.

For me, they balanced out the lack of friendly fire by making potions and healing a lot less abusable and making the enemies more numerous and damaging. Healing was pretty game breaking in Dragon Age Origins when you could use four different types of potions consecutively in battle and not to mention all of the healing abilities that your mage companions could have.

Enemeis are neither more numerous nor more damaging. Don't know where you got that from.
Potions in Dragon Age Origins cost you gold and crafting time. Normal potions and injury kits in DA2 cost absolutely nothing, you just have to kill more dudes.

But they are. There were many occasions where enemies would continuously swarm into the battlefield and even materialize out of thin air next to my ranged companions. It was annoying but also made combat pretty frantic and intense.

Potions like Lyrium Pots and Health-Lesser Health poltices in Dragon Age Origins were pretty easy to come by for me. Chests, crates, and corpses would constantly drop them, or maybe I just get really lucky with loot, perhaps.

 

[lucky_sharm]

But they are. There were many occasions where enemies would continuously swarm into the battlefield and even materialize out of thin air next to my ranged companions. It was annoying but also made combat pretty frantic and intense.

Constantly spawning enemies doesn't necessarily equal more enemies, nor does it make the combat any more challenging. Remember, cooldowns are refreshed after each fight now.

But okay, have it your way. I trust all my OTHER POINTS are solid, then?

You're referring to your points, as in your one point? Your point being that combat was easier in Dragon Age Origins than in Dragon Age 2, correct?

And what about how often enemies, chests, and crates would drop Lyrium and Health potions despite your claim that they were more expensive and harder to come by in DAO? And how grossly powerful healing in general was in the first game?

 

[adrian_exec]

Actually, only hard and above had Friendly Fire in DA:O. A

Actually on the PC on normal difficulty your party members would take 50% damage from AoE spells, only on casual friendly fire was taken off completely.

On the PS3/Xbox you indeed had friendly fire only on hard (50% damage) and on nightmare (100% damage). Henceforth why some people hate that Dragon Age 2 was "dumbed" down even further for consoles since we have friendly fire only on Nightmare.


My own personal opinion is that a sequel should be better then its original game and since that's not the case, I think some of the hatred is well deserved.

But some of the hatred is indeed retarded, I heard some people whined why they couldn't have a romance option with Bethany/Carver.

 

[lucky_sharm]

My own personal opinion is that a sequel should be better then its original game and since that's not the case, I think some of the hatred is well deserved.

But some of the hatred is indeed retarded, I heard some people whined why they couldn't have a romance option with Bethany/Carver.

Yes, that was what I was trying to bring across. Some of the criticism is justified but some of it is also horribly misinformed like how there would be no inventory or customization.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I judge how much fun I have with a game above all else.

I'm having more fun playing DA2 then I ever did with Origins, everything else is redundant.

 

[Crashage]

The real gear grinder for me is the continual reuse of maps. It's lazy and I feel like using more than three or four maps isn't too much to ask. Why is Fenris' mansion the same as every other mansion? Why is every cave the same? If the game wasn't so immersive and interesting the map thing probably would have ruined it more for me, but as it happens I'm pretty engrossed. The quests are imaginative and fun, sometimes disturbing, sometimes shocking, but always entertaining. I'm only about half way though, so things could change!

 

[Danceofmasks]

Any setting with less than 100% friendly fire is a dumbed down setting.
Tactical use of AoEs is lame if you can just spam your friends.

 

[Art Axiv]

Dragon Age 2's market reception will make a great Master thesis topic for me.

 

[Saviordd1]

I judge how much fun I have with a game above all else.

I'm having more fun playing DA2 then I ever did with Origins, everything else is redundant.

This

The game could have the combat from hell for all i cared, i went into the game wanting entertainment, a good story, and general fun, i got all three as bioware does, any other points are useless

 

[Leole]

Any setting with less than 100% friendly fire is a dumbed down setting.
Tactical use of AoEs is lame if you can just spam your friends.

THIS. A HUNDRED TIMES THIS.

The only reason I'm playing DA:O on nightmare. I remember a time when I would cast Storm of the Century on EVERY fight I had, easiest playthrough ever.