Was Dragon Age II really that bad?

[Brutal Peanut]

I liked Origins a lot, but I still enjoyed DA2 and had fun playing it, despite the flaws. I'll admit that it felt pretty rushed. But I eventually played through it at least three times. So no, I don't think it was actually terrible. People just expected something a lot different from the DA series, especially after Origins. Some aimed their hopes pretty high.So you have people who never liked the DA series complaining (though they never stopped), and fans of Origins complaining because it wasn't Origins. It wasn't Origins,...at all. o_o;;

 

[synobal]

It was bad, reused areas, poor gameplay mechanics, little to no customization, oh and the lack of a real story.

 

[StrappingYoungLad]

not as bad as some people make it out to be but still pretty bad.
no consequences to my actions, recycled environments, wave after wave of enemies.
No overhead camera which made aiming spells a *****. enemy rogues with more HP than a brick wall...

This about sums up my opinion.

 

[Xanadu84]

Its not terrible. It was disappointing.

DA:O kinda represented a torch carrying of the Baulders Gate style RPG. DA2 felt like it was killing of a great and underused genre in favor for a tweaked Mass Effect when we already have Mass Effect. Random other shortcomings just re-enforced the disappointment.

 

[DustyDrB]

It wasn't bad at all. There were faults, but there were improvements as well.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Not at all, it's the best game ever, I wish all RPG's were yearly stamp outs, actually they should make them half yearly stamp outs, that's how you really get the quality in there.

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

Watch this Let's Play. Chart the player's mood when each episode starts, and you'll find out why people say bad things about Dragon Age 2.

 

[Argonian alchemist]

Hawke: "Prepare to die corrupt guardsman!"

Aveline: "Hawke no!"

Hawke: "Oh for chist sake Aveline, shut up. He's corrupt, that means it's okay for me to kill him..."

*Aveline friendship -10*

Hawke: "Oh what the fu-"

*Merril friendship -20*

Hawke: "Huh what, what did I do!?"

*Fenris friendship -50*

Hawke: "Okay what the hell is going on, all of you stop!"

*Varric friendship -200*

Hawke: "..."

*Isabella frien-*

Hawke: "OH F**K THIS!!!"

*Throws controller and storms out room...*

 

[DSK-]

There were some parts I enjoyed, although they were few and far between. In all honesty, there as distinct lack of polish in terms of the story, where I literally had no idea what the hell was going. Most games have an underlying, driving goal that is meant to be achieved during the game - but the goal of Hawke is met half way through the game with nothing else taking it's place.

I was pretty bored through most of it, I found it quite unenjoyable.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

I didn't even really like origins, or consider it especially good. I got right near the end, was about to fight the dragon, and resigned out of boredom. As for the sequel, yeah I kept away, and suddenly people realised some of the weaknesses in the series and came down hard on this particular episode in the series (but not the first, no that is almost worshipped).

 

[dibblywibbles]

I remember really enjoying my time in kirkwall when it was new. then as I progressed through the game something happened. everything started looking the same, the combat which was fun at first became kinda boring. maybe I had high expectations, but seriously, they dropped the ball with their lazy level design. is it wrong to expect great things from a sequel? graphics were better, the story went in a direction I wanted it to and leads up to a third game which will hopefully not be terrible so long as they learn from their mistake.

 

[Glenn ReDavid]

Was it everything I had hoped for? No Did it have major flaws? Yes But, so did DA:O that most people have forgotten about. I loved both games and I hope DA:3 builds upon both of these and fulfills the promise that this series has. I love Dragon Age!!

 

[oden636]

When i first played DA:O I enjoyed it but i didnt think it was amazing or revolutionary. DA:2 I did enjoy and it improved the series in some ways, such as changing the leveling.
Its just a shame the story was naff, the environments i can count on one hand and i hated most of the characters Except Varril and Meryl.
In brief Its not terrible but its not Biowares golden goose.
And yes i will still buy legacy.

 

[psicat]

Except for the overused dungeons I thought it was better than Dragon Age: Origins. Combat was much better, characters where more well rounded than the simple high fantasy stereotypes from the first and you weren't accidentally engaging them in conversation in a dungeon, and the storyline was more personal.

People tend to ***** about less choices available in the game but tend to never think that Origins just offers a series of pick A or B moments as it's choices with no major impact on the game for most other than a different summery epilogue, you can try to play as the most evil bastard you want you are still hailed as the Hero by the end.

Another problem is just plain hype. A game is just hyped up like crazy and when it fails to meet that hype people will hate it even more than necessary. Some people played maybe 10 minutes, or just played the demo, and where posting 0 scores on Metacritic. In some respects the same thing happened to Duke Nukem. Because of the hype people where expecting some great, classic, return to old school FPS. Yet, Duke Nukem has never been a great classic it's always been over the top and filled with crude humor, not to mention all the old school mechanics where replaced with modern ones. So people hated it and judged it more harshly than it deserved.

 

[Plumerou]

Honestly i enjoyed more origins, but is not a bad game, yeah copy paste rooms are kinda annoying since i liked seeing different enviorements, but i can get past that

but if there is one thing that annoyed me over all, is how they changed anders so much, i miss old anders from awakening, i know its character development and all but still i didnt like his change :X

 

[pezwitch]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has one of the best articles on why Dragon Age 2 failed. (Thoughts: What Went Wrong With Dragon Age II).

If you really want a well thought out argument of why there is a lot of nerd rage towards Bioware John Walker's article about why he found the game unsatisfying even though there were aspects of it he liked is a good place to start.

This quote about the begining sums up one of my issues with the game nicely: "Not only is it made clear that the events you?re playing have already happened, but its emphasised upon you that you?re just an observer..."

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Its an okay game, but theres the rub, Dragon Age 1 is like a '10' while DA2 is a '5'. I didn't think DA2 was that bad until I went back and played Origins.

Even the starting zone in origins feels more epic than DA2's later dungeons. Take the werewolf ruins or the temple of sacred ashes and compare them to reused sewer number 3. It's like they took a novel and removed all the descriptive prose from it because hey saves time and money. Mass Effect does the same thing with it's side missions but this isn't about side missions it happens in the main storyline aswell.

The choices in the plot are just 'tricks' really. You never end up with a different story no matter what you do. Like someone has said already the serial killer one especially just makes you wonder what the point was in you making any desicions at all.

I think DA2 would have done better if they had made it an IP then fans wouldn't have had such high expectations from it. It's not just about a name though. The gameplay is totally different which isn't what fans expect from a sequel.

Although I don't want to make this my main point, I adored Baldurs Gates style of gameplay. DA:O gave that back and it was awesome. Then DA2 took it away again and it was kind of a let down for me. That's more of a personal thing but I think thats what a lot of others felt too.

I'm waiting for my new PC to get legacy. I enjoyed DA2 but I think it should have been seperated in the minds of gamers from DA:O and would have fared a lot better.

Hawke: "Prepare to die corrupt guardsman!"
Hawke: "Okay what the hell is going on, all of you stop!"
*Varric friendship -200*

I actually found Varric was the one who agreed with me all the time I was always imagining my Hawke and Varric looking at each other and shrugging. I almost wish he was a love interest tbh becuase he seemed the only sane, normal one there. hehe

 

[Not-here-anymore]

I rarely thought my choices were meant to have consequences beyond how people viewed me.
The whole game seemed to be about playing a character, rather than a story. It was a nice change of pace from the usual 'all of the events here revolve around you, go save the world!' formula.
Yes, Hawke was heavily involved in the goings on in Kirkwall, but he/she was hardly the sole driving force, nor a travelling magical hero destined to fix everything. Just a guy/girl in the wrong place at the right time.

The re-used environments thing was still bullshit, though.

 

[bob-2000]

I really enjoyed DA2. Sure, it was rushed out by EA, but Bioware did a good job considering. For one, the plot is much more interesting than DAOs' re-hashing of the LoTR story-line. The DA2 characters were really well done too.

 

[erto101]

It was average; I shouldn't be paying £30 for average. I paid the same for The Witcher 2, which only just stopped short of giving me a blowjob. By comparison, DA2 wouldn't even let me fondle its tits.

So yeah, basically... DA2 is fucking frigid.

You've got it easy -.- Standard price for a new PC game in Denmark is between 40 and 50 and a PS# is above 50

Anyway, I thought it was a decent game but much more an action-game rather than a RPG

£50 you mean? Because Google says a pound = like 8 Danish Krones, in which case you're getting a mega-deal, surely?

50£, yes. And I actually thought it was 10 danish crowns. This is the retailer price, mind you. Sometimes you can find a better deal on the internet.