Were you disappointed with Dragon Age: Origins?
- Thread starter Twitchy Racoon
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If you didn't really like Dragon Age: Origins, I'm willing to bet that you will like Dragon Age 2 better.Twitchy Racoon said:
From my experience with the series: Many months back, my friends played their copies of DA:O to death. They were uber hyping for Dragon Age 2 coming out, and had pre-ordered it. I decided to do so as well to get all the extra stuff. About a month before DA2 came out, I decided that I should get DA:O so I would have both games in the series, and try and play DA:O before DA2.
I used some leftover Amazon credit and got DA:O Ultimate edition for 30 bucks. I started playing it and I got about 15 or so hours in and I was feeling quite "meh" about it. I recognized that it was a similar RPG style like KoTOR, and I loved KoTOR, but I just wasn't feeling DA:O. I have a feeling that I evolved out of those types of RPGs, finding that wanted something that was more suited and developed for this day and age of gaming.
I still kept my pre-order of DA2, because I felt that DA:O was just raw and incredibly broken for the time it was made and was hoping that BioWare would fix all the problems that DA:O had to make DA2 great.
I was right in my decision, because they fixed the things I had problems with in DA:O. They fixed the problems I had with the combat, leveling, dialogue, and character structure.
If you like Fable's combat, I think you will like what BioWare did to change the combat in DA2. You know how in DA:O you had no control over your main/basic weapon, like if you were a warrior, your character would swing the sword very slowly and you would have no control over when it happened, well in DA2 you have an attack button for your basic attack and you can make it go as fast as you want to. Also, instead of hoping that your special attacks go where you want them to go, you control where they hit. I could tell my mage to am the raining fire attack at the archers in the distance. Also, your character can actually run in combat with no fatigue consequences, so you can actually move like you are in a hectic battle instead of walking through a tar pit like in DA:O. rogues can actually move quickly and preform surprise attacks before an enemy can react, instead of the enemy being able to move as fast as your rogues.
Combat is just plain fluid and fast paced, it actually makes fighting fun, instead of some roll of the dice behind the scenes.
The dialogue is clear and proper, no more being totally blind to what might happen if you say something, meaning far less reloads to get the conversations the way you want them to go.
The characters in DA2 are far more likable, for one thing they actually tell you things about themselves, with out you having to solve them like dialogue puzzles to find out more about them. Also, the vast majority of them(accept Fenris) don't act like closed off dicks, like most of the DA:O characters did..
Leveling is actually rewarding because the new tech tree system is awesome, and you actually get the same amount of attribute and skill points to use each level, instead of random attribute points and sometimes not skill points to use. You can master two and a half skill sets instead of the possible one and a part in DA:O. Plus, your attribute point levels on things like cunning, will, magic, and strength, don't effect your skill learning, if you want the next skill in the tree your are learning, you just have to have the skill point and have purchased the skill that came before the one you want.
I feel you will like DA2 much more than DA:O. I never did beat DA:O, but I did beat DA2 and loved it, and started up rogue and warrior saves as well, and I'm still not bored of it.
The problem with DA is it tries to be Baldur's Gate without the mechanics that made Baldur's Gate compelling.
1) Interesting loot
The loot in DA is boring! BG had lot's of little goodies that included interesting bits of lore. and quite a few that could only be used by certain classes causing you to agonise whether who got what.
DA's loot is flavour free; I don't care is my longbow is made of yew and my chainmail is made from iron I want to know that they once belonged to 'Errigan of the Dead Hand' or something. And almost anybody a can use anything if they have enough strength or magic or whatever.
2) Varied spell casting.
Once you picked out a collection of spells combat became a series of cooldown times. Fireball everybody 1,2... Forcefield the archers/mages 3,4... Freeze the melee guys 5,6... wait for the enemies to get in a line and cone of fire, rinse repeat. Summoning spells and fun things like invisibility are missing.
In BG you picked out a selection of varied spells before a battle and had to come up with a combination that suited the enemy of the day.
3) A sense of growing power and stature within the world.
In BG you start of fairly weak and insignificant. Sure you're spawn of a god; but you're pretty useless. Nobody really takes an interest in you unless they know your lineage and have made a hobby picking off baalspawn. You start of solving small localized and as the game progresses you grow in power so the powerful take an interest.
Contrast this with DA where you also start off weak but are essentially given the keys to the kingdom from the get-go. Here you go level 2 character, it is up to you to unite everybody and save the world!
Higher level character's? What higher level characters? They all got killed in that battle,... or they're all suddenly stuck with tedious problems that only you (Oh level 2 hero of everything) can solve.
1) Interesting loot
The loot in DA is boring! BG had lot's of little goodies that included interesting bits of lore. and quite a few that could only be used by certain classes causing you to agonise whether who got what.
DA's loot is flavour free; I don't care is my longbow is made of yew and my chainmail is made from iron I want to know that they once belonged to 'Errigan of the Dead Hand' or something. And almost anybody a can use anything if they have enough strength or magic or whatever.
2) Varied spell casting.
Once you picked out a collection of spells combat became a series of cooldown times. Fireball everybody 1,2... Forcefield the archers/mages 3,4... Freeze the melee guys 5,6... wait for the enemies to get in a line and cone of fire, rinse repeat. Summoning spells and fun things like invisibility are missing.
In BG you picked out a selection of varied spells before a battle and had to come up with a combination that suited the enemy of the day.
3) A sense of growing power and stature within the world.
In BG you start of fairly weak and insignificant. Sure you're spawn of a god; but you're pretty useless. Nobody really takes an interest in you unless they know your lineage and have made a hobby picking off baalspawn. You start of solving small localized and as the game progresses you grow in power so the powerful take an interest.
Contrast this with DA where you also start off weak but are essentially given the keys to the kingdom from the get-go. Here you go level 2 character, it is up to you to unite everybody and save the world!
Higher level character's? What higher level characters? They all got killed in that battle,... or they're all suddenly stuck with tedious problems that only you (Oh level 2 hero of everything) can solve.
Totally agree, DA2 fixed the DA:O problems with combat, it did make it feel realistic.CM156 said:
In DA2, my warrior can actually run in combat and can swing his sword like he is in a frantic battle.
My warrior in DA:O swung his sword like the air was made of thick tar. I have seen people in real life swing real swords, wearing full suits of real armor, and they swung their swords three times faster than my warrior did in DA:O.
I can't stand it when people say that the combat in DA2 is dumbed down. It makes no logical sense. What BioWare did was give the players more freedom. They game the players full control over their characters, instead of leaving half the combat in the hands of a behind the scenes randomized calculator. If anything they made the combat more complex because giving the players that freedom, gives them more things they have to keep track of, which takes more time and thought, instead of pressing the attack button once to turn on the automated combat, and occasionally press a button for a special ability.
DA2 spoiled with all the great fixes BioWare made with it to make it better than DA:O. I was able to beat DA2 before DA:O(still haven't beat it for the first time), because DA2 was just more fluid and engaging. Combat was fast and instead of having to stop for 2 to 4 minutes to decipher most dialogue list options like I have had to do with DA:O, with DA2 I know which dialogue choice will give me the outcome I want. It's not dumbing it down, it is fixing an archaic system, allowing me to pay attention to what the people are saying and the story, instead of having to think about all the possible outcomes that might come in the next set of dialogue choices.
I might go back some day and beat DA:O, but I'm not looking forward to it, because it actually feels worse than grinding in WoW.
Played Origins for about 5-10 hours and decided that I hated the combat. It reminded me of a less enjoyable and more repetitive version of WoW, which was impressive since WoW could get very repetitive. I enjoyed the story, but it just wasn't worth investing the time when I could go hop on WoW, have more engaging fights, and be able to chat with a bunch of my friends. Not to mention the graphics were too "gritty" for my taste. None of the recent RPGs have the bright colors that I tend to enjoy in games. All the MMOs are going for "realistic" graphics abd shooters have been doing it for years. Now I'm left with Zelda (which is fine, it's my favorite game series by a long shot) and Total War games. They go for realism, but they don't try and obtain it by scrubbing everything with dirt. I just wish my computer could handle Shogun 2 on high, because some of the game play trailers I have seen are just breathtakingly beautiful.
Really didn't like it. It was sort of like they tried to mix Diablo with Baldur's Gate and got a kind of mediocre middle ground. The whole world of the game is combat. That's all everything in the world and the narrative seems to be made for, and DA:O combat in itself isn't that interesting because the class dynamics are far too basic and nothing is nearly visceral or satisfying enough. Big problem for me, because 1 - I'm picky when it comes to combat in games, and 2 - I tend to favor the exploration element of RPGs over the fighting.
Imagine what I felt like when I got to DA2. Uuugh.
Imagine what I felt like when I got to DA2. Uuugh.
I played DAO a little bit a couple of years ago (I rented it). At the time I was not impressed. I have since seen a friend playing DA2 and decided to buy it. I managed to get a copy of DAO thrown in as well (a deal on ebay) but have not touched it yet as been playing the sequel. Once my first play through of DA2 is done, I will go back for another go on DAO but this won't be any time soon.
I agree with some other posters opinion that the DA games are a lot like baldurs gate of old, I definately got that impression yesterday while playing DA2. Which is good because I loved the dark alliance games on the ps2.
However, like someone else said, I also find myself comparing DA to the mass effect games, which will always hold a much higher place in my heart as they are just altogether better games and I am much more excited for ME3 than DA3. I would probably get DA3 when it comes out, but it would most likely be a pre owned purchase unlike ME3 which I have pre ordered.
I agree with some other posters opinion that the DA games are a lot like baldurs gate of old, I definately got that impression yesterday while playing DA2. Which is good because I loved the dark alliance games on the ps2.
However, like someone else said, I also find myself comparing DA to the mass effect games, which will always hold a much higher place in my heart as they are just altogether better games and I am much more excited for ME3 than DA3. I would probably get DA3 when it comes out, but it would most likely be a pre owned purchase unlike ME3 which I have pre ordered.