This isnt going to be a "zomg, i hate DA2, its the antichrist" post. Because lets face it, there's more than enough extreme fanboiz and haters on both sides of the argument.
Simply put, i looked at the game from my own point of view and looked at what i found wrong with it that made me dislike it more than any Bioware game ive played before. Yes it dumbs down the genre, but its also not the worst game in history, either.
As an avid RPGer, a sci fi and fantasy fan, and lover of good books with good stories, it was these traits that made me love Bioware games. Their tight stories, well told, that got the mix of everything just right. It made me accept and overlook the minor flaws that every game has, and helped me forget them by sucking me into the world Bioware created.
But that story, that act of being sucked into wanting to know what happens next to Hawke never happened.
Why? Because for me, Dragon Age 2 seemed to suffer from one fatal flaw -
A meandering account of stuff that "just happens".
------------------------------------------------------
I noted in my mind when actual plot points occured in my gametime, after being 5 hours in and wondering when something was going to happen main plot wise.
10 hours.
10 hours of sidequests before it had tried to allude it was building up to something that would happen. Before then, Hawke was just mulling about.
Then, when that first stage is reached, you think "Finally! Something is going to happ..."
Then, you return to Kirkwall, and are put back to work on -another- 10 hours of sidequests.
Sidequests that build up to an event that was clearly designed for the story in the next game, not this one.
At this point, i thought... "Is there even a main plot TO this game?"
Then the main plot begins. ... 20 hours...
20 hours into the game, then Bioware rushed the main plot by in the remaining 10 hours; and even then, was very pushed through and contrived in places.
For me, any game that takes 20 hours to start the main plot is born out of a lack of a good script/story director.
The Qunari thing could have been worked into the story *as* the the main plot was happening. It could have even helped make the world seem like everything was going to hell twice as bad.
Seperating the two made it feel bitty, segmented, and ultimately disjointed.
Combined with the sheer timescale, the chain of the events felt as if it hadnt been thought through long enough.
If it was a book, you'd of put it down before you reached the main plot.
As i say, Bioware's best defense in the past was it overcame it's gameplay flaws with telling a great tale. A tight story that kept you wanting to know what happens next. It didnt matter in Dragon Age Origins if the party tactic commands were a bit crap, or the blood splatter over their faces looked ridiculously like someone had exploded a bottle of tomato ketchup... the plot and story kept you playing.
This time, for me, the flaws were worse, and there was nothing to overcome them because my character didnt seem to have any direction for 20 hours out of the 30... And after that 20 i was sighing so much that i spent the last 10 doubting the real story actually *was* the real story, or if it was going to peter out like the first two.
The lack of Darkspawn also for the first time made me ponder if they're even going to bring the matter up in the final game. Isnt that what Dragon Age was meant to be about? It's version of Mass Effect Reapers, KotOR's Sith? LotR's Sauron?
But regardless, for any game to take that long to get anywhere with its story, when its the story that is meant to be the shining star, be it a game, a movie or a reader, loses the reader, the watcher, or the player - and lets our mind wander... which stops us being sucked into the world we're meant to be immersed in.
DA2 basically, for me, needed a rewrite in the scripting and planning stage. It was Bioware's best trait in the past, and when all else fails - its what made us keep buying their games.
Hopefully, this and the slightly less one-dimensional Mass Effect 2 are blips. But it is a worrying thought that this was the first game Bioware created from start to finish since being taken over by EA.
There, i got it off my chest. I hope some fanboiz can understand why it is possible to feel let down by this game from the explanation above. And also the haters can realize that this also doesnt not make Bioware the antichrist
Simply put, i looked at the game from my own point of view and looked at what i found wrong with it that made me dislike it more than any Bioware game ive played before. Yes it dumbs down the genre, but its also not the worst game in history, either.
As an avid RPGer, a sci fi and fantasy fan, and lover of good books with good stories, it was these traits that made me love Bioware games. Their tight stories, well told, that got the mix of everything just right. It made me accept and overlook the minor flaws that every game has, and helped me forget them by sucking me into the world Bioware created.
But that story, that act of being sucked into wanting to know what happens next to Hawke never happened.
Why? Because for me, Dragon Age 2 seemed to suffer from one fatal flaw -
A meandering account of stuff that "just happens".
------------------------------------------------------
I noted in my mind when actual plot points occured in my gametime, after being 5 hours in and wondering when something was going to happen main plot wise.
10 hours.
10 hours of sidequests before it had tried to allude it was building up to something that would happen. Before then, Hawke was just mulling about.
Then, when that first stage is reached, you think "Finally! Something is going to happ..."
Then, you return to Kirkwall, and are put back to work on -another- 10 hours of sidequests.
Sidequests that build up to an event that was clearly designed for the story in the next game, not this one.
At this point, i thought... "Is there even a main plot TO this game?"
Then the main plot begins. ... 20 hours...
20 hours into the game, then Bioware rushed the main plot by in the remaining 10 hours; and even then, was very pushed through and contrived in places.
For me, any game that takes 20 hours to start the main plot is born out of a lack of a good script/story director.
The Qunari thing could have been worked into the story *as* the the main plot was happening. It could have even helped make the world seem like everything was going to hell twice as bad.
Seperating the two made it feel bitty, segmented, and ultimately disjointed.
Combined with the sheer timescale, the chain of the events felt as if it hadnt been thought through long enough.
If it was a book, you'd of put it down before you reached the main plot.
As i say, Bioware's best defense in the past was it overcame it's gameplay flaws with telling a great tale. A tight story that kept you wanting to know what happens next. It didnt matter in Dragon Age Origins if the party tactic commands were a bit crap, or the blood splatter over their faces looked ridiculously like someone had exploded a bottle of tomato ketchup... the plot and story kept you playing.
This time, for me, the flaws were worse, and there was nothing to overcome them because my character didnt seem to have any direction for 20 hours out of the 30... And after that 20 i was sighing so much that i spent the last 10 doubting the real story actually *was* the real story, or if it was going to peter out like the first two.
The lack of Darkspawn also for the first time made me ponder if they're even going to bring the matter up in the final game. Isnt that what Dragon Age was meant to be about? It's version of Mass Effect Reapers, KotOR's Sith? LotR's Sauron?
But regardless, for any game to take that long to get anywhere with its story, when its the story that is meant to be the shining star, be it a game, a movie or a reader, loses the reader, the watcher, or the player - and lets our mind wander... which stops us being sucked into the world we're meant to be immersed in.
DA2 basically, for me, needed a rewrite in the scripting and planning stage. It was Bioware's best trait in the past, and when all else fails - its what made us keep buying their games.
Hopefully, this and the slightly less one-dimensional Mass Effect 2 are blips. But it is a worrying thought that this was the first game Bioware created from start to finish since being taken over by EA.
There, i got it off my chest. I hope some fanboiz can understand why it is possible to feel let down by this game from the explanation above. And also the haters can realize that this also doesnt not make Bioware the antichrist
