Dragon Age 2

Draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagon AGE!!!

 

Spaaaaam...

?

 

Not spam. He's just excited that it's out now. I think today was it's Australian release.

 

The new qunari design... It hurts...

 

Yeah it's out today in Europe also, and it's a good game, just not as good as DA O

 

So what's the verdict on it? I was contemplating buying it, but I've heard they changed a lot of things?

 

I'd also like to hear what people have to say. I loved the first one, played the demo to the second and was like 'Hmm... Interesting.' But then they went all Mass Effect with the dialog choices, colour coding the 'good' and the 'bad'... But that just the demo, is the final product better?

 

I will try to remain objective with my mini review here, although I am thoroughly enjoying the game at the moment I feel being all too fanboyish can ruin one's credibility in reviews.

Conversation has changed, the application of Mass Effect dialogue model could of been a great change to the RP genre although in this case it leaves the player wanting. In Mass Effect you could choose paragon (good), renegade (bad arse) or neutral lines. In DA2 you don't necessarily get this option, yes there are times when one option is clearly the good guy option and vice versa however for the most part you choose between tones. The top right tone is usually caring and soft, the middle right is usually a wisecrack or joke and the bottom right is stern and straight to the point. Most of the time there is no change in the outcome after dialogue, occasionally it will mean the difference between fighting someone or bribing them but the fights are not very hard and so it is usually better to just engage and get loot.

Combat has changed to a degree, you have the tactical view like in previous Bioware RPG installments and a newer up close almost console view point. As always you can pause the game at any stage to issue commands to your characters but for the most part allowing them to do their own thing will get you through 90% of the fights. Combat in general is relatively easy on normal level and I suggest you up the difficulty if you are looking for a challenge. Attack combos in the fights allow for a mage to put a 'brittle' effect on enemies with a warrior or rogue using their own special moves and causing up to 200% more damage to specific targets. There is no more dual wielding for warriors sadly as they must choose between a two handed weapon or the sword and board combo. Rogues can either dual wield daggers or use bows. Mages have several different trees to choose from from healing to damage, damage and more damage.

There has been a lot of talk about a high res texture package, from looking at the game's graphics I would suggest grabbing this if you can as the graphics haven't improved since DAO. This is not to say the graphics are terrible and people have complained to me how they thought the game would look better after all the previews. Occasionally characters can look so similar you will sit there and think hey isn't that the guy who did that thing before? Only to hear his voice and realise this person is not the same. Unfortunately the maps are reused all the time, the only difference is one door may not be open and so this makes the dungeon feel 'unique'. This is the one major drawback I believe in the game as after a few missions the areas don't seem fresh anymore, you know when you will be ambushed and it takes the excitement and exploration part of the game out.

Without giving away too much of the story the characters that join your entourage have some good stories. The characters definitely have more depth this time round and there is even a return favourite from Awakening although you may not like this character's new personality. It seems that everyone in your entourage is a love interest, including same sex relationships. In fact it would be surprising with the amount of love options int he dialogue with these characters that you don't accidentally wake up with them in bed the next morning simply because you tried to tell the follower you are his friend.

All in all the game is enjoyable, some epic moments, you will either love it or hate it. The best thing to do with a game like this is not join the angry mob who claim they have destroyed Dragon Age and just treat it for what it is, a new game with a new story set in the same world.

 

So you're saying Dragon Age 2 is more like an expansion pack with new characters and story?

 

Well, I wouldn't say an expansion as there are a lot of changes (good and bad), the combat system is a lot more hack&slash than before and way more fluid.

I've finished DA:O 3 times (I liked it!) and I intend to finish this one as well but the loss of Origins story makes the replayability less appealing.

It's like Zanza said, you either love it or hate it.

 

I tried to be objective and if you feel this isn't the game for you then I suggest you wait for a steam weekend. Hell I got majesty 2 for $4 tonight because it was on sale.

I seriously recommend waiting for the toolkit to be released so people can mod and make this game the way it should have been. At the moment it feels too rushed given the recycled maps.

 

I whole heartedly (if that is the correct spelling) agree with you on the troika comment. I believe we need a group of dedicated people to come in and show the modern big dogs of RPGs what it means to tell a story. That being said the Dragon Age 2 story isn't bad. The way it is told is quite clever really though it does have you sitting there thinking to yourself whether or not what you do has any affect on the outcome.

I think Drog may be holding out for the tool set and I hope he does amazing things to the game. I myself will be waiting for Shogun 2 on Tuesday. I will hopefully have another mini "objective" review for you by the end of next week.

 

DA2 is getting a lot of flak from all fronts. This is pretty weird, perhaps a backlash of all the hype? I mean, check the average user score on Metacritic.

 

Apparently, he breached some kind of EULA (EA's, not Bioware's), and they locked him out of his EA account for 72 hours. That made it impossible to download the game.

 

Picked up a copy yesterday morning. Started a game, almost immediately had a hard crash requiring computer restart. Tried running in a window, still crashed but not to the point of restarting the pc. After the third crash, I switched from DX11 to DX9 and haven't had any more issues. Gameplay seems alright so far.