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Dragon Age II |OT| The Revenge of Shit Mountain

ShockingAlberto said:
For such a mediocre game, it sure gets a lot of love.

This works both ways!

Sure, but reading this thread is not showing much love. The reviews were really solid though. Bioware just makes great games. We really need a single player KOTOR III though!
 
Gillian Seed said:
Sure, but reading this thread is not showing much love. The reviews were really solid though. Bioware just makes great games. We really need a single player KOTOR III though!
I'm not sure what's going on.

Are you making the argument that no one here has actually played the game enough to form a negative opinion on it and we should be ceding to the review scores?
 
ShockingAlberto said:
I'm not sure what's going on.
He is just trying to ignore everyone else and pretends that its a good game or something.

Can't be anything else when your best arguments are vocal minority and well some people probably liked it.

Edit: Or we are getting trolled. Has to be.
 

Complistic

Member
Gillian Seed said:
For such a awesome game, it sure gets a lot of hate.

Im curious as to what you thought was awesome. Was it the repetitive environments and combat? Or maybe the ridiculously bad story or characters? It can't be the graphics because they were dreadfully boring.
 
I just started playing Dragon Age 2 yesterday.

Sigh, I just can't find any energy to play this game, combat seems way too casualized, even the traveling and map outlay seems to annoy me.

Wonder when devs will learn that making a game more accessible just alienates the core.
I'm a console gamer btw, and yes I do enjoy complex deep games.
 
Gillian Seed said:
Sure, but reading this thread is not showing much love. The reviews were really solid though. Bioware just makes great games. We really need a single player KOTOR III though!
I'm not sure where the logical fallacies begin and end.
 
Wow! I am just amazed at how many people dislike the game on Gaf. Nothing more. I loved DA:O, but i love the new real time/turn based combat system much better. It is just more fun than the already awesome DA:O. IMHO
 
Confidence Man said:
People dislike the game everywhere.
Dislike gives a slightly more negative impression than it deserves. Criticize is more appropriate. Rock Paper Shotgun being the perfect example where the majority of flaws get pointed out but the game is still supposed to be viewed in a positive light overall, at least according to whats written in that article. Certainly there are things that some people like about this game.
 

Gvaz

Banned
Gillian Seed said:
Sure, but reading this thread is not showing much love. The reviews were really solid though. Bioware just makes great games. We really need a single player KOTOR III though!
No they really arent. A lot of them are saying "this is a bad game, 80%" or "It's okay, 80%"

80% is not "average", 80% is fairly good. 50% is average. It's another example of not giving a bad review # because publishers judge whether or not you rated a game well for future stuff. 80% is baseline, any less than that and some people go "dur hur im a n idiot, this is a bad game"

Gillian Seed said:
Wow! I am just amazed at how many people dislike the game on Gaf. Nothing more. I loved DA:O, but i love the new real time/turn based combat system much better. It is just more fun than the already awesome DA:O. IMHO
it's exactly the same with the only difference being shitty animations and spawning enemies effectively killing any sense of tactics the first game had.
 

Relix

he's Virgin Tight™
gibon3z said:
Wonder when devs will learn that making a game more accessible just alienates the core.
I'm a console gamer btw, and yes I do enjoy complex deep games.

Yeah but the core is not really the driving force now. Its the casuals. Devs don't care about the "core" if their game sells a million copies in a month. DA:O didn't sell gangbusters because it was the greatest new WRPG... It was because of the ad campaign. I bet less than 20% of who bought DA finished it.

Anecdotal Evidence: A friend of mine was amazed by the ads, the videos here and there. I lent him the game. He came back with it two days later saying how much it sucked and how slow it was, and I'd take a bet this happened a LOT. Hence why DA2 has a faster combat at least, no more slow-ass slashing.

And... wtf... the combat system in DA2 is what I find was the best update. I loved the faster paced combat, and in the hardest encounters I actually had to pause and issue individual commands. Yes, its lacking something, but combat is definitely not the weakest part.

Gvaz said:
it's exactly the same with the only difference being shitty animations and spawning enemies effectively killing any sense of tactics the first game had.

It's the same system... only faster. And yes the waves did get annoying. That was bad. AOE spells were nearly useless thanks to this and putting individual characters in different places was ruined. Enemies spawned behind you. But the actual core battle system... I say its vastly better than DA:O.
 

Xilium

Member
Gillian Seed said:
Wow! I am just amazed at how many people dislike the game on Gaf. Nothing more. I loved DA:O, but i love the new real time/turn based combat system much better. It is just more fun than the already awesome DA:O. IMHO
It's not just GAF, it's pretty universal across the internet. Game probably gets the most hate on its own forums.

Also, most wouldn't say the game is bad, just a mediocre dissapointment (being a sequal to DA:O).
 

Relix

he's Virgin Tight™
Oh.. it is disappointing compared to DA:O, but its not a bad game. DA:O was amazing. I think with DA3 the team will finally know what exactly to aim for and make not only a game that appeals to more people (core and casuals) but that... Has more varied assets for fucks sake.
 
Gillian Seed said:
The majority disagrees. I think most of the dislike is on Gaf. lol

Majority as in IGN, and Gamespot aka "journalists" begging for exclusive previews to get ad money? OFC they disagree, they get paid to give high profile games good scores.

Why is that so surprising, Famitsu has been doing this for years,
 
The problem being DA:O was not a great game... It was a good game that showed potential but had some severe flaws. So lets not retcon DA:O as some ideal for DA:3 The Raping of Customers to aspire to.

DA:O a decent game with some huge balance,plot,itemization and uhh DLC issues.

DA:2 A travesty that confirms every fear about EA's influence over Bioware. An incoherent mess of a game. Outright and direct obfuscation and lying by Bioware about said product.

DA:3 ??? No, idea will not purchase it (granted this choice was made after the DLC with the first game).
 

Patryn

Member
If you've been reading the recent interviews, you'll see that Bioware is acknowledging that DA2 has massive issues.

Lest you forget, Jade Empire has averages of 89 (X-Box) and 81 (PC). And how does the world view that game?

DA2 needs to take a good hard look at JE. Given DA2's average of 79 (360) and 82 (PC, PS3), that's its future.
 

Complistic

Member
Patryn said:
If you've been reading the recent interviews, you'll see that Bioware is acknowledging that DA2 has massive issues.

I haven't seen them do this yet. Provide a few links as I'd love to read it.
 

Gvaz

Banned
Relix said:
It's the same system... only faster. And yes the waves did get annoying. That was bad. AOE spells were nearly useless thanks to this and putting individual characters in different places was ruined. Enemies spawned behind you. But the actual core battle system... I say its vastly better than DA:O.
Yeah it's faster without actually fixing anything. Faster for the sake of flair instead of design. Useless.
 

Xilium

Member
HeadlessRoland said:
The problem being DA:O was not a great game... It was a good game that showed potential but had some severe flaws. So lets not retcon DA:O as some ideal for DA:3 The Raping of Customers to aspire to.

DA:O a decent game with some huge balance,plot,itemization and uhh DLC issues.
This is true but the game had ambition and people that don't need to play a perfectly polished game will appreciate that greatly (see Nier, Fallout/Oblivion, Alpha Protocol, ect. fans).

DA:2 A travesty that confirms every fear about EA's influence over Bioware. An incoherent mess of a game. Outright and direct obfuscation and lying by Bioware about said product.
I really think people are giving Bioware too much credit and demonizing EA too much. The overall rush job of the game can be blamed on EA (recycled dungeons) but the design philosophies are all Bioware (enemy waves and fluff sidequest). They haven't been shy about their want to appeal to the non-RPG gamer and their push into making their games more action oriented is aimed at that.

DA:3 ??? No, idea will not purchase it (granted this choice was made after the DLC with the first game).
I don't have high hopes for this game.
 
Relix said:
Oh.. it is disappointing compared to DA:O, but its not a bad game. DA:O was amazing. I think with DA3 the team will finally know what exactly to aim for and make not only a game that appeals to more people (core and casuals) but that... Has more varied assets for fucks sake.
I dunno, maybe I'm overly harsh, but I think outside of a few shining moments it is a bad game.

Not necessarily because there's a bullet point list of things you need to check off and lower one point on a review scale for each one, but because it looked and felt incomplete. I can't call something that they did not bother to finish "good." A decent effort, maybe? A nice try? But not a good end product, no matter how hard they "tried."

And to be honest, I don't feel they tried that hard! I honestly feel like Bioware decided it was acceptable to try and pull one over on Dragon Age fans. I think they knowingly released an incomplete game (whether they had any say in the matter or not is moot - their name is on it), defended it to the death, then slowly started to back off and say "No, it's cool, we realize we fucked up, BUT DRAGON AGE 3 IS GOING TO BE AWESOME."

It's kind of hard to give any benefit of the doubt to a developer who consciously engages in community management tactics like that.

Xilium said:
This is true but the game had ambition and people that don't need to play a perfectly polished game will appreciate that greatly (see Nier, Fallout/Oblivion, Alpha Protocol, ect. fans).
The difference between those games (which I liked to varying extents) and Dragon Age 2 is that I left those games feeling like the developers did the best they could and completed their games, even if I don't agree with every decision and even if it's not incredibly polished.

Bioware came out of Dragon Age 2 smug and insulting. Obsidian came out of Alpha Protocol saying nothing. If two developers release identically unfinished games (mind you, I think AP was more complete than DA2 ever will be), the ones that don't criticize me for criticizing their game gets less of a backlash.
 

Xilium

Member
ShockingAlberto said:
The difference between those games (which I liked to varying extents) and Dragon Age 2 is that I left those games feeling like the developers did the best they could and completed their games, even if I don't agree with every decision and even if it's not incredibly polished.

Bioware came out of Dragon Age 2 smug and insulting. Obsidian came out of Alpha Protocol saying nothing. If two developers release identically unfinished games (mind you, I think AP was more complete than DA2 ever will be), the ones that don't criticize me for criticizing their game gets less of a backlash.
Just in case, I want to point out that I was referring to DA:O, not DA2.

DA2 initially sounded as though it were going to do something more ambitious and actually sounded to me a lot like FFXII, having a more structured and scaled down narrative with a conflict that revolves around politics. How they managed to make such a bad narrative in a game much smaller in scope than DA:O is rather impressive. The games' narrative could have been infinitely more impressive if they had spent more time fleshing out the political conflicts and story-relevant npcs and less time filling the game with a barrage of MMO-styled sidequest.
 

Ysiadmihi

Banned
ShockingAlberto said:
I dunno, maybe I'm overly harsh, but I think outside of a few shining moments it is a bad game.

I agree. More people need to call out DA2 for what it is instead of pussy-footing around it because it's a Bioware game.

Personally I felt ME2 had no depth, DA2 is one of the worst "major" titles I've ever played and now I have no hope for either ME3 or DA3.
 

mxgt

Banned
It's not a good game at all.

I couldn't put the first one down.

I bought DA2 on release day and still haven't finished it. I just don't care.
 
Ysiadmihi said:
I agree. More people need to call out DA2 for what it is instead of pussy-footing around it because it's a Bioware game.

Personally I felt ME2 had no depth, DA2 is one of the worst "major" titles I've ever played and now I have no hope for either ME3 or DA3.

I dunno. I was pretty disappointed in the direction of ME2, but looking at it in a vacuum it was pretty enjoyable, just not what I wanted. Plus it didn't feel unfinished like DA2.
 

Micius

Member
ShockingAlberto said:
And to be honest, I don't feel they tried that hard! I honestly feel like Bioware decided it was acceptable to try and pull one over on Dragon Age fans. I think they knowingly released an incomplete game (whether they had any say in the matter or not is moot - their name is on it), defended it to the death, then slowly started to back off and say "No, it's cool, we realize we fucked up, BUT DRAGON AGE 3 IS GOING TO BE AWESOME."

It's kind of hard to give any benefit of the doubt to a developer who consciously engages in community management tactics like that.

This pretty much sums up why Dragon Age 2 was so disappointing for me. If you look at Bioware's efforts the last two generations, there's been some hits and misses but Dragon Age 2 really felt like the breaking point where their standards for shipping a game as complete hit a new low.

Look at another of the weaker Bioware games, Jade Empire for instance. A flawed game with a somewhat broken combat system, but it still had a strong labor of love vibe all over it, and felt like a fully realized vision.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Xilium said:
Just in case, I want to point out that I was referring to DA:O, not DA2.

DA2 initially sounded as though it were going to do something more ambitious and actually sounded to me a lot like FFXII, having a more structured and scaled down narrative with a conflict that revolves around politics. How they managed to make such a bad narrative in a game much smaller in scope than DA:O is rather impressive. The games' narrative could have been infinitely more impressive if they had spent more time fleshing out the political conflicts and story-relevant npcs and less time filling the game with a barrage of MMO-styled sidequest.

Except Bioware has proven they suck at writing politics even before DA2. Matsuno they aint.
 

catmincer

Member
So, just about finished DA2 and I think I actually enjoyed it more than DA:O. I think simply because the combat is faster and it doesn't feel like a drag to do.
 
HK-47 said:
Except Bioware has proven they suck at writing politics even before DA2. Matsuno they aint.

It's pretty sad since they could have used the Circle/Chantry issue at the center of the plot to expand upon the, already established, Circle politics.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Xilium said:
Just in case, I want to point out that I was referring to DA:O, not DA2.

DA2 initially sounded as though it were going to do something more ambitious and actually sounded to me a lot like FFXII, having a more structured and scaled down narrative with a conflict that revolves around politics. How they managed to make such a bad narrative in a game much smaller in scope than DA:O is rather impressive. The games' narrative could have been infinitely more impressive if they had spent more time fleshing out the political conflicts and story-relevant npcs and less time filling the game with a barrage of MMO-styled sidequest.
Because Bioware aren't actually that good of writers, or at least they haven't been since BG2. They just don't absolutely suck, which places them a tier above most games.
KoToR got by on the SW license, DA:O actually has some bright moments from what I've played, but overall....
 
The_Technomancer said:
Because Bioware aren't actually that good of writers, or at least they haven't been since BG2. They just don't absolutely suck, which places them a tier above most games.
KoToR got by on the SW license, DA:O actually has some bright moments from what I've played, but overall....

BG1 and 2 was also a Black Isle effort, so that would explain why it was so high quality.

I think Neverwinter Nights, which Bioware did without them, was the first place where the cracks in their facade started to show.

BTW, preferred your other El Dorado avatar.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
cartman414 said:
BG1 and 2 was also a Black Isle effort, so that would explain why it was so high quality.

I think Neverwinter Nights, which Bioware did without them, was the first place where the cracks in their facade started to show.

BTW, preferred your other El Dorado avatar.
Yeah, I know. It really wasn't the same without the animation though.
 
catmincer said:
So, just about finished DA2 and I think I actually enjoyed it more than DA:O. I think simply because the combat is faster and it doesn't feel like a drag to do.

gotta disagree. it's almost like the game plays itself.

yawn. I can't bring myself to finish it.
 

catmincer

Member
MrBelmontvedere said:
gotta disagree. it's almost like the game plays itself.

yawn. I can't bring myself to finish it.

On easier difficulty, yes. If you bump it up it is a bit more tactical. Nothing like DA:O though.
 
Gillian Seed said:
Sure, but reading this thread is not showing much love. The reviews were really solid though. Bioware just makes great games. We really need a single player KOTOR III though!

That's the fin prob... shit is overrated because the developers previous game was good. Common problem with journalism.
 

Abylim

Member
Any patches or anything released or mentioned?

I'll probably try and play through as a mage, but I dont think I want to touch it until something is done to fix some of this shit.
 

White Man

Member
I could see being potentially interested in a sequel. I can see potential in the combat if it kept any semblance of being tactical or the skills being too dumbed down. The whole game, every aspect, feels incredibly rushed. My guess is that the lengthy development time of the original along with the TOR money-sink kind of forced Bioware to promise a sequel quickly, even if just to make their EA archdemons not feel like they pissed away a ton of money on their Bioware purchase.

The combat was a huge, giant disappointment but I was way more disappointed in the story and characters. After the demo, I knew the combat wasn't so hot, but at least I knew it was tolerable enough to make it through to experience the story and characters, an area Bioware has always excelled at.

Well, except for here.

It kind of reminded me of Star Wars E1. Boring-ass lame political story that I could easily give up on following after an hour. Er, an hour? My bad--I mean 2/3rds of the way through the game, when Bioware remembered there needed to be some basic semblance of a game-long plot. The characters sucked as well. Well, they were mediocre, which is worse than sucking. Varric is the only one I even remember, even though I just beat this a week ago.

Bioware's weakest game. This makes Jade Empire seem like Baldur's Gate 2.

The only way it could have been saved:
Jennifer Hale would have made it a 12 out of 10

The pleasant was not shaken.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
White Man said:
My guess is that the lengthy development time of the original along with the TOR money-sink kind of forced Bioware to promise a sequel quickly, even if just to make their EA archdemons not feel like they pissed away a ton of money on their Bioware purchase.

That's what I was thinking. They calendared out the DLC and expansion on the first game for 18 months and then released the sequel and started a new DLC clock to continue generating Dragon Age revenue.
 
The combat is way better in this game! To me it is as big if not bigger than the improvement that ME2 had over ME. But just like ME2, it took a step backwards in other areas. Hopefully ME3 and DA3 will give us the best elements of both games.
 
Complistic said:
Im curious as to what you thought was awesome. Was it the repetitive environments and combat? Or maybe the ridiculously bad story or characters? It can't be the graphics because they were dreadfully boring.

For a moment I thought you were talking about The Witcher (One of course)
 

Yurt

il capo silenzioso
Gillian Seed said:
The combat is way better in this game! To me it is as big if not bigger than the improvement that ME2 had over ME. But just like ME2, it took a step backwards in other areas. Hopefully ME3 and DA3 will give us the best elements of both games.

The combat feels like World of Warcraft now, but inferior. You have significantly less spells and you don't have the freedom you had before in specializations. Who here honestly didn't play the majority of the game with Anders as a healer or/and Aveline as a tank ?

The melee combat is MUCH better. though I miss the awesome slo-mo finishers :(
 
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