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I'm copping this at midnight. I might smoke. Still haven't decided.
Definitely excited, though. It's going to be awesome.
Dragon Age 2
Moderator: Sigma
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Positive A
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VideoKilledThe
- Posts: 3642
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Game is awesome. All of the changes, thus far, seem like they were implemented to add a more user-friendly mechanic base for console players, which is perfect since I'm playing on my xbox.
Not as much pause and play, however, I can still see it being somewhat prevalent as one progresses in the game but not nearly as much.
The targeting has vastly improved. I am playing a rogue for my first playthrough and fighting is so much smoother as are the execution of abilities.
Definitely pick this game up. Worth the money, for sure.
Not as much pause and play, however, I can still see it being somewhat prevalent as one progresses in the game but not nearly as much.
The targeting has vastly improved. I am playing a rogue for my first playthrough and fighting is so much smoother as are the execution of abilities.
Definitely pick this game up. Worth the money, for sure.
According to Game Central's review inventory management isn't much of an issue.
[quote]Dragon Age II plays its role - game review
From the makers of Mass Effect comes a fantasy role-player that refuses to play by the normal rules. But is it being dumbed down or cleverly modernised?
Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/85751 ... z1GC3TeeIS
The people working at developer BioWare are all nerds. We mean this not as an insult, nor even as a statement of fact, but as a salute to creators that refuse to hide their passions beneath the veneer of more fashionable design choice. So it's ironic to think that while they try to bring high fantasy role-playing to the masses they're likely to see the most resistance from their existing fans.
There are a number of curious things about Dragon Age II, but perhaps one of the most obvious is how little it has to do with the first game. Although BioWare has given every impression that they've planned out the Dragon Age series in advance this changes so much about the original that it almost seems like a different series altogether.
Even the story feels like a strange sidestep as you play an entirely new human character called Hawke (you can choose their gender and one of three classes, but nothing else). As the game begins you and your family are on the run from the Darkspawn from the first game and from there Dragon Age II attempts to chart your progress from refugee to celebrity hero.
We weren't big fans of the first game but according to BioWare it outsold sci-fi sister series Mass Effect, so we're not sure what the impetuous for change was here. Other than the lead format for the original was the PC and here it's clearly the consoles.
You can probably guess what that means: forums filled with hardcore role-playing fans complaining about the game being dumbed down. Certainly many aspects have been simplified but we actually feel BioWare's description of being 'streamlined' is perfectly accurate.
Many of the changes owe a lot to Mass Effect, except now instead of a third person shooter you control characters directly in a button-mashing God Of War style fashion. As contentious as this change is likely to be we feel it works, especially as you can still pause the action at any time, switch between characters at will and utilise a huge range of spells, buffs and special abilities.
A less convincing steal from Mass Effect is the inventory system, which now gives you only more limited control of your companions' belongings. There are still lots of different skill upgrade trees, many unique to different characters as well as character classes, but they're much more focused on combat now - at the cost of more subtle skills such as trap or poison-making.
The crafting has certainly been streamlined to within an inch of its life, as all you do is tell a merchant where a resource (such as herbs or minerals) is and they automatically gain access to it and the new items that it allows - assuming you have the recipe.
But Dragon Age II isn't a game about handicrafts or sorting through the personal possessions of dead monsters, it's trying to be something different and more accessible than that. BioWare started out creating traditional Western role-players like Baldur's Gate but their new range of action role-players are interesting precisely because they don't play by the rules.
Dragon Age and Mass Effect are about the characters and stories, not fiddling around with statistics and inventories. But even if you accept that there are serious problems with Dragon Age II: for a start the characters aren't nearly as endearing as those in either the original game or Mass Effect. They have depth and not all are stereotypes, but they're still not much fun to hang around with.
The story is extremely bold as there's nothing as unoriginal as the first game's Archdemon to defeat. In fact there isn't really a central villain at all, which is a brave decision but also a millstone that makes much of the game's 25+ hours seem aimless and inconsequential. Especially as the game world is surprisingly small, comprising not much more than city of Kirkwall and a nearby mountain.
There's some interesting socio-political allegories, but there's also a lot of really boring ones too. Even the most tedious are worth enduring though for the constant stream of difficult decisions your character has to make and the impact they have on the world - many of which revolve around a particular ethnic and social group being persecuted.
The fictional universe the game is set in is still a problem though. Much more a slave to high fantasy traditions than the gameplay, it does little to distinguish itself from the morass of Tolkien wannabes. Mass Effect can be similarly generic but its universe still feels much more distinctive by comparison.
The frustrating thing is we have a feeling Dragon Age II is going to be criticised most for its gameplay changes than its storytelling failings. You might not like the new direction but it works as BioWare intended. But the story you carve with your new combat skills doesn't always seem worthy of such risky innovation.
In Short: It feels worryingly like Mass Effect: Tolkien Edition at times but the biggest problem with this action role-player is its lack of character.
Pros: Accessible, visceral and - after a few hours at least - tactical combat. Some interstingly difficult moral decisions. Much improved graphics and presentation.
Cons: Uneven storyline often fails to grip. BioWare's least interesting line-up of companions for years. Some technical glitches and variable voice-acting.
Score: 7/10
Formats: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3 and PC
Price:
[quote]Dragon Age II plays its role - game review
From the makers of Mass Effect comes a fantasy role-player that refuses to play by the normal rules. But is it being dumbed down or cleverly modernised?
Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/85751 ... z1GC3TeeIS
The people working at developer BioWare are all nerds. We mean this not as an insult, nor even as a statement of fact, but as a salute to creators that refuse to hide their passions beneath the veneer of more fashionable design choice. So it's ironic to think that while they try to bring high fantasy role-playing to the masses they're likely to see the most resistance from their existing fans.
There are a number of curious things about Dragon Age II, but perhaps one of the most obvious is how little it has to do with the first game. Although BioWare has given every impression that they've planned out the Dragon Age series in advance this changes so much about the original that it almost seems like a different series altogether.
Even the story feels like a strange sidestep as you play an entirely new human character called Hawke (you can choose their gender and one of three classes, but nothing else). As the game begins you and your family are on the run from the Darkspawn from the first game and from there Dragon Age II attempts to chart your progress from refugee to celebrity hero.
We weren't big fans of the first game but according to BioWare it outsold sci-fi sister series Mass Effect, so we're not sure what the impetuous for change was here. Other than the lead format for the original was the PC and here it's clearly the consoles.
You can probably guess what that means: forums filled with hardcore role-playing fans complaining about the game being dumbed down. Certainly many aspects have been simplified but we actually feel BioWare's description of being 'streamlined' is perfectly accurate.
Many of the changes owe a lot to Mass Effect, except now instead of a third person shooter you control characters directly in a button-mashing God Of War style fashion. As contentious as this change is likely to be we feel it works, especially as you can still pause the action at any time, switch between characters at will and utilise a huge range of spells, buffs and special abilities.
A less convincing steal from Mass Effect is the inventory system, which now gives you only more limited control of your companions' belongings. There are still lots of different skill upgrade trees, many unique to different characters as well as character classes, but they're much more focused on combat now - at the cost of more subtle skills such as trap or poison-making.
The crafting has certainly been streamlined to within an inch of its life, as all you do is tell a merchant where a resource (such as herbs or minerals) is and they automatically gain access to it and the new items that it allows - assuming you have the recipe.
But Dragon Age II isn't a game about handicrafts or sorting through the personal possessions of dead monsters, it's trying to be something different and more accessible than that. BioWare started out creating traditional Western role-players like Baldur's Gate but their new range of action role-players are interesting precisely because they don't play by the rules.
Dragon Age and Mass Effect are about the characters and stories, not fiddling around with statistics and inventories. But even if you accept that there are serious problems with Dragon Age II: for a start the characters aren't nearly as endearing as those in either the original game or Mass Effect. They have depth and not all are stereotypes, but they're still not much fun to hang around with.
The story is extremely bold as there's nothing as unoriginal as the first game's Archdemon to defeat. In fact there isn't really a central villain at all, which is a brave decision but also a millstone that makes much of the game's 25+ hours seem aimless and inconsequential. Especially as the game world is surprisingly small, comprising not much more than city of Kirkwall and a nearby mountain.
There's some interesting socio-political allegories, but there's also a lot of really boring ones too. Even the most tedious are worth enduring though for the constant stream of difficult decisions your character has to make and the impact they have on the world - many of which revolve around a particular ethnic and social group being persecuted.
The fictional universe the game is set in is still a problem though. Much more a slave to high fantasy traditions than the gameplay, it does little to distinguish itself from the morass of Tolkien wannabes. Mass Effect can be similarly generic but its universe still feels much more distinctive by comparison.
The frustrating thing is we have a feeling Dragon Age II is going to be criticised most for its gameplay changes than its storytelling failings. You might not like the new direction but it works as BioWare intended. But the story you carve with your new combat skills doesn't always seem worthy of such risky innovation.
In Short: It feels worryingly like Mass Effect: Tolkien Edition at times but the biggest problem with this action role-player is its lack of character.
Pros: Accessible, visceral and - after a few hours at least - tactical combat. Some interstingly difficult moral decisions. Much improved graphics and presentation.
Cons: Uneven storyline often fails to grip. BioWare's least interesting line-up of companions for years. Some technical glitches and variable voice-acting.
Score: 7/10
Formats: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3 and PC
Price:
lost interest after a few average reviews and watching my cousin get bored after playing it for a total of 45 minutes. fuck this game, the fantasy rpg genre is for faggot dungeon and dragon fans. nothing innovative will ever come of the concept again.
"Anything posted/said by Drastik is false and should not be taken seriously."
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Seiko Flossberg
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- Location: Where one of the greatest MC's was a local cat
If you don't like rpg's, why did you get this game and why are you in this thread?Drastik wrote:lost interest after a few average reviews and watching my cousin get bored after playing it for a total of 45 minutes. fuck this game, the fantasy rpg genre is for faggot dungeon and dragon fans. nothing innovative will ever come of the concept again.
Been playing this on and off since it's release, liking the combat but it lacks that big epic storyline the first one had and the variety of locations is repeatitive. Only level 10 so who knows, it might get better.
The inventory management is still a bit of a nightmare, it just says "ring", "amulet" or "belt" when you loot stuff so you've still got to go into your inventory just to check the stats of the items so it's kind of annoying.
The inventory management is still a bit of a nightmare, it just says "ring", "amulet" or "belt" when you loot stuff so you've still got to go into your inventory just to check the stats of the items so it's kind of annoying.
Spartan wrote:Been playing this on and off since it's release, liking the combat but it lacks that big epic storyline the first one had and the variety of locations is repeatitive. Only level 10 so who knows, it might get better.
The inventory management is still a bit of a nightmare, it just says "ring", "amulet" or "belt" when you loot stuff so you've still got to go into your inventory just to check the stats of the items so it's kind of annoying.
There are items with unique names. You just have to find them and, as you would suspect, they are usually high-quality.
This game doesn't have much 'replayability'. Struggling to finish my second playthough as an evil mage. Regardless of your character's moral proclivities, or lack there of, the result is usually the same. It's like they spent all of their time making the combat more fluid and ignored everything else.
And 3 dragon fights(that I know of)? Eh.
I change my recommendation from a 'must cop' to a 'cop when the price drops'
And 3 dragon fights(that I know of)? Eh.
I change my recommendation from a 'must cop' to a 'cop when the price drops'
Damn, second play through already, it's that short a game? The first one took about a week of solid playing to complete thoroughly for each character I had.360 wrote:This game doesn't have much 'replayability'. Struggling to finish my second playthough as an evil mage. Regardless of your character's moral proclivities, or lack there of, the result is usually the same. It's like they spent all of their time making the combat more fluid and ignored everything else.
And 3 dragon fights(that I know of)? Eh.
I change my recommendation from a 'must cop' to a 'cop when the price drops'
I noticed that the party members are kind of shitty in this one. A gay elf 2H warrior that falls down like a sack of spuds in a fight, the annoying healer from Awakenings is suddenly gay now and flirting with me but I need to bring him along for healing, a useless ranged dps dwarf that depletes my stamina droughts, a moderately funny bird-brained elf mage with a Welsh accent, the big tittied mage but she's meant to be your sister in this and a main tank female warrior that looks like Rocky Dennis but the most useful of the bunch. Isabella might be decent in a scrap but I'm already a rogue in this and don't like having two rogues in the party unless forced to. Hoping there's more characters that might mix shit up better.
Got to admit the boss encounter in The Deep Roads was dope even after about five frustrating wipes. Custom tactics still made it a tough fight.
That's all of the characters.Spartan wrote:Damn, second play through already, it's that short a game? The first one took about a week of solid playing to complete thoroughly for each character I had.360 wrote:This game doesn't have much 'replayability'. Struggling to finish my second playthough as an evil mage. Regardless of your character's moral proclivities, or lack there of, the result is usually the same. It's like they spent all of their time making the combat more fluid and ignored everything else.
And 3 dragon fights(that I know of)? Eh.
I change my recommendation from a 'must cop' to a 'cop when the price drops'
I noticed that the party members are kind of shitty in this one. A gay elf 2H warrior that falls down like a sack of spuds in a fight, the annoying healer from Awakenings is suddenly gay now and flirting with me but I need to bring him along for healing, a useless ranged dps dwarf that depletes my stamina droughts, a moderately funny bird-brained elf mage with a Welsh accent, the big tittied mage but she's meant to be your sister in this and a main tank female warrior that looks like Rocky Dennis but the most useful of the bunch. Isabella might be decent in a scrap but I'm already a rogue in this and don't like having two rogues in the party unless forced to. Hoping there's more characters that might mix shit up better.
Got to admit the boss encounter in The Deep Roads was dope even after about five frustrating wipes. Custom tactics still made it a tough fight.
Varric(the dwarf) is the best one, IMO. He is also good in combat situations. Once you level up and acquire more abilities, he is excellent. His banter with other characters as you walk around is good, too.
Game isn't nearly as long as Origins. I'd say, with out doing any side quests) it takes about 20 hours to complete the main storyline(give or take a couple of hours)
Finished this game yesterday.
Less fun than the first game. Bioware should go all Frank Darabont and fire the script writers, the level designers too for that matter. The game did get better in the last act but the vast majority of it was pretty lame. The boss fights were very cool but having to go through so much bullshit to get to them was annoying as hell. Doubt I'll ever replay this game even if Bioware release a patch to fix some of the bugged quests. Hopefully the third game is more like Origins next time.
Less fun than the first game. Bioware should go all Frank Darabont and fire the script writers, the level designers too for that matter. The game did get better in the last act but the vast majority of it was pretty lame. The boss fights were very cool but having to go through so much bullshit to get to them was annoying as hell. Doubt I'll ever replay this game even if Bioware release a patch to fix some of the bugged quests. Hopefully the third game is more like Origins next time.
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VideoKilledThe
- Posts: 3642
- Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:09 am