Preview: What's New in Dragon Age II

[Susan Arendt]

Preview: What's New in Dragon Age II

Dragon Age "looks better, plays better, and has an entirely new story," but is it still Dragon Age? A way better one, yep.

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[Secret world leader (shhh)]

Sounds awesome, The first one is my favourite RPG ever and this one sounds even better. I just hope i have the time and money to play it, is it just me or is every game ever coming out in spring 2011?

 

[Susan Arendt]

''Even on the Xbox 360''... - Oh lord, take cover, the trolls! they are coming!

OT: At first I was worried that the new dialouge would simplyfy the game and remove some of it's roleplay element, but to actually know exactly what you are saying sounds like an improvement... I am officially even more psyched

I don't think even the biggest 360 fanboy can deny that Dragon Age looked like crap on both it and the PS3. I didn't even know the dog was an actual dog (as opposed to some dog-like creature) until I saw the game on the PC.

 

[Blind Sight]

"In the middle of a revolution, when the formerly mighty Chantry has become all but powerless" Sounds like they're playing off the Protestant Reformation.

 

[AlternatePFG]

"Trying to be an archer just plain sucked" What? Archers were overpowered as hell if you played them right.

Anyway, I'm alot more optimistic for this now than I was when it was first announced.

 

[varulfic]

In Origins, you were a nameless, voiceless hero, but in DA2, you are the silky-toned Hawke, a change that may be jarring to those who favored Origins's old school approach to characterization. Which, as Laidlaw tells it, is not that many players. "People generally hated the silent protagonist," he says,

Fuck you. That was my favorite part, everything said was something I said, and I took on the role of the Grey Warden completely. For me, Dragon Age was the most immersive game I ever played. But in DA2, I'm gonna be controlling a character rather than roleplaying as one. This might seem like a minor thing, but this is pretty much my biggest issue with the sequel.

Still, DA1 was awesome and I'm sure I'll love the sequel aswell. I was a bit sceptical when I heard they'd adopt a dialogue wheel like Mass Effect, but the preview makes the companion/rival system seem very interesting.

 

[OniaPL]

@Alternate
In my opinion, archer's were really underpowered. There was no reason to not have them replaced by mages.

I'm really looking forward to this game, except there are two things I'm worried about.

First one is the dialogue wheel. I just feel really worried about it after playing both Mass Effect's and witnessing Shepard stumble through dialogues.

Second is the game's lenght. DA:O was really long, and it gave you a run for your money. Also, it felt really epic. I really had time to get to love the characters and the world. And lately I've heard talk of it being 1/2 of DA:O's lenght.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Ooh, that rivalry aspect sounds promising - my ingrained "I am always a nice guy" mindset would often clash with my "Min/maxing is life itself" approach to playing RPGs - if a party member would offer a stat bonus if I got on their good side, it didn't even matter that they were an evil son of a ***** and I'd have to ramble on about how much I liked eating kittens, I would take the hit to my good guy street cred for that sweet sweet stat bonus without even blinking.

So a system that still rewards me for roleplaying my paragon of virtue as a paragon of virtue at all times is one I can get behind.

 

[Irridium]

I'm not fond of the wheel.

Too many times in ME1 and 2 I thought I was going to say one thing, but ended up saying another.

A prime example is in ME2, where you finally meet up with Jack. I picked the option that said "I'm not working for Cerberus" and Shepard said "I'm working for Cerberus, but only for the time being."

Yeah, Bioware, if you have an option that says your not doing something, don't make the line of dialog completely the opposite of what the tiny description says.

Hopefully this game is good. But it just seems to be eschewing the RPG in it for a more action-oriented game. Hopefully it just trims the fat rather then burning it all to the bone like they did with ME2.

 

[Susan Arendt]

PLAYS BETTER?

Susan confirmed for a console peon.

It's a quote from the lead designer. So I guess he would be the peon then, huh?

I'm not fond of the wheel.

Too many times in ME1 and 2 I thought I was going to say one thing, but ended up saying another.

A prime example is in ME2, where you finally meet up with Jack. I picked the option that said "I'm not working for Cerberus" and Shepard said "I'm working for Cerberus, but only for the time being."

Yeah, Bioware, if you have an option that says your not doing something, don't make the line of dialog completely the opposite of what the tiny description says.

Hopefully this game is good. But it just seems to be eschewing the RPG in it for a more action-oriented game. Hopefully it just trims the fat rather then burning it all to the bone like they did with ME2.

Exactly what the icon in the middle of the wheel hopes to avoid. And from what I saw (which was admittedly not everything) DA2 is still as deep stat and tactics-driven as you want it to be, with class specializations, on-the-fly statistics for pretty much everything, and pause-and-play planning.

SNIP

Thanks Susan, bookmarked this for further reference. Really appreciate a quick guide/summary to DA II.

I do have something to add on the first page, either you or the devs said being an archer plain sucked. I have to say, that's false so long you done it right, which was pretty simple.

The exact quote (which I didn't reproduce) was from the lead designer who, when summing up their approach to overhauling the combat said, "Should archery, perhaps, not suck?"

 

[AlternatePFG]

@Alternate
In my opinion, archer's were really underpowered. There was no reason to not have them replaced by mages.

Not really. Unlike Mages, they didn't really have to worry about casting time, and were a bit more sturdy.

I'm hoping they still keep the combat similar to the original on the PC, I actually liked it and thought it was rather fun.

 

[Fumbleumble]

Don't care..

Everyone trots out the same tired old BS about Bioware's 'excellent' writing....

Well I say you're all just sheep bleating away and that you wouldn't know HONESTLY good writing if it bit you on the arse.

Bioware's spewings are the same crap reguritated again and again, there isn't an 'original' story in the entire house.

GOOD writing is tight, cohesive and logical, with twists here and there.... Bioware has none of that any longer and haven't had since Jade Empire and that was truly the end of it and it's been sketchy at best since BGII.

Good ISN'T pages and pages of turgidly dry backstory that hopes to beat you down with the sheer amount of irrelevence, and Bioware is now all of that... DA is just the same story they've been telling since BG1... the stage is the same, they just messed around with some of the players backstory. Is no-one surprised they're not sick and tired trotting out the same old wretched fantasy offering, because I'm CERTAINLY sick of the same crap over and over again.. Big evil rears it's head, only one man can stop it and on the way he makes some friends.. Is Bioware really unable to think of another senario? REALLY?.. and DA2 looks more of the same, but this time you don't even get make your own character .

And the less said about the mish mash of broken ends, contradictions and plot holes that CONTINUES to be ME, the better. The first sets a good stage, they fire the writer.. the second goes off at a tangent, taking your char down paths that weren't even cosistant with the char of the first and NOW for the third they can't even stick to the rules for the big bad that they set in the first, good grief it was only a few years agao.. didn't they READ what they were writing?... WAAAA FANBOY ALERT... don't say that, you suck.. lies, WAAAA. I DEFY any of you to find ANY part of their recent storylines that can actually be called original.. or at least not rehashed from the same old same old stories that are constantly and persistantly told again, and again, and again.

If ANY of you are actually interested in good writing and originality, go play Arcanum.. or better yet Planescape: Torment, Bioware couldn't hold a candle to those games in terms of writing, not even in their hayday.

Biowares constant repetition is almost as bad as your constant procamations of their 'leetness'... I suppose it just gives you someything to say, and makes you feel as if you're all a part of something.

And I haven't even started on the dumbass gameplay.....

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Oh my god.

I need this game!

The only part I hate is being forced to be a human. Dwarves forever!

This and Pokemon Black And White are making for an interesting RPG-filled March.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Yup this confirms it, they are dumbing it down.
Yet again we will end up with another ME2 that every casual gamer will love, and I will haveto go back to the old games for any sort of proper RPG.

Ah well I guess all good things have to come to an end at some point.

 

[Orthon]

"Concerned that Origins both looked and played too 'old fashioned,' the design team wanted to 'give Dragon Age a shot of adrenalin,'"

Oh. So you mean that game you marketed as "a return to Bioware's old roots" played like an old-fashioned RPG?

..

Wasn't that the frickin point?

I like the look of DA2, but still, taking what was marketed as the point of the first game and then saying "That's the wrong direction! We take it to new places!" and then market that, makes me scratch my head somewhat.

 

[loc978]

...too hard..? Dragon Age?

...I played the damn thing through on the hardest setting it would give me, on PC... and yeah, I died a few times here and there, but it wasn't nearly as hard as Baldur's Gate. Same basic control scheme and a lot more options made it a lot easier to not die... and I liked the D20 feel it had...