BioWare Dev Explains Why Dragon Age II Is Easier Than Origins

[JohnGD117]

Some fights on any difficulty in origins felt like pissing into the wind (read: the big dragons). Console controls were a little awkward as well in terms of tactics.

Friendly AI also seemed horrible to me.

I agree with a difficulty spread.


Off topic: Did anyone else go completely limp with the DA2 demo? I felt like it was made by a third party as a spin off. Absolutely awful play control (on 360 at least) with graphics as bad as the first DA:O. If it takes my warrior 15 secs of button mashing to kill one regular mob, and you spawn 10, at least give me new animations for the auto attack! I feel like this is a game where I will spend a lot of time time hitting (x) and I was already bored with it.


Back OT: As such, I will be playing on casual just so the awful combat system takes up the least amount of my time. Or roll an archer. That was better.

 

[ImprovizoR]

If people are not familiar with standard RPG's then they should play them to familiarize themselves. We were all unfamiliar with RPG's before we started playing them. What the fuck kind of an excuse is that, Bioware?

 

[Mrsoupcup]

It was difficult on my first run but all I needed was to test the water. Kinda like how my first run of Morrowind was horribly tough but piss easy once round 2 came along.

 

[ryanxm]

i played on hard till i tryed to fight sloth


screw that

HARD

 

[DracoSuave]

And my only really issue is that ice magic seems...almost useless...now. I saw a Fire damage boost skill in the tree, but not one for ice.

The power of ice to freeze an opponent and take them out of the fight for a few seconds is far more valuable than +damage bonuses.

Me'h I thought the dialog system is an improvement over the last games which seemed a little dated to me. I'd rather they have a voice, I think it makes the character and the story engaging than reading the text boxes.

Though to each their own.

But but but it's in a circle now and not in a list so it's different and scary oh my god what will I do this circle menu thing is hard and confusing

 

[DustyDrB]

I'd hate to see how the dragons would be on hard difficulty and plus...

The High Dragon always kicks my butt. The others I can deal with because I'm always at a very high level when I get to them. The real test of skill is Gaxkang (whom you fight by following the sidequest "Unbound").

 

[Pilkingtube]

Honestly I was trapped inbetween the void that was |CASUAL| me |NORMAL| so I ended up flipping between the two, i'm just not a fan of the pausing and grouping so I just played my one character and let the AI do its thing. I did like the story though, looking forwards to DA2

 

[nagi]

Normal was too hard? I enjoyed that one time when only 1 party member survived with around 1 hp! Plus at the end I was literally mowing down enemies with hardly any resistance at all.

The DA2 demo was a travesty in this regard... as well, I might say. Dialog system trashed, loading problems, even less skills, 2005-ish graphics, tunnel-map, Flemeth from Final Fantasy...

 

[Animyr]

Still think it should be more difficult. II, I mean.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Guess I'm starting on hard, then.

Seriously, people. Was it really that difficult? I'd hate to see how much trouble you people would have with some of the fights in Baldur's Gate 2. Take DA:O, make the enemies (especially mages) a lot tougher, throw in resource management (beyond potions) and planning (since mages had to prepare their limited, one use spells ahead of time), and take away the autoheal after fights. And if you go back a few years before that, you might actually play a game that's hard.

Well at least graphics have improved over the years.

 

[JeanLuc761]

Oi, Bioware, explain to me how on the demo you're supposed to kill loads of darkspawn and a ogre when you're level 2 and without a healer!

The reason for that is a little subtle. That part of the game is heavily exaggerated to make Hawke an unstoppable badass, and it's being exaggerated because of the dwarf telling the story. You notice that after that segment how Hawke is much weaker and lost most of his/her abilities? That's because the Dwarf began telling the TRUE story.

 

[Scars Unseen]

The normal difficulty should be put there so anyone can play it without too much trouble. The higher difficulties are there for the people who want a challenge. Ba'h whats the point, its like screaming at the floor.

Just out of curiosity, what would easy difficulty be for in that case? My opinion is that normal difficulty should provide a challenge for the most players(which DA:O did quite well). Going up in difficulty should provide added challenge for people who are either veterans of the genre, or have already played through on normal and are looking for something more. Easy should be for people who don't care about the challenge and just want to experience the story.

 

[Sovvolf]

The normal difficulty should be put there so anyone can play it without too much trouble. The higher difficulties are there for the people who want a challenge. Ba'h whats the point, its like screaming at the floor.

Just out of curiosity, what would easy difficulty be for in that case? My opinion is that normal difficulty should provide a challenge for the most players(which DA:O did quite well). Going up in difficulty should provide added challenge for people who are either veterans of the genre, or have already played through on normal and are looking for something more. Easy should be for people who don't care about the challenge and just want to experience the story.

I don't think they should be an easy difficulty at all. Just have the normal as what you'd consider easy and have those above that as a challenge. I don't see why normal difficulty should provide too much of a challenge or at least you should be eased into the challenge, I think the normal difficulty should be accessible to everyone including those that aren't used to this type of gameplay or even this kind of genre.

The higher difficulties should be for those who are after a challenge and those that are so used to it that normal would cease to be any sort of challenge.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

And with this topic comes the splitting of the fanbase.

 

[OneOfTheMichael's]

Well now i might be able to actually kill a guy now....

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I tend to think that the most obvious cause of difficulty in the game is the fact that a player can walk into an encounter incredibly ill prepared for it. Right after Ostagar, I gathered the elves as allies. Without a dedicated healer, my tank was constantly forced to consume healing items thus making it difficult for him to actually hold the attention of the enemy. Once I got a healer, the game became remarkably easy.

Another problem is that, for some classes at least, it takes quite awhile for them to be legitimately useful in combat. A low level tank has a hell of a lot of trouble holding aggro simply because their damage is garbage and they don't have many options for crow control. It isn't until level 8 (if memory serves) that you can even get an AOE taunt!

 

[subtlefuge]

Bioware is lucky that their word is enough for me, because that utter garbage that they called a demo still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.