dragon age 2 whats with all the hate?

[Bostur]

My condensed honest opinion is that it seems like a budget clone of the original, that manages to destroy most of what was good in the original, without actually adding anything new.

Its hard to find any positives about DA2, trying really hard I can mention a few:
- The new design of health/mana/stamina bars is a novel and useful approach.
- Specialized companion talent trees is a cool new feature.
- Theres some visual improvements to combat, most notably that characters move around the battlefield in a nicer looking way (less shuffling)
- Dialogues/cutscenes are ok, or would be if they were part of a storyline.

Pretty much everything else got ruined, in some cases making the game feel almost physically unplayable, or simply just dull.

I could list the usual 50 bullet list of areas where it fails, but it has been done so many times.

 

[ecoho]

yes im sad that i got to play a great game and you got a bad port and ill admit they kinda slacked off in that regarde but dont dam us, bioware, or the game because it doesnt cater to your minority.

Yes people should? Either you make a good game/port or you don't? Why shouldn't someone trash the game if the game in question is badly ported? Why shouldn't some dam a company if the company has done a bad job?

In your post you said everything that needed to be said - DA2 is a good console game, but it falls short on the PC, isn't that reason good enough for people to bash it?

im sorry that doesnt look right now that ive reread it you are right peeople have every right to point out what is wrong with a game that got badly ported. that post was mostly intended for the zealot who seams to think console gameing is a sin and not to be taken as i sign that i dont care about the pc gamers. I truely wish they would have done more for pc gamers in this game but your cause is not helped by people like that. It just insaults those of us who dont have the money to own gameing computers. To each their own.

 

[Fake Nicker]

See some of this stuff was in Origins.

This is from a post where I explain what Bioware started dumbing down since KOTOR

It started with KOTOR.

Smaller parties
Cant attack civilians
Cant flee combat as a party to set ambushes or use gorilla tactics
Unified inventories
Smaller areas
No death for party members
Limited day/night cycles

No point and click movement.

I still liked KOTOR

Ok so here is DA:O that is supposed to be the spiritual predecessor of BG. So did it address any of that? Nooooo it was far worse than KOTOR

Ok I think we gained one party member but then we get
auto healing
Level scaling that is worse than KOTOR's. You dont improve in relation to the world when you level.
A ridiculous stat system that is even more hit point weighted than D&D
And less exploration
Gimped ranged weapons
Insane amount of worthless filler combat



OK so one bad Bioware game. Nice track record. What do we get from DA 2?

Removed friendly fire except on nightmare
What?? I like using messed up parties. I roleplay I don't powergame. I might bump it to hard but nightmare should be too hard for someone who likes to create their own challenge by using poor party combinations. The difficulty was fine in DA:O. It was one of the few things they got right. I don't know much about DA 2. I like the way the story is told but removing friendly fire is major. Bombing your own tanks is a mindless strategy.

They removed certain crafting (maybe all I dont know).
you never miss or as it seems almost never ever miss (or have an enemy dodge your attack)

YES! to the "no attacking civilians" (and all the rest) I miss the ability, how ever useless the function there off, to kill whom ever i want. Its about choice. Even if that choice is just an illusion it helps to feel more free. In baldurs gate i knew i could go mental on everyone and have the magicpolice come down on me. Sometimes i did go postal but it allways ended with a reload because it kinda broke the game. But the choice was there to blurr the feeling of a oneway corridor. DA2 feels like im everyones goddamn messenger boy and that the world is standing absolutely still outside of you little sphere of space.

And "tank bombing" just destroys my injoyment of the combat how ever flashy it has become.

And to add to the whole "dumbing down" didnt abominations use to explode upon death and damage the party? I would rather have only 10 encounters in the whole game instead of a truckload generic mob spawners and have those encounters have max your own party size in members, with distinct abilities between them. Ever tried to enter the shadowy door in BG2 and to stumble into another plane with a secret meeting with 4 people and a beholder? Now that was a damn good fight and rememberable because it was unique.

 

[Kaanyr Vhok]

See some of this stuff was in Origins.

This is from a post where I explain what Bioware started dumbing down since KOTOR

It started with KOTOR.

Smaller parties
Cant attack civilians
Cant flee combat as a party to set ambushes or use gorilla tactics
Unified inventories
Smaller areas
No death for party members
Limited day/night cycles

No point and click movement.

I still liked KOTOR

Ok so here is DA:O that is supposed to be the spiritual predecessor of BG. So did it address any of that? Nooooo it was far worse than KOTOR

Ok I think we gained one party member but then we get
auto healing
Level scaling that is worse than KOTOR's. You dont improve in relation to the world when you level.
A ridiculous stat system that is even more hit point weighted than D&D
And less exploration
Gimped ranged weapons
Insane amount of worthless filler combat



OK so one bad Bioware game. Nice track record. What do we get from DA 2?

Removed friendly fire except on nightmare
What?? I like using messed up parties. I roleplay I don't powergame. I might bump it to hard but nightmare should be too hard for someone who likes to create their own challenge by using poor party combinations. The difficulty was fine in DA:O. It was one of the few things they got right. I don't know much about DA 2. I like the way the story is told but removing friendly fire is major. Bombing your own tanks is a mindless strategy.

They removed certain crafting (maybe all I dont know).
you never miss or as it seems almost never ever miss (or have an enemy dodge your attack)

YES! to the "no attacking civilians" (and all the rest) I miss the ability, how ever useless the function there off, to kill whom ever i want. Its about choice. Even if that choice is just an illusion it helps to feel more free. In baldurs gate i knew i could go mental on everyone and have the magicpolice come down on me. Sometimes i did go postal but it allways ended with a reload because it kinda broke the game. But the choice was there to blurr the feeling of a oneway corridor. DA2 feels like im everyones goddamn messenger boy and that the world is standing absolutely still outside of you little sphere of space.

And "tank bombing" just destroys my injoyment of the combat how ever flashy it has become.

And to add to the whole "dumbing down" didnt abominations use to explode upon death and damage the party? I would rather have only 10 encounters in the whole game instead of a truckload generic mob spawners and have those encounters have max your own party size in members, with distinct abilities between them. Ever tried to enter the shadowy door in BG2 and to stumble into another plane with a secret meeting with 4 people and a beholder? Now that was a damn good fight and rememberable because it was unique.

I remember in the first BG when you fight a reckless mage in a brothel. He launched a fireball that charcoled a few whores. I was trying to manage my AoE spells because I didnt want to be banned from the brothel. It was one of my fondest memories of BG. It captured my imagination.

Its true BG's encounters take DA to the woodshed.