Dragon Age combat?

[veloper]

You may find some appreciation for DA:O on PC, if you wanted a new game that is reminiscent of BG2 or IWD. That means you prolly won't, or you would already have played DA:O.

You'll like the combat in DA2, if you've got terrible taste in games.

The biggest flaw in DA:O was the encounter design. Variety, different mobs, terrain obstacles.
Bio didn't learn from this, but instead managed to make #2 worse, with samey enemies just spawning out of air around you, a lower overal difficulty and more copy/pasting of areas.
Then there's also balance issues and the lack of varied, useful loot holding the games back.

Don't bother.

 

[Rzepik]

In terms of mechanics only DA 2 is more balanced.
DA:O combat system is full of exploits, copy-pasta abilities, there's no mana and health management (you can spam potions all the time).
On the other hand it has better encounter design (everything has better encounter design than DA2) and your party doesn't have unfair advantage of anime combat animations. FF on normal - positioning is important. Also it's less restrictive.
IMO DA:O's combat overall is a bit better, maybe even 'not bad' at levels 6-14.

 

[SageRuffin]

The combat in Origins was about the only aspect of the game I didn't like (I'm pretty sure a game isn't supposed to put you to sleep as you're playing it), at least while I was playing as anything except a dual-wielding rogue.

The combat in DA2 feels a bit more "action-y", yes, but I feel it's more involving, as I'm actually controlling my character as opposed to telling her "hey, go fight this guy" then sitting back and watching what happens. Then again, I'm a lot more intimate with intricate [i[]action[/i] games, so the gameplay in DA2 felt right at home for me. Or maybe I'm just weird like that.

 

[thenamelessloser]

For consoles, Dragon AGe 2 has superior combat to the first one. Simply because it is easier to control what the other characters do, such as having a character fall back or whatever with the controls. It is obvious Dragon Age 2 was made with consoles in mind unlike the first one for better or worse.

Probalby for the PC the first Dragon age has better combat than the second Dragon AGe though.

 

[StBishop]

The combat in DA:O is much better but less immersive (in my opinion) than DA2.

Many simply would say "it's better" because for them, pressing A (on console) for each "auto"attack is stupid and immersion breaking.

The combat is slightly better on console for DA2 and much, much better on PC for DA:O (this is just a fact, I don't care what anyone says) but it's playable both ways and some people prefer one over the other.

Get DA:O it's better in all ways. I still like DA2 a fuck tonne by the way if that gives any perspective.

also I love the combat in DA2.

wow im not alone

It's good combat and no one will change my mind on it.
A large portion of the haters of it are the DAO players who wanted another baulder gate game

They're not haters, they're disappointed fans who were promised "the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate".

If they were offered, "a new RPG IP from the makers of Baldur's Gate" they wouldn't have been half as disappointed.

 

[LordFisheh]

I much preferred DA2's combat. I actually felt like my abilities did something; in Origins as a mage I had a handful of spells that all just seemed to fire a glowy damage-ball at the enemy. In DA2, a fireball was a fireball, an ice bolt froze them, electricity shocked them, and so on.

Likewise a warrior in Origins would do things like 'hit the enemy three times, if the 3rd hit is a crit then they're stunned'. In DA2, you jump across the room and hit someone in the face.

That said, I really missed the finishing moves from Origins. They felt so awesome, whereas in DA2 the closest you got was a few cutscenes and the enemies falling into several pieces when coughed at.

 

[ZeroMachine]

I prefer the combat on Origins over 2 to such a huge extent that I can plainly say 2's combat was my least favorite change between games, as well as my least favorite part of the game.

People keep saying that the skill trees were streamlined, but the thing is? It limits you, big time. Not to mention magic, as a whole, was nerfed. Especially healing magic... Christ, I fucking hate rezzing in DA2.

Not to mention the combat is usually just wave after wave after wave. Thankfully, they claimed to have alleviated that issue in the upcoming Legacy DLC. We'll see.

I love Dragon Age 2. But Origins is my favorite current-gen game. I wasn't expecting DA2 to live up to it.

So I guess I basically got what I asked for.

 

[Drizzitdude]

DA 2 has better combat but the overall experience is far worse. I mean they had what 5 rooms they repeated in every dungeon?

 

[Smooth Operator]

DA:O has RPG combat, DA2 has Diablo combat + random battles + nonstop respawns ... awesome, but what you prefer is up to you.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

If you want deeper combat, you should pick up Neverwinter Nights then since the combat in DA is a watered down version of it. You will be overwhelmed by options.

 

[Awexsome]

I only played the demo of Dragon Age 2 and while it was fun, I'm pretty sure after a long time the button mashing would've gotten annoying. But then again there were lots of times in DA:O that the fighting was very visibly done only by numbers and less by your own actions that got annoying.

Guess I'd pick whichever you had more patience for.

 

[omega 616]

Earlier today, wishing to try out one of the Dragon Age games, I downloaded the DA2 demo off of Steam. I know all of the hate that DA2 gets, but I found what I did play rather interesting.

Except for the combat.

I found the combat that was showcased in the demo to be an appallingly bad, grindtastic borefest, and I was curious as to whether the combat is any better in DA:O. I really hope it is, but I have no way of knowing and I can hardly drop 30 bucks on a prayer.

So, my question to my fellow Escapists is thus: Is the combat in the first Dragon Age better than in the second, and is it worth buying regardless?

DA:O has auto attacks. You see a guy off in the distance and press X (I am on PS3), when you press [], ^ or O you do a special attack and R2 is a button modifier, so [], ^ and O do something different depending on if your holding R2 or not.

DA2 is more hack and slash than DA:O's press one button for a special ability or don't press anything to just normal attack.

 

[DarkTenka]

DA:O's combat was relatively similar but they watered the difficulty down massively in DA2 and this makes a huge difference in how combat plays out. In DA:O Friendly Fire is enabled for normal difficulty and above, but the best thing about DA:O is that it had massive difficulty spikes.

Yes I'm saying that thats a GOOD thing, screw all you casual players that complained about it .. you RUINED DA2 for me.

Basically you would rock along killing stuff without problems then the next thing you face is a Reaver or a Dragon or a Mage or some other boss of some kind who would mop the floor with your party. This created a real sense of danger in exploring your surroundings and in order to win these fights you really had to utilise all the characters spells/skills, as well as utilising the map layout to your advantage (e.g doorways are a good way of limiting the number of bad guys you face, and avoiding leaving all characters in one room vs mages or else you face being wiped out by fireballs.)

So .. yea .. based on that the combat in DA:O was immensely superior.