Dragon Age II Review
- Thread starter Greg Tito
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I am honestly surprised at how divisive both this game and this review are. Okay, I get that not everyone likes this game, especially a lot of long time Bioware fans. That sucks.
But seriously? What the hell is up with all this garbage about how the game is awful and the review is dishonest or incompetent and no one likes this game? I like this game. The review seems to be in line with my experiences while playing it so far. The whole game has been pretty much exactly what I expected, and I love it.
I'm fine with people not liking it, and I'm fine with them saying it here, but I am sorely disappointed with all the people screaming like Greg Tito murdered their mother because he really liked a game that they didn't. It's disappointing, especially from a community I've come to like as much as this one.
But seriously? What the hell is up with all this garbage about how the game is awful and the review is dishonest or incompetent and no one likes this game? I like this game. The review seems to be in line with my experiences while playing it so far. The whole game has been pretty much exactly what I expected, and I love it.
I'm fine with people not liking it, and I'm fine with them saying it here, but I am sorely disappointed with all the people screaming like Greg Tito murdered their mother because he really liked a game that they didn't. It's disappointing, especially from a community I've come to like as much as this one.
Frankly I don't see why people have to call Greg's mental competence or integrity into question, sure he gave an oddly positive review, doesn't mean he's been bribed or held at gunpoint, maybe he just likes it, like me & many others. Look if you don't like it, well fine you have a right to say so, but you don't have to insult people who disagree with you, I'll repeat myself, I ENJOYED THE GAME THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS, okay I'm sorry if you felt like you wasted your money, but than again that's your own damn fault. I'll admit the engine still has it's rough edges and the plot's not quite as good as the first, the environments ARE recycled (But they are all unique so I personally let it slide), but in spite of those shortcomings people enjoyed the game, and again that's all that matters.
I guess, for my part, I held the Escapist up on a bit of a pedestal.
The big splash page the DA2 site has up, with the Escapist "5/5! What videogames are meant to be!" . . . . saddens me.
Oh, well, just a game. And just another gaming site.
The big splash page the DA2 site has up, with the Escapist "5/5! What videogames are meant to be!" . . . . saddens me.
Oh, well, just a game. And just another gaming site.
I am saddened that this review is so overwhelmingly positive to the point of ignorant bliss. I understand that Yahtzee is supposed to be the big critical review guns for the Escapist but this just smacks of Candy-mountain thinking. At least make an attempt to play devils advocate and have a wide frame of reference to discern opinions from instead of portraying a never-ending honeymoon with a perfect soul mate.
If this is a pinnacle of gaming then what is The Witcher II or TES:Skyrim going to be when released this year? Two games that have a much high quality of both developer investment and refinement.
Sad day for The Escapist, I'm honestly sorry to say.
If this is a pinnacle of gaming then what is The Witcher II or TES:Skyrim going to be when released this year? Two games that have a much high quality of both developer investment and refinement.
Sad day for The Escapist, I'm honestly sorry to say.
Totally agree. Dragon Age 2 has an awful story and the game takes a difficulty dive so severe the last encounters are just funny to play through. 30 hours of an act one waiting to get to the important parts of the overall important story which abruptly ends just as a true catastrophe happens (and the primary story arch being revealed) is piss poor story progression primarily concerned with setting up future expansions that will resolve this conflict over a two year period in which dollars will funnel to an undeserving development team. The lack of depth to the final choices within the game reflects the inept writing and hurried finished to an overall lackluster game.AnteGravity said:
I honestly don't know what half you posters are smoking. This was a great game (I got it on PC so maybe there's something to that...) with great characters. I liked the story better than DA:O because it wasn't just like every other fantasy RPG ever made with raising an army to fight off the hordes of darkness. I liked the political aspect of it, the characters were all great (except Fenrris, but I just can't stand emo characters) and the narrative style was interesting and kept me involved. Like any other high quality AAA game, it's gonna have a lot of praise and detractors just because it's a quality AAA game. Aside from that, the only real complaints I have are really the same ones I'd have for any other RPG ever made, but not as much because everything is so well executed.
Maybe this just means it'll be a great year for Western RPG's? Honestly, this game may not quite be the most revolutionary thing for the genre, but it's a well made and well executed game. You may have a fair point here come November when both those games you mention are out, but until then it's not fair to compare a game that's out now to games that don't come out for months and just assume it'll come out the worse for it.AnteGravity said:
Maybe it was his attempt at rebellion?TheAmazingHobo said:
Whether it's a good game or not ... it's not a polished game. It's clearly rushed, that alone should detract enough points to put it below DA:O. Programmer art (compare the party selection screen between DAO and DA2), copy pasting and selective bits of insanely poorly modeled/textured/animated art (the famous low poly elf, the famous low poly skeleton, some areas are just boxes with a single out of place wood grain texture on the wall and ~10 polygon shapes on the floor plastered with more wood texture ... the eternally haunched elf in your party looks pretty daft as well). How can a review not mention any of that? The fact that most of it looks good is no excuse, if it's not consistently so it should be mentioned.
The only theory I can come up with is that EA needed a couple high visibility reviews which declared the game better than DA:O, PC Gamer and The Escapist in were the "lucky" ones to be showered with money to make it happen I think :/ Maybe I'm attributing to malice what I should attribute to incompetence? Either way, this review reflects poorly on the reviewer.
The thing is, when you are reviewing something you can't just post things like: OMGOGASGOMGGGGG ITS SO FUCKING AWESOME I WANT TO LICK THE GAME COVER. Why? Because reviews must say what's good and what's bad regardless if you like it or not so that people will know how good it is. A review must be as objective as possible and this game has points that a decent review should punish severely such as repeating maps a hundred-fold the amount mass effect did.
What has the world come to? A "professional" reviewer acting like a mindless fanboy who will shun away obvious flaws just because DA RULEZZZZZZZZZ. I'm not saying reviewers should be merciless judges like yahtzee, but he is the ONLY one who speaks his mind and has the balls to say THIS is good whereas THIS OTHER SHIT is fucking HORRIBLE. This review has no more credibility than a fanboy nerdraging at EA forums about it's awesomeness.
What has the world come to? A "professional" reviewer acting like a mindless fanboy who will shun away obvious flaws just because DA RULEZZZZZZZZZ. I'm not saying reviewers should be merciless judges like yahtzee, but he is the ONLY one who speaks his mind and has the balls to say THIS is good whereas THIS OTHER SHIT is fucking HORRIBLE. This review has no more credibility than a fanboy nerdraging at EA forums about it's awesomeness.
You do know a Review is an Opinion of something? in this case a game? maybe he didn't find any bugs or glitches during his play through? maybe nothing annoyed him?isma1990 said:
If you don't like it, read another review, don't blast this guy because he reviewed a game he thought was excellent. if you don't agree then Boo-Fucking-Hoo
I just cant see that at all. To me DAO looks so superior to DA2. The graphics in DA2 are to non human like now in my book. Scenery graphics are meh and I have done studies on many games for my course to see the difference. Fighting to me bugs me and as some one else pointed out earlier which I never looked at death kills. Thats not even in DA2.
Also some one else stated castle vainia never played but got my mate to play it for me while I watched over live stream. Now many things taken out of that.
To me jumping 5 foot in the air with a huge sword has taken the game out of the point that even is close to a realist view.
To me there is a point you should not cross with rpg's of this type and they have and its just killed it for me. Bioware has always had my backing with its games. But if I had to rate it outta 5 its a 2.5 outta 5 from me. If a percentage I would say 45% - 50%
There is a lot more on this game that should have been done extremely better and even tho DLC's add some more to it. I do not see them really boosting the game anymore.
Rushed shortened and just done concentrating on the console players. To my view on games for pc and consoles they should be done separately. Why? Making something for a console to have it on a pc no. PC can provide much more. The base came from there and one should be done soley on pc and one for consoles. To suit those who play what. No doubt my comment might start up the war that has been going on with pc and consoles. I have a 360 and an old ps2. I rented out DA2 on the 360. But even on there. Niggles I got from the PC bugged me on there to.
But as I said if I had to rate it outta 5 its a 2.5 outta 5 from me. If a percentage I would say 45% - 50%. Sorry bioware you have disappointed me in this game.
Also some one else stated castle vainia never played but got my mate to play it for me while I watched over live stream. Now many things taken out of that.
To me jumping 5 foot in the air with a huge sword has taken the game out of the point that even is close to a realist view.
To me there is a point you should not cross with rpg's of this type and they have and its just killed it for me. Bioware has always had my backing with its games. But if I had to rate it outta 5 its a 2.5 outta 5 from me. If a percentage I would say 45% - 50%
There is a lot more on this game that should have been done extremely better and even tho DLC's add some more to it. I do not see them really boosting the game anymore.
Rushed shortened and just done concentrating on the console players. To my view on games for pc and consoles they should be done separately. Why? Making something for a console to have it on a pc no. PC can provide much more. The base came from there and one should be done soley on pc and one for consoles. To suit those who play what. No doubt my comment might start up the war that has been going on with pc and consoles. I have a 360 and an old ps2. I rented out DA2 on the 360. But even on there. Niggles I got from the PC bugged me on there to.
But as I said if I had to rate it outta 5 its a 2.5 outta 5 from me. If a percentage I would say 45% - 50%. Sorry bioware you have disappointed me in this game.
truer words have never been spokenEdli1 said:
DA2 is a huge letdown and these reviews im seeing with 9/10 scores confound me.
Its a "decent game" and for a hack n slash its a very good Diablo esc game. (very good in that regard) Though Diablo may have had a better story.. (half joking)
For an RPG and especially for Dragon Age its a big "wtf convinced Bioware to turn their hacknslash spin off title into a full blown, re-imagined, retconed, sequel"..
The scale and scope is minimal, the story is relatively non existent. the quests are for the most part boring and half border on 100% fodder, literally. *pick up random item, talk to random NPC, complete quest*.. thats literally all there is to it. The other 50% of the quest (unless they are the few and far between main storyline quest) are just boring to death and back.
The writing and dialog stinks compared to the first, some of it bordering on cringe worthy. The voice actors stink compared to the first, and if you thought the multiple choice dialog system fromt he first was confusing, the dialog wheel in DA2 is a complete mindfuck. I never had problems with the oldschool dialog system, but i honestly have no clue as to why people think the chat wheel is better. Its completely oblivious to anything you intend on saying and alot of the times you end up wasting dialog options because the wheel throws up 6 different options and you dont know wtf any of your choices and dialog trees the technicalities of and are going to ARRRGGG!!! its a mess..... (but thats just my opinion)
In the review he says they improve on every play mechanic from the first game. lol gimme a break.. you mean of what is left from the original or what?? A majority of the play mechanics from the original are completely GONE. Theres nothing to improve on they're not even in the game, period.
There's only 1 weapon set, no changing armor for "NPC's" (they are no longer other characters in the game/story but more like the mercs from Diablo 2..)Theres no gift system, theres no party camp, theres ONE city, theres ZERO exploration, scope, scale. I have fun playing this but it just will not hold my attention for more than a few hours at a time. Theres certainly no staying up all night like there was with the first one. Its a down right different game and imo inferior to Dragon Age in "almost" every way. If I were looking for a good, fast paced, loot-whore, hack n slash, it would be the game to get. If im looking for more Dragon Age.. well.. I guess Dragon Age is finished? (they do plan on continuing this DA2 trend correct?) ..and i know im forgetting some things..
DA2 also reuses the same Dungeons.. (laziness??)
The combat and improved visuals are the only saving grace, and that's not really saying alot.
Bottom line; it passes the time, but its a disappointment and a far cry from DA:O.
The game has issues, but some people like it, some don't, we don't need to attack Greg, or anyone else who likes the game, name-calling people who disagree with you is the trademark of children, morons, and politics. Okay Greg & a lot of other people liked it, just as many didn't, okay end of discussion, feel free to comment but don't act like going "OMG his game sux ballz!!11!!one" is going to make Greg go "OMG they're right!" and go knock down his rating to a 1/5, simply not going to happen.
You yourself stated it as fact by saying "The pinnacle of RPGs does not have:"(sorry had to fix that since incorrectly you used a semi-colon instead of a colon)Noshaq said:
The way that is written is claiming to state fact. You were saying that the pinnacle would not have these, but they are opinion, because the pinnacle of RPG's is a matter of opinion.
Learn to understand why you say before you say it to make your intention clear.
You know, they could at least give you an option to use the old system. It would be trivial to implement- show the subtitle that you were going to show anyway when your character spoke as an option and skip the audio clip. I hate selecting an option that says "I hate puppies" and having my character actually say "I love puppies, but kittens suck".technotica said:
-.- He may of gave the game high praise but, i'll say it again, he may not have found anything bad during his play through, no bugs, no glitches, nothing.Calibretto said:
He could of named a few bad points, but does it matter? it's HIS OPINION ON THE GAME.
Plus it's a new game, if you hate it so much trade it in, if it's new it will go for a high price.
