Razorfist gives his oh so tactful review on DA2

[AngryPuppy]

Wow he was annoying as hell. While I agree with SOME of what he says, I can't watch him without wanting to stab someone.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

I dislike this guy

I also hated the "Angry Videogame Nerd" guy...

ZP is actually far better then this guy...

Also this is why he is on Youtube...

EDIT: focus on the comic because your review was bad.... IMO

 

[jonyboy13]

I wuv him<3
The review concludes in "If Dragon Age 2 isn't a bad game then wtf is?"

It was one of the worst games I have ever played and PLEASE, people who defend it, put your bs aside because no one cares if you like it or not. The fact is, it's a shitty game that fails at everything it tries to accomplish. You can like it, you can even love it and worship it as a God but it doesn't change the fact that it is a BAD GAME.

 

[Earaldor Xerron]

Vulgar, didn't mention a single good thing about the game, (no, there is no game that doesn't have a single good point) raging for any nuance he finds not to his liking: a very bad review.
I do realize that reviews are meant to be subjective, but that doesn't mean that going "AAAAARGH, THIS GAME IS ***** ***** ***** ***** ****** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ****!!!!!!!!44444" is okay. Not only because it will alienate everyone who doesn't have similar feelings, but because it's not too helpful, even if I disregard all the swearing and raging (because he doesn't even try to see any good in the game).
He has his right to an oppinion though.

I agree with him on some points, disagree with him on others, I don't want to go into details, but I really didn't understand how he managed to find FF XIII similar. DA II is not linear, not a JRPG (in any way) and it has shops but seriously, I don't get it, apart from he disliked both...

 

[Trolldor]

Three easy steps to enjoying Dragon Age 2.

-Play on Nightmare.
No other difficulty is cannon, nor is it a game, normal is the difficulty equivalent of getting to sleep within a time restriction of 48 hours.

-Try to roleplay not metagame.
You need to work to color these games, the developer cannot make them perfect, or even really good compared to a novel when they need to account for a billion whiny fans and 47 flavours of player character. They will always be bad it is up to you to think out side of the box and color inside the lines.

-Remember that no matter how much you glorify Origins it was very very VERY flawed, that didn't stop us from loving it.
Bad, slow, terribly balanced combat that closer resembled MapleStory's potion chugging contest than a game, or even tactics.
Glitches and graphics and inconsistencies that make grown men cry. Still we loved it, get over DA2's flaws if you want, or don't, It's not changing my experience with the game.

That said, he had many good points. Be vocal, less of an idiot maybe, but vocal.
BioWare needs to be told where they went wrong here, hopefully they listen and fix it.

Can't roleplay in DA 2. The game punishes you with its friendship/rivalry system the same way ME2 punishes you with it's paragon/renegade system. You can't make character decisions.
Also, Combat in Origins was far superior. Tactics, placement, abilities, they all mattered on all difficulties. Easier difficulties just meant you could move more slowly, issue orders more slowly. DA 2 is a button masher until nightmare, but that leaves casual gamers - and those less skilled - with just a button masher.

 

[80Maxwell08]

This guy obviously didn't play Dragon Age: Origins.

Actually he did. He has a review of DA:O and calls it the best RPG he's played this decade. True he could have lied but according to that logic everyone on the entire internet could be lying. Yahtzee's favorite game could be Halo and Moviebob could just be watching the previews and reading other reviews to do his reviews. I take things at face value over the internet due to not being constantly paranoid that I'm being lying to. Although I will admit that I've been proven wrong many times over....sorry for the speech.(Just going to get on topic now so no need to read if you don't feel like it)

I actually agree with a lot of what he said but since I've never played Baldur's Gate I can't say anything about that. Was always finding problems with graphics from awfull textures on people, objects and everything inbetween to a glitch where the floor disappeared and the skybox was visible (side note apparently theres a few rivers and valleys right under Kirkwall complete with grass. Huh guess plants don't need sunlight.) Then the dialog system. I have no inherent problems with the dialog wheel but Bioware doesn't seem to grasp the point of letting us understand what we say or letting one choice stay where it is. I had this same problem with ME2 when Shepard starting going bipolar and getting pissed at people being nice to him when I chose the paragon option and when options kept jumping around from paragon to renegade (see Legion's loyalty mission). DA2 had one of these problems but I'll be honest and say I didn't beat it or even get past the first section of the game (not the tutorial getting the expedition stuff) but I did see one option say "I'll do it to hunt outlaws" which I choose where Hawke then said "I suppose there should be a reward involved". Not forgetting that one anytime soon. I had no real problem with the combat but I was getting bored with each fight save the boss fights which just annoyed me(the dragon in the bone pit especially but less difficulty more area stun effects that last that long just slow everything down especially since he didn't do anything while we were stunned.)

To wrap this up on the topic of Razorfist the rock thing is just his style and how he sounds and talks is his choice. Some will like it some won't so in my opinion I like it.

 

[pixiejedi]

I wuv him<3
The review concludes in "If Dragon Age 2 isn't a bad game then wtf is?"

It was one of the worst games I have ever played and PLEASE, people who defend it, put your bs aside because no one cares if you like it or not. The fact is, it's a shitty game that fails at everything it tries to accomplish. You can like it, you can even love it and worship it as a God but it doesn't change the fact that it is a BAD GAME.

Wow, thats a lot of venom there. No one cares if you like it either. Its not perfect and no one is saying it is. But if this is your definition of a bad game then boy you've seen nothing. I would totally agree that this is the worst Bioware game I have played, no doubt. That is like saying its the crappiest Da Vinci painting. I hate it when people assume their opinion is the right one and everyone else is just in denial or something. Some people liked it, good for them, trying to convince them otherwise is both stupid and mean spirited.

On topic though, yeah that guy was, not the type of person I would trust with my game recommendations. He had some good points, DAO is my favorite game so I pretty much walked in knowing I was going to be disappointed with 2. The combat really didn't bother me, and I liked not having to juggle what everyone else was wearing. I actually like feeling more urgent in combat, but its understandable how people would like to micro manage more.

My biggest issue was that nothing got resolved. Everything from the Qunari to the war was just thrown out with no answers. At least answer one question and leave the last part open. I also didn't really have strong feelings either way about any of the characters, except Carver, I think I might kill him next time. Didn't like recycled maps or taking two load screens to talk to different companions. I did like that I didn't accidentally get into a big chat with someone for just trying to pick up a chest or something. I liked having a family and dealing with that baggage. I like the fact that its even darker than the first since their is really no right answer to anything.

I'm a fan of airing grievances so they hopefully don't get repeated but their is something to be said that its easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar. If I can't put up with the overpowering desire to roll my eyes at you and turn it off than how can people see the issues to fix them.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Hmm, I've never seen this guy before, and I actually quite like his reviews. I don't agree with what he has to say, but he's nice and passionate and angry, and that's always fun to watch - he reminds me of Zero Punctuation crossed with Nostalgia Critic.

He's loud, he's opinionated, he's self-righteous - he's entertaining. Colour me intrigued.

Wow, thats a lot of venom there. No one cares if you like it either. Its not perfect and no one is saying it is. But if this is your definition of a bad game then boy you've seen nothing.

I haven't played the game so I might be off the mark, but I'm a firm believer that there's a huge difference between "bad" and "poorly made". From what I've heard, from fans and non-fans alike, Dragon Age II falls into the latter category.

 

[Shikua]

Yeah, after watching almost every video game review on his front page, I can safely say this guy is an idiot. He does nothing but whine and swear, and blow everything out of proportion.

 

[Feylynn]

Three easy steps to enjoying Dragon Age 2.

-Play on Nightmare.
No other difficulty is cannon, nor is it a game, normal is the difficulty equivalent of getting to sleep within a time restriction of 48 hours.

-Try to roleplay not metagame.
You need to work to color these games, the developer cannot make them perfect, or even really good compared to a novel when they need to account for a billion whiny fans and 47 flavours of player character. They will always be bad it is up to you to think out side of the box and color inside the lines.

-Remember that no matter how much you glorify Origins it was very very VERY flawed, that didn't stop us from loving it.
Bad, slow, terribly balanced combat that closer resembled MapleStory's potion chugging contest than a game, or even tactics.
Glitches and graphics and inconsistencies that make grown men cry. Still we loved it, get over DA2's flaws if you want, or don't, It's not changing my experience with the game.

That said, he had many good points. Be vocal, less of an idiot maybe, but vocal.
BioWare needs to be told where they went wrong here, hopefully they listen and fix it.

Can't roleplay in DA 2. The game punishes you with its friendship/rivalry system the same way ME2 punishes you with it's paragon/renegade system. You can't make character decisions.
Also, Combat in Origins was far superior. Tactics, placement, abilities, they all mattered on all difficulties. Easier difficulties just meant you could move more slowly, issue orders more slowly. DA 2 is a button masher until nightmare, but that leaves casual gamers - and those less skilled - with just a button masher.

Friendship renegade doesn't punish you. Sometimes, people just completely disagree with your answers, and the times you disagree are the times they disagree. In DA2 rather then have them leave in a huff they stick with you like friends would, but they are just a little bitter that you don't find some of their plights nearly as important as they do.
It is far from perfect, it's almost poor, but if you are walking around avoiding stepping on toes you are meta gaming.
Mass Effect however does punish you because your charisma is tied directly to being locked in one persona. That is wrong, DA2 didn't do it.
The only glaring issue with F/R is that neutral isn't addressed properly, they should move on from this system with the next iteration of the game in my opinion, but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be here.
The issue people 'should' really have with conversation is lack of flavour. No religious answers, no shy, outgoing, crazy, whatever. No nice refusals for relationships, really no 'nice' caring dialog for flirting either. They needed Flirting/Loving Gentle/***** depicted by say a Full Black/Red Heart, then broken Red/Black heart respectively.

They put to much a restriction on Hawke by doing this and didn't make it any less mandatory to roleplay and rewrite the story for yourself.

Fair enough, DA1's lower difficulties still offered a challenge and could be considered gameplay. But it also had some of the most atrocious game balance ever concieved.
Roll Blood Mage Arcane Warrior=Solo Nightmare without even getting beaten by the 'unwinnable' fight thus avoiding the prison level entirely.
In my pinion Nightmare in DA2 was significantly better, so I'm happy with it, I personally can't give any points to origin there save the ability to spec any party member any way. But that is what console commands are for.

 

[Trolldor]

Three easy steps to enjoying Dragon Age 2.

-Play on Nightmare.
No other difficulty is cannon, nor is it a game, normal is the difficulty equivalent of getting to sleep within a time restriction of 48 hours.

-Try to roleplay not metagame.
You need to work to color these games, the developer cannot make them perfect, or even really good compared to a novel when they need to account for a billion whiny fans and 47 flavours of player character. They will always be bad it is up to you to think out side of the box and color inside the lines.

-Remember that no matter how much you glorify Origins it was very very VERY flawed, that didn't stop us from loving it.
Bad, slow, terribly balanced combat that closer resembled MapleStory's potion chugging contest than a game, or even tactics.
Glitches and graphics and inconsistencies that make grown men cry. Still we loved it, get over DA2's flaws if you want, or don't, It's not changing my experience with the game.

That said, he had many good points. Be vocal, less of an idiot maybe, but vocal.
BioWare needs to be told where they went wrong here, hopefully they listen and fix it.

Can't roleplay in DA 2. The game punishes you with its friendship/rivalry system the same way ME2 punishes you with it's paragon/renegade system. You can't make character decisions.
Also, Combat in Origins was far superior. Tactics, placement, abilities, they all mattered on all difficulties. Easier difficulties just meant you could move more slowly, issue orders more slowly. DA 2 is a button masher until nightmare, but that leaves casual gamers - and those less skilled - with just a button masher.

Friendship renegade doesn't punish you. Sometimes, people just completely disagree with your answers, and the times you disagree are the times they disagree. In DA2 rather then have them leave in a huff they stick with you like friends would, but they are just a little bitter that you don't find some of their plights nearly as important as they do.
It is far from perfect, it's almost poor, but if you are walking around avoiding stepping on toes you are meta gaming.
Mass Effect however does punish you because your charisma is tied directly to being locked in one persona. That is wrong, DA2 didn't do it.
The only glaring issue with F/R is that neutral isn't addressed properly, they should move on from this system with the next iteration of the game in my opinion, but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be here.
The issue people 'should' really have with conversation is lack of flavour. No religious answers, no shy, outgoing, crazy, whatever. No nice refusals for relationships, really no 'nice' caring dialog for flirting either. They needed Flirting/Loving Gentle/***** depicted by say a Full Black/Red Heart, then broken Red/Black heart respectively.

They put to much a restriction on Hawke by doing this and didn't make it any less mandatory to roleplay and rewrite the story for yourself.

Fair enough, DA1's lower difficulties still offered a challenge and could be considered gameplay. But it also had some of the most atrocious game balance ever concieved.
Roll Blood Mage Arcane Warrior=Solo Nightmare without even getting beaten by the 'unwinnable' fight thus avoiding the prison level entirely.
In my pinion Nightmare in DA2 was significantly better, so I'm happy with it, I personally can't give any points to origin there save the ability to spec any party member any way. But that is what console commands are for.

The Friendship/Rival system punishes you because you will lose characters from your party if you weren't "consistent" which puts you at a severe disadvantage when you get to the final battle.

 

[idunnowutiam]

I said it once and I'll say it again, I hate watching that guy. I even talked about the things he got wrong about the games on the bioware social forums(As linear as FFXIII for one, misquoting a GT podcast) and all he said was "Hey, it's my opinion." like he only read a sentence of my post.

I'm sorry but that reviewer is an all around bad reviewer. There are way better negative reviews of DAII on the net.

snip

Let me give you the other side of the arguement:

1, The game will suck, the demo'll prove!
2, SEE? They probably removed everything that made the original good in the full game!
3, Hah! 15 minutes in and the game already sucks, the reviews will prove my point!
4, Pssh! The good reviews are paid off! Metacritic will prove everything!
5, See?! Metacritic is always right! Even though most of the reviews came out on launch day!!
6, Pssh! 1 mil. copies sold? Still a failure even though it made about 27 million bucks!
7, Well uhm.. hmmm.. DA2 sucks and you are the minority! Shutup!!!

Both side thinks they're right. Go to Bioware's forums, it's a war over there...

 

[D Moness]

The Friendship/Rival system punishes you because you will lose characters from your party if you weren't "consistent" which puts you at a severe disadvantage when you get to the final battle.

Spoiler: ending DA

If you fight along side the mages the only person you loose is fenris since he hates mages from the start(he makes this perfectly clear(he will always support the templars being friend or rival)). Carver why was my rival didn't turn on me in the end and helped me defeat Meredith because he didn't wanna kill his sister. Maybe if i picked another option he would turn against me. Anders i always killed because of his act. If you don't Sebastian will run off. So it is Sebastian or Anders you will miss. The only real problem might be Isabella who can run away in act 2 if not romanced or enough friend/rival points.

 

[Saluki_princess]

I actually agreed with him on many points, but not as... vehemently. What seemed to make him tear his hair out was only a minor disappointment for me, and the good definitely overshadowed the bad.
Dragon Age II was a blast. But it felt too small, too brief, despite being 45+ hours long. I felt like I'd played a fraction of a game, and by the end, I was ready to move on to new places like Antiva, the Tevinter Imperium, old locations that could have been beautifully reworked, to finally face some overarching enemy... But all of this never came. Here's hoping Dragon Age III feels more complete and epic.

 

[Samechiel]

Can we just have a legitimate discussion on some of the points he made?

But... he didn't really make any points. iIt was just ten minutes of him screaming "RAWR I HATE DRAGON AGE 2!"

The Friendship/Rival system punishes you because you will lose characters from your party if you weren't "consistent" which puts you at a severe disadvantage when you get to the final battle.

*gasp* You mean if you flip-flop around like an indecisive douche with emotional problems then people won't respect you enough to risk their lives for you? My word, how terrible!