So Dragon Age 2

[Gabanuka]

I know I'm behind the curve here but never mind.

I was curious: I only just brought and finished Dragon Age (Currently going trough Awakening) and I was wondering I should buy DA2 despite the shit storm caused. I rally couldent care less about the combat, its the weakest part of the series, what I can aout is the characters and the story and I was just wondering if the complaints are about that. If its only the gameplay then I can probably over look it.

If it is the story at fault then can someone give me a synopsis so I'm ready for DA3?

 

[Tohuvabohu]

I fucking hated Dragon Age 2.

Well now that that's out of the way, I wouldn't recommend the game unless you really want to see where the series headed next. It might be worth a playthrough just to experience it yourself, be familiar with the story it talks about, and be ready for Dragon Age 3. I also found much less to do in DA2 so my initial playthrough was over much quicker than my initial DA:O playthrough.

Beyond that, I won't say anything else about this game. I like people to form their own opinions.

 

[Gabanuka]

I fucking hated Dragon Age 2.

Well now that that's out of the way, I wouldn't recommend the game unless you really want to see where the series headed next. It might be worth a playthrough just to experience it yourself, be familiar with the story it talks about, and be ready for Dragon Age 3. I also found much less to do in DA2 so my initial playthrough was over much quicker than my initial DA:O playthrough.

Beyond that, I won't say anything else about this game. I like people to form their own opinions.

Worth the £12 Amazon is charging for it?

 

[mad825]

Buy DA2 with the expectation of it not being DAO.

Spoiler: spoiler synopsis

All you really need to know is that anders starts a rebellion between the mages and templars

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Worth the £12 Amazon is charging for it?

Coming from someone who hates this game, I think that's a... fair price for it.

If anything, a single playthrough for the game took me more than 50 hours, I think. So ignoring everything else about the game, 50+ hours of playtime for that price is pretty good.

 

[Gabanuka]

Worth the £12 Amazon is charging for it?

Coming from someone who hates this game, I think that's a... fair price for it.

If anything, a single playthrough for the game took me more than 50 hours, I think. So ignoring everything else about the game, 50+ hours of playtime for that price is pretty good.

50 hours? Thats longer than I have on Origins...

 

[Weaver]

I wouldn't even play it for free.

I hated it. I despised it. I've never felt more let down and disappointed with a game or a company in my entire 21 year gaming career.

 

[Dandark]

It can be a fun game but make sure you pretend that it's not an actual sequel. Pretend it's a spin off or facebook game or something, if you expect a good sequel to Origins then you will be severely dissapointed.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

50 hours? Thats longer than I have on Origins...

My longest playthrough on DA:O is over 100 hours. So I guess I can be categorized as someone that likes to faff about.

So that would be 50+ hours, with who knows how many of it spent faffing about. (Although like I said, even though I like to faff about, I found there was just much less to do in DA2) So maybe a more generic playthrough would be between 25-35 hours? Still pretty good for that price, if you ask me.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

If you're playing the games on console, the combat is actually better in DAII. If you're playing on PC... not so much.

The story isn't awful, in my opinion, it just doesn't live up to what it could have been. I prefer the direction it went in as I prefer much smaller-scale personal stories. The problem is that, despite being somewhat more character-driven, the characters aren't half as compelling as they were in the first game and the "moral ambiguity" was kinda poorly handled... both sides that you can choose from made good points but they were both presented in such a way as to just make you hate them both.

 

[Sp3ratus]

Too bad you don't like the combat, I really think it's the star of the series, 2 moreso than 1, but to each his own. Characters are fun, with special mention to Varric and Avelline, the latter being a non-sexualized strong female character.

The story is... well, it's somewhat disjointed, with it being separated into three acts, that feels loosely connected, but which definitely could've used some work. It's a much more personal story, about one person's(Hawke, your PC) rise to power, with the adventures that entail along the way. It's nice not being told yet another "save-the-world" quest and a courageous attempt to tell something other than that, but it could really have been something special with a longer development cycle.

Other than that, you've probably heard some of the complaints, like recycled dungeons, non-choices and the like. Still, £12 is definitely worth it, at least I think so.

 

[The_Lost_King]

It was a fun game. It was even a good game, but it is a horrible Bioware game and a terrible Dragon Age game.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well if you ignore the name, or rather imagine it's called Drama Age then it will be right up your alley.
Because nothing of significance is said or done, you just keep chewing through repeating scenery and random battles while characters get all their emo shit off their chest.

 

[krazykidd]

I know I'm behind the curve here but never mind.

I was curious: I only just brought and finished Dragon Age (Currently going trough Awakening) and I was wondering I should buy DA2 despite the shit storm caused. I rally couldent care less about the combat, its the weakest part of the series, what I can aout is the characters and the story and I was just wondering if the complaints are about that. If its only the gameplay then I can probably over look it.

If it is the story at fault then can someone give me a synopsis so I'm ready for DA3?

The gameplay is the best part of DA2 . Sure it's not as tactical and more actiony . Some would even say dumbed down , but it was fun and fast paced . The story though is basically non-existant and they obviously didn't work much on that part . So if story is your main selling point i would have to advise against it..

 

[Realitycrash]

Eh, give it a go for 12 quid. It can be worth a good ten hours of fun (cheaper than the pub, right?).
After those ten hours, you will realize how horrible it is, and never touch it again..But hey, like I said, cheaper than the pub (worse hangover, tho).

 

[hazabaza1]

12 quid is a good price. Don't think it was worth the release day price I got it for, but I still enjoyed it a fair bit.

 

[Sp3ratus]

The gameplay is the best part of DA2. Sure it's not as tactical and more actiony . Some would even say dumbed down , but it was fun and fast paced.

I know I'm at a risk of sounding like a broken record, I have to take up this issue once again. I don't really get how people say the game is less tactical than DA:O, other than that it's because they're playing on too easy a difficulty.

I played both games on nightmare and DA2 was far and away harder and more tactical of the two, because not only did you have to think about positions and repositioning your party members, in order to get them out of danger(unlike DA:O), you also had to be conservative and careful with when and on where to use cooldowns, because of a stronger enemy down the line, that you have to take down quickly. All of this relates to the wave combat, which I've seen being criticized a lot and I agree to some extend that it wasn't necessary to use in every combat situation, but calling it less tactical is something I really don't get.

Add those two extra tactical considerations to friendly fire, resistances and tough enemies, things already established in DA:O and you've got a tougher challenge, with more tactics involved, in order to succeed.

 

[psicat]

I loved Dragon Age 2. Sure it was a little rushed, and they overused the same environment, but it was heads and shoulders better than Origins. The only thing Dragon Age: Origins has going for it is an engaging story, game-play is dull and tedious, and most of the characters are forgettable archetypes with no real depth in personality. Dragon Age 2 improves on those faults but at the same time it does it while following a more personal story, though one whose pacing becomes a little rushed at the end, instead of Origin's grand scale hero save the world from the emerging hoard of Darkspawns story. So I would say give it a shot, you might like it.

 

[Ascarus]

I wouldn't even play it for free.

I hated it. I despised it. I've never felt more let down and disappointed with a game or a company in my entire 21 year gaming career.

Yep. the game is absolute runny dog shit. save your money. if you liked DA:O for the story and are looking for something similar in DA2, well this game has virtually no coherent plot or narrative to speak of. it instead has four distinct chapters beneath which simmers the main theme of templars vs. mages. but the "resolution" of that "story" is completely bat shit insane and is more reminiscent of dragon ball z than dragon age. the characters are cardboard cut outs of mannequins with as much depth and complexity as a small puddle, the areas repeat ad nauseum, kirkwall becomes boring after chapter one ... well, shit i could go on and on and on.

save.your.money.

to the person who managed 50 hours of game play out of this piece of useless trash i have to admit, i admire your tenacity. one play through was agonizing enough. i can't imagine that much time in this particular game.

 

[Ascarus]

Dragon Age 2 improves on those faults but at the same time it does it while following a more personal story, ...

what? you thought the characters in DA2 were more complex than those in DA:O. really?

here is a run down of every reaction for each party member in DA2 (WITHOUT EXCEPTION):

Fenris: I HATE MAGES! GRRRR! THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED! EVER!
Isabella: I have slept with everyone. I am a pirate. I am a mediocre romance version of Morrigan.
Varric: I tell tall tales and make lame jokes.
Merrill: I am naieve.
Bethany (who I kind of liked, but isn't available for most of the game): Not all mages are evil.
Anders: The Templars are out to get me! I can't control myself!
Avaline: /snooze ... I'm sorry did she ever say aything interesting? This was the strong female character bioware was going for? the one i agonizingly had to follow around a twisting path while she made fumbling attempts to ask some random NPC on a date? are you fucking kidding me?! that makes for acceptable game play nowadays?

while i will admit the characters in DA:O weren't that complex even the least of them was vastly superior to anything DA2 had to offer.