So I just tried Dragon Age 2...

[McNinja]

As far as I can tell this game is nearly unplayable.

Aside from the terrible control interface, poor camera angles(you have to rotate it manually?), at least five year outdated graphics(which consume vast reserves of processing and ram power) all this while running on the highest settings. Aside from all that. The thing that makes this game nearly unplayable, is the ai.

I literally have not been able to progress past the first 'real' engagement as a warrior, terrible gameplay aside, because my ally ai which I need to rely upon, is so FREAKING BAD that they stand there looking at me like an idiot.

My dedicated mage-through both abilities and tactics, stares at me, refusing to heal me while I die; despite having a fully bar of mana, and cooldown for health casts.

And what is with most of the critic reviews? Baseline of an 8.0 it seems, with a user average of universally below 5.0?

Glad I borrowed the game, too bad too, as it actually looked pretty good...from a distance.

I mean... if you're playing it one nightmare you might have to constantly be rotating through party members in order to get them to be where you want them, and to do what you want them to. As for unplayable...

No.

The warrior is the easiest class to play, and if you cannot progress past the very first encounter (which is outside Lothering), you might need to just not play the game, and go find something that is far easier. God help you if you even attempt to play Demon's Souls...

 

[Tanfastic]

Step one: Buy an xbox or ps3 (If not owned)
Step two: Buy DA2 for said system
Step three: Enjoy it.

There are a TON of games that I would argue are "PC games" that don't work on consoles, DA2 is NOT one of them, in fact its the opposite. There are a select few games that are console games, due to controls, camera angles, and gameplay in general.

Also set some tactics and drink a health pot or two.

Nah. I'm not sure if you've played DA2 on a PC, but it works perfectly fine on one.

It may just be a matter of personal taste, but the controls, camera angles and gameplay in general are different on the PC. Specifically, they're different in a way I prefer.

I have tried it, didn't like it for PC. But for his problem the xbox camera and gameplay might fix his issues.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

I had none of these issues with Dragon Age 2. The UI was great, AI did pretty much exactly what I programmed it to via tactics, and the graphics were very good on Very High with the hi-res texture pack.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well the AI doesn't always use the abilities you want unless you make sure they are set, I left everything on default with one or two additions so they would use potions.
Those preset tactics are also not always ideal, if you want something specific it's best to set the actual state.

If you find the comabt difficult just put it on casual and try again, I played on nightmare and it wasn't really hard only a huge grind fest with those randomly spawning enemies so the last couple of hours I put it down to easiest before I hate the game too much.

Well the camera is manual only, so it's bad in that sense, and sometimes it will go behind invisible walls and you won't be able to click anyone.

The graphics are decent, but level design is utter shit, looks like a weekend job, later on you will notice they only designed 1 mansion, 1 house, 1 cave and 1 underground hideout, obviously they weren't that bothered if you walk into the same scenery all the time.

 

[Anah'ya]

Dishonest?

I've literally been unable to progress past the first serious engagement because of the terrible gameplay and ai, how is that dishonest?

*snickers*

Oh this brings back memories... the dreaded Ogre in Origins, up in the b(e)acon tower. It's as though Dragon Age in general has decided to weed out the players who cannot play the game at the beginning, instead of leading them onto a quest that would fail eventually anyway.

Though of course its the game itself that is blamed, not the person sitting behind the keyboard.

DA2 is by far not perfect, there's no such thing as a perfect game (well except Thief, System Shock 2 and SC Chaos Theory, but I digress *coughs*, but if anything is to be criticised it's the copy/paste copy/paste copy/paste approach to environments. Then again it's a BioWare game, I'd rather they focus on dialogue than level design. Psssst, that was a personal opinion.

As far as game play and graphics are concerned... had no problems or reason to shout at my AI companions, saw no issues with the performance of the graphics (or their looks for that matter, they are fairly spiffy) and played through the whole game without a single glitch altogether. Certainly didn't crash, unlike Origins which I have been replaying the past couple of days.

So.

Yeah.

Unplayable?

Nope. Some folks just aren't suited for this style of combat.

 

[kasperbbs]

A lot of people complained about this game, including me, but your problems with it are weird. You clearly are doing something wrong, i finished it 2 times on medium/hard difficulty as a rogue and a mage and i had only few moments where AI failed me, i didn't even change the tactics, as for the healing, most of the time i did it manually because i was used to doing so in dao. Don`t know what the hell is your problem with the camera. It ran fine on my fairly old machine, i played on high setting because my video card doesn't support dx11, oddly enough it had shorter loading times than origins. Can`t argue about the graphics, i have no problem with it.

 

[TheEndlessSleep]

It's not the game... YOU must be doing something very wrong if you can't get through the first serious engagment.

What are you counting as the first serious engagement btw? For me, playing on normal, the frst thing I had to repeat because of failure was the deep roads dragon.

Mabye you weren't confirming the tactis after you set them?

 

[Vibhor]

Just a pointer to the people who liked the game, there exist people who love daikatana.
That said, I haven't played any bioware rpg except baldur's gate and Mass effect 1 (too linear for my choice) so I cannot comment whether DA2 is worthy successor or not.

 

[omegawyrm]

Funny, all of that are the criticisms I had from the first game that got fixed.

 

[Mouse One]

Seriously though, you'd think with all these DA2 threads that Bioware had just killed most of the Escapists' kittens.

Poor Ser-Pounce-a-Lot. I'll admit, I missed the old Anders.

 

[H20 Pirate]

I think it's rather likely this person is just fishing for a certain type of fire drenched response.

I mean it's a fine game, and while it may have it's flaws, it is nowhere near unplayable.

 

[SpaceCop]

Constantly having to jump between characters to babysit them throughout combat can take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it it shouldn't be game-breaking.

 

[JackKrauserFtw]

As far as I can tell this game is nearly unplayable.

Aside from the terrible control interface, poor camera angles(you have to rotate it manually?), at least five year outdated graphics(which consume vast reserves of processing and ram power) all this while running on the highest settings. Aside from all that. The thing that makes this game nearly unplayable, is the ai.

I literally have not been able to progress past the first 'real' engagement as a warrior, terrible gameplay aside, because my ally ai which I need to rely upon, is so FREAKING BAD that they stand there looking at me like an idiot.

My dedicated mage-through both abilities and tactics, stares at me, refusing to heal me while I die; despite having a fully bar of mana, and cooldown for health casts.

And what is with most of the critic reviews? Baseline of an 8.0 it seems, with a user average of universally below 5.0?

Glad I borrowed the game, too bad too, as it actually looked pretty good...from a distance.

The graphics arent out dated, its just that up close action scenes containing more than a few characters are taxing on the processor, add that to any particles and ragdolls that are needed and you have a full-graphics nightmare. On your thing about healing, the heals have a very long cooldown now (besides the fact that you shouldnt be relying on your ally)

 

[Aranialis]

I really Can't comment on DA2, only played Origins, and still play it through, I love the Characters and their conversations. As for the problems you say you were having with the game?
There must be something seriously wrong with your play style. I mean I had to repeat the ogre in the tower a few times when I first played Origins. But you get the hang of it, like by the third time? if you don't Well go play halo, or something stupidly easy. Some games, like I myself have come to realize need to be faced not as an action dismembering parade, but a carefully created tactical encounter. some of us have fun with it, others don't. It a matter of personal opinion. what happens is that your opinion doesn't make the game bad, the game i suspect is really good, I myself will have to try it, you don't like the game, well nice for you you found a game you will not be spending your life on, as for others that enjoyed it, good for them as they are having fun playing something. You really shouldn't waste your life, or others's with threads like this. YOU don't like the game, it didn't appeal to you. OK too bad better luck next time. Don't go advertising the game as a sucky game.

A role player gamer.

PS good luck with other games.

 

[rankfx]

I love the game, but (I'm not sure if it's the AI or whatnot) there seems to be a point after the deep roads where the difficulty curve is like running into a brick wall. Normal enemies are fine, but every boss battle is frustrating and needs to be repeated. Maybe I just suck, but has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Fuselage]

Cool, you don't like the game, that's pretty cool you have formulated an opinion.
Now what are we supposed to talk about again?
How you hate the game and you are right? Well posting critics scores is irrevelant because they are all based of Critic opinion so it would therefore be inaccurate.

 

[Feriluce]

As far as I can tell this game is nearly unplayable.

Aside from the terrible control interface, poor camera angles(you have to rotate it manually?), at least five year outdated graphics(which consume vast reserves of processing and ram power) all this while running on the highest settings. Aside from all that. The thing that makes this game nearly unplayable, is the ai.

I literally have not been able to progress past the first 'real' engagement as a warrior, terrible gameplay aside, because my ally ai which I need to rely upon, is so FREAKING BAD that they stand there looking at me like an idiot.

My dedicated mage-through both abilities and tactics, stares at me, refusing to heal me while I die; despite having a fully bar of mana, and cooldown for health casts.

And what is with most of the critic reviews? Baseline of an 8.0 it seems, with a user average of universally below 5.0?

Glad I borrowed the game, too bad too, as it actually looked pretty good...from a distance.

Graphics looks pretty good overall with the high-res texture pack. The animations in cutscenes can be a bit clunky at times, but thats about it.

Also you DO realize that you can A. Control your partymembers yourself. B. Set up proper tactics so they do what you want them to right?
Its hardly Biowares fault that you have no idea how to play.

 

[MercurySteam]

This thread probably should be locked for 0 discussion value

Maybe try reading.

No I think he's onto something.

Maybe you just need to be better at the game?

That's it.

I hope you're not playing the demo, as it's harder than the actual game. Trust me, if you know how to play RPGs then being able to properly play the full game isn't difficult. It does take some getting used to an if you play on normal you may need to change the difficulty down on a few occasions but it's definitely playable.

So yeah, if the game seems unplayable then it must be you. Try playing on casual and if that doesn't work then go play something simpler. Like CoD maybe.

 

[Naheal]

Yes Dragon Age 2 is hard and unplayable if you're gonna play it like you're handicapped and impatient.

Pretty much this. DA:O was an extremely tactical game on the PC, especially when you hit Hard and Nightmare difficulties. Naturally, this requires (gasp) patience when playing. Planning what you're going to do and adjusting as new situations come up.

Don't sit back and say that the game's unplayable because you're trying to play it like a real time game. Pause and play is there for a reason; fucking use it.

 

[The Hairminator]

Dishonest?

I've literally been unable to progress past the first serious engagement because of the terrible gameplay and ai, how is that dishonest?

*snickers*

Oh this brings back memories... the dreaded Ogre in Origins, up in the b(e)acon tower.

That bossfight, and the fighting of the invincible hordes of undead in Lothering (most people are bound to go there first- so it's quite early in the game) were just dick moves to pull on the unsuspecting noob. In Lothering I had to swallow my pride and change dificulty to easy and still I had to cower with the knights on the hill as my puny healer-mage used them as shields. I suspect being a rogue on my 2nd character isn't going to make it much easier- I only know that it won't be my first location to go to.

As I said, though, I was a noob then and I will probably fare a lot better the second time around.