Was Dragon Age II really that bad?

[Padwolf]

I loved the game, it does have it's flaws but I still loved it, I loved the story, I loved some of the characters, the reuse of areas and buildings didn't bother me at all. It was short compared to DAO, but I still had a lot of fun with it.

 

[Ninjamedic]

Honestly why do bioware get so much praise nowadays?

Cuz' they can run circles making rude hand gestures around 90% of other game developers stories and characters, even on a sick day? Same as it has always been, I think.

Care to elaborate on that? Seeing as Origins isn't really more than a dumbed down Knights of the Old Republic spray-painted with The Lord of The Rings?

 

[Casual Shinji]

Dragon Age 2 would've been atleast decent if you had actual choices in the game, instead of the game forcing its choices on you.

Isn't that the problem with Origins as well?

No.

This might be a matter of opinion, but Origins gave you a lot of breathing room in regards to how you wanted to shape your character, have him/her act, and how to handle situations.
The whole "Blight spreading, defeat Archdemon" goal remained the same, but within that you were allowed to carve your own path however you wanted. In DA2 all the choices are basically made for you, only allowing you to react to these in a Noble, Sarcastic, or Evil way.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Honestly why do bioware get so much praise nowadays?

Cuz' they can run circles making rude hand gestures around 90% of other game developers stories and characters, even on a sick day? Same as it has always been, I think.

Spoiler

But it didn't serve any point besides fanservice. Oh look, Leliana is with the Chantry again. Huh, I thought we were dating and she was hardened. Or I thought she was dead. It didn't have a point other than to piss off fans.

Spoiler

It never occurred to you the reaction they were hoping for was "Hey wait a minute... didn't I kill her? Why is she alive now? OH SNAP PLOT TWI... CLIFFHANGER? WTF? Ooh, that was good"

Cuz' that was my reaction at any rate. Again, I can see why if you expected the games to be completely self-contained this would annoy you, but I wouldn't call it a damning flaw if people can easily see it another way.

Why say it was pointless? This new mysterious branch of the Chantry pops up like some kind of Black Ops squad who work for the Divine and you think this ISN'T going to come up in DA3? Really? C'mon now. And it actually came up in the third act, she has her own quest for you. Might be only if she's 'alive' in your imported playthrough. There are like half a dozen hints that the next game is taking place in Orlais anyway.

Spoiler

Origins was a very self contained game. And that cliffhanger was one of the laziest endings that I have ever seen. It was pure sequel bait. If Mike Laidlaw is the lead designer of DA3, I'm not getting it. Fuck their sequel bait. It also served to retcon your ending of Origins if you made the ultimate sacrifice. It takes a special kind of game to help ruin the game that came before it. And I didn't care enough to buy the DLC for the game. So your point about her having a quest is moot.

Edit: Nothing against you. Bioware just really pissed me off.

 

[Soveru]

DA:O was overrated. It was still relatively black and white with some exceptions. DA2 was much better with the narrative. Say what you wish about linear plot structures but it allows for better story telling IMO.

 

[CobraX]

I think it was a good game.
The only reasons people bash is that it was rushed and the game suffered in certain areas due to that (Writing and Environment rehashing).
The other reason: Dragon Age Origins is one of the best RPGs out there and it`s a very hard act to follow.

 

[GameMaNiAC]

I honestly think the game isn't as bad as people say it is. It was quite fun for me, and I'm a big fan of the first game.

 

[Ninjamedic]

Dragon Age 2 would've been atleast decent if you had actual choices in the game, instead of the game forcing its choices on you.

Isn't that the problem with Origins as well?

No.

This might be a matter of opinion, but Origins gave you a lot of breathing room in regards to how you wanted to shape your character, have him/her act, and how to handle situations.
The whole "Blight spreading, defeat Archdemon" goal remained the same, but within that you were allowed to carve your own path however you wanted. In DA2 all the choices are basically made for you, only allowing you to react to these in a Noble, Sarcastic, or Evil way.

Hang on, were we playing the same game!? What do you mean by carve your own path? The vast majority of the game is linear and where there is choice the only real consequence is your companions reactions. the Subquests consist of "go here, kill this" and the Companion quests had no choice either. Its honestly like they took KOTOR, removed the subquests, halved the size of the areas, and got rid of the antagonist and plot twist.

 

[Xaio30]

Bioware killed it for me when they hyped Kirkwall to be a city with its own personality and feel and then failed to deliver. Had they polished Kirkwall, added a couple more areas outside to explore and covered up a few small mistakes and plot holes then the game would be fine IMO.

 

[Doug]

Dragon Age 2 is widely regarded as the biggest dissapointment in faming for quite a while, with many fans heavily criticising the game.

But: was it really that awful?

I will admit that it is a disapointing sequel to one of the best RPGs of the generation, but I found that it was pretty damn good. I thought the combat was improved, and I really liked the story. I didnt even mind Kirkwall being the hub. The only major thing I did not like was the reusing of dungeon environments, which sucked but it was more to due with EA trying to get the game out on time.

I was just wondering if any of my fellow Escapists felt the same way, and those who do not, I would like to hear your perspective on the game

I have to agree with your opinion - I think that the game, whilst still being abit of a disappointment, was pretty good overall. I loved the combat, the expansion of the existing DA unverse, and so forth. I even liked the simplication of equiping your party members. Also, some new mysteries and so forth, such as...

Spoiler

Who or what are and were the 'Profane' in the ancient Dwarf city?

The reuse of dungeons was an annoyance, certainly, but what did annoy me alittle more was the way that they didn't really take, properly, into account everyone's decisions - in my game, everything was fine, but from what I've read of other people's accounts, its very poor of Bioware to have not processed them (i.e. retconn-ing people from the dead, etc). I know there are alot of choices in Dragon Age 1, and Awakening, and so forth, but if you couldn't handle them, they maybe shouldn't have been given, or alternatively a canon history should have been established.

Overall, I think the problem with Dragon Age 2 is it was rushed out too quickly - maybe EA are putting too much pressure onto Bioware, maybe Bioware felt they needed to prove something, I don't know. I just think a few more months to develop more assets (i.e. dungeons), and responses to choices would have been very helpful too the course of events.

 

[Knight Templar]

I enjoyed it, but it's not great. Good, but also average and not worth holding up as an example of anything.
It feels rushed which is where most of the average comes in.

But it's not bad, certainly not as bad as the fury around it suggests.

snip

There is so much wrong with your post I have no idea where to start.
How about your link doesn't support your claim re: Brett, and you don't know how to use quotation marks.

 

[LiquidGrape]

I thought it was an improvement, not least due to the more substantial themes and its distinctive artistic direction.
Origins was good, but it was virtually void of identity. DAII corrected that mistake.

Also, Isabela.

 

[Polaris19]

Just wrote about this in my blog like, a week ago.

It's not a terrible game, but given how much promise Origins showed, it;s a pretty big misstep. The story is fragmented and plays more like a collection of short stories than one continuous plot line. Also, setting a 40+ hour game in the same city, with the same environments? It got VERY boring seeing the same place five million times.

 

[Jimmybobjr]

nope. it wasnt.

 

[CommanderKirov]

Nope it was just not as good as people expected it to be after the Mass Effect>Mass Effect 2 evolution.

 

[The Lunatic]

For a game from a big studio, it's absolutely awful.

If you aren't expecting much, I'm sure it'll be fine, but, if you've paid full price and played the previous game you're in for a serious smack in the face.

 

[VladG]

They took the game in a different direction. Instead of an epic, world-spanning adventure, this time it's a more personal, more focused experience. It has the same solid writing, superb characters, brilliant universe as the first games, with improved gameplay and combat. Frankly I found it at least as good as the previous titles, if not slightly better. True, the copy-pasted map is annoying, but I'd rather have that and all the great story and characters, than a big, empty, soul-less (but very diverse) map.

I played this thing through in one go, and that's more than I can say for DA1.

 

[JediMB]

And, depending on how Awekinings turned out for you...

Spoiler

They retconned Ander's death. That's just poor.

But to be fair, Awakening already largely disregarded the post-game ending from Origins, in much the same way as Broken Steel invalidates the ending you get from vanilla Fallout 3.

There were worse retcons in the game, really. Ones that actually invalidated choices made by the player, such as...

Spoiler

Leliana's death, if you bring her with you when/if you desecrate Andraste's ashes.

While I would never ever do that, personally, I don't think BioWare should have overridden the decision for the players who did.

That said, I thought Dragon Age II was great. Much more fun to play than Dragon Age: Origins, although there were balance issues that took away a bit from the tactical aspects. The lack of an isometrical-style view didn't really hurt the tactical combat much, though.

 

[AlternatePFG]

It wasn't awful, it was just mediocre. The story has some nice ideas going but it's so disjointed it simply doesn't work. Half of your companions are completely unlikeable. I would say that they somewhat improved the combat system, but it's let down by the fact that repetitive wave after wave of enemy are sent after you. I wasn't expecting it to be any good though, so it wasn't a surprise.

Those who said it was the worst game of the year or something are idiots though.

 

[ABLb0y]

I actually prefered it to the original. I don't know why, but accuse me of being a 'Console-Fag' if you want, and tell me to 'Go back to CoD' But i really liked it.