Why the Dragon Age 2 hate is GOOD

[Quickening666]

Regardless of the fans generally negative reaction to the game, most mainstream publications are still throwing near perfect scores at it. Its been a long time since I paid attention to what their worthless opinions are but their predictability still annoys me. The Witcher 2 comes out soon and it's clearly going to annihilate Dragon Age 2... in terms of quality anyway. But something tells me that no matter how much better The Witcher 2, or any other RPG this year might be, Dragon Age 2 will be the RPG of the year and praised to death purely because of how ridiculously hyped the series is.

For the record I loved the first one.

 

[Vibhor]

-snip-

That is not a feature that is an excuse, an excuse you would use to hide the bad parts of a game.
I could say that daikatana had awesome graphics, great artistic style and the stupid AI was just because everyone had a low IQ but it would not change the fact that those features were bad ingame.

 

[Appleshampoo]

Ah, finally, someone else noticed that Bethany's hands were wierd. I was like WTF I BROKE MY GAME AAAAH. Then realised they were supposed to be like that. Horrible.

Don't forget bout how horribly Merrill was disfigured in her romance scene. That...that was just scary.

I didn't notice it when I did it, and I still don't see it watching it on youtube.

I haven't had a problem with the graphics.

Look at her neck when she's laying down with Hawke. More specifically, her shoulders.

 

[Connor Lonske]

From what I hear, the game is still selling like hotcakes, so if it is selling well, it won't make a difference.

All EA is concerned with is money money money, and if they get it from Dragon Age 2, then the game sucking won't matter.

Spoiler

and the fact that all major reviewers are being payed to give the game 5 out of 5 reviews doesn't help ether. INCLUDING THIS WEBSITE FOR THAT MATER!

I am mad

 

[blackdwarf]

i do think that the game on its own is a good RPG, but you see that it was released too early. some changes from the orginal i did like. i was a big fan of the new battle system. it was more the same as the one in origins, but much faster. but some pionts i didn't like. i found it stupid that i could upgrade the armor of my companions. and yeah, the reussing of the smae map over and over again is a bit stupid.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Ah, finally, someone else noticed that Bethany's hands were wierd. I was like WTF I BROKE MY GAME AAAAH. Then realised they were supposed to be like that. Horrible.

Don't forget bout how horribly Merrill was disfigured in her romance scene. That...that was just scary.

I didn't notice it when I did it, and I still don't see it watching it on youtube.

I haven't had a problem with the graphics.

Fast forward to 2:15-2:48. It is...weird.

Spoiler

GAH, KILL IT, KILL IT!!!

Seriously, that looks awful.

 

[LiquidGrape]

While it's very possible that Dragon Age 2 was rushed (there are a few technical mishaps about, and the level design and recycling of said levels was annoying, if not gamebreaking), I maintain that the alleged "fanbase" have reacted in the most reductive, knee-jerk fashion imaginable.
Personally, I consider DA2 a far more interesting and adventurous game than Origins. In fact, I'm prone to consider it BioWare's best achievement in interactive storytelling yet.

By all means, question the timeframe during which they were expected to deliver; but I'll continute to defend the game itself.

 

[Quickening666]

From what I hear, the game is still selling like hotcakes, so if it is selling well, it won't make a difference.

All EA is concerned with is money money money, and if they get it from Dragon Age 2, then the game sucking won't matter.

Spoiler

and the fact that all major reviewers are being payed to give the game 5 out of 5 reviews doesn't help ether. INCLUDING THIS WEBSITE FOR THAT MATER!

I am mad

Yep. It's for the same reason that you just know without anyone having played the game that Skyrim will get amazing review scores and be met with massive critical acclaim. Every sane gamer knows that the most honest opinions are to be found on forums and not in mainstream magazines and websites.

 

[starry01]

Well said, OP! I think that the criticism/"hate" is definitely helpful, so long as it's done in a constructive, rational manner.

DA2 isn't a great game by any stretch of the imagination...but it's also not BAD. It just could have done with a year or two more in the development phase. I've played worse. It had some strengths--I found the method of storytelling to be very engaging, and LOVE Varric and Merrill. I thought that the idea of streamlining on the whole was not a terrible thing, but they made the mistake of overdoing it. I didn't even mind the tighter focus, world-wise. Attempting to appeal to a wider audience isn't a bad idea. It's just business. However, attempting to appeal to an audience that isn't even close to your original audience is folly, and they should have known better than to change the very things that people vocally loved the original for (tactics, a whole cast of very strong characters, the choices made actually having an impact on the story and character relationships, instead of just an illusion thereof...I could go on, but you all know what I'm talking about).

Despite the above, I'm really more put off by the obvious rushing in the design. I understand the need to recycle some elements, I guess, but my first thought upon stepping into a new dungeon area shouldn't be "oh hey, I've been here before..." That's just lazy.

Also, I couldn't tell--is my XBox just full of fail, or did anyone else have some problems with being thrown back into the same dialog sequence a second time? Or cutscenes looking a little choppy: characters flickering/jumping on the screen?

 

[jpoon]

Completely agreed, I voted with my dollars and didn't buy the game. Screw EA and screw Bioware for cutting so many corners and putting out the most "mainstream" title they could.

To me attempting to appeal to everyone is a bad thing, here is the result, a game that excels at nothing.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Well said, OP! I think that the criticism/"hate" is definitely helpful, so long as it's done in a constructive, rational manner.

DA2 isn't a great game by any stretch of the imagination...but it's also not BAD. It just could have done with a year or two more in the development phase. I've played worse. It had some strengths--I found the method of storytelling to be very engaging, and LOVE Varric and Merrill. I thought that the idea of streamlining on the whole was not a terrible thing, but they made the mistake of overdoing it. I didn't even mind the tighter focus, world-wise. Attempting to appeal to a wider audience isn't a bad idea. It's just business. However, attempting to appeal to an audience that isn't even close to your original audience is folly, and they should have known better than to change the very things that people vocally loved the original for (tactics, a whole cast of very strong characters, the choices made actually having an impact on the story and character relationships, instead of just an illusion thereof...I could go on, but you all know what I'm talking about).

Despite the above, I'm really more put off by the obvious rushing in the design. I understand the need to recycle some elements, I guess, but my first thought upon stepping into a new dungeon area shouldn't be "oh hey, I've been here before..." That's just lazy.

Also, I couldn't tell--is my XBox just full of fail, or did anyone else have some problems with being thrown back into the same dialog sequence a second time? Or cutscenes looking a little choppy: characters flickering/jumping on the screen?

I played on the 360 too. I had flickering and jumping during cutscenes (especially those with a lot of movement) as well. I had dialogue with the Arishtok during Act 2 repeat a couple of times. Great first post and welcome to the Escapist!

 

[Xaositect]

I agree, but I dont think its going to work.

I also agree with another user about Bioware now being arrogant and generally smug. They have this philosophy of "lets rip the shit out of previous game to build up our next one". They did it with Mass Effect 2.

It stems from Biowares new mantra, and why I think no matter the hate it wont work: Bioware doesnt care about those who like the game anymore (when way back it used to be pretty much ALL they cared about). Now its about those who dont like the game.

They have existing fans tagged as brainless sheep (correctly in many cases) who will lap up any shit they plop out and simply want to add new brainless sheep to their collective.

Bioware have been assimilated by EA and are now the borg.

Honestly somtimes I think the only positive outcome will be for EA to remove their vital components and for Bioware to disintegrate on the nice clean floor of the Enterprise.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Are people honestly saying they wanted an Origins 2?
Really?
I won't deny that Origins was a fantastic game, but I'd rather not see BioWare rendered stagnant in the light of fandom self-entitlement.
Creative decisions ultimately lie with the developer. Like them or not, the fact is the consumer has no say when it comes to these things. As they shouldn't. And if they take issue with said decisions, they are free to pass on the product.

There are things about Dragon Age 2 I would've liked to see executed differently, sure. But I don't take it as some sort of absurd personal insult that a creative company attempts to progress and experiment with new design ideas.

 

[tehroc]

Dragon's Age 2 was a steaming pile of dren. Loved DA:O, put like 75 hours into the campaign (hard difficulty), DA2 I put 6 hours into before losing interest, it just seemed like side quest after side quest with no real overarching goal. I really disliked how the entirety of the game was City (day), City (night) and Outdoors. The combat consisted solely of me spamming the A button and switching to the mages to make sure they werent getting ganged, barely a step up from Diablo.

TLDR: Dragon Effect 3 sucked ass and it makes me wonder if SWTOR is going to be just as horrible.
PS: FU captcha

 

[Jaded Scribe]

i dislike all the hate, i like the impact it will have but i do not like people insulting me left and right because i do enjoy the game despite all its flaws.

^^This. Especially since I like, or at least find reasonable, a lot of the changes people are complaining about.

What really gets to me, is that a lot of the so-called hate threads tend to boil down to "zomg change is bad!!!!" without a real discussion about why they found the aspects they're complaining about flawed.

 

[Seneschal]

As for quality assurance, I agree. The concept of DA2 was actually a lot harder to execute than DAO, and would have required quite a bit more effort. While I think it has loads more potential than the original, the execution is lazy. There is no excuse for that, and it's definitely not an acceptable amount of laziness. It feels amateur. I reused less assets when I was a kid playing Lego.

As far as "fan loyalty" is concerned, I'm not buying it. A fandom isn't rational and doesn't have the series' best interests at heart; it wants to bask in nostalgia, to be pandered and catered to with fanservice. It's a stifling influence, not a helpful one.

 

[bigsby]

First things first, I liked DA2, I think it did alot of things right. I liked DAO more though.

I think no sane human being could deny that the game is alot more streamlined than the first one, but so was ME2 in comparison to ME1 and it is still one of Bioware´s finest works.
Now, compare the DA franchise to the ME one and it is clear that Bioware is following a trend here: The first ME was a RPG epic space opera with shooter elements; now I wouldnt call the second ME an RPG. A shooter with a great amount of RPG elements, sure, a pure old-school RPG by no means. The same treatment in my opinion has been applied to the DA franchise: The first one was this epic RPG that made us all reminisce about the days of Baldur´s Gate, so when the second one came around and most of us expected the same. Judge DA2 as an RPG, and it fails, I agree with that. But it is not an RPG as far as I am concerned, much like ME2, it is a hack and slash type of game with a lot of RPG elements, and at that it is good. Was it rushed? Surely. Is it a bad game? Not by a long shot. Do I prey every night to the Dragon Gods that Bioware gets itself straight and starts making pure RPGs again? Absolutely.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

I have to agree that it was streamlined, and that some things were changed for the worse. My main gripe is the inventory system. To draw in people who are too impatient to equip gear to every member of your party, they just make it so you can't, a la Mass Effect 2. I'd hate to see things like this continue as a trend.

Yeah, it has to be people were impatient. That's the only possible reason. /sarcasm

It couldn't be the old system forced new players to learn the best setups for every class at once (which while not a problem for more experienced gamers, can be overwhelming to some).

Or that from an RP standpoint, losing a character's look and having your party look like an armory threw up on them detracted from the experience.

While I didn't mind the old system, I found no fault with the new system.

 

[Echo136]

Ive been shouting out these points to the heavens for years now. EA wont learn.

 

[EradiusLore]

i actualy loved the game but mainly because of how similar it was too Kotor, i was very much sucked in by the characters. but beyind that i agree with you, publishers do push for games to be released early and it can cut a lot out of what should have been/could have been done