Zero Punctuation: Dragon Age II

[Sentox6]

Everything he said here was true, but it was also what I liked about the game. I prefer a story that's just about some Refugee guy who's life is fucked up and gets a few lucky breaks and then makes a name for himself. Why does it have to be more? Why must the fate of EVERYTHING EVER constantly rest on THE ONE LAST HOPE OF EVERYTHING EVER? Okay, so if every story was about some random guy trying to make it in the world we'd get bored, but I thought DAII was a nice refreshing perspective. There was no good or evil, just several displaced political groups and a desperate need for some coin.

This. A hundred times, this.

No doubt DA2 has numerous shortcomings, and suffered from an apparently overly-short development cycle. But I still can't help but enjoy it, simply because it's such a refreshing change from the One True Hero saving the entire universe from the Ancient Evil (TM).

 

[6FootImp]

This review was brilliant, while I do think some people really wanted to make a quality game they were overruled in the rush to make a sequel to a 5 year game in 18 months. This would have be hilarious if so many of the problems weren't so true.

 

[Yeq]

What's strange here is the "lack of consequence" argument, especially after the Deep Roads. There's a pretty big consequence. Your

Spoiler

brother/sister dies. Unless he took Anders with him, and then they leave the family, but Yahtzee must be aware that usually you lose your sibling.

As far as the plot goes, I did like the politics sense and the lack of typical fantasy OMG EPIC and how I totally killed a High Dragon but it didn't even matter because I wasn't Slaying the Dragon to Save the Princess and Inherit the Kingdom. On the other hand, at one point I genuinely asked myself, "what is it, exactly, that I'm doing here?" I guess then it made a nice change from the usual but there's a risk of losing direction.

 

[Susurrus]

I have to wonder if any of the " I like DA2s story cuz its personal, and doesn't involve saving the world!" people ever played Planescape Torment.

There was a game that told an epic story about one man's past, present and future all wrapped up in one of the greatest worlds ever seen in a CRPG. Compare the Nameless one's journey of self understanding to the hollow "I want monies!" motivations of Hawke's adventure and tell me which is more compelling. If you still think the answer is DA2, I am truly sorry for you, you don't have any concept of good narrative .

QFT.

In other news, Mask of the Betrayer. Personal stories with far-reaching consequences, and absolutely amazing characterization, coupled with bouts of philosophy and really intelligent writing.

For that matter, there is also Baldur's Gate 2. The strap-line for that was "Deeper, darker, more personal.." Which is spot on. The whole thing was driven by overarching epicness, but the story was basically about a guy stealing your soul, and your desperate (and exceedingly epic) quest to get it back.. It wasn't the beginning of the Bhaalspawn saga, and it wasn't the end (Throne of Bhaal did that): it was essentially filler - it didn't do a huge amount to advance the original concepts from BG1. And yet it was probably the best of the three. Fillers don't have to be rubbish, or soulless.

I was also a bit confused by the review. Yahtzee really seemed to be phoning it in. He had only one good thing to say about the game (the character development) - he listed it as a money-grubbing whore with no plot, ridiculous camera problems, stupid waves of enemies and repetitive environments, where the devs had taken numerous short-cuts to save time, and yet there was actually very little bile or anger.

 

[Susurrus]

Bioware and their games have sufffered what i liken to the stargate series problems, each arc in stargate was the same rehashed plot over and over change the names and events some and you got stargate sg1, stargate atlantis, for bioware you got bg, bg2, kotr, me1, me2, dao, the same plots and plot devices tweaked a bit for each game with names and places and events changed up a bit but the exact same basic story structure. not to say that they were not expertly crafted for the most part.

Explain to me how "War threatens the entire sword coast" is the same as "Someone's stolen my soul to become a god, I want it back" (BG1 v BG2). BG2 FELT epic, but the threat to the world in general wasn't that huge - eventually you're saving an elven city you've never visited before, and is hardly known about by other characters you meet in the human cities, and it's not even why you're there...

Also, you conveniently forgot Planescape: Torment, NWN1 (which DOES have a quest of the type you mention, but piles more besides), and you also forgot NWN2 (which again, does have the same problem, but has some very cool personal stuff as well - put on trial for murder...), and MoTB, which is almost entirely personal.

 

[Halotestin]

Btw "Mike Hawke." Say it out loud in the library.

That fucking made my day.

 

[Nimcha]

That was pretty funny, as usual Yathzee manages to rant about stuff most people overlook.

Most the stuff he disliked are reasons I love DA2 though.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

"Dragon Age Bleeeeaaauugggghhh."

A strangely appropriate title, actually...

 

[Earaldor Xerron]

While I will not say that DA II is better than Ps:T (that would akin to sacrilege) or MoB, it's still a good game imho. Others being better is not that bad.
Also, few agree, but I reall hated DA:O-s story. It was boring, typical and predicable, and it tried to seem so much more than it was. OH EPIC! No, it wasn't epic. Epic in fantasy has to include gods or some semi-godly creature. Not paranoid backstabbing idiots, whose backstory is about as fantasy-like as your avarage Brazilian soap opera. I can accept that "dark fantasy" equals to "realism" and "human (not the race) characters" but this does not work with epicness. Not in fantasy. DA II chose it's range much better for this kind of perspective and while the rush probably effected this part of the game as well, it's still an interesting story about a woman/man who is...well, more or less a normal human.
It's true that everyone is racist or fanatic or has some kind of defect. That has a negative impact on "reality".

 

[Randvek]

That was... that was a lot of gay jokes, y'know?

 

[Sabinfrost]

I called my Hawke Bob... I'm sure the Australians will get it.

 

[Labcoat Samurai]

"YAY! NEW ZP!!

Moderator Edit: Watch the entire video before posting."

Ok, I have a legitimate question, if people are going to be put on probation for posting before the video's time-length why don't you just enable the comments 6 minutes after the video goes up? Also why is it only Zero Punctiation you set trap cards for when your other videos don't have the same problem? (Lisa Foiles, Extra Credits, etc)

I couldn't agree more. In fact, I'm not even sure why they would bother enforcing this. I also posted in this thread before watching the video. I just didn't do it in the first 6 minutes. I post on slashdot all the time without having RTFA, too. Big deal.

 

[Ihniwid]

I thought it was a pretty good time...

I'd play anything half decent nowadays instead of another shooter. So. Sick. Of. Shooters.

 

[samaugsch]

Not much of a story...

But I liked how the rogue actually did flips and shit. I can't recall another RPG that had rogues that actually felt nimble.

I thought I'd hate the new combat. It's actually the only reason I keep playing...

I always play a rouge its my favorite class, but the rouges were just to weak in this game. i had to play a warrior, and that was disappointing.

What about picking locks? Do they limit rogues to that in the 2nd game like they did in the first? Because that was the only reason I chose to go rogue.

 

[FriedRicer]

Anyone else hearing this weird woodpeckerish sound in the background?

Btw "Mike Hawke." Say it out loud in the library.

Genius!

 

[Optional Opinion]

If the backlash is any indication, "knobbing off" would not have been the most popular subtitle for this game...

I thought he said "gobbing off" not knobbing.

Gob is colloquial for mouth.

I apologise if someone has already brought this up or if I'm wrong.

 

[Meggiepants]

So yesterday I started to watch this, and then got a little bored so I switched to something else. Today I gave it another go, and made it to the end.

I must say, much like the game Yahtzee is reviewing, this video gets much better by the end.

 

[carnagejc]

When will he be reviewing Call of Crysis: Modern Nanosuit you ask?

 

[Zeromaxx]

Anyone else hearing this weird woodpeckerish sound in the background?

Oh good, I'm not the only one. It sounds like a coded message to me, to be perfectly honest, starting sometime after 3 minutes in...a bunch of low tones in alternating long and short bursts like Morse code. My hearing isn't good enough to tell if that's right though, I can't discern the tone from the rest of the sound at points.

OT: I have to agree with Yahtzee on every front here, luckily I didn't buy this game...I'm glad a friend of mine did and let me play it for a bit.

 

[Earaldor Xerron]

Actually, rouges are overpowered and since cunninc and dextreity are their two main skills (with cunning used for opening locks: 10:easy, 20:medium 30:hard or something like that up to 40 or 50, I don't remember)cunning increases the critical damage and dexterity the critical chance (and the attack). So, by the end of the game I just activated a bunch of speed increasing modes for varric and watched as he single handedly killed anything or anyone.
You can also backstab and use undetectable invisibility (enemies as well, though they are also invulnerable when cloaked, dunno if you own guys are too).