Dragon Age 2

[Gulla]

After some hours I am switching fast between "OOOOH! Shiny!" bliss and "I Want My Numbers Back!" irritation. Dragon Age 2 so far seem to me to take a very long step in the same direction Mass Effect 2 did. Away from Baldur's Gate and the other turn based, detail oriented, tactically challenging games I love. It still seems to be a good game but to me the feeling is more like Morrowind/Fallout 3/Gothic and no longer gives the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale feeling.

You can still pause, but it doesn't seem like I can queue actions, which means I spend much more time in pause mode than in DA1.
There is an inventory, but it seems to be very close to ME2's "when you get better you get more pluses and maybe a new look". So far there have been very little choice that is not obvious. I like to chose between options like "even more attack power by sacrificing defence", "be mediocre in everything" and "lots of protection, but not much damage". This is often and traditionally done with inventory management and equipment. Actually so far it seems that the Facebook game does this much better.

There is very little customisation of the PC and even less for the NPC (since they don't have full equipment management). With no skills (all is derivatives of the stats and specifically bound to class) it is very simple, but with little flexibility. There is a feat system, which is good for customising, but I feel it is very little.

The story so far is nice, but I have only booked 4-5 hours so far. But I will play on to get more story. What I have seen of the NPCs so far seems interesting. I want to know them more.

The conversation system is like in ME2. I'm ambivalent to it, but it works. I prefer to see exactly what I'm going to say and like having skills and stats influencing which answers you have. And I really dislike having voice acting on the main character. He is supposed to be mi avatar in the game (or "me" more often) and I have never experienced any voice acting getting even close to my wish.

So to sum up:

• It looks pretty
• It doesn't feel anything like Baldur's Gate/Torment/Icewind Dale any more
• I don't really like the combat, but turning down difficulty makes it shorter and since it's not my favourite type of combat that is good.
• Voice acting of Hawke is bad (since I don't like it, not because it is bad craftsmanship)

I have just finished Drakensang: River of Time before starting on DA2, and I think that game much better captures the BG/IWD/Torment feeling with full control of the party, detailed skills and inventories and stoppable turn based combat, than DA2 does.

So I'll have to drop my hopes of a new BG2 and play DA2 like what it is: An action oriented RPG with (so far) interesting NPCs and story. A pity, though, since Witcher 2, Skyrim and ME3 were the RPGs of that type I was hoping for this year. I hoped DA2 would be different.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I don't care too much about how they changed the inventory management, you still pick up crap to sell all the time just like origins. Except now there's less clutter, with the changes to crafting stuff.

Some characters back in DA:O also had their own stuff that you shouldn't have really changed, like Morrigan had a set of robes or other things that was better than anything else you could give her. And it never felt right to equip Sten with something better than that greatsword you spent a quest getting. Torment was also a lot like DA2, you couldn't give Dakkon or Fall-From-Grace anything except for armour that was built for them, and it was not a Bioware game.

For the combat, don't play the game on normal, the difficulty on Normal has been lowered on the PC to match the difficulties on the consoles.

For the plot it seems like one I'll probably enjoy more, Origins plot seemed to be a little too obvious at what you had to do. I think the plot has to do with a Mage vs. Templar conflict, which is interesting since my Mage Warden (and happens to be a relative of Hawke) who's save I transferred, was very pro-Mage in a lot of decisions.

 

[Mallus]

After ME2, I'm not sure I ever want to see --well, at least for the foreseeable future-- a complex inventory management screen. I want immersion that flows from from doing exciting stuff on screen, not pouring over spreadsheets, even ones sporting soothing and fancy pseudo-futuristic interfaces.

I starting playing CRPGs back when simple graphics and simple spreadsheets were all a machine could handle; now that games can put you *there*, well, turns out there is *is* a there, there, up to the point even onscreen conversations can be satisfying, well, I'm in no rush to return to the earlier form of the experience.

Wizard's Crown was terrific back in the day. So was Baldur's Gate. But right now give me Sheppard and Sheppard-like game play/presentation. The traditional-style CRPG has had a long, successful run, but it's time for something new.

(I'm patiently waiting for my buddy to finish DA2 for the PS3. We'll see how long my patience holds out before I break down and buy it.)

 

[LightPhoenix]

I like the faster combat; I got very sick of DA:O's slugfests. However, all of the problems Bioware has with encounter design are still there; numerous trash battles, enemies appearing out of nowhere every battle, tedious boss battles, and so forth. Saying this is unique to DA2 isn't fair; this is stuff Bioware has done since NWN and before.

Inventory/stats/abilities is fine, IMO. Skills are gone technically, but they're still there per se in various forms; integrated into the conversation system, as passive abilities, crafting benches, and cunning checks. Honestly, I think a lot of outcry about this stuff is differences in personal likes/dislikes rather than actual problems with the game (see below).

Ambiance-wise, the usual Bioware stuff irks; specifically big cities with no people. One big misstep though, was in level design. There's not nearly as much visual variety as there was in DAO, and the levels all feel a lot more linear. Additionally, it's clear that the levels were designed for console first with no thought to the PC. I've found several places difficult to traverse because I'm using the mouse and not the keyboard to move. Specifically doorways are a problem. An overhead camera would fix this very simply. Playing through DA2 makes me want to return to DAO and experience some of those areas again.

Voice acting for the companions and main characters is generally good. However, a lot of the other characters are not that great. Specifically, there's been more than one instance I've noted where a line has the wrong inflection and emphasis. I get that not everyone while be on the level of someone like Mulgrew. That's why there is someone directing the VO that should have stopped and told these people how to say stuff more naturally.

So far the banter has been amusing, but the story is a little on the weak side. I think a big part of that is because Act I (spoilers)

Spoiler

is basically all side-quests with the goal "we need money." Don't we all.

. DAO felt a lot more epic in this regard - sure, there was openness, but there was a pretty important goal - gain allies to fight the Darkspawn.

 

[frankthedm]

Are enemies still level matched to the party? Didn't like how the first game made gaining experience a waste of time. Crap like that puts way too much emphasis on having an optimized build IMHO.

Maybe I just didn't know what i was doing, but I picked a warrior to FIGHT, but to get past bosses I had to trick them into running after me.

 

[John Crichton]

DA:O only had level scaling to a point. It absolutely made a difference if you character was higher level at many points in the game.

 

[Enforcer]

So far I've enjoyed it. I like the Mass Effect 2 style dialog—it's nice to actually hear Hawke speak. The combat visuals are intense, I feel like much more of a badass than I did in the first Dragon Age.

 

[NotanNPC]

I didn't play Origins...but I tried the demo for DA2...I wasn't impressed. It felt too hack n slash for me. Maybe I played it wrong.

I love rpg video games...but I just get bored with them. I've started FFIIV a hundred times and never made it past the 3rd disc.

The demo didn't let you sample the inventory system...how does it play?

 

[Krug]

I squeezed some time to play and enjoying it so far. I'm a casual player but the story definitely keeps me interested.

 

[JustKim]

Last year my partner got into DA:O and played the game to completion. That was a big deal because she doesn't play video games, doesn't have that coordination and way of thinking that they require. Dragon Age was easy enough for her to complete just by casually pressing buttons and listening to a story. Needless to say, DA2 was highly anticipated.

I was conflicted about DA2 because I knew that it was going to be harder. It's more action-oriented and demanding. Worse, the autoattack feature is not yet patched into our platform and so it demands relentless button-pressing and switching around. But now she's invested in the story, and so far she's stuck with it. This could lead to great things. It could lead to an interest in tabletop RPGs. I would very much like it if it did.

Oh, the game itself is pretty fun too. I like the characters of Merrill and Varric, and I stabbed a dragon in the butt for 900 damage.

For people concerned that DA2 is not tactical enough, raise the difficulty. The amount of micromanagement you do is directly proportional to the difficulty. At higher settings you must cycle through your party in veritable turn-based mode and command them with exacting precision, or you will die.