Dragon Age 2

[Xican]

Hadn't seen any threads on this yet, and was just curious if anyone had picked it up? I found toward the end of DA:O I got a little bored and wasn't even interested in the Awakening add-on, to be honest. I only glanced at some of the reviews for DA2, but it seems they've all been pretty positive and indicated some of the things that bored me, might have been improved on in the new one.

Just thought I'd get the thoughts of anyone who has actually played.

[Ddrak]

I've picked it up, but work made me go to the UK for a week without a gaming laptop (or time to really play - writing this from a stand at a trade show) so haven't had the chance to play it at all.

Dd

[xilly]

Hadn't seen any threads on this yet, and was just curious if anyone had picked it up? I found toward the end of DA:O I got a little bored and wasn't even interested in the Awakening add-on, to be honest. I only glanced at some of the reviews for DA2, but it seems they've all been pretty positive and indicated some of the things that bored me, might have been improved on in the new one.

Just thought I'd get the thoughts of anyone who has actually played.

In a nutshell: Dragon Age 2 = Mass Effect 2 with Grey Wardens, but with no real story/plot, and no guns.

[Xican]

I never played Mass Effect (1 or 2) so I'm afraid that does little for me, Xilly - But based on the tone, I'm gonna assume bad?

[xilly]

I never played Mass Effect (1 or 2) so I'm afraid that does little for me, Xilly - But based on the tone, I'm gonna assume bad?

On the contrary, it's quite good. The thing is.. I liked Dragon Age so much because it reminded me of stuff like Baldur's Gate, and I like Mass Effect in Mass Effect.. I don't like it in my Dragon Age. I don't like the dialogue choices dial that give you faction with people based on the symbol you choose. I preferred Dragon Age: Origins' style of choices because it wasn't so inherently obvious as what the outcome of your decisions would be.

The combat is night and day difference. It's remarkable compared to the original, because the combat is super fast and requires you spam the attack button instead of directing auto attack units. This is cool if you're a fan of hack-n-slashers, but it's kinda shitty if you really liked being able to place and micromanage your team in DA:O. The biggest issue I have with DA2 is the story. It just doesn't really go anywhere. I haven't finished it yet, but all it seems to be is running through the same few backgrounds doing fetch/delivery quests in the city.

[Xican]

See, that's what bothers me, Xil. DA:O's biggest appeal for me was the story. The world wasn't fleshed out quite as much as I'd like, but the story itself was great and the characters were fantastic, if not a little bit cliche (a drunken dwarf warrior!? Shocking!!), but they pulled it all together nicely with a story that was relatively sound. I loved the choices and the rifts between characters (Loghain and Allistair for example) in the game and how they effected the outcome of the story.

I feel like this is more a narrative, from what I've read. Almost something to bridge the gap between Origins and whatever comes next, with a few shiny new features to make it go over well. That's not the kind of game that will appeal to me. I'm really uncertain whether or not I wanna buy this game. It has potential, but it could be a huge let down, too.

[xilly]

I have a feeling that you'll appreciate a view that (I feel) may be similar to your own. One of our other site writers, Andrew, wrote up our review for Dragon Age 2, so you may want to consider reading what he had to say since he was extremely critical on it given the changes from DA:O to DA2.

http://www.gamingogre.com/pc/review-dragon-age-2-pc/

I thought he was a bit too hard on it, but I still agree that Dragon Age 2 feels like a half hearted attempt in comparison to the original. I would suggest you try the demo before you buy it, cause the main feature of the game is the enhanced combat, and you can see some of the wheel choice dialogue like I talked about earlier.

I've put about 10 hours into Dragon Age 2, and haven't felt like going back yet. I will go back and finish it, as it sucks me in when I'm playing it, but not like Origins where I was thinking about when I wasn't playing it and deciding what to do with whom. It just feels rushed, honestly. I think if they had given it another 6 months instead of trying to hurry a sequel out, they could have finished fleshing the story out.

Another thing to note, the skill trees are a lot better in DA2. You get better at lock picking with Dexterity instead of having to buy shit like tracking or lock picking, so that's a plus.

Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll try to help.