The demo was *definitively* "hack & slash" for me.
The demo was *definitively* "hack & slash" for me.
Basically, there are two ways to increase the challenge of a game: One is to artificially bloat the HP of the game's enemies, making them "harder" to kill, and the other is to intelligently design combat scenarios that force the player to use the different tactics/abilities at their disposal in a cerebral way. DA2 on hard takes the former approach. The game is more challenging, but not in the "right" way. When all of the enemies' HP is increased, this does not magically change the mechanics of the game, it just forces combat into a "grinding" scenario. Yes, this does require micro-management of the party on a basic level, but not in what I would consider a satisfying way. The only tactic involved is to keep your party-members alive long enough to continuously hack away at the extended life-bar of opponents, leading to a dull and frustrating experience, not a truly tactical one where the right usage of abilities and intelligent strategy wins the day.
I honestly question whether anyone who calls DA2 hack n' slash on any level has ever played the game, or has ever played a hack n' slash game. It's just pure insanity to compare DA2 to God of War.
I just finished chapter 2 and I agree that Arishok was nicely done and its pity there are not many fights like that. However I think the hate DA2 is getting is bit much! I am enjoying it even despite its shortcomings. I think its much better game than ME2 yet that was praised lot more than DA2…
DAO is better in many ways but compared to many other recent RPGs, DA2 isn't bad at all…
The only time the game felt truly tactical for me in a well-designed manner was:
In all fairness, I thought the Rock Wraith was one of the better designed encounters. It was a nicely surprising difficulty spike compared to how everything else previous to that had felt and it had both a solid defined structure and approach. I think I had to reload more times with this fight than any other in the game, even the ending.
Thanks for hijacking my argument too, by the way.
You make it sound as if not pausing is a goal in itself. I want to pause. I don't want to pause, however, just because the amphetamine-fueled animations are going too fast.
One thing i've mentioned in the past and still don't understand why no one wants to discuss is the lack of stealth (hiding and scouting) in da2.
The only time the game felt truly tactical for me in a well-designed manner was:the Arishok boss fight at the end of Chapter 2, as that was the only encounter in the entire game that forced the player to use actual tactics and a solid strategy to be successful. If the majority of encounters were designed like this, then the claims that DA2 is fully tactical and not a hack n' slash would carry far more weight.