Dragon Age 2 - Retrospective @Hihu

DA2 was very competent and enjoyable in its own way: story was very good, characters where unique and joy to work with, plenty of choices and consequences, brilliant combat, beautiful art direction, and high production values - only exception as already mentioned is recycling of assets in dungeons. But this is minor compared to the array of other solid features in the game.

Pure gold...all of it.

DA II was good more in segments ( Arishok, humor, banter) and did have a few improvements ( better tactics set up, better healing, companion skill trees, status effects class synergies...)
but overall simply incohesive mess, in every major aspect of the game: art and visuals, storyline and narrative themes, level design, mechanics, etc.
Still prefer it over mind-numbingly dull KOTOR.
 
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For me the main drawback was the lack of positional advantage. One just could not hold a line; the opponents leaked through it like a sieve. That, for me, ruined the tactical flavor. Other than that though, yes the combat system was decent.

But Anders was so tasty to enemies!!!!

My favorite DA2 playthrough was with a full rogue party (Isabela, Sebastian, Varric and me playing a rogue). Everyone but Isabela was using a ranged weapon, things never died so fast and only Isabela ever got whacked on.
 
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I bow to you. Anyone with the fortitude to play through DA2 more than once is a true warrior.

I personally like the game, I wouldn't replay it if I didn't. Actually, I wouldn't finish it if I didn't like it. I'm not a masochist like some who force themselves to finish things they don't like.

Sarcastic Fem!Hawke is quite amusing to play, it's my main reasons for replay actually (and only mage or rogue, I don't like DA2 warrior gameplay).
 
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OMG! You don't mean… no… oh dear, not AGAIN… oh but, do we have to have any more Spiderman pictures, I'm not sure I could bare any more of that innate sense of smug superiority that those things put out. Oh well, consider me braced :(

Actually I was just talking about the DA2 bashing thread that was about to start. But here's a non-spiderman picture for you:

thgwpk9m58ol7eillupa.gif
 
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I personally like the game, I wouldn't replay it if I didn't. Actually, I wouldn't finish it if I didn't like it. I'm not a masochist like some who force themselves to finish things they don't like.

Sarcastic Fem!Hawke is quite amusing to play, it's my main reasons for replay actually (and only mage or rogue, I don't like DA2 warrior gameplay).

I've also played it twice, but for me it required a two mage party to succeed in the end. The most enjoyable part was the banter with the two rogues.
 
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I only finished DA:Awakening a few months back, and I'd picked up DA2 on steep sale last year. I fired it up with rock-bottom expectations, and I still found the hate to be well-deserved.

I've been able to enjoy the game overall - I like the setting, some of the characters, the episodic format, etc., and I can even tolerate the braindead combat system and waves of enemies - but god almighty the level design is unforgivably bad. Combat system? Yeah, it stinks, but you can kinda dismiss it as a matter of taste. But there's no possible defense for the cookie-cutter level design. I can get behind repeating the same areas across different time periods. I even understand wanting to template things. But Bioware took such an unbelievably lazy approach to templating that...well, even after reading all of the hate, I still managed to feel plenty of my own.
 
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But Bioware took such an unbelievably lazy approach to templating that…well, even after reading all of the hate, I still managed to feel plenty of my own.

I don't know that is was lazy as much as having a short development time. Reportedly they got it out within a year -- one source says eight months. Probably too ambitious a title then for the funding.
 
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I started da:eek: and played through some of the quests... it's enjoyable enough for me to play more of it probably, but I'm unlikely to play da2 or maybe even finish it.

I think I am giving up on the witcher too. The combat system is too much of a turn off.

Since both these games contain a lot of combat, that's a problem for me.


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Started playing Dragon Age 1 with all the amazing and botched mods. The beginning - ACT I - was awesome. Then after that, at around 25% the story fell apart, I lost interest. Scrapped and HDD Wipe.
 
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Started playing Dragon Age 1 with all the amazing and botched mods. The beginning - ACT I - was awesome. Then after that, at around 25% the story fell apart, I lost interest. Scrapped and HDD Wipe.

I assume your talking about DA:O? I played through it 3 times but would agree with you the first and last 25% was great the middle 50% though, between the wilds and the landsmeet was pretty bland but tolerable for me.
 
Actually I was just talking about the DA2 bashing thread that was about to start.

I feel quite sure you can rest easy knowing that any 'bashers' will be ridiculed, put down, philosophised at and be generally belittled for stating the obvious while the people praising the game will be treated like injured puppies, complete with oochie coochie coo, downt wisten too dowes mean owel peepol type noises. Because, heaven forbid, people just put their points forward in the format of a debate or argument without commentary from the gallery, my that would be horrific.

Anyway, now for my slam-dunk. DA2 is so bad even Fluent thinks its a bit crap.

coverimage_display_image.jpg
 
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For me the main drawback was the lack of positional advantage. One just could not hold a line; the opponents leaked through it like a sieve.
Leaked? They frigging parachuted behind your back! And there was no positioning at all in dungeons. You find a good spot, position your guys, start the encounter and…. your group pops up somewhere else surrounded by the mob.
 
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Because, heaven forbid, people just put their points forward in the format of a debate or argument without commentary from the gallery, my that would be horrific.

This is not how it is done at The Watch!
 
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Any opinion on DA3? it's 8 bucks now.

I loved DA:O DA:A and skipped DA2. Not sure I want to reinstall Origin malware though.

Mediocre game in a big MMO-ish open world ( or closer to zones)...next to DAO and DA II, it has it's own pros and cons, but feels more "stretched thin" because of it's size. Still worth it, if you're not 100% completionist.
 
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