Anyone who knows me will know how much I loved Bioware's dark-fantasy epic Dragon Age: Origins and with that in mind, it's probably easy to guess to how much I was looking forward to the follow up. I won't go into too much detail about Origins, given how my contemporary Mr Darko just recently discussed Origins but I will say this: It is without a doubt, one of the best games I have ever played, with only the Metal Gear Solid saga, PokeMon and the Elder Scrolls being above it on my top games list. Now onto to Dragon Age 2.
When the game was first announced way back yonder I quite literally messed myself with excitement. After watching the trailer about a hundred times (and having to change my trousers after each viewing) I had worked myself up into quite the Dragon Age stupor and set about completing the "perfect" save-games I would transfer over to the sequel. However, in the last few months before the games release I became sceptical. I didn't stop to consider that Origins, which took several years to develop, had been released just over a year earlier and now Bioware were throwing a "full-blown" sequel my way. It was then that the promotional stuff started. "Sign up for this and you'll get this", "pre-order before the aforementioned date and you'll get this" and finally "just look at our website and you're eligible for this". EA and Bioware were giving away free in-game items more than a WoW fan faps away at the thought of getting it on with a lusty Night Elf. Why so much free stuff? I began to have doubts and after visiting the forums I saw I wasn't the only one. And now after buying, playing and completing the game myself I can safely say that Dragon Age 2 has been an epic fail on Bioware's part.
First I'll start with the story. Drag
on Age 2 casts you in the role of "Hawke" a fully customisable character and a native of Ferelden; the setting of Dragon Age: Origins. Hawke is a refugee fleeing with his/her family to the city of Kirkwall in the Free Marches (a neighbouring country) as he/she escapes the Blight (the big bad threat of Origins). Along with a colourful cast of characters Hawke is determined to make a name for themselves in the city of Kirkwall, rising from refugee into the Champion of Kirkwall; the "single, most important person" in the Dragon Age universe. The story takes you through three acts, all of which are separated by several years and the total course of the game's storyline is ten years. The storyline (whilst not as impressive as Origins) is obviously good; this IS a Bioware game after all. It certainly drew me in and even though there seemed to be an awful lot of ret conning (such as characters that could be killed coming back to life with no explanation) it does a good job of making you want more. The characters are well written and you'll either completely love them, or absolutely despise them depending on how you play the game. This IS intended on Bioware's part so kudos for that. Despite the butchering of one returning character (a certain spirit-possessed mage) I loved them all and I, as with Origins, felt for these characters. But whilst talking about the storyline and characters is all well and good, saying a Bioware game has a good story and likeable characters isn't much of praise for a Bioware game as everyone knows it WILL have good writing.The game play changes are definitely the one major thing has impacted how the game has been received. Now I played the game on a PS3 and so my experience of combat will undoubtedly be much different than a pc gamer. After all Origins on the PC and Origins on a console felt like completely different games. Combat is more action oriented and very fast-paced. You no longer have to watch your warrior struggle to heave a two-handed weapon, or grow bored as your mage fires their staff in a pew pew fashion. Warriors will now hack-n-slash at your opponents with a violent grace, whilst your mage does all sorts of flashy tricks and twirls when firing their staff. And, as for the Rogue, you can watch and enjoy as your rogue ninja leaps from opponent to opponent, moving in the blink of eye and backstabbing those troublesome hurlocks. As before you have a quick bar to assign spells and talents but on the console you're limited to six (as before). This won't really hinder you much as a Warrior or Rogue, but as a mage being limited to only six spells can be annoying. Of course you do have the radial menu to access even more spells and talents from, but if you're anything like me and you get really into your combat, pausing in the middle of it can be irritating. If you're playing it on Nightmare difficulty however then that radial menu will be your best friend... trust me.
You couldn't do that in OriginsRather than an approval metre your companions instead have a Friendship and Rivalry metre. If you work to your companions Friendship (by doing things THEY want) then you'll get a nice party bonus once it’s maxed out. Working towards Rivalry will mean that your companion gets a personal bonus so they can prove they're better than you and they might just tell you to piss off if you try and give them a nice gift.
These are just a few of the changes made in Dragon Age 2 and they're all well and good but compared to the problems of DA2, these nice new features are sadly overlooked. Firstly Dragon Age 2 is a game that you can tell is rushed. Areas are recycled to hell. I have never seen recycled areas so much in a game (and this is coming from a guy who explored EVERY cave and fort in Oblivion). After the first Act I was absolutely sick of seeing the same bloody cave over and over again and I almost cried knowing more was to come. I don't know if its laziness on the devs part of if it's because the game was so rushed. But given the fact that not only were these recycled areas, but the majority of them were bugged, I think it’s safe to say it was the latter. I actually doubt if this game was even properly tested. Speaking of bugs, Dragon Age 2 is crawling with them. There are bugs that prevent completing certain quests, falling through walls and even a particularly annoying bug that lowers the speed and strength of your character to a game breaking level. The latter bug has been patched but the fact it was even there in the first place (it's a pretty major bug) says a lot.
As a frequenter of the forums I know that there are A LOT of people that wanted this game to be good and I know a lot of people have convinced themselves it is good. Newcomers to the series will probably like it, if they're into role-playing games. But with DA2, it's clear that EA didn't want just the role-playing crowd to get involved. The streamlined, more action-oriented nature of game is obviously an attempt to pull in other types of gamers (such as the COD crowd). But trying to appeal to those types of gamers through a role-playing game is a bad choice. It has resulted in a game that has isolated most of the Origins fans and the fact the game is rushed and bugged has put off a lot of the would-be new fans.
Dragon Age 2 has received extremely good reviews. OPM gave the game 9/10, PC Gamer gave it 94%, Official Xbox Magazine gave it 9/10 and GamePro gave it 4 out 5 stars. I can see why the game has been given such reviews but I just can't agree with it. It's clear that Bioware decided they wanted to change Dragon Age and reboot the franchise before it had even started. After all just look on the back of the case and it proudly displays one review quote that states "a great entry point to the series." If Bioware isn't making it obvious that they want to change Dragon Age then my arse can play the 1812 Overture.
I suppose my opinion of Dragon Age 2 is biased really. I absolutely loved the first one and with Dragon Age 2 I was expecting something akin to Origins. Many fellow enthusiasts have told me that I shouldn't look at Dragon Age 2 as an "Origins 2" but instead look at it as just a new game in the franchise. But I shouldn't have to do that should I? If you have to look at a game differently in order to enjoy it, then surely that says something about them game, and not those who play it? It's like saying if I look at dog turd like its chocolate I'd probably enjoy it... But sadly I couldn't see the chocolate.
Jyggalag
These are just a few of the changes made in Dragon Age 2 and they're all well and good but compared to the problems of DA2, these nice new features are sadly overlooked. Firstly Dragon Age 2 is a game that you can tell is rushed. Areas are recycled to hell. I have never seen recycled areas so much in a game (and this is coming from a guy who explored EVERY cave and fort in Oblivion). After the first Act I was absolutely sick of seeing the same bloody cave over and over again and I almost cried knowing more was to come. I don't know if its laziness on the devs part of if it's because the game was so rushed. But given the fact that not only were these recycled areas, but the majority of them were bugged, I think it’s safe to say it was the latter. I actually doubt if this game was even properly tested. Speaking of bugs, Dragon Age 2 is crawling with them. There are bugs that prevent completing certain quests, falling through walls and even a particularly annoying bug that lowers the speed and strength of your character to a game breaking level. The latter bug has been patched but the fact it was even there in the first place (it's a pretty major bug) says a lot.
As a frequenter of the forums I know that there are A LOT of people that wanted this game to be good and I know a lot of people have convinced themselves it is good. Newcomers to the series will probably like it, if they're into role-playing games. But with DA2, it's clear that EA didn't want just the role-playing crowd to get involved. The streamlined, more action-oriented nature of game is obviously an attempt to pull in other types of gamers (such as the COD crowd). But trying to appeal to those types of gamers through a role-playing game is a bad choice. It has resulted in a game that has isolated most of the Origins fans and the fact the game is rushed and bugged has put off a lot of the would-be new fans.
Dragon Age 2 has received extremely good reviews. OPM gave the game 9/10, PC Gamer gave it 94%, Official Xbox Magazine gave it 9/10 and GamePro gave it 4 out 5 stars. I can see why the game has been given such reviews but I just can't agree with it. It's clear that Bioware decided they wanted to change Dragon Age and reboot the franchise before it had even started. After all just look on the back of the case and it proudly displays one review quote that states "a great entry point to the series." If Bioware isn't making it obvious that they want to change Dragon Age then my arse can play the 1812 Overture.
I suppose my opinion of Dragon Age 2 is biased really. I absolutely loved the first one and with Dragon Age 2 I was expecting something akin to Origins. Many fellow enthusiasts have told me that I shouldn't look at Dragon Age 2 as an "Origins 2" but instead look at it as just a new game in the franchise. But I shouldn't have to do that should I? If you have to look at a game differently in order to enjoy it, then surely that says something about them game, and not those who play it? It's like saying if I look at dog turd like its chocolate I'd probably enjoy it... But sadly I couldn't see the chocolate.
Jyggalag
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