I don't understand the hate for dragon age 2

[BudAshes]

I just played through it and thought it was fantastic. What's the beef?

 

[gorcorps]

I just read through it and I don't get why it couldn't be in one of the other threads. What's the pork?

 

[coldmeat]

I played the demo and almost barfed.

 

[Craig234]

Different strokes for different folks. It was a different design, so some would not like the changes from the original who prefer that one, other like the sequel.

 

[BudAshes]

I played the demo and almost barfed.

Why? The characters look great and it's fun. I found dragon age 1 to be a snore fest.

 

[Dumac]

I'm sure some people thought Big Rigs was fantastic too.

EDIT: I thought DA2 was an uninspired 5/10.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Enemies nonsensically teleporting in? Check
Vast gutting of the strategic depth from the first game to accommodate higher speed and spawning enemies? Check.
Major world inconsistencies, like the city being Nazi level anti-mage, yet no one saying a word about you casting lightning on main street in the middle of the day? Check
An aimless, meandering plot with no real focus, overarching themes, consistent opposition, consistent goal, where you actually accomplish absolutely nothing? Check.
Constant re-use of the exact same maps, over and over again? Check.
A city, which over the course of 10 years, doesn't see one shop close or one shop open? Check
Awesome combat animations which stop being awesome by the 10th time, which you'll see hundreds of times? Check


It was terrible in so many ways it actually boggle my imagination.

 

[mizzou]

I'm playing it right now, got it for like 14 bucks at gamestop for my PS3.

Honestly, the intro part for the dwarf race was fucking awesome. The verbal options I'm sure can't take you down a totally different path but you have a pretty awesome impact visually on the conversations and on certain future conversations.

What exactly is the "online" feature? I guess I'm not there yet..

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Dwarf race? You can't play a dwarf in Dragon Age 2. You playing Dragon Age 1?

 

[mizzou]

Dwarf race? You can't play a dwarf in Dragon Age 2. You playing Dragon Age 1?

isn't dragon age 2 the name for dragon age: origins?

i just assumed lol, I'm not a huge PS3 gamer

EDIT: Ahhh it is the first one... well the first one is pretty bad ass /facepalm

 

[QuantumPion]

It wasn't horrible but it was certainly below par for bioware.

+The combat was silly with the waves of flying pirates, but at least there were some challenging and interesting fights. DA:O was way too easy and every fight was exactly the same.
+The characters had good personalities like DA:O
+It had some semblance of a plot. Or at least 3 mini plots.
+The skills were better balanced.

-The repetitive dungeons were REALLY lame. There were only 3 dungeon locations in the whole game: an alley, a cave, and a coast.
-Major plot holes were a downer, especially the ending. I was like ...WTF?

 

[Venom20]

-The repetitive dungeons were REALLY lame. There were only 3 dungeon locations in the whole game: an alley, a cave, and a coast.

this for me. I thought the effects were all quite nice and some of the characters were comical. But really, I like a little variety in my games, and in this case we actually got only a little variety.

 

[Red Hawk]

isn't dragon age 2 the name for dragon age: origins?

i just assumed lol, I'm not a huge PS3 gamer

EDIT: Ahhh it is the first one... well the first one is pretty bad ass /facepalm

Yeah Dragon Age: Origins is the name of the first game. Most people think it's pretty good, though some people find it dull and boring. But there aren't any outstandingly terrible parts of the game. Dragon Age II on the other hand...

 

[QuantumPion]

this for me. I thought the effects were all quite nice and some of the characters were comical. But really, I like a little variety in my games, and in this case we actually got only a little variety.

Yes I think this was the biggest flaw with the game. It just made every quest feel like a chore that I wanted to zoom through as fast as possible. Hence I just wanted to beat the game as fast as possible and get it over with. It was a similar problem as in Mass Effect 1 (which I thought was good overall) but far worse in this case.

 

[Raduque]

I just played through it and thought it was fantastic. What's the beef?

PC Gamers just like to bitch about everything. Meanwhile, everybody else is playing and enjoying games.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I played the demo, and thought it was terrible. However, I got the game on sale at Direct 2 Drive, and the game does improve from the demo. I enjoyed it, although some of the inconsistencies mentioned were a problem, the main one being that it was strange to play as a mage when every other mage was made tranquil or was in hiding.

And the ending was kind of lame, in that it seemed to be an add-on after you get the estate back simply to leave the plot open for DLC or a sequel. Also, although I personally liked it (I hate getting lost in a game or spending hours trying to figure out what to do for a quest), the map and quest markers may have been a little too obvious for hardcore RPG players. Basically just follow the arrow until you get there and kill whatever you find.

But after playing the Dungeon Seige 3 demo, going back to DA2 made it seem like a masterpiece.

 

[motsm]

They made the game more casual, simple as that. Dragon Age was basically the only mainstream RPG in recent years that wasn't made for the extreme ADD casual crowed, so when the sequel was, it got rightfully bashed IMO.

PC Gamers just like to bitch about everything. Meanwhile, everybody else is playing and enjoying games.

Meanwhile people are bitching about PC gamers bitching instead of enjoying games.

 

[ShadowVVL]

I dint care for it to much but I only played then demo not the whole game. only issue I had was combat wasn't exciting or really fun. It almost seems like it was annoying and got in the way.

 

[xboxist]

I played the demo, and thought it was terrible. However, I got the game on sale at Direct 2 Drive, and the game does improve from the demo.

I'm baffled that someone would buy the full game of the demo that they thought was terrible.

 

[Rakewell]

I just read through it and I don't get why it couldn't be in one of the other threads. What's the pork?

Would the "self-appointed" forum police... please, stop.

 

[Mem]

PC Gamers just like to bitch about everything. Meanwhile, everybody else is playing and enjoying games.

Not true,PC gamers like myself(also Beta games tester btw) like to give honest and constructive feedback ,we don't want standards to be dropped,dumbing down PC games and removing stuff is not improving games,DA2 had so many issues where do I start ok some of the quests were bugged on release so you could not complete them,true a patch or two has been released that has helped,also balancing was an issue with some boss fights,wave after wave of mobs is not what makes a great RPG,tactics wise game was dumbed down .
I've seen more tactics in a snakes and ladders board game.

Removing full armour /inventory control on NPCs etc.. is not something you expect in RPGs,storyline was not that great to be honest,DA was better game IMHO.
They speeded the game up to try and make it exciting but it does not really help especially when half the maps look the same ie caves(designers got lazy).

There are far better RPG games out ie Witcher 2.
I'll also say that they had a lot of huge negative threads in their Official DA2 forums over@Bioware ,a lot of gamers were disappointed and that says a lot,I did reply in a few of those threads as well,will EA/Bioware listen?.... we shall see when DA3 is released.

Read the main DA2 thread we have in PC gaming forum,it covers all the good and many more bad points,http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2148599&highlight=dragon+age

 

[frozentundra123456]

I'm baffled that someone would buy the full game of the demo that they thought was terrible.

I just wanted to give the whole game a try and thought it might be better than my first impression. Would not have paid full price under any circumstances, but for about half-off I decided to give it a try.

Even though I dont like the way Bioware is going lately, especially with turning KOTOR into an MMO, I havent seen them make a totally terrible game yet.

 

[DeathReborn]

Most of the hate stems from DA:O being so good, anything less than at least as good a game would not be good enough. As it turned out, DA2 is pretty poor by the standards of DA:O.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

How does the quality of the last game make any difference on how the next game should be judged? Everything starts on even footing. If Half Life 3 came out and it was just average compared to Half-Life 2 but still a great game then its still a great game no matter how epic or how much fail the prequel was.

 

[Arkaign]

If you really liked DA:2, then I guess you're in for a real treat playing DA:O or TW2 or quite a few others that are head and shoulders better. DA2 was a rushed game filled with cut and paste production values due to the publisher demanding an unreasonably short development time from what I can gather.