I don't understand the hate for dragon age 2

[drebo]

Yeah and that's why all the gamers are complaining and not EA stock holders. EA basically short changed the gamers to fatten their wallet.

But we'll see how long that business tactic of making quick buck in the expense of customer will last.

How many people still buy Madden every year?

How many people still buy each new Call of Duty every year?

It's those people who encourage EA to act the way they do (yes, I know Call of Duty isn't an EA game). Failing to demand MORE with each new game is causing the lull in quality in general. Buying a rehash of the same game year after year and paying more for it is just silly. Give me a new game, please.

DA:O had so much potential for a sequel from all of the loose ends in both the original campaign and all of the DLC. They could have improved upon the interface and come up with an entirely new game. Some of the DA2 changes weren't terrible...but on the whole, it was very destructive to the mythos.

 

[Red Storm]

While DA2 certainly had issues with story continuity I thought the story was far more interesting than the one from awakenings. Origins certainly had the best story so far, but unless the rest of the arch demons start waking up all at once there really isnt anything they can do to top that story as far as wardens are concerned (unless you want to tell a story about the wardens becoming a political entity, which could happen considering what happens in DA2).

Now bugs on release do suck and the game was certainly rushed out which shouldnt have happened, I believe even bioware employees will admit to that. Having just played it through in the last few weeks for the first time I can say that I havnt encountered any bugs that were worth remembering.

As far as the gameplay goes I guess that is mostly personal preference, for me I prefer the quicker paced combat, I got so bored with origins combat I stopped looking forward to fights since in most it was use a couple of cooldowns and then auto attack unless the fight went really long so I could use the cooldowns a second time (at least awakenings added stamina pots). I am also not sure why the waves are considered bad... I always thought that having to adapt on the fly to new enemies is more tactically challenging than knowing exactly what your up against before you start.

Not being able to equip companions armor dosnt bother me in the least either, other than a couple of the massive armor sets in the first game I thought most of the armor looked hideous. Morrigan wore her robe or her upgraded robe, Leliana I downloaded armor for and everyone else wore one of a few sets which I thought looked good, and I gladly give that up to have companions that look decent. There is still plenty of weapons and jewelery to equip to keep me occupied.

I rather enjoyed DA2, my only real complaint is that just like in awakenings if you want a healer its Anders or bust, and i really dont like Anders

DA2 is side quest after side quest... after side quest. I don't like enemies appearing out of thin air (or raining down from the ceiling). I don't like how my character teleports around the battlefield attacking enemies. I didn't like the art style change from DA1 to DA2, or the lack of character customization compared to DA1. I most certainly didn't like the way areas were used and re-used over and over like a cheap whore (come on, at least adjust the minimap to be correct!).

As I said before, it seems that if you liked the 1st, you didn't like the 2nd, and vice versa. The first game was a lot closer to the classic RPG titles, and Bioware was one of our last hopes to keep that genre going, but thanks to EA that's gone too. :\

 

[darkewaffle]

To this day I never understand the big deal about the way enemies appear on the screen. It's like complaining the enemies are the wrong color or too tall; nitpicky and has virtually no effect on how the actual game plays. Not to mention it's not like it didn't happen in DA plenty anyway, practically every demon in the game just pops out of the ground, spiders appeared from the air, and stealthed enemies blinked into existence wherever they damn well pleased.

The animations too, I do think they're a bit overdone but it also kind of fits how the battles play out. A lot of DA2 encounters have more enemies than those in DA, and in turn the animations for attacks have to suit that scale. If your character is knocking down multiple enemies or slicing through them, then it should look that way, or you'd have have the whole HL2 problem where one of the biggest complaints is the guns didn't feel and sound powerful enough.

 

[Red Storm]

To this day I never understand the big deal about the way enemies appear on the screen. It's like complaining the enemies are the wrong color or too tall; nitpicky and has virtually no effect on how the actual game plays. Not to mention it's not like it didn't happen in DA plenty anyway, practically every demon in the game just pops out of the ground, spiders appeared from the air, and stealthed enemies blinked into existence wherever they damn well pleased.

The animations too, I do think they're a bit overdone but it also kind of fits how the battles play out. A lot of DA2 encounters have more enemies than those in DA, and in turn the animations for attacks have to suit that scale. If your character is knocking down multiple enemies or slicing through them, then it should look that way, or you'd have have the whole HL2 problem where one of the biggest complaints is the guns didn't feel and sound powerful enough.

It's the difference between an arcade hack & slash and a story based RPG. DA2 was the arcade game, and what makes that unfortunate is that it's the sequel to a story based RPG. If it were it's own entirely new game I would have no problem with it, cause it wouldn't be a part of the DA story and I would have felt no need to get it (and it is failing quite remarkably in that regard even).

Yes, DA1 did have some of that with the demons (the spiders made sense at least, you were in a cave) and I did think it was annoying, but DA2 takes it to a whole new level with human enemies literally raining down from the sky. It was so stupid and always broke any sense of immersion I had with the story. Also it negated the use of tactical positioning (tanks in front, archers and mages behind) as enemies just appeared everywhere.

 

[Arg Clin]

Mike Laidlaw stated DAO sales were at 3.5 million at the time of DA2 release. VGChartz has lifetime sales at 3.7 million.

EA has stated they've shipped a total of 2 million units for DA2...outlets are reporting about ~1.5 million total copies sold for DA2.

However, the development time is incomparable...DA2 had a 18 month development cycle...the first "Battle of Lothering" images (rendered on a modified Aurora at the time) were released by Bioware in 2003...6+ years from early build to release...

Profit margin should easily be in favor of DA2...

From a short term perspective yes - DA2 may make a better profit margin, simply because of the sheer number of DA2 sales generated by DAO consumer goodwill.

As for development time - it doesn't really indicate the amount of resources spent, unless you know how many people were working on the project on average.

Bioware could easily have spent even less resources on DA2 by just improving on the existing DAO tech instead of a major redesign (dumb down). I understand the reasons - trying to reach a broader audience - but I also hope that Bioware by now realizes that this is an impossibility.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

To this day I never understand the big deal about the way enemies appear on the screen. It's like complaining the enemies are the wrong color or too tall; nitpicky and has virtually no effect on how the actual game plays. Not to mention it's not like it didn't happen in DA plenty anyway, practically every demon in the game just pops out of the ground, spiders appeared from the air, and stealthed enemies blinked into existence wherever they damn well pleased.

As I recall though, enemies in DA1 were all in position before they showed up - even the demons. And actually it is a huge deal for how the actual game plays. DA1 the most damaging attacks were area of effect, and they hit allies as well as enemies. That meant crowd control and positioning were critical to take out groups, because once they got close you couldn't use the best attacks without nuking your own party in the process.

Of course, friendly fire and enemies spawning into the middle of your party in every single battle don't mix. So in DA2 you'll find area of effect attacks have no friendly fire outside of the absolute highest difficulty in dragon age 2 - meaning the positioning element is no longer relevant.

 

[coldmeat]

Wow, so I tried the game to see if maybe my feelings on it have changed, and I quit again within the first 5 minutes. The controls are just so bad, I get frustrated playing it. Nevermind that the animations are ridiculous. He rolls on the ground to move 2 feet to attack the next enemy. I'll get an enemy running away from me, but I tell my rogue to attack him, and he does this 360 flip through the air trying to slash him, but he can't reach so I just follow this enemy across the map doing all these acrobatic attacks that don't do anything.

 

[blackened23]

Actually, I think its pretty obvious and easy to understand. DA2 is an inferior game compared to part 1 because EA rushed it out of the door to maximize profits. Its glaringly obvious to anyone that has played both: the quests suck, you stay in the same area for practically the entire game, and the game is dumbed down (as a side effect of EA rushing it). Heck, the items don't even have proper names / stats.

ITs garbage compared to part 1.

 

[vrait]

Maybe everyone hates it cause it sucks, and it was console trash?

 

[Borealis7]

its an action-RPG for the kids of the ADHD-generation of today.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

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

LOL, says it all.

 

[vrait]

LOL, says it all.

Exactly, I bet he's a 12 year old CoD fanboy.