So Dragon Age 2 is really bad on the PC and consolized?

[CottonRabbit]

How long did it take you to finish the game and did you do most of the quests(those that were not buggy)?

31 Hours. I did all of the quests in Act 1 and Act 2. I skipped at least two Act 3 quests.

 

[Mem]

31 Hours. I did all of the quests in Act 1 and Act 2. I skipped at least two Act 3 quests.

I only asked because the Bioware forums you have members saying 12 ,16,50 hours etc...always hard to get a good average .

 

[Mem]

Many complaints about DA2 is this below,

oldmansavage wrote...

I expected to be able to equip armor on my companions

I expected a more expansive world with less copy paste dungeon jobs.

I expected a tactical combat system.

I expected it to have the dialogue tree opposed to the roulette wheel.

I expected better character interacton.

I expected dragon age to expand on the original, not brutally murder and replace it with a retarded doppleganger.

 

[nageov3t]

I expected DA2 to be fun. it delivered.

it's definitely not without faults (of which, the recycled dungeons are probably the biggest and worst in my mind... every house in low town looks the same? sure, why not. nearly every house on my parents street has the exact same layout. but every single cave in the game? really?) but overall, I'm having fun playing the game and don't feel like I wasted my money buying it.

different strokes for different folks. I enjoy the DA2 combat system more than DAO and upgrading companion armor (or more to the point, collecting hundreds of different randomly generated armor pieces that all had the exact same stats with 1-2 differences) always felt more like a chore than an enjoyment.

 

[Arglebargle]

If Bioware had called this Dragon Age: Hawke!, and marketed it as an FPS (First Person Slasher) game, there would be lots less harumphment about it. As it was presented as a sequel, it built up expectations. And they failed to deliver.

I think that the cutting away of things that Bioware did in going from ME1 to ME2 may have influenced this. But it appears that they misjudged what they should have cut in DA2. I felt the new interface was definitely inferior, and I did not care for the gameplay in the demo.

Their propensity for fully voicing games is really limiting their flexibility. While DA:0 actually left me pleased with their voicing set up, I really do not care for fully voiced main characters. I like to imagine my own voice, thank you. I see this as a possible major issue in SWTOR as well. Along with their recently voiced slavish love of 'whatever WoW did'.

This has gone to 'get at under $10' purchase for me.

 

[NoSoup4You]

Has anyone played Drakensang: River of Time? It apparently was just released and costs only $19.99. The combat looks quite tactical from watching YouTube clips, and the character classes available are extremely robust. I wonder if this game is worthwhile, anyone?

 

[paperfist]

Eurogamer have an interview with BioWare's Mike Laidlaw: A defence of Dragon Age II.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-10-biowares-mike-laidlaw-a-defence-of-dragon-age-ii-interview .

Man I wonder if console gamers suffer from this same, "I have a big penis, why didn't you use me to my full potential!" feeling that he describes PC gamers as having?

I feel vulnerable now, may go cry in a corner.

 

[Arglebargle]

Laidlaw: "You don't want to design a game that cuts out everyone except the guy who bought his computer this month."


And that's why Crysis was such a big hit! Ooooh.


I'd guess they hit what they aimed for, just their aim was fairly low. Again, if it wasn't Dragon Age II, people wouldn't have these unfilled expectations.

 

[cessation]

"Mike Laidlaw:
I've certainly seen a fair amount of feedback that says, "I couldn't play Origins, I thought it was too slow, the story was too plodding, too typical, and Dragon Age II is awesome by comparison!""

Really? There's people who honestly think that? Even if there is I would bet for every person that says that there's a thousand people who think at least DA1 had a story. I beat over half the game and I'm still not sure what it's about, I guess it's just about being some guy named Hawke. I'm so bored with the game I don't even feel like finishing it.

 

[NoSoup4You]

Hmmm, I'm 18 hours in and I agree that things have not started heating up yet story-wise. I'm still just "some guy doing odd jobs around Kirkwall". This is actually the same problem I had with ME2 - you get stuck doing so many damn loyalty missions I couldn't remember the plot of the game. ME2 was a little different though, it added so much content over the original that it was hard to complain about having "too much content", whereas DA2 is stripping out content compared to DAO.

But I like DA2, I'm having fun with it and the franchise hasn't been ruined in my opinion. Not even close. And yeah, if they'ed instead called it Dragon Age: When Qunari Attack!! it would would likely have been received better - naming it DA2 suggests it'll be bigger and better than the original and that definitely isn't the case.

 

[NYHoustonman]

Agreed with above. Just got out of the deep roads at 20 hours, after completing one of the longest boss fights of my life outside of WoW. I've played the game essentially the same way as Origins so far, and I'm loving it.

I'm really not sure the overly negative reviews of this game are any better than the overly positive at this point. The general consensus is that it isn't worth the time, and that couldn't be much farther from the truth.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for this kind of game...

 

[Anneka]

I only asked because the Bioware forums you have members saying 12 ,16,50 hours etc...always hard to get a good average .

To give you a good average with all quests done in the Act 1,2,3 it took me around 36 hours of good gameplay.

 

[Borealis7]

Has anyone played Drakensang: River of Time? It apparently was just released and costs only $19.99. The combat looks quite tactical from watching YouTube clips, and the character classes available are extremely robust. I wonder if this game is worthwhile, anyone?

YES! amazing game (both the expansion and the original). lots of fun and micromanaging your party, many dialog options but the game itself is a bit unpolished. running speed is quite slow you'll spend a lot of time just getting from one place to another (there is fast travel though).
i recommend it.

 

[sourceninja]

I"m pretty far into the game at this point. I've gotten used to the dialog style, the generic gameplay, and the lack of any real inventory system and I could almost enjoy the game. However, the lack of any variety of encounters and maps is what blows it for me.

There are basically just a coast line, a dungeon, a cave, a big mansion, and a small house. Did the dialog take the last year? I can't see how the game design took more than a few weeks.

This will be the first Bioware game that I don't play though multiple times. I've played mass effect 1 and 2 like 3 times, DA:O at least 6 times (including all expansions), and god knows how many times I've played BG and BG2. This game just doesn't do it for me.

 

[sourceninja]

Agreed with above. Just got out of the deep roads at 20 hours, after completing one of the longest boss fights of my life outside of WoW. I've played the game essentially the same way as Origins so far, and I'm loving it. ...

That fight was a fairly challenging fight. However, I was kind bothered of how it 'felt' like a console battle out of legend of zelda.

Spoiler

Smack smack, turn off AI, run everyone behind a pillar so they don't die. Turn on AI, smack smack....

 

[ayabe]

I'm about 7 hours after completion of the Deep Roads which I guess is considered Act II?

Anyways, at this point there still is no story, no villain, no central theme other than doing chores for people. Just hit level 15, my guess is I'll finish around level 20-22 and I'm shocked at how little there is to the story so far. I've gotten my house back....is that supposed to provide a compelling story arc? Is this a satire of the mortgage crises? (j/k )

I don't find my companions particularly compelling either, in DA I wanted to talk to my companions, especially Morrigan, Shale, and Sten. Earning their trust and respect is something I wanted to do, I could care less about most of these chars in DA II, especially Fenris and Anders what a couple of gimps.

I rerolled my skills/stats yesterday to try out a few new things like Stealth. Since the combat is so fast and furious, it's pretty useless. Sure there are a lot of attacks that get bonuses but I crit so much as-is it's just not practical. The same thing with Evade, in the rare instance where I encounter a boss that likes to hit hard and spam knockdowns, both are useless because they'll be interrupted by the boss spam. Against lesser bosses and normal mobs they're useless because they go down in seconds. So I'll be rerolling again and going for pure damage.

 

[gorcorps]

I'm having a hard time digging through this thread to find it, but there were talks of Nvidia problems right? I'm just wondering because the demo runs like total garbage on my GTX570. Didn't know if there was an unofficial demo patch or driver update to give me a better feel of the game. It's unplayable as it stands right now.

 

[Gheris]

I'm having a hard time digging through this thread to find it, but there were talks of Nvidia problems right? I'm just wondering because the demo runs like total garbage on my GTX570. Didn't know if there was an unofficial demo patch or driver update to give me a better feel of the game. It's unplayable as it stands right now.

Check out the "Video Cards and Graphics" forum. They have a thread on DA2 and nVidia. The short version is play in DX9 until nvidia releases a patch. Don't know why nvidia didn't release the patch before the release of DA2, but it is what it is.

 

[gorcorps]

Check out the "Video Cards and Graphics" forum. They have a thread on DA2 and nVidia. The short version is play in DX9 until nvidia releases a patch. Don't know why nvidia didn't release the patch before the release of DA2, but it is what it is.

Ah, right. That's where I saw it. That explains why I couldn't find the info in this thread. Thanks :thumbsup:

 

[Gheris]

I'm about 7 hours after completion of the Deep Roads which I guess is considered Act II?

Anyways, at this point there still is no story, no villain, no central theme other than doing chores for people. Just hit level 15, my guess is I'll finish around level 20-22 and I'm shocked at how little there is to the story so far. I've gotten my house back....is that supposed to provide a compelling story arc? Is this a satire of the mortgage crises? (j/k )

I don't find my companions particularly compelling either, in DA I wanted to talk to my companions, especially Morrigan, Shale, and Sten. Earning their trust and respect is something I wanted to do, I could care less about most of these chars in DA II, especially Fenris and Anders what a couple of gimps.

I rerolled my skills/stats yesterday to try out a few new things like Stealth. Since the combat is so fast and furious, it's pretty useless. Sure there are a lot of attacks that get bonuses but I crit so much as-is it's just not practical. The same thing with Evade, in the rare instance where I encounter a boss that likes to hit hard and spam knockdowns, both are useless because they'll be interrupted by the boss spam. Against lesser bosses and normal mobs they're useless because they go down in seconds. So I'll be rerolling again and going for pure damage.

Yeah my rogue was basically killing stuff and having to flip around all over the place. Went back to my mage. No where near as powerful but at least I don't get whiplash trying to follow the melee action. Might try warrior next, or rogue with bow.

 

[exar333]

After about 10-15 hours into DA2, this is a much inferior game to DA1 (or DA:O). The constantly spawning enemies are really lame, and most tactical aspects of the game are just not there anymore. There is little cohesive story, and I really miss the campground area from the first game. The art style is completely stolen from the old Disney move "Beauty and Beast" and is much worse than DA:O.

I don't 'hate' the game, but the story is pretty 'meh' and the lack of real travel really sucks. Bioware really dropped a great opportunity here. I constantly want to just stop playing and throw-in some BG or DA:O to play instead but I want to finish it and see if it picks-up with the story any more.

Still hate the crappy camera controls after playing the game more, and I think I actually hate it a little more every time I sit down and play the game. This is inexcsuable for a game these days; maybe 8-10 years ago, but not now. I can't believe someone at Bioware didn't say 'This camera control sucks!'.

Disappointed...

 

[Gheris]

After about 10-15 hours into DA2, this is a much inferior game to DA1 (or DA:O). The constantly spawning enemies are really lame, and most tactical aspects of the game are just not there anymore. There is little cohesive story, and I really miss the campground area from the first game. The art style is completely stolen from the old Disney move "Beauty and Beast" and is much worse than DA:O.

I don't 'hate' the game, but the story is pretty 'meh' and the lack of real travel really sucks. Bioware really dropped a great opportunity here. I constantly want to just stop playing and throw-in some BG or DA:O to play instead but I want to finish it and see if it picks-up with the story any more.

Still hate the crappy camera controls after playing the game more, and I think I actually hate it a little more every time I sit down and play the game. This is inexcsuable for a game these days; maybe 8-10 years ago, but not now. I can't believe someone at Bioware didn't say 'This camera control sucks!'.

Disappointed...

I need to ask you an honest question. Did you really consider the 1st game that tactical? I mean the combat was slower, but my mages would pretty much woop butt in every encounter, my tank would taunt, and my rogues would stab. Other than that I agree with a lot of what you are saying. I am still enjoying the game so far, but it's no DAO.

One another note. Is it me or does my mage only throw out spells when he decides too. For instance I press the button for the Frost spell(not cone of cold), but my mage decides to finish his laser staff dance for a few more seconds before launching the spell. Realistic? Probably. Annoying? Oh yeah.

 

[NYHoustonman]

I need to ask you an honest question. Did you really consider the 1st game that tactical? I mean the combat was slower, but my mages would pretty much woop butt in every encounter, my tank would taunt, and my rogues would stab. Other than that I agree with a lot of what you are saying. I am still enjoying the game so far, but it's no DAO.

One another note. Is it me or does my mage only throw out spells when he decides too. For instance I press the button for the Frost spell(not cone of cold), but my mage decides to finish his laser staff dance for a few more seconds before launching the spell. Realistic? Probably. Annoying? Oh yeah.

I think this might go back to an annoying issue in DA:O (that's even worse here)... My characters seem to 'forget' their orders if they're hit/staggered/etc. I'll order up a heal and 5 seconds later find out the stupid mage didn't execute because he was too busy being slapped around -.- .

 

[nageov3t]

DA:O was totally tactical... it's not as if every single encounter broke down into crushing prison x 3, wait, repeat.

 

[Gheris]

DA:O was totally tactical... it's not as if every single encounter broke down into crushing prison x 3, wait, repeat.

HAHA your right! I modded it to crushing prison x4 on the PC. I wins.