Dragon Age II

[gobbleskat]

I'm trying really hard not to sound like a broken record here, but as the resident DA hater it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that I did not get much out of this demo. I made two goes at the demo (one as Rogue, one as Mage), but the game just felt stiff, flat, and dull. At least the first DA I was into on a story level, but this demo gave me very little of a sense of the games narrative. Instead, once the 'real story' begins, I just found myself with a group of dull characters mashing the attack button until my cooldown time expired, using my one skill, and repeating until the Darkspawn died.

I'm willing to just blame it on the demo for now, but I hated it's presentation and thought it felt like a step backwards. I'd like to note that I really want to like this game, and do still plan to go back to DA someday. In the meantime though, I have pretty much lost any interest in DA2.

[pappy]

I hope the game proves you right, that the demo just doesn't cut it.
From a purely personal perspective, I don't think demos are very good ideas for any story driven game. They're great for racers, FPS games and the like, but other than doing what they did for Dead Rising 2, RPG demos tend to suck a bit.

[gobbleskat]

Definitely, I tend to agree, though my biggest gripe is that I did not like the feel of the combat. I've heard a lot about how this was supposed to be a more action oriented rpg, but without any real depth to the melee or a lock-on I just felt disconnected from what my characters were doing. I'm really interested to hear what someone more friendly to its predecessor might think.

[jimmy juan]

You called, Rory?

I was kinda bored by the demo. I was more excited by some of the expansions.
If I wanted to play the same damn thing over and over again, I'd play the expansions. But when you get me all excited for something new and then fall flat? BOO YOU WHORE.
I'm still interested and going to play the game ASAP, but not with any real optimism. Prove me wrong, BioWare.

[pappy]

The jumpiness of the demo and the uncertain explanations certainly didn't help its cause. Does this take place in concurrence with Origins? Am I going to run into my Warden? What century is this? The village that was overrun...wasn't I the savior of that village? Why the story jump to the pirate chick?
I think every demo should be like the Dead Rising 2 one, where you get a feel for the game and what it offers, but you don't play actual disc story.
That said, Amazon said I should expect it on the 11th. I should have it beat by the 19th.

[Ekkebus]

The village that your family escapes from is I believe the first town you come to in Origins. Its where you can recruit Sten or Leliana. It gets overrun after you go north to the castle where the kid is possessed by a creature from the fey. I think, its been a couple years.

That said I believe the events all take place after Origins so some of the choices you made will be reflected on the DA2 game world. I wouldn't expect your Warden to show up since unless you made fuck with Morrigan, you're probably dead.

In regards to the demo itself I will add my voice to the growing chorus of those who were left completely unimpressed. It feels very much one step forward and then two or three steps back.

[King wiL]

I didn't like the combat in Dragon Age so I say fuck Dragon Age 2, not even goin to bother trying the demo as I can't see me liking it anyway, spesh if Rory didn't like it as we shared reasons for disliking the first game.

[jimmy juan]

I no longer care about any shortcomings this game may have. Fucking Gideon Emery. SOLD.

[Cliff Racer]

A bug killed my first play through. Tried to start the end quest for Act One but something screwed up and I got caught in a conversation loop. (roommates tell me a character select screen was supposed to open but it didn't) So I couldn't progress the main story. Start new game. Now I'm trying to blow through the conversations and the quests to get back to where I was, but doing this has really made me stop caring about the story. All I want to do is blow things up (love being a mage), but even that is getting tedious when it's kinda the same damn thing over and over again.

Having only experienced one third of the game I'll say this: Yes, it's true about what was said about this game from the outset. This IS Mass Effect with swords. And magic. And dragons. The game has lost SO MUCH replay value by cutting out the "origins" aspect. (pick race and class) All because they wanted a fully voiced main character. When you have something that works, you don't try and fix it. Origins *worked*.

On the upside, battle is fun and very kinetic. Being a mage and controlling the battlefield is my favorite thing about it. (I like using "Fist of the Maker" and yelling: "Have a seat!" Good times.) But again you probably go through enough bodies to depopulate the city of Kirkwall. It's really repetitive.

Haven't been far enough to talk about the characters much, though I was irked by the fact that you can only talk to them in their "houses" and you get few conversations with them before you have to move on with the story.

Finally, this game is in no way "epic". I mean, I know I haven't been through much, but I've seen my roommates play through the higher tiers of the game. All you do is stay in Kirkwall and the mountains outside. That's it. You just cycle through the same scenery over and over again. In Origins, you had an entire nation to run around in. That qualifies as baseline "epic" in my book. How did EA/Bioware think that sticking in one city was going to be better than that?

Dragon Age 2 was not worth the $60 bucks. Maybe it was worth $30. I'll get back to playing it once I start caring about it again.

[pappy]

I beat the game, I'm on the second playthrough, and I am a huge fan of what they've accomplished. How many other game designers have had the audacity to keep the world and ditch the characters in a sequel? Bioware has been very consistent with such acts, and they seem to pay off more often than not.
Yes, the fighting is simplified, but if you play on hard you can get a feeling of accomplishment rather than a sense of micromanagement when you win a battle. I for one just play on normal and jump-stab everyone in the face, but that's just me.
The game is gorgeous and I cannot say enough about the story. They have seriously built up a world I would love to explore in any format.

[Ekkebus]

I take back everything negative I speculated about this game. It is actually sooooo good. Might be my second favorite Bioware game after Mass Effect 2 and that says something. I can't think of a complaint I had with the first game that wasn't addressed for the sequel. My only criticisms are as such

- The Specialization skill trees left a lot to be desired, at least for a mage. Spirit Healer is nice, Blood Magic I don't care about and Force Magic just didn't seem very interesting or useful when I tried it out. I ended up respecing my character just to take the points back out of Force Magic, and didn't end up taking a second specialization. Minor bummer there.

- I wish there was just a bit more personality/detail to the areas you explore in and around Kirkwall. Since you spend the bulk of the game running up and down these streets, I think a little more work (or a few more areas) would have made a lot of difference.

The combat, my biggest complaint from the original, feels just so much better. It isn't a drastic overhaul but they made tweaks in all the right places to make it work and NOT be a total shitstorm. I loved the story and it builds really well throughout each act. Loved the conclusion and honestly can't wait to see where things go for Dragon Age III.