Dragon Age 2

[Fiach]

So, a new Dragon Age game, how does such an anticipated title, compare to the game that inspired it and does it further the franchise?

Well the answer is resoundingly yes... and no...

This isnt a review, more of a heads up for people considering a purchase.

The bad, Firstly, before I talk about how great the game is, I would like to mention its bad points.

The games inventory system has been dumbed down to the point of being ..well.... pointless. Your companions have their own armour, they cant wear any other armour (although you can buy "upgrades" for them in each act), so you cant customise their stats with different armours, some say this is good as you dont have to wade through alot of armour stats, personally I hate it, I loved playing dress up, with my companions. But, you can still use armours for your main character, so thats OK I guess. The games loot system is really annoying, you cannot check the stats of any loot until you pick it up and then go to your inventory and examine it, whatever genius thought that was a good idea, needs to be strangled with their own entrails, it is a freaking nightmare as you try to find what ever you just picked up, then compare it to equipped stuff.

The next thing, while more serious than the inventory system, is a bug and while gamebreaking, at least can be fixed, unlike the inventory system There are two characters Isabella (cool) and Sebastien (DLC and an incredible dork), if you gain friendship with them, they grant you a buff, but if you remove them from your party,the buff works in reverse and does so incrementally, making your main character unplayable as their attack speed continually degenerates every time you swap those characters out of your party. This is an incredible shame, not only because it shows a severe lack of quality control, but Isabella is one of the coolest RPG characters ever created.

The game has a sliding scale based on <Friendship___________Rivalry>, so different dialogue choices will make your companions love/hate you as you progress, to compound this, the dialogue options are not clear, it will give an idea of what will be said and you may think its OK, but what is actually said comes out totally differently than what you assumed would be the reply, giving you a boost in the wrong direction, for example, I had to fight a boss three times as immediately after the fight a dialogue ensues and each seclection I made angered the person I was trying to impress.
Sometimes the dialogues will Plus some companions and Minus other companions opinion of you at the same time, so it can be like walking a tightrope sometimes.
This is even further polarised by the polemic nature of the storyline, Mages vs Templars. So if you are a mage, it will be difficult to retain some members in your group and vice versa if you are anti mage and while that is all fine and good, it severely restricts who you will have in your party at the end game battle.

OK, now that I have got that off my chest, on to the good. There has been a huge graphics improvement on what was a pretty good game in Origins and while its not Crysis standards, some spell effects are really nice.
The combat has been improved significantly, making it more visceral and less like Origins cold tactical combat. The game also introduces cross class combos, for example, get a mage to freeze an enemy and then get a melee to hit it, causing a critical.

The companions can dabble in lots of different schools of combat, with each one having a particular style only available to them, which can make a nice customisation feature, so you can have two archers, but with customisation, they can create very different playstyles and battle tactics.

The characters themselves are a mixed bag, but mostly they are good, unfortunately the friendship/rivalry mechanic can wind up making you have a party of people you dont like/want, but due to your class/playstyle, you are stuck with them. Out of all these, you can only play four at a time

Varrick a Rogue and pretty easy going, hard to lose him and he has some really funny dialogue.
Merrill a Blood Mage, very timid welch voiced girl, will really annoy the melee companions.
Avaline Sword and Board, is very law abiding, but easy going enough and you shouldnt worry.
Fenris an awesome two hand character that HATES mages, but his story is incrediblty cool.
Isabella Rogue, great character storyline, but bugged, so you cant use her.
Sebastian Archer, crap character and archer, but also bugged and cant be used.
Anders Mage, hates templars and can be a pain in the a$$ if you dont side with mages.
Bethany your sister, easy going but the storyline stops for her in the first act.
Carver your whiney younger brother, again his story stops in Act one.

If you can get past the inventory and friendship mechanics, you are looking at a great game with great quests, excellent combat, with a nice choice of classes, making replays almost mandatory.

[Art Blade]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Fiach, that was an interesting post  :)

[PZ]

I'm glad you're playing games and reporting your experiences, Fiach...  :-X

[fragger]

Nice rundown, Fiach :-X Pity about those negatives, sounds like it would have been a top-notch game if it hadn't been for those. Who knows why some devs make the choices they do ::)

Glad you're enjoying it though, cheers for the report :)

[Fiach]

Well, its a great game, yes there are negatives, they can be worked around and if you can live with that you will thoroughly enjoy the game.

The game is kinda stacked against you though, there are times I have had to resort to a strategy guide, to get the correct response to certain situations, now, others may not particularly care about some of the things I have mentioned and play through regardless and take the consequence, but I play on a particular way with Bioware games, I play a good (moral) first, then a bad (immoral) the next time, then other play throughs are for different classes, the game doesnt easily lend itself to this method unfortunately.

But just to re-iterate, its a great game, with some standout moments that are tragic and comic, tender, harsh but necessary...... Nothing ptrpared me for going to a mage in a hospital and seeing my girlfriend emerge from the mage after seeking a cure for a STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease)   ??? :'(  :-[ :-D

[Art Blade]

hehe  ;D I've just realised how often "Hospital" is part of a game. Immediately images spring to mind, like F.E.A.R. and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Borderlands (DLC) and hell, even FC2  :-D

[KingRat]

Finished my first play with a female warrior last night. Pretty much agree with everything Fiach posted in his review. Toughest boss battle I had was Corypheus in the Legacy DLC, phew! don't know how many times I died before switching to Anders. Did this in act 1 at lvl 9, and fortunatly had given Anders the 'revive' perk...

One negative point was I never got Gamlen's gem quest to trigger so I never met my cousin....kept searching all over darktown but the contact just wouldn't show.....

Never paid much mind to the friend/rival stuff so I was surprised by Merrill, close to max rival, when she came to the estate and threw herself on me. I hadn't been focused on any romance so I was like so that's how were going to roll  :-D 

Going with a female rogue on play #2 and have already found some quests I missed the first time, maybe because I signed on with the Red Iron this time.

[Fiach]

Glad you are enjoying it mate, tbh I forget alot of it at this stage, but I still have the game, so I must have liked it alot and intended to replay it :)

[KingRat]

Just started act 3. Did Legacy again, but this time I split the play. Started in act 1 with lvl 11 then went back to Kirkwall and then came back and finished with lvl 15. Boss fight was easier since I'd upgraded armor with the correct runes, and also invested in some life ward potions  :-X

Trying to please all companions is tough, but I have managed to get everyone but Seabass close to 100% friend. Doubt it will last, but I'm prepping for the endgame. Sister was a circle mage first time, gray warden this time.

Already looking forward to DA3  :-D

[KingRat]

Well, I finally got DA2 to 100%. Only the 2nd game I've done that with, Mass effect being the other. Good thing I like this game because I had to play back to back to back to finally get the last achievement  :D

I was fortunate they don't force you to play on nightmare/insanity mode to get that last cheevo  :-D Now I'm replaying DA:O trying to pick up a few more.

Still need to finish my Skyrim play; have about 400 hours in and took a break last month. Eventually I'll get it done...

[PZ]

I'd never looked at Skyrim, but my son tells me that it is probably his all time favorite game.

[KingRat]

I'd never looked at Skyrim, but my son tells me that it is probably his all time favorite game.

Put Skyrim back in, but had a crash while fighting a dragon. So I tried Dragons Dogma again after leaving it in the tutorial. Now have about 200 hrs into it and having a ball; also have no clue as to when I'll finish since there is a post game mode and NG+ :-X

[KingRat]

Finally finished up NG+ in Dragons Dogma with 1020 hours invested...yes, 1000+ hours and max level of 200  ;D With the expansion coming on 4/23 I'll be back into it; in the meantime I've got a list of games and DLC to catch up on...

Anyone on x360 feel free to friend me> DecafKingRat...friends can use pawns without costing rift crystals  :-X

[Art Blade]

1,000+ hours on one game? Whoa. I have GTA IV with 960 and FC3 with 924 hours (no idea how many on FC2). You certainly deserve a  :-X +1 for your incredible persistence  :-D Well done, mate  :)

[Fiach]

Finally finished up NG+ in Dragons Dogma with 1020 hours invested...yes, 1000+ hours and max level of 200  ;D With the expansion coming on 4/23 I'll be back into it; in the meantime I've got a list of games and DLC to catch up on...

Anyone on x360 feel free to friend me> DecafKingRat...friends can use pawns without costing rift crystals  :-X

I have it on PS3, similar sort of hours invested, an awesome game, probably my fave from last year, iffy DLC though and DA isnt DLC or expansion, you have to re-buy the game again with it included, think its something like 30 quid, really bad f@#k up on Capcoms part, definately wont be buying it myself.

[KingRat]

I have it on PS3, similar sort of hours invested, an awesome game, probably my fave from last year, iffy DLC though and DA isnt DLC or expansion, you have to re-buy the game again with it included, think its something like 30 quid, really bad f@#k up on Capcoms part, definately wont be buying it myself.

I've already pre-ordered it for $39 from Amazon. Seen enough content, and liked DD enough to spring for it  :)

Art; I have FC3 sitting here waiting along with Witcher 2, Borderlands 2, Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite....oh such a backlog  plus I haven't finished my Skyrim play or Mass Effect 3 DLC's....groan   

[Fiach]

The latest ME3 DLC is supposed to be the best.

[Art Blade]

KingRat, with a backlog like that, you're on the safe side. While it is likely that many of us will be bored out of our wits at some point while desperately hoping for a new cool game to emerge you just finish playing one and randomly grab in your collection of untouched pearls and perhaps wipe a tear from your eye when you finally enter a new world. :-D

[KingRat]

The latest ME3 DLC is supposed to be the best.

It was fun that's for sure. I played Leviathan, Omega and Citadel back to back, then played Citadel again with a female Shepard. Ashley wasn't around for the party in either one of those so I might check a 3rd Shep save to see if she survived, and if she did I'd do Citadel again.... :-X

[KingRat]

KingRat, with a backlog like that, you're on the safe side. While it is likely that many of us will be bored out of our wits at some point while desperately hoping for a new cool game to emerge you just finish playing one and randomly grab in your collection of untouched pearls and perhaps wipe a tear from your eye when you finally enter a new world. :-D

I'm telling you I haven't been getting much sleep lately  ;D Finished up the ME stuff and started Tomb Raider....when I like a game I can replay it many, many times ie original Mass Effect 30 times which carried over to ME 2 being played 20 times. I bought ME and Fallout 3 when they came out but didn't start playing them till 2010, and ME started just before ME 2 release  :D

[Fiach]

Same, I guess thats why we have backlogs :)

Games like DA, ME, Dragons Dogma, Resi 6 that nearly make it mandatory to replay them loads of times are a fecking curse on the working gamer I tell ya!  >:D

[KingRat]

Being retired that 'working gamer' doesn't apply, but there are a lot of household projects on hold  :-D

[Art Blade]

 :-D

[Fiach]

Being retired that 'working gamer' doesn't apply, but there are a lot of household projects on hold  :-D

*looks around quickly hoping wifey hasnt seen this post **  >:D ^-^

[PZ]