Dragon Age 2, PC Gamer Review: 94/100

[Flatulus]

Hey guys

Just received my PC Gamer mag yesterday and they've reviewed Dragon Age 2.
They gave it a 94. Which is quite good.

The verdict:

The best RPG combat ever. Not gaming's best story, but maybe its best storytelling. Darker, sexier, better.

Going to give the demo a shot... curious to see how the gameplay feels.

-Flat

[Albinobees]

i played the demo a bit on the 360 the other day.

and i liked it. the combat felt great. fast paced and visceral.

though i'm still not sold on not being able to create my own character....

[stalazon]

The demo really sold me on the combat, but I sure as hell ain't picking it up until the Ultimate Version is released on a steam holiday sale. As I'm sure there'll be even more $DLC this time around.

[Agnostic Pope]

I don't know a thing about DA2 except for the fact that it is gzsfrk approved. Kinda like Dead or Alive is...:D

[randir14]

That's a better score than they gave DA1, which is disappointing because it gives other developers the incentive to dumb down their sequels just like DA2.

[Anenome]

That's a better score than they gave DA1, which is disappointing because it gives other developers the incentive to dumb down their sequels just like DA2.
Bioware's philosophy is to look at the first game's feedback and identify what aspects everyone liked about it, and what people were love/hate on.

Step two: double down on what everyone liked, crystallize the gameplay along the lines of what worked best and was universally appreciated.

Step three: remove the chaff and that which was love/hate, while satisfying those who loved it if possible (such as the new vehicle missions in ME2 with a drastically improved planet-exploration vehicle).

If more devs took this approach, we'd seldom have so many failing second-efforts as we do now.

[Ageli]

Bioware's philosophy is to look at the first game's feedback and identify what aspects everyone liked about it, and what people were love/hate on.

Step two: double down on what everyone liked, crystallize the gameplay along the lines of what worked best and was universally appreciated.

Step three: remove the chaff and that which was love/hate, while satisfying those who loved it if possible (such as the new vehicle missions in ME2 with a drastically improved planet-exploration vehicle).

If more devs took this approach, we'd seldom have so many failing second-efforts as we do now.
This x1000
I played the demo and cannot wait even more (didn't even think that was possible for me).

[randir14]

I didn't see much in the demo that was an improvement from DA1, or the removal of unnecessary elements. The dialog system is complete bullshit now, it's like Mass Effect where you choose one option and your character says short one-liners that are completely different from the text you chose. Seems like there's no way to act like a bad guy (at least in the demo), choosing the "evil" options only makes your guy sound impatient. When DA1 was coming out Bioware bragged "we have 800,000 lines of dialog, almost as much as Baldur's Gate 2!" Funny that a year later for the sequel they don't care about that kind of thing anymore.

I like that the new combat is faster paced and looks cooler, but they removed friendly fire which is just pandering to people who complained about the first game being too hard. They also removed the top down view...why?

Seems like there's no longer a need to spec rogues for lockpicking and trap disarming, and potions are automatically created when you pick up the ingredients rather than spending skills points on your mages to allow them to craft better potions. Isn't this supposed to be an RPG? This is just pure dumbing down of the game.

In DA2 you cant even change your companion's weapons or armor. Bioware's lame excuse is "so they'll have a unique and memorable look". I can still remember each Baldur's Gate 2 NPC just from their personalities and side quests. Maybe Bioware should focus on that more.

But my biggest gripe is being forced to play a fantasy version of Commander Shepard. One of the best things about DA1 was choosing your race and background and playing the unique intro stories, and how NPCs later in the game reacted to who you were. It seems Bioware decided this wasn't as important as satisfying the lazy people who wanted a voiced character instead of reading text.

[Azriel77]

Sorry, but I will not trust any review that comes from a game company that receives ad money from the very game company they are reviewing.

Bioware's philosophy is to look at the first game's feedback and identify what aspects everyone liked about it, and what people were love/hate on.

Step two: double down on what everyone liked, crystallize the gameplay along the lines of what worked best and was universally appreciated.

Step three: remove the chaff and that which was love/hate, while satisfying those who loved it if possible (such as the new vehicle missions in ME2 with a drastically improved planet-exploration vehicle).

If more devs took this approach, we'd seldom have so many failing second-efforts as we do now.

Like the person said earlier, dumbed down.

I didn't see much in the demo that was an improvement from DA1, or the removal of unnecessary elements. The dialog system is complete bullshit now, it's like Mass Effect where you choose one option and your character says short one-liners that are completely different from the text you chose. Seems like there's no way to act like a bad guy (at least in the demo), choosing the "evil" options only makes your guy sound impatient. When DA1 was coming out Bioware bragged "we have 800,000 lines of dialog, almost as much as Baldur's Gate 2!" Funny that a year later for the sequel they don't care about that kind of thing anymore.

I like that the new combat is faster paced and looks cooler, but they removed friendly fire which is just pandering to people who complained about the first game being too hard. They also removed the top down view...why?

Seems like there's no longer a need to spec rogues for lockpicking and trap disarming, and potions are automatically created when you pick up the ingredients rather than spending skills points on your mages to allow them to craft better potions. Isn't this supposed to be an RPG? This is just pure dumbing down of the game.

In DA2 you cant even change your companion's weapons or armor. Bioware's lame excuse is "so they'll have a unique and memorable look". I can still remember each Baldur's Gate 2 NPC just from their personalities and side quests. Maybe Bioware should focus on that more.

But my biggest gripe is being forced to play a fantasy version of Commander Shepard. One of the best things about DA1 was choosing your race and background and playing the unique intro stories, and how NPCs later in the game reacted to who you were. It seems Bioware decided this wasn't as important as satisfying the lazy people who wanted a voiced character instead of reading text.

THIS! I agree 100% The demo just reinforced everything I feared about the game. The selling point for DA1 was that it was OLD SCHOOL RPG! I felt nothing for any of the characters in the demo because I could not really INTERACT WITH THEM. It was no different than watching a movie, I felt very little control. It was simple yes/no, good,neutral, sorta bad choices. At the end of DA1 I had a strong bond with all my characters that I CARED about, because I could have a meaningful DIALOG with them. That means giving and taking, not just one liners. That is gone completely with this turd.

I will not be getting this until its goty AND in the bargain bin. Got plenty of backlogged games to play. I miss the PRE EAware merger, you know, when I had respect for bioware. That is long gone after the change from ME to ME2, and the DLC BS they are pulling (dont even get me started on witch hunt for DAO). Good bye bioware, it was nice knowing you.

[randir14]

I miss the PRE EAware merger, you know, when I had respect for bioware. That is long gone after the change from ME to ME2, and the DLC BS they are pulling (dont even get me started on witch hunt for DAO). Good bye bioware, it was nice knowing you.

I saw someone call them "BioWERE". Sounds about right.

[Anenome]

I felt nothing for any of the characters in the demo because I could not really INTERACT WITH THEM. At the end of DA1 I had a strong bond with all my characters that I CARED about. That means giving and taking, not just one liners.
Uh huh, I can read between the lines. You're talking about this, aren'tcha, you dirty dog you :P

yX8ex_mueeM

/gag :P

[randir14]

I just read a summary of a German magazine review that says DA2 only takes 12-15 hours to complete, and that "it doesn't feel long or epic".

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/988968-/58275255

[PopoWRX]

I just read a summary of a German magazine review that says DA2 only takes 12-15 hours to complete, and that "it doesn't feel long or epic".

That has to be wrong right? ME2 took like 30ish hours to finish full, which is what I am expecting of this. Twelve-fifteen hours for an RPG just sounds too short. Heck, it took me 30ish hours to finish DoWII+Chaos Rising recently on SP.

Hopefully they just zoomed through the main quest and didn't bother with any sides.

Ah thanks for the summary. So, 30 hours to finish in full like ME2, as I expected with a voiced protagonist. The clone cellars/caves has already been made mentioned in posts on the official forums so I have my disappointed face all ready for that. The rest of the negatives I won't get into but suffice to say, I'm not really happy about them either. In the end, I think the positives will outweigh the negatives.

[Coldeath]

ugh i am going have to say this but i liked the combat in DA1 better. The new combat system is great for spamming yay :( it good for console not so much for PC. Dialog thing well fook not a big fan i have to say. The skill tree well its the same just shown in a different way. TBO i would have liked to have seen the skill tree system from FF8 that big wheel thing.

over all i am sure it will be good but it just feels like another game that could have been truly epic is now going to be cut down to work better for consols. (where all the money is.)

Cant say that i blame them its just that its looking like I liked ME 1 and DA 1 better then there sequel.

[Anenome]

Me1 takes about 7 hrs to complete if you skip sidemissions. Me2 if probably beatable in a similar amount of time if you skip loyalty crap and barge into end-game :P

[Whimbrel]

I just played the complete PC demo last night. I thought it was fine, my son loved it, but I found the conversations to be halting and sluggish. There were long pauses between selecting responses and whatever happeend next. I was just wondering if this was a result of file compression in the demo or if it happened the same way for the full game. Anybody know?

Thanks!

[Jotoco]

Me1 takes about 7 hrs to complete if you skip sidemissions. Me2 if probably beatable in a similar amount of time if you skip loyalty crap and barge into end-game :P

ME2 is beatable in 5 hours no-side quests, and about 8~10 hours with everything completed.

My second run, which was a 100% run on the 2nd highest difficult setting took somewhere near 10hours, I think.

[randir14]

I just played the complete PC demo last night. I thought it was fine, my son loved it, but I found the conversations to be halting and sluggish. There were long pauses between selecting responses and whatever happeend next. I was just wondering if this was a result of file compression in the demo or if it happened the same way for the full game. Anybody know?

Thanks!

Never experienced that myself. I read other people saying "stuttering during conversations" was fixed in the full version, but I don't know if that's the same problem that you're talking about.

[MADxMrMike]

Im having fun playing the game. If you put it on nightmare you cause damage to your teammates and you have to be way more tactical. The only thing I do not like is that they reuse enviroments. That shit is so annoying and really takes you out of the experience. Still a cool game though.

[bean19]

Im having fun playing the game. If you put it on nightmare you cause damage to your teammates and you have to be way more tactical. The only thing I do not like is that they reuse enviroments. That shit is so annoying and really takes you out of the experience. Still a cool game though.
Nightmare gets me killed in a heartbeat. How do you manage?

[MADxMrMike]

Be a methodical mastermind aka spam pause... lol. seriously you have to manage all your party members skills and actions in each fight. manage tactics, healz, and potions. pause and think about who to attack. it's actually why I admire the game. it reminds me of SF. any Joe can "play" it but can they really play it? hehe... good times.