Dragon Age II

So in my Dragon Age review I began by asking “Can Bioware do no wrong?”   Apparently the answer is “Yes.”

I had originally mocked Bioware in my first review for taking 4 years to produce the first game.. Now suddenly that didn’t seem like such a bad idea, as Dragon Age II (DA2) the supposed successor, was rushed out the door in just over 8 months and it shows.  DA2 just doesn’t compare to Dragon Age – Origins (DA:O).

Now I realize that I’m giving the impression that I didn’t think DA2 was a good game, that’s not the case.. I think it was a good game by itself, but it just didn’t meet up with the expectations nor match the precedent that was set with DA:O.

So, I want to say that Yes, DA2 is a good game on its own merits.   But if you go in expecting DA:O version two, you’re going to be disappointed.

The thing I liked about DA:O was that it was an epic game, and epic in it’s story telling.  They did an excellent job in making the player feel like he was a part of a bigger world.   The game itself was fricken huge, with a lot of unique areas and places to go, things to see.. monsters to kill.. And there wasn’t a lot of repeating of those areas.

One of the biggest issues with DA2 is they constantly reused the same dungeon, cave, map over and over just blocking off areas to keep you from going there this time..  This gets old fast and the 10th time I went into a random cave only to be on the same map I have done previously, I got kinda fed up.  This was a really cheap way to reuse content and the game suffered a lot for it.   Take a couple extra months and give us more areas so we aren’t constantly walking in our own footsteps..

I did very much like how they told the story through the dwarf character, I thought that was quite clever indeed.. But it never “drew me in”.  I don’t really know why but I never really felt like I was part of the story, just an outside observer of it..

Plus they completely removed the customizability of the previous game with regards to gear and equipping your secondary characters, or even for your main character to have a secondary slot of weapons.. These things were staples of the first game, gone in the second.  Why?

Stability wise I think they missed the mark too as the game crashes on me quite a lot.  Of my friends though, apparently I am the only person that this happens to so I’m willing to accept that it’s me or my hardware.

Graphics and engine wise the game is as good as the first one, with the only notable difference is how you interact with your characters.   You can interact with your character more like a MMO than like the first game and that’s a good thing, though it may be playing a big role in how different the game feels.

Things that are better than the first game;

The Tactic System – The tactic system got better, thank you very much Bioware.  Huge points from me there.  However you still don’t have a “reset” tactic that can be used to turn stuff off when combat ends.   Still its better than the first game for sure and your characters seem to be smarter about following them.  I pretty much automated my characters completely and only played my main toon which was the whole point.  Every once in a while I had to actually pause the game and redirect, but for the most part that wasn’t necessary.   In the first game I pretty much paused every other second to redirect someone.

The Difficulty —  The game is actually fricken hard, when you play it on hard.   The first game I played on hard the first time through and impossible on the second time through without too much trouble.  This game, even hard is too dang hard.  That’s a good thing!  Hard should be hard.

Ranged Rogues — Ranged rogues don’t suck!  YAY!  Bows in the old game and ranged attacks in general were completely worthless..  The new game, not so much.. in fact not at all!  Thank you for this.

Magic — Magic in general seems much more impressive.  It not only does more damage but it does it with style.

etc..  Lots of little things that they did do better..  It’s just the feeling of the game is less epic.. Less grand..  Comparing it to another favorite franchise; Mass Effect 2 was a far better game than Mass Effect.   Dragon Age 2 wasn’t far better than Dragon Age – Origins.   It was just different…

I feel like if you loved Origins, you’ll hate DA2 or not really identify with it as much.  Where as if you really didn’t get into Origins, you’ll love DA2.

So it may be unfair to say that Bioware did wrong with DA2.  I just was expecting something different than I got..  I haven’t quite finished the game yet, I’ll knock it out and get back to you.

Dragon Age Logo

I ask you — can Bioware do no wrong?  Every game of theirs that I have played, I have loved.  Neverwinter Nights was kinda “Feh” but the concept was excellent even though the editor was horrible.   Mass Effect was fantastic forcing me to play it through like 4 times..  And of course the Baldur’s Gate franchise was awesome.. I played that game until my eyes bled, sought healing and then played it some more..

So when Dragon Age was announced at E3 way back in 2004 I was stoked..  Finally a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate done in a completely new style with modern graphics, fully voice acted and by the same developer.. *Gleeeee* I anticipated more costly eye healing.. As I was sure to play that game as much as I played Baldur’s Gate..

And then we waited.. and waited.. and waited..  Set the way forward machine now to 5 fricken years later… And FINALLY we have the game to play..

And it’s pure liquid awesome.. but I get ahead of myself..

I have to admit I think most game companies release information about their games way too early.. Bioware is extremely guilty of this and they still haven’t learned their lesson..  They released information about Neverwinter Nights way too early and it caused this massive hypefest that dwindled down to sarcastic jokes and disappointment by the time the game was finally released..  I don’t know for sure but I am more than willing to put money on the fact that it hurt their sales..

It also hurt them that Neverwinter Nights just couldn’t live up to type hype that was generated.. It was supposed to be a new kind of awesome, and it simply wasn’t.   Dragon Age on the otherhand didn’t get quite as much hype and it deserved it!  It’s a really good game.. I mean.. it’s stunningly good..  It’s quite possibly one of the best games I have ever played, and let me tell ya — that’s saying something..

Firstly, the game is beautiful.. Their engine is really coming along nicely and it serves the game extremely well..  Plus it’s not a CPU hog.. I play the game at 1920×1200 on a dual monitor system at max graphics 8xAA and get a solid 60 frames per second.. (I have v-sync turned on)..

Secondly, the entire game is voice acted.. and well too..  I like that.. suddenly you don’t have to read tedious story lines for hours and hours just to get some concept of whats going on in the game..

Thirdly, the game is fricken huge!!  They say it has 200 hours of play time, but I think it’s more.. I know I haven’t played 200 hours yet, but I have done quite a bit and my character isn’t 20% through the game yet .. (there is a stat that tells you how far you have gone).. Plus the way they have added downloadable content was clever so the game is forever expandable.. More over, when they announced the name change from “Dragon Age” to “Dragon Age: Origins” it sort of let us know that they have a lot of plans for this engine.  I anticipate quite a lot of new games / expansions to be released under the Dragon Age title..  But not only that, I am willing to bet that the new games (say for example the new Star Wars MMO) will use this engine too..

Finally, the game has good re-playability.. This game is basically 6 games in one in that you can play through it six times and have six different experiences.. Each “Origin” gives you a whole new perspective on the game and its cool..

I have a ton more I could talk about, like how the tactic system is cool and how the game can be played over the shoulder or isometric..etc.. But posting about this stuff is keeping me from actually playing the game and that just wont do..  Look.. go get the game.. this is one game that you must go get..

This game looked awesome! Everyone that played it said it was awesome and that I should rush out and get a console to play it — so needless to say I was really annoyed that it wasn’t a PC game and even more annoyed at folks telling me to buy a console.. But I was very excited when I heard it was eventually coming to the PC!

When it hit the shelves for the PC back in May I pretty much went and got it as soon as I could. (I was a couple days late, but a funeral will do that.. )

What an absolutely fantastic game! I maintain that Bioware is an awesome company and that they do good work. I have liked just about all of their games; Baldur’s gate was fun, BG2 of course was a good game, Neverwinter nights was well done, but had issues. And of course KotOR was fantastic. So I knew when I heard that Mass Effect was being put out by these guys, it was going to be a rockin game. Oh how right I was..

The game is so polished! I mean from character creation all the way through the end of the game, it just feels right, and works. Everything works! It is the closest thing to “playing a movie” that I have ever experienced.

What I love about it is that you can play the game differently multiple times through, choosing a different class, past, powers, weapons, armors, friends, missions, assignments, personality..etc.. and play the same game in a completely different way!

And whats awesome is, the game will play right along. The voice over actors will actually do different dialogs depending on your past history, your past actions, your current actions, and will correctly label you if you’re male or female! I really hope they got their money back on the sheer volume of voice acting they had to supply this sucker!

I can’t say enough good things about this game.. I want to salute Bioware! And to think they are currently working on Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3!! *GLEE* (though probably for the consoles first.. *grumble*)

I read quite a few posts about the game too and the biggest complaint is that it was short. Which boggles my mind. The first play through took me 25+ hours, and I didn’t do everything. There was still quite a lot of content that I didn’t do.. (I initiated the final end game mission without really realizing that was what I was doing.. but then.. I’m st00pid..)

25+ hours of game play, especially for a game you can play again in so many different ways, seems very reasonable. I mean other games of this nature didn’t have that much content.. Plus they are talking about releasing future downloadable content? Seriously..

This game very much rules.. In all likelihood you should get it…