Post by Steve Farrelly @ 10:37am 16/03/11 | 75 Comments
We decided to offer it up to the one person we know with no life; the guy who could give the game the hours it needed to be fully reviewed, and he didn't disappoint. Kosta Andreadis didn't sleep for a week and also never left the comfort of his bedroom, still at his parent's house (this fact, is actually true). But either way, he's served up the goods on one of the year's first major gaming releases - does it stack up to the legacy left with the first game, or even stand proudly alongside their other epic, Mass Effect 2?
Click here to read the review and find out.
Buy now from Green Man Gaming Only GBP£14.99!
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Posted 10:44am 16/3/11
Heh, 8.5?
Incoming uproar :P
(just in case thats a spoiler!)
Posted 11:04am 16/3/11
Posted 11:06am 16/3/11
One of the things that annoyed me the most was the dialogue. Choosing one option made Hawke day something completely different. An example, choosing to say "I am a mage" responds with "Mages should be considered equals". Very odd and frustrating.
Posted 11:09am 16/3/11
I think 7.5 is more reasonable score.
Posted 11:15am 16/3/11
Posted 11:30am 16/3/11
Will find the time for it some day regardless.
Posted 11:34am 16/3/11
Posted 11:39am 16/3/11
You are forced down narrow paths constantly, there is no friendly fire (I love friendly fire in DA:O), reduced character selection and other consoley features.
There are some good intra-party convos which are entertaining (Varric vs Aveline and Bethany vs elf fighter[name?]). The combat styling is much more interesting to play then DA:O.
Posted 11:41am 16/3/11
8.5 is higher than i thought you guys would give it. im 25hrs in and still loving it.
Posted 11:41am 16/3/11
Mass Effect 2 just felt like a dumbed down console game: a single button is used for run, cover, jump, interact, chat, etc. Shepard talks like a robot throughout the whole thing. No vehicles or planetary exploration (wtf mining?) The explorable area of the Citadel is tiny compared to the first game, no awesome out-doorish area. 80% of the game is spent piss-farting around doing useless quests that have nothing to do with the plot. Generally polished and nicely cinematic though, I've got to give them that.
Seems like they've dumbed down Dragon Age 2 too, so I might give it a pass.
Posted 11:45am 16/3/11
play fem shep, shes so much better.
theres is, its free dlc but its not to the same extent as the first game. exploring planets in first game was f*****g boring anyway.
Posted 11:58am 16/3/11
I've got the Steam version and I can't see any free DLC. I've signed up and everything, can only see DLC that requires points/credit.
(sorry to derail, but this seems to be a good place to discuss bioware stuff)
Posted 12:03pm 16/3/11
I would agree that it also does lack a sense of that Baldurs 2 gameplay feel (lots of item equipping, very open gameplay), it feels a lot more streamlined. Not that I don't like the streamlined approach, but DA1 for me was the first game in years that really felt like an oldschool western RPG, and DA2 feels like oldschool RPG genre just had its head cut off - thats my real issue with the game.
last edited by simul at 12:03:39 16/Mar/11
Posted 12:08pm 16/3/11
It wouldn't have been too hard to have the enemies coming running in from around corners or anything ESPECIALLY considering they reused so many dungeons/areas. Imagine the enemies yelling for reinforcements and the noise and battlecry's of the incoming forces as they run in.
With just a little more time this game could have been MUCH better, perhaps even worth that 8.5 score.
Posted 12:13pm 16/3/11
Posted 03:33pm 16/3/11
I reckon an 8.5 is a very fair review. The personal point of view of a gamer is never going to reflect the true value of any individual game so if I was to say that I'd personally score it at 7.5 (which I would) it's only because I'm comparing it to games I'd consider better or worse and not truly objectively on the games own merit as you would expect from a professional review.
It's interesting to see the varied responses and the things that seem to be the biggest issues for people though. I love story based games that are usually only found in the RPG genre but can't stand the barbie doll dress up and RNG game play that plagues such games so when those factors are toned down I'm stoked, particularly since it's rarer to find good storied titles without such boring aspects of the RPG game play. Others on the other hand seem to flip out over such omissions and rather than say the game play has been improved (DA:O game play was f*****g awful) they say it's been dumbed down and seem to act as if they have been personally wronged by the developers.
End of the day, I enjoyed the game and would recommend it to anyone who isn't a D&D nerd.
Posted 03:35pm 16/3/11
Posted 04:37pm 16/3/11
Posted 04:40pm 16/3/11
Posted 05:00pm 16/3/11
Posted 05:01pm 16/3/11
Posted 05:13pm 16/3/11
edit: also gravitic ring is op. i love it
last edited by ravn0s at 17:13:39 16/Mar/11
Posted 05:11pm 16/3/11
And they took away the top down view, which makes it harder to aim your area spells (so no ff is a good thing now at least), and if an enemy is at a different height to your team its near impossible to aim at them sometimes.
The game isnt bad and 8.5 is fair enough, but it doesnt bring anything new to the table.
Posted 05:12pm 16/3/11
Posted 06:47pm 16/3/11
login to you bioware account and go to:
http://social.bioware.com/user_entitlements.php
dlc with (cerberus network) next to them are the free stuff.
firewalker is the vehicle maps.
Posted 10:46pm 16/3/11
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/g3td7/dragon_age_2_conspiracy_highest_rated_metacritic/
Enginner at BioWare gives his own game a perfect 10 on metacritic. Doesn't tell people he works for BioWare so is probably a little biased.
Posted 11:17pm 16/3/11
That's f*****g hilarious
Posted 11:18pm 16/3/11
Posted 01:25am 17/3/11
Anyone seen of a review for this game where it gets slammed like it deserves?
Posted 01:11am 19/3/11
The real b****ing starts at 8:00 mins. He looks like he's about to cry. Oh and it has some spoilers.
Posted 08:44pm 20/3/11
Posted 09:06pm 20/3/11
Posted 09:10pm 20/3/11
Posted 09:14pm 20/3/11
Posted 10:21pm 20/3/11
Posted 10:22pm 20/3/11
did you find out a way to make your char walk everywhere or what?
Posted 10:29pm 20/3/11
Posted 10:37pm 20/3/11
Posted 10:39pm 20/3/11
much more fun with a rogue imo
rogue and 3 mages is a winner
Posted 10:48pm 20/3/11
Posted 10:57pm 20/3/11
edit: never mind, its possible in the first third of the game.
last edited by ravn0s at 22:57:25 20/Mar/11
Posted 11:11pm 20/3/11
I started skipping every single bit of dialogue after the first act.
Oh what's that? you're having a conversation? ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC until I could play again. Whilst initially non fussed, the voice acting really leaves a lot to be desired.
The 26 hours I spent to finish with every quest done was almost entirely in game, skipped through pretty much every single conversation.
Posted 11:15pm 20/3/11
Isn't the story a large part of the game? My flatmate told me yesterday that she skips ahead in books when she wants to know what happens. I almost disowned her.
Can I ask why? I've been putting it off, not sure if they did the right thing or not.
Posted 11:16pm 20/3/11
Posted 11:17pm 20/3/11
Posted 12:45am 21/3/11
no, i was a rogue, had bethany and the 2 other mages under my control for a fair while. took bethany with me undergound n she died so i only have 2 mages left now.
Posted 01:18am 21/3/11
I started with a male warrior but got pissed off with how he looked before I discovered the Emporium so went with a female mage for my first play through. I thought the voice acting was really well done until I went back to my male warrior and yeah, the actor did a pretty lousy job. The female voice is spot on though, comparing the males performance to the female is cringe worthy.
I also found Carver to be much more interesting as a character than Bethany.
I've found a bug where if you use one of the talent resetting potions and then save before you redo your abilities you can end up with some extra abilities when you load the save. I was able to get all 3 specialities doing that as even though some of the abilities have been selected already you still have all of your reset points.
Posted 07:01am 21/3/11
Spoiler:
Even if you don't take her down, she gets taken off you by the Circle of Mages/Templars
Posted 09:19am 21/3/11
yer hence my edit.
same, thats why i had him as my main tank in the beginning. after a certain event happened i had to use fenris who is a complete c*** imo.
Posted 05:48pm 21/3/11
I'm still not all that far through, but do you get a Qunari in your party at all in this game? I just did the quest where you take the Qunari Sarebas through the tunnels under the city to "rescue" him, and I thought for a little bit he might end up a party member which would have been pretty cool cos the sarebas look awesome, but alas it was not to be.
Posted 05:50pm 21/3/11
Posted 05:57pm 21/3/11
Posted 05:58pm 21/3/11
Posted 06:19pm 21/3/11
she has a welsh accent. all the other dalish are irish though.
nope. theres only merril, fenris, anders, varric, isabela and aveline.
Posted 06:25pm 21/3/11
When DA:O came out a lot of American players were angry that the Elves "Didn't have an accent", because for them fantasy characters should have foreign accents. I'm guessing that's why they all have Irish accents now. Merrill in the original game was voiced by an American, can't remember if the personality was the same since she is only in it at the start if you pick the Dailish Elf beginning.
I have to agree though, Merrills new voice suites her well.
Posted 07:01pm 21/3/11
Posted 07:05pm 21/3/11
I have never used Anders before since i've always taken Merrill instead. Usually I go for a full female team except for Fenris as he is a powerhouse.
Posted 07:08pm 21/3/11
Posted 07:11pm 21/3/11
Spoiler:
At one point in a conversation with isabella (after i had slept with merril) she asked me to go away with her after all of its done, so i just assumed thats why varric said that at the end. Did you not choice that option?
Posted 07:15pm 21/3/11
Spoiler:
i chose the option 'what about merril?' and isabela said she could come too.
Posted 07:22pm 21/3/11
Posted 07:29pm 21/3/11
EDIT - A mod in there to "fix" some of the stuff like Avelline's jay leno chin.
Posted 02:47am 23/3/11
the arishok as a mage, nothing hard about the fight you just benny hill it running in circles, freezing him then damaging as cooldown allows... but he has a bajillion hitpoints, and takes potions occasionally. So yeah just a f*****g retarded test of my patience seeing if i can be bothered playing for 30 minutes whittling down his health.. oh yeah and he has a one hit kill shot if my mind wanders and i let him near me.
With a different class/build/whatever maybe it wouldnt be so stupid, but f*** that s***.
Posted 07:54am 23/3/11
I also used my main as the tank, so I had some pretty decent stats for defence, but if I was to stand still I would have just got owned in about 30 seconds. Not sure what move of his that one shotted you, the one where he lifts you up with his sword? He didn't have anything that could kill me in 1 shot. He had lots of moves that made me fall on my arse, even with high con though.
Posted 08:52am 23/3/11
The reduction of menial quests is a good thing given the sheer number of them in the first act. The companion quests are usually not bad - but when I get a companion I don't really like it annoys me.
I'm a mage and my standard party is Fenris, Aveline & Varric. We pwn it up!
Posted 10:05am 23/3/11
i would like to see what you think about the high dragon in act 3.
yer he one shot my mage by doing that.
Posted 02:52pm 23/3/11
I cast sepll of easy mode.
Playing the game on hard, but for the rock wraith i dropped it to normal, will do same for this guy, maybe easy if i cbf.
Posted 03:19pm 23/3/11
Posted 03:26pm 23/3/11
I did drop it down to Normal for the High Dragon though, died heaps of times with a 2xMage, Rogue, Main combo but won pretty easy with a 2xRogue, War, Main setup. Hade to keep tanking control of Isabella to run away though as she was just pumping out damage and would rip hate off my Main (Tank)
The Sword Lift took about 1/5th of my health.
Posted 03:50pm 23/3/11
dragon is easy to kill, it just has a s***load of hp. arishok took me about 10mins to kill, dragon took at least 30 mins with 2 mages, tank and rogue. probably wouldnt have taken me as long if my companions didnt bug out and stop attacking. i had to keep pausing and assigning their next attack :/
Posted 04:13pm 23/3/11
The rock wraith had some lightning ranged attack which pretty much killed my guys straight off before he got to the big attacks, and when i saw i had done like 1 pixels worth of health bar damage to him i just cbf and dropped it to normal, and the fight was still pretty annoying just because it took aaages and you had to micromanage every c*** behind pillars constantly.
Posted 09:56pm 23/3/11
Yeah, I've noticed this at times too, but I don't think its restricted to just team-mate AI, I think its a problem with the AI in general because I've had it happen to monsters too. They spawn then just stand there doing nothing and not attacking anyone or coming after anyone even though they're clearly in aggro range. After I melt their faces a bit they usually realise "Oh theres people to attack" and start coming at me, but yeah, its odd.
Posted 02:18pm 22/7/11
Lesson learned: Don't go by demo gameplay.
Posted 02:41pm 22/7/11
Posted 02:50pm 22/7/11
Unless it's like Awakening, Awakening was friggin awesome, and played into the main storyline of DA2 so much in unexpected ways. :O