Dragon Age 2 is empty & sterile - now officially

[CrimsonAngel]

Good for what it is.

 

[Roguey]

Denerim and Orgrimmar part 2. As Volourn would say, *shrug*

 

[JarlFrank]

In the end they say "either Bioware has the worst marketing department in the industry, or the game is really still that unfinished so shortly before release"

 

[waywardOne]

In the end they say "either Bioware has the worst marketing department in the industry, or the game is really still that unfinished so shortly before release"

both.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Boring.

 

[Volrath]

Shit.

 

[Twinkle]

Banal.

 

[SCO]

The above poster is actually posting transparent gifs. I don't understand the purpose, unless it is actually a targeted attack on IE6 or something.

He is also roleplaying a female for some reason. Maybe he can hook up SMA?

 

[Luzur]

* Kirkwall, supposed to be the main city of the game, seems to be little more than an empty city with a few NPCs here and there. No city atmosphere to speak of
* lots of bugs
* frequent clipping and graphical errors

i was instantly reminded of Oblivion.

 

[Volourn]

"In the end they say "either Bioware has the worst marketing department in the industry,"

Sounds like the same things that were said pre DA release, and we know that turned out? Right? One of BIO's two most successful games.

Nope, there is absolutely nothing wrong with BIO (EA)'s marketing department.

 

[Excommunicator]

Nope just everyone else in that company. Including yourself Volourn

 

[Hamster]

I was at the game exhibition today and had a chance to play a bit of Dragon Age 2 on Xbox 360. Guess what? It was shit. Well, actually it's hard to form a comprehensive impression from such a short demo in such distractive environment, but what i saw was pretty bad.

The combat is just lame, you basically just click one button until all the darkspawn die in explosions of blood. Maybe it gets more complex later in the game, but it is already apparent that transition from rpg to action failed to provide sleek and enjoyable combat that Mass Effect 2 was praised for. And unlike ME2 Dragon Age's combat wasn't broken in the first place. Combat from original Dragon Age actually felt more visceral and brutal than DA2's bullshit.

Dialogues were just... inane. In addition to being very short they are just pointless. For example, right after the start Hawke with his sister and mother are running from the darkspawn. Darkspawn are just 5 meters away, behind a firewall and suddenly Hawke's mother says something like "We lost everyhing we had because of the darkspawn" and your options are something like this:
- I am sorry, mother (marked with an olive branch)
- Look at the bright side (marked with a purple mask)
- We have to move on (marked with a red fist)

Ok, this makes very little sense. First line i can deal with, hawke is good but stupid, ok. What does second line mean? Is this supposed to be Hawke making a joke to lighten up mother's mood? This is completely interchangable with good option then. Is third line supposed to be the "bad" one? Hawke is evil for suggesting not to have emotional scenes when you are chased by darkspawn? Or he is not evil, but merely inpatient? Why a good guy can't be impatient? I see these option as interchangable and failing to characterize Hawke in any way, all three fit a good character pretty well. They are pointless. It's not even flavour choices with no consequences, it's choices without both flavour and consequences.

Also, it's quite hard to guess what exactly will Hawke say. Another example: you are fighting darkspawn and sudenly a templar who looks like Alistair appears (reusing charachters again, eh?). He sees your sister , who is an apostate, and starts to preach how apostates are evil according to the Chantry. But after being told not to start a fight when surrouned by darkspawn, he agrees, and politely greets you in an official manner. Then you can choose following dialogue option:
- "You are very gentle for a templar" (marked with purple mask, i guess it means sarcastic tone).
And Hawke actually says this:
- "Wrath of the templars is terrible indeed".

Wtf? How are these two lines connected? One is not a summary of another, they are two different sentences of equal length. What the fuck does second one even means?

I stoped playing at this point, thats worse than "So you are fighting a good fight?"



But again, i have seen very little of the game, like 5 minutes from the start or so.

 

[Relay]

"
* Kirkwall, supposed to be the main city of the game, seems to be little more than an empty city with a few NPCs here and there. No city atmosphere to speak of "

What's the difference with the original DA ? Most NPC didn't have anything meaningful to say, they didn't have quests to give because 90% of the sidequests were oneliners on a bulletin board. How can it be worse than DA ? it wouldn't just be empty, it would have to be a fully working artificial black hole to be worse.

So much for the "spiritual successor" of Baldur's Gate 2 that had more content packed in one city than DA in its entirety. Not to mention the atmosphere.. I've never seen a city in a RPG that felt as fleshed out and alive as Athkatla was in BG2.

Did Bioware fire all the employees who worked on BG2 or what ? What brought this sudden change from BG2 to TurdWinter Nights ?

Dialogues were just... inane. In addition to being very short they are just pointless. For example, right after the start Hawke with his sister and mother are running from the darkspawn. Darkspawn are just 5 meters away, behind a firewall and suddenly Hawke's mother says something like "We lost everyhing we had because of the darkspawn" and your options are something like this:
- I am sorry, mother (marked with an olive branch)
- Look at the bright side (marked with a purple mask)
- We have to move on (marked with a red fist)

It's neither better nor worse than the first DA. Don't you remember the human origin with the stupid noble family ? god I wish it was a sandboxy game and I could kill them the moment they open their smelly mouths.
Bethesda got that right, I ought to be able to kill people who annoy me greatly.

 

[racofer]

I was at the game exhibition today and had a chance to play a bit of Dragon Age 2 on Xbox 360. Guess what? It was shit.

 

[hoverdog]

Bethesda got that right, I ought to be able to kill people who annoy me greatly.

plot-related npc much?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

So much for the "spiritual successor" of Baldur's Gate 2 that had more content packed in one city than DA in its entirety. Not to mention the atmosphere.. I've never seen a city in a RPG that felt as fleshed out and alive as Athkatla was in BG2.

I wouldn't call Athlatla either fleshed out or alive in particular. It's not exactly Tarant. What Athlatla is however, is stunning audio-visual design.

 

[Hamster]

"
It's neither better nor worse than the first DA.

DA had normal dialogue trees where you pick actual responces so it wasnt' a problem there.

 

[DalekFlay]

"
It's neither better nor worse than the first DA.

DA had normal dialogue trees where you pick actual responces so it wasnt' a problem there.

DA:O also had tactical combat, whether it was as good as Baldur's Gate's or not. I'm worried this game will just be "mash button to make things die." They keep fucking insisting on their forums that isn't true though, but all the previews for the game say it is. Who to believe?

Well, not to side with Bioware completely but let's all remember they pretended Dragon Age: Oriigns was a completely different game than it really was in their marketing and preview interviews. It seems abundantly clear that Bioware have no faith in a tactical RPG's marketing appeal, so maybe... just maybe... they are hiding the return of the tactical depth of the first game.

Maybe.

 

[racofer]

DA:O also had tactical combat, whether it was as good as Baldur's Gate's or not. I'm worried this game will just be "mash button to make things die." They keep fucking insisting on their forums that isn't true though, but all the previews for the game say it is. Who to believe?

It will be tactical button mashing.

 

[Volourn]

"Nope just everyone else in that company. Including yourself Volourn"

K.


"The combat is just lame, you basically just click one button until all the darkspawn die in explosions of blood."

Sounds like FO.


"So much for the "spiritual successor" of Baldur's Gate 2 that had more content packed in one city than DA in its entirety."

bULLSHITZ.



"I wouldn't call Athlatla either fleshed out or alive in particular. It's not exactly Tarant. "

Athkatla > Tarant. No fuckin' contest.

 

[GarfunkeL]

R00fles!

 

[Melcar]

Bullshit.

 

[Hamster]

God of War III: Playing as Kratos' Brother

VS

Hawke from Dragon Age 2

What the fuck?

 

[Black]

"

Bethesda got that right, I ought to be able to kill people who annoy me greatly.

Remember killing the dad and annoying kids in fo3?
Yeah, me neither. Good times. They got that right indeed.

 

[Excommunicator]

This game is still being advertised as an RPG, isn't it? Wow.

The truths that have been revealed in this thread are even beyond the inanity I expected from the game. This game is seeming to be absolutely without merit. Bioware are truly manipulative and without integrity when it comes to treating their claimed audiences with honesty and respect.

They seem to say everything they possibly can to make as many people as interested as possible, then deliver a game to as many people as they can get to make an optimistic and yet utterly misled purchase. There is so little consistency between their sequels that they obviously don't understand how to make a game for any other purpose than make as much money as possible.