Review Dragon Age II Reviews @ RPS

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: BioWare; Dragon Age 2

<p>Rock, Paper, Shotgun have been <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/14/wit-the-opening-hours-of-dragon-age-ii/" target="_blank">immersing themselves</a> into the intricate world of <strong>Dragon Age II</strong>. Let's have a look at their initial impressions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It&rsquo;s safe to say that for the first chunk of the game, a good eight hours or more, I&rsquo;ve not enjoyed it at all. Which astonishes me, after Dragon Age: Origins gripped me from the opening moment and became an all-time favourite straight away. It has felt more like playing the beginnings of a tiresome MMO &ndash; just walking between quest markers because it will increase XP, barely interested in the story behind why. (If indeed it&rsquo;s divulged at all.)<br /><br />It&rsquo;s beginning to improve, which is why I&rsquo;m writing this now. I&rsquo;m so delighted Anders is back (even if he&rsquo;s minus Ser Pouncealot), and Merrill is beyond adorable. It&rsquo;s about time there was a decent Welsh character in a game! I hope in a few days time to be raving about the story once it kicks in, and the adventures I&rsquo;m having. Those ahead of me in the game tell me great things are on their way &ndash; emotional moments, epic situations, gripping tales. I really can&rsquo;t wait. But this is a terrible opening &ndash; a disjointed, ambiguous, emotionless start.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And a bit on quests:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I strongly dispute all those claiming all the quests make sense. They absolutely all do not &ndash; you find letters you can&rsquo;t read that contain information you&rsquo;re not told that cause people to change their minds about things they don&rsquo;t share. If you&rsquo;re lucky. Most of the time you run to a yellow marker and find out it had something to do with that thing you stumbled on earlier.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even a fair number of main quests are of that quality.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Additionally, they inflicted the <strong>Dragon Age: Legends</strong> facebook game experience upon themselves. <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/16/dragon-age-legends-review/" target="_blank">They know no pain</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Essentially, it&rsquo;s turn-based roleplaying in the Final Fantasy style. Two opposing squads of fighters line up against each other and take turns to stab/shoot/magick their enemies, with a spot of potion-glugging in between. There&rsquo;s an inventory, there&rsquo;s a skill tree, there&rsquo;s a store, there&rsquo;s even a surprising element of base-building &ndash; essentially a means of generating potions and the like. All well, all good, all a whole lot more than Facebook games generally offer.</p>
<p>Except you can&rsquo;t achieve a god-damned thing without spending some sort of virtual currency. It&rsquo;s the sheer levels of dependence built in, from all directions the tightening noose of prevented play: Crowns for potions, Crowns for energy to move to the next fight, Crowns to buy new loot, gold to upgrade your castle&hellip; And worst, worst of all, Crowns to buy a single-use horn that summons fighting companions.</p>
<p>You play as one character, but you cannot solo the game. You need allies. Allies will only ally with you once, then they bog off for a few real-time hours. Within 20 minutes of play, I&rsquo;d run out of guys to summon, and had to dip into my very meagre assignment of free Crowns to summon a couple back. That lasted about 10 more minutes. Then I was stuck, either by running out of the Energy required to move or by butting into a fight that required strong companions and strong potions to survive. Stuck. Unless I&rsquo;d spend.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Thanks to <span class="postbody">felipepepe and </span><span class="postbody">phanboy_iv.</span></em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

 

[Freelance Henchman]

It’s about time there was a decent Welsh character in a game!

lolwat?

 

[Pegultagol]

I guess Merril's accent was Welsh, I thought she had that disturbing inflection in her voice because of some blood mage corruption.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

But, she's a goddamn elf in a different oh fuck it whatever

 

[Jim Cojones]

BTW, about Merrill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOvMw3rlQCU

Bethesda's writing doesn't seem so bad in comparison. That's an achievement for BioWare.

 

[ortucis]

I thought Merril had a cute accent up until I realised that she was there just to test your patience. Making you nod happily to one retarded decision after another. It is amazing how BioWare manages to break any immersion they might have accidentally created. Every goddamn person you have in your team doesn't want to learn from their mistakes or wants you (player) to point out their flaws. You are there to just listen to them bitch about one thing or another while agreeing to go into every fucking suicidal side-quest they can come up with.


"Oh hey, Shepard Hawke. I have this mirror that can kill everyone with awesome demon blood magic thingie.. help me repair it for more XP?"

Hawke Shepard: ""

 

[Hamster]

I just finished DA2. WTF... Just WTF... The story went full derp in the end, the retardation rose to radioactive levels.



All Bioware games over the time were of different quality, but this is the first one that made me feel retarded for finishing it.

 

[ortucis]

A new low for BioWare. A HAMSTER managed to finish their game..

 

[Micmu]

All Bioware games over the time were of different quality, but this is the first one that made me feel retarded for finishing it.

You are for starting it in the first place.

 

[Miew]

Merrill is horrible.
Here's a quote: "Some adventurer I am - just set out and already daunted!"
That's so cheap. They don't even try to convey her personality through her actions or opinions, she just flat out states what type of character she is.
I usually don't mind bad writing in games all that much, but this is just annoying.

Also, isn't Hawke an apostate if you pick mage? Why is there a quest where you're looking for a runaway apostate and investigate the templars as well, who's sole task it is to hunt apostates, but the fact that Hawke is one, too, doesn't even come up or seem to bother anyone. Can't they tell that he/she is a mage and not a licensed one at that? Or were Bioware writers just too lazy to come up with something for the minority of players (according to Bioware player stats, obviously) who play a mage?

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

It’s safe to say that for the first chunk of the game, a good eight hours or more, I’ve not enjoyed it at all.

It's called "welcoming", silly.

Dragon Age: Origins gripped me from the opening moment and became an all-time favourite straight away.

Otherwise, I tend to agree with his impressions of DA2, if not with his enthusiasm. At least, they're his.

 

[tropic]

RPS had full-page ads for DA2 for 3-4 days or so after it came out. As soon as the ads went down, the review panning the game went up.

 

[Baron]

 

[Volourn]

"Every goddamn person you have in your team doesn't want to learn from their mistakes or wants you (player) to point out their flaws."

1. Isn't this true of all npcs in every game?

2. What 'huge' mistakes does Varric whine about and never learns from?

P.S. As for the whine about the raondom quests you pick up just by exploring, big deal, those aren't full quests, and how are they worse than the 'board quests' in DA1 (not that there was anything wrong with those either since it's all fukkin' optional).

This whining about DA2 while kissing other BIO games' asses when DA2 plays just like any BIO game is fukkin' hialrious and hypocritical!

 

[Hamster]

2. What 'huge' mistakes does Varric whine about and never learns from?

Varric and Arishok are the only true bros in this turdspawn of a game.

 

[easychord]

RPS had full-page ads for DA2 for 3-4 days or so after it came out. As soon as the ads went down, the review panning the game went up.

They are part of the Eurogamer network when it comes to things like advertising.

"Every goddamn person you have in your team doesn't want to learn from their mistakes or wants you (player) to point out their flaws."

1. Isn't this true of all npcs in every game?

No. It's just a bad habit some devs have fallen in to.

 

[Reptilian Shapeshifter]

This whining about DA2 while kissing other BIO games' asses when DA2 plays just like any BIO game is fukkin' hialrious and hypocritical!

Almost as "hialrious" as mantits!

 

[Quetzacoatl]

I don't think Biowhore can go anymore derp than this but who knows they can go the next step and give the DA2 treatment to another ip.

 

[Volourn]

"No."

Yes.

 

[Victor Dosev]

I strongly dispute all those claiming all the quests make sense. They absolutely all do not – you find letters you can’t read that contain information you’re not told that cause people to change their minds about things they don’t share.

- My mind imploded.

 

[attackfighter]

Which astonishes me, after Dragon Age: Origins gripped me from the opening moment and became an all-time favourite straight away.

Looks like another shitty review from another dumbfuck autistic fucktard that thinks DA:O is "EPIC material of the highest calibre!!!!!"

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

For reference, summoning a colleague back to the fight before his 2 hour recharge time is up costs 19 crowns (and will result in the next wait becoming 5 hours). So, for three times as much as buying a copy of Dragon Age II, I can buy enough crowns to respawn party members 315 times. That sounds like a big number. It isn’t. Factoring in the Energy required to play (29 crowns for 5 units of it, which is enough for one more battle, or very occasional two) as well, I suspect that wouldn’t get me much more than a week or two of not particularly intensive Facebook gaming. That is a guess, but I’m pretty convinced the sum total is nowhere near what you’d get for buying three traditional games (and especially RPGs).

Don't think I need a review to tell me that facebook games suck, but come on this has to be a new low. Look at those prices, micro transactions? Since when did 100 USD become a "micro" transaction?

 

[Alex]

...

Huh, I guess I must be mistaken, but this screenshot seems to imply you are able to pay real money for in-game items. I don't mean unlocking in-game items, I mean paying for in-game items. In a single player game. Now, I am almost sure I am being silly for thinking this, but what is this about?

 

[felipepepe]

...

Huh, I guess I must be mistaken, but this screenshot seems to imply you are able to pay real money for in-game items. I don't mean unlocking in-game items, I mean paying for in-game items. In a single player game. Now, I am almost sure I am being silly for thinking this, but what is this about?

Oh, of course not! Silly you, that would be ridiculous! $100 is the amount of money Bioware will pay you for wasting your time with this animated advertising for their new game! No sane person would pay for that, ha!

EDIT - Now in Ingrish: (Another paulista here, weird XD)

 

[commie]

For reference, summoning a colleague back to the fight before his 2 hour recharge time is up costs 19 crowns (and will result in the next wait becoming 5 hours). So, for three times as much as buying a copy of Dragon Age II, I can buy enough crowns to respawn party members 315 times. That sounds like a big number. It isn’t. Factoring in the Energy required to play (29 crowns for 5 units of it, which is enough for one more battle, or very occasional two) as well, I suspect that wouldn’t get me much more than a week or two of not particularly intensive Facebook gaming. That is a guess, but I’m pretty convinced the sum total is nowhere near what you’d get for buying three traditional games (and especially RPGs).

Don't think I need a review to tell me that facebook games suck, but come on this has to be a new low. Look at those prices, micro transactions? Since when did 100 USD become a "micro" transaction?

Welcome to the future of gaming. :/ As long as there are retards that stump up the money for such shit, the big companies will slowly begin to wonder why they are wasting their time and money on so-called AAA titles when they can pay a fraction of the development costs for a browser game, reach a lot more people and rake in the cash from the mouth breathers.