Dragon Age II: now more like Mass Effect 2

[Brother None]

They made it quite clear that their focus was on delivering a better-quality game, not a bigger one for the sake of being bigger.

Ooooh! A focus on better quality! So that's why they cut down the development time.

Now, I would argue that if they had more resources available than on the first game due to being with EA.

They don't. EA's investment is primarily in The Old Republic, BioWare coulda made this game by itself. Only then they wouldn't have had to rush it due to contractual obligations to produce a minimum number of AAA titles per year.

 

[LinkPain]

Personally, I do not mind that they shave off 10 hours from the game if it means less filler content like the overly long Deep Roads or the boring Job Boards.

But why? Deep Roads where the best dungeon in the game for me. As a main quest part that is. Every part of the roads had it's purpose, it's story and variety. It wasn't boring go kill everyone and that's it, remember the Shale quest and that kid who turned darkspawn for instance. Remember the Legion and those big gates. It wasn't just a simple filler. It was very difficult also compared to the rest, even more than Denerim at lower levels. They aren't called Deep Roads for nothing, it's almost like a passage throughout history. And job boards were good for the most part among some boring like Mage Guild or Blackstone Irregulars where it was mostly fetch something. Thieves had an awesome side quest in Denerim. In my opinion only Denerim streets could be called the filler type of the game, too many are there for killing thugs and no other point in it.

And i think they shaved off a lot more than it looks in DA2. They appreciated every criticism based on DAO not being like the ME and changed it in that way. Someone might say how does them make different than Bethesda (Fallout 3-Oblivion) now. Sure they don't have any "duuuuh,i click must,kill,duuuuh" games but planing everything to be similar like ME is a shame really considering how many good games they made way back.

 

[Ausdoerrt]

Ugh, Deep roads may have been a decent idea conceptually, but they dragged on so impossibly long that they more or less put me to sleep.

 

[Ravager69]

Ugh, Deep roads may have been a decent idea conceptually, but they dragged on so impossibly long that they more or less put me to sleep.

With not enough content to keep it entertaining.

As for DAII, I wonder how they went from

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOESUiptmCM&feature=fvst[/youtube]

to

The debut trailer was really good, to be honest. Looks like they got lost in concept along the way.

And I sure as hell ain't playing a two-handed warrior or dual-wield rogue.

 

[Brother None]

That debut trailer is the same idea, just with better graphics and cinematography. It's overly large weapon, shitty art design, manga-esque shit. Just like the final product. The quality is different but the concept is the same.

 

[LinkPain]

White hair , big fucking sword , drop the big beard , add guns . Approved !

Since DmC one looks like a fkin drug addict . Just need some more constitution

 

[Ilosar]

@ Linkpain: I actually agree with Ausdoerrt on that one. They could easily have removed half of Caridin's Cross and Orthan Thaig (keep the bosses, of course), not to mention Aeducan Thaig which was more or less recycled from the Dwarf Noble origin. The Dead Trenches were great, so was the Anvil (the ''traps'' could have been better, however), but before that it was mostly a boring slog through more and more spiders/darkspawn. The Job Boards had too much ''bring me X of that'' stuff, especially since they were at the beginning of their respective questlines when there was one.

@ BN: All true, but for me some time playing the demo made me almost numb to the silly animations, I am much more interested in actual combat mechanics and story and both seem improved in DA2 from what I saw. Still, here's hoping the toolset is released and modders can possibly change dual-weapon and 2-hander animations, I find the rest to be perfectly fine even if the sword and board one is a bit repetitive.

 

[Brother None]

Combat is at best not worse. Not being able to pan out the camera in a command-based game is annoying, as is not being able to queue commands, as is the whole interface.

The story looks bad even at a first glance. Two DRAMATIC deaths within half an hour? That's a joke.

 

[LinkPain]

@Ilosar
OK, but which dungeon isn't half boring anyway ? Or doesn't have areas repeated in some way. But i have to agree with both of you on the length, Deep Roads were the longest of all in the game.

Is anybody really liking this combat and it's unrealistic movements ? You know, like shield pummel with blood splashing more than in Takashi Miike movies or Dragon May Cry stylish moves. Does anyone think it's actually an improvement from DA:O?

 

[Crni Vuk]

No not really I already had the feeling the "gore" was pretty much overdone in DA:O. But it was acceptable after some time particularly as you could tourn it off. But those "super hero awesomesoze kicks" and such really take the fun away in my eyes. I would not mind acrobatics if the animations would be at least great. But they aren't so it just looks ridiculous.

I think Bioware did a lot of wrong with it. People can say what they want but this definetly IS consolified ... in many ways.

X-Bawks killed the Computer Star!

 

[Ravager69]

Is anybody really liking this combat and it's unrealistic movements ? You know, like shield pummel with blood splashing more than in Takashi Miike movies or Dragon May Cry stylish moves. Does anyone think it's actually an improvement from DA:O?

The only improvement I can tell is that the PC is actually trying to kill something with the swings. DA:O was way to slow in animations, except for the rogue's Momentum-boosted slashes. On the other hand, DAII has way too many area-of-effect skills, everything can hit at least 3 enemies, save for the most basic of attacks. In Origins, being able to hit multiple enemies was reserved for the strongest attacks and you really had to save them during longer fights for critical moments and make best of your reserves. DAII is very much forgiving in the matter of using your skills.

 

[LinkPain]

My point exactly, like they can't find a medium level. I love rogues and tend to play with them almost always, but seeing him jumping 10 times in a row on one enemy or kicking explosive pots is a little too much of epicsomness .

 

[Ausdoerrt]

OK, but which dungeon isn't half boring anyway ? Or doesn't have areas repeated in some way. But i have to agree with both of you on the length, Deep Roads were the longest of all in the game.

TOEE dungeons. Watcher's Keep in BG2. etc. If you make an expansive dungeon you better as hell fill it up with fun encounters/challenges/secrets/traps etc. Not just be a bunch of convoluted tunnels filled with generic enemies.

@combat style: I love DMC series (and spinoffs like Chaos Legion) to death, but that stuff doesn't fit into a RPG, especially one that's leaning more towards "tactical" party combat and not h&s. Flashy battles still need an appropriate game system supporting them.

 

[Gaddes]

I downloaded the demo on my PS3, and it was indeed horrid. I agree the combat was very DMCish, but that's not what I want in an RPG...at all. Not impressed Bioware, not impressed at all.

 

[LinkPain]

Shepard Hawke, only name for my character that i can think of. Sounds so badass too.
Hmmm Renegade John Shepard Hawke...nah too long.

Shepard is the default name of almost every main hero from sci-fi series .Can think of Stargate Atlintis only now, Firefly had Shepard but he wasn't the main. But where did they dig Hawke out from i wonder, anyone has an idea about that?

 

[C2B]

I downloaded the demo on my PS3, and it was indeed horrid. I agree the combat was very DMCish, but that's not what I want in an RPG...at all. Not impressed Bioware, not impressed at all.

Apart from the joke. What?

It doesn't even have close to the control depth of the DMC system. Dynasty Warriors maybe.

 

[Atomkilla]

Dynasty Warriors, definitely.
Though Dynasty Warriors are actually entertaining.

 

[Gaddes]

I downloaded the demo on my PS3, and it was indeed horrid. I agree the combat was very DMCish, but that's not what I want in an RPG...at all. Not impressed Bioware, not impressed at all.

Apart from the joke. What?

It doesn't even have close to the control depth of the DMC system. Dynasty Warriors maybe.

You're right. I should have been much clearer. I actually like the DMC series. Dynasty Warriors sounds about right, but DW is certainly more fun than DA2 lol.

 

[Alphadrop]

Escapist review just compared it to Fable's combat, and then said it was good.

Also the dialogue is amazing and the visuals are the best thing ever in an RPG, also this is the most RPGish of RPGS. The video review didn't actually mention any RPG elements though, unless spam A for awesome flips is an RPG mechanic.

 

[Ausdoerrt]

Any "RPG" whose combat is compared to WoW is fail in my book.