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- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Release Date: Mar 8, 2011
- Also On: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
User Score
Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 4170 Ratings
User score distribution:
Positive: 1,376 out of 4170
Mixed: 522 out of 4170
Negative: 2,272 out of 4170
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Mar 10, 2011Faster combat. Decisions that could bite your ass in the long run. Top notch voice acting. Just like what Bioware did in the Mass Effect franchise, they improved every aspect of the game. People afraid of innovations should go live in a cave or fully embrace what Bioware did with this franchise. Dragon Age II is an instant classic.
Mar 9, 2011Dragon Age II is one step forward and three steps back compared to the previous game. On the one hand, you have a solid (if very linear) story, well made graphics and ... well those are the only positives I can really give. The interface has been simplified, lacks any of the nice design and art of the first game, the characters are mostly flat and dull, areas much smaller, interaction with the world has been severely limited, the combat has less tactics and is more scripted not to mention the game is far too easy on normal and you basically end up spamming every ability and spell while making sure no-one croaks. Do that, and you can easily survive in "hard" mode. Sorry, but that's not how RPGs are supposed to work. On top of that, the game makes so many more mistakes - no free-roaming camera to oversee battles, no way to gear up your team mates or swap gear (meaning every piece of armour or ring you pick up, you have to wear), dialog has become ridiculously simple with the dialog choices having virtually no impact. This is essentially Mass Effect: Fantasy Edition - taking all the stuff that made Mass Effect 2 less fun than the first Mass Effect and jamming it into a game which sold millions and was loved by many.… Expand
Mar 9, 2011mass effect with swords. the game is so horrid its not even worth my time to write a review about it.
I don't believe anyone could give this game a good score. I'm thinking, the reviewing sites (gamespot etc) are scared bioware won't give them any more interviews, which is why they gave it an 8, instead of a deserved 3 or 4.
the game is not dragon age 2, simple as that. if you want to make another mass effect, use a different franchise name, instead of insulting dragon age fans.… Expand
Mar 9, 2011Honestly, Dragon Age 2 is a significant improvement over Origins. Faster combat animations have been implemented while keeping the system largely the same
The graphics look better both technically and artistically, and there are no more ugly brown environments
-Player character is actually voiced this time, so no more silent awkward animations while talking
-RPG interfaces have been redesigned to be more balanced and easier to access and manage
The story is told in a unique way, and really draws you in
And the companions are far more diversified rather than just stereotypical princes, dwarves, witches, etc.
Everything is improved aside from the fact that the game largely takes place in the city and the Elves facial design look somewhat weird. I don't understand why some people hate the game for the small changes that took place. Just give the game a try and soon you'll be caught up in its universe.… Expand
Mar 24, 2011Dragon Age 2 was destined for division among its fan base since it was first revealed to the gamer community. Many people complain that the game has been dumbed down and that it was stripped of its personality. Having beaten the game, I can't help but wonder if any of these negative reviewers actually played more than the first act. Lets start with the story. DA:O's story felt like a template made from every other Bioware game ever, you're a hero, gather allies, go kill this, DA2 took a different approach and never shows you the whole conflict until the end, instead choosing to hint at the epic battle to come. I found it easy to step into the shoes of Hawke, who made me feel like a unique and powerful character. While Hawke can only be an human, you can still change his/her appearance and his/her story feels more developed than the seven origins in DA:O.which changed nothing except for a few cameos throughout the game. Combat has vastly evolved, Bioware chose to make combat more stylish and fun to watch. Warriors no longer run like they have lead weights for feet, and mages don't prod uselessly with one recycled staff animation. Your new companions are better developed then Origins' as well. Origins feature the standard stoic knight, the standard evil sorceress, and the standard elderly wizard, ect. DA2 developed characters that I connected with, that I learned to love or hate, or feel sorry for. The moral choices you make in the game are no easier than they were in Origins, just better organized. The wheel doesn't dictate the morality of your choice, just the stance Hawke will take. For example the top right option is usually friendly, but being friendly with a blood mage isn't always a good thing. Finally, Kirkwall proved to be a far more dynamic setting than DA:O. Kirkwall is much larger than Origins Denerim, and it has much more personality. Kirkwall is a sin city of crime and corruption, and it makes for some interesting encounters.
However, DA2 does have obvious faults that make me feel like it was a little bit rushed. Dungeons and caves are often copy pasted for other quests. So when you've seen one underground cave, you've seen them all.There is also no longer a speech or intimidation skill, so some sticky situations can only be resolved if you say the right things and get lucky. The graphics are still substandard to many other titles on the market, but no one seemed to care when Origins came out, so I'm confused why everyone cares now. The top down view has also been removed from the game, which may bother some (myself not included) but fortunately the designers retained the tactical pause function. Also some of the violence in the game can be over the top, which sometimes made the game feel silly instead of dark and moody. Enemies exploding from a dagger strike may be a little much for realism fans.
Overall, Dragon Age 2 is a step in a different direction, but I think its the right direction. DA2 isn't simplified, just streamlined and more focused then before. Fans waiting for Baldur's Gate 3 will be disappointed that this franchise isn't the game they were waiting for, but that shouldn't take away from what DA2 does well. Despite some rushed design, I enjoyed DA2 more than I did DA:O. If your willing to look past some of the flaws, then maybe you will to.… Expand
Mar 9, 2011Just dire. Did not think BioWare could make games this bad. Is it the EA effect? This is neither a proper action game nor a proper RPG - it's some mutant ugly hybrid trying to appeal to both types of gamer, and failing. And a cliffhanger ending? So much for epic story - just an ad for some DLC or DA3. The graphics are worse than Dragon Age 1, like some 2005 console port. The combat is just a button mashing cartoon, dumbed down from DA1. LOTS of things have been cut. It's short - like 12 hours for the main campaign. The characters you meet feel lifeless, and the same scenery is recycled. To hide this, BioWare stuck in lots of bink cinematics and sex scenes. Get ready to be fleeced with tons of DLC now that will raise the cost of this disgusting trainwreck to over $100. Last BioWare game I buy â… Expand
Mar 8, 2011The slovenly PC gamer review is the worst of all. Everything I want to say has been said. Save your money and teach Bioware a lesson
That is all...
Mar 9, 2011One of the most overrated games ever, second to Treyarch's works. You say graphics are good? In my opinion old Dungeon Siege looks better and juicier. Game looks like poor MMORPG. Dialogues are flat, boring, predictable, and trying so hard to be epic, that are actually parody of RPG genre. The whole history of hero's family is like "The Bold and the Beautiful" or "Dallas" with dragons. The most funny thing is the masturbation mode for 12 y.o.: dragon-sized boobs everywhere. Hell yeah, I just drowned in epicness, singing the song of the old days. What is good? I really don't know, maybe music here and there? This game is not BAD, it deserves more than 3.0 (user score at the time I'm writing) - I'd say it's something between 5 and 6 (7 if you really love dragons). It still offers adventure and ugly creatures to kill and for sure it's better than Arcania.. But in order to balance these crazy optimistic rates I give it 1. Because I have enough of this stupid trend, that if BioWare made this, or Bethesda made that, or some part of the title says "Call of Duty", than we give 8 or 9 at the very beginning and then we play the game. No, folks, all the glitters is not gold! And Dragon Age 2 don't deserve to be called VERY good game (8/10), fantastic game (9/10) or masterpiece (10/10). This game has nothing more to offer, than dozens of similar RPG games. My score is my protest against such practice mentioned above. (Sorry for bad spelling).… Expand
Mar 25, 2011Pros: Combat is more fluid and fun, graphics are of high quality if un-optimized on the PC, texturing is attractive
Cons: Single location, multiple reuse of maps, missing main story/thread, random quests that pop into and out of your journal, seem to have little effect on the world, lackluster companions with fewer and more black and white dialog choices
TLDR: Ultimately tedious and pointless.
Mar 22, 2011This has been review bombed because it's the cool thing to do, however I am going to review the game based on my 40+ (and counting) hours I have spent on it. Currently on my 2nd playthrough. First, my credentials: I'm a hardcore girl gamer. I spent countless hours on Baldur's Gate, NWN, Planescape Torment, Mass Effect to name a few, and of course DA:O. Second of all, I absolutely love it for some inexplicable reason, which may have something to do with a rather engaging story requiring a lot of your input and attention, fast paced visceral (not just a buzz word) combat, beautiful looking art, some cute injokes (about the world being too brown, lulz) amazing attention to detail, a levelling system that is simplified but actually makes more real world sense than the previous one did, non-repetition (something I had a big gripe with in DA:O) and some neat throwbacks to your imported DA:O save. I have ALWAYS wanted to see where my character choices would take me over time, so it is extremely gratifying to be able to play over multiple years and really have a big impact on the events of the game, rather than just playing through them. My favourite thing about RPGs is designing characters, and in Dragon Age 2 they've allowed you plenty of room to shape Hawke how you want. There's also the thing where no matter what speech option you pick, Hawke comes off sounding completely badass and awesome. The voice acting is phenomenal. It's also worth noting that every character is voiced and lip-synched, you don't do any reading. Not long ago that was unheard of. I was unprepared for how emotionally invested I got into this, which is party why I'm rating it so highly. I really cared when... okay no spoilers, but there are some character deaths that kind of got to me. At first I was determined to play a "renegade" character, but I found myself responding to conversations with the choices I really would pick in real life, because I was so damn invested.
One other thing I really want to mention is that I am replaying immediately after finishing the game, as I can't bear to think about all the stuff I missed by choosing certain options. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. Why it's not a 10/10: Some things were dumbed down too far, like conversation choices. It by no means stopped me from enjoying the game, but micromanagement is a popular hobby of a lot of hardcore gamers, so it's nice to have the option there. Secondly, it's too short, and the ending is rushed, I'm guessing this is because Bioware are looking forward to rolling out masses of DLC to us. I did notice the price on steam was a bit less than what I paid for DA:O on release date, (as far as I recall I paid $100 for it, which is common with AAA new releases, keep in mind I'm Australian and everything is expensive) paying $70 for a new release is a little easier to swallow. Awakening was a great expansion, so I'm up for more of that. Anyway, I just wanted to balance out the negitivity as I have really enjoyed this game and it's up there with ME2 for me. A lot of people had a whinge about how bad DA:O looked when it came out, and I have to wonder if they bothered playing it on a decent PC. These games look great pumped up to max settings. If you can't run those, then don't whinge. If you have a PS3, reflect on your inability to upgrade your video card.
Seriously guys, stop looking for flaws and just enjoy it. It's not a perfect game for the reasons I stated above, but it really is worth playing for anyone remotely into the fantasy genre. I'm curious how many hours some of the other reviewers here spent on the game. Did they just play the demo? I thought the demo made the game look pretty **** actually. It's apparently cool to hate on big companies (that secretly review their own games) but it's not cool to just jump on a bandwagon without evaluating something for yourself first. I tell you what though, I am damn well sick of killing abominations. Makes me almost want to lock those mages up. Sorry Anders, that was a joke. I DIDN'T MEAN IT ANDERS.… Expand
Mar 22, 2011Pros: Ambient music is nice and not intrusive. Voice acting, the characters are believable. The storyline is all right thus far. Some eyebrows raised at Aveline, but. The Qunari are excellently portrayed, even the physical changes seem right. Cons: The graphics are on par or worse than the original. The camera keeps shifting up, obscuring large portions of the field unless you use the keyboard. Combat is way too quick, it allows little or no time for strategy or adjustments, it's usually over before you have time to implement them, anyway (it literally took about 10-12 hours before I had to use my first health potion.) The characters are way too far away, meaning you often have to squint to figure out what the hell you're doing. Sets are constantly recycled, even in the main storyline. I can understand side-quests, but you could have crapped out a level or two for the main line. And, the minimap does not accurately reflect the area. Bioware, seriously, what the hell were you thinking? Barely playable, definitely not worth $60. Dragon Age 2 was seriously rushed. Ten of these cons are easily fixable with a little time and beta testing. Didja skip a step? And, to the critics: What game were you playing, and or/smoking? I'll take both.… Expand
Mar 8, 2011Great game so far! For the equipment customization options we have lost we got much more developed and usable skill tree's and a major graphics overhaul if you have the rig for it. The combat is fast and exciting, maybe a little too fast, and the animations are a nice change from the clumsy puppet show motion of the last one. The tatics screen is far better worded and actually useful. The downside is your toons seem to be overly dependent on it to actually trigger any of their skills. My tank lady absolutely refused to used shield slam till I scripted it in.
My only complaints are so far it has seemed very on rails (3 hours in), almost as much movie as game. And in cities its frustrating having to run around with you tab key held down so you can actually find the vendors etc. The inventory screen is reminiscent graphically of x-com and looks slightly rushed to market.… Expand
Mar 8, 2011I can rant a lot about the game-play being horrible, the graphics being sub-par, the CC being plain dumb; but the real thing that pisses me off is the story. This game has an awkward plot and an ending that made my eyes bleed in horror. It is unbelievable that I paid 60 dollars for a completely needless cliffhanger ending. Someone has got to answer for this crime against gamers in general...
Mar 9, 2011Somehow my previous review magically disappeared. I don't know how that can happen but i guess metacritic either deleted it or it got flagged? (based on the sincereity of my other reviews i don't think i was being a troll or a guy who ate too many sour grapes). Anyways...WNxWind pointed me out in his review that i have never played the game and am bashing it to the ground without any understanding of it. Although at the time of my previous review(early yesterday) i have only played the game for 4 hours, i felt that i have experienced enough to review DA:2. I won't be repeating what i have wrote again, i'll state that this game has been a real let down. Wake up bioware.… Expand
Mar 8, 2011I am extremely disappointed by Dragon Age 2 as a RPG game style, but if you can cast away the nostalgia of Baldur's gate, you'll find a good game nevertheless. Too bad this series have to continue like that, since the previous system was so much better... Why did they want to butcher the combat system like that ? They should have tried to improve it, not drastically change it ! On hard difficulty, it feels like a hack'n slash ! But sadly, this is how developers tend to do their games... And sadly, it works beautifully. I won't say this game is stupidly bad, it's not. It's a good game, but far from being a real sequel to one of the best RPG of these last years, The Witcher included. I guess we'll have to wait for The Witcher 2.… Expand
Mar 8, 2011How the mighty have fallen. Bioworse does it again. Making a really great game, then completely destroying the sequel. Where do we even start with this? Dragon Effect II stars Hawke, a faceless human only hero. (Why did I even play a dwarf in the orginal?) That is destined to lead his friends to greatness. The first thing you will notice is the completely lack luster character creator, that they literally cut&pasted from the first game, give or take a few UI changes. It sports less choices, less variety, and terrible lighting. Don't even get me started on the EXACT same hair styles from the first game. The dialog wheel is a step back from origins and makes the game feel more and more like Dragon Effect II. The combat, while being faster, and incredibly flashier then Origins leaves little room for any real tactics, and thinking before engaging in battle. This too feels like a step backwards. After an hour or two you might grow incredibly bored with the combat, seeing as how even origins has decent blocking/parrying animations.
Rogues lacking backstabbing bonuses, and mages lacking tons of skills that I enjoying using from the first one is a disappointment. It all seems very watered down for a younger/mass audience. The graphics are absolutely sub-par, at best. Some how Bioware managed to make the second game look worse than the original. WAIT THOUGH, if you want to, you can visit their site, and download a high-res pack that was mysteriously not even included in the game itself? They could have made the High-res pack DLC, for 15 $ and most likely gotten away with it.
The writing is absolutely atrocious on all accounts, and steals from the games immersion.
Lots of things in the game they have you doing feel incredibly similar to the things they had you doing in origins. Being a jerk to merchants that make to much money, being forced to help bumbling fools.
The companions are now spineless, brainless drones. Blindly following hawke for any reason "I guess I have no choice". It all feels very forced, and not thought out very well..
I want to like this game, but I just can't bring myself to do so. For every improvement, there is easily 5 other disappointments on the screen. From the horrid looking UI, to the incredibly low detailed environment of Kirkwall. Having loved Dragon Age: Origins, this game has left me feeling empty, and pain stricken.
If this is the price we have to pay in a bioware game when the main character gets a voice actor, I'd rather they left him a mute, and focused on other areas.
This game has left me nothing but upset at bioware, for even releasing this game its very obvious the entire game was rushed, and kicked out the door, though with their recent habits I'm sure they don't even care. You can always just add the rest of the game as DLC, so you never have to release a finished product these days.… Expand
Mar 8, 2011An uninspiring sequel to a fairly fun and decent title that needed some minor polish. This game looks and feels rushed from the over the top, hack n' slash combat, to the horrible dialogue and environments. Throw into the mix massive piles of day 0 DLC, lack of mod tools, and a zoomed out camera, and you have a very alienated PC user base.
Overall a major disappointment.
Mar 8, 2011Very saddened to see the game go this way, the game itself is an ok game but from what the original Dragon Age was this is terrible. Combat has been dumbed down, on release there were over 20 DLC items available only for doing silly things such as 'likeing' the game on facebook or preordering before a set date from a set place, there we're also quest DLC's from preordering, DLC on release is crazy but that much is just insane. Not to mention that you also HAVE TO download over 1gig of data to get graphics better than the PC version. STAY AWAY!… Expand
Mar 8, 2011Dragon Age was an above average game with many decent elements that should have been improved upon. The biggest flaw of Dragon Age was the uninspired encounter design, where they tried to replace the lacking quality of encounters with the quantity of copy-pasted trash encounters. Instead of improving / enriching the character system and reactivity of the story and the game world and providing challenging tactical combat, with proper encounter dosing and design, the designers decided to cut the gameplay out of the game in order to replace their former target audience with intellectually impaired people who are unable of performing tasks like basic arithmetic and basic reading comprehension. Character customization and development and character stat based gameplay, which is the staple of RPG genre, is gone, tactical elements of combat are gone in favour of button mashing, text responses are gone, replaced by dialogue wheel for the illiterate attention deficit disorder crowd. God forbid that there are proper multiple dialogue choices consisting of complete sentences in the game, it would hurt the feelings of the target audience. Sticks and stones may break their bones, but big words hurt their tiny brains. Instead there is the game that has done away with numbers and reading, and replaced it with "cinematics" and button mashing. Of course, numerous trash encounters have only increased in number and frequency. Without a proper character system and considering the way story is presented, Dragon Age 2 is more of a homosexual porn movie than it is an RPG.… Expand
Mar 8, 2011I never thought the Origins was that great, but after playing DA2, I can safely say the comparison is just.
This god awful port needs some work. I would recommend waiting to buy this game, until this is on sale for around $10.
Play DA:O again, or if you're just an RPG fan in general, and don't care for Bioware, just get the Witcher 2
Mar 8, 2011really dont like what bioware and EA have done to this game i really liked the first game but this one doesnt fill like an RPG to me it feels more like a action game.I got very bored very quickly of the combat in DA2 i dont like the dialogue wheel it is fine in a game like Mass Effect but not in a RPG its just stupid.Also why cant you change your teams armour all rpg in know have that option sorry but this game is poor… Expand
Mar 8, 2011While I was somewhat optimistic even after playing the demo most of that optimism faded when I actually played the game.
Revamped combat does not work too well, stiff character animations are also very off putting. And is it me or did Dragon Age Origins have better character textures? Also what's with the Critic's score, my god. Those are NOT honest reviews, because metascore's user ratings clearly does not reflect that.… Expand
Mar 9, 2011I rarely play ports on PC since they're generally always garbage, but Bioware has a decent pedigree so I chose not to follow my guts instinct and I bought this on PC.
This may have been the worst mistake I have ever made. The instant that I read I actually had to download a hq texture pack from the developers themselves said it all. The utter contempt that they have shown by releasing this is actually crazy. Bioware is smart that they catered to the forever lonely crowd by making DA2 into middle ages mass effect with commander hawke and his harem. I don't think this would have ever selled without the prospect of middle age fat balding men and hambeast whales modding the game for their bishonen romance dreams. Oh wait, this game didn't ship with a toolkit. Good thin they made every character bisexual then. I can't wait until they release the marriage dlc so I can finally take isabelle on the honey moon she really deserves.… Expand
Mar 9, 2011Ive never reviewed a game on here before, but after about 10-15 hours into this, i just could not do it anymore. i needed to tell people not to buy this game. you might argue that that game has good RP systems, or whatever, and it dosent deserve a flat out 0, mabye a 3 or 4, but a game that when i play it, all i want to do is **** STOP playing it, deserves a 0 in my eyes. god i hope i can get my money back on this junk.
it is a total insult to all DA:O fans, and PC gamers in general. terrible console port, from a company that once made such great games. Bioware, if you are reading this, do NOT let your DA team ANYWHERE near Mass Effect 3.… Expand
Mar 9, 2011My God this is SO awful that i can't even describe it. Baldur's Gate they say? HAH!!! Bioware is drowning deeper every time. Few years will pass and they gonna make us just stand at the center of the world, killing waves of monsters and sometimes talking bullsh*t with party members. If you care for your artistic taste DO NOT buy it. Greatest disappointment of the year.
Mar 9, 2011What else is there to say? This isn't an RPG, this is an Action title with a 'fantasy-skin' completely dumbed-down and Consoltized...Extremely disappointing. Bioware has made a lot of great titles in the past and used to be the premier RPG studio out there. Not any longer. Sure, they'll still make great games (Mass Effect 3), but not true, traditional RPGs any more.
Beyond that, even if the game were decent - the graphic performance on High-End nVidia hardware is attrocious and the graphics, while better than DA: Orgins are poor. Plus, on the merits of the game itself, this isn't truely a sequel...more like a sidequest....Save your money and time, wait for the Witcher 2 or Skyrim.… Expand
Mar 9, 2011Terrible decepción. Se ha consolidado el juego en PC. ¿Ha esto ha quedado reducido el legado de Baldur´s gate?
Graficos desfasados, falta la visión cenital.
Parche con texturas de casi 1GB tras su venta.
Mar 16, 2011shame people cant be realistic with reviews... just finished the game and heres what i think PROS: the new combat sysytem is great, allows for more fluid fights so great if you dont like to pause all the time. skill trees that are unique to chracters other than the main, encourages people to try diferant teams rather than the one team all the time. character stats remake, stats are much more role specific making it less strenuous by not having to balace stats. the storyline is extreamly adaptive and unless you actuly try to you will never play it the same way twice, also with the ability to create the backbone of the story with a DAO save.
the game is based in a single town so the landscape get old. some DAO cons are follow into DA2 such as multiple sotryline 'busness ventures' that the player may invest into or buy and that do not actuly bring in any income other than a possible longer quest line for that 'venture'. some parts of the game put you at a fork with quests allowing you to take one and not the other however it does not specify that you wouldnt be able to do both you simply need to figure it out the hard way. gold just like in DAO is extreamly hard to come buy if your wanted decent items, if you do all the quests and sell everything you find you wil get about 250g total, depending on the dificulty alot of that will be spent on potions, runes and armour for your team so you will only ever have enough gold to buy one item that is 120g or there abouts and saving for it will take all game if you dont skimp.
even tho this game has alot of cons i dont know any game that doesnt
i had fun playing this game, i probly wont beat it with every class but i will certainly beat it one more time over on the hardest possible trying to get everything
with a few patches this game will be much better
and to all those people who rated this a bad game, i certainly hope your not waiting for D3 to come out coz it wont have much more specially not in the graphics department… Expand
Aug 15, 2011Pros: More fluid combat, less boring treks through long dungeons, great story, half your characters are interesting, liked ME2 style of missions, nice graphics
Cons: Horrible horrible ending, at the end of the game you feel like you didn't win and you accomplished nothing, can't romance a strong moral character (ie: Aveline, Isabella is slutty even if she somewhat reforms when you romance and Merrill is an insecure and irritating idiot blood mage like almost every mage in the game), repetitive dungeon city environments (having to run through same cities, dungeons and outdoor areas over and over is just lazy design), half of your party characters absolutely suck balls to the point I didn't do any of their quests or want them in my party.
Overall a 1 because the cons are so overpoweringly strong compared to the pros, specially the worst ending of a game I've seen in years where nothing is accomplished and lots of loose ends are left.… Expand
Mar 9, 2011New, bold and engaging with addictive combat. Interesting and compelling characters, like Origins. Much more intelligent than the ads would make you think.
Having played Origins, I was not expecting the more action-based combat to be very good, but it was surprisingly enjoyable and maintained the same level of tactics as Origins (though I admit I don't like to micromanage my party's actions). Exploring all of the side-quests, I think I got a bit too powerful by the end and had to turn up the difficulty to make it more challenging, but it was always fun.
The plot was a refreshing change from the 'save the world from the ultimate evil' plots that you see so often in fantasy games. Make the entire story based around a single location provided a nice focus, and made the story feel much more personal.
The explorer in me was a bit saddened by the re-use of level graphics in many occasions, but the characters, situations, gameplay and quests themselves made up for it in the most part. The graphics and environments are simply beautiful.
Items and equipment got some nice improvements (I've always hated sorting through piles of junky items like you are forced to in some other games). The only minor point about this that I didn't like so much was not being able to customize the armour of my party members.
In summary, this may not be a "hard-core RPG" (a fact that some people can't seem to forgive), but it's a great RPG that has a synergy of a lot of good elements that make Dragon Age 2 stands very well on it's own as it keeps you coming back for more.… Expand
Mar 10, 2011just because metacritic is paid to give it good reviews (or in this case medicore since it wasn't 99/100) doesn't mean it's any good. i could write a thesis on why the game sucks, but to make it short, it's like they took a time machine and went back to 2002 to develop the game. the storyline, combat, and graphics are horrible. this is a bigger disappointment than fallout new vegas
Mar 19, 2011In short, waste of time and money. This game has no strong points whatsoever. Graphics is bland, environment is the same everywhere, at first interior of some houses looks nice but it becomes tedious cos you run through the same looking rooms over and over again (~20 or so times, not kidding). Dialogues are dumb and options you chose rarely change outcome. Quests are the worst I have ever seen in a RPG. Even free to play MMORPGs have better quests than DA2. Battles are nice till you notice that mobs spawn like in some arcade game... You won't have to control your companions so tactics is pretty much gone. They had to stick with Hawke and ditch other 3 party members from the game entirely. Action game fans would have loved that even more! So yeah very bad game, Sadly It has way more weak points than I've mentioned in this review...… Expand
Mar 10, 2011Baldur's Gate 2 was one of my favorite games. I thought Dragon Age: Origins came close enough to being its spiritual successor as advertised, and I enjoyed that game for what it was, but Dragon Age 2 is as far from being a successor to the Baldur's Gate series as possible. It was just painful to play for so many reasons. Graphically, they somehow managed to make it appear even worse than its predecessor (not saying DA:O was bad graphically, but it certainly was groundbreaking in that aspect). The combat is now a mindless button masher, obviously tailored to please console players, because it ends up just being frustrating on the PC, only aggravated by the clunky camera. The formulaic dialogue and the cliche story are so inept in this one that it makes me want to stab furniture. Apparently BioWare were just looking for a quick cash-in. I'm definitely not buying Dragon Age 3 when it comes out (and it will, because their greediness knows no bounds).… Expand
Mar 11, 2011PC Version - Graphics are stupendous on a newer system... GTX 400 series or above should be good. 200 series is probably good too. The game is definitely not like DA:O... but I'm not disappointed. Obviously there are going to be a LOT of heartbroken people out there that were really looking forward to a return to the old style of RPGs a-la Baldur's Gate and maybe even Neverwinter Nights... Dragon Age II is not going to be that. I enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins but I did have to struggle through it to finish before DA2 released... I enjoyed Mass Effect, but I also found myself pushing through to finish just before ME2 came out.
With Dragon Age 2, I am having an absolute blast. I find it a very enjoyable experience, and I really like each of the characters Hawke works with. They make me laugh, cuss, and even surprise me with some of their remarks and conversations. Unlike with DA:O, I will be playing through this game at least one more time. I do not feel forced to push through playing this game... and I recall that I had a very similar experience with Mass Effect 2. Very enjoyable game, the characters are fun, and I do not believe there is a problem with the combat/mechanics. Now... This is not Dragon Age: Origins, but that does not mean this is a bad game. I tell people who ask about Dragon Age the same thing I say about Mass Effect... Play the second one first, then move on to the first one. For the majority of people new to the series/genre, ME2 and DA2 are much easier to learn and enjoy. Was I hoping that DA2 would become the next Baldurs Gate 2? Yeah... a little... But I'm not letting those hurt feelings get in the way of what is a good experience. Dragon Age 2 stands well in it's own regard even if it didn't meet the expectations of many fans of DA:O. You can probably blame EA's influence if you like... but I do believe Dragon Age 2 is worth the money.
I've put the difficulty on hard, and find myself completing all available side quests, backtracking to collect chests/materials/loot, and talking to every party member/NPC as much as possible. I did all this in DA:O, but everything feels much faster and lively in DA2. Sure I noticed the caves/dungeons/warehouses were copied/pasted... but the story and character interactions are in place to pull your attention off it. I'm happy I no longer have to mess with EVERY single armor slot on every party member. That was tedious to me... at best. There are plenty of bad things if you look for them, but I find there are more than enough good things about this game to make it worthwhile. Anyone who can't see them is really just upset the game isn't what THEY believe it should be. I saw a review that was rated 6.5/10 that hit on a good many true points about the flaws. A 6.5 is the absolute lowest I would believe this game should have, based on flaws alone... But I believe the game is easily a 7-8.5. I'm giving it a 10 because I am getting my money's worth, and am very happy with what I am playing.
Now... I want Bioware to update the Toolset so we can make use of mods/addons.… Expand
Mar 11, 2011I'm extremely disappointed in DA II. I expected more from the successor of DA:O. Bioware has done great things in the past, such as ME I and II, and DA:O, among other games, but this is terrible. The dialog options suck, the gameplay is simple hack n' slash, and the story line is cheap. The game feels rushed, and, although I'm no graphics whore (SC:BW is one of my favorite games, up there with Wind Waker, STALKER SoC, etc etc), the graphics are terrible. I think they put very little effort into this game, and just pumped it out for the money. Speaking of money, all of the reviews are paid off. They even paid the NEW YORK TIMES to review their game. NEW YORK TIMES.
Heh.… Expand
Mar 11, 2011This game is extremely disappointing. They have removed so much of what made Dragon Age great. There is no longer a branching storyline. It doesn't even matter what dialogue options you select anymore. The characters act as if they're living a giant joke.
The graphics are mediocre in most areas of the game, and absolutely horrible in others. I haven't seen such blocky character models since the playstation 1. It feels extremely rushed and I am sad to have paid for it.… Expand
Mar 15, 2011OK so I left a review of this awful game, and Meta critic went and deleted it.
Seriously this is starting to get seriously out of hand. I left my review so that people would be aware of how much of a boring crass waste of time this game is, and I get censored? LOL
Gaming has hit an all time LOW guys, seriously. EA have taken one of the last bastions of hope in gaming (Bioware) and turned them into a driveling group of money sucking leeches.
If you want the depth generally assumed in an RPG, then you will be disappointed. This is action rpg at best, with rpg being used very loosely here. for me that is not good enough OK. It was marketed as a sequal to DA:O, an RPG. That is what I expected.
What I got was linear corridors, poor graphics in terms of immersion, weak plot and paper thin characters and dialog. This is not the game I was expected. Please stop telling me that I should change my point of view or call me a troll because I feel totally ripped off here. My GS user name is the same for those curious. Cheers.… Expand
Mar 12, 2011This game in crap. No exploration, tons of bugs, tons of more bugs, awful difficulty calibration, crappy graphics. They made this game in few months just because EA command it!
It's turned to a great rpg to a casual action rpg.
Mar 12, 2011I have no idea why people are rating this game so low and saying some very outrageous things. People, don't listen to these loosers. The game is fantastic. I think the voice acting is spot on and I love how it's darker than the previous. The graphics and sound are a breath of fresh air. I can't wait to see how it progresses!
Mar 13, 2011Bioware should be ashamed of this game. I am truly astounded on the sheer lack of content and quality of this game. Every single aspect of this game reeks of being an unfinished money grab. The game has also been blatantly gutted of content so it can be sold as DLC.
Shame on your bioware, shame.
Mar 13, 2011The Dragon Age franchise has been tossed into the corporate machinery and spat out as a bruised and crippled shell of its former self. The game manages to deliver a thoroughly mediocre and disappointing experience to both RPG and casual gaming fans alike.
The combat could possibly be the largest flaw with the game, however it is but one of many large flaws. Many skills and abilities present in DA: O which made the game an overly tactical, challenging and rewarding experience have been removed in favor of more 'exciting and fast paced' combat. In Dragon Age 2's case 'exciting and fast paced' equates into the mindless ability bashing. Combat now relies heavily upon 'wave' mechanics. Where instead of individual mobs of enemies the player will be bombarded by wave after wave of enemy turning an epic skirmish into a tedious exercise of endurance. Most side quests are trivial and generic which furthermore offer no further insight into the game world and hold little other responsibility other than keeping the player distracted for a few extra hours collecting X number of items..
The visuals have undergone an upheaval, yet surprisingly manages to look worse than its predecessor.
The combat now resembles something out of a Devil May Cry game, rather than the style set in DA:O. The visceral and realistic style of Origins now replaced with an over sensationalized gratuitous flood of warrior aerobatics and bloody explosions. Many Caves, mountains, roads used again and again presumably due to constraints imposed by the soulless suits over in EA pushing for a speedy release and a fast cash-in. Dragon Age: Origins was a modern day throwback to classic RPG games: It incorporated engaging Tactical gameplay , interesting characters and appropriate use of dialog selection and an immersive fantasy setting imbued with a touch of gritty realism to provide a satisfying fantasy experience. Because of this the game was critically acclaimed and sold very well.
Now letâ… Expand
Mar 13, 2011This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I haven't played DA:O so I can't comment on any changes. However, as a newcomer to the Dragon Age series, I have to say I did enjoy the game somewhat. I've played Mass Effect 2 and it was personally very fun but lacking in RPG elements (e.g. weapon/armor customisation was very poor). Dragon Age 2 does fix that somewhat because I personally felt I had more control over my character. On the contrary of most of the reviews I've read, I thought the voice acting was pretty well done. Occasionally I felt that the characters were a bit more fleshed out than those from Mass Effect 2... However, it was annoying because I knew things were happening but the game didn't really explain what. For example, I had no idea what the Qunari where and the Qun and their rivals or something. I never really got what was happening apart from the fact that it was "MAGES vs TEMPLARS!!!!!" and then finally it was war between the mages and the templars etc. etc. A bit too predictable if you ask me.
Gameplay was very fun though. I played as a mage and those skills are pretty fun. The pause system is very useful. I have to admit I did play on 'casual' (flame me if you want) because occasionally I would forget to check what was happening with my teammates (ME2 teammates wouldn't die so easily :P). Biggest problem with the gameplay was the levels. Seriously Bioware? Everytime I go into a cave the layout is exactly the same. Am I to believe that the insides of the mansions are exactly the same! The overuse of the same level designs is SO ANNNOYING! Blegh. Soundtrack was decent. Nowhere as memorable as those in Mass Effect 2. I liked the music during the fighting. But otherwise, no music apart from the one from the trailer is really stuck in my mind.
Graphics seems decent. Having played Mass Effect 2 I didn't hate the graphics in Dragon Age 2. I haven't tried the high res pack though. I would have thought that Bioware should have included it in the game rather than being offered as a downloadable. I have to say though I want to explore the Dragon Age world more but Dragon Age 2 doesn't really provide that experience.… Expand
Mar 13, 2011Heres a Realistic review from someone who played the game on mostly nightmare/hard difficulty so didn't suffer from the 'button mashing' hack and slash crap people claim it to be, but it simply isn't . The Dialog is somewhat drastically dumbed down from the first, you can only be a goodie goodie, a clown who doesn't take **** anything serious, or an ass, there is no in between like the first, i.e. it adopted mass effects slightly less than interesting dialog system bioware seem to love so much. The combat on hard and nightmare is NOT a hack and slash, on nightmare EVERY single encounter has to be micro managed or you will die, on hard all minor encounters can be done with minor micro management but all bosses require full micro management again, the combat is much improved to DAO, its far less sluggish and much more fluid so its a definite plus, DAO itself was just a tedious slow hack and slash on normal/easy anyways so to claim different is stupid. The plot is quite a bit weaker than the previous one, there doesn't seem to be much of an overall plot to the story and it seems second rate from what I would compare to most Bioware games and this looses it major points in my book, for the most part it was very generic and sometimes boring and predictable. The inventory system is dumbed down as in its mostly only about your character now, but honestly thats personal preference, I liked it much more than I disliked it, as it removed a lot of the tediousness from DAO. Graphically, in some cases its improved upon over the original, in others its just bad, the constant reuse of the same bland generic 'block' city really made it get tedious at some points and they reuse the same 20 or so areas over and over and over and over and over, until your eyes feel like they are bleeding. Its not a horrible game, I did however enjoy origins more, but the combat in this was definatly an improvement, just it is a total hack and slash on normal/easy no other way to put it, if you want a true tactical RPG experiance you have to play Nightmare/Hard. I give it a 6/10, some improvement, a lot of dis improvement from the original in other area's of gameplay… Expand
Mar 14, 2011This is not a BIOWARE game. Its a EA dumbed down for kiddies console port. GFX are a minor upgrade from DA:0. Runs like crap (2x6970's). I cant recommend buying this game. You will find after a few hours no desire or incentive to play the game.
Mar 14, 2011the game is very disappointing. The graphics seem dated, the music is ok, the game-play is simplified and poses no challenge at all for experienced rpg gamers. LOTS of the recycled content. it is the same layout for all caverns, almost all houses, and almost everything has the same type of texture applied.
But the City Hub system is the worse, i never seen so many loading screen in my life. initiate quest in district A , goto hub, Loading, do quest in district B, goto hub, Loading, finish quest in district A. This system makes the game a chore. just go play DAO this one is just plain boring.… Expand
Mar 15, 2011As fair as i can be... Almost a week ago this 35 year old man sat sipping an early morning coffee in egger anticipation of the postman visiting his door, because on this morning two great things where happening... 1. the day off work (not to mention the following three as well) 2. the much anticipated Dragon age 2 signature edition was arriving. I was planing on writing an in depth, insightful review but instead i am just going to list pro's and cons and a brief summery at the end. Pro's - Graphically its very good, the characters and landscapes are done with a very high level of detail i was only playing on medium settings and found some of scenery quite stunning at times. The spirit and mood of DAO is there, it pops its head up to say hellonow and then, not quite frequent enough for me to fall in love all over but often enough to keep my hopes up that it will blossom and flourish any minute now. the cast - i really liked the cast and supporting companions, i seem to be very loyal and stick with the first /tank/mage/healer that i come across in games and my fear was in this i would not take to the new characters as i would be missing the old ones to much but they grew on me instantly in most cases and for me the real reason i will revisit the game will be to tryout the characters that i did not use often in my first play through. combat - right this is tricky, im going to list comat in both the pro's and cons of the game because i do believe that improves have been made in some areas but bioware have dropped the ball in others, but as this is pro's lets stick with those first. First thing you notice is the visuals of certain abilities and spells, i played rogue in the original and in this one as well and the dynamic of this has been greatly improved, in DAO to perform backstab you had to position yourself behind your target and low and behold you could perform backstab, but targets dont often like to stand in the one spot so your character could end up chasing thenm around till they hold still long enough for you to perform backstab rendering it useless very often. In DA2 its a different story, at the click of a button you vanish, appear and perform backstab all in an instant making it a viable talent and much more pleasing on the eye . The other great thing about combat is the talent trees, there are at least six yes thats right six trees to choose from meaning you can play the same class over and over but have very different characters, experiences and results. Con's - Repetitiveness on maps, i wanted to play the whole game so i made sure i did all side quests before moving on the the main quest/storryline. I found myself repeatatly visiting the same cave/house/coastline to kill bandits/spiders/mercenaries (very similar to the bandits from where i standing) and after a while this felt like a chore rather than a joy, the quests themselves had very little imagination pretty much forgettable for the most part i can only compare it to my experience grinding in MMO's for money/XP. Something i have never before experienced with any bioware game before. combat - its easy, way to easy i was worried by my lack of a healer in the party and kept hoping to meet one down the line but i never did nor did i need to, i can only recall using 2 health potions outside of boss fights and this is with no healer in the party remember, this made fighting tedious, there was no feeling of danger at any time and the fights consist of hordes of mobs coming at you in waves but you feel like a man fighting toddlers, i personal felt like a bad ass for the first few fights but the novelty soon wore off and it became a bore, something in the way of me getting to where i wanted to go. Epicness - I keep comparing it to DAO which is slightly unfair but understandable as this is it's(supposed) successor but it just lacks the depth, variety and feeling of Epicness, overall the game still feels really good but when your riding on the coattails of Epic, really good just does not cut it.. Summery - Had this not been the follow up to Origins or a bioware game i think it would have been far better revived, i personally think Origins as close to a gaming masterpiece that you can get. and those are impossibly big shoes to fill but if anyone could i had faith bioware could. They did it with Baldurs gate, the squeal improving on the original in many ways yet keeping the same things that made everyone fall in love with the original, they did not pull that off this time. I just have the feeling bioware have gone from setting the standard to following the standard, taking the extraordinary and making it ordinary. Is this down to EA the timing of their involvement with bioware cant be dismissed as coincidence in my eyes, given biowares excellent back catalogue of games it strikes me as odd the would go from "sublime" to "quite good" all of a sudden on their own but maybe EA are an all to convenient scapegoat… Expand
Mar 15, 2011There could be a long list of things I could mention that are just wrong with this game. Lets just say if you like Dynasty Wars, console button mashing, over the top animations, lazy implementations of game themes and finally, you like your RPGs, well, not as RPGs but as arcade style games, then you will love this. If you like traditional RPGs, save your money as this is pure powder puff. Very disappointing. If you play it, remember to keep inserting $1 to continue...… Expand
Mar 15, 2011Is DA2 a bad game? No.
Is DA2 a bad game by Bioware standards? Definitely.
Currently Bioware seems to become a true EA Games drone, by wanting to release a game every year at the cost of quality. It is mostly the Bioware fans that are seriously pissed off at them, and are giving all the bad scores. People who don't care much about RPG's but much rather prefer action-oriented games like Call of Duty are the ones giving the high scores.
Lets focus on the good parts first. The combat *looks* great, the companions are interesting, the graphics are pretty decent, the lore is still awesome to read, and the story while less epic than in DA:O, is still written very well. By industry standards, this is a very decent game.
Sadly, there are also bad parts I need to mention. Like previously mentioned, the combat *looks* great, but when looking deeper at it, you'll notice it's actually pretty bland. Almost each encounter has waves of enemies (kill first group, 2nd group spawns, etc), and while interesting at first, it's overused.
Speaking of overusing, if you have seen one cave / villa / sewer, you've seen them all. This is the biggest evidence of Bioware focussing on quantity over quality. They don't even give you a different minimap, certain passages are just blocked off.
They've also reduced a lot of customization, with the excuse of 'streamlining' it. You can't even change your companions' outfit. But here's a newsflash Bioware: RPG fans LOVE customization. Sure, our companions may not always look great then, but this makes upgrading their outfits to more powerful ones even more satisfying.
The biggest part of the quests you'll do are simple find and drop off quests, without even specific dialogue. You won't feel much of a connection to anyone or anything but some of your companions. Dialogue shouldn't feel like a bother, hence you should have the ability to skip it. But a total lack of it only makes us feel less involved. This goes so far that you don't even buy wares from merchants themselves, but from boxes next to them. BANG, and the immersion's gone.
In conclusion: DA2 isn't bad, hell it's sometimes pretty good even. For the industry standard. But it's far, far away from the Bioware standard.… Expand
Apr 17, 2013After Dragon Age: Origins I was so hyped and wanted to get my hand in this game. And what a waste of time that waiting was. It's not a good game. Almost everything that was good in Origins are thrown out of the window and what we get is a generic, action rpg for consoles. The story is horrible, they use the same caves and areas over and over again. And we cant even leave the god damn city! It's horrible, dont touch this piece of garbage!… Expand
Mar 16, 2011While not a perfect game, this metacritic score is skewed due to a "backlash" over two reviews written by Bioware employees (there is currently no evidence they were doing it at the behest of their employers simply they wrote two glowing reviews and if they were close to the game they may have a skewed perspective on the content.)
Any how, having played the game I can say whilst not perfect it improves on the formula behind the first game. The first game was much of the time, at best, unforgiving but since you could drop the play slider down to easy and not suffer any loss of game play or even achievements/trophies it compensated.
Thus far the game play does not show the same level of challenge, again a game best suited for the PC the graphical fidelity is vastly improved but even on my high end machine at times there are moments when Frame Rate drops through the basement. The load screens are much improved over the previous iteration and the story, as always, is well crafted. This is where Bioware excels.
One short coming is the change in scenery, or lack there of. Dragon Age: Origins and it's expansions gave you a vast swath of geography to cover. Dragon Age 2 does not, you have Kirkwall and a handfull of external locations. Now the story with it's framing device is setting this up as a Usual Suspects/Noir Fantasy. The city of Kirwall is intended to be as much of a character in the game as the players. That being said it doesn't carry off as well as hoped. I have a feeling if as extensively supported via DLC as Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins was this will be remedied as more DLC comes out but right now there are anemic points where it feels like you are rehashing locations and enemies over and over.
Combat is much more frenetic with more lifelike animations and in the case of the Xbox 360 due to a glitch button mashy game play (which isn't the case on other platforms as it still has the auto attack ability.) This will supposedly be addressed via a patch shortly. The PC really is still the premiere platform for this title, you maintain the same style of gameplay from the first game with the ability to zoom out and que commands for characters.
They have streamlined some aspects, the ability to micromanage gear on your characters has been reduced, not removed entirely but reduced which detracts from some of the old school feel but this is an extension of the Bioware ethos which is using games as a platform for story telling. The story it's self is compelling with interesting character interactions and some genuine relationships developing in interesting ways.
Not a perfect game but well worth checking out.
(And for the record I am not an employee of Bioware and never have been, I think instead of giving zeros to the game out of spite people should give genuine ratings on how they feel as many of these people giving zeros have never even played the game.)… Expand
Mar 16, 2011Why would they do this? What was so broken that it needed such drastic actions? I don't understand anything...of the user complaints. Dragon Age 2 has been criticized for being too easy, dumbed down and bland. I will discuss the gameplay first, then talk a bit about the setting and story. DA2 is not easy. Yes, if you pick normal in DA2 it's easier then in DA:O, but you can go up in difficulty if you want a better challenge. Personally, I'm playing hard, and have met quite some interesting challenges. It's even nice that you can play the game pretty easily on normal, so that everyone can enjoy the game without the but-you-played-on-easy-shame. Just pick the difficulty that fits you, and the too easy problem is fixed. I guess it's just too hard to switch to another difficulty. I seriously don't get what's the problem with dumbed down. The skills are well distributed and tons of combinations are possible. While finishing my first game as a two-handed-weapon fighter, I was already thinking how I would make my new two-handed-weapon fighter play different. I've also been moving my characters around a lot more then in DA:O, and not just because I needed to clear the way for a mages fireball. Friendly fire has been disabled, which I applaud since that does not belong in a realtime team-based RPG. Moving all the characters in DA:O before casting AoE was just annoying imo, and I'm glad its gone. The isometric top view is gone, which makes it a little harder to move around the characters or casting AoE spells, but its nothing that hindered me from having fun. The tactics work pretty good, and the AI is very decent. I still paused the game a lot in difficult situations, which is good. Potions and healing have a much bigger cooldown, so health is a valuable resource again. The only problem I have with combat is that it's easy to kite an opponent, buying time until you can drink a new potion. It almost feels like cheating, especially if there are no ranged enemies nearby. Other then that, the combat is fun and quick while being tactical whenever you want it to be due to difficulty settings. It certainly made the game more enjoyable for me. Wrapping up gameplay, it has been one of the best for RPG's, surpassing DA:O.
The story and setting have a hard time to hit off, but once it does, it sticks pretty well. I'm very happy with the character design and like everyone of the party. I have no idea why people would say it's so much worse then DA:O. However, getting to know a character better and finding out their likes has become somewhat more difficult. The friendship between the characters must develop over the whole game, which sometimes gives an odd feeling. Why can't I talk about an issue now? What do you even like? I don't want to wait 3 years to develop something! Because of these obvious secrets, the characters grow enigmatic, even though they're not meant to be like that. Another thing that is a bit annoying about the story is that because everything is spit into acts, your character only develops significantly at the end of each act. This feels a bit unrewarding. I'd liked to see Hawke gain a normal job, rising in ranks, rising it stature etc. not only at the end of each act. One thing that is annoying in my eyes, is the derailing of the story which is almost mandatory. The game plays in different acts, and every act has 4 to 5 main quests to proceed the story. All other 30 or so quests are sidequests. It's nice to have sidequests to know the city better, but I think they slightly overdone it. The game can be played as a collection of sidequests if you don't know where you're heading, especially in Act 1. This underlines the unrewarding feeling of character development. The sidequests can also be hard to find sometimes, leaving you with the " did I miss something?" feeling a bit to much. I have mixed feelings about the environment. Kirkwall is a great city, but "propped" down a lot. Most people seem static, and if it wasn't for the sidequests, the city might feel dead. The other environments are also pretty grey, like the bonepit and sundermount. This leaves the game in a grey tint, never being refreshing like the forests in DA:O. The graphics look pretty good, but certain animations are still to clunky. especially when two characters are interacting, the suspension of disbelief breaks immediately. The game could do with a little more ambiance. The moral choices you have to make are again suburb, and the dialog wheel, even though it influences your choices to much for my taste (I want to say A, but I don't want to break my character who mostly says B), it gives Hawke some character. THANK GOD they did not made the important choices be influenced by the wheel!
Wrapping it up together, I enjoyed DA2 alot, and I'll keep playing it to explore different situations and tactics. It certainly has some setting problems, but it's still a lot of fun. 8.8… Expand
Mar 17, 2011Combat is ridiculous. Animation speed increased to the point that no strike animations are visible. Intended to speed up combat ... which it doesn't, since the increased speed is offset by higher monster hitpoints and swarms of enemies.
also, combat has been "coolified", meaning that every standard attack is the 'Fallout 3' equivalent of 'Bloody Mess', meaning that a killing stab with a dagger causes humans to explode.
unconvincing encounters with different factions ... you somehow are constantly forced to kill potential allies. also swarms of enemies, even if you're just on a evening stroll to the nearest tavern.
also, maps get recycled over and over and over. sure, you're revisiting old locations very very often, but you'll see the exact same dungeon map on up to five DIFFERENT locations!
No, this game is a complete fail in the categories Bioware tried to improve.… Expand
Mar 17, 2011Just played DA2 for a few days, absolutely horrid experience. It is nothing like the original DA. No depth, no interesting environment, and the combat is so boring. I mean if you are going to make a sequel, at least make the game play similar to the original, just improve upon it. If you are going to make something completely different, then release it as a different franchise please.
Mar 17, 2011I give this game such a low score because I absolutely cannot review it in a vacuum, as a stand-alone game that has nothing to do with DA:O. Even if it was not in any way related to DA:O, I would still have to give it no more than a 5, because this is not an RPG. It's a flashy, anime-esque hack'n'slash game with a few RPG elements. And that is just not my cup of tea. But because this is called Dragon Age 2, I have to compare it to DA:O. It may not be a sequel, per se, but it is still supposed to be the same universe with the same lore, and that is where Bioware went staggeringly wrong. For starters, the artwork and rendering of various races, characters, and creatures have been drastically changed. Elves look like rip-offs of Avatar's Na'vi, Qunari have horns, darkspawn look like humans with stupid skull-mask faces that aren't the least bit scary or revolting, and Flemeth is an armor-clad Disney sorceress. Not only have they turned into cartoon caricatures of themselves, it is practically inconceivable that Bioware would actually expect us to believe that this is in fact the same world. To add insult to injury, Bioware took some serious liberties with the lore of DA:O (e.g. when people are infected with the taint, they no longer simply go insane and die an agonizingly slow and painful death, they actually turn into darkspawn). Call me a fanatic or a purist, but I feel as strongly about this as I would about someone taking liberties with LOTR lore. What makes for great fantasy or science fiction is its internal consistency, its adherence to the reality of its own world. Start taking liberties, start introducing contradictions, and we stop believing in the reality, which is the real magic. I could have dealt with a few cosmetic changes if they hadn't messed with the lore. But this game is disappointing for me in other ways as well. Everything feels "dumbed down." Combat is an over-the-top gore fest with little to no tactics (or thought) required. Enemies constantly explode into little meaty bits, limbs flying in all directions. Two-handed weapons are larger than the characters that wield them. Rogues execute Bruce Lee-style gravity-defying spins and kicks, leaping twenty feet to close with an enemy. The basic rules of physics are non-existent. The story-line is similarly non-existent. While I do like the new Friend/Rival companion system, where a companion will stick with the main character even if they disagree about everything, there is no compelling reason for the Rival companion to stick around. This would have made much more sense in DA:O. Stopping the Blight and killing the Archdemon is precisely the kind of world-at-stake pressing goal that would realistically override hurt feelings, petty squabbles, and political disagreements. In DA2, there is no such overarching world-at-stake goal, so the "I'll stick with you even though I hate your guts" mechanism just doesn't ring true. Everything else RPG fans love about the genre, from armor, weapon, and item systems to skill development, is also "dumbed down." A little "star-rating" system tells you at a glance whether the item you just picked up is "better" than the one you have equipped. Crafting has been vastly simplified, and the need to gather, scavenge, or buy crafting materials virtually eliminated. You can no longer equip companions in any armor, or (in some cases) with any weapon; they are limited to their specific "companion armor." Again, all this does is take the need for thought and tactical planning out of the game. As for the UI, it is obviously designed for consoles, which is extremely aggravating for PC gamers. We don't play consoles for a reason -- because we don't like them! -- and when we are forced to click around in a console UI on our PC, it is just infuriating. This game has left me very sad. Considering that Bioware has been *the* RPG leader of the industry for the past several years, I worry that the future of this beloved genre is bleak indeed.… Expand
Mar 17, 2011Boring combat system, boring story, boring graphics. I thought bioware turn everything into gold but I was wrong. Mass effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 have both been disappointing for me. Compared to the RPGs of the past, you cannot put this in the same category. Baulders Gate and DA:O was captivating making me wish the game would never end, Dragon Age 2 on the other hand, I find myself pressing ESC button a little too often to skip speech so I can mindlessly press 12345 while right clicking on boring enemies at every corner, just so I can finish the game and be done with it. lol. Give this one a miss or at least try the demo first.… Expand
Mar 18, 2011Origins had a lot more epic and exciting story. Idea of putting story in one city, with 2-3 locations near it is really catastrophic. Combat is not that satisfying as it should be and inventory is awful. In Dragon Age Origins we didn't have so much restriction for armors and weapons like here. I was really surprised by that, but in the wrong way. Graphics, well, I can't complain too much about it because my graphic card doesn't allow me to experience high or medium quality settings. Characters...there's only one worth mentioning and that is Varric because it seems they only finished him and that the others were in work by the time game was out. Main character is finally voiced and it doesn't seem so dumb like in Origins, but I expected more. I really wanted to like this game, especially because it is from Bioware. But call of money and greed from EA made this game the biggest flop this year. I will give it a 4, only because it gave me 35 hours of gameplay and because the main character isn't so dumb. I really hope this won't happen again, this rushing and placing a half-finished product on the market with Mass Effect 3.… Expand
Mar 18, 2011It's rather unfortunate how this game turned out. The combat is no longer tactical, it simply requires you to hit your abilities as the cooldowns refresh. The story is bland, and makes it difficult to press on, nothing "hooks" you. If this game had been released as a stand-alone title not under the Dragon Age name, it wouldn't have been nearly as disappointing. Also, 27 different DLC's at launch is rather excessive and a terrible trend to follow. I'm all for DLC, but I want game expansion that couldn't have been included on the disc.… Expand
Mar 20, 2011The copy paste RPB of the decade everything in the game is the same copy paste the mines a all the same the caves a all the same and the areas around the city a all the same, armor only have diffrent colors. Im having trouble playing for more than 10 min at the time before getting bored This game is dumbed down to console players with no brains at all You can sit and watch a movie just pressing R and still win a battle… Expand
Mar 20, 2011As a die-hard Bioware aficionado, I'm slightly disappointed with some aspects of DA2, and extremely disappointed with one particular aspect.
First, the good: I enjoyed the graphics and most of the voiceovers. I think the graphics turned out just fine, as I am not a stickler for having sharp textures and screen-filling special effects. I don't play Bioware games for their graphics; I play them for the story and the gameplay. I really enjoyed the main characters' voiceovers, though a lot of the supporting characters seemed either over-done, or they sounded like they were Tranquil (when in fact the character was not Tranquil).
When I play a Bioware title of late, I usually end up regretting that the game was so short, because it was so much fun while it lasted, but the mostly linear stories leave little room for replay. With DA2, I thought the game might end at a certain point, only to have it continue to drag on from there. I feel like the length of the game was up to what I would like to see more often in Bioware titles, but unfortunately, the added length seems to have harmed the epic feel of the story. Because there is a denouement partway through the game and then another build-up to the end, it feels like you are playing one exciting and fun game up through the first denouement, then a second, much shorter, less exciting game with an extremely anticlimactic finish afterwards.
My biggest gripe, which single-handledly changes my rating of the game from an 8 to a 6, is the massive and wanton reuse of levels. No Bioware game to date has re-used levels this much, not only for side quests but also the main ones! Seeing the same levels, same enemy spawn areas, same music repeat over and over and over again led to my fatigue and general lack of interest in the game as it wore on. I wanted to complete it to see how it would end, but I really found the final 30% of the game to be absolutely exhausting and depressing to play.
One of the things that immerses me in Bioware games is the way that your hero travels from place to place, making a major impact (for better or worse) on lives and building up notoriety, and then moving on. I think this feeling of the dynamic, wandering hero is stripped out of DA2, whereas you can find it in significant measure in all the other recent Bioware titles, particularly DAO, Mass Effect 1 and 2, and even the NWN and Baldur's Gate titles.
The epic feel of Mass Effect is also gone. While I felt from the beginning that the Dragon Age story is decidedly less seminal than the Mass Effect story, there was definitely appeal and charm to DA:O's story, and you could see that it was quite "epic". Related to the concept of the lack of travel in DA2, you also get a feel that the scope of your actions in DA2 is much smaller, and you are basically fighting for control over a small microcosm. More disappointingly, just as it starts to become apparent how this microcosm might impact the rest of the Dragon Age universe, the game comes to an abrupt close.
Bioware also gets "credit" (in a pejorative sense) for releasing the second game in a row with an extremely gimmicky-feeling final boss fight. It just seems like something you would see in an old CONTRA game on NES, and has little relevance or relation to the rest of the story.
I haven't read any of the other user reviews yet so as not to bias mine, but I see a lot of negative reviews. I don't feel the need to be overly harsh; Dragon Age 2 is an enjoyable game with interesting mechanics that I would like to believe will have a series of redeeming expansions, or better yet, an excellent finisher in Dragon Age 3. Story-wise, it feels a bit like a trailer for a (hopefully) fantastic game to come; I wish they could have made it epic in its own right in a similar way to other mid-trilogy titles (Star Wars Empire Strikes Back, Mass Effect 2, etc).… Expand
Mar 21, 2011I've always thought of Bioware as a safe choice when buying a game. When EA took over I was worried that they were going to ruin another good game company, but surprisingly most of the games came out were good ol' Bioware (maybe abit rushed) with some useless DLC content that I did not care about. That was uintil I came across this joke of a game.
First of all the world feels soulless and small. Well actually, the world feels small because it is small. Quoting a critic "You cant have an epic story on your backyard". That pretty much sums it up.
The game feels more like a grind than a RPG - You're basically running the same linear dungeons over and over again with enemies that have slightly different color and name. Even the bosses are recycled.
Combat requires no strategy at all, you can basically buttons mash your way trough the game. Increasing difficulty just requires the player to have more potions and the patience to spam the buttons longer. Sure the people looking for a simple game might enjoy it more, but anyone actually looking for a challenge should not bother with this game.
Something that Bioware has always gotten right is the story, but not this time. Most of the charaters feel hollow and boring, charater cameos from DA:O just makes you wish you were playing DA:O instead.
The story itself is rather non thrilling and the side quests are very repeative.
The graphics are outdated (PC) to say the least and there are some annoying gliches with some of the older graphic cards. If the game looks like it was made 10-years ago, it should atleast work with older hardware.
I could go on pointing out flaws in this game, but I think i made my point - Dont bother paying 60 bucks for a crappy game. If you absolutely must play this game, then do yourself a favour and wait for the GOTY version with all the DLC content and bugfixes.
When compairing to other games this game does not deserve a 0 though, but on a Bioware scale it absolutely does. It is definitely by far the worst game they have ever done.… Expand
Mar 22, 2011Seems like one of the times they make a game add a "2" to the name and milk it for all it's worth. Changing the game to suit the largest audience relying on the original's success and in the process ruining what could have been a great sequel to an excellent original. Instead it's a "lowest common denominator" situation, overflowing with violence, sex and pubescent attitude rather than continuing and expanding Dragon Age.
Why they completely change games and call it a sequel instead of just making a separate game is beyond me. It disappoints the buyers/fans who helped make the first a success and you simply can't please all the people with a single game so how about just pleasing the people that enjoyed the original to begin with.
It's really sad when they do this to games just to try maximize profit, it's one of those times you wish a sequel hadn't been made. Though big game companies lately seem to love prostituting and milking something for all it's worth, changing it to suit a "broader" audience which ruins what made it good then give up on it when people stop buying it because of these changes that turn it into just another game.
It would have been better if they simply used everything from the original (gameplay, style etc) and simply added a continuation of the story.… Expand
Mar 23, 2011I'll just leave this here:
............. btw I'm giving this a 0 to do my part to offset the 10s given by the EA/Bioware review writers.
Mar 25, 2011Dragon Age 2 is a decent sequel to its hugely successful predecessor. It does some things a lot better, but unfortunately there are some major problems that drag it down. Graphically, it is a step up, but like the original it is nothing special. You will not be disappointed but you will not be blown away. There is a high res texture pack available, but you will need a DX11 capable graphics card to enjoy it, which I sadly do not. A major talking point has been the combat. It is faster paced and more explosive than the original, but realism and immersion is removed by the enemies which now spawn practically in the middle of a fight and just appear out of thin air. Similarly, instead of spiders dropping down from caverns or trees, they now also just drop out of the sky. One particular delight, however are some of the boss encounters which have been beefed up and feel more challenging than the original, but it can still be a case of kiting the boss until you can use your special abilities then kite again. Nearly all the companions, apart from one or two are brilliant. The interparty banter is great and at times had me in fits of laughter, especially the chats between Merrill and Isabella. If you pursue a romance with any of them though, it somehow doesn't feel important like it did in Dragon Age: Origins which is a shame. It is also a shame that you don't really have to put any thought or effort into developing your relationships. The game practically tells you when you should be speaking to a companion, because it will add a new quest for you, and the revamped dialogue wheel tells you exactly what each option will mean. There is no longer the chance you may pick the wrong option. There are numerous cameos in DA2 by characters from Origins and Awakenings, dependant on the game history you choose at the beginning. The game allows you to import your Origins save into the game, or lets you choose from three canonical histories offering different choices. Sadly though, those choices have little to no impact on the game apart from a few different lines of dialogue. As with most RPGs, there is an element of choice, yet in this game it feels pointless. At one point, you are forced to side with a particular faction, yet you end up having to fight both faction leaders, which is perhaps a sign of laziness on Biowareâ… Expand
Mar 28, 2011Obviously rushed game. Insults your intelligence at every step. Map recycling, characters saying wrong things, can't use half items, bad graphics, dumbed down gameplay... Did I said map recycling? Oh yes. This is one of the smallest games I've ever played if you consider map size. All negative reviews are true, this is one of the worst games ever.
Apr 11, 2011Good graphics, combat and music. The story is alright in my book. There are still many bugs present in the game. For instance, one quest did not even show up in the game world. I'm disappointed in Bioware's decision to recycle the areas throughout the game. At some point, you will know when and where to expect traps and treasures. Also, the game doesn't feel very lively any more at some point. Replayability is high due to the various class combinations that are possible. I hope that the next installment will be more akin to Dragon Age: Origins.… Expand
Apr 12, 2011I agree that Dragon Age 2 has been dumb down a notch. It has taken the mainstream path to lure in more young players. This is the road that all games take now days when money talks and unique gameplay walks. None the less. You will not find a better game in this genre for a few years. It is money well spent. Not only for the quality of the gameplay, graphics and voice acting but also for the extensive campaign.
The game should be considered as a action-rpg from now on. If you are the one who love the old pen n paper play style and prefer baldurs gate 1 & 2 in front of Dragon age 1, then maybe you should take a second thought, but I would suggest you to pick this up anyway. It's not money wasted, no matter what your preferences are.
/dancodan… Expand
Apr 18, 2011This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is very weak compared to the first game. The story was not as good and didnt flow well at all. The game seemed to want to push the player towards a gay romance was a real negative for me. (No I dont care about your politically correct ideas about it....I played the game and thats how I feel) This is the first bioware game I will not play a second time. I would tell my friends not to buy this game.… Expand
Apr 22, 2011This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The whole game feels rushed and incomplete, more like a doodle than a landscape. Even the main questline reuses areas that are both geographically and conceptually different, there is a Cave environment, a Warehouse environment and an Undercity environment. Get used to these because you will see them, often. The game takes many of the elements of the first game and discards them on the basis that it's easier to throw away concepts than fix them, discarding the Crafting system in favour of purchasing the crafted items after finding permanent resources in the game.
Most of the characters are completely unlikable, Anders springs to mind almost immediately. The handling of the games "Romances" for lack of a better term is almost unforgivable, the writing is blunter and less interesting than a cheap fanfiction. The game's fans urge that the Romances are completely voluntary and are a side aspect to the game, this is at odds with the game it self, the Romances are aggressively forced upon the player, with heavy skill benefits for players who partake, as well as some characters actively disliking you if don't show interest in romancing them.
The ending is just appalling, every faction in the game ends up betraying you, regardless of your choices, just so you have to fight them all. This is unforgivable in an RPG that promotes the value of a choice.
This game is much, much less enjoyable than the first game in the series, which offers both more features, better writing and more choice.… Expand
Apr 24, 2011This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Horrible disappointment.They took everything that was good in Dragon Age Origins&Awakening and threw it out of the window.Graphics? Poor level design,recycled generic dungeons,90% of the quests are located in ONE CITY! Just terrible.Sound? Also much better in Origins,voice acting in DA2 is poor and unconvincing,music was also waaaaay better in Origins.Dialogues? The dialogue system is a very very poor copy of the Mass Effect dialogue system,with pseudoparagon and pseudorenegade answers and supposedly funny answers that usually spectacularly fail to be funny.Dialogue system in Origins provided much more to choose from and it was much better written.Party members? Extremely annoying and shallow (Varric Tethras is the only half bearable character) and you cannot change their armor AT ALL.Romance? Almost non existant options for any interesting romance,especially for male Hawke,you get to choose from retarded elf woman (Merrill) and a slut (Isabella),that is it if you dont count gay romance with Anders.Combat? One of the most annoying parts of the game,dumbed down to the console click click level catered for the very casual RPG gamers,any true RPG gamer will be extremely disappointed with the new combat system.DAO had pretty good combat system,DA2 combat system is total crap.User interface? DAO had beautifully designed user interface with detailed descriptions of items,now you get a bland black user interface that has no place in any game,let alone a fantasy game.Weapon,armor and item descriptions are also totally dumbed down.Now you actually collect "junk",way to go.Storyline,quests and ending? Unlike DAO,DA2 forces some plot developments on you,regardless of what you do or choices you make,lame.In DAO you could influence even major plot developments,often in significant ways.Now you are forced to accept certain decisions and your influence on them is cosmetics.This game is either rushed so it is half done or Bioware decided to dumb down their best RPG since Baldur's Gate to cater for wider audience,and therefore make more money for Bioware.Hopefully they will listen to the widespread criticism of DA2 and make the likely third installment of Dragon Age once again a real hardcore RPG.DA2 is a great example of what NOT to do with a sequel to a game,take everything that was good,throw it away,add horrible redesign and "new features" that are actually crap and you get this.They even managed to screw up the redesign of DAO character faces like Sandal,Zevran or Alistair.Not to mention that darkspawn now look like a joke.In some moments during gameplay I started laughing on how terrible some things were compared to DAO.I just could not believe that Bioware can screw up the sequel this much.Note-I originally posted this review in the Xbox360 section of DA2,instead of the PC by mistake,by mistake,if anyone knows how can I remove that review let me know.… Expand
May 3, 2011The same location over and over and over. Utterly uninteresting story and awful, cliched cringe-worthy characters. Nowhere interesting to go, nobody interesting to talk to. Dull, dull, dull...
May 14, 2011I loved the First DA and Awakening but god damn does this game suck or what. Well its quite obvious why. PC was the lead platform for DA and Awakening, but thats not the case for DA2. Anyway I pre-ordered this game thinking it was like its predecessor but it was all but anything like it sadly. Stay away from this game, spend your money on better RPGs like Witcher 2.
Bioware, you've f'ed the PC community for the last time you ain't ganna get a cent of my money anymore.… Expand
May 20, 2011This game is not terrible by any means,but it makes you wonder what was bioware thinking when they repeatedly recycled environments and npcs'.The story is not quite what DAo was and it feels like it lacks detail and most of all the main point as to continue playing the game. The combat is still enjoyable,but it's more simplistic than it was before.Bioware was pursuing a more action packed game and they succeeded,but at the cost of Story,Items,etc...… Expand
May 17, 2011No longer bound by the aging cRPG format, Bioware presents the greatest RPG of the decade if not the entire genre. Kirkwall is a living breathing city that evolves based on the decisions you make through your ten year rise to power as Hawke one of the most dynamic and charismatic leads ever created in any form of media. Coupled with the deeply strategic and visceral gameplay there is only one word sufficient to describe this game: Awesome!… Expand
May 18, 2011What can I say that others haven't? DA2 is a commercial failure. See what short dev time, and an idiotic Lead Dev who does a 180 to fix things that weren't broken, and break other things. Why if you have such a short time, you go and tr to re-invent the wheel? Why not fix, tweak, and build upon origins instead of doing this silly drivel? I did love the concept of the story, but it was horribly executed, so many plot holes that you could drive an aircraft carrier through. Not to mention all the immersion breaking stuff as well. Don't get me started on BW's attempt at Final Fantasy characters(Fenris is cloud) and flashy lame combat that takes no thought at all.
Story: 7 (good idea, bad execution. Drop the frame narrative bioware, you suck at it)
Graphics: 5 (overly not an improvement over DA:O. Some better character models, but I prefer the grittiness of DAO over it)
Audio: 6 (Even the music was rushed. Inon did an excellent job regardless and upped my score for it.)
Combat: 2 (While some balance issues were addressed, the whole balloon body exploding meth induced speed combat, idiotic animations, waves, armored ninjas falling from the sky..)
When I originally played it, I was generous and gave it a 6-7 /10 on the "official" forum. As you spend more time with it, the lower the score keeps going. Way too many faults. The piles of crap in DA2 out weigh all the good thats in it.
4 / 10. Must be nice having EA pay off a bunch of professional reviewers, eh?… Expand
May 19, 2011I have played this game on the Xbox and on the PC. I didn't like it on the Xbox but I hated it on the PC. The camera view during combat on the PC is downright awful. The dungeons are all copy and pasted. You have very few choices in the game ( very linear playthrough), almost no interaction with your companions, and they removed the ability to customise your companion's armour and in some cases, weapons.
Bioware removed some of the best parts about Dragon Age!
Oh, and the story made you despise both sides in the "major" conflict so at the end of the day, you are forced to take sides when my character didn't even care one way or the other.
I also felt almost nothing for my love interest since as I wrote above, Bioware removed almost all of the interaction with your companions that was one of the unique and great things about DA Origens, so all my companions including my love interest, felt almost like strangers.. I hope Bioware straightens their act out with DA3, otherwise, they can forget about getting my money.
On a last note, the replayability of DA2 is crap. Both endings (yes, there are only TWO with the exception of which love interest you pick), are almost exactly the same. So, why replay the game? Where as Origens, had great replay value with many different endings depending on your in game choices. Could this mess be EA's doing? Trying to rush the game to make a quick buck? I think Bioware has lost their soul.… Expand
May 21, 2011shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
May 20, 2011It's not often that a sequel comes out worse in every single way to its predecessor, yet the brilliant minds at BioWare have managed to accomplish just that with Dragon Age 2. This game is clearly rushed, likely due to the influence of EA, and doesn't even remotely resemble all of the greatness that Dragon Age Origins was known for. Try harder next time, BioWare, and you might win back my business.… Expand
May 21, 2011This game is so bad that I consider it unplayable. I have been a BioWare fan for a decade and I'm sad to say that this product is complete and total trash. Not being able to customize your characters armor is obscene. There is no excuse for that. Not having a tactical camera for a game that IN THEORY (and theory only) is a party based tactical combat RPG is obscene. There is no excuse for that. Enemies randomly appearing in 5+ waves on nightmare is obscene. Swordman often literally drop from the sky. There is no excuse for that. Areas are recycled over and over. I don't believe ANY are of the game is unique. The game is trash. Don't buy it. Don't rent it. Don't acknowledge it exists. Its really not worth the frustration if you're expecting another incredible BioWare title. That being said...... I hope Mike Laidlaw never develops another BioWare game.… Expand
May 21, 2011Bioware releasing usual junk. Copy-pasted environments everywhere. It's shocking that they'll try to make DA3 also in 18 months, so expect more copy-paste. Uninstalled after 10 minutes, avoid like plague!
May 22, 2011Bioware releases another misogynistic jaunt into the Mary Sue world of 'the dragon crap.' There is hardly anything of substance to recommend this train wreck to a discerning connoisseur of RPGs. Every element of its design can be described as 'embarassingly awkward.' Animation, art direction, dialogue, writing, combat. It's a list of sad mediocrities as long as your arm. The fact of the setting and characters being a shameless copy of Michael Moorcook's classic Elric of Melnibone series aside, the game itself behaves like a confused child. Does it want to be a brawler with peripheral RPG elements? Or an action RPG with brawler combat? In either situation the designers have failed to deliver on both satisfying combat or a compelling story that ever rises above the juvenile. Look to the masters at CDProject with their latest RPG epic, The Witcher 2, for inspiration in your future games, Bioware. You certainly won't find it making shallow sex simulators based on generic fantasy worlds.… Expand
May 24, 2011Zero. This is call to Bioware that it needs to change. NO, it's not working anymore. STOP doing the same game over and over. Gamers need something new, something evolved (it's 2011 and not 2005). I don't care that they must make PS3/X360/DS version. My PC is underused with the poor graphics I see.
One for the fans only.
May 25, 2011If this was any game, by any developer, completely stand alone game that wasn't a sequel to Dragon Age: Origins, I would have probably given it a higher rating. But as it is, Bioware has set a certain standard in it's games. Never once have I played a Bioware game that didn't adhere to the very finest standards of quality. ... until Dragon Age 2. It feels rushed, watered down, and downright uninspiring.
Dungeons are frequently re-used. In Dragon Age 1, some maps would be re-used, typically in random encounters and the like where it didn't really matter. In Dragon Age 2, this is taken to a whole 'nother level. In general, level design has taken a hit as well. It's just less interesting. Less features. Less attention to detail. The world doesn't feel lived in anymore. Feels like a film set.
The combat has serious issues. The combat mechanics aren't glitchy, but very poorly balanced. Either it's face-rollingly easy, or extremely difficult, with very little in terms of a middle ground. The difficulty also comes from the unforgiving wave mechanic that has units spawning out of nowhere in waves, which means it's virtually impossible to recover from mistakes. Did I mention that potions are on a global cooldown? Sometimes, games with broken mechanics are redeemed by the amount of love put into them by the developers, but this game feels mostly as an attempt to see just how many corners can be cut before people react. And clearly they've cut one corner too many.
To re-iterate, by industry standards it's not a bad game. But by bioware standards, it's disappointing. If you find it on a discount, by all means pick it up for the story if nothing else, but don't expect another masterpiece like Dragon Age: Origins.… Expand
May 30, 2011The combat felt more engaging and exciting, but the interaction with companions was sacrificed, which made the game far less enjoyable. I wouldn't purchase another game in this series if this is the way things keep going.
Jun 2, 2011I can't believe that a game this freaking good scored this freaking low! i have Played through four times now! the story is top notch, the characters are great and the loot is good! who cares if a few environments were recycled a couple times! It was a great game! Can't wait for the third DA game and I can't wait for DLC and expansions for DA2.
Jul 7, 2011Dragon Age Origins was years in the making. Truly the spiritual successor to Bioware's claim to fame, the Baldurs Gate Series. Dragon Age II however, was made in considerably less time, with considerably less foresight. This is a wonderful example of two steps forward, one step backwards.
Dragon Age II removes many of the classical RPG elements in order to streamline it into a Mass Effect type best seller. What fits one series doesn't work for everything. There are a inane amount of reused environments which are generic and sterile. Everything is rushed, between the lack of character interactions and the "when is it going to end type" story.
They swore up and down that they didn't forget where they came from while making the first Dragon Age, and for the glimpse of time, maybe they didn't. But.. Alas the memory is gone again.… Expand
Jul 16, 2011My beef with this game: NO replay value!!! This is a disaster!
NO character creation, forget playing different races or alternative start. Combat reduced to button mashing. Almost entire game is set in the same city, yet they put no effort in making it beautiful and interesting to explore. Brown dusty streets and nothing to look at!
To call this..abomination a sequel to Dragon age is insulting!
Jul 20, 2011In some areas, it fell short compared to Dragon Age: Origins. In other departments, it surpassed it. If you aren't expecting Origins 2, you will like this.
Aug 9, 2011I clearly expected to play another ... This is an absolute failure! Boring gameplay, repetitive locations, stupid plot, monotony of what is happening ...
Aug 21, 2011I know everyone slates this game and while everything everyone says has some merit to it, I still enjoyed this game IMMENSELY. I enjoyed the Rogue combat much more than the first game, I enjoyed that two shades of grey they made me pick between, I enjoyed stabbing a certain character in the back and watching him die. They could have added more fully straight guys though... just saying. Can't wait for three.… Expand
Nov 10, 2011After having had beat Baldur's gate before trying out this game, I can only think to myself how hard Bioware has fallen.Depth exchanged for puerile romance and tasteless violence.
Dec 16, 2011Let´s be fair about this one. While I share the disappointment of most Critics about this game:
Compare it with most other PC games it´s still way above average. Compare it with Origins it fails utterly.
After a long thirst in the PC: RPG world DA:O came along and delivered what we had missed since Knights of the Old Republic 1, almost Planescape Torment maybe: a damn good story in an RPG with atmosphere and well made none-archetype characters.
This sequel now lost most of what made it´s predecessor special, the Matrix 2+3 of the gaming industry; somehow making part 1 worse in the bargain because the name is tainted now. That´s why we are rightfully angry about it. We paid money for it but the love is gone, they ripped us; the cow gives milk because it´s famous now. Why not exploid that?...
but ...if they´d named it different, we´d all buy it and probably give it an 8 out of 10. Because this is what the genre has become. Predictable characters slashing their way to the next loot. Like watching a Wesley Snipes movie.… Expand
Mar 1, 2012Really disappointed with this game. I have been a fan of BioWare games since BG1 and this game along Jade Empire(if I remember the name correctly) are the biggest disappointments. This honestly just feels like a huge money grasp. Hopefully BioWare learned from this that they can't just put out anything and expect to people to be happy with it...
Jan 26, 2012This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Dragon Age 2 is a pretty average RPG that strips back the good parts of the last game and replaces them with cheap versions of it.
I'm giving it a six as it's a quick game, which allows it to be replayed very easily. Even though the replay value is so low, the player still has a chance to go back and play with a different personality Hawke, and romance different characters.
Good points include unbelievably quick combat that feels action-packed, witty dialogue, a wide range of weapons that look different from one another, and kinda interesting characters with different pasts.
The downside of the characters are that there are just too obvious stereotypes with them. You have a warped Mage who wants to free his brethren and an elf who hates mages. Put these two together and you just have hate-spew. Other downsides include being unable to tell the party to HOLD and stay where they are, as when you move, after a certain distance, they follow you; being unable to use half the armour and weapons you find as characters have specific armour; being unable to mod the game apart from tiny tweaks; the list goes on.
Not bad if you're only gonna pay $20 for it, but any more than that and it's not really worth it.… Expand
Nov 29, 2013Why the hell Bioware strayed from the success of Dragon Age: Origins' gameplay mechanics so much I'll never know. I was terribly disappointed by the camera and extremely linear gameplay of DA II. Stay w/ what works Bioware....PLEASE.
Mar 11, 2012Avoid like a plague if you played and enjoyed Origins. If not then you sure can get some fun from it, but as a sequel it fails terribly. Graphics are so-so but overall the game is lacking in every aspect. Characters are not entertaining at all, you just can't feel anything when you interact with them... Hell I don't even remember half of them. Fights are also terrible, just button mashing and killing NPC-s who simply appear from nowhere. Oh, and your choices means nothing like in most recent RPG-s. You just kill everyone and only big decision is who will be killed first...… Expand
Mar 23, 2012Not as good as DA:O but still a lot of fun to play, besides the recicled caves and endless waves.
The voiced PC gives the game a lot more depth and I also liked the faster combat and the more personal story.
May 15, 2012This game has terrible story direction, bad graphics (compared to DA:O), unneeded reimagining of monsters, elves and mages alike. The dungeons are endless repeats, with waves of generic enemies coming at you at the same dungeon (but different name) that you were in an hour ago. The writing for the story feels like a weeaboo fanfic rather than a professional piece of work, and the combat has been casualized click to win. Repeatedly my suspension of disbelief was taken away by quest's objectives just pulled out of air for me to complete without any mystery, especially with items found in caves. Not only that, but my control of my character was taken away from me repeatedly as well, going as far as to take years of my character's life away from me. I'd expect this from an action game, but not from an RPG. On top of this, my choices did not matter at all, and I was railroaded in the story line so no matter what I did, specific things always happened. The dialogue system was removed from DA:O, instead replacing it with a mass effect style system. Wouldn't be so bad if the dialogue was well written, instead whenever I picked the "Joke' dialogue option I felt like punching hawke in his smug **** mouth. This half finished game was not worth the 60 dollars I paid for it, and it wasn't worth 10. Buyer's remorse to the nth degree. That is all I want to say.… Expand
Mar 13, 2011User- Score of 4.0? I am completely stunned by this. It's waaay down there where you would normally find titles coming out of..... Eastern Europe or Kenya? And let me make one thing clear: It cannot possibly be justified. Dragon Age 2 is a major step up from the original in terms of intriguing story-telling, gameplay and character affection. Doing all the side-quests, there is at least 30 hours of your time and I can guarantee that if you play on anything above normal difficulty; it will require more than simple hack'n slash as some of the 795 negative reviews have suggested. Yes, at times the combat goes on automatic mode and it may occasionally feel as if you were simply watching a movie but use that opportunity to catch your breath. You will need to do so because the story is as involving as ever and so increasingly fast-paced that at times it will almost surely take your breath away. DA2 clearly has adapted some of the better aspects from ME2 where, although slightly more limited, the conversation-wheel has been greatly simplified and 10x more perceivable. Other players have complained that a beautifully voice-acted main-character is to blame for shallow and uninteresting conversations but I personally feel this helps you retain a closer relationship with the character of Hawke and his ties with his mother, sister and Varric the always witty, Dwarven, companion with the mystical, personified, crossbow Bianca. While some compromises have been made, not only regarding voice-acting but also in combat and the selection of spells and abilities to reach a broader audience, the Wizards hat is still firmly on your head and at the time you finish the game you will have been through the entire emotional band and you will feel anxious whether or not you have taken the right choices all along. All in all I feel that DA2 is an excellent rpg which has evolved from the sort of unpolished, rough around the edges, nature of Origins to be a near perfect action oriented drama which certainly pleased me plenty. I may not be the most hardcore rpg fan but if I were to have a say I would argue that DA2 is better than, not only the previous installments, but also triumphs Mass Effect. So far, this is my GOTY 2011. If you are looking for a new Baldur's gate; look elsewhere.… Collapse
Apr 18, 2011Moving even further from the classic RPG, strong story and clever combat are nonetheless still found within Dragon Age II. [May 2011, p.52]
Apr 12, 2011Despite some advancement in storytelling approach and liberal borrowing from Bioware's Mass Effect approach to gameplay, Dragon Age 2 on the PC has a lot of bugs and is populated with re-used settings that make this feel like a play performed on a stage with two sets.
Apr 11, 2011For a rushed product that is still battling bugs, the currently offered product still provides 40 hours of challenging and engaging gameplay. This combines to provide a good, but not great gaming experience.