RockPaperShotgun reviews Dragon Age 2

[Crooked Bee]

RPS' John Walker shares his analysis of Bioware's latest masterpiece.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/31/analysis-dragon-age-ii/

But the issue goes deeper than just mechanically. The game doesn’t seem to have the wherewithal to manage such a complex and nuanced story in its own narrative. At a certain point I had no idea which blood mage was which, as every single quest blurred into one. I’d deliberately defy orders to kill them/arrest them, and try to set them free (the angle I’d chosen to take for my character), and nearly every time they’d turn into a demon and I’d have to kill them anyway.

Which is, in fact, the model for most of the game. Where BioWare’s wonderful Knights Of The Old Republic offered the illusion of choice, changing the way you behaved in the fixed events, Dragon Age II offers not even an illusion. Do you want to open door A or door B? Both open up into a fight where you kill someone, but door A meant you wanted to. And this, tragically, even applies to the game’s floppy, hapless ending. ... In the end Dragon Age II has nothing to say about slavery, subjugation, or acculturation – themes that shone in Origins. It pretends it does, but it’s all flap and waffle to excuse some more fights. It has nowhere to go, nothing to reach for.

And sadly, by the end, I stopped caring altogether. I switched the combat down to “casual” because I was so bored of having the same fight sixty-three times an hour. Without the need for tactics, and with the mindlessly stupid decision to have repeated waves of enemies, once I’d unlocked enough abilities to spam through combat it became an incredibly frequent irritant. And boss fights didn’t ask for any skill whatsoever – they were just long, boring sequences where the only challenge was to see if I culd time my party’s heals such that they stayed alive long enough to watch the baddy finally keel over.

The game then betrayed me in two extraordinary ways. Firstly the biggest plot point in the game – one that changed everything that I’d been working for – happened in a cutscene, caused by one of my companions, and would have happened no matter what actions I’d taken before. It was such a strikingly bad decision, yet again making me feel irrelevant to the action. Sure, it’s great that an NPC can heavily impact the world. But surely I should get to be involved on some level?

And then the fudged ending forcing me to go down the same path whichever major choices I’d made, left me feeling cold. That it ends on a mother-sodding cliffhanger felt par for the course of the frenzy of middle fingers being stuck up at me, and when it didn’t bother to tell me what happened next to any of my companions, I realised I didn’t care.

So yes – I have a lot of negative things to say about the game. Things that meant that at the end, despite its genuinely being a solid RPG in many respects (I could talk about the improved crafting, entertainingly daft side stories, companion quests (although what the bloody hell was Merrill’s actually about?), refined skill system, amazing background conversations, excellent voice acting, interesting Qunari plot, and much more), I ended up not really liking it as a whole.

I think saying “II” was probably this game’s biggest mistake. When it feels more like a sister product to Awakenings than a full, unique game, surely it would have more sense to market it that way, even at full price? It’s not a sequel to the epic Dragon Age: Origins, in any meaningful sense. When I think about the breathtaking scale, the depth of history, the religious conflicts, the horrendous racism and classism, and moving, emotional narrative, it seems daft to have considered this the second incarnation of that. It’s a game set in a single city, with nowhere else to go, exploring six years of a group of people’s lives. It’s confined, which is fine, but it’s not the epic RPG we were reasonably expecting.

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah I was just starting to read this. It's like a guy trying to write a critical article about Dragon Age II, but his mouth is so full of Bioware cock he can't think of anything else.

 

[Xor]

It's interesting, though. Even the people who love the shit bioware normally produces don't like DA2. Well, most of them, anyway.

 

[Jaedar]

Yeah I was just starting to read this. It's like a guy trying to write a critical article about Dragon Age II, but his mouth is so full of Bioware cock he can't think of anything else.

This.

"the game is shit really, but it is only because of our expectations of BioWare games are so high!"

 

[attackfighter]

It's interesting, though. Even the people who love the shit bioware normally produces don't like DA2. Well, most of them, anyway.

I think it's due to the marketing. The marketing focused too much on the action and whatnot, and so the public didn't percieve it as an RPG. DA:O was basically the same thing but with slower combat and some other trivial differences, yet it was percieved as the greatest RPG evar. The only major difference between the two games, that would lead to such a difference in perception, is the way in which they were advertised ("spiritual successor to BG2" vs. "press a button and something awesome happens").

Oh and fuck the maze/instakill rooms in that text adventure game, made me ragequit hard.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Can't stand how he keeps praising DAO as the second coming of Jesus, for crying out loud.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

Who?

 

[JagreenLern]

Wait, so KotoR was "wonderful" for offering the illusion of choice?

 

[waywardOne]

Wait, so KotoR was "wonderful" for offering the illusion of choice?

off topic: i just got near-mint copies of the Elric Saga 1 & 2 from a clueless used bookstore. haven't read them since my copies were stolen in the late 80's.

 

[Relay]

It's interesting, though. Even the people who love the shit bioware normally produces don't like DA2. Well, most of them, anyway.

I think it's due to the marketing. The marketing focused too much on the action and whatnot, and so the public didn't percieve it as an RPG. DA:O was basically the same thing but with slower combat and some other trivial differences, yet it was percieved as the greatest RPG evar. The only major difference between the two games, that would lead to such a difference in perception, is the way in which they were advertised ("spiritual successor to BG2" vs. "press a button and something awesome happens").

Oh and fuck the maze/instakill rooms in that text adventure game, made me ragequit hard.

No they're not the same game, at least DAO for all its ugly flaws gave you far more illusion of choice, which has its importance in RPGs. There is never a single time in DA2 where you could feel you had a choice or control over the situation. Take the werewolves versus elves conflict in DAO : you could slaughter all of the werewolves or all of the elves or bring peace to each other. The game will follow exactly what you had in mind. Now, the Mage vs Templar in DA2 : no matter what you do, everyone dies and is a traitor. Mages will all turn into abominations even if you help them and templars will try to betray you even if you sided with them. None of them listened to your rambling. "Champion" my ass, the warden was far more effective at a champion's job than this "champion".

 

[Crooked Bee]

Yeah, the guy's unbridled praise for DA:O and KOTOR is really funny. "Epic"! "Breathtaking scale"! "slavery, subjugation, or acculturation – themes that shone in Origins"!

 

[Stainless Veteran]

That article is p. retarded, considering that one of his main arguments was: "Oh noes, party members are just not engaging anymore!" While I liked some of DAO's companions, to call them pinnacle of storytelling would be, er, not wise. Also, in case of party members, main problems are poor implementation of already inane dialog wheel, idiotic decision to enable talking with them only when they are in their "home base", and last, but not least, lack of conversations overall.

Now, Bio's conversations and companions, as I said, aren't that great in general. If anything, they can range from p. fun to bloody annoying. And aforementioned "masseffectisation" could even work, but to get it to work Bio needed: a) make action parts of the game good; b) make better written companions. And DA2 fails at both points.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Oh the sour taste of decine of Bio popamole. Wait I shud feel sympathetic or what?
Atleast this fagot got payed for playing this shit, unlike the elfbutfuckin' sheeple.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

I read posts here on the codex saying they were actually waiting for this piece of shit article. All of you get in here now so I can kill you. That shit is not acceptable even if you meant it like "RPS is gonna write a stupid article and it'll be funny". Fuck you, this shit ain't funny. This is sad.

It's like a guy trying to write a critical article about Dragon Age II, but his mouth is so full of Bioware cock he can't think of anything else.

 

[attackfighter]

trample them good