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Dragon Age 2. AN ANNOYING REVIEW. :D
14 years ago
Okay, so it's a week since the release of Dragon Age 2, and a lot of my friendles know I was mindlessly obsessed with the original. Well, I've played through DA2 three times now, and am COMPLETELY SICK OF IT. WHOO. But here's my quick review of the game for those of you who are thinking about maybe trying it out who haven't yet. >_> My final rating is 3.5/5 stars.
THE GOOD
1. ALL THEFUCKABLE ROMANTIC INTEREST NPCS ARE BI. And I mean ALL of them. I thought you furries might like that. I know I do. :D
2. They somehow managed to make fighting as a mage not horrible. The basic fighting cycles for all characters are pretty fun.
3. I'm a Mass Effect fan, so I like what they did with the player character. S/he now has voice actor, and actually talks and shit. The female voice actor pissed me off for awhile, but now I'm used to it.
4. They simplified a lot of things, like lock-picking and armor/weapon upgrades. This may also be a "bad" thing, depending on your perspective.
5. Like the original game, there are a LOT of ways it can end, depending on your choices throughout the game. SO DON'T FUCK UP. :D
6. The Black Emporium expansion is pretty priceless, and if you preordered the game you get it FREE.
7. They brought back like all of the characters from the original Dragon Age for longterm positions in the plot, or just for cameos!
THE BAD
1. Had hoped for better graphics.
2. Character and relationship development is definitely down compared to the original game. Think more along the lines of Mass Effect--"hit it and quit it".
3. Let's face it; the storyline is weak. It's basically just a lot of random quests barely linked together into a semblance of a plot.
4. Killed off the Arcane Warrior specialty, which I personally liked.
5. They went the way of Final Fantasy (kind of?) with the ability upgrades. It's now fairly annoying.
6. It's a fairly short game, and is definitely not "epic" in scope of plotline. Takes maybe 25 hours to finish if you're not nitpicky, maybe 30 if you're playing on Nightmare level or are a perfectionist.
7. They brought back a ton of characters from the original game...and then they fucked them up, either appearance-wise or personality-wise. What the hell, man.
THE UGLY
1. If you get as emotionally involved in roleplay games as I do, just fuck romance in this game. Seriously, they ALL end in horrible goddamned drama. You cannot win. The characters in this game make furries look sane.
THE GOOD
1. ALL THE
2. They somehow managed to make fighting as a mage not horrible. The basic fighting cycles for all characters are pretty fun.
3. I'm a Mass Effect fan, so I like what they did with the player character. S/he now has voice actor, and actually talks and shit. The female voice actor pissed me off for awhile, but now I'm used to it.
4. They simplified a lot of things, like lock-picking and armor/weapon upgrades. This may also be a "bad" thing, depending on your perspective.
5. Like the original game, there are a LOT of ways it can end, depending on your choices throughout the game. SO DON'T FUCK UP. :D
6. The Black Emporium expansion is pretty priceless, and if you preordered the game you get it FREE.
7. They brought back like all of the characters from the original Dragon Age for longterm positions in the plot, or just for cameos!
THE BAD
1. Had hoped for better graphics.
2. Character and relationship development is definitely down compared to the original game. Think more along the lines of Mass Effect--"hit it and quit it".
3. Let's face it; the storyline is weak. It's basically just a lot of random quests barely linked together into a semblance of a plot.
4. Killed off the Arcane Warrior specialty, which I personally liked.
5. They went the way of Final Fantasy (kind of?) with the ability upgrades. It's now fairly annoying.
6. It's a fairly short game, and is definitely not "epic" in scope of plotline. Takes maybe 25 hours to finish if you're not nitpicky, maybe 30 if you're playing on Nightmare level or are a perfectionist.
7. They brought back a ton of characters from the original game...and then they fucked them up, either appearance-wise or personality-wise. What the hell, man.
THE UGLY
1. If you get as emotionally involved in roleplay games as I do, just fuck romance in this game. Seriously, they ALL end in horrible goddamned drama. You cannot win. The characters in this game make furries look sane.
I hate the lack of gift giving. Also, the interface for watching character health/mana/stamina, I don't like.
Also, most of the abilities for the rogue make me :c
I'm only 6 hours in so...
Haven't played all the way through as a rogue yet; I also wasn't impressed. But then again, the rogue class always disappoints me so I figured that was just business as usual. X'D
there saved you trouble. although i liked how warriors get a tiny AoE boost while using two handed weapons. i also hate how if you take a mage class you get the brother (didn't like him personality-wise and in my view warriors are meh). i didn't try playing a warrior yet to see which family member you get, guessing you get the sister as she's ranged and no one in family start is a rogue.
AND I HEAR YOU. I was so sad when I replayed as a mage that Bethany died right away and I was stuck with fucking Carver. I flipped. XD When you play through as a warrior, you get Bethany/sister as a mage, yep.
I'm deathly afraid of this game now.
He still irritates the snot out of me. >_>
his growly
gravely
deep as the abyss
voooooooooooooice
BioWare pulled a dick move with Aveline (THEY MADE ME LOVE HER AND THEN TOOK HER AWAAAAY) but I liked it otherwise.
My only problems are the infamous Thedas Rack bosoms and a few story quirks, generally I am still enjoying my first playthrough. I'm in act 2 right now, but I know what happens as I've verbally spoilered myself out the wazoo.
the one that loved worf?
Yeah I noticed they made Zevran ..ugly somehow and he didn't have the same charm. He was about on par with Isabella this time around which made me very sad. Which is sad because he was my favourite ;o; I didn't think they did a bad job with Alistair though, he was pretty much the same with a slight upgrade in graphics. But really, they bring back everyone? I've yet to find most of the previous characters, I'll have to look harder. <3
Also: I was pretty disappointed with the Andres love plot. It was interesting to begin with, but way dull and kind of predictable starting halfway through :c But you say they all are such clusterfucks? D: Boourns.
But I guess I won't cut myself if the linearity, character depth, story pacing and entire gameplay gets abdicated...you sort of know it won't though.
It's like watching the Oscars and every movie you hate wins.
You said they had all of the old chars, and there are lots of love interests....what about the dog?
*hides in box*
You cannot have sex with him. XD
what is max level?
But my bigest dislike of this game however was that you couldn't choose your race. That allong with the lore of their game made me just decide to skip on this one.
I'm actually happy to learn that it's short. Thanks.
My boyfriend bought the game, and I'm pondering whether or not I want to waste 20 hours of my life playing this. I absolutely loved the first Dragon Age, but so far I'm not really impressed with Dragon Age II. I don't really like any of the characters, and the sub-plotlines sound rather flat and uninteresting. :/
So, I say skip on it.
And ditto, I wanted my elf rogue/hunter/assassin back.
I did like owning all the enemies with magic though. Much fun there.
Friggin lame. >_>; Was so annoying.
I am a bit disappointed in it. I agree there is not as much story in it as the first.
almost feels like they got it out just so they could make a few bucks.
Feels like there is less exploring and the world is so much smaller too.
The original was so epic compared to this.
...also an xbox.
fuck nvm.
I don't know about the female romance interests (because pfft, who cares XD), but Fenris' romance seemed to turn out pretty damn well. :P Even with his inner demons, I loved how he ends up completely devoted to you, even if he's not very vocal about it. As opposed to Anders, where you'll always take a backseat to his obsession with the Chantry. :|
And the little bit in the epilogue, where Varric talks about how all the Champion's companions were forced to leave him... oh, except (insert romantic interest here), of course. Just a little thing, but it made me smile. :)
I agree though, I wish you could have gotten more involved with the romances, instead of having to wait for scripted conversations and quests, although I do admit that made what moments there were more meaningful. And the kisses in this game... holy crap. *fans self* Like they just want to eat you alive!
It's just like most of the characters were created by emo teenagers. XD Made me twitch. A lot.
Also, IGN has this article about "10 Essential Dragon Age II Mods":
http://pc.ign.com/articles/115/1156387p1.html