FesterSilently
March 31st, 2011, 10:48 PM
Couldn't find another thread, so I started me own! :D
Go grab a beer and a sammich - this may take a while.
I'm gonna preface this by stating that I've only played a little under 18 hours (middle-ish of Act 2?), which, as in ANY sprawling RPG, ain't that far into the game, but, honestly, I don't know how much more I'm gonna play.
Anyway.
Regarding comparing this game to DA:O - I'm sorry, folks, I have to. Because: a) they FUCKING CALLED IT Dragon Age 2, and b) I've got the same problem with this game I had with the whole "Ghost Recon" (1999, Red Storm Entertainment) vs. "Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 1/2" debacle: judged on their own, neither of those (GR:AW) games are bad. In fact, they're kinda fun! But when compared to their namesake, the Advanced Warfighter games are simply: terribly unforgiving, terribly bland shooters, with a minimum of tactics thrown in. And it was exactly *because* they shared the name "Ghost Recon" that I inordinately hated them. Fucking. HATED. Them.
Solution?
Call 'em "Advanced Warfighter 1" & "Advanced Warfighter 2" and I would never have expected the tactical depth/immersion I got from the original GR, and therefore would have judged each of those games on their own merit; and I would have liked them a *lot* more. In other words, neither of those games are TERRIBLE games, but when compared to their namesake (GR), the suck donkey balls. And that ain't much fun for the donkey.
So if Bioware wanted to change the DA game so radically - then good on 'em! Go for it, I say! But they should have named it, say, Quest for Kirkwall, or Hawke Rising, or anything NOT associated with Dragon Age - THEN I wouldn't be (necessarily!) comparing it to Dragon Age: Origins! DA2 ain't a bad Action RPG on its own merits, but when you sell it to me as a SEQUEL to Dragon Age: Origins...I'm gonna fucking expect it to take off from the goddamned game it was named after, n'cest pas?!
Having said that:
DISLIKED -
- the way it runs. I've got a Core i7 laptop, with an SSD/HDD hybrid hard drive, 8GBs of PC10700 DDR3 system memory and an nVidia GT360m GPU w/1GB GDDR5 dedicated memory. If I try to run at 1680 x 1050 (my native resolution) with all the bling on "Very High"...it runs absolutely shit-tastically. And, though it looks (for the most part) better than DA:O, it doesn't look THAT good...not enough to warrant that severe framerate hit.
- a "Junk" section in the inventory! Um...what? Really? Shit I cannot fucking use...because IT'S JUNK. What the fuck were you thinking? Why not just give me a few extra coppers in the drop/loot? What's the fucking point?
- the re-used areas. I thought Bethesda had the market cornered on this, but Bioware has swooped in to claim the crown. Every fucking cave is THE SAME. At least two-thirds of the castles/houses/warehouses are THE SAME. The outdoor areas, not as bad, but...it all left a lazy, bad taste in my mouth.
- the voice acting/writing for your protagonist. Every one of my friends who loves the game raves how the fact that the protagonist now has a voice immerses you more. I say, Well, if it was GOOD voice acting...sure! But, really, it's not even so much the voice acting; it's what they wrote for the main character to say: it's terrible, terrible writing. Really - I've got three options EVERY TIME, and they amount to Angel, Humorous (not really) Jack-Ass, or Angry Dickhead. EVERY time. And the TRULY bad part about that? It's that...
- none of my choices made a bloody bit of difference (in all but the main quests-chain)! Whether I chose Polite Milquetoast, Class Clown or Douche-Monger...the result was the SAME every time!!! Nobody seemed to really give a fuck what I said to them! Whatever action they were scripted to do in a given situation...they did it, no matter which answer I gave 'em.
- inability to equip your party 90% of the time. Again, more tactics taken away. Can your tank really benefit from that Plate armor? Too bad. Could your mage really get some mileage out of that Elemental bonus ring? Tough. This sorta goes back to my "Junk" gripe: why not, then, just give me cash in my drops for the shit I cannot equip on my main character or my sidekicks? Sure it takes away some immersion, but so does the fact that nearly EVERYTHING that drops is only for ME.
- fighting enemies (not to be confused with the combat mechanics, which is on my "meh" list). Enemies now attack in waves. MUCH more than ever happened in DA:O. Walk into an area, you’ll see the usual handful of enemies waiting to attack. Pause, place your characters, issue orders, fire off spells and attacks, ration your mana and stamina carefully to ensure the boss can be taken down…then, suddenly, more enemies spawn in. And more after them.
This isn’t sometimes - it's every fucking fight. Wave after wave, so any tactics/strategy you might have become completely meaningless. And it’s not smoothly done, either - demons and the undead crawling out of the ground at least makes sense in the genre; but having half-a-dozen warriors/archers spawn in front of your character mid-fight...is asinine. Combat now is simply spamming abilities and waiting for them to cool-down as wave after wave spawns in.
AMBIVALENT -
- the size/scope of the game world. Although I kind of understand this from a timeliness point of view: they didn't have as much time to design as large a world as (maybe) they should/could have. It sucks, but...I accept it.
- the graphics. I don't think they're THAT much better than DA:O, but...eh. They're very nice.
- the lack of explorable areas IN-BETWEEN the main questing areas. You know, like in Planescape and Baldur's and (not as much, but still in) Icewind. I am coming to the realization that this is probably never going to make a comeback, so it's now on my, "It Sucks, but...whatever" list.
- the combat. It looks cooler, the animations (though overstated) are wonderful to watch, but...I miss the combinations/strategy involved with the (admittedly slower/clunkier) combat system from DA:O, so...meh.
LIKED -
- the streamlining of the talents. Though I could (and did) bitch about the loss of tactics/strategy because of the "dumbing-down", I can appreciate the ease with which one can choose/predict a talent path for their character now.
- the inventory/character screen, in general, is cleaner & much easier to navigate.
- the addition of SOMEBODY without a generic British/American accent (I'm talking about you, Merrill!)
Okay. Your eyes (if you haven't poked them out already) are probably dying now, so...go away! Read somebody else's endless rant about DA2! :D
Peace, y'all.
Go grab a beer and a sammich - this may take a while.
I'm gonna preface this by stating that I've only played a little under 18 hours (middle-ish of Act 2?), which, as in ANY sprawling RPG, ain't that far into the game, but, honestly, I don't know how much more I'm gonna play.
Anyway.
Regarding comparing this game to DA:O - I'm sorry, folks, I have to. Because: a) they FUCKING CALLED IT Dragon Age 2, and b) I've got the same problem with this game I had with the whole "Ghost Recon" (1999, Red Storm Entertainment) vs. "Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 1/2" debacle: judged on their own, neither of those (GR:AW) games are bad. In fact, they're kinda fun! But when compared to their namesake, the Advanced Warfighter games are simply: terribly unforgiving, terribly bland shooters, with a minimum of tactics thrown in. And it was exactly *because* they shared the name "Ghost Recon" that I inordinately hated them. Fucking. HATED. Them.
Solution?
Call 'em "Advanced Warfighter 1" & "Advanced Warfighter 2" and I would never have expected the tactical depth/immersion I got from the original GR, and therefore would have judged each of those games on their own merit; and I would have liked them a *lot* more. In other words, neither of those games are TERRIBLE games, but when compared to their namesake (GR), the suck donkey balls. And that ain't much fun for the donkey.
So if Bioware wanted to change the DA game so radically - then good on 'em! Go for it, I say! But they should have named it, say, Quest for Kirkwall, or Hawke Rising, or anything NOT associated with Dragon Age - THEN I wouldn't be (necessarily!) comparing it to Dragon Age: Origins! DA2 ain't a bad Action RPG on its own merits, but when you sell it to me as a SEQUEL to Dragon Age: Origins...I'm gonna fucking expect it to take off from the goddamned game it was named after, n'cest pas?!
Having said that:
DISLIKED -
- the way it runs. I've got a Core i7 laptop, with an SSD/HDD hybrid hard drive, 8GBs of PC10700 DDR3 system memory and an nVidia GT360m GPU w/1GB GDDR5 dedicated memory. If I try to run at 1680 x 1050 (my native resolution) with all the bling on "Very High"...it runs absolutely shit-tastically. And, though it looks (for the most part) better than DA:O, it doesn't look THAT good...not enough to warrant that severe framerate hit.
- a "Junk" section in the inventory! Um...what? Really? Shit I cannot fucking use...because IT'S JUNK. What the fuck were you thinking? Why not just give me a few extra coppers in the drop/loot? What's the fucking point?
- the re-used areas. I thought Bethesda had the market cornered on this, but Bioware has swooped in to claim the crown. Every fucking cave is THE SAME. At least two-thirds of the castles/houses/warehouses are THE SAME. The outdoor areas, not as bad, but...it all left a lazy, bad taste in my mouth.
- the voice acting/writing for your protagonist. Every one of my friends who loves the game raves how the fact that the protagonist now has a voice immerses you more. I say, Well, if it was GOOD voice acting...sure! But, really, it's not even so much the voice acting; it's what they wrote for the main character to say: it's terrible, terrible writing. Really - I've got three options EVERY TIME, and they amount to Angel, Humorous (not really) Jack-Ass, or Angry Dickhead. EVERY time. And the TRULY bad part about that? It's that...
- none of my choices made a bloody bit of difference (in all but the main quests-chain)! Whether I chose Polite Milquetoast, Class Clown or Douche-Monger...the result was the SAME every time!!! Nobody seemed to really give a fuck what I said to them! Whatever action they were scripted to do in a given situation...they did it, no matter which answer I gave 'em.
- inability to equip your party 90% of the time. Again, more tactics taken away. Can your tank really benefit from that Plate armor? Too bad. Could your mage really get some mileage out of that Elemental bonus ring? Tough. This sorta goes back to my "Junk" gripe: why not, then, just give me cash in my drops for the shit I cannot equip on my main character or my sidekicks? Sure it takes away some immersion, but so does the fact that nearly EVERYTHING that drops is only for ME.
- fighting enemies (not to be confused with the combat mechanics, which is on my "meh" list). Enemies now attack in waves. MUCH more than ever happened in DA:O. Walk into an area, you’ll see the usual handful of enemies waiting to attack. Pause, place your characters, issue orders, fire off spells and attacks, ration your mana and stamina carefully to ensure the boss can be taken down…then, suddenly, more enemies spawn in. And more after them.
This isn’t sometimes - it's every fucking fight. Wave after wave, so any tactics/strategy you might have become completely meaningless. And it’s not smoothly done, either - demons and the undead crawling out of the ground at least makes sense in the genre; but having half-a-dozen warriors/archers spawn in front of your character mid-fight...is asinine. Combat now is simply spamming abilities and waiting for them to cool-down as wave after wave spawns in.
AMBIVALENT -
- the size/scope of the game world. Although I kind of understand this from a timeliness point of view: they didn't have as much time to design as large a world as (maybe) they should/could have. It sucks, but...I accept it.
- the graphics. I don't think they're THAT much better than DA:O, but...eh. They're very nice.
- the lack of explorable areas IN-BETWEEN the main questing areas. You know, like in Planescape and Baldur's and (not as much, but still in) Icewind. I am coming to the realization that this is probably never going to make a comeback, so it's now on my, "It Sucks, but...whatever" list.
- the combat. It looks cooler, the animations (though overstated) are wonderful to watch, but...I miss the combinations/strategy involved with the (admittedly slower/clunkier) combat system from DA:O, so...meh.
LIKED -
- the streamlining of the talents. Though I could (and did) bitch about the loss of tactics/strategy because of the "dumbing-down", I can appreciate the ease with which one can choose/predict a talent path for their character now.
- the inventory/character screen, in general, is cleaner & much easier to navigate.
- the addition of SOMEBODY without a generic British/American accent (I'm talking about you, Merrill!)
Okay. Your eyes (if you haven't poked them out already) are probably dying now, so...go away! Read somebody else's endless rant about DA2! :D
Peace, y'all.