Dragon Age 2
Mar. 26th, 2011 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
demoneyes_philFinished this last night. Which I suppose is possibly my latest criticism of it, namely that it's not long enough, certainly not by comparison with Dragon Age : Origins (hereafter DAO!). It's also very much my prevailing feeling about it, that it's a good enough game right up to the point where you compare it with its predecessor.
The characters aren't as interesting. The storyline isn't as interesting or (alas) epic. The difficulty level, except for ooh-maybe 4 boss fights (the Dark Roads Dragon, the Elder Rock Wraith, the Qunari boss duel and the High Dragon is generally far too easy on what's supposed to be a "normal" setting (I think I went through the entire Act 3 Finale without needing a single "Oops, let's try that again" reload or even a tactical resurrection). The reuse (and worse, partial reuse with areas still on the map but blocked off with arbitrary barriers) of both dungeon and wilderness areas gets increasingly annoying as you go on, as does the dumbing-down of character dialogue (with it's "Pick this to be romantic" or "Pick this to be nice" type option icons for the short of comprehension). The lack of "friendly fire" from spells and the random spawning of later waves of enemies take out a lot of the tactical feel, though on the plus side it does make for a much freer and faster-flowing game as you can now let the AI handle a lot of the party combat.
In a sense, this last makes it a very different game so perhaps making some of the comparisons unfair. Those who didn't get with DAO might even think it an improvement. But as a "2" I can't help but make the overall comparisons, and in doing so feel that they've fallen short of their previous achievement. It's an okay game, maybe even a good one, but it's not another DAO.
The characters aren't as interesting. The storyline isn't as interesting or (alas) epic. The difficulty level, except for ooh-maybe 4 boss fights (the Dark Roads Dragon, the Elder Rock Wraith, the Qunari boss duel and the High Dragon is generally far too easy on what's supposed to be a "normal" setting (I think I went through the entire Act 3 Finale without needing a single "Oops, let's try that again" reload or even a tactical resurrection). The reuse (and worse, partial reuse with areas still on the map but blocked off with arbitrary barriers) of both dungeon and wilderness areas gets increasingly annoying as you go on, as does the dumbing-down of character dialogue (with it's "Pick this to be romantic" or "Pick this to be nice" type option icons for the short of comprehension). The lack of "friendly fire" from spells and the random spawning of later waves of enemies take out a lot of the tactical feel, though on the plus side it does make for a much freer and faster-flowing game as you can now let the AI handle a lot of the party combat.
In a sense, this last makes it a very different game so perhaps making some of the comparisons unfair. Those who didn't get with DAO might even think it an improvement. But as a "2" I can't help but make the overall comparisons, and in doing so feel that they've fallen short of their previous achievement. It's an okay game, maybe even a good one, but it's not another DAO.
