Dragon Age 2

[Barrister]

Is it worth pirating?

I liked DA1 until I got seriously tired of all the pointless battles.

I was in exactly the same boat.  I liked the story and where it was going, but burned out on the battles.

Supposedly combat is even easier in this one, so you can (if you want) just hack and slash your way through the game.

[Caliga]

+1.

Never actually finished DA and overall was extremely disappointed.  Will pass on DA2 unless I hear phenomenal things from you people.

[garbon]

I liked DA a lot but don't see myself moving on the $60 price point. I'll be waiting.

[viper37]

I was in exactly the same boat.  I liked the story and where it was going, but burned out on the battles.

Supposedly combat is even easier in this one, so you can (if you want) just hack and slash your way through the game.

Try the demo, it will give you a good look of what the combat looks like.

I personally didn't really like the combat of the demo.  I can see that DA1 had issues with the way combats were done, and they weren't totally realistic because the characters swinging a two handed sword around didn't seem to hit anything at all, even his target, but seeing the dude with the 2 hand broadsword in full armor jumping high in the air to strike his ennemy (it's a special move) is not what I'd call realistic.

Oh, and the rogues jumping 20' in the air to land right by his target is nice the first 2-3 time, but it gets tiresome.

With DA1, you had to wait until Awakening to get a decent 2 handed weapons abilities, so it seems corrected now with this game.

I'll try to play tonight if I can, I will report on my toughts of the finished product.  The demo was too linear for me and lacked half the features.

[viper37]

I liked DA a lot but don't see myself moving on the $60 price point. I'll be waiting.

Paid 50$ for the signature edition

[Faeelin]

So, I've played for a few hours:

1) The overall plot seems unclear. You're starting a new life in a city that's tired of getting Felderan refugees, and.... your brother's a whiny bitch? I guess that's the gist.

2) As a result, it's not clear why anyone follows you.

3) Everyone starts out treating you like a badass, because... it's not clear. As a gray warden it makes sense, but as some refugee schmuck?

[grumbler]

+1.

Never actually finished DA and overall was extremely disappointed.  Will pass on DA2 unless I hear phenomenal things from you people.

+1

Agree on all of this except the part about getting DA2 just because languish types jizz their pants over it.

[Grey Fox]

I finished the original DA & the combat was extremely boring while I barely cared for the story.

DA2 demo didn't make me interested in the story while the combat still sucks.

[Faeelin]

They actually got rid of my favorite part of the combat. You could use certain spells to form combos; so freezing someone and then hitting them with a rock would shatter them, or an oil slick could be set on fire.

That's gone now. Not sure why.

Also, much to Neil's chagrin the sodomy is rampant in this game.

[viper37]

My thoughts:

It's better than DA1 in some ways, worst in other ways.

Story wise, it's starting to make sense.  A little.
Your guy (or girl), Hawke arrives in Kirkwall after losing his brother (or sister, but it depends on the class you play, if you play mage, your sister dies, if you play warrior or rogue, it's your brother), and there after a little chit-chat with the guards and his uncle, he spents 1 year in indented servitude to repay his price of entry in the city (the guards needed to be bribed a huge amount of gold to let you in), either as a mercenary or a smuggler.  This is where your badass reputation comes from, as you immediatly jump 1 year forward.

Story:
it seems rich enough, I'm starting to peel the layers after 3-4 hrs of play.  Seems it's more linear than DA1, less than ME2.  The demo is way, way, way more linear than the game itself.

The world in itself: very small.  Go to one place, kill the bad guys in 10 minutes, go back to the city for your reward.  It is possible that there could be a gazillions small "worlds" like this, though.

The dialogues: silly wheel with preset answers, angry, sarcastic, good guy.  And you know in advance who likes what.

The companions:
harder to please them than in DA1, but the relationship is different too.  It's no longer a love/hate relation, but rather one of "yes man" and "contrarian".  You can still pursue romance with a character who is adversarial.  They seem less fleshed out than in DA1 and that's a letdown for me.  It feels closer to ME2 in that aspect.

The combats:
better than in the demo, better than in DA1 so far, but I still don't like it.  It's more of an action game than an RPG, imho.  Time to refresh abilities is short, and once you're out of combat, you immediatly recharge health&stamina/mana.  Apparently, once you upgrade your spell, you can mix them, i.e. freezing someone and hitting them hard with a warrior or rogue will shatter them.  I have not seen this myself so far, I may not have played enough.
The combats are also a lot faster than they were in the original.  The demo gives you a good idea of how the combat system is working now, there's been only a few minor adjustments to that, from demo to game.

Gone is the dual weapon system where you could have a crossbow in your hands and quickly switch to your sword and shield in close combat.

Magic:
I can't say I like it.  It felt better in DA1.  The mages fight in themselves however are great, with mages using their staff as a blunt weapon when in close quarters.

Graphics:
The demo is awful.  Don't judge the graphics from that.  Once you get the game, you need to download an high-resolution texture patch (about 1gb).  The graphics are much better than the 1st one, very nice indeed.

Extras:
There's a gazilion extras available for the taking, depending on where&when you pre-ordered the game.  Some DLCs, some game items.  Registering the game gives you stuff, liking the game on Facebook gives you stuff.

Romance&bordello:
Yes, there is a brothel in the city of Kirkwall.  Pay attention to what you do, those fucking elves are hard to distinguish and I accidently chose a dude instead of a woman elf.  Yes, there's homo sex.  Marty will be buying this game for sure.  Not sure about the bi-stuff, don't know if a guy can romance another guy or a girl can romance a girl. 

Inventory&equipment:
Retarded, over simplified.  Only your main character can have different pieces of equipments, the others have one set.

Character progression:
Over simplified, in a way that reminds me of ME2.  Where as DA: Awakening had a deep ability tree, this one is very simple and there's no hard compromises to make.




My take:
not better than DA1, so far, slighty inferior, but keep in mind I didn't like ME2 when it came out, and this game is moving toward this style of gameplay&combat.

Download the demo to get a good feeling of the new combat system.  This is the only thing the demo is good at.  If you hate the combat of the demo you won't like the game for sure.  If you like it and simply feel the story is not deep enough, than this game might be for you.  It's a console game more than a PC game and it shows.

[viper37]

Gamespot review 8.0

I think it's a fair rating.  So far, it's fun, but not as fun as DA1 was.

[JonasSalk]

Thanks for the review.  I will definitely not be buying this game now.

[Valmy]

Simplifying the gear is just bizarre in a swords and sorcery RPG.  It made sense in ME2 because Sci Fi is not about finding magical swords and legendary armor and so forth...but in DA?  Same with the leveling system.

WTH?  Awakenings was frustrating with the new and inferior dialog system and now this?

[JonasSalk]

Looks like they're catering to the console-tards, which is ridiculous, because other console-only RPGs allow you to customize the crap out of your inventory.

[katmai]

Frankly wasn't expecting much since they announced the game and all the changes from first.