Dragon Age 2
by Electronic Arts
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Product Summary
Brand: Electronic ArtsAudio: English (Unknown)
Published: 2011-02-28
Release Date: 2011-03-08
Platform: Xbox 360
Model: 19529
Color: One Color
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Product features:
- Enjoy the game's atypical, story-within-a-story nonlinear narrative style
- Embark upon an all-new adventure that takes place across an entire decade and shapes itself around every decision you make
- Determine your rise to power from a destitute refugee to the revered champion of the land
- Think like a general and fight like a Spartan with dynamic new combat mechanics that put you right in the heart of battle whether you are a mage, rogue, or warrior
- Go deeper into the world of Dragon Age with an entirely new cinematic experience that grabs hold of you from the beginning and never lets go
Video Game Reviews of Dragon Age 2
Customer Review: A different flavor, but still tasty.
Summary: 4 Stars
Dragon Age, an RPG player's gorefest. The first DA created a massive world full of things you wanted to know about, interact with, and kill. The enemies were, i'll admit mildly generic, but they fit the theme of a swarming enemy using numbers to win battles as opposed to skill, so it was completely forgivable. The main issue DA has though is it drags, much like many RPG's the battle system is very easy to use, and account commands for. However, as all RPG's it simulates an actual battle about as well as chess does. The problem is in RPG's you get time to think, time to plan. In actual battles, you get none of that. Dragon Age I showed us that battles can be hectic and still be RPG-like, but its still very structurally slow, and often as long as you have a good enough healer, what you do doesn't matter. In addition, attacks which were rolled for would land even though they couldn't. The battle animation for Peon's Plight takes about a second, and the ogre it was hitting as far away from me by the time it landed, and well, he died. I was happy, but, it was weird.
Dragon Age II looks to improve the battle, while retaining the massive RPG elements that made the first one successful such as character building, stat based improvement of abilities, and an epic story that's immersive. But does the game actually live up to the hype behind it?
The Good:
A lot of Dragon Age 2's strengths are its weaknesses as well, don't be alarmed to see the exact same happy note as a negative note.
The battle system:
- The last battle system in dragon age more or less returns, the wheel is still here for the 360 and PS3 versions and it functions the same way. You still use the right trigger to toggle the 6 settable spells and can access the wheel using LT for more or abilities etc. Targets however have been changed up, you can no longer use abilities in battle unless they are in range, this can get odd when you go to use mighty blow and won't because you're a few too many degrees off the target, but it does keep you from wasting valuable mana or stamina, which is a plus. There were a lot of occasions when I'd use an ability in DA 1 and missed because the enemy wasn't quite in the arc of the attack I wanted to use, leaving me in cooldown and more vulnerable than i would have liked. The biggest change though is battle speed. During battle Hawke moves quickly, or very quickly depending on class. The rogue is a speed demon to make an understatement. Whats interesting I've found though, is that depending on your class is how you can fight effectively, mages and archers are good for support, mage nukes are good for crowds and warriors are generally good for crowds while still retaining sanity. The rogue seems best played as a one thing at a time type attacker. His speed will let him get away from most players but by micro managing his attacks to focus on one enemy at a time rather than gung-ho fighting, the rogue becomes much less of a crazy attacker.
= The thing though is that attacking is button mashed by A or X depending on console. Now there is nothing explicitly wrong with this, but it does get monotonous, still, often later in the game your mash will be less frequent as your move pool will keep you in your special techs more than simply mashing A.
Character Development:
- Characters in this game are MUCH more easily customized. Remember how Morrigan's shapeshifter tree blew? No problem now. Every character is capable of being customized to fit your needs. Want the knight you get early on to be a tank? set her up to do so, you can even change her equipment to suit the type of warrior you need her to be, easy stuff, and much better than the last game. In addition, levels seem to come faster in this game, you get levels much quicker in this title in the beginning.
The system to level up has been changed, not in actual premise, but in looks. Each class has a set of abilities, all viewable from the start and all possible of moving around in. However just like the last game, there are prerequisites to each ability in the trees, and there are level ones as well. Look them all over and do some planning on the character's first level up to get acquainted, try to figure out your play style, and plan accordingly.
- Dog is now a pet spell. Believe me, this is a good thing.
- As far as actual Hawke goes, Hawke's character is defined by the conversational choices you make, say something firm and your character's alignment to a more violent or serious character type increases. This effects things they say in battle and more. A sarcastic character will say different things in the beginning of and during a battle then a noble one will.
- Just like the last game, your conversational antics will shape your friends views of you, do things they like, you guys become friends, do things they don't and well, you can imagine. The games calls it rival, but i don't know if the member will simply leave like in origins if rivalry peaks.
- Lastly Your party members are not without voice in conversation, they can participate in conversation given the chance, and some of the time, they will be happy you asked them for advice. In DA 1 this was possible, but, well i won't spoil much, but you literally give them the torch and say "do what you will" on occasion, and they do, sometimes outright solving a problem rather than providing what they think.
Menu's:
- Overall the game's menu system is more streamlined, its much prettier and the level up method borrowed straight from Mass effect is welcome, any party members needing to level will be in here. Its a circle menu like Mass effect for everything else. If you're not familiar, when you pause, you use LS and A/X to select your choice, the menus are pretty easy to navigate this way.
-Your inventory is still the same, a list of items in regards to the items slot you're using is displayed and you can use X/Square to compare a new item with an equipped one and then choose with A/X or leave it set with B/Circle. L1/R1/LB/RB lets you cycle through characters on any submenu. Its easy to use once you get used to it.
- The biggest change however is the abilities, all abilities are set up in navigable trees, each tree can be individually selected and modified upon level up with points. All trees like DA 1 can be utilized cross subclass just like the first one. However on occasion it can be difficult to precisely select an ability that you wish to upgrade due to the controller input due to bad placing, when with a mouse it would be easy. Still, the abilities are much more easily understood at a glance. Diamonds are abilities, small icons are upgrades, and circles are Passive abilities. All in all though, the menu system used by MA works well, and I can't complain that its borrowed.
Graphics and animations
- DA 1 looks much more stiff than this game does, the faces in DA2 are more emotional, and the movements are much less action-figure like, they flow much more humanly (if not superhuman sometimes) and as a whole look more peoplelike.
-Speaking in game (lipsync) has gotten better as well, but it was quite good before, still it IS nice even that has improved. The loading screens are varied and pretty and overall the graphical quality has improved as well. Environments do look better.
- Armor types have improved as well, expect more armor skins and types in this one as well as weapon graphics.
- Elves, Darkspawn and Qunari all have updated facial and bodily features as well, each race now looks much more distinct than they did in DA.
- Character customization is much more extensive than in DA1, worth noting that there are about 20 or more hairstyles for both genders plus more of others.
The story:
- This game had me at the beginning, the voice acting is very very well done, and no character I've come across yet seems to have a bad voice actor. The story itself is the same brand as DA1 however, and having not completed the title, i'll have a hard time completely stating its a rehash, but then again RPG's don't typically offer up drastically different stories from one another in principle (become powerful beat boss, repeat) Bioware as always however, has a unique talent for making characters mke impressions, you'll have favorites and some things these characters go through or do will excite, appall, disgust, or even sadden you, and i couldn't ask for a more immersive experience there.
Dragon age 2 is not without fault however.
The battle system:
- Mashing A/X is a chore, especially with the rogue, continually mashing A gets to be annoying, and might make you frustrated. But again, it might happen less the more abilities you get.
- I still don't get why there isn't a RT activated 3 way replacement menu (3 spell replacement menu on cycle) so that you could have 9 total spells mapped to XYB by pressing RT once to switch to the next set of spells and using LT in conjnuction if you needed to change in a pinch. Still press RT once to change to next subset, and twice to get back. I use more than 6 spells/abilities, and it would have helped, but the Circle menu gets the job done.
- The main issue you might see though is the speed at which battles happen, frail characters can be overwhelmed and killed quickly, Hawke can become uncontrollable, and the battle system irritating until you really get a feel for it. But what bothers me is a lot of that 'RPG feel' is lost in the button mash, and essentially the game kind of turns into a hack n' slash dungeon crawler on the surface, but it does get harder and make you micro manage more as time goes on.
You either like this decision at core or not, and its game breaking depending on who you are, it may feel dumbed down, but in its defense, combat in DA1 was rather bland in execution, not the animations themselves though.
Talking:
- This is hit and miss with me, sometimes i want to take a particular route and the option to say whatever is there, but the actual statement isn't what i anticipated. This frustrates me, sometimes I pick a violent sounding response to have it come out as a cold response, or a matter-of-factly response rather than "i want to slam your face into a wall with a nailbat nine times." Its nitpicking but still.
Map:
- The only other real issue I have is the game's map. I liked the last games map, and this one just gets a bit, i don't want to say confusing, but its more complicated than needbe, and that said, its a bunch of arrows and boxes with Day Night and Mountain options. Still, i think i liked reading my quests, the way they they are set up in the this menu is kind of a to do list, and its a bit irritating, because you now have your quests on your map, but no info about them. Maybe i just haven't gotten used to it.
Overall, i think DA2 catches a lot of flak for pushing the game to seem more mainstream, just like Mass Effect did with 2, but honestly, the battle systems being more refined and more actiony typically add to immersion and cause more thinking on the fly. Still the tasks can be mundane this way causing massive horde killing like a action platformer, which occasionally happens. But Bioware games focus a lot on the equipment and stats, its more subtle, but it was very evident in ME and DA. DA2 gives me the ability to run away to heal much easier and to lure darkspawn into traps easier or funnel them. DA1 not so much as you can get hit by attacks based on attack chance rather than location.
DA2 is worth a look if you like RPG's or action games. Try the demo on PSN or Xbox live, it will give you a pretty good insight of what to expect, but, the game is much harder than the demo lets it on to be.
I'd like to give it a 4.5, but 4 will have to do. Its good, but that's not perfect.
I have now beaten this game, and have decided to update my review. The rating still stays at 4 stars. The 3rd act is phenomenal in presentation. I was in awe, as all of the things reached a climax and what happens, simply happens. I expected something, but not what happened, and what DID happen was awesome, you'll have to play it.
But i do have some new things to review.
Dungeons: I am dead serious, about 95% of your quests return you to the same dungeon, a part of the same dungeon, or the same layout for a house or something similar. Every mansion is the same, every undercity is the same, every cave is the same, on one instance is it colored different, but its inexcusable for the lack of creativity in a game like this, even if they were lame or small, the identical dungeons are awful.
Even worse, this is coming from the company that baffled me with the amazing dungeons constructed for Origins and Awakening, and you do see that in the well, about 3 dungeons you visit over the course of about 100 sidequests. I have to admit, i was disappointed.
Updating the Button mashing, i hate it, i hate it, i hate it. Even as a warrior, it was monotonous, and though extremely useful at times, a button press once could have been used to lock on and auto attack an enemy until dead and tilt stick and attack to choose another target, I did NOT like spamming A, and it does not get better the more you play, you spam A like crazy with the occasional stop to drive your abilites and its usually a split second or a full second before you're back to button mashing. Not to mention, the animations, there are about 5 major looping standard attack animations, and being in control of them somehow made me notice it more. I felt more like Kratos than a general most of the time, i wasn't shouting orders i was an unstoppable monster of death. It didn't work for me, it was like God of War with RPG elements.
Weapons and armor: Ok, you cannot customize your friend's gear, you can't wear other class equipment, and often cannot use certain equipment due to stat allocation (magic for warrior) making 66% of the items you pick up or wish to buy in shops completely useless. I question why Bioware did not put a filter in the equipment obtainable. What i mean is, instead of having to accumulate a treasure trove of awesome mage wear as a warrior, why not simply only allow Warrior exclusive items such as plate or chainmail. Weapons, i Can understand since your allies can use them, but armor is exclusively for selling and aside from selling it for pretty much nothing, there is absolutely no hope it will be used or anything other than selling. So why include it? you already have a junk folder in your inventory, so why include yet more junk we can't use right there in the equipment?
I don't like the warrior 2 hander, he wings it around like a wiffle bat, it's ridiculous, the weapon has absolutely no illusion of weight at all, and it angers me, Origins showed the power of big weapons but though you hit like atlas, you barely moved, your attacks were slow, but worth it.
Spawn, I'm unsure what it is, but this game likes its waves. However units warp in, come out of nowhere, or jump from an obscene height to the ground. Its so unrealistic, and so action platformer.
Dragon age 2 is a RPG driven Beat Em Up like God of War or Splatterhouse, it's sad, but its true. It plays well and it has a good story, and as a standalone title, its very very good. However, as a Dragon Age sequel, its a failure. It lacks the inspiration the first game had, its down to earth nature, and its grand world, but retains Bioware's amazing storytelling.
Standalone (and my review score: ****
Dragon Age sequel: **
Description of Dragon Age 2
Experience the epic sequel to the 2009 Game of the Year from the critically acclaimed makers of Dragon Age: Origins. You are one of the few who escaped the destruction of your home. Now, forced to fight for survival in an ever-changing world, you must gather the deadliest of allies, amass fame and fortune, and seal your place in history. This is the story of how the world changed forever. The legend of your Rise to Power begins now.Dragon Age II is a single player role-playing game (RPG) for play on the Xbox 360. Epic sequel to the BioWare developed 2009 Game of the Year, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II continues the adventure with a new hero, Hawke, and utilizes the choices made by the player to affect a story that spans ten years worth of time in-game. Additional game features include: the ability to choose your character's class and sex, a new cinematic in-game experience, a nonlinear narrative and the ability to import saved information from earlier Dragon Age games.
About Dragon Age II
Embark on an all-new adventure spread across a ten-year span of years with an all-new hero in the multiple award-winning Dragon Age saga. In Dragon Age II you are Hawke, said to have been one of the few to survive the destruction of your homeland. Forced to fight for survival, you gathered the deadliest of allies, amassed fame and fortune and sealed your place in history, eventually becoming in effect a legend in your own time. But legends are all in the telling.
Revel in the epic sequel to the 2009 Game of the Year, Dragon Age: Origins.
View larger.
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Dragon Age II utilizes a nonlinear narrative, taking the form of a story-within-a-story that hinges upon your exploits as told by the storyteller, Varick. Yet like any good storyteller, Varick tends to exaggerate from time to time. When questioned on events related to Hawke, Varick may present a different scenario in which Hawke's exploits play out. It is within these replays that the decisions of the players hold sway, as their particular versions of Hawke relive these events. Is the player's particular version of Hawke, male or female? A warrior, a rogue, or a mage? Is Hawke good-natured or something less than a salt-of-the-Earth type? Is romance in the air amongst characters he/she associates with? These choices are all the player's to make and each affect the the outcome of the story at all levels.
Game Features
- Embark upon an all-new adventure that takes place across an entire decade and shapes itself around every decision you make
- Determine your rise to power from a destitute refugee to the revered champion of the land
- Think like a general and fight like a Spartan with dynamic new combat mechanics that put you right in the heart of battle whether you are a mage, rogue, or warrior
- Go deeper into the world of Dragon Age with an entirely new cinematic experience that grabs hold of you from the beginning and never lets go
- Discover a whole realm rendered in stunning detail with updated graphics and a new visual style
- Story-within-a-story nonlinear narrative style
Online Game Pass Bonus Content
All new versions of this game come with an "Online Game Pass" which provides exclusive access to the Black Emporium, which includes:
- The Fighting Mabari War Hound
- The Mirror of Transformation
- Exclusive magic and crafting stores
Additional Screenshots
 Nonlinear narrative. View larger. |  10 years of gameplay. View larger. |  Cinematic quality experience. View larger. |  Completely updated graphics. View larger. |
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