| Platform | GameSpot | Metacritic / User Score |
|---|---|---|
Kevin VanOrd strikes fear in the eyes of dragons great and small in this video review for Dragon Age II.
Decided to give this a go, after being initially disappointed at launch and I have to say I'm so glad I did! Is it as good as Origins? No. But still a great RPG that will suck hours of your life. Also the PC version is WAAAY better than the console versions at least IMO.
1 Like I don't know if this is better than skyrim, but I know it is better love story than twilight
such a disappointment, DAO better in just about everything, especially the combat, feels like they've made it too easy, too fast, less tactical, hope DA3 takes after DAO and not this
1 Like After playing both Dragon age: Origins and Awakening on my PS3 and now this. I have to say Dragon Age 2 is better then the other two games.. i got tired of the other two after a while, but this one holds my interest and it's not as hard either. Hope Dragon Age 3: Inquisition takes the improvements from number 2 and adds to them.
3 Like After watching the review on doth DA and DA II, and reading comments on both, I see the same sad downfall of what sounds like a once great game series, of which seems to happen these days to pretty much all the good ones. The companies switch from emotion, integrity, and immersive gameplay to graphics, action, gore, dark themes and often trashy content as well (i.e. - cursing, sexual themes, etc).
Examples :
Kotor - Kotor 2 (and then after the terrible kotor 2, the whole series vanished)
Operation Flashpoint (the original), then Operation Flashpoint 2 along with Armed Assault 1 and 2.
Project IGI - IGI 2 (IGI 2 had no trashy content, yet completely deviated from the great immersive content from the 1st)
Ghost Recon (1) - the rest of the series just goes downhill, deviating futher and further from realistic open environment type combat and now just pretty much emulates the current Cod/Bf junk.
list goes on..
I always research a game before buying, simply because I've been let down so many times from just buying something that has a decent rating these days. Sure would be nice to see some dang gaming companies out there start making stuff based on pure interactual/immersive content quality instead of just trying to feed the masses with cheap tricks like modern graphics and heads flying off animations just because its more bang for the buck..
Good grief Ive yet to see an rpg compare to what Kotor (1) pulled off, and its so old, and yet just so dang good on so many levels..
I have played both the first and the second. I loved both a lot. I actually started with the second and just finished my second playthrough on the first one. I loved the combat of the second one. I was so much fun and the story isnt that bad, especially with the qunari dude. Oh man, did he scare my pants off a couple of times.
1 Like I hate how people put so much emphasis on the story of a video game. As long as the gameplay is fun it doesn't really matter to me if the story is that great. Like in DAO the story is good but the gameplay is auto attack trash.
@Doobsac i am with you on DAO but i think sometimes gameplay and story should really go hand in hand because most people do not like a broken fantasy.
I'm playing this on my MAC, and on hard and I am liking it a lot. There are problems here and there (conversation wheel, some simplified elements, etc.) but the game is just as fun to play with all the micromanaging you could ever want.
This is the easier game of the two, NOT, play this on "Nightmare" you moron. Then you will experience that it`s actually harder and require more micro management than Orgins, also it is much more beneficial to use crossover combo`s like "Mighty Blow" on "Brittleled" targets, or "Fist of the Maker" on staggered targets etc. I had far more trubble finishing this game on Nightmare than Orgins, and most bossfights require good controll over your party members. Don`t get me wrong, Orgins is the better game, but it pisses me off that people judge this game on "None Nightmare" differculties, especially game reviwers.
Honestly, I am going to get this and add it to my RPG collection. It actually looks really good. Plus now it is cheap as low as 18 bucks. It doesn't look so bad at all so i will be giving this a try soon.
Well it has a nice set of graphics but the game gets boring really fast. I had some hard time finishing it not because it's difficult, but because I kept saying to myself "Hold on to it, try to finish it, the game may appeal to you a bit later,..." I was planing on getting the trophies, but I am unable to finish it twice. I feel like I will be wasting my time. While DA:O, I finished it 7 times in a row. The story is very poor, and the companions aren't nearly as charismatic as Alistair, Morrigan or Oghren. Everything seems to be repetead X times. I gave it a 6.5/10.
After finishing Dark Souls & Skyrim, I am starting DA 2 tonight. I hope I won't be dissapointed.
Positive: good graphics, good battle system Bad: poor story, repeated scenarios in short, as the scenarios are repeated + + + makes the game is boring
Dragon Age II is too much of a button masher. Hopefully they change it for the next game.
DA:O was a pc game that was ported to consoles and DA II is a console game taht was also ported to pc. DO not say that the combat was better in DA II unless you have played DA:O on a pc, it is completly different than if you played it on a console. DA II however feels awkward on the pc but feels pretty good on a console But yeah DAII is not terrible, just different, it shouldn't have been called DA 2, it implies that it will be more of DA:O, but just a different subtitle, like DA on Cocaine, or something
da2 is NOT rpg. it is ACTIONrpg. those of you who liked 2 more than origins , shame on you. you dumb down the game
the dlc's Legacy and mark of the assassin was what the game should be....in the first place
Dragon Age 2 doesnt have as great a story as Origins had nor does it have as much choice but it did improve on the action. In dao you could almost put that controller down on the floor and still win most battles even on the higher difficulty levels. The fights in da2 were way more fun and challenging. Thats enough for me.
Lol at Dragon Age 2.Another EA disaster.Pity though because i really enjoyed the first one. Such a promising start with the first game and such a road kill at the end.This game (DA") should be in the "Bible of Game Making" under the "Sins" section...
This game kinda sucks........So boring.....repetitive......At first it seemed awesome, it doesn't go anywhere......If you like all rpgs, get it, if you like groundbreaking stuff, skip it
I think they need to blend DA:O with DA2 for DA3 but with more DA:O than DA2. Sounds great...everybody gets one Bioware...only one before a series or world can be tainted in the hearts of the fans.
Yeah I enjoyed DA2 and though I had some complaints (repeated environs, wave enemies,ect) I didnt see where all the hate came from. However, after going back and playing DA:O I can understand where the hate can come from. DA:O offers so much more choice, the origin portions makes each playthrough unique, the story and emotion is quite epic and passionate. Its like DA:O was like being in lotr while DA2 was like being in a hit new TV show on sci-fi or some other channel....fun but not as epic and the big screen.
@eKriZZLe Yeah, I think they will definitely make some changes, especially after everyone has cried enough to equal the amount of water on Earth due to a few changes that was made to this game to make it more engaging. There's only one change I'd make if I was BioWare: Make the game take place in manyt different areas as Dragon Age: Origins did, and make each dungeon truly unique. Other than that, I wouldn't touch the actual game mechanics. Also, I'd add more cutscenes. There really aren't many in this one as for the most part it's just face-to-face conversations that really has no cinematic feel that makes a story-driven game great.
@eLLiptiX Then you didn't even scratch the surface of this game or Dragon Age: Origins then, for that matter. If you beat Origins in under 60 hours or this game in under 20 then you missed out on half of the game's content. I rushed through the second half of this game and it took 27 hours on my first playthrough, so I know you skipped a ton of content, as well as a lot of the lore.
@rubersplayer No. The game takes place during the same time as the events of Dragon Age: Origins, just from a different perspective. Instead of playing as a Grey Warden attempting to stop the Blight, you play as Hawke who is on a conquest for his/her rise to Champion of Kirkwall.
Was I going to pre-order it? No. But now that the price has dropped, I'll get it, and enjoy it for the game it is: Not as good as the first, but still good.
I absolutely loved Dragon Age: Origins and the Awakening expansion, and was so pumped up for this game but when it came out i was hugely disappointed. Like others have said it wasn't a terrible game.. unless you played and enjoyed the prequel, in which DA2 felt cheap and rushed with a lack of freedom and customizability. EA wanted Bioware to make a game that appealed to a wider audience, and it's sad that in turn they made a game that disappointed and ignored some of their most die hard fans. That said however, it's still a decent game and is worth checking out, despite (IMO) it's failed attempt to live up to it's predecessor
If anyone was listening to Kevin at all you may have heard him say that this is not as good as Origins but is a great game in its own right, true i was very disappointed when i played through this game and being a pc gamer at heart i HATED the fact that it played like another god damn port. but all that aside, i played right through it and enjoyed it believe it or not. this is due to one fact, this game is a GOOD game, the problem is the first game was so amazing that this one is hampered by the name on the box, it was just too much to live up to.
How can this even be compared to the first? I beat this pile of crap in ten hours when the first took at least 25.. not to mention its all in the same city.. the characters are boring as hell.. the combat is basically a button mashing frenzy.. and the story completely sucks..
also for those of you that said DAO was bad and DA2 is better, I hope you realise that it was because of the success of DAO that DA2 was rushed for release due to demand. DA2 fails and so do you if you liked it.
