Just finished this to prepare myself for DA:I. It was just not very good. The production values are all there, but just like Jade Empire, it just didn’t work.
IMO there are two things very wrong with DA2: story and combat.
Sure Hawke isn’t a superhero grey warden, so I can accept that the scope is much smaller than DA:O, but the passage of time in this game is just done very badly, as mentioned just above. So the city hasn’t really changed in 6 years? What about cookie cutter dungeons? It would make more sense if the story is condensed into a one year period, where Hawke stumbles into a lot of long simmering mess. Also the Sophie’s Choice between the Templars and Mages is just done very badly. The scripted moments are all very scripted (like Anders’s terrorist act). You can see that coming miles away and you can do nothing about it, even if you are best bud/lover with your companions that started the mess (Merrill’s storyline is another fine mess, surely Hawke isn’t some bumbling idiot who can’t see where Merrill is heading???)
Combat is just rage inducing. Because the tactics option is half broken (tactics don’t work as described), and because of magic spawn of enemies, you pretty much have to micromanage combat every 2-3 seconds. The flaw was present in DA:O but because there is no magic spawn of enemies it wasn’t rage inducing back then.
Both your complaints are valid and were vilified repeatedly by many in this thread, myself included. I’m happy to tell you that the cookie cutter dungeons and rage-inducing enemy spawning are gone in DA:I, which is a truly gorgeous game with unique and massive environments. The story line you’ll have to judge for yourself.
I only played Origins before starting Inquisition last week (got it for XMas). I did go through the Dragon Age Keep online piece to make decisions for DA 2 and get up to date on what I missed (which appears to be VERY significant to the setup in Inquisition). It was a great way to go back through what had happened and what the decisions were which influenced the way the world is. It also seemed a great way to go through the DA 2 story without the bad game problem. It sounds like the story was interesting, just that they really rushed the game out.
I highly recommend going through the Dragon Age Keepsite if you’re going to play Inquisition. Even if you finished both games, it’s a great re-introduction to the world, lore and characters.
It lost me in about the first 20 minutes when you start the game, agree to do some merc stuff, and then TIME GAP. Then the game is telling me about all of the cool things I apparently did in the last year. Yay me… i guess? I’ve rarely seen time gaps work well in stories and this is just another example where it doesn’t.
I actually tried DA Keep thinking I don’t need to play DA2 and just move on to DA:I. It is pretty disjointed, and most importantly, without the proper context I just don’t know which choice to make. DA2 was on sale during Christmas on Origin so I just went for it.
I like DA:2. I will grant that the re-use of locations sucks, and that being in a battle and thinking you have won it only to have more bad guys seemingly “parachute” into the battle is pretty weird, but the characters are good, the banter is great. The fighting is probably better than DA:O.
So that PC Gamer list got me to install Dragon Age II that I’ve owned for a long time on Origin.
So the game starts up, and I press the Start Button. Nothing. So then I try the A button. Nope.
Holy shit you guys. Dragon Age II doesn’t have controller support. This is a game from the dark age of PC gaming apparently.
On the positive side: Hey! There’s Cassandra from Dragon Age: Inquisition’s intro, and she’s in this game too! So I was right to feel like I should already know her. That decides it. I’ll have to play through this game somehow before I play Inquisition now.
Then it asked me which world background to start with from Dragon Age: Origins. I had a female human mage who died at the end and Alistair became king. None of the pre-set backgrounds quite fit that.
Is there a way to make your own Dragon Age: Origins save game somehow?
Thanks. I don’t think that is used to import into Dragon Age 2, only Dragon Age Inquisition. But it was still very entertaining. A very nice way to summarize for me what happened in Dragon Age: Origins. Also, I can’t believe the website somehow knew all the choices I’d made in DA: O. In fact, I think they got one of those wrong.
They couldn’t have used achievements because I got both achievements for each choice. So for example, in the Werewolves vs Elves choice, I saved before making the decision, chose one way, and then reloaded and chose the other way, getting to see the cutscenes play out either way and then making my decision by loading the save after each one that I actually preferred. I think Werewolves vs Elves is where they got the decision wrong. I remember eventually loading the saves that went with the elves, not the Werewolves, but the Dragon Age Keep summary seems to think I helped the Werewolves. I guess my memory of that is pretty fuzzy, as I don’t even remember what the choice was in that case.
P.S. I think Dragon Age II has the worst controls of any RPG I’ve ever played. I absolutely hate these mouse and keyboard controls. I initially hated the controls in The Witcher as well, and Neverwinter Nights 2, until I fiddled around with the options and found something I could live with. I’ll have to go into the options at some point and see if there’s something I can do about it.
P.S. 2. Flemeth looks quite different from Dragon Age: Origin, doesn’t she? Truth is, it’s been so long since I played Origins that maybe it’s my memory that’s fuzzy. For some reason I keep thinking Flemeth looked like a digital version of Kate Mulgrew, but maybe that wasn’t the case.
Maybe it chose randomly then? When I selected the character that I’d played on the Xbox 360, it told me all the choices I’d made (and I could change them if I wanted). I think they were all correct except maybe for the Werewolf one. I do remember that I played it while EA servers were online back then. For Dragon Age II, the first thing it always tells me is that EA Servers are offline and to try again some other time.
I know for sure that they got all the major things correct. Like my character dying, and Alister being on the throne with so and so in a political marriage. That I do remember as being my ending.
