Introduction
The sequel to the almost-unanimously-voted 5punk new singleplayer game of the year 2009, Dragon Age: Origins. But is it as good?
I'm writing a slightly more in-depth review, which will follow.
Dragon Age 2 - PC
Moderator: Forum Moderators
-
FatherJack
- Site Owner
- Posts: 9597
- Joined: May 16th, 2005, 15:31
- Location: Coventry, UK
- Contact:
Dragon Age 2 - PC
Dragon Age 2 - PC
Introduction
The sequel to the almost-unanimously-voted 5punk new singleplayer game of the year 2009, Dragon Age: Origins. But is it as good?
I'm writing a slightly more in-depth review, which will follow.
Introduction
The sequel to the almost-unanimously-voted 5punk new singleplayer game of the year 2009, Dragon Age: Origins. But is it as good?
I'm writing a slightly more in-depth review, which will follow.
-
FatherJack
- Site Owner
- Posts: 9597
- Joined: May 16th, 2005, 15:31
- Location: Coventry, UK
- Contact:
Gameplay
The core gameplay is much the same as in Origins, while on the console versions you have to mash buttons, on the PC you right-click an enemy and will auto-attack them until they are dead, though the controlled character won't auto-defend themselves so a new enemy/action must then be selected. Selected skills will affect the enemy currently targeted, or give you a cursor appropriate to their area of effect, though unlike the consoles it doesn't auto-pause the battle while you position them. Skills can be assigned to slots all along the bottom of the screen, with the first ten being assigned a shortcut key.
The battles are more visceral and fast-paced than the first game, partly because the cooldown on abilities and mana/stamina regeneration is much shorter, and partly because your attacks are more powerful - exploding weaker enemies into fragments almost immediately. This is balanced by most fights having enemy reinforcements join in part-way through the battle, though the effective implementation of this is mixed. Sometimes extra enemies will charge in realistically from another part of the map, but more often will simply pop into existence in clear view.
The game can be paused at any time, the view spun around, characters selected and issued manual orders. The tactics are better than ever, with extra slots added as you level, many more conditions for the triggers and even some programmatic ones for jumping to other tactics in a potential chain. The default tactics are also improved, adding a Tank option to Warrior classes, though there aren't many defaults which will use all the skills when you are forced to pick a variety later in the game. The same problem from the first game remains, where Aggressive characters will run off to distant enemies whereas Defensive/Default ones will sometimes not attack unless provoked.
Basic stats are a little more involved, instead of pouring all the points into a classes primary stat, there need to be a few put into their secondary one too, as many items have a dual-stat requirement. STR is paired with CON, MAG with WIL and DEX with CUN. These secondary stats were almost useless in the first game, but now also replace a few of the Special Abilities which have been removed - a Rogue's CUN for example determines their lockpicking ability. Things like persuasion/coercion, nature knowledge and pickpocketing are entirely gone.
The way you interact with other people is streamlined, usually involving a choice between peaceful, cheeky or aggressive, with the occasional flirty, knowledge, greedy or fibber. It focusses more on what you've done in your adventures, rather than what numbers you've put into what stats. Conversations often end before you have selected all the options, and play a large part in your relationship with your companions, with some options having you ask for input from them, then subsequently following/ignoring that advice.
Companion armour is gone, only allowing you to supply them with weapons and trinkets, their armour being upgraded via personal quests. This leads to you picking up a lot of armour your class will never be able to use, but a handy move to junk feature allows you to later sell it easily in bulk.
Crafting is a bit easier, rather than finding a million of elfroot, you now only have to locate the recipes, plus the requisite number of sources for the ingredients. After that, all you need is coin, as you order the items rather than craft them yourself. It's the same mechanic for potions, runes, poisons and grenades, though they do differ slightly from the items you can buy from vendors.
The skill trees differ for each character, they all have at least one unique one, and don't always have access to ones you might expect - the Welsher mage can't heal, for example. Only the main character seems to have the specialisation choice, which for mage was horse mage, spirit healer and blood mage - so no full party of arcane warrior mages prancing around in full plate, here.
The battles can be repetitive, when you're pressing on to the next location and are ambushed in the streets, but can often surprise you with a new tactical element you have to use. It's perhaps better to step away and come back later with a new strategy than try and rush through everything.
Sights and Sounds
Plus eleventy on the design scale, places look better and more like they could be actual locations rather than drab tunnels or a film set of a market scene. Sadly, they reuse those designs rather too much. Not enough that you revisit the same locations at least twice, but there are only three or four caves/interiors where they really obviously block off passages to make them seem different.
The voice acting is great as usual, and the humour is still there in the interactions. I attempted to sex every one of my companions (no change there, then) and felt an affinity towards all of them. Much like life, most of them did or said something to frustrate and annoy me at some point, which made me think more carefully about who to take with me at certain times.
The stuff that happens at the end of each Act is quite epic to watch, though apart from a few details, there's little you can do to influence it. While there is much you can do in terms of changes to people you meet and how they later react to you, the major story arc happens regardless.
Stuff that sucks
While the actual events around each Act-end are probably more impressive, the events leading up to them are anything but. You don't actually see what is coming, and while all your actions eventually turn out to be connected to what happens at the end, the impetus to keep going - which the Blight in the first game gave you - isn't there.
Reusing the interiors and the fact each subsequent Act takes place in mostly the same locations takes the shine off the great design.
Some quests are bugged, there's at least one which just doesn't work and few that go wrong if you do stuff in the wrong order.
Slowdown is bad, I occasionally had to pause and wait for the PC to catch up - worse during cutscenes, but sometimes occured during fights - may be due to the hi-res textures I installed. When it loses connection to the DA servers it locks the PC totally for 10-20 seconds.
Varric can only use his crossbow, yet his skill trees have all the regular rogue options, backstab, rush, etc.
Conclusion
Great game, if not quite the epic DA:O was. While there are enough tweaks you can do to make a second playthough enjoyable, the choices you make - which while sometimes more agonising at the time - impact less on the grand scheme of things.
My first playthrough of DA:O took me 60 hours, later ones 20 hours. This game took me 40 hours.
Better value than most singleplayer games, with an element of replayability. I think I got my money's worth.
Score :
The core gameplay is much the same as in Origins, while on the console versions you have to mash buttons, on the PC you right-click an enemy and will auto-attack them until they are dead, though the controlled character won't auto-defend themselves so a new enemy/action must then be selected. Selected skills will affect the enemy currently targeted, or give you a cursor appropriate to their area of effect, though unlike the consoles it doesn't auto-pause the battle while you position them. Skills can be assigned to slots all along the bottom of the screen, with the first ten being assigned a shortcut key.
The battles are more visceral and fast-paced than the first game, partly because the cooldown on abilities and mana/stamina regeneration is much shorter, and partly because your attacks are more powerful - exploding weaker enemies into fragments almost immediately. This is balanced by most fights having enemy reinforcements join in part-way through the battle, though the effective implementation of this is mixed. Sometimes extra enemies will charge in realistically from another part of the map, but more often will simply pop into existence in clear view.
The game can be paused at any time, the view spun around, characters selected and issued manual orders. The tactics are better than ever, with extra slots added as you level, many more conditions for the triggers and even some programmatic ones for jumping to other tactics in a potential chain. The default tactics are also improved, adding a Tank option to Warrior classes, though there aren't many defaults which will use all the skills when you are forced to pick a variety later in the game. The same problem from the first game remains, where Aggressive characters will run off to distant enemies whereas Defensive/Default ones will sometimes not attack unless provoked.
Basic stats are a little more involved, instead of pouring all the points into a classes primary stat, there need to be a few put into their secondary one too, as many items have a dual-stat requirement. STR is paired with CON, MAG with WIL and DEX with CUN. These secondary stats were almost useless in the first game, but now also replace a few of the Special Abilities which have been removed - a Rogue's CUN for example determines their lockpicking ability. Things like persuasion/coercion, nature knowledge and pickpocketing are entirely gone.
The way you interact with other people is streamlined, usually involving a choice between peaceful, cheeky or aggressive, with the occasional flirty, knowledge, greedy or fibber. It focusses more on what you've done in your adventures, rather than what numbers you've put into what stats. Conversations often end before you have selected all the options, and play a large part in your relationship with your companions, with some options having you ask for input from them, then subsequently following/ignoring that advice.
Companion armour is gone, only allowing you to supply them with weapons and trinkets, their armour being upgraded via personal quests. This leads to you picking up a lot of armour your class will never be able to use, but a handy move to junk feature allows you to later sell it easily in bulk.
Crafting is a bit easier, rather than finding a million of elfroot, you now only have to locate the recipes, plus the requisite number of sources for the ingredients. After that, all you need is coin, as you order the items rather than craft them yourself. It's the same mechanic for potions, runes, poisons and grenades, though they do differ slightly from the items you can buy from vendors.
The skill trees differ for each character, they all have at least one unique one, and don't always have access to ones you might expect - the Welsher mage can't heal, for example. Only the main character seems to have the specialisation choice, which for mage was horse mage, spirit healer and blood mage - so no full party of arcane warrior mages prancing around in full plate, here.
The battles can be repetitive, when you're pressing on to the next location and are ambushed in the streets, but can often surprise you with a new tactical element you have to use. It's perhaps better to step away and come back later with a new strategy than try and rush through everything.
Sights and Sounds
Plus eleventy on the design scale, places look better and more like they could be actual locations rather than drab tunnels or a film set of a market scene. Sadly, they reuse those designs rather too much. Not enough that you revisit the same locations at least twice, but there are only three or four caves/interiors where they really obviously block off passages to make them seem different.
The voice acting is great as usual, and the humour is still there in the interactions. I attempted to sex every one of my companions (no change there, then) and felt an affinity towards all of them. Much like life, most of them did or said something to frustrate and annoy me at some point, which made me think more carefully about who to take with me at certain times.
The stuff that happens at the end of each Act is quite epic to watch, though apart from a few details, there's little you can do to influence it. While there is much you can do in terms of changes to people you meet and how they later react to you, the major story arc happens regardless.
Stuff that sucks
While the actual events around each Act-end are probably more impressive, the events leading up to them are anything but. You don't actually see what is coming, and while all your actions eventually turn out to be connected to what happens at the end, the impetus to keep going - which the Blight in the first game gave you - isn't there.
Reusing the interiors and the fact each subsequent Act takes place in mostly the same locations takes the shine off the great design.
Some quests are bugged, there's at least one which just doesn't work and few that go wrong if you do stuff in the wrong order.
Slowdown is bad, I occasionally had to pause and wait for the PC to catch up - worse during cutscenes, but sometimes occured during fights - may be due to the hi-res textures I installed. When it loses connection to the DA servers it locks the PC totally for 10-20 seconds.
Varric can only use his crossbow, yet his skill trees have all the regular rogue options, backstab, rush, etc.
Conclusion
Great game, if not quite the epic DA:O was. While there are enough tweaks you can do to make a second playthough enjoyable, the choices you make - which while sometimes more agonising at the time - impact less on the grand scheme of things.
My first playthrough of DA:O took me 60 hours, later ones 20 hours. This game took me 40 hours.
Better value than most singleplayer games, with an element of replayability. I think I got my money's worth.
Score :
Wait, this is a single player game right? Is this in reference to some ridiculous DRM?FatherJack wrote:When it loses connection to the DA servers it locks the PC totally for 10-20 seconds.
There sounds to be some great design features here (the crafting source thing is brilliant), but since I got bored of fighting in the last one before I reached the end and really had to push to complete it I'm not sure I'm bothered about shelling out for this. Your answer on the DRM question will probably make up my mind whether to wait for a budget/Steam sale release or avoid it altogether.
-
FatherJack
- Site Owner
- Posts: 9597
- Joined: May 16th, 2005, 15:31
- Location: Coventry, UK
- Contact:
It's the same as the first one and Mass Effect, you don't have to log in to play, it just records your achievements and creates a character profile page for you, and ties any DLC you've bought to your EA account, functions exactly the same. It's just the servers have been busy this last week, so I've been disconnected a couple of times, which as I've said locks you up for a few seconds, but you can continue to play regardless.Dog Pants wrote:Wait, this is a single player game right? Is this in reference to some ridiculous DRM?
There sounds to be some great design features here (the crafting source thing is brilliant), but since I got bored of fighting in the last one before I reached the end and really had to push to complete it I'm not sure I'm bothered about shelling out for this. Your answer on the DRM question will probably make up my mind whether to wait for a budget/Steam sale release or avoid it altogether.