Dragon Age II

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2011/02/trailer-park-dragon-age-ii/1

Choose your champion :ohno

[Morgan Evanar]

I played the demo. I'm not sure how much I like the over the top presentation, but the rest of the elements seem to be intact.

[Lykaios]

I'm loving it so far. Many Mass Effect 2 elements to it. I love how the main character is fully voiced now. More thoughts as I keep playing

[Dasquian Belargic]

Does the game improve on the demo? I found the graphics in the demo to be... not that great. Also the voice acting for the main character felt a little bit dry.

[Morgan Evanar]

Bioware released a high resolution texture pack that makes a big difference.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think the game is great so far, I haven't gotten too far into it yet, but it is a great sequel.

[Lykaios]

I didn't play the demo so I can't really talk to improvements upon it. The graphics on the 360 are pretty much the same as they were on the first game but like Morgan said the PC has a patch that improves the graphics drastically. The only disappointment so far is the layout of some caves, etc it seems to be the same for all of them. So far I'm really enjoying the story and the characters particularly Isabela and Merrill.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Do you think it's worth paying full price for? I have read quite a few critical reviews.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think it is great and I haven't read too many critical reviews. Only one who thought it was worse than the first one. I love the cinematic stuff this time much more especially since your character talks. The whole mute champion was annoying in the first one.

[Lykaios]

I think the reason why there are so many "negative" reviews about the game is because of its biggest sin, which is that the game in itself is not a continuation of Dragon Age, unlike Mass Effect.

If you like action RPG's I think it's a great game, if you're hoping for the game to pick up right where DA left off, you'll be disappointed. While some characters from the first game make an appearance I don't their showing is crucial for the game and this game could stand on its own but having built a strong franchise in DA, they decided to add this game to the fold.

Many people are dissapointed because the game is very different from the first one, the appearance of the Qunari changed, combat itself changed, the dialogue did and even the character interactions changed, and many people don't like change, so I think that's another reason for the many negative reviews.

I can't say wether you should pay full price or not for I don't know if you'll like it with all the changes, but I can tell you in my case this is one game I didn't mind shelling out the money to buy at launch. Unlike 007 Bloodstone and SWTFU II, which only lasted 10+ hrs, this baby has already given me more bang from my back than those two combined with the 40+ hrs I've already put into the game.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I gave in and bought the game. I'm saving my review for once I'm finished... though I did discover a potential Halloween/cosplay costume for myself!

[Xavier Synik]

I started playing this yesterday. My first impression is I was way more into this one at the start then I was the first one which took me a while to actually get into, and maybe that's only because I played the first one.

A couple of things in response to questions...

1) Graphics: I personally think they are much improved over the first one. Especially in the character designs.

2) Critical reviews: I agree with Lyk. I think it's a matter of change that people weren't expecting and a comparison with ME2, though you can certainly see the influence of ME2 on the dialogue system (which was one of my least favourite parts of the first one).

For me personally, so far having fun. My biggest complaint so far is that there seems to be a lack of focus in the story. Without getting into the story arc for those who haven't played yet, I understand what's going on, but the final goal doesn't seem as clear as in the first one, where from almost the word "go" you knew you were going to be fighting the archdemon.

[Crusader]

I gave in and bought the game. I'm saving my review for once I'm finished... though I did discover a potential Halloween/cosplay costume for myself!

Hawke Jones :)

[Lykaios]

That would be a kick ass costume Jenny Hawke! :cool:

Well, I finished the game last night, while I haven't made up my mind about the ending (don't worry, I won't spoil your fun) towards the end of the game it was clear how some of my decisions affect the outcome of the game, so I guess I'll give it a high replay value since once I was done, there was enough to make me jump right back in, which I did :D

Edit: Oh, and the one other thing I will say is that this game is frickin' hard! O_o Some of the boss battles towards the end of the game took me between 3 and 5 tries =/

[Dasquian Belargic]

I am about 10 hours into the game right now, having not long finished the Deep Roads Expedition and something keeps bothering me - the combat difficulty. I'm not sure whether this is unique to the party/skill set-up I have, or just characteristic of the game in general, but I find that enemy encounters fall into one or two types.

1. Quick and easy - and that is an understatement. I barely have time to launch an attack before Fenris, my designated tank and slayer of worlds, cuts down almost everything. I see Anders throwing spells into the mix and Varric firing off a few arrows, but for the most part it's Fenris dropping goons left right and centre with one or two hits of his abnormally large sword.

2. Almost lethal. So far, aside from the rock-wraith the only enemy that has ever given me any amount of trouble is the odd dragon you run into. I generally have to drop at least one health potion per character, though this is the only time I ever use potions so it's not like I'm running short on supplies. Still, I have yet to see a party member die.

Is this characteristic of the game as a whole? There doesn't seem to be any kind of difficulty curve or necessity for applying special tactics to certain types of enemy - which really makes me question why the game even allows you to tweak your party members tactics. Battles are, by and large, begun and won so fast that you don't seem to need tactics.

Again: I stress the word seem. Maybe my party and skill set-up is in that Goldilocks zone for ensuring maximum trouncing, but it feels a little too convinient (and lucky) that I should have stumbled across this kind of winning combo right away.

[Lykaios]

I think in your case it's a combination of both things. For me, like you, there's no "in between" battles; they're either easy or hard. I also found that your character combination is the winning combo. But I didn't find that out until the end of Act 2, so some of the hard battles became "easier" but then the easy ones were done as soon as it started.

Also, difficulty level has a lot to do with it at least for me it has.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I finished the game today. I see a lot of replay value as you can change some of the outcomes in the game. I like the ending so it looks like they are setting up Dragon Age 3 with Leliana searching for the Champion Hawke and the Warden from the previous game. I am thinking they will merge the characters from both games to face some epic threat.

[Dasquian Belargic]

More DLC content, "Mark of the Assassin"

<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/U9h4XBdlhbc?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/U9h4XBdlhbc?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

New character voiced by Felicia Day :D

[Crusader]

<object width="560" height="315">


<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0knzIkqq-lk?version=3&hl=de_DE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="315"></object>
more Felicia Day