This will no doubt be of interest to many here.
Personally I've long waited for EA to have given it for free along with dlc, just so I can experience it and critique it for myself.
Community GVMERS- The History of Dragon Age 2
- Thread starter Tizoc
- Start date
This will no doubt be of interest to many here.
Personally I've long waited for EA to have given it for free along with dlc, just so I can experience it and critique it for myself.
I knew most of the story behind Dragon Age 2, as I followed Bioware closely before Mass Effect 3 (aka The Betrayal) and Dragon Age Inquisition. Still, it was an interesting reminder of how one of my favourite Bioware games came to be.
Because yep, I actually really liked Dragon Age 2!
Origins had the better combat on PC (I would argue that 2 is better on console), but I prefer the more personal story of Hawke and her relationship with the various companions. The companions themselves were much better for me in 2 than in Origins, Isabela and Aveline especially. I also really appreciated that every companion was bisexual; it got a lot of backlash, but I think it was a cool move. Oh, and the various personality traits were a neat idea, although it was only noticeable after a second playthrough: humorous Hawke was amazing.
I wish it had a tighter gameplay, less map repetition and more things to do in each area, but it's the game I'd replay now over Origins and the abomination that was Inquisition.
Because yep, I actually really liked Dragon Age 2!
Origins had the better combat on PC (I would argue that 2 is better on console), but I prefer the more personal story of Hawke and her relationship with the various companions. The companions themselves were much better for me in 2 than in Origins, Isabela and Aveline especially. I also really appreciated that every companion was bisexual; it got a lot of backlash, but I think it was a cool move. Oh, and the various personality traits were a neat idea, although it was only noticeable after a second playthrough: humorous Hawke was amazing.
I wish it had a tighter gameplay, less map repetition and more things to do in each area, but it's the game I'd replay now over Origins and the abomination that was Inquisition.
They were not bisexual. Their sexuality was not really represented (except for the DLC characters), they just made them available to you regardless of what Hawke you picked.
That's what got the backlash. It was just another step down in the ever going Bioware pander ladder.
That's what got the backlash. It was just another step down in the ever going Bioware pander ladder.
Pander ladder?
Being more inclusive is what made me stick with BioWare for so long. They might have made terribile games lately, but I'll always be grateful to them for giving me a chance to roleplay a character that would resemble me in parte. Representation does matter.
Dragon Age 2 did not have the time and budget to go the Inquisition route, so having the 4 romanceable characters available to anyone was the right choice I think.
Being more inclusive is what made me stick with BioWare for so long. They might have made terribile games lately, but I'll always be grateful to them for giving me a chance to roleplay a character that would resemble me in parte. Representation does matter.
Dragon Age 2 did not have the time and budget to go the Inquisition route, so having the 4 romanceable characters available to anyone was the right choice I think.
Bioware are inclusive. They also constantly abused the sex appeal of their characters framing them through the male gaze and for the purpose of adolescent fantasies, treated sex scenes as a gameplay reward, have completely fucked up power dynamics when pursuing romances without any thought or care to the player character position and their subordinates, and in the case of DA2 like I said, they didn't make the characters bisexual.
The characters are not written to be bisexual or is this something explored in context beyond your character relationship with them in any way that matters for representation. They made all the characters available as romance options to the main character only due to the constant cries of the BSN community to make everyone sexually available to them. I.E. Pandering.
I'm saying that was what the backlash is about, not really because they just decided to do more representation or something.
The characters are not written to be bisexual or is this something explored in context beyond your character relationship with them in any way that matters for representation. They made all the characters available as romance options to the main character only due to the constant cries of the BSN community to make everyone sexually available to them. I.E. Pandering.
I'm saying that was what the backlash is about, not really because they just decided to do more representation or something.
Dragon Age 2 is a game that is a lot better than some of its detractors claim, but a lot worse than the more glowing reviews at release would have you believe.
Dragon Age 2 was the victim of two problems.
One, EA pushed them to release the game far too early. It was originally a smaller scope spinoff that was reworked into a full fledged sequel. Apparently most of the game's production took place in 8 months. This was an unreasonably short amount of time to create a RPG of DAII's scope and complexity.
Two, there is a phrase that has appeared over the past several months. "Bioware magic". Bioware magic is crunch. Soul-sucking crunch. A development cycle consisting of working on a project and having it in a very poor shape for most of it, and then crunching like crazy during the last few months to pull it together. The systemic problems that caused the derailment of ME: Andromeda and Anthem are not new. Bioware has had this problem basically forever. All those classic Bioware games you loved were created under shitty conditions with terrible project management and a revolving door of burnt out developers crying their eyes out in a corner. As games grew more complex, Bioware struggled to paper over the cracks. Back in the day, completely reworking a project in a few months was viable. The development equivalent of writing an assignment the evening of the deadline. Pre-release Mass Effect footage looks different to the final game. Not just visually, but the overarching plot was clearly quite different.
Dragon Age: Origins was really, really buggy and rushed despite an 8 year development cycle. This is something that doesn't get a lot of attention because it's such a good game. There is a fan patch for the game that fixes several hundred bugs. Including swathes of dialogue that went AWOL due to broken scripting, broken scripts everywhere, and of course the very serious crashing issues the game has. A lot of people thought it was funny how they could trick the game into letting them romance Morrigan and Leliana at the same time. That was the game having a seizure in the background and rampantly breaking event flags. It's almost KOTOR II-esque, except KOTOR II didn't hide its problems as well and had glaring holes in the narrative that its fan patch alleviated.
DA2 was the worst case scenario. A ridiculously short development cycle (thanks EA) paired with Bioware's extremely inefficient (and inhumane) development pipeline. It's actually something of a miracle the game pulled together as well as it did. But the entire thing is glaringly rushed. That moment when you realise that you've entered a new cave and it's the exact same cave as the last cave but they rotated the crates is a sinking feeling. The game's writing is really good (outside the insipid babby's first oppression breeds terrorism subtext of "The Templars are accusing us of being evil and prone to using blood magic so we'll prove them wrong by using blood magic!") but it's a game I'm hesitant to replay due to how tedious and cookie-cutter-rotated-90-degrees so much of it is.
Dragon Age 2 was the victim of two problems.
One, EA pushed them to release the game far too early. It was originally a smaller scope spinoff that was reworked into a full fledged sequel. Apparently most of the game's production took place in 8 months. This was an unreasonably short amount of time to create a RPG of DAII's scope and complexity.
Two, there is a phrase that has appeared over the past several months. "Bioware magic". Bioware magic is crunch. Soul-sucking crunch. A development cycle consisting of working on a project and having it in a very poor shape for most of it, and then crunching like crazy during the last few months to pull it together. The systemic problems that caused the derailment of ME: Andromeda and Anthem are not new. Bioware has had this problem basically forever. All those classic Bioware games you loved were created under shitty conditions with terrible project management and a revolving door of burnt out developers crying their eyes out in a corner. As games grew more complex, Bioware struggled to paper over the cracks. Back in the day, completely reworking a project in a few months was viable. The development equivalent of writing an assignment the evening of the deadline. Pre-release Mass Effect footage looks different to the final game. Not just visually, but the overarching plot was clearly quite different.
Dragon Age: Origins was really, really buggy and rushed despite an 8 year development cycle. This is something that doesn't get a lot of attention because it's such a good game. There is a fan patch for the game that fixes several hundred bugs. Including swathes of dialogue that went AWOL due to broken scripting, broken scripts everywhere, and of course the very serious crashing issues the game has. A lot of people thought it was funny how they could trick the game into letting them romance Morrigan and Leliana at the same time. That was the game having a seizure in the background and rampantly breaking event flags. It's almost KOTOR II-esque, except KOTOR II didn't hide its problems as well and had glaring holes in the narrative that its fan patch alleviated.
DA2 was the worst case scenario. A ridiculously short development cycle (thanks EA) paired with Bioware's extremely inefficient (and inhumane) development pipeline. It's actually something of a miracle the game pulled together as well as it did. But the entire thing is glaringly rushed. That moment when you realise that you've entered a new cave and it's the exact same cave as the last cave but they rotated the crates is a sinking feeling. The game's writing is really good (outside the insipid babby's first oppression breeds terrorism subtext of "The Templars are accusing us of being evil and prone to using blood magic so we'll prove them wrong by using blood magic!") but it's a game I'm hesitant to replay due to how tedious and cookie-cutter-rotated-90-degrees so much of it is.
I'm in the opposite camp, I hated DA 2.
The combat felt much less tactical and deep. I played Origins as a cRPG from bird view perspective and DA2 was a disappointment in every regard. Instead of being engaged, I felt bored and confused why the mechanics changed that much.
There were only like 3 dungeons in the game, mirrored and reused over and over again. Oh it's this cave again, but this time I'm starting at the end. How exciting.
I was also dissapointed that this was a new beginning for a new character. There were some milde callbacks to origins, but I expected a continuation. After all, there was a 2 in the name.
For me Dragon Age 2 was the first realization that BioWare can fuck up, tremendously. I was shocked, the makers of KOTOR, Origins and ME 1 dissapointed me, unluckily not for the last time.
The combat felt much less tactical and deep. I played Origins as a cRPG from bird view perspective and DA2 was a disappointment in every regard. Instead of being engaged, I felt bored and confused why the mechanics changed that much.
There were only like 3 dungeons in the game, mirrored and reused over and over again. Oh it's this cave again, but this time I'm starting at the end. How exciting.
I was also dissapointed that this was a new beginning for a new character. There were some milde callbacks to origins, but I expected a continuation. After all, there was a 2 in the name.
For me Dragon Age 2 was the first realization that BioWare can fuck up, tremendously. I was shocked, the makers of KOTOR, Origins and ME 1 dissapointed me, unluckily not for the last time.
I liked a lot of DA2, but also was pretty disappointed by it. I enjoyed the story and its small/personal scope(though it turned into a mess near the end), and liked many of the characters, but hated all of the well-known flaws(repetition, wave combat, no tactical view).
The player-sexual thing never really bothered me. It's certainly preferable to having LGBT players having no options, or being reduced to side-characters.
The player-sexual thing never really bothered me. It's certainly preferable to having LGBT players having no options, or being reduced to side-characters.
Last edited:
As a massive Bioware fan at the time I was disappointed by Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3. I played, finished and liked both but they were so heavily flawed.
After the shitshow trifecta of Inquisition, Andromeda and Anthem i look back on them as the last good games Bioware made
After the shitshow trifecta of Inquisition, Andromeda and Anthem i look back on them as the last good games Bioware made
I was engaged with Inquisition, for a while. The main quest, Inquisition building and the characters were okay. Combat was nothing to brag about, but it at least looked okay. What bothered me was the overblown "side"content. It was grindy and boring after a while. Collectibles, rifts, treasure, small dungeons.
Leave the Hinterlands! Was the OT title for a reason. The problem, nearly every area was like the Hinterlands. Lot's of meaningless things to do.
It even felt MMOish, which isn't good for a SP RPG. Kill X amount of Y and collect V amount of Z. A checklist RPG, with a bioware heart.
Leave the Hinterlands! Was the OT title for a reason. The problem, nearly every area was like the Hinterlands. Lot's of meaningless things to do.
It even felt MMOish, which isn't good for a SP RPG. Kill X amount of Y and collect V amount of Z. A checklist RPG, with a bioware heart.
My main problems with Inquisition were with the story and the MMOification of the gameplay elements. Oh, I also had issues with the tactical camera: why on heart didn't it zoom out all the way out like Origins?
The companions and their quests were the better parts of Inquisition for me, but I found the cast from Dragon Age 2 much more likeable.
Also, while I understand that continuity was a big selling point for the series, I still wish they forgot the concept and just chose a canon world to build upon. Because in Origins they gave us tons of options that could dramatically impact the world of Thedas and we'll never see the consequences to those, as there will never be enough resources to properly explore every single one of them. In both DA2 and Inquisition the result to previous choices is a cameo and/or mentions of something small, while none of the big choices were addressed.
The companions and their quests were the better parts of Inquisition for me, but I found the cast from Dragon Age 2 much more likeable.
Also, while I understand that continuity was a big selling point for the series, I still wish they forgot the concept and just chose a canon world to build upon. Because in Origins they gave us tons of options that could dramatically impact the world of Thedas and we'll never see the consequences to those, as there will never be enough resources to properly explore every single one of them. In both DA2 and Inquisition the result to previous choices is a cameo and/or mentions of something small, while none of the big choices were addressed.
That's true. I still expected it, to a degree.
DA 2 felt a bit like it devalued our choices in origins. I was naive to expect more, but I still did. As mentioned in the video, the "two" in the name fueled that expectation.
I think something similar happened with the ME trilogy. Game worlds aren't as interactive as developers like to make us believe.
It's understandable, even in Telltale games the vast majority of choices lead to the same outcome. However, BioWare promised the moon with both Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises and in the end they didn't deliver.
Dragon Age almost had no chance, as the choices in Origins were too big and world-altering, but I'm still pissed about Mass Effect. The biggest choices in Mass Effect 1 were the Rachni Queen, which companion to save between Kaidan and Ashley and if Wrex was alive (but I refuse to believe anyone would import a game without him in it), and they couldn't even address these 3 properly in Mass Effect 2 and 3.
Ok, I'll stop now before starting a rant about all the things I find wrong in Mass Effect 2 and 3
Would be Metas first mega thread.Ok, I'll stop now before starting a rant about all the things I find wrong in Mass Effect 2 and 3
No.As a massive Bioware fan at the time I was disappointed by Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3. I played, finished and liked both but they were so heavily flawed.
After the shitshow trifecta of Inquisition, Andromeda and Anthem i look back on them as the last good games Bioware made
I remember this game. On Gaf, it the |OT| was called "shit mountain" for the lack of color in the environments.
Bioware just made bigger mountains, but that doesn't make DA1 better. Bioware just got worse.
I'm probably late to the party but I can't agree with the sentiment that DA2 is a massively flawed gem, the game is trash. The characters are bad, the story is awful, the rpg system is pathetic, the graphics are muted, the sound design is basic... Just bad all around, there's no saving grace. The only good thing about the game is the credits music, which has no connection with the game, story or world, which just makes it even funnier since it's almost clear they just licensed the first song they could find and called it a day.
It's time to face the truth that Bioware output has been at best average since KotOR.
It's time to face the truth that Bioware output has been at best average since KotOR.
I know this much about da. In 1 when you cast blizzard on normal, all party rushed to the epicenter to die like pigs in slaughter house, pause move them out, pause move them out. Scenarios were there but I didn't notice much of a difference and setting them up for 20 hours isn't the kind of fun I'm looking for. Da2 didn't have such a problem.