Dragon Age 2: Gameplay and Discussion

**Kekvit Irae** · 03-14-2011, 00:02

After contemplating a bit, I know of another bug. A huge one, at that.
If you use Anders' Regroup spell or a restoration potion to revive dead team members in combat, sometimes they will act like they aren't even in combat because the game doesn't recognize them as being in combat. Sure, they'll attack, but they act lethargic. When controlling said character, autoattack is non-existent. For affected characters, they will be regenerating health and stamina/mana like crazy. This is definitely game-breaking as it makes characters like Varric with Bianca abilities or an Assassin Hawke completely unstoppable if controlled. I've had this happen several times (mostly because Anders is the only damn mage in the game with healing spells, thus forcing me to use him in every fight).

**TinCow** · 03-14-2011, 03:11

Yes, I've encountered that same bug several times and it's very annoying. That and the bug where I can't click on a target (be it a door or an enemy) are very common and I'm amazed they let that slip through testing.

**TinCow** · 03-14-2011, 14:08

I will give Bioware a big thumbs up on at least one plot point: Varric's companion question. Specifically when you first go to a particular house (further details omitted due to spoilers). That was very inventive, and I fell in love with it instantly. In fact, combined with the similar style of the 'tutorial' section at the beginning, I'm becoming rather fond of the 'narration' aspect of the story.

**seireikhaan** · 03-14-2011, 21:08

Well, clocked in around 45 hours, and its done. Plan is to give it at least one more playthrough, with a non-mage character. Overall thoughts and feelings:

The final boss(at least for me, I imagine different choices will alter the order or possibly who you even fight at all, idk,

) was quite fun and enjoyable. Much more well designed than most of the boss fights.

Bioware was on the ball for companions, of what we got to see of them. The interaction wasn't to the degree I wanted, but even Isabella was an enjoyable party member, which I seriously doubted when I started. The choices made in the later game mostly resulted in reactions that I figured would happen, which was a relief. No general nonsensical decisions by your party members, at least in my experience. I particularly enjoyed Varrick, who pretty much is the only reason the 'story-telling' format worked. Companion quests(well, those I did, I lost Isabella somewhat early) were all pretty fun. Once again, Varrick shone on his quests.

Combat, structurally, is fantastic, imo. Kiting generally works like it feels it should. The problem is too often, the fights weren't well balanced, so you were forced to kite the whole battle, which is distinctly un-fun. Mages were given the proper neutering they needed, but I'm not sure they found the balance quite right on rogues. Assassins in particular are immensely frustrating. One assassin at a time on the battlefield makes things interesting and challenging. Two just means you're likely to start the battle one party member down, which I don't consider particularly fair.

Random notes, bugs, irritants, etc...:

Level design. Seriously, Bioware? C'mon. This is the sequel to the massive, varied game I loved? Did they can the whole level design staff sans one person? I feel like I beat a 4 hour game a whole bunch of times. This was easily my biggest disclaimer on this game. Give some darn variety! I don't need or want to go through this same fragging underground or cavern or house for the 100th time. Enough to make me say this was a bad game? Honestly, almost. Not quite, but really close.

Only major bug I noticed was the clicking one TinCow noted. I don't consider it too game breaking(easy fix, pause button prevents shenanigans), but it did get annoying.

Pride Demon fights were quite interesting. The AOE crushing prison was quite nicely balanced, and an interesting touch. There was one fight which was, sadly, imbalanced once again by waves of rage demons, but oh well.

Champion's armor looks so close to being good, but ends up silly. What's with the protruding boilerplate sticking out of the chest piece?

Also, on the end:

For you all playing morally upright characters i'll warn you now to have one of your mages take up healing as a secondary.

For the final act:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

To sum, there's lots of good, and lots of bad. Which is more bad than Origins, imo. Despite being hosed on how much you can converse with your party members, they still manage to shine. Despite poorly balanced fights occasionally rearing their ugly head, combat's generally a lot of fun. The story is good, and though the format isn't to my liking, it generally keeps itself in the background. If it wasn't for level design, I'd honestly say it was a pretty darn good game. But that element just knocks it down a fair number of pegs for me. Overall, I'd say about 7.5 or 8 out of 10. Bearing in mind, I consider Origins a 9.5. :/

**Scienter** · 03-14-2011, 21:31

I agree with Yaseikhaan's opinion of the reused environments. In a lot of the dungeons I think, "I feel like I've been here before...wait, I have been here before!" The designers took a shortcut there. I'm not finished with the game yet, but I do wish there was more dialogue w/ the NPCs, and I really miss the "camp" from DA:O. Having to go to an NPC's home to talk with them is a bit of a pain.

I wish I could just

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

That said, I'm enjoying the game so far.

**Monk** · 03-14-2011, 22:27

45 hours

38 hours

Jeeze what kept you guys?

Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan

To sum, there's lots of good, and lots of bad. Which is more bad than Origins, imo. Despite being hosed on how much you can converse with your party members, they still manage to shine. Despite poorly balanced fights occasionally rearing their ugly head, combat's generally a lot of fun. The story is good, and though the format isn't to my liking, it generally keeps itself in the background. If it wasn't for level design, I'd honestly say it was a pretty darn good game. But that element just knocks it down a fair number of pegs for me. Overall, I'd say about 7.5 or 8 out of 10. Bearing in mind, I consider Origins a 9.5. :/

That's pretty much how I feel with a few subtle changes here and there. Replace level design with incredibly annoying party interaction and yup, that's me. Party banter goes a long way to saving the experience but it can't quite make up for it in my opinion. Still thoroughly enjoy the game but I can't help but feel Bioware made some real stumbles here and there. Expected much better from this showing. Ah well. Even if it's not great, it's still good in my books.

I'm playing the game through a second time now as a pure Entropy mage, which is crowd control and debuffs (where before I was full elemental, AOE and control). The game is... surprisingly a lot easier. Taking Creation as a secondary tree so i am full on support for my team as well as some nasty status afflictions. It still doesn't help with some fights though. Mainly due to poor balance choices in the encounters. I'm of the opinion that the combat is a great improvement over the first, but just like the first, Bioware didn't bother to tune certain aspects of it to avoid random spikes in difficulty. A shame really, because it seems like combat was the main focus this time around.

Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan

The final boss(at least for me, I imagine different choices will alter the order or possibly who you even fight at all, idk, ) was quite fun and enjoyable. Much more well designed than most of the boss fights.

Final Boss fight spoilers:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Kekvit Irae** · 03-15-2011, 01:54

Well, I finally won the game. The lack of an epilogue added to my list of disappointments in the game.

**seireikhaan** · 03-15-2011, 04:22

Originally Posted by Monk

Jeeze what kept you guys?

Lots of side questing? I'm not sure how you beat the game so fast.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I'm playing the game through a second time now as a pure Entropy mage, which is crowd control and debuffs (where before I was full elemental, AOE and control). The game is... surprisingly a lot easier. Taking Creation as a secondary tree so i am full on support for my team as well as some nasty status afflictions. It still doesn't help with some fights though. Mainly due to poor balance choices in the encounters. I'm of the opinion that the combat is a great improvement over the first, but just like the first, Bioware didn't bother to tune certain aspects of it to avoid random spikes in difficulty. A shame really, because it seems like combat was the main focus this time around.

Hmm. I pretty much skipped out on entropy. My only real experience with it(I think) was the occasional Arcane Horror ending my party with(I think) a death cloud. I'd gone full blood mage, a decent chunk of Force, and the full lightning/rock tree, with my only other dabbling being snagging upgraded heal. Blood magic gets pretty strong later game, if only for all the bonuses you can get for your health regeneration and health to mana ratio for blood casting. Final fight, I pretty much kept casting forever and with impunity as long as Aveline kept aggro. As long as I tempered my nuking, I could cast for just about forever.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: