Dragon Age 2: Impressions After Playing For The First Time

[@devastatheseeker9967]

I think one of the worst things about inquisition is that they removed the character specific classes. Varric in 2 is real fun to play because of Varric's unique skills. Then in inquisition he's basically just an archer with a skilltree you can get if you're a rogue. I heavily recommend maxing out the character specific skills before anything elsegoing forward. It makes switching to them in combat feel much more meaningful.

[@Aspi3Gam3r]

"Press a button, something awesome has to happen!" -DA2's design philosophy in a nutshell

[@icarian553]

Dragon Age 2 was rushed so much that it's actually impressive what Bioware managed to do with it. I know that a whole Act was cut from the game. Maybe even two. Which explains the fast pace a lot. While I think it's the worst in the series I still enjoyed it.

[@ryanglacier30]

Wasn't a fan of the combat and the consolidation they decided to do with the game world. However I loved the story. Especially the story arc with the Qunari

[@AlacrityTW]

I would definitely consider DAO to be a CRPG, a timeless classic even. DA2 is an ARPG and DAI is a singleplayer MMO lol.I don't expect DA4 to be any good at this point with Bioware and EA. From Baldur's Gate to Anthem, oh how far you've fallen.

[@AgonyInPain]

For me, the most disappointing DA game is Inquisition because it feels like MMO that was cut into Single-Player RPG. Really hated the most generic fetch quests, limited and boring build variety, and not being able to manually assign ability points (like Diablo 3, though I enjoyed that game). And yeah, them being pushed to use Frostbite engine made modding lacklustre. Coming back to DA2, though it has many issues, the foundation is similar to DA:Origins. For DA2 issues I blame EA as this was time when they were in the peak of their “corporate scum behaviour” and have forced BioWare to deliver DA2 within a year, when DA:O took, if remember correctly, around 6-7 years. If BioWare were given additional 2-3 years to make DA2, then it might have been a great game. Still, what has been done cannot be undone and considering the rumours of DA4 being (or having elements of) a Live Service game, DA as a franchise is pretty dead to me.

[@johnnyhshify]

The gameplay and RPG complexity would have been dumbed down anyways, doesn't matter if sequel was given another 2 years to develop. Bioware went downhill starting with DA2.

[@Arcling]

Then those rumors are wrong and outdated. Most recent news actually reported that game won't be a live service, this move might actually delay game even more, since a lot was scrapped due to this change.

[@michaelkenner3289]

@@Arcling they've now scrapped their DA4 plans entirely at least twice. Given that I thought both of those plans sounded horrible I'm sort of glad, but it's still having a really rough development cycle. After Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem it's hard to have confidence DA4 will be good when it emerges from development hell. I hope I'm wrong though, I love this series and I'm really wanting a good new entry in the franchise. Edit: Just for the record I did still enjoy Andromeda and got 100% completion on it. Not wanting to pile on the hate, but there's no denying that game had serious problems and BioWare was having massive issues behind the scenes are the time.

[@نونيم-ي4ح]

"the most disappointing DA game is Inquisition because it feels like MMO that was cut into Single-Player RPG" This is exactly why i dont like the xenoblade games tbh.

[@megamike15]

and then witcher 3 came out a year later and made dai look worse.

[@SimonSays288]

When I finished DA2 for the first time more than a decade ago I remember a crushing sense of dissapointment. I've only ever played it through once since then. But for some reason it still holds a soft spot and I sometimes feel an urge to play again.

[@smurphsFTW]

Dragon age 2 really removed a lot of the role playing element of Origins. However, its extremely lucky that sassy femhawke is easily on of the best characters ive ever played as and I would play that character if it was possible in origins and inquisition.

[@cackmed120]

After playing through DA2 once as sassy femhawke, every other Hawke is just can't compare

[@onatgz]

ah yes, the dialogue wheel. my arch-nemesis. also this comment's free.

[@thinking-ape6483]

I admire your ability to play through virtually everything. I could not do it.

[@Hrafnskald]

Great summary, totally agree on the gameplay. On a side note, if you're interested in the lore, Ghil Dirthalen does a TON of deep dives and theorycrafting. And if you get a chance, there is a HILARIOUS video that maps Madonna's "Like a Prayer" to the Lothering Chantry scenes from Origins.

[@BeowulfWarlord]

Dragon Age 2 has lots of good ideas, like the combat and the more personal story, but it also has weird stuff. Like the same maps are reused a lot and maybe the structure of the game might have been better.

[@jabanana2664]

Part i hate about DA2 is when you get locked. In your house after the end( i didn't have any dlc so maybe it was just vanilla)

[@RPGmodsFan]

Actually, I think that is a good idea for a video! You should put together a video on how to get DA2 to work on Steam. It might not be a mega-view video, but I am pretty sure it would be an evergreen video.

[@logansorrell8828]

Great to hear your impressions! I'm busy playing through the game as well as its the one out of the three DA games I haven't finished. They definitely tried to make this game more like Mass Effect which is very apparent. But once I accepted this game for what it is, I am really enjoying it. It's the weakest of the three games, but is still think it's fun to play and I enjoy the main story of the game.

[@STACHUIANDRZEJ]

the thing i love about 2 it turned dark spawn from intimidating force to complete joke in terms of looks

[@thinking-ape6483]

Gods spare us all...I have almost no positive memories of this game.

[@kae3211]

I played origins and 2 in high school basically a decade ago. I loved origins to death it was the closest I ever came to 100% a game. 2 however I don’t think I ever even bought the dlc. I’m a little sad I don’t remember the specifics of each game, but I was definitely one of the people who loved origins and then was disappointed by 2.

[@Heffalord]

Going from Dragon Age: Origins to Dragon Age: 2 is like going from eggnog to skim milk.

[@ВсеславРадаман]

DA2 has pretty intense combat if you're doing it on Nightmare. No longer resembles mindless slasher, you get friendly fire with aoes(which is terribly awkward for melees) and you need to build your party to be able combo off each other's abilities, those assassins need to die in couple seconds while they're frozen or petrified, otherwise you're screwed. Had some cool boss battles too, still remember good old rocky boy, though they overdid it a bit with golden city tourist, too much going on at once.

[@Arcling]

DA2 certainly suffered from its short development, it was released just a year after Awakening. Thanks to this, the game had a lot of recycling of its locations for various quests. Overall, it was still a pretty good game in my opinion. Story was more personal, centered around one city, but also important in setting up the plot for Inquisition. Hawke is still one of the better characters in this series, and so is Varric.

[@capitanaredapple602]

Dragon Age 2 is my favorite game on the franchise. I agree with several of the criticisms it received: You can only be human, you don't have more than one origin for your character, the lack of various scenarios (almost everything is in the city and caves). But... the rest I find it quite great. I felt like the combat was so much better than in Origin. Combat in Origin didn't age well at all and is one of the reasons this days I really can't play it again. It's just... so boring for me. The new system with the dialog, although simple by this days standards, was extremely clever when it came out. You can choose the kind of personality your Hawke will have and that affects, later, certain cinematics, were the things Hawke will say will change depending on the kind of personality they have. But I believe what I loved the most were the companions and the story. In general I felt this game much more personal than the other two. You spend ten years with those companions and in the same city. You see how the relationship within Hawke and those companions grow, how the time is obviosly visible in those relationships. Even in the relationships between your companions (I always loved the Isabela and Aveline relationship and how changed over the years). I have never felt more close to my companions in any Dragon Age game than in DA 2. And yeah... we spend almost all the game in the same boring looking city... but again: we spend ten years on that city. We get to see the problems it has, the conflict between Mages and Templars. And here is the thing: that conflict was central to the story, but this game used quite a lot of it's secondary quests to expand on that conflict. You have quests that makes you think "Yeah, ok, mages have so much power and this dude made a mess, templars are needed"; and then you find quests that are all like "Templars have so much power over mages that a lot of them abuse that power and abuse mages". There was no right and wrong, it was all very gray and complex and I loved it. For me it was the most personal and grounded story in all Dragon Age's games to this day.

[@capitanaredapple602]

@Novem's Natural Roll Is not black and white in the way they portray the problem. There are tons of quests were the mages are "the good guys" and there are a ton of quests were you kinda have to side with the templars with all that "Mages can be very problematic and cause a lot of pain if left unchecked". The game shows you good templars that care for mages EVEN if they have seen the worst of them. And also shows you really bad templars that abuse their power. At the same time, you are given "good" and "bad" mages. It's really pretty gray all of it, because you kinda understand every group and their concerns. No one is 100% in the right here. (spoilers) And yes, Meredith is not a good person and needed to be put down or at the very least be removed from command. BUT... mages did made some terrible things too. If Meredith was an extremist, Anders was too when he blowed up the chantry with a lot of innocent people inside. We can argue that he was pressured to act that way because the way templars treated mages; but that doesn't make it right. The same way Meredith was not right in the way she treated mages just because she knew some that were monsters. At the same time, Orsino was always clearly the good one. But even he, at the end, even if Hawke sided with the mages, let himself be controlled by a demon. Yes, he was desperate and rightly so. But, again, that doesn't make it right. And goes to show that even the most good hearted, reasonable and experienced mages could end up using blood magic like that. (end spoilers) So... yes, it was pretty gray. Which it doesn't mean it was perfect, but it does mean (for me) that DA2 has the more complex and personal story of the three games. I have no doubt that books and comics expand on all this and that even some of them do a better job. I'm merely talking about the games.

[@julianpopham3312]

@Novem's Natural Roll Meredith isn't the only templar though, and she's going to be a problem no matter what side you take. There's plenty to criticize on the other side as well, though I'd agree that the game doesn't do a very good job of presenting it as balanced.

[@09darknorth]

man i played this before playing the first game i was 14 years old and it felt like the best game ever i finished it probably more than 4 times now seeing all the shortcomings feels bad but at the time i didnt understand much of it :)

[@michiganjack1337]

I skipped DA: 2 and went right to Inquisition. That made really appreciate Dragon Age 2 a lot more had I'd played it when it first came out.

[@michaelkenner3289]

They spent years building dragon age origin, whereas dragon age two was rushed out in about six months. You're lucky to be playing it now with patches and DLC, they made a difference and helped improve it. Even so the game has a lot of cut corners and problems introduced by the rushed time frame. I actually really enjoy the new style they tried in DA2 and while it's my least favourite of the three games, one of them has to be lowest. I don't think it's bad, I just wish they'd been given the time to really do it justice.

[@amanlap]

It was actually 9 months in production but yeah, development time was way too short.

[@leyasu888]

I enjoyed DA2, the only bad thing i felt about it was the reused dungeon caves.

[@jbones1453]

Hey. I actually played these in pretty much the same order but never finished 2. Are you using mods and if you are, can you share them? I feel like the graphics look better in your video than I remember. And your review might inspire me to finally finish this game. Keep up the great work!

[@MortismalGaming]

One of the DLCs that was available was an official high resolution pack, no mods

[@jbones1453]

@@MortismalGaming thank you!

[@rhade2k]

holy crap, DA2 looked so much better in my memory

[@fosbjorn]

While dialogue wheel can be annoying. Constantly cracking jokes through entirety of DA2 is absolutely precious experience

[@MrRecoilius]

I really enjoyed the action element of DA2 because it made playing fun RPG a little more live. I liked Origins, but just like playing Far Cry 3 to Far Cry 4, too much of one thing can make the next one tired. DA: Inquisition, like you said, shifted back from DA2's pure action game to action and tactics, was a smart move, cause it made each of them feel a bit unique and a bit familiar.

[@lordbahj]

Dragon Age Origins and 2 need the Mass Effect Legendary Edition touch. Also, I never like the main PC being voice acted. It takes me out of feeling like it’s MY character.

[@j.h.mitchell4333]

I loved Dragon Age 2, but it did feel goofy when it came out. Origins had such fine details for exploiting tactics/combos, and then DA2 was button-mashing. The story was great, and the combat was fun, but it did feel like a separate game instead of a sequel. And that smuggler's cave that gets reused for so many quests -- I'm convinced the city is pulling a Matrix and knowingly letting criminals use that cave so that they always know where to find and kill them.

[@orarinnsnorrason4614]

I played this game 1 time through then uninstalled it. As a comparison I've played Origins multiple times and done everything (unlocked).

[@thinking-ape6483]

Ertu Islenksur?

[@orarinnsnorrason4614]

@@thinking-ape6483 Gæti verið, fer eftir ýmsu

[@MichaelBlanchardII]

I love the story of 2 but got tired of seeing the same 4 dungeon cells no matter what quest you were on unless it was a story map. Loved the characters. Merrill is one of my favorite mage characters of any Dragon Age game.

[@stoogemcduck8594]

Personally, I would've enjoyed Origins much more if they didn't advertise it as the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. That being said, I found Origins to be good but not the amazing game that others found it, purely due to my own biases. For me, DA2 was like 2 steps forward (I actually liked the combat, felt that it was interesting and that they made it work trying new stuff and I didn't even mind the move to 3rd person over the shoulder) but 10 steps backwards (which I won't go into until your next video in case you aren't that far into it so that I don't influence your experience too much). I don't know if many people will understand this comparison but for me, it felt like how i felt moving from Heroes of Might and Magic 3 to HOMM4. I could see what they were trying to do and I liked a couple of things they did but the ball was dropped hard in many other crucial areas for me. In any case, hope you have fun playing DA2! Looking forward to the final review.

[@Morden97]

DA2 has some great elements but gameplay really really disappoints. I really liked the characters in general and the concept of following your character for a long part of their life in different periods in their life. Loved that.

[@Meta_Mage]

Since you love CRPGs / Planescape so much, I'm a bit shocked you haven't played Disco Elysium yet.

[@MortismalGaming]

The art gives me headaches

[@Meta_Mage]

@@MortismalGaming that's a shame. It's the best written game period. Do you just not like the style or actually have issues with it?

[@MortismalGaming]

@@Meta_Mage It gives me literal headaches, I can't play it

[@IMBREISGAU]

Damn, I kinda play this game too for the first time after Origins lmao.

[@alex-uw4mm]

honestly i played DA:Origins and felt it was a fun game but compaired to older rpgs BG and Nwn series it felt like rpg light or the fast food of rpg. i hesitated on buying DA 2 and when i saw the reviews it felt like they went even further into that direction, now pair that with the origins account hassle on top and i just felt like it ain't worth it. inquisition looks to me just like a more fleshed out DA2 so i stayed away from that serious and doubt that the next DA when ever that comes out will change my mind.

[@mammozdzierzwdupie]

SpikeAge2 wasn't this bad if not for recycling locations over and over again. Story still had this dark athmosphere that was removed in Inqusition. After playing dlc for DAO, Anders personality shift came from nowhere as he valued freedom alot in dlc but suddenly decided to go this way instead. Oh well, budget and rushed premiere done some damage but nothing hurts to play it at least once to know the story.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

4:45 "Everyone has an opinion which is the worst and best" I don't think I've heard anyone argue that Origins isn't the best

[@MortismalGaming]

While I would agree the bulk of online commenters all agree Origins is the best, after making reviews etc for the series and watching comments pile up, I assure you a lot of people don't

[@Shikao87]

I find it funny that 'actual first impressions' starts after one third of whole video Also I have no opinion of series as whole, I tried Origins long time ago, but didn't finish and never came back to it.

[@IgorMuller]

I loved all of the da games. Some more, s some a bit less, still amazing games.

[@singhadog1185]

[@Elgar337]

The best thing about this game is that it's short.

[@Chaotik_Pranxter]

Odd. Ive never had trouble with DLC on this or Inquisition. Howevevr, still to this day, I've never been through Awakening more than a couple hours due to crashing, bugs, corruption, you name it.

[@PiedzivojumiArAndri]

In Xbox Series S this game look very very good

[@shardinhand1243]

hey better late than never, especialy for this classic series, betten only slightly by mass effect.

[@TheGrunaldi]

DA 2 was made in 14-16 months ... because of EA

[@theshadowcult]

Why didnt you consider origins a crpg? its literally a crpg with all the same mechanics and tropes? EDIT: apart from the stuff you stated, i also hated the sutip reused dungeons over and over again. Was pretty awful.

[@P9124]

DA2 is like an abysmal mmo that you have to go through alone.

[@royalrugby4869]

To me DA2, was just an odd choice. You can go see the behind the scenes videos, and Bioware wanted to try something new. Ultimately though it feels like a like of half baked ideas. Kirkwall is supposed to be all about politics, Game of Thrones style city to city rivalries in Free Marches, but you never really get a sense of that or involved in it really. They want you to have a family, but your choice of sibling is based off your class, not your choices. You become a important member of society, but it lacks any weight. You get player housing, but you cannot actually do much with it. They wanted to import choices, but not to the scale of Mass Effect import of 1 into 2. They wanted more romances, but they did it in a way where every character is ready to hop into bed after you say a nice word or two. DA2 has some amazing moments that make you laugh, smile, or even feel sad, but it's just a mess in total that I felt never quite fit together quite how it should.

[@homeostasis1103]

I genuinely hated playing DA2 because of repeated assets of caves etc. Having 100 caves that looks exactly the same with same gameplay felt so lame. The only thing I loved about thia game was story and world building. Wanna mention that dlc bosses are huge, and they look more like mmo bosses with voidzones etc.

[@ducky36F]

Tactics only matter in DA2 on Hard and Nightmare. If you want get a bit more out of the combat crank up the difficulty. I get the sense they never finished balancing the combat properly before release, so on normal you can just hack and slash your way through but on Nightmare you have to make use of tactics slots and cross-class combos if you want to kill anything stronger than a grunt.

[@StephenKatt]

DA2 is a lot like The Last Jedi. It decides to be different, and not in the best ways. Some of the things it tried to do, and some of the plot ideas were really cool if you give it the benefit of the doubt, but there is enough there that is not great that it really ruins the experience. DA2 cut so many corners that it is just hard to compare to Origins or Inquisition. I also didn't enjoy where they went with the mage vs. templar meta plot. Instead of becoming more nuanced, it went in a cliche "oppressor" and "oppressed" direction.

[@adeternitamn2859]

The dragon age trilogy follows the norm about almost all trilogies. 1 is excellent. 2 is mediocre, at best, and 3 is plain bad. I loved1,and played it at least 3 times. Never finished 2 and never bothered to play 3.

[@seandalton44]

I hated Origins, hated 2 a little less, then loved inquisition. Although I skipped all side quests in inquisition

[@kennyredman8897]

I actually really likee da2. Despite its shortcomings

[@molliethomas2585]

Take this comment for the algorithm.

[@Arxfatal1]

You have yet to experience the endless recycling of the same cave/dungeon/general map and the uninteresting companions... aaand the endless waves of shades (and other types of enemies as well, but the shades were the ones that fed me to the point of regurgitation) which - in harder difficulties- are a complete chore to pass. Its not just different choices, its like their budget to create this game was divided by 2 compared to origins. Its criminal at this point to get such a poor content from a game like this (moreover from BIO F*ING WARE). The only salvageable ideas from this game are in my opinion - the division of the story in different Acts, and time passes in between, so that (was supposed to) make the whole world around us evolve constantly. - The main story (very subjective here) because its more small scaled, and in the end gives a new direction to the franchise (but you really had to make a game this long for that achievement? )

[@marcinczyzewski5021]

Even for free I wouldn't install this game on my disk, waste of space, what I've seen about DA2 was enough. I wonder from where are coming positive opinions of DA2 maybe from people who haven't played DA:O or people who are not fans of cRPG games more like action games. Anyway this is one of the biggest dissapointments in whole RPG genre for me. To be fair maybe it's not bad game by all means but simply it's not game for me. And Dragon Age:Origins is my top 10 RPG in history.

[@alsaiduq4363]

I actually like DA2 and find way more interesting than DAO/DAi and i actually play a lot crpgs (both pathfinder, both pillars, divinity os2, etc). The game is a mess, but i like the characters , how voiced protagonist works and i really like the setting and story premise , actually way more than the Lord of ring rip-off thats Dragon Age Origins.

[@marcinczyzewski5021]

@@alsaiduq4363 Interesting point of view :). As I said I don't think about DA:2 as a bad game but I've expected something more similar to DA:O than games like Diablo, it was enough for me to pass on it. Maybe if DA 2 was a first game in series I could take different approach. I can agree that plot, story in DA:O is very standard, nothing special, but it was enough interesting for me to keep me. I have also over 200 hours on Pathfinder:Kingmaker Definitive Edition finally finished it and it was oh my gosh... best adventure since Dragon Age:Origins :). I know that I have slightly different taste 😁, that's why I am on minority for whom Pathfinder:Kingmaker is better game than Divinity:Original Sin 2

[@marcinczyzewski5021]

@@JimmyMon666 Maybe Dragon Age:Origins could be even closer to my top 5 or even my top 5 too if I think about it deeper ;). Okay, I can say my top 5 would be: Pathfinder:Kingmaker, Baldur's Gate 2, Arcanum, Dragon Age:Origins, Divinity:Original Sin 2 but it was difficult decision, because Neverwinter Nights 2, Witcher 2&3 and Tyranny (sadly there won't be continuation) are close too . I must admit haven't played Fallout:New Vegas also Disco Elysium and Wasteland 2&3 but I've heard, read many good opinions about these games. Maybe one day I will find time for them too ;)

[@lifelonglessson]

I played through DAO 3 times, and it's still an all time favorite. I've never seen actual gameplay of DA2... It looks like one of those terrible 2000s F2P MMOs, good thing I didn't touch it and skipped over to DAI (which regardless of opinions is an amazing game).

[@me36391]

Good game, good characters but being stuck in basically One area the whole time really makes it nauseating. The story is also underappreciated, better than DAI

[@exige021]

The enviroments are absolutley the worst in this game. so many grey&beige copypaste dungeons/corridors.

[@TheKolboShow]

I know a lot of people hated it and that Origins is *technically* a better game but Dragon Age 2 is legitimately my favorite Dragon Age game

[@c3cxla]

I hated everything but Qunari in this game

[@disturbancecontrol]

DA:2=🤮

[@westisnt]

DA2 for me is the best of the three. Origins really felt like the definition of a mediocre RPG; very, I dunno, Tolkienesque. I liked it but it didn't feel like anything special. Inquisition was so bad it was the first BioWare game I ever outright stopped playing. 2 had mechanical problems and the story was obviously rushed and cut in some places, but it did something that I hadn't really seen in other Western RPGs often, by making the story so personal to Hawke. I was able to forgive the lack of character customisation because it wasn't about that, it was about telling Hawke's story and rise to fame, more like a JRPG without being bogged down in all the JRPG tropes. The graphics, not great, but the art style was pretty on-point. The combat was fun, but not really challenging. Definitely not the best RPG ever made but I think it's underrated by most.

[@stevenwoodward5923]

I agree with what you said about DA2. I disagree about origins being mediocre, the replayability, of using the races backstory makes replaying enjoying. I will never play Dragon age Inquisition. I bought the game when it first came out, and I cant stand the W/Q/S/E controls for movement. I was In my 50's when it first came out and my finger dexterity doesn't work that way anymore, I only play point and click for movement.

[@tomaszmiskuniec1951]

SUper rushed game :/ Very interesting story. I liked it way more then blend, single player mmo that Inqusition was :/