Dragon Age 2 - Retrospective Review

[@moneda]

My favorite aspect of this game is actually the usage of Varric as an unreliable narrator. From the opening of the game where his embellishments allow for a tutorial to the combat system that doesn't have you killing 10 rats in a sewer or something, to his superb companion quest where you break into a mansion on his behalf and he makes himself out to be an action movie hero-type before Cassandra cuts him off, I thought it added a lot to the game.

[@Fenrispro]

ahh i din know varric is unreliable narrator. My fav is of course Blue wraith Fen!!

[@xxTICxxTOCxx]

Have you noticed that while Varric is 'narrating' the intro that Bethany has incredibly large breasts?

[@erynflynn8467]

You can use Varric as the unreliable narrator to push yourself past a lot of the issues from the short dev time. Areas all look the same? Varric didnt bother describing them much and Cassandra applied the same description to multiple locations. "So where were they?" "Idk it was some nobles house they all look the same." Waves of enemies? "You just said there was 4 bandits." "4, 12, does it really matter? Look there was a lot of them." Obviously this doesnt actually make up for asset reuse and whatnot but I use this thought to help through replaying the game because for me it is my favourite in the franchise for the characters.

[@NatyaVT]

@@erynflynn8467 That is an amazing take on the reused assets. There's probably some truth to it too knowing Varric.

[@redelephantsdotnl]

Back then, this is also how they explained away the change to a more stylized appearance to everything, and the switch to the flashy combat animations and everything. I remember hoping that in DA:I they would return to the more weighty feel of combat and more realistic style in DA:O, but, no.

[@1ButtonDash]

for the amount of time they got to make the game, it's actually unbelievable how much they did in that short time frame. I think I will give this another go one day

[@illizcit1]

I just beat the game last night and I agree. Definitely some flaws but still enjoyable for so short a time.

[@ShadowWalker-ng1it]

After playing Inquisition I started to like DA2 more for not overstaying it's welcome with busy work like Inquisition did.

[@martinearl5693]

So much busy work in Inquisition! Stopped me from finishing it!

[@lol3xtrach3353]

@Novem's Natural Roll Dude, if you need mods to fix fundamental gameplay issues there is already a huge problem. Especially given that there are lots of players playing games on consoles, too. >The game isn't really built for you to do all the optional content, it's just filled with stuff it wants you to run into while you're exploring. The problem with this is that the optional content is, like...not interesting. The paltry rewards of base progression or a shitty trinket that you will outlevel in an hour are not interesting. The side quests that do not engage you because you're doing like 10 other side quests are not interesting. THE FACT THAT SO MUCH OF THIS CONTENT IS MANDATED TO BE COMPLETED IN BETWEEN MAIN STORY QUESTS IS ESPECIALLY NOT INTERESTING. DA2 had its problems such as incredibly pointless filler fights whenever you traveled, but one thing that it did do well was the narrative of their quests. Companions even change outfits depending on what you do in their quests. When you had side quests in locations, you would be focused specifically on the quest even if the dungeon was ugly. The problem was that it had you do a bunch of filler quests and revisit the "open zones" quite frequently, and you can tell that this is actually the seed from which inquisition's gameplay was built on. "Exploration quests" man I'm playing a bioware game to experience a story. In DA2, you could potentially assume that some of these filler quests existed because the game was rushed and needed to be padded out with content. It's easier to overlook these flaws because the more annoying un-fun task side quests are ignorable with minimal consequence. But these filler quests were adopted into the core gameplay of Inquisition, which is what made it unbearable to play. The game was polished quite well and they clearly had the time and resources, so there are no excuses for the type of filler content that people will ACTIVELY CREATE MODS TO NOT HAVE TO PLAY.

[@lol3xtrach3353]

@Novem's Natural Roll If a community overwhelmingly hates a design so much that some of the most popular mods exist to remove that design, you can in fact quantify something as "being bad". Keep in mind that the "quality" of a video game and its design is quantifiable by how much people *like it*. You can't just handwave criticisms with a "well that's just ur opinion man".

[@lol3xtrach3353]

@Novem's Natural Roll you’re conflating the overall quality of a game with the quality of a specific design decision that is the actual topic for discussion. This is the equivalent of saying the internment of Japanese Americans wasn’t bad because FDR was responsible for a largely successful presidency involving things such as social security and restoring the economy. The game is thoroughly polished, a significant graphical update to previous games, and has a widely appealing combat system as opposed to the falling-out-of-favor niche crpg system in DAO or the rushed abomination of action combat and tactical combat duct taped together in DA2. And when the story wasn’t being bogged down by pointless tedium, it was very engaging to new players and exciting for existing fans to see the world develop. In essence, the game is overall excellent with a turd sitting on its head. I have no idea how you can attribute the success of the game to the horrible base progression system that gate keeps the story until you perform a certain amount of irrelevant side content, breaking the flow of the delivery of the story. The game is successful *despite* the flaws in the inquisition system, not because of it. You can see in literally every active comment section discussing the game as a whole that people are not happy with the inquisition system. In fact, it’s found it’s way to a video about dragon age 2. The idea that a game being critically acclaimed exempts it from critique over specific areas in its design that are lacking is absurd. Another game that are critically acclaimed yet are acknowledged to be heavily flawed are games like Skyrim, which is vast and immersive but often criticized over its shallow content and dependence on mods. The fact that Skyrim is still printing money a decade after its original release through re releases does not exempt it from that criticism.

[@lol3xtrach3353]

@Novem's Natural Roll You used "Dragon Age Inquisition won like 40 game of the year awards the year it was released." as a counter argument to me picking apart the specific system in it that is a major shortcoming in its quality, I don't know how you can then turn around and say "Well gee, it's great that I never made either of those arguments then, lmao... but sick attempts at strawmanning me, my man!" What is your intent with that statement, then? Have I misunderstood the reason you made that statement? >Breaking news, people who feel spurned by a product tend to be the most vocal about it later. Shocking. Even if you like the Inquisition system, it's not exactly so impactful to the game that people are going to spend most of their time praising the game gushing about it. Most people are indifferent to it (as I am) because it's really not that important, it plays only as much a role in the game as you allow it to. Uh, and people will loudly praise the game for its development of the story and its visual design and gameplay because those are the parts of the game that are fun. The same is true for any other game that succeeds in specific areas, including gameplay systems. "People who feel spurned by a product tend to be the most vocal about it" how is this an argument? If there are lots of people being vocal about something that "spurned" them, then...uh, maybe that sentiment is valid.

[@k8rip]

there are a lot of things i like about origins and inquisition more, but out of the three dragon age games, this is the one where I felt the most connected to the protagonist I think. And I attribute that to the much smaller scale of the story and the stakes - it being about a person just trying to survive while looking out for your friends and family, rather than trying to save the whole world. It was so much more personal. that one mission with hawke's mother really sealed the deal for me.... I've never been affected by a video game like that before. It hit so hard.

[@MortismalGaming]

That was a rough mission. Did not care for that at all. I mean it was good but in a terrible way.

[@AwsmNix]

The visual of *that* scene is so disturbing I was genuinely horrified as I put the pieces together to realize what occurred

[@tnecniw]

Ah, yes :) Dragon age 2. It isn't bad, I will admit that I find the story of Dragon age 2 to be quite solid, not perfect, but solid. As it is very personal and you do build up a surprisingly strong repetoir of friends. Also, refreshing to not "save the world" every time

[@thinking-ape6483]

To quote Corypheus from DA3: "You are nothing! All you love will be ground under the Imperium's heel!" "Beg that I succeed, for I have seen the throne of Bioware, and it was empty."

[@Dimvou83]

Ironically i found the battle with Corypheus in DA2 to be a lot more challenging than in Inquisition - both in Hardest difficulty

[@vanyadolly]

It's also a lot more fun. DA2 does boss battles pretty well IMO where you actually have to think about positioning and skills and how to make use of your entire party. The big rock golem in the deep roads is another example. The combat was one of my biggest disappointments with DAI.

[@Hrafnskald]

Corypheus is basically Troy McClure from The Simpsons now: "You may remember me from such epic moments as Breaking in to the Black City and causing the Blights in Origins' backstory, or that one game you probably played before this one" :D

[@MortismalGaming]

This made me chuckle

[@royalrugby4869]

The thing I really wish Bioware and other devs would bring back is the rivalry. Most games focus on some kind of loyalty/companion questline, and just trying to become friends or lovers of said npc. I do miss having another option, other than they just leave the party. I think games have vastly improved among all devs making companions, but I want more options with them on multiple playthroughs. I was really salty when DA2 first came out after Origin, because I wanted more Origin. These days while it's not a perfect game, in hindsight it is fun, and if you love the world you should play it. Just wait for a sale as Mortismal said.

[@chaoticcreations1184]

People hated this game, yet I still loved it. Sure it had a lot of reused assets, and it faults, but it was still a decent game over all.

[@vanyadolly]

I really think DA2 gets the most crap for being so different from DAO. It's a smaller scale, character-driven story, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's rushed and flawed, but the characters and the story itself is excellent, and I really appreciate that it's about one person's struggle to make a life for themselves and protect their family, even if they fail. Emotionally that impacted me much more than the world-ending stakes of DAO or DAI. The combat is also an excellent combination of fast-paced action and DAO's tactics and strategy

[@adeptdamage3669]

Nah it's character and story were pretty lackluster.

[@CC-of5xl]

Honestly if the publisher just let them name it Exodus like they wanted instead of 2 it probably would have saved alot of that hate. I like most people went in expecting what we got with Mass Effect 2. A continuation of the Warden's story.

[@SpadeDraco]

People wanted Dragon Age: Origins part 2 What they got was a medieval fantasy Mass Effect knock off. Objectively it's not terrible or anything but I understand why people didn't like it.

[@lordbahj]

I think BioWare tried to over correct the flaws in this game with Inquisition. The huge maps with a billion achievements scattered around each of them was not my cup o’ tea. I think this game is better than it gets credit for. I think people got accustomed to bashing it because it became popular to do so, like D&D 4e. It has its flaws sure, but it’s much better than it gets credit for.

[@jamesnewman7509]

This is the only DA game I've only played once, though it does have a soft soft in my heart. I like what it was *trying* to do with the main plot, and I love the companions. Particularly, I like that with some of them, they're better off if your relationship follows the renegade path, with the friendship path seeming more like an enabler than a true friend. While I'm sure they exist, I can't remember playing another game where friendship wasn't always the optimal path. There were a lot of bold, innovative ideas here, and I feel like the poor fan reaction (due to how badly rushed the game was) has made the industry shy away from trying to do those ideas *right* since, which is a shame (imo, of course).

[@vollney691]

Not to be too hipster about it, but DA2 is my favourite of the series and it's purely down to the story. Perhaps as a by-product of the short development cycle there's very little fluff and I just like the focus. I'm also very fond of the supporting cast, be it companions or notable NPCs. Sure, the art assets may have been reused to all hell, but the story is what really matters, at least to me. On top of the seeing the world from the perspective of someone who at the end of the day is really not all that special is quite remarkable in the genre filled with chosen ones.

[@adeptdamage3669]

The writing was the worst part about Dragon Age 2.

[@Youboremenow]

The combat in DA2 is one of my guilty pleasures... Maybe because of when I actually played the game but its just so... satisfying. I'm not going to say it's a good combat system.... but the skill trees are just so clean, and the mindless pleasure of spamming your auto attack, and the simplicity of the combat... Its all just so satisfying.

[@brandonlee9316]

I really enjoyed Dragon Age 2, sure there was some overuse of things - but I could excuse it even when I was playing through it for the first time. Then I learned that the team was given something ridiculous like 16-18 months to literally make the whole game and it makes a lot of sense for how overused or how rushed things seemed to be, especially towards the end of the game; and why they couldn't keep the Origins style combat and high narrative focus. EA really flexed their publisher muscles and made a lot of decisions that started with Dragon Age 2 that /really/ fucked over Bioware and all the games that came out after it. Them being forced to use the Frostbyte system in DA:I and Andromeda despite the fact that it's not a system that was made for RPG's let alone 3rd Person ones, and the fact that Bioware was given like the lowest priority over all their studios. The fucking FIFA team got the Frostbyte support workers /before/ Dragon Age Inquisition or Andromeda or Anthem. Not to say that Bioware doesn't absorb some of the blame for mistakes with the latest titles; but wholesale mismanagement and publisher fuckery really messed up what could have been legitimately groundbreaking games.

[@arnaldocosta1298]

just to remember that DA4 will be on frostbyte gets me nervous

[@JacesSanctum]

lol it was made in 9 months

[@kenzovich9225]

Not sure if this was mentioned but what i find amazing about that dialog wheel is the fact that hawks personality actually changes the more you pick the same style of answer. To the point where certain lines of hawks dialog and his/her tone will change throughout the game. It essentially reinforces character building and how hawk will be perceived in the world. I loved that mechanic and was really dissapointed when they dropt it in inquisition.

[@thegombie]

Despite it's flaws I enjoyed it far more than inquisition. Felt like you was in a fantasy novel.

[@bimmer8602]

@@bomnitoperro9422 did you ever finish inquisition? I find that game to be snoozefest but I hate leaving games. The scenery gameplay is somewhat nice but the combat drags on too long.

[@0Cico0]

From all of the DAO series, when i finished DA2 i was most sad that it is over. Companions, sarcastic Hawke, story...only the same locations were kind of bad.

[@SPHSPHSPHSPH]

Just listened through all your dragon age reviews and it was fun to hear you go through the whole process in reverse! It is kind of cute that you're being thoughtful towards spoilers for games that are decades old though :D Im sure im not alone when I just want to know what you think about everything. (Dragon age Thoughts after completing up next!)

[@poklours4257]

My favorite

[@Arcling]

Despite its flaws and rushed development, DA2 is still a pretty good game. Hawke and Varric remain some of my favorite characters from the series. Most of the companions were fairly interesting. I liked different approach to the story, as it felt more personal, rather than grander story line that had to accommodate different Wardens. Although having different origins was a good thing in itself, Hawke was more fleshed out than Warden. But of course, it comes down to personal preferences, some people like silent protagonist with more customization. DA2 served as important introduction to the plot of Inquisition and it was done pretty well. While recycling of locations was an issue to some extent, it wasn't as bad as fetch quests in Inquisition in my opinion.

[@Justin-Trammell]

Man, you are really cranking out the videos, appreciate the content. Glad I found your channel recently!

[@johnnyhshify]

EA is the real Darkspawn.

[@Skysoldier505]

I really enjoyed the story and characters. My one and only complaint about the game was that they reused the same areas over and over.

[@Randomlosername]

Same here. 2 had my honest to god favorite set of companions in the series so far.

[@johananj.j8003]

I was on the hate train with this game, but nowadays I've come to appreciate this game, also the fact how polished the game is, compared to games nowadays, despite having such a short time of development.

[@ksenj11]

Felicia Day was put there because of Dragon Age: Redemption, web miniseries

[@Ebbagull]

I played this when it first came out, and I remember being disappointed in the more cartoony art style, and a bit by the reused areas, but really, everything that really matters, they delivered on! The lore is fleshed out and makes you more immersed in the world. I love the companions - especially Varric! Fenris is an excellent romance option, and Isabella is wonderful! I'm so impressed with the fact that, while they clearly took shortcuts to finish this game, they were consistently the *right* shortcuts! Shortcuts that never undermine the building of the franchise as a whole, but rather builds enthusiasm for it! The story-within-a-story thing also makes all of that make so much sense, as well. Origins is my favorite game of all time, but I honestly think I have played through DA2 more. I have so much respect for everyone involved in this project!

[@grandlancer]

On the subject of combat: I remember an interview where someone involved with the development saying something like "We want combat to have something 'cool' happen every time you push a button"

[@thinking-ape6483]

I really did not like this game but I salute you Lord Mortisimal for your enduring fortitude and mastery of gaming and uploading!

[@ElJorro]

This is the only Dragon Age Game I have ever played. And I quite liked it. I have a renewed appreciation for it today because it represents street level fantasy. Something I think we need more of.

[@creative3130]

I love Dragon Age 2

[@EmoBearRights]

It's funny but what actually annoyed me the most was not the constantly reused areas - I can zone that out nor even the six waves of assailants, although that one was annoying I'll admit, it's the lack of being able to equip armour on your companions, any of them. I mean for a character like Fenris whose armour is iconic and it is implied needs armour that fits in a specific way so it doesn't cause him pain or Sebastian where it's linked to his dead family but everyone else? You need up pick up a lot of armour from other classes than your own and all you can do is sell it. I like the Inquisition system where all your companions can wear any appropriate armour, and if you get the right materials - you can even fudge that - for example I had the rogues in the combat versions of the formal dress uniform and Varric in Legion of the Dead armour but they each had their own unique way of wearing it I also hate that you can't use bows unless you acquire Sebastian unless you're a bow using rogue yourself. I miss the two weapons set up of Origins too as with warriors and especially rogues it makes sense to have a melee weapon and a ranged weapon that you can swap between.

[@Jacob-df5hr]

The way the story was presented, as a frame narrative, was really cool. I remember playing this game for the first time and watching the intro between Cassandra and Varric, and by the end of it sitting there like "geez what did I _do?_" Then the game begins and your character is just some broke refugee in a hostile city. The story has some foreboding momentum to it because of that, you know from the start things are going sideways, just not when or how. I enjoyed that.

[@bigwig8657]

I mean this was around the time Felicia was doing the guild and wow was the king of the greater rpg genre. It's a weird cameo but it was definitely a product of the current nerd pop culture.

[@alexandrupatru2892]

I loved it, it was refreshing as a fan service content. But, not being a fan of the mmo or her youtube show, it made Me watch the show after.

[@EmoBearRights]

I'd love to see your assessment of the DA companions - I probably won't agree with you but it'd be interesting.

[@onatgz]

ah yes, my old nemesis. the dialogue wheel.

[@fyorbane]

EA were massively criticised [and rightly so] for the ridiculous production time given to the team to make this game. It was typically an EA cash grab [for which they are famous for] because of Origins great reviews and popularity. In fact I remember some big cheese from EA going public and appologizing for the short comings of DA2 and they had learned a lesson and would not do the same thing to Inquisition even though later many interesting aspects of that game were dropped and what we got was a cut down version of Inquisition sadly. EA simply are not to be trusted. This is why I am concerned for DA 4 [if we actually get to see it]. DA 4 seems to be taking an awful long time in development with already some it's development team leaving the project.

[@TheGrunaldi]

one things that is really cool about combat in DA2 that is mostly new is cross class combo system each class can leave a mark on enemy that other classes can detonate for more powerful effects it's similar to DA1 crits shatter frozen targets but now it's an expanded feature

[@chuckles471]

It wasn't expanded, it was changed. A lot of the cool magic combos were taken away. I get why it was changed. To allow rogues and warriors to be of a part in combos. Still prefer origins system.

[@TheGrunaldi]

It was expanded in a sense that there was only one cross class combo in Origins(as far as I remember) and multiple in DA2

[@JoeSmith-mx1sr]

DA 2 is what I would call an OK game. It's not a bad game, but then it's not a great game either. As you said, one of its strengths is the DA lore and the characters. Bioware has always done characters and companions well and the characters are, as per Bioware's usual, very well done with Varric, Isabella, Anders, and Fenris coming immediately to mind. You hit on the major flaws to the game. To me, the biggest flaw other than the obvious repeat of layouts, was that the game was too short. Ten years is a long time and the way they handled the passage of time left much to be desired. These flaws made the game appear rushed--which it was. As you said, a good game to buy on sale if you've got nothing better to do and are looking for a fun arpg with good characters and lore, but otherwise, the weakest of the DA franchise--of course, that might or might not change once DA 4 comes out--we'll have to wait and see.

[@logansorrell8828]

Good review! It was very concise and I loved the detail you went into. I just finished this game for the first time as well a few days ago. I enjoyed it, and I loved the companions. I do agree with the annoying enemies teleporting in which got very annoying! My only real disappointment was with the final act and how it felt like the game was steering towards one ending, rather then my choices leading to multiple endings like in Origins. I don't want to spoil it, but it felt like it didn't matter who I sided with in the end or what I wanted to do, because the game would end the same no matter what which is my only major negative. Otherwise, its a decent game!

[@SPSteve]

I hope Fenris returns in DA4

[@zaparmy2010]

Totally agree that the world is a very well built world with lots of interesting lore. You could make entire game out of exploring the deep roads or searching for elven artifacts to take you to other realms. DA2 wasn't bad, but unlike the other two, I wouldn't replay it.

[@sarij3950]

I like Sebastian well enough, but because his talent points are mostly allocated when he joins your team in Act 2, he just isn't as good a rogue as Varric or even Isabela are. I know you could use the Maker's Sigh potion from the Black Emporium, but I tend to just keep Varric in my team anyway. He just doesn't get much use in my playthroughs.

[@Kaynos]

Dragon Age Origins was epic. DA2 was okay at best. I enjoyed playing it nonetheless. The early 2010's was the golden era for the 360 and PS3, so many great games came out during that time, Dragon Age 1 and 2, Mass Effect 2 and 3. So many great games one after another.

[@ronniemurphy6314]

I could be wrong, but I read somewhere that Bioware did not want this to be DA2, but rather a spin off game call DA Exodus. EA pushed them to turn it into the sequel for origins. So now when I play it I don't view as a sequel, but as a spin off game like Bioware intended. This knowledge along with the fact the had such a short development time laid to rest much of my complaints with the game. There is not much more Bioware could have done in these circumstances.

[@Flamberion]

Wait till you find out that Miranda from Mass Effect is voiced by and modelled on Yvonne Strahovski. One of my favourite mass effect characters.

[@poisonarc]

Of course the reusing of assets was dragged when it came out and rightfully so I personally think a game in a singular city (at least over a period of time) would have been really cool if done correctly.

[@bigwig8657]

While I was upset DA did not end up as the next great rpg series after its first game, it definitely ended up pretty good and it died so Larian could learn from its mistakes for BG3, and so that the genre as a whole was brought back into the spotlight with non isometric graphics.

[@HDBeredok]

Button = Awesome! Jokes aside I really tried to like this game as it gave me BG2 vibes with Kirkwall being the setting and it being a similar concept to athkatla in SoA. But the endless enemy waves, lack of tactical depth and the repetitive zones for sidequests just killed the fun for me and I had to stop playing it after act 2. It was one of the first disappointments I got from a bioware game. Maybe one day I'll give the DA series another chance as everybody recommends me to play DA:I but I don't know.

[@OniGanon]

Many people give DA2 a lot of crap but I actually really enjoyed it. My only complaints were the frequent re-used levels that gave me flashbacks to Mass Effect 1, and the stupid parts of the combat where there was always some enemy rogue that would drop out of nowhere and carried his entire body weight worth of health potions. The last part probably would've been less annoying if I just turned the difficulty down.

[@palchristianandersen9086]

The hate DA2 got had more to do with "PC-gaming master race" type betrayal shit than the quality of the game. DA:O was Bioware finally throwing PC gamers a bone after years and years of chasing big console money. There was a long build-up where we weren't even sure if it was in production besides a few sporatic answers from interviews here and there. It finally dropped some time after the EA aquisition and did really well saleswise, making old-school BG/NWN fans think that the Bioware they knew and loved was finally back. The outrage started happening when the PR-machine for DA2 rolled out a year or so before release. They made it painfully obvious that the sequel was a console-first affaiir. There was a quote from one of the leads along the lines of "When you press a button, something cool happens." that became sort of a hate meme among PC gamers. From an outsiders perspective it looked like EA got cold feet about making a PC-first game series and pressed Bioware to make Dragon Age 2 more like Mass Effect. Anyway, the whole thing was a huge, messy can of worms.

[@Hekk.]

I honestly liked DA2 more than Origins, even though it wasn't a better game; if you've treated it as a separate game, and not "DA:O 2" it was really fun - and I loved the staves and bows in this game... literally best staff/bow combat ever.

[@Randomlosername]

This is literally how I feel about it as well. Doing a trilogy play through rn to setup my story for the eventual release of 4 and I’m doing DAO rn and god It’s so boring going back to this combat from 2’s lol.

[@ossihurme7572]

I think this might be my favorite Dragon Age game. Just because they had balls to try something different with the location, timeline and story. The shortcomings are still there like the reused assets and enemies falling from the sky. But since it's rpg the story and interactions trump everything else.

[@ThatDeviant]

Literally the same experience for me. I played DAi first, then origins then 2 😅 All three games are rich with storytelling. There's literally something for everyone to enjoy at the very least.

[@KarlWinterling]

Dragon Age: Origins is a classic tactical CRPG (apologies to Infinity Engine purists). Dragon Age 2 is more of a hack-and-slash because that works better on consoles. Inquisition tries to find a compromise between the two that works well for both PC and console players.

[@galotta8475]

I still love the Dragon Age Franchise. Like you mentioned, the sheer amout of enemy waves during the game is pretty bad game design. I find the idea of playing in one place over a period of time very interesting.

[@ingolf82]

I absolutely loved this game, I know the graphics are a bit gothic more badly drawn than in DA:O but I like it. The reuse of the same 5 caves and same 5 mansions and such is a bummer, but other than that this game is fantastic, the characters are fantastic, Isabella is great, Varric is fantastic, Merril is great and Bethany is great, Anders and Carver... not so much. Anders was better in Awakening. he was less emo shall we say. which is why I mostly play as Rogue and warrior, so Carver dies at the start of the game. I prefer to play Female Hawke, because of who the voice actress is. I just love Jo Wyatt's voice. she voices the female imperial agent in SWTOR too.

[@angelocano6041]

its funny how the over used assets gets broguth up all the time on DA2, but no one ever seemed to have an issue with it in the first Mass Effect. where every single "dungeon" on the planets was exactly the same. there was maybe 2-3 layouts, one for each type of structure. Granted, because DA2 is a smaller game, it feels more noticeable because some of its not just tied to side content, but this isn't the first time an RPG reused locations.

[@Bruced82]

Similar with ME to ME2, that also downgraded the stats and gear managing, but that one is considered the best, since that one expanded the vastness of locations and kept it interesting and also had the best companions pretty much. I still liked DA2 for its strengths, just a shame they couldn't have given it the same treatment as ME2...

[@angelocano6041]

@@jmmywyf4lyf if one defines an rpg on stats and systems only, then I agree- but can say based on that most of mass effect and dragon aren’t RPGs. If one takes story beats and character interaction as the defining aspect of an rpg, then dragon age 2 was very well and truly a well written rpg. Made in 18 months.

[@singhadog1185]

I've finally watched this. Thank you!

[@beezwax112]

Nice review as usual! I always felt DA2 had a great story, world-building and characters... but yeah, unfortunate it didn't get more development time. Altho I understand the bad reception, I think it's a great game.

[@michaelchapman454]

Now that I've finally beaten this game 10 minutes ago I can actually watch this video. I've had this saved in my watch later for 2 years now.

[@kedarraman6690]

Da 2 was a game in sour need of more time.... Honestly a little bit more time with Kirkwall as a explorable space and more colours than the standard 10s greys and brown would have been incredible

[@amezzeray2]

Like you, Inquisition was my first. And then I played Origins and it was awesome. But I remember the online discourse for DA2 being overwhelmingly negative and so I went in with gritted teeth thinking "just doing this for the Keep. Give me the lore. And then I can replay Inquisition with all my choices" but going in with the lowest of low expectations made me adore the game. Sure, it has A LOT of flaws. But I loved the Act structure, the time skips, the political intrigue... It hooked me. And DA2 is my favourite. Not because it's the best. That is Origins for me. But because my first time experience with it blew me away.

[@High_Rate136]

I hadn’t played DA:O for over a decade, but after returning to it, I realized I didn’t like it all that much in terms of gameplay and pacing. I remember hating DA2 for being so different than DA:O, but coming back to it now, I love it. It’s smaller scale, the gameplay feels better, combat isn’t the same strategy every time since you fight in waves, and must adjust accordingly or make smart tactics set up, and it’s nice having different story focuses each act instead of this grand over arching campaign the entire game revolves around. Also, I HATED absolutely HATED how loooooong DAO dungeons are along with how chore like the trash mobs were. You couldn’t properly explore a dungeon there because behind every door or small area is another mob of enemies… You get punished for exploring by doing more fighting.

[@chaosapiant]

Dragon Age 2 is very underrated, definitely has some flaws, but is a fantastic game.

[@RandomWandrer]

I played DAI, then DA2, then DAI again, then DAO, then DA2 again, then DAI again. I enjoyed DA2 immensely the second time, i think because i didnt rush it. I played all the side content (which was all great) and after playing the other games, i was really immersed in the lore. DA2 is absolutely a great game with a great story full of great characters. DAI is still the best in my opinion. I know the Hinterlands was... well, lets not go there. But beyond that zone, Inquisition was outstanding, with great side quests too.

[@nooneeey]

I loved the banter and characters in this game the most, including the protagonist. I felt with Hawke, I wanted to keep her family alive and well, rise out of the poverty, protect her allies and family. Sarcastic Hawke is also the best, it made me really attached to her character. The set dressing and environments were just plain and bad, no love in that aspect, but the combat, the story and way less filler content and empty fetch quest (Inquisition) and more cinematic camera frames still kind of make that up for me. Overall If they gave this game another year of production it would have been unbelievably good, but sadly they had to rush things.

[@Adamthegeek70]

With the exception of Claudia black, I only do romances once. I like how its not forced on you like BG 3 the NPC Withers actually makes fun of you for not having someone. On additional play throughs, I tend to ignore them. It shouldn't be the focus of a game and it should not be the default.

[@queenthorn3579]

Dragon Age 2 has a lot of problems, and it certainly isn't the perfect game when it comes down to reused assets, its generally pretty simplistic combat, and narrow world space. But one thing it did really uniquely to a lot of games of its kind is have not just one companion quest and done to change each companion in some meaningful way with a few personal talks thrown in. The ratio of time you spend doing things with your close circle of friends in this game is really high, and I think the game should get credit for how interesting and fun it can make the companions when you spend so much more time throughout the course of the game learning about them and seeing them come across numerous difficult decisions for themselves that aren't necessarily the primary goal of Hawke's. Everyone has their own life in Dragon Age 2 and the game spends a vast amount of its length telling all their stories and slowly bringing them forward towards paths you can help lead them down. I noticed a lot in Inquisition especially how little time you'll actually spend learning from your companions. They don't talk very often while travelling, and their dialogue only really enhances the main quests the main story possesses, beside the DLC, which is a bit different. They each really only have one or maybe two personal quests, and just a couple times you can really go talk to them to have full cutscenes to do something roleplay-wise with them. Origins is a bit different because the companions all have pretty simple and quick to finish personal quests and a few conversations here or there. But where they shine the most is their opinions of your actions over the course of the main plot. It feels more like a group brought together to solve one specific issue where a few may end up becoming friends along the way. Dragon Age 2 was more the opposite, where these people all have their own lives and really come around to help Hawke either because they owe them or they are friends. So much more time and focus was put into letting them all have meaningful and long arcs that take up a big portion of the game. I really like that focus for companions since they're the people you'll be travelling with the entire time. I almost feel sad more games don't do this as often. I think another example of a game that did the same thing is Wrath of the Righteous. It had the same spanning length over the game of coming time and time again to help out your friends, though it even felt like it lacked a lot of times to just talk to your friends over the course of the game one on one.

[@laddjuuzo4998]

DA 2 gets a lot of flak. And I 100% get it. But it'll always hold a special place in my heart. I was still youngish so I thought the flashy combat was really cool. Now that I'm older I definitely enjoy origins/inquisition combat more. We get introduced to the main man Varric, and a slew of other great characters. The Arishok was a badass mfer and I really enjoyed that part of the story. And I mean yeah it did have a looot of flaws, but it had a lot of charm too. It's crazy that they pumped it out as fast as they did which I didn't even realize so that explains alot 😬

[@bdpc-dk2xb]

I enjoyed Dragon Age 2, my only real knock on it is its reuse of areas and some of the quests could have been more fleshed out. It’s a solid 8.5/10 for me.

[@lukusridley]

I am a weirdo who ended up enjoying Dragon Age 2 quite a lot at the time simply because I liked the new iconography that they were playing with to give the world a more specific feel. The funny thing about the Felicia Day cameo is that while at first my reaction was literally identical to yours - "what the fuck you can't just put in her face" - I promptly realised she kinda looks like a weird elf anyway, so if I put aside that I recognise her it's probably helping the mocap or something (I made this up, it's cope). I still wonder why EA deathmarched this game out in (iirc from talking a dev closer to 14 than 18 months). It seems absolutely batshit in retrospect

[@georgenelson8284]

Best game in the series! Combat is vastly superior to 1. And the difficulty is not as extreme as in 1.

[@Dhaos620]

I prefer the list of responses as in DA Origins. I was sleepy one night almost calling it quits, then I misread an option to threat or disrispect the priest of the Chantry in order to get the key to free the quinary on the cell cage. Morrigan and Allister stayed in awe to my response lol morrigan made an acid comment about her surprise of me threatening a priest and allister apologized very akwardly, and the priest gave me the key but expelled me from the temple

[@christophersmith1062]

This may make me crazy but i love the DA series and DA2 is my favorite by a pretty wide margin. I like the companions alot. I like the more focused story alot. I like the combat, visual effects, and how it shows things change over time. I was super disappointed when it finally came to steam only to be stuck behind origin because I wont buy anything that requires origin. Unfortunately because of that I'll probably never get to play it again.

[@CrazyxEnigma]

19:13 Kinda weird to think about now all these years later but Felicia Day was like Queen of the Nerds at the time she was insanely popular had her webseries, starred in a few shows including Buffy and Supernatural and then just totally disappeared from acting a few years later. I think the big reason Tallis fails as a character(and why so many people despise her including myself) is Bioware didn't just cast her as Tallis but let Felicia write the character too and didn't really bother to do any editing to make it make sense. Tallis is supposed to be all for freedom or some sh*t but in The Qun there is no freedom plus Hawke(and the player) can never really argue against what she says or does and makes you look like an idiot in the process with no agency(kinda like Kai Leng in ME3🤔). Compare Tallis to Veronica in Fallout New Vegas, essentially the same type of character except actually done well and the difference is night and day.

[@MisterEnsayne]

"Cassandra from Inquistion." I get you but still humorous.

[@thufreeman7553]

There's so much about this game I love despite the flaws. It's my least favorite dragon age game but it's definitely my guilty pleasure.

[@mariuszpopiel1]

I like DA2 more then DA3 and even more then DA1, i like how "quick" it is. I know it's controversial but DA1 was kinda boring after some point, it was a cool game but becomes boring after certain point. DA2 was quick paced and i don't mind reused assets and "jumping" from point to point. DA3 was too open and too empty for my liking.

[@jasonleeux]

loved the tactics system was super bummed to not see it in inquisition

[@ShikaRoddy]

Love the animations on the mage auto attacks

[@michaelmiller3012]

Dragon Age 2... I bought it when it first came out, and got about 10 minutes into it before I quit because it was so different from Origins. When I heard Inquisition was coming out and was going to hew a little more closely to Origins, I figured I'd better play through 2. This time, enough time had passed that I was able to play the game and enjoy it, and it really was an excellent set up for Inquisition (which I also thoroughly enjoyed). I honestly never knew there was DLC for it though...

[@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968]

Yeah, I've just checked and I have the Signature Edition of DA2 on disc and I've just found out the DLC with Coryphreus came out after it, so I don't think I ever played it (I did play the other DLC though). Oops. No wonder I had no clue who he was in DA:I.

[@Jack91790]

Very fair review.

[@yamifalcon]

Since you're on a bioware kick have you done any of the mass effect games?

[@MortismalGaming]

Not yet, but it'll be a long while if I decide too

[@EliasTsakmakis]

people who say oh i hate this game for downgrading the DAO combat making it more actiony or whatever are unwillingly admitting of playing easy mode. Nightmare DA2 is a fucking tactical blast. Easily and by far the best tactical combat of anything the trilogy has to offer. Positioning, desicion making, aiming, timing comboing your shit and generally optimising your builds is all important and relevant. Throw in a difficulty mod and its the most fun i ever had in any RPG since BG1 to now. Also Force mage rules supreme. Seriously i will forever defend this game because i am always sad when i am about to part ways with my femme Hawke et al while i can't see the time before i finish the slog that is DAO. I swear people buying into hype and hate trains really marred this game's lifeline. It is so unique even in its failings.

[@abdulrahmanalenezi6777]

Hi everyone. Just wanted to ask. Does the game has performance issues as origins, or it run better on modern Hardware?

[@revkatmanduke]

Besides the other negatives of the game, my biggest problem with it was the lack of a central plot point for most of the game. In DAO, from the beginning you are dealing with both the threat of the Blight and Logain's betrayal as central plot points. In DAI, you are, from the beginning, dealing with the threat of the breaches and who is behind them. There is some central plot in every rpg. There isn't in DA2. Until the end, it is a series of mostly unrelated sidequests. Yes, all of this set against a BACKGROUND of a conflict between mages and templars, and you have characters who have development, but there is no ongoing plot pulling a story forward. I had to make myself finish it, and having done so, have had no desire at all to play it again. I consider it mediocre, at best.

[@homeostasis1103]

I enjoyed playing DA 2 just for the story, but I won't ever come back for this game to replay it

[@Supagamer1989]

I think Felecia Day did a Dragon Age web series way back when which is where Tallis came from, so the DLC is just making her existence canon I guess lol

[@barbaryn7899]

Couldn't enjoy the game after Origins. How did they turn such a beautiful game into a hack'n'slash sequel?

[@vonbleak101]

If you play with all the DLC i really like DA2 - The base game on its own feels a little 'light' in terms of content and environments...

[@bigwig8657]

Dragon Age 2 would have been a fine stand alone first game. Sadly short dev time + origins being the ressurection of your bg2 type strategy pc rpg after a big lull in the genre doomed it.

[@manwithoutmercy]

Played the first 2 games this year with no nostalgia to cling too. The reused assets of this game were noticed but didn’t bother me at all

[@darkshadowlord]

It always sucks to see the gameplay that got you into a series leave to chase trends or "keep up with the times". People were also getting upset at the "action-ifying" of many games around that time IIRC. I definitely wish publishers would just make a new IP or at least commit to keeping the original style the mainline of the series. Even if this game didn't deserve all of the hate it got, sending that message to publishers is important in my eyes.

[@penttikoivuniemi2146]

Easily my favorite title in the series, largely because of how good the cast is and the story having much more personal stakes as opposed to the usual world-saving of RPG's. The combat "design" is awful, and the repetition of dungeons gets old very fast, but everything else about this speaks to me so much more than the other DA-games. Also, I personally don't care one bit about the lore of the series so it being less prominent is more of a positive for me.

[@Kadbros]

I did that too...I started with dai, then went to origins and considering da2

[@alexsamurai1230]

I got this and Origins on sale for £5 after getting Inquisition for Xmas one year, and I probably had subjectively the best time of the 3 games playing Dragon Age 2. I can see why people would have been disappointed with it as a blockbuster release but I think it really shines as a bargain bin hidden gem. In some ways it's a shame we don't have the same vocabulary for games as for movies, or we could talk about it being a great low budget matinee B movie, just don't judge it as a blockbuster.

[@utsavbasu1048]

Do u use world state or dragon age keep?

[@Davlavi]

Have checked out the novels.

[@sirbradfordofhousejones]

Just finished this game on normal and didn’t ever need to use tactics. On origins, it was a necessity, as was fluctuation of difficulty level.

[@necrotic256]

Got it for 3$ with dlc on steam sale. Think i'll check it out. I wasn't a big fan of first game, maybe this will be more my speed