Dragon Age : Origins

[Deleted]

How anyone can say the combat in DA2 is better than DA:O I just don't know.

It's certainly *flashier* but it's significantly less complex and interesting. For the most part if you pick, say, a Rogue you don't need to do anything other than mash 1 ability and watch your character spin around blowing people up. There's also less variety in enemy packs; being attacked in the street by 10x wave of 5 melee bandits isn't exactly engaging. They serve only to slow you down since they're never actually a challenge.

With Origins (and moreso with Awakening) there's a lot of build variety and flavour to be had. For example you can build an Arcane Warrior as a Mage with almost no energy for abilities but a lot of sustains that buff your group and help the Mage resist damage. The Mage options in DA2 are mainly based around what element you want to use, rather than having a real play-style defining choice. You can build a 2-caster team who focus on spell combos such as Paralysis Explosion or Shatter, and you actually need to use such combos to survive. You can have a team with 3 Warriors all doing different jobs. A Rogue focused on taking extra damage with sustained damage or one that's a complete glass-cannon who deals massive damage in bursts. You don't get that same variety in playstyles in DA2.

Using terrain, doorways, abilities and class-combos is a lot more important in Origins than in DA2.

There's also a big problem with location variety in DA2. For the most part, 1 cave will serve as the staging area for like 5 different missions at different points in the game. It's a big drawback of the game compared to Origins where there was a lot of variety and few repeat visits to any 1 area.

I still enjoyed DA2 though, it's a good enough game by itself and the combat isn't all bad. Like I said it looks really nice and is slick, but it's not got the same depth as the previous game. The story was alright, a few "oh shit" moments and cool characters. I still sunk 58 hours into it so :P

[Adam Jensen]

How anyone can say the combat in DA2 is better than DA:O I just don't know.

Well maybe I'm playing the game wrong, but I felt like I was running out of stamina after using 2 abilities in DA:O and then stamina doesn't recover fast enough. So I found myself auto-attacking and waiting for stamina. It's also a lot smoother and I like that it's a lot flashier.

But then I do agree that DA:O allows the player to make better use of terrain and since the mobs don't rain from the sky, you can better plan the fight if you get close enough without aggroing them.

With that said, DA:O is a much better game than DA2.

[Deleted]

Well maybe I'm playing the game wrong, but I felt like I was running out of stamina after using 2 abilities in DA:O and then stamina doesn't recover fast enough. So I found myself auto-attacking and waiting for stamina.

You can get gear with stam regen or +max stamina on for your Warriors/Rogues. The "fatigue" stat is also important; it increases ability costs so getting gear or talents that reduce your fatigue can put you in the negative, reducing your ability costs below the normal amounts. That's why putting your dual-wielding Warrior in the lightest armour possible if you want to spam abilities is a good idea.

There are also buffs that add regen (the Bard's auras are pretty good). It all depends on how you build your characters up to synergise with each other. I didn't find myself running into trouble very often when I built my characters properly.

[shokter]

Put it this way...I've played through Origins several times on a few different characters and still have not been able to bring myself to complete DA2 even once. The sequel might be a fun, even excellent game on its own, but it fails massively in building upon what was great about its predecessor.

[OrcsRLame]

I didn't find myself running into trouble very often when I built my characters properly.

And by building properly, you mean tanky. Like most problems in games, dying in DA:O can be solved by simply stacking more raw effective health. 100% Magic resist, high dex, high armor, high health, and health regen builds are fun and hilariously, "solo the Archdemon on Nightmare" OP.

[PizzaSHARK]

Been having alot of fun with this one. Never played the series at all till i picked up this nice game from gamestop. It included all the dlc. I haven't got that far into the game yet mostly exploring and doing some side quest.

My question is dragon age II worth picking up?

DA2 isn't the same kind of game as DAO. It's more like Mass Effect in the Dragon Age universe than anything else.

---------- Post added 2012-07-29 at 11:44 PM ----------

And by building properly, you mean tanky. Like most problems in games, dying in DA:O can be solved by simply stacking more raw effective health. 100% Magic resist, high dex, high armor, high health, and health regen builds are fun and hilariously, "solo the Archdemon on Nightmare" OP.

Or just put as many Mages as you can into the party. Fucking disgustingly OP class.

[OrcsRLame]

Or just put as many Mages as you can into the party. Fucking disgustingly OP class.

I don't know man, can they solo the Archdemon on Nightmare? (actually I'm willing to bet any class can do that with the right build, I've just only ever done it on a tanky warrior)