Dragon Age : Origins

[Slippermoon118]

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?

[suttie]

DA2 isn't as good as Origins but it's still a great game in it's own rite. People love to hate it however so expect many posts saying it's the worst thing since unsliced bread.

[Deleted]

DA2 isn't as good as Origins but it's still a great game in it's own rite. People love to hate it however so expect many posts saying it's the worst thing since unsliced bread.

This is pretty much what I think to be closest to the truth as well. If you're especially nitpicky, you will not like a couple of big(ish) things about Dragon Age 2, for most people it's the rather forced transitions between chapters and the fact that everything happens in pretty much the same 12 locations. Still, it's a good game and the combat was upgraded from DA1 in several ways.

Make sure you play the add-on, Awakening, before you move on to DA2 btw, it's quite buggy in a few places, but pretty wicked nonetheless. Plus, it connects some characters from DA2 to DA1 :P

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

My biggest problem with DA2 was that it was short. Another thing was that it didn't connect much with DA:O aside from a few things. If they ever do DA3, I hope they have it as Origin style story with DA2 combat.

[Dexiefy]

da2 is nothing like da1 sadly. Its pretty much a hack and slash with shitty enviorments (95% of game is inside 1 city) and being ambushed at random points by 50 thiefs that just appear in front of you.
While i played da1 3 times now i completed da2 only once and uninstalled it instantly after that.

[Edc]

DA1 was a really good game and if you roll into DA2 having the same expectations you are going to be disappointed. DA2 is definatly above average, but nowhere in the game does it reach out to the level Origins had.

[Deleted]

DA2 is a fine game, the downside is the reused dungeons.

The main character is now voiceacted, something that was missing in Origins, and you can choose sarcastic dialogues in the wheel which are hilarious enough to make you undecisive about whether to laugh or punch Hawke right in his smug face.
Your actions carry consequences that you cant always predict (such as who you bring to the deep tunnels) and while the last part of the game was the same regardless of what side you took, the different endings was interesting enough.

And old friends appear such as Leliana and Alistair which is always fun.

[Deleted]

The legacy dlc for 2 is imo the best of the entire series...
Both Hawke story and overall lore heavy, personalised weapon and an awesome boss fight at the end.

[Deleted]

The legacy dlc for 2 is imo the best of the entire series...
Both Hawke story and overall lore heavy, personalised weapon and an awesome boss fight at the end.

That weapon is also the best one you can get is it not?
I didnt find a single better weapon after i finished upgrading the key.

The final boss was pretty ridiculous.
Like Varric said; "If he pulls a dragon out of his ass, im leaving!"

[Deleted]

That weapon is also the best one you can get is it not?
I didnt find a single better weapon after i finished upgrading the key.

I think it depends on when you do it/if you have some of the other dlc...
Can't remember if it levels up with you but I remember it being reeeaally close between it and at least one of the other bows.
But yeah, almost guaranteed to be an awesome weapon you pick the bonuses on (unless you glitch them all on )

[Deleted]

I think it depends on when you do it/if you have some of the other dlc...
Can't remember if it levels up with you but I remember it being reeeaally close between it and at least one of the other bows.
But yeah, almost guaranteed to be an awesome weapon you pick the bonuses on (unless you glitch them all on )

Depends on what bonuses you pick.
Second tier was your attacks ignore all armor or does 10 more damage which is a pretty big difference.

[Oerba Yun Fang]

The legacy dlc for 2 is imo the best of the entire series...
Both Hawke story and overall lore heavy, personalised weapon and an awesome boss fight at the end.

I like Mark of the Assassin more than Legacy just because it has Felicia Day in it. :P Though, it's fun to play as Tallis too because she has unique abilities.

[Deleted]

it has Felicia Day in it.

Funny, that was the reason i almost disliked it.

[Oerba Yun Fang]

Funny, that was the reason i almost disliked it.

Yeah, well, not everyone likes her. I love her, though. :P

[Romanthony]

The only good thing with Dragon age 2 was the improved Comat, it was much more Engaging then in Orgins, but the Storyline is Weak in compared to the first one.

Most the time your in one single city, doing the same "Go here kill these guys"
The grahpics in the orginal are better too, and your "choices" are pretty bad
Human Male or Female
Rogue
Warrior
Mage
Thats it so gone are the Orgin stories and such
Personal i played through it without doing a import, but from what i heard, importing a file from DA O isnt worth it at all, you get small scenes like If you didnt pick Alstiar to be the king, youd see him drinking in a bar.

[Wynnyelle]

The only thing DA2 had going for it, as others have said, is combat. Everything else about the game (in my humble opinion) is trash. Stick to DA:O and hold out for DA3 to see if the game has any promise, I say.

[Deleted]

Personal i played through it without doing a import, but from what i heard, importing a file from DA O isnt worth it at all, you get small scenes like If you didnt pick Alstiar to be the king, youd see him drinking in a bar.

He becomes a wandering drunkard without a penny to his name.
Or he can be a grey warden commander that you fight alongside with when the qunari attack.

[Florena]

I'm torn about DA: O. After a couple of missions I got bored with the combat, turned the difficulty all the way down, and just grinded through the game as fast as I could because I LOVED the characters and story. I'm not sure that's ever happened to me in a game before. Granted, I am NOT saying DA: O was a bad or boring game, it just wasn't my cup of tea, so I never picked up 2.

---------- Post added 2012-07-29 at 07:31 AM ----------

He becomes a wandering drunkard without a penny to his name.
Or he can be a grey warden commander that you fight alongside with when the qunari attack.

From what I hear he becomes the drunk if you let Loghain (spelling?) join the Wardens, and he then leaves. I'd assume he stays with the wardens if you kill him.

[Deleted]

From what I hear he becomes the drunk if you let Loghain (spelling?) join the Wardens, and he then leaves. I'd assume he stays with the wardens if you kill him.

That is true, and if you use the boon to keep Anora from executing him.
If you kill Loghain you cant be king-consort, so use a champion that isnt a hardened Alistair to defeat loghain if you are a human noble and want to be a king without having good characters die.

[OrcsRLame]

DA2 is... different. I won't lie, I have beef with this game. These are my main issues with it.

1. It chops up the RPG elements. Stats, gear, skills, and levels, are all significantly dumbed down.

2. The conversations didn't have as much depth.

3. Your choices don't really feel like they had significant impact, unlike the first game. To use a semi spoiler example, there is one party member that you think will be permanent, but about 12 hours in you lose them no matter what you do. They either die, are taken prisoner, or they just leave. And the game doesn't even tell you about the leaving option, you need to have a specific party member in your party at the time of the event, and there's no indication that you should do this at all.

4. The entire story feels like filler. It's just a setup for DA3, and probably could have been handled better as a short novel or comic book.

5. There's only about an hour and a half of main quest, and that's being sort of generous. DA2 follows a chapter based formula. When you start a chapter, you are given a goal. The goal for the first chapter is get 40 gold. (or something like that, the exact amount may have been different) This goal is met by doing side quests, generally, about 8 hours worth. After that, you get a single story mission that resolves the plot of the current chapter. These story missions don't take much time. I beat the chapter 1 story mission in about 15-20 minutes, and that was with full exploration and not skipping dialogue.

If none of that bothers you, and you just want more of the Dragon Age world, then I heavily recommend you pick up DA2. I personally heavily dislike the game, and I will read many reviews and make sure the issues I care about were fixed before I even think about picking up DA3. For the record, I loved Origins. I have every achievement, beat it on Nightmare, finished the game with all classes, etc.