Reality or Illusion: Dragon Age II is the Worst RPG Ever

Renowned for making top-quality role-playing games from the CRPG-glory days of Baldur’s Gate II to the modern era of Mass Effect 3, one could easily blame BioWare for getting complacent somewhere on that path. Others blame it on their takeover by EA. BioWare’s track record was pretty much spotless before that, a rare feat for a developer that has been around in the industry for more than 15 years.

Then, Dragon Age II happened.

[Godmars290]

That is all...

[dedicatedtogamers]

Yeah, I was gonna say...

There is only one group of people who say DA2 is the worst RPG ever: Bioware newbies. For the most part, people who have played Bioware/Black Isle games since the late 90s see DA2 as just another symptom of Bioware's downfall, but DA2 is a good game, a great game, even, if you take it on its own. But DA2 is just one part in Bioware's being EA-ized after Mass Effect.

[caseh]

Well thats a thing of the past seeing as the main guys at Bioware have gone walkies since completeing Mass Effect.

Hopefully they will resurface with a new studio and not fall into the lure of big money from publishers like EA.

[animegamingnerd]

was about to put that comment my self

[MrAnderson]

Agreed, only FF i've played and not finished, and to this day the thought of that games existance pisses me off.

[TheDivine]

It's the only FF I have finished. Not saying its the best because its not but I always lose interest and random battles wear me down to where I just take a break and never return. This was a really good game though. Amazing story, characters, worlds, graphics, music, the only bad thing was I wish all combat was on the world map instead of another battle screen and it needed exploration with some sidequests and npcs to make the worlds feel alive and add lore. Still damn good in my opinion.

[Bumpmapping]

DA2 was a snore fest but far from being the worst RPG ever.

[Bladesfist]

Dragon Age Origins was awesome, how did they go so wrong :(

[xPhearR3dx]

EA. You know, the company trying to make every video game they publish accesible to casual gamers. The term "learning curve" is slowly disappearing.

[riverstars86]

EA happened to Bioware. All you have to do is look at the original Dragon Age and Mass Effect, both were better than their successors and both were made before EA acquired Bioware. The games are watered down from RPG's and closer to action games.

[JasonXS12]

The game isn't bad but the controls for me were broken.

[a08andan]

Their fault was trying to expand beyond the core of Dragon Age Origins without fully understanding why the audience appreciated said game. The mechanics of Dragon Age Origins and its settings is vastly superior to DA2. DA2 is a good game, but DAO is most definately its boss.

[bicfitness]

Oh, see I thought that the mechanics - combat, systems (not being able to equip your companions aside) - were far, far better with DA2. Certainly more polished. DAO was quite clunky, even on PC. The story, lack of a driving narrative in particular, and the recycled elements of DA2 are where it fell apart. Imo.

All I want is Skyrim with a few more AI controlled team-mates in a DA universe. That's where they should be going with the series. Not this instanced crap. (Yes, ES has loading areas, but the overall scope of the game is free-roaming.)

[asyouburn]

The combat in DA 2 was a freakin joke. It went from deep and tactical in DAO to "press x to win". In a game with so many choices why do I have to mash on my basic attack for 40 hours

Edit
And the fact that I couldn't have conversations with my own party members anytime I wanted (I.e. go to someone's house to talk to them even though they're running with you in your party right now) was a major step backwards IMO

[Monkeycan8]

Wait! Dragon Age II Was an RPG? whoa learn something new everyday.

[RTheRebel]

This vid tells all =)

[pennywhyz]

EA is a sham they will do or say anything to sell their games.

[Daesy]

Unlimited SaGa. Seriously, Dragon Age II may be many things, but at least it's not fundamentally broken. DAII's manual and tutorials do not lie to you about how to play the game. I know I don't need to say this about click-bait, but hyperbole is played out. Don't go around proclaiming "wrost gaem evar!" about games that are at the very least competent.

[dreamoner]

One of the few things I liked about the game and it was probably a first in voice-over'ed RPGs(or any game) was the change of voice tone. f.i. I played a nice guy in my second playthrough and made and intimidation choice; my character's voice was not as rough as my previous angry character's voice was and my good guy's intimitadion attemp was a failure ofcourse. The game calculated my character's personality and determined the voice which would be in effect and that's a lot of voice over. Yes gameplay sucked, story was short and was worse than DAO, there was a lot of copy/paste dungeons etc. but the script was awesome(maybe not/ it had it's flaws), lots and lots of dialogue; everywhere your followers talking; commenting on stg. arguing with each other... and that made me play the "Worst RPG ever" more than once.

At least it was a RPG and had the right to be called one. I'll go ahead and say I loved Skyrim and played it maybe for 200 hours with mods etc. but in the end I call skyrim an action-adventure-exploring whatever game NOT a RPG cos Skyrim didnt have any real player choice in events nor any dialogues for that matter, it was simply talk the guy learn something/get a quest/return the quest be thanked, follow the story. Role playing game shouldnt be given to titles with just combat/looting/equipment esspecially if it's not online.

[Evil-snuggles]

Dragon Age 1 and 2 where both horrible the gameplay mechanics where old and date to me it play alot like kotor a ten year old game the same for mass effect 1 thank GOD they finally changed the game mechanics in mass effect 2 and 3 now the game is awesome they need some good game mechanics for dragon age

[anticlimax]

Old does not necessary mean bad. With Mass Effect they just turned the game more into a shooter and less RPG. DA:O simply had a classic tactical RPG combat system whithout trying to be revolutionairy. It's why I liked it so much.

[ceballos77mx]

To be two towers two and ff13.