The main subject of this blog are two of the leading titles that Bioware currently has to offer. Previous these two games were a pair of games that are, to this day, beloved by many. However, much like time itself, these two franchises moved on as well. Some say for the better. Some say for the worse.
One is a title called Dragon Age II. It’s a Western RPG set in a fantasy world, where Dragons still roam and humans live alongside elves, dwarves and other races. The game was developed by Bioware’s Edmonton studios and published by Electronic Arts for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Windows and Mac OS X.
The other is a game titled Mass Effect 2. Another Western RPG set in space. A space opera with Faster Than Light traveling spaceships and several unique alien races. Once again the game was developed by Bioware and published by Electronic Arts for the PC and the Xbox 360. With a Playstation 3 version that came much, much later.
But first, let’s talk a bit more about the games that came before.
Dragon Age: Origins was a lengthy endeavor that sought to bring the MMORPG feel in to a single player experience. The world in which you traversed was rich in details and, most importantly, in history. Playing through DA:O felt more like you were reading a book in the The Lord Of The Rings series where Tolkien creates this wonderful world where every character, every town, every city and even every nook and cranny has a history so rich that you’d think it was real. Most notably, this first game was known to be brutal in the gameplay department.
Clear from the start was the fact that the first Dragon Age was meant to played on the computer, where one would be playing with a mouse and keyboard. Each fight was a struggle, from beginning to end, as you never really had the chance to level your character and the enemies were all very tough and numerous. This forced you to use your brain and strategize above all else. Made even more difficult with the MMORPG inspired gameplay.
Mass Effect on the other hand was an RPG using Third Person Shooter gameplay. There was wiggle room for exploration, but you never really deviated from the path. Sure, there were hubs scattered about that acted like towns, but these were in between the running and gunning.
Much like Dragon Age, Mass Effect was rich with history and details as well, giving the player ample articles to read on planets, races, ships, weapons and more. And, much like DA as well, the game was a healthy mix of both elements of gameplay as it mixed RPG with TPS quite well.
Then came EA.
Both Dragon Age II as Mass Effect II had a dramatic shift in focus after EA became involved. Whilst the formula for the previous games was focusing on balance, their sequels focused solely on streamlining the experience and minimizing the RPG elements as much as humanly possible without going outside of the “RPG” zone. Because in the end, Dragon Age II is an adventure game and Mass Effect II is a Third Person Shooter.
For Dragon Age II, gameplay was changed so that you barely had to use strategy anymore, save for a few bosses that did have some pretty powerful attacks in their arsenal. But overall, you barely had to pay attention to the other members of your party. Whenever an attempt was made to use strategy, it became abundantly clear that going through enemies had become far, far too easy.
The one thing that did deserve an applause was when they added an attack button. Whilst in the first Dragon Age you had an auto-attack, you now had to continuously push the attack button to create combo’s. A welcome addition that really pulls you in to the fight even more.
Most of the first part of the game, I was able to go through the story without even changing my armor, save for the weapon. That is how easy the game had become. Never mind when you get a healer in your party that whips you back to health in no time during combat.
Mass Effect 2 was given a similar treatment. Whilst you did have to change your tactics to deal with the different kinds of enemies, going through them was still a breeze. In the end you will find yourself going through the motions during combat, as nothing exciting ever really happens. You never really get in to real danger and fights never seem to drag on. All you do is go from one hiding spot to the next, peek out and shoot down everyone who doesn’t have a smile on their face.
What both these games do right however are the conversations. Mind you, I said conversations … not story. Those aren’t worth mentioning. Mass Effect II’s gameplay wasn’t what drove me away from it running and screaming, but it was the severe and utter lack of an interesting story. Dragon Age II had the same faith. No, what drives these two games forward in the narrative compartment are the conversations you have with the various characters that you come across. Much like the history of the races and the cities, their history is what is most interesting. Not to mention the personalities of said characters themselves. DAII for example has a fine selection of traveling companions to select from. Save for captain whiny pants. Your main character has a brother and a sister, twins. Depending on which class you start as, you get one of the two. The brother is a warrior and the sister a mage. But damn it, that brother is one of the most single annoying characters I have ever had the displeasure of traveling with. Made me wish for Navi.
Does that make these two bad games? Not in the slightest. They’re boring, yes, but not bad in the slightest. As a matter of fact, I am willing to go as far as saying that Dragon Age II is a better game than Origins. Still, that doesn’t excuse that this was its end result. For a company as revered as Bioware, we expected these games to be the second coming of Ocarina of Time. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case at all.
Would I recommend purchasing these games? Yes. Dragon Age II is a standalone story that follows the events of Dragon Age: Origins. You really don’t have to have played that one to play this one. And Mass Effect 2 is perfectly follow able as well. Especially on the Playstation 3 where there is a motion comic in the game that explains what happened in ME1 and allows you to choose the way the story unfolded there.
Would I recommend purchasing these at full cost? No.
Dragon Age: Origins was a lengthy endeavor that sought to bring the MMORPG feel in to a single player experience. The world in which you traversed was rich in details and, most importantly, in history. Playing through DA:O felt more like you were reading a book in the The Lord Of The Rings series where Tolkien creates this wonderful world where every character, every town, every city and even every nook and cranny has a history so rich that you’d think it was real. Most notably, this first game was known to be brutal in the gameplay department.
Clear from the start was the fact that the first Dragon Age was meant to played on the computer, where one would be playing with a mouse and keyboard. Each fight was a struggle, from beginning to end, as you never really had the chance to level your character and the enemies were all very tough and numerous. This forced you to use your brain and strategize above all else. Made even more difficult with the MMORPG inspired gameplay.
Mass Effect on the other hand was an RPG using Third Person Shooter gameplay. There was wiggle room for exploration, but you never really deviated from the path. Sure, there were hubs scattered about that acted like towns, but these were in between the running and gunning.
Much like Dragon Age, Mass Effect was rich with history and details as well, giving the player ample articles to read on planets, races, ships, weapons and more. And, much like DA as well, the game was a healthy mix of both elements of gameplay as it mixed RPG with TPS quite well.
Then came EA.
Both Dragon Age II as Mass Effect II had a dramatic shift in focus after EA became involved. Whilst the formula for the previous games was focusing on balance, their sequels focused solely on streamlining the experience and minimizing the RPG elements as much as humanly possible without going outside of the “RPG” zone. Because in the end, Dragon Age II is an adventure game and Mass Effect II is a Third Person Shooter.
For Dragon Age II, gameplay was changed so that you barely had to use strategy anymore, save for a few bosses that did have some pretty powerful attacks in their arsenal. But overall, you barely had to pay attention to the other members of your party. Whenever an attempt was made to use strategy, it became abundantly clear that going through enemies had become far, far too easy.
The one thing that did deserve an applause was when they added an attack button. Whilst in the first Dragon Age you had an auto-attack, you now had to continuously push the attack button to create combo’s. A welcome addition that really pulls you in to the fight even more.
Most of the first part of the game, I was able to go through the story without even changing my armor, save for the weapon. That is how easy the game had become. Never mind when you get a healer in your party that whips you back to health in no time during combat.
Mass Effect 2 was given a similar treatment. Whilst you did have to change your tactics to deal with the different kinds of enemies, going through them was still a breeze. In the end you will find yourself going through the motions during combat, as nothing exciting ever really happens. You never really get in to real danger and fights never seem to drag on. All you do is go from one hiding spot to the next, peek out and shoot down everyone who doesn’t have a smile on their face.
What both these games do right however are the conversations. Mind you, I said conversations … not story. Those aren’t worth mentioning. Mass Effect II’s gameplay wasn’t what drove me away from it running and screaming, but it was the severe and utter lack of an interesting story. Dragon Age II had the same faith. No, what drives these two games forward in the narrative compartment are the conversations you have with the various characters that you come across. Much like the history of the races and the cities, their history is what is most interesting. Not to mention the personalities of said characters themselves. DAII for example has a fine selection of traveling companions to select from. Save for captain whiny pants. Your main character has a brother and a sister, twins. Depending on which class you start as, you get one of the two. The brother is a warrior and the sister a mage. But damn it, that brother is one of the most single annoying characters I have ever had the displeasure of traveling with. Made me wish for Navi.
Does that make these two bad games? Not in the slightest. They’re boring, yes, but not bad in the slightest. As a matter of fact, I am willing to go as far as saying that Dragon Age II is a better game than Origins. Still, that doesn’t excuse that this was its end result. For a company as revered as Bioware, we expected these games to be the second coming of Ocarina of Time. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case at all.
Would I recommend purchasing these games? Yes. Dragon Age II is a standalone story that follows the events of Dragon Age: Origins. You really don’t have to have played that one to play this one. And Mass Effect 2 is perfectly follow able as well. Especially on the Playstation 3 where there is a motion comic in the game that explains what happened in ME1 and allows you to choose the way the story unfolded there.
Would I recommend purchasing these at full cost? No.
No comments:
Post a Comment