Dragon Age 2 - Review @ GameBanshee

[Dhruin]

GameBanshee has posted a lengthy review of Dragon Age 2. There's no score as usual but author Steven Carter criticises the direction BioWare has taken the franchise:

Dragon Age II is the sequel to Dragon Age: Origins, which was released by BioWare (developer) and Electronic Arts (publisher) less than 18 months ago. If you're like me, and you paid attention to the previews and trailers and hints dropped by BioWare — including the now infamous "when you press a button, something awesome happens" comment — then you knew that Dragon Age II wasn't going to be a whole lot like Origins, and the question only remained: how far would BioWare go? Well, they went pretty far, and as a result, while Dragon Age II isn't necessarily a bad game, it's nothing like what I was hoping for (or probably what anybody who fondly remembers the Infinity engine games was hoping for), and it continues BioWare's downward development trend from interesting role-playing games to simplified action games.

More information.

 

[Crilloan]

Good review.

Without a$$kissing or Biohate, nice for a change.

I found one paragraph fun.

.., and I just sort of wish they'd develop a first-person shooter for the Xbox and get it out of their system, and then come back to where many long-time fans would like them to be — striving to make role-playing games better than Baldur's Gate II, rather than coddling to the masses with acceptably simple action games that sell well.

Personally, I'm all for more of Mass Effect, but It would be nice to now if they have something more "classical" planned. Or, nasty thought, is the market to small for a PC focused RPG with AAA production values?

C

 

[Falchor]

is the market to small for a PC focused RPG with AAA production values?
C

Well, based on Bioware's continued slide away from that market, I'd say yes. The Bio-docs are intelligent and business-savvy (as are their EA overlords). They have metrics… and their metrics say it makes little sense to continue designing games for an aging RPG audience. Young gamers (their future audience) play action games.
As one of those "old" gamers, who still craves the D&D/Infinity style games of old, I'm disappointed. Playing RPGs on the PC has been one of my favorite hobbies for many years. However, I also like open-world games (Oblivion, DKS, Red Dead Redemption) and strategy games (Total War, Civ) of which there seem a fairly good sampling to choose from.
Times change… and Bioware is simply trying to stay viable.

 

[DoctorNarrative]

The PC market is too small to spend tens of millions of dollars on an RPG for it, yes. It is not too small to spend less than that on, but Bioware and EA want the BIIIIIGGGGG MOOOOONNNNEEEEYYYYY!!!!!

 

[hishadow]

Well, based on Bioware's continued slide away from that market, I'd say yes. The Bio-docs are intelligent and business-savvy (as are their EA overlords). They have metrics… and their metrics say it makes little sense to continue designing games for an aging RPG audience. Young gamers (their future audience) play action games.

For that to be true, Dragon Age 2 sales should dwarf Dragon Age: Origins'. Does anyone have the statistics?

 

[DeepO]

Times change… and Bioware is simply trying to stay viable.

DA:O + Mass Effect 2 was imo very viable setup in itself, they simply botched it afterwards on the Dragon Age side (poor DLCs and DA2).

 

[JuliusMagnus]

For that to be true, Dragon Age 2 sales should dwarf Dragon Age: Origins'. Does anyone have the statistics?

PC Version:
Origins sold 116k by week 4.
DAII sold 220k by week 4.
100k more sales in the same time period.
190% sales.

X360:
Origins sold 720k by week 4.
DAII sold 620k by week 4.
The X360 version of the sequel sold less in the same time.
100k less sales in the same time period.
85% sales.

PS3:
Origins sold 386k by week 4.
DAII sold 286k by week 4.
100k less sales in the same time period.
75% sales.

My theory is that early sales of the sequel are more a testament to the strenght of the prequel (and marketing) than the quality of the sequel game itself. After all, sales in the first 4 weeks aren't created by word of mouth but by previous experiences and marketing/media coverage.

As such the 100k more sales for PC don't mean the game is better received, just that people appreciated the prequel so much that it influenced their decision to buy the sequel positively. "I had so much fun with Origins, I'm gonna buy the sequel in the month it is released."

As for the 100k decrease in first four week sales by both consoles I think it can be atributed to the fact that the console versions could feel like it had awkward controls since it was developed originally for PC. As a result some people who played the prequel are hesistant to pick up the sequel. "Origins had awful controls, I think I'll pass" or "I think I'll see what I hear about the game from friends".

So in conclusion the PC sold (90% more) twice as much while the console versions sold somewhat less (15-25% less).

As for why, that's something you can discuss. But I've already given my view. Some people go with the view that most sales are based on hypes or slick marketing. I think previous work still plays a large role in a decision to buy a game.

Edit: And previous work is ofcourse often used in marketing: "From the makers of ...".

 

[Ovenall]

In my opinion, DA2 isn't as bad as most people on this board say. I enjoy playing the game, though I agree it has plenty of faults.

Yes, these companies are in the business of making money, not making isometric turn based stat-heavy games for a bunch of old school CRPG nerds.

Don't get me wrong -- I would love some more isometric turn based stat-heavy games, and would buy them in a heartbeat. But It ain't gonna be from Bioware. Just get over it and move on.

 

[Ovenall]

FWIW, I played DA:O on Xbox. I thought the controls were good, actually. I liked the quick access radial menus for abilities quite a bit. Yes, I wished the camera would have pulled out more, but it wasn't that bad.

DA2 is a different game, and I get that it's not to everyone's taste. I like it, and will probably play through it twice. I finished DA:O once and couldn't get myself to do it again.

 

[srabuseen]

For that to be true, Dragon Age 2 sales should dwarf Dragon Age: Origins'. Does anyone have the statistics?

Dragon Age 2 sales are pretty bad. First, it's nowhere near 10 million units, BioWare's dream target number (according to Dr. Zeschuk). Second, while Origins was sold for the first 8 weeks like hot cake, the charts for the sequel became almost flat after just 4 weeks. Sure, first week sales were high, but only because of the hype and being a sequel to a highly praised game, it seems. The designer of DA 2 should be fired or worse, even only according to these numbers. All he managed is to destroy a strong foundation.

 

[Thrasher]

Nice review! Excellant critiquing points and well written. It appears that GB review quality is on the upswing. Good on them!

 

[SAGO]

PC Version:
Origins sold 116k by week 4.
DAII sold 220k by week 4.
100k more sales in the same time period.
190% sales.

X360:
Origins sold 720k by week 4.
DAII sold 620k by week 4.
The X360 version of the sequel sold less in the same time.
100k less sales in the same time period.
85% sales.

PS3:
Origins sold 386k by week 4.
DAII sold 286k by week 4.
100k less sales in the same time period.
75% sales.

My theory is that early sales of the sequel are more a testament to the strenght of the prequel (and marketing) than the quality of the sequel game itself. After all, sales in the first 4 weeks aren't created by word of mouth but by previous experiences and marketing/media coverage.

As such the 100k more sales for PC don't mean the game is better received, just that people appreciated the prequel so much that it influenced their decision to buy the sequel positively. "I had so much fun with Origins, I'm gonna buy the sequel in the month it is released."

As for the 100k decrease in first four week sales by both consoles I think it can be atributed to the fact that the console versions could feel like it had awkward controls since it was developed originally for PC. As a result some people who played the prequel are hesistant to pick up the sequel. "Origins had awful controls, I think I'll pass" or "I think I'll see what I hear about the game from friends".

So in conclusion the PC sold (90% more) twice as much while the console versions sold somewhat less (15-25% less).

As for why, that's something you can discuss. But I've already given my view. Some people go with the view that most sales are based on hypes or slick marketing. I think previous work still plays a large role in a decision to buy a game.

Edit: And previous work is ofcourse often used in marketing: "From the makers of …".

where did you get those stats?

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

In my opinion, DA2 isn't as bad as most people on this board say.

The major problem is that the Pc platform audience *wanted* an TRUE successor of "Origins" - and that means : RPG galore !

 

[Anarchosyn]

For that to be true, Dragon Age 2 sales should dwarf Dragon Age: Origins'. Does anyone have the statistics?

It wouldn't really matter. Even if Dragon Age 2's sales didn't dwarf origins there are many other variables that could have come into play, not the least of which being the negative press for bugs, the economy, seasonal differences between release dates (if there was one), market (i.e. competition) differences between releases periods, the negative press in general.

 

[Brother None]

where did you get those stats?

Probably VGChartz. Which means they can be ignored. VGChartz is a joke.

The only numbers we have is that Dragon Age II sold a million within two weeks, faster than DA:O. We don't know anything else.

 

[Dhruin]

They're definitely from VGChartz, so they're meaningless. I'd think the trend happens to be accurate- but we don't know.

 

[SAGO]

Probably VGChartz. Which means they can be ignored. VGChartz is a joke.

The only numbers we have is that Dragon Age II sold a million within two weeks, faster than DA:O. We don't know anything else.

why is it a joke?

no really, i don't know anything about vgchartz

 

[Gaxkang]

The only numbers we have is that Dragon Age II sold a million within two weeks, faster than DA:O. We don't know anything else.

That 1 million number is a joke too. All BioWare says is that DA2 "exceeded the 1 million mark" which is slippery enough to mean anything. For starters there's that significant difference between "shipped" and "sold" (a distinction BioWare avoids here) a confusion that lead to people believing that ME2 "sold" 4 (I've even seen some sites say 6) million copies. It didn't. It shipped 4m, sold 2m.

 

[Falchor]

That 1 million number is a joke too. All BioWare says is that DA2 "exceeded the 1 million mark" which is slippery enough to mean anything. For starters there's that significant difference between "shipped" and "sold" (a distinction BioWare avoids here) a confusion that lead to people believing that ME2 "sold" 4 (I've even seen some sites say 6) million copies. It didn't. It shipped 4m, sold 2m.

Yes, EA/Bioware are famous for using the "shipped vs. sold" shell game. The fact that you ship a million copies to retail doesn't mean they will all be purchased. In fact, if word of mouth on a game is bad, many copies end up sitting on the shelf and then are drastically reduced in price.

As for whether Dragon Age 2 is a success, I feel that has less to do with the direction they chose (more action-y) than the fact that Dragon Age 2 is simply a mediocre game, regardless of genre. Dragon Age: Origins was, in my opinion, a fabulous synergy of old and new. I wish we could've had a sequel that was similar in style and tone.

 

[elikal]

Now that we all agree, I wonder how Bioware will react?