What to say about a game that’s so mired in controversy? What hasn’t already been said? The game’s a trainwreck. Aside from all the weird bugs that the game is now fairly notorious for, there’s also a host of classically flawed, paper-thin stereotypes. The characters and story really leave no lasting impression aside from the stereotypes. The game itself is clearly a franchise cash-in, poorly executed. Though everything is fast and combat is “poppy,” the problem also lies in that speed. Nothing leaves a lasting impression and everything is a series of straight lines. Perhaps the biggest complaint that could be had though is in relation to the environments. There are approximately four. A city, which has a clean and dirty version, day and night, and then the city’s surrounding area, which appears to have a beachside area with caves, or a grassy knoll area with caves. There is a disturbing amount of asset recycling that occurs via quest doors, and unfortunately, not the good kind (there is no good kind).
But these are all minor maybe. What’s somewhat unforgivable is Electronic Arts’s and Bioware’s treatment of their customers, banning users for speaking out against the game, and worse still, the obvious amount of padding the game received by “professional” reviewers to assure sales when the game initially hit retail stores. There’s a serious amount of disrespect occurring between these media industries and the customers who they claim to serve.
Such poor treatment is really par for the course though, particularly for companies producing big-budget titles today. Manipulation rules the airwaves, rather than genuine interest, pocket-lining and fellating, rather than honest representation. Everyone is shaking everyone else’s hands behind closed doors and the people losing out are ultimately the consumers. Even after the public outcry, because the game sold well, there’s likely to be yet another sequel. It will also be terrible, but people will have forgotten this transgression. The memory of those who play games seems short indeed.
The media racket setup for the big-budget games industry is abhorrent. Somehow, the media has become so pervasive that no one will care about whatever crazy digital rights management scheme is used, nor the atrocious treatment they receive. The market focuses on making sure the consumer forgets the atrocities of the past. Sorry EA. Sorry Bioware. I’m not forgetting. No need to fuel the fire of DRM and poor design.
I was already skeptical after Dragon Age: Origins, but this game just makes me bored with you. Dragon Age 2 is amusing enough, a few chuckles here and there, but there are free games out there that evoke a more meaningful impression. If you play this game, play because you want to enjoy something terrible, in the same way one delves into the weird, cultish mythos of bad movies. Play with the mindset that little will make much sense. Don’t buy it. Get it from a friend. Find it in a dumpster. Or in the digital dumpster known as the internet.
Recommended: No
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Yeah, this game kind of looked like dogshit from the beginning. When Bioware started talking up how “streamlined” the game was going to be, I knew it was not going to turn out well (see the similarly streamlined Mass Effect 2 for proof of that). At least ME2 had… something going on, even if that something was ultimately awful. This just sounds like a braindead cash-in.
As for review scores, this is obviously something I’ve written about a lot, but there’s a particular story that really drives it home. THQ’s stock fell drastically yesterday, apparently because Homefront (that fucking ridiculous- and racist-looking game) had a “disastrous” score of 75 on metacritic. If that doesn’t prove that the rating system and those who dole out those ratings aren’t completely broken (seriously, what’s the point of 100 point scale if the bottom half isn’t even used? It’s almost like this system is completely arbitrary ha ha!), then I don’t know what does.
I couldn’t agree more. Most people I know who played it couldn’t really take it seriously. Why would they? The entire thing is so ridiculous and contrived that if it were anything besides a cash-in, it would be shocking. Mass Effect 2 was planned as a trilogy, and regardless of my own thoughts to its execution, it’s clear that a lot of work went into making the game. This is not the case at all for Dragon Age 2.