Dragon Age 2: The Common Complaints Edition

It should be no secret that I enjoy Dragon Age 2. I have enjoyed it enough to spend 300+ hours playing through the game seven times. I do want to make it known that all seven times were on Casual difficulty. I did start a game on Hard because I really wanted to take advantage of the tactics system, but after spending almost an hour getting wiped on the first real boss which is only about fifteen minutes into the game, I decided to give up. At some point I will revisit Hard mode, but not right now.

So what is the Common Complaints Edition then? Well I figured I would list the most common complaints that one will read if they are to browse any sort of message boards or comments about anything Dragon Age 2.

• Feels rushed, obvious cash-in
• Combat is too fast
• Combat is not tactical like Origins
• Combat is too easy
• No epic storyline
• A collection of side quests rather than a cohesive story
• Kirkwall
• Lack of variety in locations
• Interface is streamlined
• Whole game is streamlined
• The game fails
• It's a console port

I am sure there are more complaints than this, but these were the ones I could remember off the top of my head. Now I am not blind, I know that Dragon Age 2 is not perfect, it has its share of issues and some of the complaints are valid. But I grow tired of reading the same ignorant rants from people over and over again about how poorly made Dragon Age 2 is and that Bioware won't stay afloat if they don't get their act together. It's amazing just how many armchair developers there are out there that seem to know what it takes to make a good game. You would think they would be doing something more constructive instead of filling my eye sockets with their useless words.

I think everyone can agree that game reviews are subjective, they are the opinion of the person writing the review. Weather a game is good or bad can also be subjective as well. I believe Dragon Age 2 to be a great game, yet there are plenty of others who would disagree with me because they believe the game to be bad.

With all of Dragon Age 2's real issues aside, I believe its two biggest problems are first - the number 2 after its name, and second - the PC gamers who believe their experience needs to be different from that on the console, hence the console port argument. But these are topics for another post.