UWHusky

Hard to write a review on this game. The pros are definitely there. The game has great graphics and the gameplay is quite a bit of fun, but I guess I dropped quite a few points when I compared the game to Crysis 1. The original game was sandbox, allowing you to move and do missions however you choose. The weapons had more modification options, and the game generally had a more polished feel to it. Secondly, this game hardly feels like a sequal to Crysis 1, and (to me) felt almost like a betrayal to the first game. In the first game, the storyline really had me going, leaving on a cliffhanger, and in the second game the only similarities really are 3: 1(there is a nano suit that does cool things, but not as many cool things as in the original game), and 2(there is a dude named prophet), 3(there are aliens trying to kill us, never mind that these aliens are completely different from the aliens in the first game). And seriously, where the heck did this 'infection' thing come from. This game has nothing whatsoever to do with the first game, and makes a bare passing attempt at explaining the change in location from Crysis 1 (a beatiful island) to Crysis 2 (the city). The first game had a beatiful location, and the enemies (while not brillliant AI) still had a different feel to them. Maybe not the Koreans you were fighting, but at least the aliens had a kind of grace to them, showing up as almost advanced machines instead of the standard aliens that you have seen watered down a million times. The second game lost all of this feel and dropped back to the watered down city wasteland with the standard aliens you've fought a thousand times in Halo and Resistance. They even have AI that is similar to the aliens you fought in Ultimate Doom. The biggest things I would have liked to see different would have been seamless transitions like in the first game, more vehicle driving/combat like in the first game, and more versatility with combat options and weapon modifications. Soooo... Verdict. A good standalone game with a washed out storyline, but good combat nonetheless. A good attempt at FPS RPG with the upgrade modules, but overall a big step backwards from the first game.

Short and sweet: Pros: -Fantastic graphics, but it seems this is all they spent time on during creation of this game. -Good sound/music. Cons. -Horrible user interface. -No auction house. As it stands it is virtually impossible to find items that you wish to buy, and just as hard to sell them. -Horrid lag, even with a very good computer and a great internet connection. -SE lost a point just for the fact that they have ALREADY CREATED an online game, and you'd think they would have learned some of the mistakes they made from the past game. Instead they tried to start from scratch and just mucked it up. Played for a free trial and dumped the game. Waste of money.

I found this to be a very difficult game ot review. I was extremely excited about getting this game as I am a long-time fan of bioware's products: Knights of the Old Republic, KOTOR II, DA:O, Mass Effect, and Mass Effect II were all games that I greatly enjoyed, and as such I had rather high expectations from Dragon Age II. I guess I should say that my first hint at my concerns showed up with the initial watching of the trailer where the main character summons something to rip the arms off of his enemy. The trailer itself didn't make any sense, and I was wondering to myself why he just didn't do that in the first place. I guess you could say that this about sums up the game.... It doesn't make any sense. I played the game for hours, continually expecting some sort of solidified story to show up, and after what seemed like an eternity, I realized that I was no longer interested in the game whatsoever. The story line never materialized, the combat, while initially was intriguing, rapidly became frustrating as I realized my NPC healer, Anders, couldn't heal anything, my tank couldn't hold aggro, and generally, as a rogue all I did was mash buttons. My biggest letdown though was something many people have already brought up: Bioware apparently ran out of ideas in creating their areas as they decided to create one area and make it work for multiple areas by opening and closing doors. The first time I saw it I didn't think much of it, but later I realized that it was the norm rather than the exception, I quickly started losing interest in the game. So.... breakdown: Pros: -Improved combat in that you no longer just point and click, but this does get old when you realize all you ever do is button mash. -Characters: this has historically been bioware's strong suit, and Dragon age II doesn't disappoint. I was generally intrigued with the characters, with the exception of Anders who simply came across as a big crybaby. Cons: -No longer can choose multiple races, like in DA:O. This offered a slightly different option for multiple playthroughs. -Lame, boring storyline. I have to be honest and say that I gave up on the game before Act III, so maybe a storyline does eventually appear, but I don't think a game should take 6 hours of gameplay to create the rudiments of a storyline that is intriguing. -Lame, boring side-quests. -Poor combat balancing. Initially I enjoyed the multiple waves of enemies that appear which makes combat sequences last longer, but later in the game I came to realize that this was a huge pain because your tank's taunt ability doesn't keep up with these waves, your healer can't heal anything because his heal skill takes what seems like 10 minutes to recharge, and everybody ends up dying unless you continually use healing items, which cost money. Frustrating. -DLC content abuse? Don't know how else to put it. I was rather shocked when I checked the DLC content and found about 100 things to download on the first day I played the game. This tells me that I paid 60 bucks for an incomplete game. I don't mind buying DLCs down the road, but it makes me wonder when such a huge amount of DLC content is not included with the game on day one. It screams of Bioware attempting (and succeeding) in extorting more money from their fan base. Overall... Very disapointed. Was very excited about this game, which is why I think I put up with the game for as long as I did. This game reeks of mass-produced money raking. Shame on bioware. I traded it back in to Amazon today with a tear in my eye. Here's hoping they don't mess up Mass Effect 3.