Mini Review – Dragon Age 2
RPG
If we die, we will die in battle. Together.
Gareth
I think I may have been too hard on the original Dragon Age: Origins with my review score. I gave it 7/10 but I look back on it very fondly and I bought all of the (mostly poor) DLC with little hesitation. Needless to say I was looking forward to the sequel with the promise of more Darkspawn slaying and repercussions to my DA:O decisions.
However, after the critical success of Mass Effect 2, Bioware have decided that all their games require the same approach it seems. The original DA:O was a hark back to hardcore RPGs with its Tolkien-esque fantasy, stat distribution and number crunching but DA2 hasn’t managed to avoid the Axe of Streamlining +1. Gone are the origin stories from the original, you can no longer choose your race (you must be human, but can still choose your gender and class between Mage, Rogue and Warrior), you now have to constantly tap the A button to attack in a vain attempt to make it feel more like Ninja Gaiden or something and your companions armour is now out of your hands, you simply buy/find upgrades throughout the game.
No idea what's going on here but the colours are nice.
It’s not all bad news. The skill trees have been tweaked a little but you still have full control over your stats and what skills you learn, there is still a lot of loot to be had and you can kit out your hero as you like (the variety of armour on show has also improved) and you still have an eclectic mix of companions who you can romance. The new Friend/Rival system makes more sense than most as instead of hating you for your actions, companions just disagree but still respect you, so when they’re still around at the end of the game it doesn’t seem odd that they followed you throughout the entire game despite hating your guts (it’s even possible to romance a rival).
As you can probably tell though, the majority of the changes are not for the better. Most of the previous positive paragraph is made up of stuff they’ve kept from the first game as opposed to new improvements. The story doesn’t really help the games cause either. It’s not a bad story by any means (it follows the rise of Hawke from refugee to Champion of Kirkwall) but the fact that it’s set around one city and its outskirts means the variety of locations is incredibly low and because it takes place across three chapters, each separated by about three years the story doesn’t really grab you until the very end because you are lacking a major target.
The bad news hasn’t ended either, as the game seems to have been rushed, or at least lots of short cuts have been taken. Buggy missions, broken achievements on day one DLC (if you’re going to do it, do it right) and there are not a huge amount of environments anyway but the amount of recycling done is insane. When you go into a cave it’s the same cave every time, certain areas may be blocked off or open that weren’t before, but the overall layout will be exactly the same. Same case with mansions and basically all other areas. Also because the game is set in the same location over a decade you end up exploring the same areas of the city three times (for each chapter, day and night!) and it just gets dull.
That is my overwhelming feeling when it comes to Dragon Age 2, too much repetition, very few actual story missions which carry weight and just going from quest arrow to quest arrow instead of actually feeling involved. It still retains some of the charm of Dragon Age: Origins, there are a couple of stand out characters and I like the more involved companion missions. I did enjoy it in short bursts but I can honestly say I was happy when it was over, which is rarely the case with me and RPGs.
6/10