It’s a Bioware game so it has to be good Right?
Dragon Age 2 is the 2011 sequel to the award winning 2009 Action Role Playing Game Dragon Age Origins. DAO is one of my all time favourite games so DA2 should be even better then DAO right?
You are Hawk, a survivor of the Darkspawn attack on Lothering and Champion of Kirkwall. The story is split up into 3 Acts and takes place over a period of 10 years. A Dwarf named Varric narrates the story and does exaggerate at certain points.
The story is good but it is a bit of a letdown and the third act seems to have been rushed. Act 1 is about creating a life in the city of Kirkwall. Act 2 is about Hawke’s rise to power and Act 3 is the beginning of the Mage’s rebellion. The first act is good but it could have focused more on Hawke’s life in Lothering before fleeing to Kirkwall. It could have been done in the style of the Origins in DAO and served as way to introduce new players to the world of Thedas. The second Act picks up 3 years after the events of Act 1 and has a unexpected twist in the middle of it.
Now the third act is the worst act is where the story goes downhill completely and seems to just want to get the story over. There are no choices that have consequences and you will end up facing the same two final bosses. Both endings are more or less the same but seem to be in reverse order. Both endings feel like a letdown and fails to live up to DAO’s multiple endings.
Overall the story is good but completely goes downhill at the beginning of Act 3 and there are some plot holes. The years between acts are not covered and the Templars never come for you if you are a Mage or your sister.
The gameplay has been overhauled and is now quicker. But it seems to have lost the charm that DAO’s system had. Battles can be won within seconds due to it being in real time and mostly hack and slash. You still have talents that you can activate at the cost of some stamina and can tag them to any of the six talent slots. The tactics are back and every companion comes with a predetermined set of tactics and behaviour. There are a 20 tactics slots available to plan your tactics for that character. So you can still choose to fight with strategy or just play the game like a hack and slash.
The combat is a bit over the top and doesn’t fit into the world of Thedas. Enemies seem to be able appear from thin air which breaks immersion but a majority of the enemies can be dispatched within 30 seconds to a minute. The finishing moves have been removed completely so if you want to get satisfaction from watching Hawke or one of his companions stabbing an enemies then chopping of your head then i’m afraid you won’t be able to. I personally prefer the slow paced system of DAO as there was a sense of achievement when you won a 2 minute fight. But i can see why some people will like the new system.
You can no longer choose what armour your companions wear which I personally hate. You can upgrade their armour by either buying the upgrades or finding them. I would prefer to choose what they wore as their initial and for most only attire offers little to no protection. This leads to a large majority of the armour you will find useless due to not being the correct class and some of the requirements don’t make sense. For example, generic armour requires 17 strength and 18 willpower.
Hawke speaks and the player can choose what personality he has by choosing certain dialog choices in the dialog wheel. For example, a choice with a comedy mask will result in a humorous or sarcastic Hawke. But it feels like Hawke is the Dragon Age version of Shepherd and there is not as much dialog in DA2 opposed to DAO.
Overall the gameplay system is good but has a load of flaws.
The user interface has been changed and has complicated some very simple features of the last game. The codex and inventory screens can no longer be accessed via one button. Instead they have been split up into different sections which can be selected in the menu. The menu is a copy of Mass Effect 2’s menu which i dislike as i preferred the simple menu of DAO. The health bars and stamina meters of your party have been shrunken and can now be turned off when there is no combat.
The soundtrack is excellent and does feature some songs from DAO.
Overall Dragon Age 2 is a good game but is not a worthy sequel to Dragon Age Origins. It has some major flaws and is a rushed game. There are only 5 maps or seems to be 5 maps that are used constantly. There are not many choices that lead to consequences.
I am going to give Dragon Age 2 a 6/10. It is above average but is a major let down and could have done with another year or two in development.
