Title: Dragon Age 2
Genre: Action RPG
Platform(s): Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac
Reviewed on: Playstation 3
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Electronic Arts
I want to start by saying that I loved DA:O, and was hopelessly addicted for a while. When I moved from home and left my 360 behind with Origins, I finally had broken my addiction. The moment I found out that Dragon Age 2 pre-orders were available though, I raced to Gamestop and laid down ten dollars for the Signature Edition of the game. This was in November, I believe. It was a long wait for the game, so I did eventually pick up DA:O again for my PS3 so I could replay it but my gaming backlog was too big for me to start up such a long game. Despite having so many other games to play and tons of work to do though, I set aside time to run through DA2. This is the review I've wanted to write since I began what would become a 36 hour trek through the city of Kirkwall.
Graphics
As many people know who have followed the development of this sequel, the game has taken a different stylistic approach than previous iterations of the series. What we have now is a comic-feel that lends itself nicely to the style of combat and various transitioning cinematics. While this new style is welcomed, the graphics overall have not improved much upon the original game's look and because of this, some things I can not find excusable.
You will spend ninety percent of your time in Kirkwall, travelling through different regions of the city, and exploring a few areas just outside of the city. This leads me to my first complaint with the game, although a fairly minor one: repetitive level design. Areas within Kirkwall try to seem different from each other, and places like Darktown and The Gallows manage to do so fairly well, but when going through the game, I would always confuse the Docks with Lowtown due to their similar architecture and proximity to water. There's not much to tell them apart except for the size of their regions. Then the dungeons that you explore can end up being exactly the same as the one you were just in. In fact, I think there may have been two variations of each dungeon within each region (Deep Roads, Wounded Coast, Sundermount, Kirkwall). Although, each area does look very good and some of the lighting within the Wounded Coast dungeons are very, very nice.
Other issues I encountered while running through the game were similar to the previous game. I had characters disappear sometimes while I was talking to them, but still be in conversation with them, I would just be talking to the air in front of me. The game still zooms into the character you're talking to when you initiate a discussion with them, and in one instance, I was talking to a dwarf with a human standing between me and him, leaving me staring at the chest-plate of the human for most of the conversation. Textures will also slowly load in at times, leaving you with a blurry blob in front of you. Another problem that occurred was more so during combat, but as well as when just roaming with my party; the frame-rate would drop significantly, most of the time from there being too much going on, on the screen. I didn't mind this as much in DA:O, but it was because the game offered a lot more and was very open. DA2 is a much more linear experience with the same graphical power as it's predecessor, and yet still encounters all of these problems. In fact, the game crashed on me three times in my entire run through as a mage.
Animations from characters are very smooth though and transition well from one move to another. Character models are very appealing as well, but this should be a given considering you can not change how any ally looks (armor cannot be changed) with the exception of their weapon(s). Spells like Cone of Cold and Arcane Shield look particularly good in the game, but other spells are fairly standard, and mages don't have much ability to change how they cast a spell, so battles can start looking repetitive from the perspective of a mage.
Sound
As is the case with most Bioware games, the voice acting is incredible and each character has a distinct personality that is transmitted through their vocal performances. Considering Varric is essentially the narrator of the game, it's nice that he has some 'flair' to his voice. Thankfully voice actors don't seem to be reused at all, or at least not very much, throughout the game, even for minor characters. Also, the Arishok has one of the most badass voices in a game, ever.
The dialogue between characters is extremely well written, and because of the aforementioned personalities of each character, it adds a sense of belonging to the party you're travelling with, as if you can join in on the friendly banter at any time. Hell, sometimes it's even about you (an example being if you begin a romance with a character, the people in your party might start up a conversation with your romantic partner about you).
The score for Dragon Age 2 is also very impressive, as was the original's. The composer is Inon Zun who is no Hans Zimmer or Jack Wall but will probably be recognized more in the future as he does more soundtracks. Not surprisingly, he did the original DA's soundtrack which was also extremely good, but does not compare to this iteration's. Every encounter is accompanied with it's rightful musical companion, whether it be dark and ominous for when something bad is happening, or slightly energetic when in a tavern such as The Hanged Man.
Writing and Story
This is where Bioware has, and always will shine. They've created a story here, deep in lore, that it's hard to not be intrigued and swept away by the writing. To summarize the story without giving away too much, you play as Hawke (male or female; mage, warrior, or rogue, your choice) who is fleeing from his/her hometown of Lothering with his/her (I will just refer to Hawke as her from now on, as that's who I chose) family. You leave for Kirkwall to find refuge, hoping to still have access to your grandparent's estate, but of course you soon find out your uncle had sold the estate and moved to Lowtown. This is where your rise to becoming the Champion of Kirkwall begins. As you progress through the story you'll make decisions that affect how your story unfolds. It will be relatively the same for everyone though, because as I stated, the game is much more linear than it's predecessor, leaving you with only two real plot changing decisions.
All of the main story and Varric's sidequest are told in a past-tense, second-person point of view by Varric to The Seeker, who wants to know the true story behind how Hawke came to be the Champion of Kirkwall and where she is now. The game takes place over ten years, but you will only experience three of these years. The narration is a nice addition to the story-telling, and doesn't happen too often if you go through sidequests in between each main quest.
As was the case with DA:O, there are plenty of sidequests to go through, though not nearly as much as before, but some are almost as rewarding as the main quest in terms of plot and writing. One side quest that comes to mind is the 'Enemies Among Us' quest, which had an ending that I really enjoyed. Though, none of these compare with the main quest and companion quests, and even though the ending of the main story is a huge cliffhanger, the events that lead to the final fight are extremely memorable.
Gameplay
I am going to begin this by saying that I absolutely loved the combat system in the original Dragon Age. The tactics system affected the game severely and restricted you to thinking before attacking in order to survive on later difficulties. Others complained about the delay time between issuing a command and when it was performed, but I was not really concerned with it. After having played the revamped combat system of DA2, I can safely say, I do not miss the old system at all. Tactics are still a big necessity in order to survive on harder difficulties but on Casual it's not needed at all, and on Normal it only requires you to make characters heal when their health is low, or replenish mana/stamina when low. If you do that, you'll fly through the game with relative ease because of the more dynamic combat in this entry of the series. Gameplay is much more fast-paced because there is no longer a delay between commands and when they're performed. You cannot interrupt your moves unless stated otherwise, but this simply makes every move count.
Obviously a key part of combat is what weapons and accessories you bring to battle, and in Origin's case there was a lot more selection, but with DA2, there's no option to change armor for allies and a lot of weapons are duplicates with different bonuses and/or stats. However, you can upgrade your allies' armor by finding upgrades throughout Kirkwall, either in stores or chests. And your allies armor is extremely strong to begin with, so it doesn't really make much of a difference not being able to customize them to a full extent. Stores will also get new shipments in each year you're in Kirkwall, so new items will become available at almost every store each year.
You can also upgrade your weapons and armor with runes that you can craft once the appropriate resources are discovered. Once you discover a resource, you do not need to find it again, unless the item you want to make requires more than one of it. You will not have your resources depleted as you make items, the only limit is the amount of coin you have. Resources are required to make different things like potions, poisons, bombs, and runes. You will also need to find the recipes to make these items which can also be located in chests and shops.
Your home base, wherever that may be (Year 1's is completely different from the other years), is where you'll make your runes and potions. It's also where you will receive letters from other people pertaining to quests, whether it be to invite you to one, or to thank you for completing one. Quests don't generally vary much except in the case of companion quests, but even then they're either a fetch quest or require you to kill a specific person. However, these are disguised nicely by the plot and dialogue surrounding them. Completing certain quests will also unlock more quests as you progress, and doing companion quests will either increase your friendship with them or your rivalry, depending on how you handle the conversations/decisions.
Companions are also a big part of the game's story as most have some part to play in the main quest. I remember in Origins, one of my complaints was that allies could instantly leave you from certain decisions you made. This is not so much the case anymore. Making a decision that an ally in your party disagrees with only increases your rivalry with them. Now, that being said, you can still have the party member leave your party indefinitely if you decide to kill them or tell them to leave you (provided the option is given in a conversation).
There was really only one glaring problem I encountered in terms of gameplay, that I know only really happens to mages in combat. When I would cast a spell that would slow every enemy in it's area, or one that would spin every enemy for a certain amount of time, I was not able to cast any spells that weren't AoE ones. Since I had two mages on my team (one of which was a healer), a rogue, and a warrior, this made combat drag on longer than wanted. I would still be able to do damage with my AoE spells, but reliance on my warrior became heavier than should have been. This would especially become tiresome during battles with elite ranking enemies such as the High Dragon.
Other than this, the game progresses at a fairly decent speed, and you won't be left bored from battles because for every two waves of standard battles, there's a more difficult enemy awaiting you. I recommend playing through the game on Normal if you've played a video game before though, as Casual is absolutely too easy, and Hard is relatively challenging. Don't attempt Nightmare unless you've played DA:O before and know how crucial tactics are to surviving in combat.
Other things I noticed that will likely be fixed in a patch, are some quests were broken. There was one where you had to save someone, and even if you did it, the quest would stay active in your journal. This sucks for people who like to 100% their games. Also, another quest would "break" if you read or took a book, rather than destroying it. Once again, sucks.
Finally, the conversation mechanics of the game have been revamped as well from the original, and is now a complete duplicate of Mass Effect's conversation wheel. While not a bad thing, it simply adds to the comparisons between the two franchises, which when you strip them both down to their core, are relatively the same. The only thing that really sets the game apart from ME2 is it's story and tactics system. However, I welcome the idea behind the wheel: to give the player a general idea of what their player will say, without having to read a lot. It's a great idea for console games, since most gamers don't want to read several lines of text on a TV that may be far away.
Closing Comments
You should get between 30-40 hours of playtime out of your first go through of the game, assuming you don't run through the main quest. Those who want 100% might need about 50-60 hours, and will likely need a guide as some decisions you make can alter which quests are available, and what quest items are available. Despite the game being fairly linear, it's welcomed by me because of it's focus on story rather than filling the game with pointless quests just to beef up the length of the game. Everything seems more streamlined in Dragon Age 2, and everything feels fresh and exciting when you're playing through the game. The only drawback to this addicting experience are the technical problems that plague an otherwise perfect game. Unfortunately, these are a huge problem for me and the game suffers for it, but every other aspect of the game outshines many games that have been released in recent years. I firmly believe that Bioware have created their own genre with their Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, and it will be interesting to see how many developers attempt to mimic this in the future.
Graphics - 6/10
Audio - 9.5/10
Writing - 10/10
Gameplay - 9/10
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Overall - 8.5/10
