Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age 2 marks the end of the RPG genre of old. For gamers such as me who grew up on a diet of dice rolls and D&D lore it may come as a bitter pill to swallow. The new Dragon Age game is stream lined and simplified to a degree that makes it a whole new beast from the Baldur’s Gates and Planescape Torments of this world. While some may see that as a sad indicator of a world that is moving towards accessibility over immersion nothing could be further from the truth in Dragon Age 2.

Whereas the first Dragon Age set you as the nameless hero who would save Ferelden from the threat of destruction at the hands of the blight and the Archdemon, Dragon Age 2 dispenses with that and lets you play through the story of Hawke as he must take a personal journey of his own and of course save the world as well. The first game’s focus was less on the main character you created and more on the companions who accompanied him or her and their complex back stories that motivated their actions throughout the game’s main story. Because you never spoke there was always a certain degree of separation between your created character and the world he inhabited which made sure that any sense of immersion would be removed despite the game’s wonderful world and rich history. By making Hawke a character with a voice of his own and a back story that is crafted before you even begin playing the game you feel a greater sense of attachment to Hawke as you progress through the game. You are Hawke and you understand the motivations behind his actions and why he treats those around him the way he does. Unfortunately that means that Dragon Age 2’s cast of companions are less interesting and deep as with the first game. This time round there are no Morrigan's or Alistair's but rather you are accompanied by characters who are more cliched and less interesting to interact with.

Speaking of interactions, Dragon Age 2 shows a bit of the Mass Effect influence by dropping the first game’s speech system and opting for a Mass Effect style dialogue wheel that allows you to select between good, humorous and evil speech options. Speech interactions benefit from the change but I found myself missing the old style speech checks that allowed you to lie or persuade characters to avoid combat if you had the correct character statistics. Another process that has been simplified is the use of inventory, but unlike Mass Effect 2 the inventory has not been totally thrown to the wayside. Rather than having to look after every character’s inventory you’ll now only really have to worry about your own character’s armour, weapons and accessories. Your companions are locked to outfits and armour that cannot be changed and only allow you to change their weapons and any stat boosting accessories which means you’ll be spending far less time trawling through menus and more time in the game’s combat situations. That being said, you will frequently find yourself picking up junk items that seem to serve no purpose other than to clutter up your inventory. Even the game seems to acknowledge this as it throws them straight into the junk category which makes me wonder why they were even included in the first place.

The combat in Dragon Age 2 doesn't deviate too far from the first game. You still have your quick access bar that allows you to assign six spells and abilities to the face buttons with any surplus spells and abilities being found through the quick radial menu that pauses the game and allows you to queue up an action for all of your characters. The game has a much more action oriented slant to proceedings now and doesn't rely too much on skill as opposed to button mashing which makes some combat encounters rather mundane, but saying that, I did encounter a few sharp difficulty spikes that entailed me having to rethink my strategies when fighting larger groups of enemies. What will become apparent is that it’s far more important to prepare your characters well before battle than it is to micromanage them during combat. With the right weapons and equipment your characters will be a well oiled killing machine that is nigh on unstoppable.

While a lot of your time in Dragon Age 2 will consist of you slicing and dicing enemies or evaporating them with a flick of your fingers in the case of a mage, another important aspect is conversing with the world’s denizens and it’s here where Dragon Age 2 really shines. With the wonderful world that was created in the first game there is plenty of rich and compelling history to explore and the world is populated by intricate and believable characters. The only thing that makes you realise that you’re playing a game are the unfortunately recycled environments and the repetitive nature of many of the secondary quests. You’ll soon get tired of exploring the same caves and dungeons that are laid out in precisely the same manner with cookie cutter objects scattered throughout them to try and fool you into thinking otherwise. The different areas of Kirkwall that you explore also seem disconnected from each other with disparate environments. The first game had a better sense of scale to it as well with Ferelden feeling like a large world that consisted out of many different and exotic areas with the boundless possibilities that exploring them would bring. Dragon Age 2 on the other hand loses that sense of scale and despite some shifts in environment as the story progresses you’ll soon find yourself returning to your old haunts that you visited at the start of the game.

There were many occasions that I found myself just stalling my own progress through the main story and simply roaming Kirkwall cleaning up every single quest I could. The game does have a tendency to inundate you with quest updates at times though and seems almost over eager to tell you where to go and what to do by highlighting quests on the map screen and frequently giving you items that complete quests that you never even knew you had. The main quests are great though and show that Bioware are indeed still the masters of storytelling in RPGs with dialogue and prose that are well written and are never contrived at any point.

A noticeable change in Dragon Age 2 is in the graphics department. It may not be up with the likes of Mass Effect 2 in terms of graphical splendour but the characters finally look more lifelike without the dead fish eyes that would freak me out in the first game, and many of the various races character models have been redone with the elves in particular looking suitably appropriate with a thin and ethereal look to their models. The environments, when they are not being recycled, look wonderful and are grand in scale with no slow down being seen and even better yet there is no lag in combat even when the screen is loaded with enemies and spell effects. The musical score and voice acting also manages to match the scale of proceedings and add to the game’s professional sheen.

If you’re looking to play a fantasy RPG that contains a great story and plenty of gameplay then Dragon Age 2 will serve you well. While it may not be as great as the first game it has a charm all of its own and is well worth a look if you need to scratch your RPG itch. If you’re looking for an old fashioned D&D RPG in the same vein as Baldur’s Gate then I’m afraid it’s time that you accept the fact that today’s gamers aren't interested in dice rolls and stat checks.

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