Second Review: Dragon Age II

My second review shall be Dragon Age II for the 360, released March 8^th 2011 in North America and March 11^th in Europe. While it’s available for the PS3, 360, MAC and PC, I’ll be focusing on the 360 version since that’s the only copy I have.

Dragon Age II isn’t a sequel. You won’t be hearing much of the Hero of Ferelden’s conquest of the Blight mostly due to the fact that you aren’t in Ferelden anymore. You play as Hawke, a refugee from the village of Lothering some of you may remember from Origins. You flee the village with your family to the city of Kirkwall in the Free Marches, which lies to the north of Ferelden across the Waking Sea. Get comfy here, as you’ll spend most of your time in the city of Kirkwall.

When you start out, you are just another refugee caught in the backlash of the Blight; an onslaught of warped creatures called the Darkspawn lead by a fearsome beast, the Archdemon. You won’t see much of the Blight however, as it is off in Ferelden and a few of your exploits to rise up in the city take place within that year the Hero of Ferelden conquers the Blight. BioWare had the cool idea to add a save importer, much like from Mass Effect 2. However it doesn’t add too terribly much, just a few minor cameos and conversation choices. I find it kind of neat though that my version of how the Hero of Ferelden stopped the Blight (my version of the Hero was a kickass Dwarven commoner who defended Ferelden with an iron fist). It just adds more to the immersion, but it doesn’t change the story very much which I admit is sort of disappointing.

Back to Kirkwall, however. Yes, you will spend most of your time there. Mostly in several separate districts. The most prominent being Lowtown where all of the refugees, poor people and elves live and Hightown, where all of the wealthy human nobles live. There are more areas, but I won’t list them as it would take up a good deal of this review.

The only other place you can go beyond Kirkwall is the Free Marches, but don’t let that get your hopes up. The few places you can go in the Free Marches are the Wounded Coast, the Deep Roads, the Bone Pit and Sundermount. There are other locations, however you need quests to unlock them and when you complete the quest they stay locked.

Dungeon crawling returns (what type of RPG would it be without it?) however don’t expect too much in variation from the different dungeons you’ll delve into. I would guess somewhere between 10 and 15 variations of dungeons, and while that might sound like a lot you -will- get tired of running through the exact same dungeon you did 2 levels ago, and you will get even more tired when you have to run through that same dungeon in 2 more levels.

What would dungeon crawling be without combat? The combat system has been revamped to feel more action-y and to have a flow rather than awkwardly position characters so they could slowly whittle away their enemy’s health down. Now instead of an auto-attack, you have to mash the A button for a basic attack. It tires your thumb out a bit but it feels much more engaging. In the lower levels it feels very repetitive as you only have one or two abilities/spells you can use, and you just keep pressing A until the cooldown is up. However it gets much better at later levels.

Rogues and Warriors now have a charge attack that is mixed in with the basic attack. So now instead of having to run to catch up to an enemy that’s only a few feet away, you can just press A and Warriors will either charge through the front line or Rogues will leap into the air and slash down on top of the poor fellow. Mages just sit back and twirl their staves around.

Don’t let that get you down, my fellow magic-users! Mages get cool abilities now too. They don’t just gently tap the air and watch as a ball of fire/ice/poison flies into the enemy’s face. When I say twirl, I mean twirl. It reminds me of a monk, twirling a staff around all badass-like as fireballs erupt from either end of the staff in a brilliant crackling that can only remind me of a laser sound. It gets addicting, watching your mage shoot out projectiles that you forget to use your other spells.

This new combat system is pretty cool, however in some cases I preferred the old combat system in Dragon Age: Origins. It’s a personal preference, but I like my RPGs fairly slow and tactical-like, something which DA:O delivered spectacularly. While it’s awesome to see your rogue slice and dice through a single enemy or warriors to hack up multiple enemies in an arc, or to see a mage rain down fire from the sky it just doesn’t seem like an RPG combat-wise. However, I’m a little old-fashioned when it comes to RPGs.

The story and characters is where this game truly shines, much like in Origins. You meet a myriad of characters, some of them whom you recruit into your party to help thwap thugs and slavers on the head. Each one has their own likes and dislikes. For instance, we have our adorable dwarf Varric and his crossbow Bianca, who is obviously involved in the criminal underworld. Add our honorable swordswoman Aveline who believes in law and order into the party and wackiness ensues. A friendship meter returns, but it’s much more defined. You can either become friends or rivals with your party member, and no matter which you choose you will have benefits. Unlike in Origins, where if you wanted stat bonuses you had to be liked by your party members, in DA2 if you are a rival with a party member they gain stats anyway, stats differing from friendship status though. Let’s look at an example, Varric. If you are friends with him, he will gain a +5% attack speed bonus and +5% dodge bonus. Now on the other hand, if you two are rivals he will gain a 5% to stealth when he takes damage. A Little something to keep you on your toes.

Romances returns! You can romance a few numbers of your party, but unlike in Origins any romance-able person is fair game regardless of gender. Did you like one of the characters as a man on your first playthrough, and like that same character as a woman on your second playthrough? Romance them again! However, no dwarf love, so don’t get your hopes up.

The story is long, just like in Origins, but it is not as epic seeing as how the whole world doesn’t rest on your shoulders. It can get rather dry in the middle too, but I assure you that it gets much better near the end (no spoilers!) so I can only insist upon playing through the boring parts.

All in all, Dragon Age 2 was very enjoyable. I’m a huge fan of the Dragon Age series, and while it wasn’t as good as Origins it wasn’t terrible. Hell, it was pretty damn fun. I’m definitely glad I sunk 30-ish hours into my first playthrough.