I have now finished the game twice, once as a good mage and once as an evil warrior. This review will take aside all bugs and issues with quests that didn't work out., will level criticisms in direct comparisons to other famous Bioware games, particularly Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins, and suggest tips for making a better game.
Dragon Age II has a much faster paced and better done battle system than Origins. Battles are flashier, quicker, more fun, and more visceral in their feeling. Spell effects are not bad, although fire has no real depth and is all one color, and it is incredibly satisfying taking down the (few) bosses in the game. Unlike Origins, where I found myself constantly dreading the next area full of easily killed darkspawn that would still take 5+ minutes to complete, in this one I moved along at a steady clip and was excited to see the next area.
It's too bad that the next area was one that I had seen already 5+ times before. The absolute worst criticism being levelled at this game is the incredible over use of the same areas. Havng to go through each dungeon as they magically fill with more enemies constantly is boring. Seeing the exact same dungeon lay out is boring. This is the first missed opportunity: If this game takes place in the same place/setting over 10 years, why does NOTHING change? Parts of caves can collapse. Thieves can overtake a whole section of the Wounded Coast and build a small city. None of this happens. A good example is the Fable series, which is generally inferior to Bioware games, but really makes the passage of time successfully felt in that your choices actually have an effect on the world around you. Did you donate money to have the old town renovated? Excellent, now it's a sprawling inner city and looks beautiful. You didn't? Now it's home to brothels and seedy crime back alleys.
This is a big deal. For a game with a much lauded framed narrative and decades-spaning story, the effect of time passing is never really felt. Your companions don't age as you move on. Their housing looks exactly the same as they always were (Fenris' mansion annoyed me the most. So Fenris, that painting has been on the floor and the whole mansion has been trashed ever since you got it. It's been 6 years. When are you going to clean up?). This fails the immersion factor, and when I have to go into the codex to read what my companions have been up to, I realize I am playing a video game.
How can it be improved? When you enter the housing, (which should be updated after 6 years to show people actually live in it) A voice over ala the intro to Awakenings can update you on what your companions have been doing. Some Cut scenes of Anders helping Mages escape, Sebastian doing Charity work in the Chantry, Fenris brooding in his mansion, or Aveline getting promoted to Guard would help with the immersion and make the presentation more smooth. As it stands, characters statically remain in one spot and are exactly what they are: Video game characters.
The companions are another sticking point. I want to applaud Bioware first, for making all of the main Love Interests bi, as it keept everyone included, and to me did not feel shoe horned in. I just wish you had more options for talking with them. The aforementioned lack of time passing obviously made the romances and friendship talks feel way more rushed than they should have. I remember having long and intimate conversations with the origins characters, and really enjoying everything they had to say. That is all gone here. In short, companions should have been exactly like they were in the first one: Deep people with intricate backstories that took time to come out of their shells as they warmed up their friendships with you. The one year of time passed a lot better in Origins than the 10 years passed in DA2. More conversations. More romancing options, and more characters wouldn't hurt either.
I never really felt the great love or interest I had in the Origins characters. I remember talking to Wynn 6+ times and only feel like I did so on average 3x per character. They feel a lot more hollow than the characters in the first game. I didn't spend enough time with them to truly like any of them, except for Anders. The voice acting for them all was fairly good, and I liked the character designs.
The overall design for DA2 is worse than Origins. Graphics don't seem as detailed or crisp as origins, and I strongly dislike the way Kirkwall was built. Here's a good example: When you are running around and looking for the chantry, with the camera down and looking ahead you only see a bunch of right angles as buildings meet the pavement. If you want to see the actual tops of buildings, you have to crane the camera way the hell far up to see the skyline. I can't run around pointing up to see the interesting sites, and its absolutely TERRIBLY done how all of the interesting city architecture is completely out of frame for when you are playing the normal game.
You know the end of Star wars, where Luke is rushing down the death star and avoiding blasts in that huge trench? Imagine you are playing Dragon Age II and you are stuck in that trench. All you can see is the nondescript sides of buildings and if you want to see the tps of buildings, you have to move your camera all the way up. But while in the trench, everything looks the same. This kills immersion, removes interest in exploration, and makes Kirkwall ugly.
Color choice is poor. Lowtown is the worst zone in the game, everything is a sand color and has no variation. That sand color is on the sides of buildings, on the ground, and on the steps. No need to look around here, everything looks the same. It doesn't change over the years either. The alienage doesn't stand out either, despite the fact that it has a low resolution tree in the center of it.
Next, Origins import. When it isn't bugged, your choices you made in the first game are completely inconsequential. I saw that the reason for this was a design choice so that new players didn't feel left out, but by trying to exclusively cater to the new player the old player (Who actually enjoyed and loved Origins, even embracing its faults) can't help but feel utterly betrayed. Oh I'm so glad Zevran is here! No mention of my Warden romancing him. Nathanial is here! No further dialogue on his mission. Why bother to allow anyone to import their saves if it really makes no difference? Are you rewarding new players or punishing old players?
The length of the game is another problem. There is simply not as much content as origins. I played Origins, over 6 characters, over 300 hours. That is an average of roughly 50 hours per character, although more time was spent on some characters than others, and this includes the Awakening Expansion. Dragon Age II? I have 2 characters who did every sidequest available to them on each playthrough, and finished each time in about 17 hours. That is not even 1/10th of what I got out of the first game, and is the strongest point of contention I have for the sequel.
I had fun while I played, and I enjoyed the story, although not as much as the first one. In the first game, the world changed depending on the choices you made, and that affected the final outcome of the story. Multiple playthroughs were required for each of them, and you could seriously screw up the world if you wanted to.
The sequel? It ends exactly the same no matter what choice you make, and you have to fight both factions. I don't mind a morally grey area or choice you have to make, but if your choices never matter in the long run, why bother giving them to us in the first place? When I play I'm going to find out if it mattered or not. I find it insulting to be given a choice and have it come out the same no matter what.
So how do I feel in general? Let down, disappointed, upset sometimes with what happens. This is the worst modern Bioware game, which is saying a lot, but it's still a Bioware game, which means it is still better than 90% of other games that released nowadays. (It'll always be better than say, Fable. Or Most JRPG's, and it was 1000x better than Final Fantasy XIII, which didn't know when to shut up with its stupid characters.)
Perhaps the game is better than most people want to admit, and they just want to spend more time in the world Bioware has created. It's a shame the sequel doesn't want you to.
Final Score: 6/10.
Other games comparisons: Origins: 8.5/10. ME2: 9.5/10.
I played the game on release date until a couple days ago, on the 12th. I played on Normal until I switched over to casual, and I played almost all of origins on Casual. I play for story and fun, not difficulty.
In summary, Dragon Age II is missing the Bioware magic. What is the Bioware magic? Playing a game and seeing how you affect the world around you. Experiencing exciting worlds and alien cultures, and bonding with the people who journey with you.
Bearbeitet von Jaws_Victim, 14 März 2011 - 04:15 .
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