Dragon Age 2
There are a lot of reviews of Dragon Age 2 out there. Some I agree with, others I have no idea what game some people played, but it’s certainly wasn’t DA2. I was incredibly excited for this game, I loved Dragon Age Origins, and was super excited that DA2 was going to import your save from DAO. Seeing how awesome this worked out for Bioware in Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2, I was understandably excited. Unfortunately, your decisions and their consequences were pretty limited.
Right off the bat, I hated the story. That makes me really sad to say that because I have never hated a Bioware story. Ok, so Awakening was pretty weak and was clearly just there to make money, but I didn’t hate it. But this story I actually hate. I think most of my hatred for it though stems from the forced issues affecting the world that I don’t care about. If you can’t make the player actually care about the people and the places they’re in, then they’ll never care about affecting them. And that’s what happened to me. At no point did I actually care about anything going on.
The biggest flaw with the story is there is no main struggle or villain to immediately rally against. Mass Effect? Geth and Saren! Dragon Age Origins? The Archdemon! Baldur’s Gate 2? Irenicus! In this game? At first it’s to become rich. Yeah? Go money? Then? Not so sure, it starts to become murky, there are Qunari pissing people off, deal with that. Ok… I guess… I don’t really want to. And now I’m dueling some huge guy… Oh dear. After that? The two main powers in the city are fighting, oh man, does this really concern me? Why do I care… oh there I am… fighting again.
The entire game feels forced and I can’t seem to connect with it. I sincerely don’t care about the protagonist and a majority of the companions. This is probably the biggest disappointment to me. Bioware has a legacy of amazing storytelling, and then this pile of forced events is thrust in my lap. I’m set off into this world and told to care about stuff and people. Sorry, I tried really hard. But I don’t care about them. I know a Bioware game is bad when I don’t replay it. Usually when I finish one of their games, I take a breather because my mind has been blown so hard, and restart the game with a new character. This game, I finished it, and just put the CD back in the case.
This I find particularly disappointing because I had the signature edition and the collector’s edition guide. This cost me about hundred bucks, which at the time I was gladly willing to pay, expecting Bioware quality. But now I feel let down.
I’ve read criticism about the world feeling small. Which, actually I agree with. But by no means is this the games largest failing point.
Combat looks flashier, but quickly becomes repetitive. Your enemies all look similar and the “random encounters” happen so frequently they become annoying. This really starts to feel like the bulk of some of the simple side quests. Even the bigger fights later on are not particularly challenging, just repetitive.
At one point during all the side quests I had to stop for a while because it was feeling like real work. I wasn’t having fun and found myself just finishing them for the XP and the knowledge that my every action might affect the next game.
On a positive note though, the voice acting was pretty good for companions and NPCs. They did a very good job, and the soundtrack to the game is fairly nice as well. Unfortunately, the voice acting for (at least the female) Champion was left to be desired.
***Spoilers from this point on!****
Companions:
The companions were hit and miss. Some characters I found funny and generally likable, but others I couldn’t stand. Even your beginning companion Bethany/Carver was incredibly boring. I understand they’re supposed to be family, but I really don’t care at all about them. Just starting a game and saying, “Care about these characters” doesn’t make me care about them.
One large improvement is the character Anders. I’m not a fan of the Awakening expansion from DAO, but I did think that Anders had potential. Unfortunately, he really didn’t seem to have room to grow and really show us everything he had. It’s my understanding that Anders was actually written by a different writer for DA2, and I love the changes. He becomes more loveable and he still is just as funny, yet occasionally he can be bit too whiny. Actually, my FemChamp romanced him because he seemed the least insane (which, to my disappointment, was shown to be drastically incorrect later on).
I really enjoyed Varric. He was funny, had good voice acting, and was useful in combat and in conversations (that little bugger loves to spin a yarn). He had everything that I like in a companion.
Merrill was…. so… dumb. I mean, it’s got to be a bad sign when you have to take someone with you because her own people don’t want to deal with her. What? You speak to demons and learned blood magic from them? What could go wrong!? Too bad, because I liked her as a character; her voice, comments, total social retardation—but I couldn’t get over that whole hubris thing when dealing with demons.
Ah, Isabela--the clear, “bang me” option of the crew. Since I was playing a rogue, I didn’t have much use for her tactically, but her banter while you travel is delightful. Unfortunately, she left me never to be seen again. She has to give a book to someone or they’ll kill her? Seriously Bioware? What about the thousands I have killed with my party? I can’t just bargain with her to go help her kill this guy, all his guards, his descendants, his dog, and anyone else who could possibly want to harm her? Nope? Wow. Nobody really thought that through.
Fenris is a great fighter, but gets a little old after a while. While some banter is amusing, I couldn’t help but keep pissing him off because I didn't blatantly hate people for being magically inclined. Also, why the hell is offering to help someone learn to read considered flirting?!
Sebastian, the chantry loving wiener whose accent made me giggle. Didn’t like him. But that’s ok, he left. I found him tactically useless; I already had Varric for ranged fighting. Socially I found him boring because I’m not a nun.
Bethany/Carver is an interesting idea. They try to submerge you in the game and its issues by directly affecting your PC’s family. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work too well. They leave you by the end of act 1, so don’t count on building them up for later. Beyond that, they’re just ok. They don’t really affect me one way or the other.
Aveline is another character I don’t feel strongly about. I may have pissed her off frequently with my legally questionable methods, but she never just left or threatened to bring an army against me, so she is ok in my book.
Collector’s Edition
And we get to the included DLC on the collector’s edition. Overall, I found it boring. I couldn’t stand Sebastian. Everything I did made him upset. Also, anyone else think it’s messed up that he is in the guide (clearly made to be included in the game) but costs additional money to have him? For anyone who didn’t get the signature edition, don’t pay for him. He is a boring, whiny, chantry loving wimp. I wasn’t this let down by Bioware DLC since Witch Hunt.
I can’t help but think DLC released when the game is released is just Bioware being greedy--which makes me really sad. They’re my favorite game company, and I feel as betrayed as if I found out my BFF was a having RE5 party with another woman.
The Ending
The ending I thought was really… just messed up. This might be because I never really cared about the “story” of the place, but how come I have to pick a side between these two bickering dunces? I sided with the wizards, but really only because of a few reasons
1) Sebastian pissed me off and I wanted to piss him off as equally as he pissed me off. By not killing Anders and siding with the wizards I definably accomplished this. He threatened me and whatnot, and I wished there was a “Are you still here?” reply.
2) Meredith was clearly the craziest person in the mix. She was so blatantly out of control; I figured she was supposed to be the “evil” option. I was bummed that the two options were so black and white when it came to craziness.
3) Fenris, like Sebastian, pissed me off too. He was a great fighter, had a good backstory, but was so annoying overall. He was just as bad as the Tevinter Imperium he hated. If he could, he would kill them all, even the wizards who weren’t bad people. Worse, he wants that for all wizards, including the oppressed and abused wizards who can’t sneeze without being interrogated and possibly sexually violated. It made me happy when I one-shotted him with Assassinate.
4) At this point I had already decided to “romance” Anders. I figured, sure, he turned out to be a cantankerous extremist, but I had already gotten this far! Damned if I’m going to pussy out in the last 15 minutes of the game!
Post Script
What the hell did they do to the elves? They went from very human looking creatures to these weird disproportionate monstrosities. And they don’t even explain why they changed. They just pretended that nothing changed. One line of dialogue could have explained it, perhaps saying that Eastern and Western elves look different. But nope, they just changed them for no reason. When I saw Zevran I was so sad that they changed him. It’s not a good idea to change something that people already love, especially for no reason. I knew that Antivan man slut assassin how I met him, not this weird looking mutant in front of me. Well, at least they explained why Sten looked different from other Qunari by saying that not all Qunari have horns.
