Dragon Age II Review - Who is Your Hawke?

Bioware are trying something new with Dragon Age II. Dragon Age: Origins was the best PC game in 2009 in my opinion and Bioware wasn’t afraid to shake thing up with the sequel. Dragon Age II is a more streamlined, easier to pick up game(I thought the first one was quite newbie friendly) than it’s predecessor. Obvious concessions were made to make Dragon Age II more console friendly but does the PC version suffer for it? Read on…

What I loved about Dragon Age Origins the most was the fact that you could essentially zoom out the camera and get an isometric perspective. And with the third person view, exploring the environment was a breeze. It was a perfect control combination that made it easy to navigate the environment and tactically play out the battles. This basically made it more like a strategy game(which is why I guess I love these type of Baldur’s Gate RPG systems) I suppose. Dragon Age II moves away from that.





Gamey Stuff & Bits

It’s clear that Bioware wanted to streamline the game further to make it more palatable to the console audience. The top down tactical battles are gone. Instead, they’ve built a faster more snappier combat system that tries to maintain the tactical elements from Origins but sacrifices some depth. You no longer need to be worried about friendly fire as it is off(only on in nightmare difficulty). It’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not Dragon Age Origins or spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate style of combat.

"The era of Bioware’s classic Baldur’s Gate style fantasy RPG is officially over now. Bioware has embraced the Mass Effect style of RPG games from now onwards."

While Bioware maintains you can still zoom out(a little) and play the game tactically like you did in Origins, the camera is clearly made not to accommodate this play style. You’ll be wrestling with the camera a bit too much if you plan on playing Dragon Age II this way. They clearly do not want you to play it this way. Once you get over this fact, the game picks up. You’ll have to approach combat a lot like in Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic. You do not have to think about where you place your area of effect spells and micro manage your party that much now. It’s what they call ‘removing the tediousness’.

Combat simplified. Made faster, snappier and bloodier!

I’m not sure I like this trend of simplifying things. I loved the depth in the old classic RPGs but instead of fixing it or making it better, Bioware’s philosophy was to remove them all together. Don’t get me wrong, an inventory system is still in the game, albeit simplified(you can’t equip armour for your party members). You can just equip weapons and other trinkets on your party(rings, amulets etc). But my heart aches that it is the end of an era. The era of Bioware’s classic Baldur’s Gate style fantasy RPG is officially over now. Bioware has embraced the Mass Effect style of RPG games from now onwards.

The rest of the changes in the game aren’t too bad in my humble opinion. Borrowing the dialogue wheel from Mass Effect doesn’t really change things that much. I did miss the fact that there is no longer dialogue options that give you options on using coercion as a skill(in Origins you rolled a die, and based on your cunning attribute, the game would decide whether you managed to persuade a character). Or intimidating characters in dialogue that is tied to your characters attributes. This was a hold over from ye olde classic RPG games(actually a pen and paper RPG influence really).

The dialogue wheel in Dragon Age II has little symbol to represent what type of response it is. From peaceful, humorous, confrontational and a bunch of other types. There is one issue that is something you found in Mass Effect with this system. The ‘oh I didn’t mean to say that’ problem. You pick a witty response and Hawke(the protagonist in Dragon Age II) goes off saying something rather rude. I meant funny! NOT RUDE! It doesn't happen that often and is no biggie.

The skill tree still exist and they've tried something new with new skill trees depending on your friendship or rivalry with your part members

The story

Where Dragon Age II really shines is in the story department. With Dragon Age II, Bioware wanted to tell a story about characters. This wasn’t going to be an epic tale of good triumphing over evil but a more personal story of the protagonist, Hawke. The way the game is played out is also unique in that it is actually a recital of the story from Varric, a dwarf that knew Hawke. Varric was captured by the Chantry and they want answers, more specifically, they want to know what happened to Hawke(you would have known this if you played the demo).

You'll be staring at this for most of the time. The game is centred around Kirkwall

"Have you ever experienced having your heart broken in a game? Have you ever experienced a testing relationship with a brother? Have you ever experienced loneliness in a game?"

Obviously with Dragon Age II, the protagonist has more personality since you aren’t playing a nameless, voiceless characters. Hawke(either male or female; rogue, warrior or mage) escapes Lothering with his family(just shortly after the events at Ostagar from Dragon Age Origins) in tow. You all end up in Kirkwall(a city in the Free Marches) where you will spend the rest of the game at.




You’ll meet some familiar faces but the story in Dragon Age II is very much confined to itself and doesn’t converge with anything from Dragon Age Origins(unless Bioware is saving up for something for Dragon Age III). Your party members are a lot less clear good or bad and more like Morrigan in Dragon Age Origins. That’s not to say they are all sinister but what I meant was that they just are the way they are. They may have opinions that you may not agree with, even the ones you might think are ‘good’ characters. Like real people, which I like a lot.

The story and dialogue is still excellent.

"Some of the scenes with Hawke really portray a sense of loneliness that the story doesn't explicitly tell you. Which is bloody brilliant!"

The story does go into some weird direction midway through the game and starts to feel a little plodding. I didn’t quite like where the main quest was taking me but  it paid off in spades later. And then there are things which I have never experienced in an RPG before. Have you ever experienced having your heart broken in a game? Have you ever experienced a testing relationship with a brother? Have you ever experienced loneliness in a game? I experienced all of this in Dragon Age II. Not going to spoil any of it for you. You’ll just have to play through the game. There is no guarantee you will experience these though as it depends on how you play(or role play) the game.

If only you knew what your actions would escalate into

Conclusion

Of course Dragon Age II was always going to be a very divisive games. Some people would feel let down by the story(not epic enough) and some people like myself would not like the changes to the gameplay mechanics to make things simpler. On the other hand, there will be people who find it perfectly fine and even prefer it over Dragon Age Origins.

For me, I think as a game, this falls a little short from my expectations. It’s just not that interesting to bother with the combat, inventory management, looting and all the other ‘tediousness’ of an RPG(well that’s Bioware’s idea at least). Once I’ve got over the fact this is not Origins II, I appreciated it a lot more. Maybe not for the gameplay but at least for the story line. It’s a bold attempt to try to make characters more personal and weave a story that isn’t about your typical old fantasy save the world cliche.

Dragon Age II is edgy and will often surprise you with how your decisions early on come back to affect the overall storyline. There is more grayness in here(in terms of moral choices), with no clear enemy to rally against. While its gameplay changes may not be welcomed by everyone, its story is still top notch Bioware stuff. It’s still a good RPG game that any RPG fan should pick up. Even if it’s just for the story. I expect Bioware to return to Hawke and this story line for Dragon Age III. Maybe they might tie Origins story with the current thread in the third one. We’ll have to wait and see.


Pros:

• A lot more tougher decisions in this game
  
• The game storyline and choices are a lot more morally gray than it was in Origins.
  
• The length of the dungeons(in quests) are shorter now. You won’t feel quests dragging on too long.
  
• Some of the best characters Bioware has ever crafted
  
• If you're worried that Bioware will force you to play through the fade again in Dragon Age II, you can be rest assured that it wont be an issue this time.
• What seemed like a very restricted to Kirkwall story...well lets just say it sets up some big things if there is to be a third Dragon Age game.
• A whole new skill tree depending on your relationship with your party member. Even the skill tress are personalised for these characters.

Cons:

• Lost some depth in combat
  
• Inventory management is easier with a new category called junk but without the ability to adorn your party with armour, you’ll find you will accumulate way too many armour types that you probably won’t use.
  
• Lots of recycled locations for quests. Expect to see the same cave, the same mountain for multiple quests
  
• Lots of spawning enemies in combat. I don’t really like this technique. Once you kill off the first bunch, a new ‘wave’ of enemies spawn in.
  
• Mid game is a little slow and weak. It picks up though so stick to with it.
  
• It’s just not Dragon Age Origins in many ways. From the gameplay mechanics to what they aspired to do with the story.

Verdict: Not quite Origins, but still pretty damned good!

Note: The review copy for this review was sponsored by Gamers.com.my. The official distributer for EA products in Malaysia and Singapore.