Dragon Age 2 Review by Zansky

As of February, Dragon Age 2 was the best RPG to come out during the year; however The Witcher 2 certainly has fought for the #1 spot. Bioware has managed to take elements from Dragon Age: Origins and streamlined the combat and character progression to something more succinct and accessible. Dragon Age 2 has separated itself from its predecessor by creating an excellent blend of storytelling, character progression and visceral combat. The combat is quick and brutal and the character progression is easy to understand and offers immediate visual recognition to skills you and your party receives. As always Bioware delivers storytelling which is top notch whether it’s the main quest which spans decades or the side quests that provide history and interesting characters to meet. The overall Dragon Age 2 package is one filled with well over twenty-five hours of gameplay on your first play through with enough content to return to the city of Kirkwall at least a few more times. In year which will contain some heavy contenders in the genre including The Witcher 2 and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, both of which look vastly improved from their predecessors, Bioware has delivered a worthy predecessor to its original entry in the Dragon Age universe and positioned itself to face these worthy RPG contenders.

Visuals
They visual style has changed vastly from the first game with a varied approach to character models and textures as well as an artistic style applied to weapons and armor. Dragon Age: Origins provided and excellent visual world to explore, however its visual presentation was bland and not exciting. It was stuck in the realm of realism instead of a visual pleasing artistic impression. Bioware broke the mold of fantasy by providing a very real world which had outer worldly races and creatures but never applied a visual style that really fit with the game. All characters looked human, although dwarfs were small and elves had pointy ears they all moved and looked the same. Each race would act different and their stories were unique to the Dragon Age universe but the style of visuals never blew me away as much as their stories and drama.
In comes Dragon Age 2, which has taken the distinct approach to the fantasy world and applied a unique visual aesthetic to everything. Character move differently and look more like their races should. The elven characters especially have an interesting and distinct look that gives them and elongated nose bridge and longer pointy ears, they are also smaller and look frailer than their DA: O counterparts. The dwarf characters are mostly the same as the original game although the main character telling the story of the champion is vastly different from a dwarf you would experience in any fantasy game. The lack of beard and his devilish good looks really breaks away from the bearded grumps of previous games set in a fantasy world. Along with character models the weapons, armor and enemies have gone through major overhauls as well. The high detailed armor models have replaced the bland fantasy plate and leather armor of DA:O and give everything a very distinct look where previously if you walked by someone playing DA:O they might not immediately recognize what game it is, Dragon Age 2 offers a visual style that is unique and engaging which is at a glance more enjoyable to watch.

Story
Bioware took a different route when designing the storyline for Dragon Age 2. Gone are the origin stories and mute character from DA: O. They have been replaced with a male or female main character similar to Sheppard from the Mass Effect games. Hawke, the main characters surname, has a voice and participates in conversations which seem ripped straight out of Mass Effect. The conversation wheel and the distinct good, bad, funny, loving, hating choices are all there and each time you choose one you hold your breath waiting to hear what your Hawke character is going to say. The story itself revolves around the City of Kirkwall, where you and many other people from Ferelden have fled during the blight. The story is being told by the dwarf Varrik in an interview with a Templar about the things that are going to happen. Hawke a refuge from Lothering, the first town to get destroyed in DA: O, escapes to Kirkwall to begin his/her quest to become the Champion of Kirkwall. By doing this Bioware is able to tell a story that spans years rather than a single year or a matter of days. As the story unfolds and the plots develop between acts several years take place and Hawke and his or her decisions tend to have greater effect down the line.
The story breaks down into three separate acts that have increasing lengths of time in between each act. The first spans one year, the second five and the third ten. The story gives you the sense that life is happening during the time where you are away and gives a more epic sense of scale. Where this becomes a drawback is your overall connection to the character that you are playing. In DA: O you become attached to your immediate decisions and the characters around you. In Dragon Age II things progress more slowly and decisions do not have an immediate effect and more often than not the decisions you make that do span over several years do not have an emotional effect on you as you play.

Gameplay
Where Dragon Age II shines is in the combat gameplay. In the first Dragon Age’s combat was similar to Knights of the Old Republic more than any other game. It was slow and cumbersome, providing a decent combat experience. Dragon Age II has taken the basics and stepped it up a notch. It is fast and visceral, similar to the differences between Dead Space and Dead Space 2. Overall the combat feels more fluid and exciting. You can feel the power you possess as the Dark Spawn explodes into clouds of blood and body parts all around you. The classes system has been simplified down to only three classes, warrior, rogue, and mage. Within each class you are able to differentiate between sword and shield or two-handed for warrior. Dual blades or Bow and arrow for rogue, and for the mage you can specialize in all of the different magical abilities. The combination classes found in DA: O exists still, but are automatically available for each class. Overall the system for leveling and choosing your class skill is less complicated and much more simplified than the previous game. While this might be considered to be a drawback it is refreshing to see that Bioware are willing to take a chance on making this part of the game more simple to appeal to a larger audience that might not have played the first game due to the over complication of its skill system. It will be interesting to see if they are willing to find a good balance between the fast and visceral gameplay from DA2 and the advance character building from DA: O for the already announced third installment in the franchise.

Lasting Impressions
Overall I enjoyed my time playing Dragon Age 2. Bioware never ceases to amaze me with how well their games are made. The amount of story and quests and the overall polish the can provide. It was an experience that only they can provide to the gamer who is dying for some fantasy role playing. The art direction was spot on and the combat and movement systems were greatly improved. The story and quest structure seem to me to be a miss however for Bioware and I would love to see them move back to a more structured story were decisions that are made have a more immediate emotional impact for the player. It was an exciting and enjoyable experience, which I will remember as being a good step for Bioware to make their fantasy games more accessible to the masses. I do feel in the end that they took one step forward and two steps back. Story has always been the strongest point for Bioware and the way the story telling takes places in Dragon Age II is just not as appealing as the first game and other contenders in the genre, mainly WItcher 2. Bioware you are getting a pass on this one, do not disappoint me with your third installment.
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