Well Now What Am I Going to Do? Dragon Age 2 Review

Dragon Age 2 is the risk taking predecessor to Dragon Age: Origins.  Dragon Age: Origins while fun, is an entirely different game then this one.  Origins required(or strongly encouraged)  micromanagement to be successful and from top to bottom Dragon Age 2 is a simpler game.  The combat is at least twice as fast the combat in the original and the story focuses on an entirely new cast of characters with very little connections between the last two games.  That being said this game hits a home run in almost every at bat and is one of the best character driven games that I have ever played.

I started this game the same day that I beat Dragon Age: Origins and I was immediately thrown off.  The combat went from being slower (some would say too slow) and somewhat calculated in the last game to basically pressing A as fast as you could.  I was not that big of a fan at first just because of the big change.  However, the combat evolves and does become extremely rewarding as the game progresses.  This game does a great job of making you feel strong, yet not dominant.  As the game progresses you will learn moves that can take down lower level enemies in one hit.  I spent the beginning of the game running back to help my team finish off 3 or 4 guys, towards the end they would have them all downed before I could even get there.

The inventory system is streamlined to say the least.  Previously, you controlled every aspect each party member’s weapons, armor, etc.  This time you control your own weapons and armor entirely, but your party members “armor” levels with them and can’t be changed.  Additionally, some of the characters have weapons that level with them as well so there is little need to worry about all that.  You can still upgrade their “armor” at different points in the game but it won’t change their appearance.  I say the word armor loosely because many of the characters are basically wearing a t-shirt and pants, but whatever works I guess. 

Furthermore, a star system is implemented for inventory items.  Basically the game will give each item/weapon a rating based on how good it is for your level.  It took me awhile to figure this out but it did become helpful later in the game.  So at the beginning of the game you could have your player loaded up with 5 star goods and before too long they will be one or two stars and that will mean it’s time to change your gear.  This is all part of the system to make this all more accessible to people who don’t want to compare two staves and try to figure out if 17 electric damage with a 2 % damage modifier is better than 18 natural damage with +3 health regeneration. 

Ok now to the story, you are a refugee from your homeland and have to find a way to make it in your new city.  So, not being a person of any particularly amazing skills, you become a mercenary so that your family can eat.  This means you will be doing side missions throughout the entire game (mainly act 1).  This evolves over time, you start out doing simple little tasks that don’t add much to the story and eventually you become one of the three most important people in the city.  Everyone loves a good rag to riches story right? 

Throughout the game you will meet up with your party members who all have their own back story, opinions and motivations.  This game takes character driven to the next level.  Each of your party members has at least 5 or 6 missions to complete throughout the game.  Additionally, three of them not only drastically alter the story, but they define it.  I found myself saying again and again “What did you do” in response to some party member doing something I had no control over.  This rag tag group is not a bunch of entertaining, yet ultimately mindless, characters who may argue with a decision you made yet still fight by your side.  These characters are amazingly well crafted not only with their interactions with you but also with one another.  There is a ton of humor and great moments just in the interactions between you and your party.  You will care about, or at least understand, these characters.  They are brilliantly designed and the addition of the sarcastic option in the response click wheel creates some great dialog. 

You will not be able to make super characters in this game.  Each character is going to need to be specialized quite a bit and work as a team.   It would be very hard to build a balanced character with the limited amount of attribute points you had.  Luckily there is zero incentive to build a balanced character as long as you have a diverse team.  Mages do mage things, fighters hit stuff, and rogues shoot bows or sneak around behind enemies (which is fun to watch).  The group works best when there is good mix of classes. 

There are tons of amazing missions and moments in the game that far outweigh the “go clear out this dungeon” missions that fill the beginning of the game.  Combat is fun and rewarding.  Small groups of bandits towards the end of the game will only be a nuisance to your party, but big bosses will take 20 minutes to put down. 

Ok, so now on to what might throw some people off.  The map in this game is small.  There are basically five to ten areas to run around in(including one huge city with a bunch of zones to explore) and you will go to the exact same dungeon numerous times to fight different bad guys.  I took this to be realistic but I can see how some might not like it.  Realistically if you another mercenary trying to get by in a city of thousands of people just trying to get by the big president leader guy is probably not gonna pick you out of the crowd and say “hey there buddy I don’t know you at all but you need to save the world.” 

Realistically caves would be used by a different group of bad people a few years after you cleared it out (the game takes place over 10 years).  This did not bother me.  Additionally, it’s totally different during day or night.  Basically you bring up your map and use the right and left triggers to switch zones between day or night.  This prevents you from having to wait to nightfall.  A market by day turns into an area dominated by bad guys at night and some missions only pop up at either night or day.  I thought it was a clever way to make a city twice its size.

Next, there is no overall super evil bad guy to fight, eventually a “bad guy” appears but it’s not so simple and kind of snuck up on me a little.  I can see how this might throw some people off, but the story progresses through characters, not some big evil guy doing progressively more evil things over time which makes you super mad and then you go save the day.  I liked how whichever side you choose was not perfect.  The story breaks down to a clash between the mages and the templars.  The templars are trying to “help” (capture) the mages and the mages just want to free (even though some of them are bad).  Throughout the game you will encounter many overzealous templars and blood mages, all with stories of their own.  There is usually a reason a templar hates the mages the way he does, and likewise a reason a mage turned to blood magic(bad bag evil magic).  Additionally, your party is filled with mages and templars, which adds to the conflict for you. 

The Rating System

1 Inu - This Inu is bad. It eats baby birds out of trees, craps in you shoes, and scares any potential female friends away with its ferocious demeanor.

2 Inu's - This Inu has been taken to obedience training, but failed. The dog tried hard, but just never got any of the tricks right.

3 Inu's - An average lovable Inu, sure its not gonna win any awards, but it is a faithful companion

4 Inu's - This Inu is special, he knows all of his tricks, everyone loves him, and he sits by your side every time you come back from the bar... alone.

5 Inu's - This is Inu is legendary. He is a dog among puppies. One day there will be movies made about how awesome he is.

As I have said before there are only a handful of games ever that I would give a 5.  This game gets 4.75 inus out of five.  It is amazingly close to a five inu game and if some of the inevitable dlc pushes it to a 5 inu game I’ll let you know.  The environments and somewhat unexpected ending hold it back a touch.  While neither bothered me it would have been nice to have a another area or two to run around in and I would have loved to have just a little bit more added to the end, but I’ll keep it spoiler free and expect that the big loose end that comes from the beginning of the game will be tied up later.  The awesome moments in this game involving your family and companions as well as some great boss fights (especially the last one) easily make up for the minor draw backs.  This game does a great job of making sure you know are one (albeit eventually important) person and the whole world doesn’t cater to you.  I loved this game and its going to be hard for any other game this year to compete.