Dragon Age II Review
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Dragon Age puts you back in the lands of the first game, sadly that's where the majority of the involvement of the first stops. You will be playing the character of the Champion, reliving the moments that gained you that title. You will have to face a threatening force and factions that unchecked could destroy the fragile balance of the city.
Graphically almost the entire game is an upgrade to the first, something that everyone hoped for and expected. Unfortunately they downgraded the HUD making it look cruder, and there are times where things just don't load exactly correct.
The music of the game definitely draws you into the game, but the voices are something let to be desired. There are times where you'll catch pieces of conversation that will disorient you and have you wondering why the heck this is being discussed.
The controls once learned will be a powerful ally to get you through the game. Knowing how to switch quickly between characters and pulling up the radial menu to distribute potions can save your gaming experience. There is a wierd thing that did occur when loading into an area, for some reason your currently selected character would be stuck in a moving motion and unless you touched a button would continue on the directional path that they entered the area on.
I wanted this game to blow me away like the first one with so many areas to explore, and people to meet. There was also the awesome origin stories that gave you a little bit of something different. None of that was really present in this game. First off you're going to be a human character, gone are the chances to play an elf, a dwarf, etc. There's also the fact that your name is going to be Hawke, or at least that's what everyone will be calling you. The second thing is that you're going to be spending almost the entirety of the game in either the city or in the area right outside the city. There's no real exploration to be done. Speaking of exploring, if you take notice you'll see that there's really only something around 5 different dungeons and they just try to make them look slightly different by locking doors, or putting obstacles in the way to make it appear differently, but if you look at the mini-map it shows you that you're in the exact same dungeon, just with a different name. Maybe I shot to high with this game, but the combat felt clunky, the story was almost non-existent until the last fifth of the game. This felt like an expansion, if it had been marketed that way and allowed your character, or offspring to step into the scene maybe it would have made a better impression on me.
If you're looking for a game that gives you the Dragon Age vibe, but feels almost cheapened, then get this game. Just don't get pissed when you find that there's no ending to the story, and that the story hides itself through almost the entire game. Oh and there's the fact that the ability to interact with your fellow companions won't be as easy as the camp site, you'll have to go load into their areas talk to them, and the navigate that part of town to get back to the overworld map. There's too much back tracking and needless running around, which I see as only filler, and a cheap trick to make it feel like a longer game. I really hate to say this but this game gets a 5.4 out of 10.
Reader Comments (1)
Curious: Do you think the PC game is made any easier by the ability to pause and no need to quickly switch between characters and hope you get your triggers correctly? I know in playing XBOX games with triggers, I sometimes gets flustered and use the wrong ability.