Dragon Age 2 - Review

There’s a lot to take in with Dragon Age 2; it’s the product of both its predecessor and Mass Effect 2 and for the most part it blends the two very well.

Rather than going with Origin's epic scope, DA2 is a personal tale of the hero Hawke rising from humble beginnings fleeing the Blight of the first game to being one of the most powerful people in Kirkwall, a city defined by its tension between Templar and Mage. Throughout you’ll have numerous weighty choices with repercussions; some immediate and some that only come to light later on. There are some genuinely moving scenarios and moments where you might find yourself hard pressed to decide what to pick. The time skips after each act feel a little disjointed however; you don’t really get the feeling that a lot of time has passed.

Like ME's Shepard, Hawke is a fully voiced character, with a personality that develops based on the dialogue choices you pick – diplomatic/helpful, funny/charming and aggressive/direct. There’s never an “I win” response from Paragon/Renegade or Coercion – you instead have to read the person you’re talking to. People tend to respond well to diplomacy, but some might see it as a sign of weakness, or prefer someone a bit sassier; furthermore, your tone changes based on how often you pick certain responses so you can't "fake" sincerity. You also get situational choices; bribery, lying, using past knowledge or deferring to an ally. There’s a lot of variety there and conversations flow better because of it.

Your companions in this game are also a varied, well written bunch, with personal goals and varied agendas and all of them having a stance on magic, its use and its governance. Unlike DA:O’s system where you had to appease everyone, even characters you disagreed with, DA2 has a rivalry mechanic where you can further your relationship despite being at odds with them ideologically. This is a great change and means you can form a party of whoever you want, rather than those who share your beliefs. They’re also more tied into the story, with more of them influencing the game throughout.

Combat in DA2 is much improved from DA:O, particularly for melee. 2h warriors have strong AoE abilities and rogues do excellent single target damage, with both offering a variety of status effects that others can exploit for cross class combos. The trees are very fleshed out with all of them having something appealing so deciding what to take can be pretty difficult; fortunately there’s an in-game respect potion purchasable for those who buy DA2 new. Animations are more varied and faster, and special abilities more impactful. Another positive change is being able to avoid telegraphed attacks, such as a dragon breathing fire or a golem’s magic burst, rather than it homing in on you. On Hard difficulty I found the game to be enjoyably challenging, especially the end of Act bosses; so far my Nightmare run has been brutally punishing and requiring the utmost planning.

There are gameplay areas where improvements aren’t so clear cut, however. The tactics menu, though offering more variety, is more difficult to navigate.Talent tooltips are great, but there’s a lot of wasted space in the UI where some pages could have been consolidated. Loot is less ubiquitous than DA:O and easy to collect with the R button, but still annoying to manage, especially with accessories that share the same icon. The names allocated to loot seems rather arbitrary; a Demonic band might increase Attack or raise stamina regen, or both. Store bought equipment remains almost entirely out of the player’s price range throughout, especially in the first Act where you need to save up so much. This might have been a concession to those who didn’t like ME2’s inventory streamlining, but I feel like they could have improved it a lot more.

Encounter design is also a sticking point. While there are many set pieces that are well paced and genuinely tough, a lot of the difficulty can come from the fact that fights generally happen in multiple waves, with enemies spawning out of nowhere to accost your ranged characters who you thought were safely out of danger. The lack of an overhead camera can also make it difficult to place mage spells in environments with pillars and the like. There’s also a lot of environment reuse – you’ll find yourself going through the exact same few dungeons over and over, with some routes blocked off depending (though the minimap remains the same, lending added annoyance). The nature of the game – lots of little quests each with their own payoff – for me got a little tedious near the end of the second act because of this, especially as at that point I’d obtained most of the abilities I wanted so combat got a tad stale. Things picked up again once I was back on the main story again however, and Act 3’s story was a lot more focused.

Ultimately, I found Dragon Age 2 to be a highly enjoyable game, though it remains to be seen if I can squeeze out four playthroughs on the hardest difficulty like I did with ME2. It is a different sort of game, but it managed to successfully implement a lot of what made that game compelling and even build on certain aspects while keeping the flavour of the first intact. It’s a great start, and if they can make combat encounters more tightly focused and remove equipment redundancy, DA3 might well be Bioware’s crowning glory.

8.5/10
 
E: Running through again, DA2 unfortunately doesn't quite retain the magic. The first Act drags, and playing through as another class isn't as radically different as it is in Mass Effect; after all, you are able to directly control everyone in the party. Coupled with the fact that you likely have a few characters you especiallly like and you can end up feeling restricted while playing. Nightmare difficulty lives up to it's name, though it's significantly more frustrating than Mass Effect 2's Insanity due to the problems with the encounter mechanics. Approaching your builds with an eye to survival rather than min-maxing is probably the best way of going about things, but that is understandably less appealing.


There are probably very few people who play through long games multiple times, and fewer still who would do so directly after beating the game the first time, so I feel that it would be unfair to lower my score. Still, it's something to bear in mind for those of you like myself.