Dragon Age II Review

Bioware’s new rpg is filled with flair. The visuals and characters are smooth stylized to the point of perfection, but is it a worthy rpg?

The story goes like this: you are Hawke, a refugee escaping from the Darkspawn invasion of the Kingdom of Ferelden. You find yourself and your family in Kirkwall, an old city in the neighboring Free Marches. Turns out, the money and standing your family once had there was gambled away and you have to climb your way back to the top. But it wouldn’t be a fun game if that were easy now would it?

The subject makes for an interesting story and is a great opportunity to show off the new dialogue system. If you’ve played Mass Effect, the speech wheel will look pretty familiar. It works just as brilliantly in Dragon Age as it does in Mass Effect. Add in some helpful icons to show what kind of response you will be giving, and you’ve got a near-perfect system of advancing your character’s story.

But the best dialogue really comes from the other characters. Time and time again you’ll find yourself stopping whatever you happen to be doing to listen to your party members banter. Their dialogue is so cleverly written it almost makes Hawke’s two sentence answers sound like a children’s book. And the same goes for when you’re speaking to your companions directly.

Visually, Dragon Age II is much different that Origins. Bioware abandons the rigid traditional-rpg look for a much more stylized approach. Rogues flip through the air, mages twist and twirl magic around their hands and even warriors swing their weapons with more flair. Despite the change, it doesn’t feel out of place and fits well with your many abilities. The environments don’t look half bad either, though more variety would have been nice. A brown city wall isn’t as pretty the 100^th time you pass it.

One negative of the game is repetition. It looks like Bioware only designed two different maps for each cave and house you enter. This means you’ll be running through the same dungeon for just about every single quest. It doesn’t break the game, but it feels lazy and out of character given the great track record of the company.

The gameplay will be pretty familiar if you’ve played Origins. The ability trees have been given a visual upgrade, which makes picking your spells and moves much easier. You can pause the game at any time to give your allies orders or just give them a long list of tactics so the AI can keep itself alive. Other than that, it plays just like any other action-rpg, but still makes for one heck of a fun game.

Overall, Dragon Age II is a great rpg but not Bioware’s best. It’s fun to play, fun to look at and fun to listen to. If you can get past seeing the same dungeons for about 30 hours, then this is definitely worth the buy. And with achievements and future dlc, you could be playing this one for months to come.

 

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