Dragon Age 2 review

Before writing this review for Dragon age 2. I went searched through some more well known gaming review sites. If only to see what score they gave the game. Most of these sites gave DA2 a fairly high score. This could mean one of three things:
1. My expectations for this sequel were WAY to high.
2.These gaming sites are in EA's grubby little pockets
3. They were given a completely different game than us lowly consumers.
If it turns out it was the last of the options, I'm going to be pissed. Why did they get a fantastic game, while the rest of us who aren't paid to play games all day get the shit that we did?
Obviously this isn't going to be a shining review. And it breaks my heart, because I LOVED Dragon age: Origins. The fact that this is the follow up game to something so epic is just....sad.

*Sigh*

Here we go.

Dragon Age 2 is a story with in a story that spans a decade. The story is told by one of your companions, Varric.

Things starts off with Hawke and his/her family, attempting to escape from Lothering and the invading darkspawn. After a string of  events and with the help of a familiar face, you and your family will be on a ship heading for Kirkwall.

Act 1 - Hawke and his/her family has been in Kirkwall for a year. You have spent this time making a name for yourself to little avail. In order to reach the heights of notoriety you desire, Hawke will need to earn some money in order to join a....ugh...Deep Roads expedition. This task will be easy with the companions you will acquire along the way. Once you have made enough money, the Deep Roads and the riches it holds is yours for the taking.

Act 2- A few years after Hawke's Deep Roads expedition, he/she has finally found a place in high society. Kirkwall now faces a new threat. The Qunari are in a state of unrest. They are searching for something and cannot leave until they find it. With all of the Chantry zelots in Kirkwall, religious tension is quickly building. Hawke needs to keep the peace, but when that fails, he/she is forced to take on his/her greatest challenge yet. The Qunari themselves.

Act 3- Years after the Qunari uprising, Hawke has been named the Champion of Kirkwall and faces a new set of threats. Tension is rising between the Mages and Templars of Kirkwall. The city looks to Hawke and his/her companions to keep the peace between the two groups. When both sides are bullheaded keeping things civil is easier said than done. Try as Hawke might, war between these two can not be avoided. If you can't beat them, join them. But which side is right and which is just out for power?

Since there are so few great things about this game, lets get that list out of the way.

It's short. Thank the Maker for small favors.

The combat is fluid, smooth and fast paced. Which is a welcomed change from the traditional sluggish RPG combat style of DA:O. The combat here is reminiscent of a hack and slash. It's a change some weren't exactly happy with, but since I love hack and slash games almost as much as RPG's, it made the game almost bearable. Almost.

The new skill tree set up is a very nice change. Now you are able to pick and choose which skills you wish to learn and even upgrade them. I wish the first game would have had this feature. It would have made leveling up fun and exciting. It took me some time to figure out which skill I wanted to learn first since you have so many tree choices. With the help of mods, you can actually have them all. No matter which class you choose in the beginning of the game. Thank you mod community!

While the companion banter isn't as funny in this installment, Varric's sarcasm and his need to constantly give those around him nicknames induces fits of  giggling. He is also one of two companions who appreciate sarcastic conversation opinions. Isabella being the other. Isabella does have some good one liners, but Varric's are better.

I highly suggest you play this game choosing sarcastic conversation options when offered. It makes the game a little more bearable, and leads too some pretty interesting conversation results.

The rival/friendship approval rating system is interesting. You can have a rival romance/friendship, (In my opinion this is the far more interesting route), or you can say all the right things and have a friendship relationship.

There are a few faces from DA:0 that show up. It's always nice to see old friends again. No matter how badly the art team screwed them up.

I can't stress the importance of mods for the pc version. Mods make this game worth a couple of play throughs. A huge thank you to all of you who have worked so hard to make fantastic mods. Because of all of you, this game has some massive replay value. That isn't even something Bioware could do for this game. Keep up the good work!

On to the bad.

The story. It didn't flow very well. At least not for my liking. I just didn't understand what one main storyline had to do with the next. One act I'm as poor as a hobo. The next I'm rich as could be and people are still asking me to do shit work for them. The next I'm the champion who is still doing other people's bidding.
If they had stuck us with one "big picture" storyline, that would have made more sense. You do get a feel for the emanate mage/templar implosion early on. But this is due to side quests. Not to mention Anders constant pissing and whining about how oppressed mages. Believe me, you get to hear that. A LOT.   Finding a way to stop the tension from building between the mages and templars  would have been far more interesting than the jumbled storyline we got.

Kirkwall. Enjoy your stay, because you will never leave. Yes. You do get to visit the lovely mountains once in a while, but it's never too far away from good old Kirkwall. Traveling from town to town could have made this game far less tedious. I'm sure there are plenty of towns surrounding Kirkwall needed Hawkes help. Hell. A trip to the Free Marches would have been nice. Alas, it was not meant to be. As it is, every single dungeon and enemy A.I is reused.  If you choose to play this game, get ready to see the same dungeon at least three times throughout the whole game. Not to mention realizing you've already fought this bunch of fucking mercenaries already. They story was hard to swallow. But reused EVERYTHING made it a chore to play through.


Hawke. I had a hard time feeling any kind of emotional connection with Hawke. Unlike the Warden you built from the ground up in DA:O, Hawke's back round story has already been pre-determined for you. There are no other races here. You are stuck playing a human. The two things you get to decide for your Hawke is a fighting class and sex. The only way to get away from Hawkes cardboard box personality, is choosing sarcastic answers in your conversation wheel.
If I were able to build my Hawke from the ground up. Decide what his/her back round is. What his/her home situation was. Then I would have been able to connect. The Hawke presented is a step back from character customization. There are a lot of DA fans who took issue with this lacking feature. I completely understand why fan boys and girls were so pissed off about it.

Companions. Now for the biggest tragedy of all. Aside from Verric, I could have cared less what happened to any of my companions. Hell. Once in a while I was tempted to run my sword through an eyeball or two.
Anders is the one character that bugged be more than anyone. The way he is portrayed in this game COMPLETELY goes against the epilogue in DA:A. Say good bye to witty Anders. Say hello to a mage who is whinny, broody, self righteous and he ditched his duty as a Grey Warden. The last point is what makes the DA:A epilogue pointless. He's always wanting to help a mage, but really he just wants to help himself. It's down right pitiful.
The other companions were just boring and whinny. I really wasn't interested in helping any of them out. However, for the sake of exp gain, I did it anyways.

The artwork wasn't the best in DA:O, but somehow the artwork in this game was worse. I don't know how Bioware's art team managed to pull that one off. Thanks guys and girls at Bioware for making Elves look ridiculous.  Oh and how the messed up Alistair and Zevran. Now, I am painfully aware of aging effects. But no one looks THAT bad in their late 20s and early 30's.

The end. It was a massive let down. We really don't know what happened to anyone. The epilogue was very half assed.
*****Spoiler Alert****

It is mentioned at the end that both hawke and the Warden (your character from DA:O) are missing. It was eluded that they must be found in order to piece together unaccounted events.

Not too long after this game came out, Bioware said that both Hawke and the Warden's stories are done. So come DA3 we will never hear from either one of them again. We wont get that missing link, or any closure to our Warden's story. Which is really what I care about.

The Romance. I really didn't care to romance anyone in this game. It all comes back to the whole not connecting thing. Had Varric been a romance option character, I would have jumped at that opportunity. Sadly, he wasn't. Your choices are a broody elf. Whinny mage. Confused Dalish elf. Religious dude. Last but not least, the pirate whore. Actually Isabella is the lesser of evils here, which is sad cause she's the whore.

****End of Spoiler****

This whole ending made me want to throw my computer against a wall. Oddly enough, the only other game's ending that pissed me off more was Mass Effect 3. With the ending of DA2 the Mass Effect 3 ending really should have shocked me.


Now on to the DLC.

The Exiled Price. This was a launch day DLC that gave you a new companion to add to the mix. It was pointless, and should have already been in the game. I didn't ask for a yet another card board companion. Yet Bioware thought I just really needed one. Thankfully, this came with  my pre-order. I just feel sorry for those who paid the 8.99 to buy this worthless content.

The Black Emporium. This DLC was actually kind of nice to have. There are no missions here, but instead you get a rare items store. His shit is expensive, but everything here is easy enough to save up for. Plus you get to modify your character if you should choose to do so.

Legacy. This was actually a really fun mission DLC. We finally get to learn more about Hawke's father. Which was actually pretty interesting.
Hawke is being hunted down by a dwarven cartel. They want to use Hawkes blood in order to bring forth a old Tevinter Magister. I have to admit, I really enjoyed this mission. There were back stories and the Magister himself had an interesting story to tell.

Mark of the Assassin. Why the hell this DLC received so much hype is beyond me. Hawke is approached by elven rogue Tallis. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to help her steal an object from an Orleasan noble.
This DLC could have been so good. Sadly, the stealth (which you WILL need here), is poorly done at best. But, it does have several hours of game play. So if you're an Felecia Day fan, then by all means download it. I'm a fan and not even I could get in to this one.

It breaks my heart to give a Dragon Age game this kind of score. 

4/10

There are good things about this game. Sadly the bad far outweigh the good.

As I said before, download mods for this game. It makes it more enjoyable.