Dragon Age II (PS3) - Review

Dragon Age: Origins is surely going down as one of my favorite RPG titles of any of the console gaming generations.  With repeat playthroughs and hours upon hours put into it, I will be holding onto my copy of the Ultimate Edition for quite some time. As much as many may want to deny it, however, that remarkable RPG that I hold very near and dear... had a sequel, a very... polarizing sequel, to say the least. Now it’s no secret that I’m a fan of BioWare’s Western RPGs thanks in no small part to Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age: Origins, whereas Bethesda tends to offer a very open and accessible world with irritating bugs and lack of depth or emotion, BioWare tends to offer an engaging narrative with memorable characters while providing interesting gameplay. However, to put it plainly, they fumbled the ball on this one.

Dragon Age II begins with Cassandra Pentaghast beginning an interrogation with Varric Tethras in the aftermath of the the game’s storyline. In his interrogation, Varric narrates the events preceeding, and we go back to the beginning. The Hawke family, including Bethany, Carver, Leandra Amell, and yourself (first name inputted by the player) are fleeing Lothering during its attack by the Darkspawn Horde in Origins. The player chooses a between a Warrior, Mage, or Rogue as well as his or her gender, absent from the previous game however, is a choice of race, including an elf or a dwarf. 

The Hawke family is joined by Aveline Vallen and her husband, who shortly dies along with Bethany or Carver depending on your class. Returning from Origins is Flemeth, Morrigan’s mother, who helps the Hawke’s and Aveline to transport to Kirkwall in exchange for delivering an item to the Dalish elf tribe in the surrounding area. Over the course of the story, you will become known as the Champion of Kirkwall, and will decide the fate of the city as tension between the Templars and Mages grow, setting the foundations for a war in the next game. You will be joined by many a companion, including Varric himself, Anders (who returns from Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening), Isabela (originally a duelist in The Pearl brothel in Origins) and others.

Shawn Hawke, my protagonist.

To get straight to the point, being the Champion of Kirkwall isn’t as exciting as it may sound, especially when compared to being a Grey Warden in the first installment. Due to Kirkwall and the surrounding mountains being the primary setting for the story, you’re unfortunately reduced to a custodian with a sword, but not quite a mercenary. The plot suffers heavily from being mostly (if not entirely) build-up for Dragon Age III, which at the time of this review, is in development. While I did feel that the climax and ending to the game were satisfactory, a lot of the preceding narrative remains stagnant from a storytelling perspective, I found myself uninterested a considerable amount of times.

Taking example from the Mass Effect franchise, the dialogue list from the first Dragon Age has been replaced by the dialogue wheel and like the aforementioned franchise’s Commander Shepherd; Hawke has a voice for both genders as opposed to The Warden being the silent protagonist outside of taunts and quips during battle. Core gameplay and user interface have also seen a significant change, as abilities have been organized into different sections and trees depending on specialization, which replaces the original game’s ability chart. Combat is now more action-oriented, with added button mashing and faster-paced conflict. While I miss the more methodical gameplay adopted from KotOR, I do like Dragon Age II’s new mechanics. I just wish they were as varied as the previous game’s.

Despite my complaints, I can’t help but admit that the new characters grew on me, and they helped carry me through the tale, as well as cameos of characters from Origins based on my imported save file, and save imports throughout sequels are always a plus for me, especially when it deals with a different main protagonist. I'm also not sure whether the graphics are better or worse than the previous game because of the very different design choices, but I do feel that Origins seemed to have more life in character expression. In the end though, Dragon Age II, while a disappointing sequel, does have more heart than most generic titles out there, even if at times it can get extremely, and I mean extremely boring. I look forward to seeing how BioWare will hopefully making up for its shortcomings in the next installment, which this successfully got me excited for. 7 out of 10.