Dragon Age 2 - Bioware Signature Edition

Like many people who absolutely loved the original Dragon Age and found the demo for Dragon Age 2 compelling, I was very much looking forward to this game. While DA2 is a good game in its own right, it's nearly impossible to judge it without comparing it to the original. So for those of you who spent a lot of time with the first game, here's what you can expect.

The pluses:
- Combat, while stripped down and requiring little strategy, is quite enjoyable. It's fast and every battle truly feels vicious.
- The Mass Effect 2-based communication system is very intuitive, and the expressions of your characters and voice acting are a significant upgrade.

Negatives:
- The storyline. Well, if you're expecting anything remotely as epic as the first game, get used to disappointment. There is very little character development and interaction with your team. I found myself not caring one bit about any of my squad members because none of them had a compelling background. And while I won't give away the ending, I had no interest in playing the game again after completing it - a first for a Bioware game.
- The game world is, well, small and repetitive. Get used to the architecture in Kirkwall, because with a few exceptions you'll be visiting the same places over and over again to accomplish your quests.
- The inventory system is a step back. Let's say you're playing as a rogue. Found a cool piece of armor for a warrior? Well, you're out of luck because with the exception of weapons and accessories, only the main character can equip armor upgrades.
- Much of the depth has been taken away. The original game allowed you to customize your character's abilities in survivalism, trap making, stealth, etc - all of it gone.

Even with the disappointments, in the end it was a fun game to play in its own right - just by no means a worthy successor to the original. If you're looking for a fast-paced RPG with a very simple, streamlined character management system, you'll love it. If you prefer some more steak with your sizzle, you'll probably still enjoy it as I did, but constantly wonder why they decided to fix things that weren't broken. Overall a good game that leaves me wondering what could have been.

Before I start let me say that I was a HUGE fan of Origins. I never replay games and I have run through that game about three times just to see all of the different ways it can end up. It's one of my favorite games of all time.

That being said I love Dragon Age 2. I've seen a lot of 'original fans' hating on this game so I thought I'd give another opinion of it.

First let me start with the cons:
The story isn't as epic as the first one. There's no setting a goal and running through the whole game to get that. The story isn't bad but it isn't as deep as Origins.

Second you can import your game over from Origins but it really doesn't affect too much. You might hear someone mention something that you did last game or about someone you saved last game but it really doesn't have a huge impact on this game. I would have liked for it to have affected it a little bit more.

Thirdly the main thing I personally think of as a con is you can no longer talk to your party members at any time. In origins you could turn and talk to them and have a conversation about what just happened or about their personal life or their opinions. In this game you still hear them talk but you have to wait until certain points in the story/time has passed before having to go to their 'base' and actually speak with them. When you do speak with them the conversations aren't nearly as long or as revealing about them. If they make a DA3 I really hope that they bring back the ability to talk to your party members whenever you want and not just when the developers thought you should. The characters are suppose to be your friends but the fact that you have to wait long periods of time to speak with them kind of kills that feeling.

Now the pros:
The battle system has been accused of becoming a button masher. You have to hit the X button every normal attack you do. While that does sound like some of the action games that have come out it really does have a different feel to it. Last game I played a bow using rogue. Let me tell you as that character there was a whole lot of doing the exact same thing as this game. So yes you are hitting X a lot but with all the abilities and jumping around to other characters it really is a lot deeper than just hitting X over and over. Personally the battle system feels a lot more smooth to me.

The characters are pretty interesting in this game. I was worried I wouldn't like them as much as I liked my party in Origins but I really have enjoyed 'talking' to and 'getting to know' my party members. While I do still miss my party from Origins I really do like the newer characters that are now travelling with me. Another thing is that now Hawke *the player's character* is voiced. I was not excited when that was announced and even during the demo I didn't really like how conversations were going. I missed the conversations and choices like I had on Origins. But now that I am playing I really do like talking to people and I do like Hawke a lot more than my voiceless character from Origins.

I really like how the graphics have been updated. There are still times when people look stiff but overall the environments and people look a lot better than they did in Dragon Age Origins. There are a few times when the frame rate dropped. But it was mainly when the game was saving and I ran into a story part. But it didn't happen every time and isn't really noticeable. I'm not listing this in the cons because it doesn't really happen often in my game and when my friends played I didn't see it happen at all.

The main update I liked in this game is the quests feel a little more real. In origins a lot of the quests were, go here kill this guy come back and reward. While that is still the same overall structure for this game they have made the quests a lot more interesting. For example you speak with someone and they mention they need help finding someone who has gone missing. Now instead of just being told where they are you are given places to talk to other people for more information and when you find that person it isn't just hey they're looking for you come on. A lot of times there's conversations thrown in there and you have a lot more of a choice of how you are going to help. While Origins had that in some of the main quests there seems to be a lot more freedom in how you handle all quests in this game.

The story is different and so are some of the gameplay dynamics. I do still prefer Origins but this is a great game in it's own right. You will not enjoy it if you go in wanting to play more Origins but if you go with an open mind ready for a well made fun game you should enjoy it. So if you are on the edge about this game but aren't sure because the Dragon Age fans have talked it down so much I'd say go ahead and try it. The game is fun and will keep you busy and interested for hours!

I have enjoyed almost all the games Bioware has produced in the past. Hardly anyone can deny that games like Baldurs Gate II, Dragon Age Origins and Kotor provide tons of entertainment. They received high ratings from professional reviewers and the community was pleased.

What happened? How is it possible for a gaming company to take such a nosedive in one year?

It would have been UNFATHOMABLE to even consider that the average community score for a Dragon Age sequel would be less than 60/100 but here we are.

How is it that in almost every single installment before Dragon Age 2 we had the ability to impact the world around us and the ending of the game would change depending on our choices? But now it doesn't matter who you support, not one bit. One tragedy after another isn't the core problem here but that you can't do anything about it.

What's the replay value people? Really, what is it? What can I do differently? Have sex with Merrill instead of Isabela and change my tone of voice while speaking during pre-determined events?

And how is it that romances have devolved into *press heart symbol to have h0t s3x*

What happened to gameplay? What happened to stealing, creating potions, collecting resources and having a connection with the world around us?

Where is the possibility to lie, intimidate and charm during conversations? Isn't that what roleplaying has been all about in your previous releases? You dont even need to read your own lines in DA2 (nor can you). Just choose one option from *calm*, *joke* or *angry*. Talking yourself out from a bad spot isn't really an option if the game has already decided what is going to happen.

What happened to being able to choose your own race. What's the point of having racism towards elves if you cant even play one anymore?

Customizing the armor of your companions might not seem like a big deal to many people since we are forced to use the best armor sets anyway and sell all the junk. But it does look completely stupid to have some pirate woman in a prostitute uniform fighting against a high-dragon. This is something I expect to see from square and Final Fantasy, not Bioware.

And the worst thing is that after investing over 40 hours of gameplay, there is no real ending or closure. So what's the idea behind this? Rip us off with DLC's?

And people really need to stop being naive. I hardly doubt this is going to be a prequel to some epic tale. Why should I believe that a savegame import would matter now when it has never had a major impact in the past? It's just going to be another set of cameos, letters from the people you saved and a couple of mentions about what happened in the past.

This game does its job as a linear adventure hack'n'slasher but that's it.

Just one year ago Bioware put square on blast by stating that "Final Fantasy XIII is not an RPG yadayada". And here we are now....I hope CD Projekt stays silent and walks the walk with Witcher 2, because you guys need a reality check.

On a scale from 1 to pretzel, I'm mad salty lol. I guess it's time to go back to hyping the upcoming Mass Effect 2 DLC, because atleast you still have dev-teams that know what the hell they are doing.

I give this one a 2.5/5

Bioware, I am dissapoint :(

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 38 reviews  3.2 out of 5 stars