By Sam Coles:
Dragon Age is a series that has a special place in my
heart with Origins being my favourite in the series; however a lot of people
seem to hate the sequel Dragon Age II. In my opinion the game is really good,
but I understand people’s criticisms of the game where it is only set in one
city, with a few dungeons and outsider areas. Does it make it a bad game? No
absolutely not, because with the tighter focus you have a narrative that has is
easy to follow with political intrigue between the Templars and Mages.
Dragon Age II begins during the events of Origins where you
step into the shoes of Hawk, where you find yourself and your family fleeing
Ferelden when the blight is taking over the region. After a tough battle
against the savage beasts known as the Darkspawn, you end up sailing to the
city of Kirkwall a big city situated on a remote island. All is not easy as the
city has become overwhelmed due to the massive influx of refugees who are
fleeing the blight, not only that there is political tension between the
Templars and Mages a theme that is explore throughout the series, but is
explore further in this game. I like the story in this game, yes it does have a
rather slow start but the political undertones in the latter half of the game
are really interesting and you end up having to choose a side.
Gameplay was a big split for fans due to the fact they ditch
the tactical gameplay, which is not true but they did streamline it a bit. You
can now fight in real time which is a nice change if you thought the tactical
combat was overwhelming, but if you still favour that other system you can
still zoom the camera out and strategically place your party members around the
map. You are still able to tweak your party members such as being able to make
them selfheal if they are at a certain amount of health which I do recommend as
they have a tendency of getting themselves killed.
The other aspect that people were disappointed with was the
fact you could not pick another race as you could only pick a human that was
either male or female and you could only pick from warrior, rogue and mage
classes. People missed the “Origins” aspect from the original game, but this
game was written about a singular character so it makes sense to make the
character one race as the story is written to fit that agenda. The game doesn’t
lack customisation as you can mould your character as you see fit when it comes
to the faces and armour sets. I do certainly agree that the game does not
really feel like Dragon Age in terms of its mechanics as it feels more like
Mass Effect, but to be honest influences from that game were bound to bleed on
Dragon Age.
Visually the game looks pretty good compared to the original
which has aged as gracefully as a sack a bricks falling from a tall building.
Characters have almost a cell shaded look to them; I’m not sure if it is but
they do look more cartoonish compared to the first game. Environments look
okay, nothing mind blowing as some areas can look really drab and too clean
with no blemishes on the landscape. The blood effects look really good and have
more of a moist look to them rather than it looking like tomato ketchup being
spilt on a napkin.
The only negative I have with Dragon age II is on the technical
side and that is the frame rate when you’re engaged in conversation. The frame
like the original has a habit of dropping when you’re in conversation, but I
think this is only when you have certain status effects with your characters.
Dragon Age II does not deserve the negative attention it
gets, yes it is smaller than the first game, but this provides the player with
a tighter narrative and focus. If you have a PS3 or 360 knocking about still I
would recommend picking this game up it’s really cheap or you can get it very
cheap on Steam.
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