Game Review - Retrospective: Dragon Age II

 Review: Dragon Age II

About The Game

Dragon Age II is the sequel to Dragon Age Origins and starts around the same time, during the Fifth Blight. In this game you take on the role of Hawke as they flee the darkspawn and travel north to Kirkwall, a city state that is part of the Free Marches. It features a revamped combat system, new and returning characters to get to know and a voiced protagonist. 

The game also features a system where you can import your save from Dragon Age Origins and see some real consequences for decisions you made in the previous game. 

Dragon Age II was developed  by Bioware, published by EA and available on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. It suffered a little from a short development cycle, with the base game being completed in around 16 months. 

The Good

• Combat is smoother and very satisfying to play. The three classes feel much more distinct from each other now. It's a bit more action and less strategic but still quite fun. 
• Companions and characters: all of the companions are great. They each have their own agenda and story arc separate from the main plot and will give their opinions on Hawke's decisions. Varric, Fenris, Isabela and Anders are firm favourites of mine. 
• Main plot: the story is great and reveals a lot more about the world, expanding on the lore of the first game and letting us see more of the Qunari, the Templars and the Circle of Magi. We see Hawke go from poor refugee to one of the most important people in Kirkwall, and it's satisfying.
• Seeing the effect of your choices: this is an elegant system and really helps with roleplay and world-building. The imported save lets you see the long term consequences of your choices in the first game, and can lead to some fun cameos from companions and characters we met in Origins. 
• Romances: the romance options are all interesting. It's a bit odd that all but one romanceable NPC are bisexual but it gives you the freedom of choice. Each romance has an option for a friendly or rivalry romance where the cutscenes and things are different depending on how your companion feels about your decisions. 
• New location: It's nice to get out of Ferelden and visit another location within the game. Kirkwall is distinct from Ferelden and it feels new and interesting to explore. We see a city where the distinction between the different classes is stark and obvious. 
• The narration: having the game feel like you're playing through the story as Varric tells it to Leliana and Cassandra is fun. Having an unreliable narrator makes the later parts of the story interesting and sets up the plot twists nicely.

The Not So Good

• Reused maps and assets: this isn't great. The fact that there's only a handful of map designs that are reused with only minor changes makes the exploration less fun and exciting. Mazes and puzzles lose their appeal when you already know the solution. I understand this was probably due to the short development cycle so there wasn't as much time to design unique dungeons for every location.
• The lack of freedom for the player character: after Origins which gave you several options for the backstory of your player character, creating your Hawke felt quite limiting. You were forced to be a human with choices in appearance, class and gender only. This combined with the voiced protagonist where you choose between 'nice', 'sarcastic' or 'angry' personality felt a little bit forced.
• Pacing: the main story is interesting but the pacing is a little off. Because the game adheres very strictly to a three-act structure, yet the first act takes the longest to get through, while act two seems to go by much quicker. It's not immediately clear how it all ties together unless you've really dug into the lore or you're on a second playthrough. 
• The ending does leave us with a few unanswered questions, some of which are only answered in other media such as the graphic novels and books. 

My Thoughts 

As I said, I loved Origins so much and had so much fun with it. I loved Dragon Age II as well. I took a star off just because of the repetitiveness of dungeons and the lack of incentive to explore because of it. It could have done with a bit more polish, but I think the game suffers a lot from the short development cycle. 

That being said, I had a lot of fun being a sarcastic mage Hawke and giving sass to everyone I disliked. The companions are brilliant and like Origins, I like how they have their own opinions and express them. Your decisions feel important because you see the consequences in the game. The call-backs and effects of even smaller decisions from the previous game having an impact on the sequel is perfect. 

It's a worthy successor, if a little flawed, and definitely still worth playing. The stories in this game will make you laugh, make you cry and make you angry. It really does toy with your emotions in a lot of ways. The voice acting is fantastic and I adore the companions. I mean, I could listen to Gideon Emery reading the dictionary, but he really captures the complicated emotions Fenris goes through as he fights to stay free. Adam Howden really captures Anders' personality, where little bits of his old self peek through, yet showing the changes he has gone through since leaving Amaranthine. 

Dragon Age 2 is available on Steam and EA. It is currently on sale for 85% off on Steam and it is included in EA Play if you have that. It is also still available for the respective consoles. 

Thank you so much for reading. Let me know what you think of Dragon Age II!

Emi the Cat Lady 💜