Dragon Age 2 Review
So I finished Dragon Age 2 a few days ago, and am now on my second playthrough. All in all, I have to say that I had great fun, more fun actually than playing through the first game.
I think to explain why I dug this game, I have to talk a bit about how I played it and what happened.
Arden Hawke standing next to her BFF and the only well adjusted man in the entire game.
So I played my first playthrough as a mage, who was mostly badass and sometimes a smartass, but when it came to the mage vs. templar conflict, tried to walk a middle road of "Yes mages should be free, unless they are bloodmages, but also Templars have their place as well." With her I managed to get full friendship status with Aveline, Varric and Anders, full rival status with Carver and Merrill. However, as hard as I tried, Fenris, Isabella and Sebastian kept bouncing around in the middle and I could never get any of them to rival or friend status.
All of this led to one extremely awesome clusterfuck of an end game.
First, Carver hated my guts and because I refused to take him on the Deep Roads expedition and the asshat went out and became a Templar to spite me. I never managed to win Isabella's friendship and told her that she couldn't have the relic when I found it, so the Qunari attacked the city and she hauled ass after the dude who ran off with it and never came back. Hawke denied Merrill the tool to fix the mirror, but then went with her to the mountain top because thought she might have to kill her if the demon took over and ended up slaughtering the entire Dalish tribe.
While I wanted her to romance Fenris, she never managed to get him to like or hate her enough to do it, and so that relationship completely fizzled out after some flirting. Meanwhile, she slept with Anders, who totally screwed her over by blowing up the tower as she was desperately trying to find a way to compromise between the two parties. Then when she told Anders to leave, Sebastian had a snit because she wouldn't kill Anders and abandoned her. Finally, Fenris joined the templars and attacked her so she had to kill him.
Out of eight companions, she lost FIVE of them, started two wars, and killed an entire clan of Dalish elves. Which is sort of amazing considering that I wasn't even trying for maximum chaos and she was really trying hard to be a good person.
Anyway, it was an awesome mess at the end. I can't believe that Bioware had the balls to go there, especially with Anders.
So some bitches before we get to the stuff that I really liked:
1. The in game lighting.
It freaking sucks in this game, just like it sucks in most Bioware games. I had the brightness adjusted on both my monitor and in the game as high as it would go and with a brown skinned Hawke, I could barely see her half of the time, and she didn't even have the darkest skin tone that you could give her. It's even worse than in the Mass Effect games, where my rather dark skinned Shepard would disappear half of the time. I really wish they would fix this.
2. Graphics and Design.
While better than in the demo, this game isn't nearly as pretty as it should be. I have a hard time understanding how this game and Mass Effect came from the same damned company. Also, once again the mage robes make them look like assholes, and the hair choices are truly tragic. I'm hoping for mods to come out soon and give us better choices.
3. Guys With Major Issues.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Guys With Major Issues, but it rather sucks that they're the only options for a dude love interest in this game. I am deeply bitter that there's no Varric romance here. He's an awesome character, well adjusted, and is much better to Hawke in this game than anyone other than Aveline. Plus, I think he has the kind of personality where he'd totally at least have a fling with the PC. It makes no damned sense to me that he's not an option. However, given the end of the game that seems like it's setting up for a direct sequel, I'm really hoping that he'll be an option in Dragon Age 2.
4. The fights at the end.
Namely that no matter which side you choose, you have to fight both The First enchanter and the Head Templar, both of whom get possessed by demons. It sort of seems like a story cop out. Then again, maybe it's necessary if there's going to be a direct sequel.
Things I really liked:
1. The companions.
They were an interesting group to have around and for the most part I really liked them a lot - Aveline, Varric, Fenris, Isabella, and Merrill especially. Carver was a little shit, but then he's supposed to be a little shit. Sebastian was boring, and I sort of ignored him as much as possible. And Anders... OMG Anders. But he gets his own section.
I liked how they all had lives outside of what Hawke was doing, jobs that didn't revolve around her and other things that they cared about. I thought their banter was freaking hilarious most of the time, and ended up swapping people out a lot, just to hear what they had to say to each other.
I also liked how there were times when you could have them act for you, like this one awesome time that Varric lied for my Hawke. And while the friendship/rivalry system is far from perfect, it gives this excellent sense of free will with these people, all of whom don't fall into line and do something they wouldn't agree with just because Hawke has +5 in charisma.
2. The Anders romance/plot.
Okay so I have to qualify this. I am rather sad that Anders in this game is so different than the one we see in Awakenings. Also, I don't actually think the Anders romance is actually romantic. When I first started it, I thought it was the most god awful, cliched, sappy bullshit ever. Add on the fact that Anders definitely had a seat on the crazy bus and was swearing to drown everyone in blood, I can't say I felt warm fuzzies for the guy. I really only did the romance because I borked the Fenris one and wanted to see what would happen.
I have to give it to bioware for having the balls to have him betray the Warden's trust and go completely bonkers. Even better was that you couldn't talk him out of it. That was awesome. I'm pretty sure that when that tower exploded, I heard the screams of 1000 fangirls, which definitely did make me feel the warm fuzzies. I know that he blows up the tower no matter what, but I love the extra burn you feel if Hawke actually romance him.
Really, I don't know if bioware meant it this way, but in the end, it didn't play to me as a good man gone tragically astray, but as a selfish asshat of a man who took advantage of my Hawke's trust and totally screwed her. He kept talking about how he'd hurt her, and my god, he delivered. Which is fantastic. The real tragedy here is that my Hawke was dumb enough to romance him in the first place (I imagine her getting over it and ending up with Varric eventually, lol).
3. The combat and level design.
So much better than the first game. I know people bitch about how short this game is in comparison to the last, but honestly, I found this one much more fun. I only managed one complete run of DA:O, with Wardens stalled out at various points of the game. This game, I've already started a warrior dude!Hawke (who is all "Yay!Templars") for a second run and am actually thinking about playing a third time through to try out the rogue class and see what happens if different choices are made. It's just much less tedious and more fun to play.
Gaius Hawke is sort of a dick, and will turn you into the Templars.
4. The story.
I liked the conflict of the mages vs. templars and that there wasn't one obviously right side and that both sides had good points they were making. I liked the fact that the story doesn't start out with "OMG we're saving the world" but just your character trying to get by. I loved that there is no good/happy ending to this story, and that no matter what you do, everything goes to hell and Hawke is pretty much screwed. I also really loved the framed narrative, and sort of wished that they had done more with that.
So all and all, I had great fun playing it, enjoyed it more than the first game and am very much hoping for a direct sequel because unlike the Warden, Hawke's story doesn't seem like it's finished yet.
I think to explain why I dug this game, I have to talk a bit about how I played it and what happened.
Arden Hawke standing next to her BFF and the only well adjusted man in the entire game.
So I played my first playthrough as a mage, who was mostly badass and sometimes a smartass, but when it came to the mage vs. templar conflict, tried to walk a middle road of "Yes mages should be free, unless they are bloodmages, but also Templars have their place as well." With her I managed to get full friendship status with Aveline, Varric and Anders, full rival status with Carver and Merrill. However, as hard as I tried, Fenris, Isabella and Sebastian kept bouncing around in the middle and I could never get any of them to rival or friend status.
All of this led to one extremely awesome clusterfuck of an end game.
First, Carver hated my guts and because I refused to take him on the Deep Roads expedition and the asshat went out and became a Templar to spite me. I never managed to win Isabella's friendship and told her that she couldn't have the relic when I found it, so the Qunari attacked the city and she hauled ass after the dude who ran off with it and never came back. Hawke denied Merrill the tool to fix the mirror, but then went with her to the mountain top because thought she might have to kill her if the demon took over and ended up slaughtering the entire Dalish tribe.
While I wanted her to romance Fenris, she never managed to get him to like or hate her enough to do it, and so that relationship completely fizzled out after some flirting. Meanwhile, she slept with Anders, who totally screwed her over by blowing up the tower as she was desperately trying to find a way to compromise between the two parties. Then when she told Anders to leave, Sebastian had a snit because she wouldn't kill Anders and abandoned her. Finally, Fenris joined the templars and attacked her so she had to kill him.
Out of eight companions, she lost FIVE of them, started two wars, and killed an entire clan of Dalish elves. Which is sort of amazing considering that I wasn't even trying for maximum chaos and she was really trying hard to be a good person.
Anyway, it was an awesome mess at the end. I can't believe that Bioware had the balls to go there, especially with Anders.
So some bitches before we get to the stuff that I really liked:
1. The in game lighting.
It freaking sucks in this game, just like it sucks in most Bioware games. I had the brightness adjusted on both my monitor and in the game as high as it would go and with a brown skinned Hawke, I could barely see her half of the time, and she didn't even have the darkest skin tone that you could give her. It's even worse than in the Mass Effect games, where my rather dark skinned Shepard would disappear half of the time. I really wish they would fix this.
2. Graphics and Design.
While better than in the demo, this game isn't nearly as pretty as it should be. I have a hard time understanding how this game and Mass Effect came from the same damned company. Also, once again the mage robes make them look like assholes, and the hair choices are truly tragic. I'm hoping for mods to come out soon and give us better choices.
3. Guys With Major Issues.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Guys With Major Issues, but it rather sucks that they're the only options for a dude love interest in this game. I am deeply bitter that there's no Varric romance here. He's an awesome character, well adjusted, and is much better to Hawke in this game than anyone other than Aveline. Plus, I think he has the kind of personality where he'd totally at least have a fling with the PC. It makes no damned sense to me that he's not an option. However, given the end of the game that seems like it's setting up for a direct sequel, I'm really hoping that he'll be an option in Dragon Age 2.
4. The fights at the end.
Namely that no matter which side you choose, you have to fight both The First enchanter and the Head Templar, both of whom get possessed by demons. It sort of seems like a story cop out. Then again, maybe it's necessary if there's going to be a direct sequel.
Things I really liked:
1. The companions.
They were an interesting group to have around and for the most part I really liked them a lot - Aveline, Varric, Fenris, Isabella, and Merrill especially. Carver was a little shit, but then he's supposed to be a little shit. Sebastian was boring, and I sort of ignored him as much as possible. And Anders... OMG Anders. But he gets his own section.
I liked how they all had lives outside of what Hawke was doing, jobs that didn't revolve around her and other things that they cared about. I thought their banter was freaking hilarious most of the time, and ended up swapping people out a lot, just to hear what they had to say to each other.
I also liked how there were times when you could have them act for you, like this one awesome time that Varric lied for my Hawke. And while the friendship/rivalry system is far from perfect, it gives this excellent sense of free will with these people, all of whom don't fall into line and do something they wouldn't agree with just because Hawke has +5 in charisma.
2. The Anders romance/plot.
Okay so I have to qualify this. I am rather sad that Anders in this game is so different than the one we see in Awakenings. Also, I don't actually think the Anders romance is actually romantic. When I first started it, I thought it was the most god awful, cliched, sappy bullshit ever. Add on the fact that Anders definitely had a seat on the crazy bus and was swearing to drown everyone in blood, I can't say I felt warm fuzzies for the guy. I really only did the romance because I borked the Fenris one and wanted to see what would happen.
I have to give it to bioware for having the balls to have him betray the Warden's trust and go completely bonkers. Even better was that you couldn't talk him out of it. That was awesome. I'm pretty sure that when that tower exploded, I heard the screams of 1000 fangirls, which definitely did make me feel the warm fuzzies. I know that he blows up the tower no matter what, but I love the extra burn you feel if Hawke actually romance him.
Really, I don't know if bioware meant it this way, but in the end, it didn't play to me as a good man gone tragically astray, but as a selfish asshat of a man who took advantage of my Hawke's trust and totally screwed her. He kept talking about how he'd hurt her, and my god, he delivered. Which is fantastic. The real tragedy here is that my Hawke was dumb enough to romance him in the first place (I imagine her getting over it and ending up with Varric eventually, lol).
3. The combat and level design.
So much better than the first game. I know people bitch about how short this game is in comparison to the last, but honestly, I found this one much more fun. I only managed one complete run of DA:O, with Wardens stalled out at various points of the game. This game, I've already started a warrior dude!Hawke (who is all "Yay!Templars") for a second run and am actually thinking about playing a third time through to try out the rogue class and see what happens if different choices are made. It's just much less tedious and more fun to play.
Gaius Hawke is sort of a dick, and will turn you into the Templars.
4. The story.
I liked the conflict of the mages vs. templars and that there wasn't one obviously right side and that both sides had good points they were making. I liked the fact that the story doesn't start out with "OMG we're saving the world" but just your character trying to get by. I loved that there is no good/happy ending to this story, and that no matter what you do, everything goes to hell and Hawke is pretty much screwed. I also really loved the framed narrative, and sort of wished that they had done more with that.
So all and all, I had great fun playing it, enjoyed it more than the first game and am very much hoping for a direct sequel because unlike the Warden, Hawke's story doesn't seem like it's finished yet.