Dragon Age 2 Game Review - A big letdown from Dragon Age Origins.

Yesterday we reviewed the awesome origin of Dragon Age, today we're going to venture into the 2nd game, it's really hard to be objective on this one as it just didn't hit any of the marks or live up the expectation we had coming out of Origins, however there was....some good additions to the game but largely this will be a more negative review than I usually do, so lets jump straight into it as we review Dragon Age 2.

Setting and Story.

Before we get started, it's important to note that if this story seems disjointed from Dragon Age Origins, it's cause it is, it has basically nothing to do with the first game, hence why so many people found it jarring, the tale of Hawke in Kirkwall doesn't really follow on from Dragon Age Origins, instead it starts it's own story that while enjoyable, ultimately fell flat after the huge tale of Dragon Age Origins, anyway, lets jump into it.

The story of Dragon Age 2 begins with Inquisitor Cassandra interrogating a dwarf by the name of Varric, the inquisitors are only ever called in after an uprising by mages, we soon learn that somehow, Hawke, the champion of kirkwall managed to start a war between Mages and Templars, Cassandra interrogates Varric as to the events that led up to this so that she may find either Hawke or the Grey Warden to put an end the now bloody civil war raging all across Thedas.

The story of Hawke, and that of their family, begins after the battle of Ostgarr in Dragon Age Origins, as the south of Thedas becomes overwhelmed with Darkspawn, Hawke flees with family in toe, one thing that's important to note is that you can choose your gender for Hawke, for the purposes of this review we're going with a him, anyway, he and his family begin to flee the Darkspawn, they meet and team up with Aveline and her husband who attempt to help them flee, however Wesley is killed and as the darkspawn horde descends a giant dragon also descends to aid them, the Dragon retakes human form and reveals herself to be Flemeth.

She helps Hawke and his family flee across the oceans towards Kirkwall, provided that he does something for Flemeth, finally arriving at Kirwall they find the gates are completely overwhelmed with refugees fleeing the chaos in feralden, thinking they're safe they ask the guards to get their Uncle who owns a house in Kirkwall, but are told that he no longer has the house or the money and has fallen into disrepute, facing no choice Hawke must decide whether to work with smugglers or a mercenary group to gain entrance, they then set up in their uncles old house.

After a year or so Varric informs hawke that he and his brother are going on an expedition into the Deep Roads where there is apparently an unguarded treasure just waiting to be taken, tired of working for smugglers and mercenaries, Hawke decides to join them in their expedition, the expedition turns out to be extremely profitable for Hawke, but not without consequences, Varric's brother, Betrand, touches a corrupted idol deep in the expedition that causes him to turn on them which ultimately leads to a horde of Dark Spawn attacking them, if Hawke's sister is there she becomes fatally ill from darkspawn taint and must either die or be conscripted into the grey wardens, now rich and famous, Hawke is becoming a living legend in Kirkwall and is often seen at the high councils court.

I'm going to leave the story here because well, there's not much more to it without deep spoilers, i'll be covering more of this topic in Story and Direction but suffice it to say, you aren't staring down a Darkspawn blight like you were in Dragon Age Origins and the stakes don't seem anywhere near as high.

Gameplay

Much of what makes Dragon Age awesome is still present in Dragon Age 2, but there are a few catches, i'll be going down the list below, but it's important to note that while I have been rather negative in this review there are some very redeemable factors in DA2 one of them being the combat system, in Dragon Age Origins there was a D&D style feel to it with deep talent/class trees that branched off into other specific classes.

Whereas DA 2 made the leveling/combat/progression system a bit more streamlined and easier to access for a different crowd, that being said there were a few people who didn't enjoy it that much (me, but i'm an elitist when it comes to RPG's) and who preferred the old style of leveling but I can understand the choices here as the game did play a lot more fluidly than Origins and was more accessible to a wider audience, that being said some of the class changes weren't that great, in Origins a class could go multiple different ways and become unique, Dragon Age 2 kinda feels homogenized in the sense that Warriors/Rogues/Mages all play exactly the same, regardless of the class specialization.

Either way lets take a look at what's changed from Dragon Age Origins to Dragon Age 2, keep in mind I am skipping the class/leveling system in this review as there really isn't much to talk about, kill stuff, get experience, level up, the basic tenants of RPG.

A terrible change in Dialogue

One of the biggest complaints in Dragon Age 2 was the abysmal change to how dialogue is handled, in DA:Origins dialogue was vast, you could ask numerous questions and explore lore and use persuasion and intimidation to achieve your goal, in DA 2 there only ever 3 choices at a given time, all shoehorned into the trinity of "Aggressive/Humorous/Diplomatic, not only did this make the game feel a lot smaller, it sort of made Hawke look one sided as naturally most people will gravitate towards Humorous/Diplomatic, this also didn't help when given how much dialogue was stripped down from the base game, it made it feel very weak.

That's not to say it doesn't do what it's meant to, but if you just came from Dragon Age Origins to Dragon Age 2 you might be left thinking you picked up the wrong game by mistake, likewise it led to a lot of choice being taken out of the game, for those of you who don't understand old school RPG, your choices could severely alter what happens, in DA2 since the dialogue is always pointed one way you're essentially going a different road to the same destination all the time and the choices that are left up to you are basically choosing between getting stabbed or getting stabbed twice.

I know that the developers wanted the game to go a certain way but this felt like a dry run for the original Mass Effect 3 ending, where your "choices" don't actually matter since the game is going to go in only one direction every time, it's the illusion of choice that gets to you when you're aiming something a certain way only for the game to go "Woah hold on there buddy let me grab the wheel real quick" and puts you back into the middle of the road.

But negativity aside, the story line and dialogue are..."Good" in their own right as it does keep the game focused on the main objectives and what's going on, the only problem is in a game touted for it's choices it might of done better as a solely linear game rather than telling people to make their own adventure that you never get to do.

One Map To Rule Them All.

This is the biggest complaint of the game by far, whilst Dragon Age Origins had a massive, sprawling "open world" Dragon Age 2 largely takes place in one city over a period of 9 years and when i say "takes place" it's about 95% of the game, now I fell into this trap when I got the game, there are mini excursions outside the city to individual small maps but I kept thinking "wow the opening of this game is huge, iv'e been playing it for 40 hours and i'm still on the first city" only to find out, nope i'm almost done with the game.

Now look, I have no problem with a one map game, but it needs to be huge, Kirkwall isn't, it's roughly the size of say...Stormwind City in World of Warcraft with a few little additions as you continue through the main story, it changes over the years as well but it's still the same basic map for over 40 hours, at this point anyone who start to get sick of it which was one of the principal complaints about Dragon Age 2 when compared to Dragon Age Origins that was huge and had numerous unique maps to play through.

Usually I'm not one to complain about this but in a game as expansive as Dragon Age, they really missed the mark here which was rectified in Dragon Age Inquisition, but still is annoying as doing multiple playthroughs of the game are always going to be the same since it's set in a single city.

Strange Story Direction.

One thing that made Origins such a success was the emphasis on an expansive, narrative driven story that took you all over the world, Dragon Age 2 is a step down in the sense that, while yes it is a great story focusing on Hawke it kinda leaves out everything else that's happening in the world at large, the blight in Origins was huge and changed the face of the world, but we never really hear anything about it, instead we're essentially "stuck" in Kirkwall following Hawke and his friends around the same town.

The best metaphor i can use is the disconnect between Supernatural season 11 and season 12, season 11 was Gods sister trying to destroy all of creation, and season 12 was a bunch of humans dealing with some organization, in comparison it just seems really lackluster given how huge the story was in Origins, it might just be me but I feel that Dragon Age 2 was and is a game that exists outside of the proper timeline of Dragon Age with Inquisition being the direct sequel to Origins, but enough about the continuity issues what about the story itself.

If you take Dragon Age 2 on it's own merits it's a fairly decent story if somewhat...predictable? I remember being about 8 hours into the game guessing what was going to happen as it really only has one real direct narrative inside the game, that of the templars and the mages on the brink of civil war in Kirkwall, whatever my thoughts are about this story line however, it's important to point out that it is executed well and is a pretty tight story line within it's own respective game and was enjoyable after you got over the fact it wasn't the same as Origins.

Critical Review and Reception.

Iv'e been overly negative in this review, mainly because of the story direction and game play changes, but I do want to point out that this is my subjective experience with the game, i feel i hyped myself up too much for this and the fact that the developers went in a different way was always going to clash, Iv'e had a lot of people tell me they enjoy this more than Origins and vice versa, so really it's up to you to take away what you will from it, on an objective viewpoint though, it was a bit of a let down.

I'd say the biggest thing to keep in mind if you're playing the games in chronological order, is to not take Dragon age 2 as a direct sequel as that's what was the biggest let down for me, the characters from the first game didn't appear(except for one at the end if you made a choice in Origins) and the extended world of the darkspawn and the blight never really made another appearance, it really is a separate story that MAY have some relevance in number 4 when it comes out.

But it's not all doom and gloom, the updated aesthetics, party assortment and the more fluid combat are big bonuses as is the tight and linear narrative of the story, ultimately though i'd still say it's the weakest out of the franchise and Dragon Age Inquisition kind of confirmed that when they went back to open world as opposed to city based, but either way, it's still a game you should check out in the Dragon Age franchise if you're a fan and enjoy it for what it is.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review, if you enjoyed it feel free to up-vote, resteem or follow me for more content, how did you guys personally enjoy Dragon Age 2? let me know in the comments below and i'll get back to you, thanks guys!