Dragon Age 2 review
I have finally emerged from the clutches of Dragon Age 2. Took me a little over a week to finish.
Where do I even start?
I suppose I should say that overall, I loved the game. It kept the elements of DAO that I enjoyed but vastly improved on other things. It is definitely worth what I paid for it
I decided to play a rogue, my traditional favorite from DAO, with my Queen Cousland import. Rogue was a little underpowered from what I was used to in DAO. In DAO, I kept the game on Normal and managed pretty well. There were fights that were challenges, ones where I died several times, but after figuring out a better strategy, I succeeded. Not so with DA2. The first time I had to lower the difficulty to win a battle was in the Deep Roads. Dying once or twice to figure out a good strategy is okay. Dying six times in a row because you couldn’t afford a lot of health potions? Not cool. I had to do that twice in the Deep Roads (stone wraith thingy and #$@#%$@ dragon) and then on most of the boss battles throughout the game (high dragon in the mine anyone? DDDDDD: ). That being said, the final battle wasn’t all that difficult. I don’t know if it was because I finally had leveled up enough or that I had the Champion armor set and good weapons or what, but I didn’t have to lower the difficulty for fighting Meredith.
Anyway, onto the rest of the story.
I love the family element of this game. Mother, Bethany, Carver, and even Gamlen all helped to add an element of connection to this story that I didn’t expect to have. But that’s what DAO did well with the origins stories-the Warden was always leaving family behind. I like that they stayed with you in DA2 and it wasn’t just in the beginning, but all throughout the game. Even in the last conversation you can have with Bethany before the end battle talks about Carver and Mother.
It is this connection to family that made me realize why Hawke might side with the templars at the end, even if Hawke was a mage. That horrible scene with Hawke’s mother nearly moved me to tears-I literally had my hands over my mouth at some point (then hastily grabbing the controller again so I wouldn’t die).
I also love, love, loved the imagining of the elves. Giving the Dalish Welsh accents? Bioware, my heart is yours. Granted, it took me a while to get used to their new shapes, and Zevran looked completely bizarre to me (where were his eyebrows?) but overall, I loved the change. Going along with that, the graphics are amazing. Some of the characters-Anders and Fenris, especially caught my attention-had such great textures to their skin they looked real.
Speaking of returning characters… Alistair looked like kingship had made him gain a few pounds. I literally laughed out loud when he basically winked at the “camera” and said “swooping is bad.” I have a feeling that was all for the folks at swooping_is_bad. Congrats, on getting an in-game shout out!
I was also surprised but rather pleased to find that your templar ally is Cullen. I wonder, actually, if that was a DA2 specific decision after the unexpected popularity of Cullen’s character in DAO. From what I recall, Gaider had planned for him to go all kinds of crazy after the events of DAO, but he seems reasonably sane in Kirkwall. Perhaps he grew up a little?
Nathaniel Howe? Rawr. Too bad you can’t flirt with him like you could with Zevran. My Hawke, though devoted to Anders, would have been all over that broodiness. For science, of course.
And that brings me to Anders.
Well.
Those of you that romanced him know what I mean. My Hawke stayed with him in the end, but he broke her heart. I wanted there to be a conversation where she tells him exactly what she thinks of him but wants to keep him alive to force him to atone, but maybe that’ll just live in the fanficcy conversations now buzzing around in my head. I have to say that at the moment the Chantry exploded, I was nearly ready to side with Sebastian. There really isn’t a happy ending for a Hawke who romanced Anders-unless, I suppose, your Hawke hated the Chantry with as much vehemence as Anders seemed to. But honestly, that moment scared me/my Hawke: it was the first time she saw what exactly Justice had done to him. Nothing could justify the murder of an innocent woman.
And I have all these ideas where after the game they try to find Wynne, since Wynne is also a sort-of abomination. And then there was that potion that Anders said would separate him and Justice. Was that all a lie? ;_____;
And then Fenris. I haven’t worked out exactly how the friendship/rivalry thing affects the end game, but I had Varric, Merrill, Anders, and Aveline siding with me. Isabela had run away in Act 1 with the tome and Bethany, of course, was in the Circle. Fenris, who I had a high friendship score with, sided with the templars and I had to kill him. That hurt nearly as much as Anders’ actions. I really liked Fenris; as a character, he was excellently written and I was soo happy to see that he wasn’t just Zevran v.2.
I was planning to make a mageHawke next to romance Fenris with, but that road sounds like a path of AAAAANGST.
Wow, long post is long… Um, what else? Oh, speaking of the LIs… ISN’T THERE ANYONE OF THEM THAT ISN’T COMPLETELY INSANE? Seriously! Part of the appeal of Alistair, actually, in DAO was that he was so normal despite the taint and despite being a bastard prince. Even Hawke is a normal person, not even a “special” Grey Warden-they’re just a refugee who wants a better life for their family. My rogue flirted with Sebastian once, after his “loyalty” quest, but I don’t know if you can actually carry it as far as the main romances of Isabela, Merrill, Fenris, and Anders.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to play a game that sides with the templars. My rogue had always been fair-minded about them-she thought they served a useful function except when they were given absolute authority-but she was more sympathetic to the mages because of Bethany and Anders. She was excited at the prospect of the possibility of them working together with that templar Thrask, but that stupid mage had to go and ruin everything. Ugh. It felt like Bioware was dangling the peaceful, happy ending option in front of us, only to yank it away with a teasing laugh. “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” Cruel, cruel, Bioware.
But, yeah, if I’m going to side with the templars, perhaps it’ll be in my warrior playthrough since I can’t imagine a mageHawke siding with them at all.
As there was no epilogue or any type of wrap up, I’m guessing they plan to put out DA3 as soon as they can. I’m calling it now: next year’s EA3, they’ll announce Dragon Age 3.
I wonder if they’re going to go the Commander Shepard route with the popularity of Hawke and have him/her come back? I’d like that. It would provide a nice continuity to the game.
Well, now I’m hungry and must make some breakfast. Glad to get this finally out of my system!
Where do I even start?
I suppose I should say that overall, I loved the game. It kept the elements of DAO that I enjoyed but vastly improved on other things. It is definitely worth what I paid for it
I decided to play a rogue, my traditional favorite from DAO, with my Queen Cousland import. Rogue was a little underpowered from what I was used to in DAO. In DAO, I kept the game on Normal and managed pretty well. There were fights that were challenges, ones where I died several times, but after figuring out a better strategy, I succeeded. Not so with DA2. The first time I had to lower the difficulty to win a battle was in the Deep Roads. Dying once or twice to figure out a good strategy is okay. Dying six times in a row because you couldn’t afford a lot of health potions? Not cool. I had to do that twice in the Deep Roads (stone wraith thingy and #$@#%$@ dragon) and then on most of the boss battles throughout the game (high dragon in the mine anyone? DDDDDD: ). That being said, the final battle wasn’t all that difficult. I don’t know if it was because I finally had leveled up enough or that I had the Champion armor set and good weapons or what, but I didn’t have to lower the difficulty for fighting Meredith.
Anyway, onto the rest of the story.
I love the family element of this game. Mother, Bethany, Carver, and even Gamlen all helped to add an element of connection to this story that I didn’t expect to have. But that’s what DAO did well with the origins stories-the Warden was always leaving family behind. I like that they stayed with you in DA2 and it wasn’t just in the beginning, but all throughout the game. Even in the last conversation you can have with Bethany before the end battle talks about Carver and Mother.
It is this connection to family that made me realize why Hawke might side with the templars at the end, even if Hawke was a mage. That horrible scene with Hawke’s mother nearly moved me to tears-I literally had my hands over my mouth at some point (then hastily grabbing the controller again so I wouldn’t die).
I also love, love, loved the imagining of the elves. Giving the Dalish Welsh accents? Bioware, my heart is yours. Granted, it took me a while to get used to their new shapes, and Zevran looked completely bizarre to me (where were his eyebrows?) but overall, I loved the change. Going along with that, the graphics are amazing. Some of the characters-Anders and Fenris, especially caught my attention-had such great textures to their skin they looked real.
Speaking of returning characters… Alistair looked like kingship had made him gain a few pounds. I literally laughed out loud when he basically winked at the “camera” and said “swooping is bad.” I have a feeling that was all for the folks at swooping_is_bad. Congrats, on getting an in-game shout out!
I was also surprised but rather pleased to find that your templar ally is Cullen. I wonder, actually, if that was a DA2 specific decision after the unexpected popularity of Cullen’s character in DAO. From what I recall, Gaider had planned for him to go all kinds of crazy after the events of DAO, but he seems reasonably sane in Kirkwall. Perhaps he grew up a little?
Nathaniel Howe? Rawr. Too bad you can’t flirt with him like you could with Zevran. My Hawke, though devoted to Anders, would have been all over that broodiness. For science, of course.
And that brings me to Anders.
Well.
Those of you that romanced him know what I mean. My Hawke stayed with him in the end, but he broke her heart. I wanted there to be a conversation where she tells him exactly what she thinks of him but wants to keep him alive to force him to atone, but maybe that’ll just live in the fanficcy conversations now buzzing around in my head. I have to say that at the moment the Chantry exploded, I was nearly ready to side with Sebastian. There really isn’t a happy ending for a Hawke who romanced Anders-unless, I suppose, your Hawke hated the Chantry with as much vehemence as Anders seemed to. But honestly, that moment scared me/my Hawke: it was the first time she saw what exactly Justice had done to him. Nothing could justify the murder of an innocent woman.
And I have all these ideas where after the game they try to find Wynne, since Wynne is also a sort-of abomination. And then there was that potion that Anders said would separate him and Justice. Was that all a lie? ;_____;
And then Fenris. I haven’t worked out exactly how the friendship/rivalry thing affects the end game, but I had Varric, Merrill, Anders, and Aveline siding with me. Isabela had run away in Act 1 with the tome and Bethany, of course, was in the Circle. Fenris, who I had a high friendship score with, sided with the templars and I had to kill him. That hurt nearly as much as Anders’ actions. I really liked Fenris; as a character, he was excellently written and I was soo happy to see that he wasn’t just Zevran v.2.
I was planning to make a mageHawke next to romance Fenris with, but that road sounds like a path of AAAAANGST.
Wow, long post is long… Um, what else? Oh, speaking of the LIs… ISN’T THERE ANYONE OF THEM THAT ISN’T COMPLETELY INSANE? Seriously! Part of the appeal of Alistair, actually, in DAO was that he was so normal despite the taint and despite being a bastard prince. Even Hawke is a normal person, not even a “special” Grey Warden-they’re just a refugee who wants a better life for their family. My rogue flirted with Sebastian once, after his “loyalty” quest, but I don’t know if you can actually carry it as far as the main romances of Isabela, Merrill, Fenris, and Anders.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to play a game that sides with the templars. My rogue had always been fair-minded about them-she thought they served a useful function except when they were given absolute authority-but she was more sympathetic to the mages because of Bethany and Anders. She was excited at the prospect of the possibility of them working together with that templar Thrask, but that stupid mage had to go and ruin everything. Ugh. It felt like Bioware was dangling the peaceful, happy ending option in front of us, only to yank it away with a teasing laugh. “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” Cruel, cruel, Bioware.
But, yeah, if I’m going to side with the templars, perhaps it’ll be in my warrior playthrough since I can’t imagine a mageHawke siding with them at all.
As there was no epilogue or any type of wrap up, I’m guessing they plan to put out DA3 as soon as they can. I’m calling it now: next year’s EA3, they’ll announce Dragon Age 3.
I wonder if they’re going to go the Commander Shepard route with the popularity of Hawke and have him/her come back? I’d like that. It would provide a nice continuity to the game.
Well, now I’m hungry and must make some breakfast. Glad to get this finally out of my system!