Dragon Age the Action RPG version. A thorough look into the spars ups and plentiful disappointments of Dragon Age II.
The simple breakdown of "Dragon Age II" is like so...
Graphics/Character Performance and Animation – 8/10
Fun Factor – 5/10
Story – 7/10
Controls- 9/10
User Interfacing – 7/10
Learning Curve – slopped for everyone
Sound – 9/10
Value - 4/10
Total – 7 / 10
When you first start the game you are fleeing events that happened during the Blight war near the beginning of the first game. These events are the pillaging of a town called Lothering. You're in control of the main protagonist Hawke and you're with your mother, brother, and sister fleeing the corrupted darkspawn invasion of your home town. After you flee the nation of Fereldan you and your family set sail for the seaside city of Kirkwall. You departed for the city of Kirkwall with hopes to reclaim your family's wealthy heritage there, but on arrival you discover that your only surviving relative has squandered the family name and riches. Dragon age II is more about the daily life of an ambitious peasant (Hawke family), the companions he meets and befriends along the way, and his struggle and rise to fortune and fame than it is about war, archdemons, or the blight. As a mater of fact, the main storyline basically has nothing to do with the first game and whatever darkspawn you find are far, few, and in between.
The main story is still fairly good, but is obscured by very very many pointless side-quests that barely peak any interest because of their extremely repetitive nature, lack in sense of meaning and focus, and the quest's dull series of events that are executed during their completion. On the other hand, the companion's quests start off slow and a bit dry in the beginning acts of the game, but become very interesting toward the end. The story is still thrown into the amazingly realized Dragon Age universe with the complexities of conversation choices and out-comes making a return, but this time around are more reminiscent of something you have seen if you have played Mass Effect. These conversation choices have had a small icon attached to each answer to indicate the attitude and or emotion of the answer you are picking. In some ways this is good and in some ways it isn't at the same time. One aspect that makes it good is because before you were not 100% if your guy was being a sarcastic jerk or not, but at the same time, now in DA II, it also takes out any wonderment of the reaction each choice's answer might invoke on the recipient. So the conversation choices have been made extremely simple to know what their outcome will be and there are a ton of conversations to be made using this system throughout this game from the start to its' completion. Don't let the magnitude of conversation choices fool you though. I've talked to many people who have beat the game and basically everyone reports the exact same ending. Meaning...in the end, you have little to no impact on the events or world around you.
Another game mechanic taken from Mass Effect is the ability to ONLY be able to choose your character's first name, and not the last name, the last name is a prefix...Hawke. This is ingenious, because it allows the player to create their own character and also gives all NPCs a scripted dialogue to refer to them as. Furthermore, it is a very nice change to have your main character have a voiced opinion about what is happening. Impart, I believe this is why people say the cast from Dragon Age 2 is not as good as Origins. For example, before you would choose your dialogue answer and the dialogue's actions would mostly be carried out, in some manner, by the other members of you party. Like, when you pick your conversation choices before your accent into the final battle on the way to the Archdemon and Alistair rallies the armies in a "Braveheart-esque" fashion. Thus creating what appears to be a much more lively and believable party that the player can draw a connection to. I believe with Hawke's outspoken dialogue that he steals the show a bit and overall the lack of the ability for companions to be overly involved they got a bit downplayed. So it is a bit of a "catch-22" sacrifice one for the other or vice-versa. Either a beloved created character or cronies. I am sure they'll deliver both eventually.
As far as character creation goes the character creation aesthetics are just as good if not better than the Origins' character creation system , but there is no longer different races or racial abilities that came with them. Most likely, people wouldn't have been as upset by this feature if they would have incorporated a different region where your character was born, thus creating different racial abilities and adding another level of character customization. But, talking about hypotheticals and speaking in hindsight is both pointless and stupid. I'm sure I'll do it again though. You still choose from the same three Dragon Age franchise classes of Mage, Warrior, and Rogue. As far as equipment customization goes it is pretty much on par with DA:O. Only for your created character though. The other members of your group can have their equipment up-graded but not in the same manner as DA:O. Your companion's armor is upgraded through buying upgrades from merchants or randomly finding upgrades on quests. Their armor's outward look never changes though. It is kind of silly to be quite frank. This takes away from a sense of progression and it is entirely stupid that some companions might be wearing their full suit of armor even when the quest your on is supposed to be about them going on a date. Besides upgrading their armor you can change out their accessories and weapons. These equipment alterations do change in appearance.
The equipment user-interface has been mainstreamed. The UI is very easy to use and understand, which is fine, but is completely and utterly ugly. Every item archetype have the exact same icon, every ring has the same "ring" icon and every amulet icon is the same and their names are just as generic as well with names like "ring" and "dagger".
Dragon Age II almost feels as though it should not be considered a different Dragon Age tale worthy of being called part two. It feels as though it should be something like Dragon Age: Rise of a Champion (or something like that) the action RPG. In the same fashion and comparison to how Baldur's Gate had I&II yet they also had the action RPG versions Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 1n2. At the start the story follows in... "meanwhile", if that makes sense, with the first game. In other words, they're going on simultaneously. MEANWHILE back at Dragon Age: Rise of the Champion (that was my 60's Batman announcer's voice). With the disjointed chronological mishaps and FAR departure from the original's combat mechanics the game feels as though it is too separated from the roots that made the Dragon Age name a success. Furthermore, the game simply feels like a different game (different, not the sequel) through fighting and combat mechanics.
Dragon Age II almost feels like it should now have a multi-player function. I believe this feature would bring the game's score and fun factor up. I would have never said these things before, because it would be defeating the whole purpose of the micromanaging in a "team group-control-style" RPG, but it feels as though they have already defeated that purpose.
For example, I have tried the demo on the PC and now own the Xbox version and i have to say that I am disappointed with the PC version. Whereas before i absolutely preferred the PC version and loved the game on PC. Maybe I just needed to remap the "weak attack" button, from the left-click of the mouse and place it somewhere better, but I really dislike the need to continuously click on my target to do my..."auto-attack" skill. It just seemed monotonous and by the end of the game it feels extremely tedious. I hope they add an option in the radial menu, or something, to make it so one click will make the character you're controlling continuously attack their target. This function of continuously mashing your weak attack feels trivial and shallow for a game like this.
Dragon Age is supposed to be about micromanaging an entire team and I feel as though I am missing things or not giving my other teammates the acute attention they deserve because I am mindlessly smashing the A button (or left click) as filler or my guy will just stand there while actual skills are on cooldown. Although this function is much less noticeable and or just more enjoyable on the Xbox, it is still bland in either case. Besides the "nonauto-attack" issue I like most of the combat changes for the better. Although at times attack animations can feel ridiculous because of rogues jumping ten feet up and fifteen feet forward and warriors and mages feel like they're from JRPGs with over-the-top swords and anime attack stylizations. Origins was a fantasy game but it felt as though it was grounded in reality through a more realistic medieval influence. And don't get me started on the absence of the fatality finishers. Remember in Origins when you would seldom go into a random differing fatality attack when an enemy was close to death and finish them off with some pazaz? Well, they have done away with that in place of a simple polygon explosion death for...everything. One-handed dagger stab? Bloody polygon explosion. Normal arrow to the face? Bloody polygon explosion. Frozen solid? Bloody polygon explosion. Not only do the fatalities not vary whatsoever, but they also look atrocious. I'm talking Quake 1 bad, 10+ years old bad.
Now that I've covered most of the noteworthy combat flaws let's talk about some of the improvements. The actual combination of team members to enemy buffs and debuffs make for a much more solid experience with cross class effects. These cross class effects are when one of the game's three classes (rogue, warrior, or mage) adds a hindering effect to the enemy. For example, the rogue disorients, the warrior staggers, and the mage brittles the enemy. Whenever one effect is applied to an enemy the other two classes can have their talent tree skills enhanced for extra damage or effects. So, when the warrior applies stagger either the mage or rogue can have possible enhanced skill effects added to that enemy and if a mage makes an enemy brittle either the warrior or rogue can have extra effects and so on. These effects make your talent tree skills feel important and encourage their use in association with your other teammate's abilities. The talent tree skills are very smooth and satisfying in their execution. Combat still feels derivative of MMO-style combat with the use of talent tree skills that have cooldown timers and auto-attacking and potion chugs in the meantime. Combat can feel pretty good at times.
The battles, on the other hand, situationally have been regurgitated. Almost every battle situation is exactly the same and becomes very repetitive. There are almost always many archers, melee guys, and enemies always "pop out", not teleporting or stealthing in, from nowhere. It feels as though no one sat down and really tried to think of any awesome or unique battles scenarios for the encounters in the game. Roughly every single major battle has the exact same mechanic to every fight which is more "adds" popping up at intervals in certain enemies' hit point percentages. An ambush is only an ambush if it is unexpected...it happens 90% of every fight in this game. In the end, any combat improvements don't get a chance to shine because of the dull and boringly tedious battle situations. Every situation feels like a "horde mode" with enemies appearing from nowhere and splashing you with wave after wave in every effort to depart the Dragon Age staple away from its tactical situational roots.
Besides the weakened battle scenarios becoming far too predictable and mundane the talent tree themselves have been dumbed down and or had versatility taken away as well. For example, the trees are now "webbed", but they only give the illusion of choice and flexibility. An exact example of this can be found in the rogue's subterfuge tree. So say you choose the skill "stealth" and then you're wanting to go to either "ambush" or "lingering". You may think "okay I can either waitout the tree in levels and just not put more points into the tree as to wait til I get to the required level to obtain "ambush"(lvl 4) or "lingering"(lvl 6)", but then you realize that they also have more stipulations attached to be able to obtain the skill. Such as, also requiring other skills, so many points distributed in that specific tree, and or still the level requirements. Then you realize it is impossible to get to the top right portion of the Subterfuge tree without getting "Evade" even though it is not connected to anything in that part of the "webbing". In addition, these multiple requirements defeat the whole purpose of a "web system". With the "web system" you would assume you could go down one direction then take a completely different direction and totally bypassing some unwanted skills to reach what you want, but you can't because every single skill in the game requires every connecting skill "branch" that touches a skill you want to be chosen to be able to obtain it. So in reality these skill "trees" are more linear than the ones in DA:O...which were straight lines. This is because the trees have been slimmed down and the actual amount of different functioning skills are not there and are much fewer in number. The bulk of points go into little itty-bitty side skills that enhance your already existing skills that have a function. At least in Origins they didn't try to make a facade to masquerade around a supposedly more diverse skill distribution system with a false web system and a bunch of skill segments that don't have an interactive function.
The environments in Dragon Age II look great. Even though some of the environments have improved in aesthetics you can not help but feel as though the maps are "flat", narrow, and very linear. Also, you can tell Dragon Age II was made over the holiday months because BioWare definitely had out their cookie cutter. The exact same environments and maps are used and reused over and over and over. Ten years are supposed to be passing in your stay in Kirkwall, but roads still have the same over-turned or wheel-missing wagons on them and the city never expands with construction or renovations. Also, 95% of the game takes place in two major locations, Kirkwall and the coast by Kirkwall...that is it. When i am going into a fantasy world i want it to be just that...a world, not just a town and its beach.
One of the stars of Dragon Age II is its music. I loved the music of DA:O because it was very tribal and almost at times evil sounding while also feeling primal and epic. In DA2 the music has returned to doing all these things and yet taking it to the "next level". They have taken it and exacerbated it. I know that exacerbate means to compound an already existing problem, but that works here.
All in all, Dragon Age II is a good ACTION RPG with the ability to stop time and control multiple team members at once, but doesn't stand up to its predecessor's level of team/character development and intellect asked of the audience. As you have read what I have said you may have noticed that I have repeatedly said "less this...changed that". Dragon Age II doesn't feel so much as they have "trimmed off the fat" but have only given you half of your steak. With nearly every aspect feeling like a rush job from the non-tactical combat and exploding foes to the departure in narrative from the original and recurring environments REPEATEDLY the game simply falls short of its more superior pedigree. Especially after playing "Dragon Age: Origins" I am expecting a certain level of a interactive chess-like strategy and tactics, not just through gameplay and variety of battles and their mechanics, but also through deep character creation and developmental options...Not an action RPG. Though both game genres have their merit and I enjoy both, this game doesn't deliver exactly what was or should be expected only one installment after the launch of the franchise, but is still good...not great and nothing special.
If you're wondering about buying Dragon Age II my answer is this. If you're really into action RPGs or basically non-tactically thought provoking combat you could really like this game. It is like an MMO action role-playing game with some good RPG elements and combat ideas that fell a little short because of other weak game mechanics and execution. If you were a big fan of DA:O and really loved it, I would say play DA2 at your own risk...it could spoil the whole experience for you all together.