A Rise to Power
Story 10/10
You play as a male or a female Hawke, a refugee who has survived the ruthless attack by Darkspawn on his/her hometown Lothering. For those of you who played Dragon Age: Origins you may remember Lothering. Hawke has escaped with his family which consists of his mother Leandra, his sister Bethany, and his brother Carver. They are trying to make their way to Kirkwall and start a new life. There are many different branches to the story mode depending on how you play it. You will meet hundreds of different people along the way and even some familiar faces (some who become companions) here and there. Unlike Origins you cannot change your race this time around. You can only change your class. That will disappoint some because you are locked into being a human whereas in Origins you could choose from several of different races. With that said there are three classes in this game, Warrior, Rogue, and Mage. Each class has something they specialize in. The Warrior specializes in melee, Rouge in archery and dual blades, and the Mage in magic. There are also tons and tons of sidequest. Many people feel like sidequest in a role-playing game is more important than the main quest. Those people are sure to be happy with the amount of sidequest in this game. I found myself around 20hrs in without touching the main quest. These aren't always just quick easy sidequest either. Bioware has done a good job in making the sidequest pretty lengthy. Many sidequest have very engaging stories to go along with them. Fortunately most of the side quests are not just go here and do that. There are also companion side quest also in which basically you do things for you partners. Some of these companion side quest turn into a bigger picture when they start to connect to the main quest. This story takes place over the span of ten years unlike the Dragon Age: Origins which takes place over two years. Hawke goes from being an unknown refugee to becoming a household name and eventually becomes Champion of Kirkwall. The story is being told by one of your companions, Verrick. Verrick is a Dwarf Rogue who is one of Hawkes companions throughout the whole game. He is telling the story to Cassandra Pentaghast, a Chantry Seeker who has captured him and is questioning him about Hawke. Verrick tells the story about the how the champion rose to power. The story he tells changes based on how you play the game. How you become the champion of Kirkwall is all up to you. Do you become champion by helping others, sacrificing yourself and doing what is right, or do you become champion by only helping yourself and doing things that will only benefit you. There are many different choices that will be made in the story. Choices made in Dragon Age: Origins will also affect the background of the story in Dragon Age 2. If you have a completed game of Dragon Age: Origins you will be able to transfer it over into Dragon Age 2. If you do not you will be asked to choose one of the three builds the default "Hero of Ferelden", The Martyr or "No Compromise" these are basically describing the types choices you made in Dragon Age: Origins, and one of them will be used for a default background. Choices play a big part in the story mode as choices you make will determine the lives of not only you and your party members but also the lives of other people in the city of Kirkwall.
Gameplay 9/10
The gameplay mechanics in Dragon Age II has been greatly improved from its predecessor. There are four different difficulty settings ranging from Casual all the way up to Nightmare. The fighting is much faster this time around. In Origins the fighting was much slower and for some gamers it was a little bit disappointing. The faster paced fighting will not satisfy everybody though. There are some people who like the slower paced fighting as it gives them time to have more control over the battlefield and time to choose spells and other moves. Gamers who are a fan of slower paced gameplay Bioware has given you the ability to pause the gameplay all together and strategize how you see fit, as you can select different moves you want to use and also choose for your companions if you want. However you decide you want to fight, I am sure that you will find a way that suites how you want to engage in battle. You can equip your weapons along with your companion's weapons with runes. These are items you collect of enemies or are awarded for completing certain task. These runes make your weapons stronger by adding elemental damage to them or increase other stats. This time around you cannot change the armor your companions wear. You can only upgrade their current clothing or armor. Dragon Age 2 also has a tactic feature. This is a very impressive feature as it lets you choose how you want your teammates to fight when different situations arrive. For example if there are three or more enemies surrounding your teammate you can make his tactics switch over to him being on the defensive. You can also make them take a health potion automatically if their health drops to a certain percentage of your choice. You can make them naturally aggressive fighter, range fighters, defensive fighter, and even cautious fighters so they won't do things that will hurt them or the team. You can control exactly what your teammates do without having to exactly control them. The tactic system is definitely one of the most impressive features of Dragon Age II and adds to the strategic portion of this game.
In Origins your character was silent and did not utter a word, but in Dragon Age II Hawke is fully voiced. Bioware has also introduced a new dialogue system. This new system is very similar to Mass Effects dialogue system. There are up to six different responses to choose from that basically paraphrase what your character is going to say in a few words, and these responses are put on a Dialogue Wheel. The difference between this system and Mass Effects system is in the middle of the Dialogue Wheel it will show you the intent of the response. For example if somebody ask you a question the dialogue wheel will show you if the answer you are going to choose will be taking as a response of violence or anger, calm response, sarcastic, flirty, etc. This new system makes dialogue more realistic and fluent as you don't have to have huge gaps in between as you read the response like in Origins. Dragon Age II also uses a Friendship and Rivalry system. Your companions will have an approval meter. This meter shows you if your companion is a friend, rival or neutral. Companion's friendship will go up if you make decisions that the specific companion agrees with. This is not always the case though. Sometimes you will improve friendships by disagreeing with a companion and helping them see the error of their ways. Making friends with a companion usually means you are making enemies with another one because your teammates are all from different backgrounds and look at things in different ways. One companion may be aggressive and ruthless wanting you to kill someone or something, while others may want you to do the exact opposite. No matter what decisions you make all of your companions will remain loyal and support you but there will be noticeable dislike and hostility there. Along with this Friendship and Rivalry system, romance is back in this game. You can start a romantic relationship with five different companions. It doesn't matter what you friendship is with the companion because you can still romance them. You can also give gifts to spark up different romantic conversations.
Crafting has also been improved in Dragon Age II. Unlike Origins you do not have to carry around all the ingredients that you have. Once you find ingredients they will automatically go to all of the crafting vendors in the game. This system makes it so now you have to do more exploring for ingredients but don't have to worry about having them all in your inventory at once. The talent tree has also been re-worked so you can choose moves you actually want to use instead of being forced to unlock ones you don't. In Origins in order to unlock moves and spells you would have to unlock the moves or spells that came before it. In Dragon Age II this is not the case. Bioware has introduced a web talent tree. Now you have more choices to choose and can make your way around some of the moves or spells you do not want to unlock. You cannot just simple go to the strongest moves in the game though. You must still have a certain amount of moves/spells unlocked to unlock the stronger ones. You can also upgrade moves/spells that you have unlocked already with points you are awarded at every level. The only flaw I can really mention gameplay-wise is the loading. Everywhere you go there will be a load screen. Whether it's going inside a cave, a building, a different area, or even your own house, there will be a loading screen. Seeing as you do a lot of traveling sometimes loading will tend to become tedious. Installing the game to the hard drive does improving loading greatly and is highly recommended. Regardless the loading doesn't take away from the experience and the gameplay is very fun as there are many different ways to battle enemies in this game, an improved dialogue system, and a re-worked talent tree.
Graphics & Sound 8/10
Origins, while still an awesome game, took some heavy criticism in the visual department. Bioware promised to bump up the graphics and they have done just that. Dragon Age II looks way better than its predecessor in every aspect. During combat you will see blood flying everywhere landing on the ground and also your player and companions. Character models are more crisp and detailed and so are the environments. The lighting is done pretty good, but there are some areas that could use some work. The framerate while not the best in the business is decent here. There are not many slowdowns here at all. One thing that is consistent throughout the game is that there is always a small little pause each time you go from dialogue and back into combat. The pause is not anything to bad just thought it was worth mentioning since it is consistent throughout the game. There were not really any notable glitches through the game which is very impressive for a game this size. The sound is also impressive. Dragon Age II is composed by Inon Zur. Just like Origins, Inon Zur does a spectacular job with the score in this game. The music will immerse you into the setting of this game. Nicholas Boulton and Jo Wyatt also do a good job voicing the male/female voices of Hawke.
Playtime/Re-playability 10/10
Dragon Age II is a long game and will take a long time to complete. There are tons of different things that can be done and tons of different quests to be completed. Since this game changes on the types of choices you make, it is highly encouraged that you play through Dragon Age II more than once because as you make different choices there will be different consequences. You will definitely get a different experience each time you replay the game. Playing as a different class also is a good reason to replay Dragon Age II because every class offers a different style of play. Dragon Age II will run you around 60 hours plus to complete depending on how you play.
Final Verdict 9/10
Pros
-Improved Gameplay
-Tons of Side Quest
-Better Graphics
Cons
-Framerate
-Can't Change Race
-Excessive Loading
Overall Dragon Age II is an awesome game and is definitely going to be a Game of the Year contender. With all of its improvements from gameplay to graphics this is game is worthy of the $60 dollars price tag. There are so many different ways you can go about playing this game and tons of different choices you can make. This encourages more than one playthrough because you will have a different experience each time. If you are trying to do everything in this game from side quest to collecting everything expect to spend 60 hours or more in the Free Marches. If you are a fan of RPG games this is hands down, without a doubt a good addition to your collection.