Dragon Age came out just over two years ago, and took the RPG world by storm, showing just how well BioWare built RPGs and how good they are at storytelling. As expected, two years down the line, it’s sequel time, and Dragon Age 2 is set to deliver a bigger, better and feature filled game than its predecessor. On some areas, it succeeds, on others, it fails.
Dragon Age 2 is a story driven RPG where your decision have a big impact on how the game plays, it’s the exact opposite of the very linear games we see (like Call of Duty). In Dragon Age 2, your character moves through the world and through the story the way you want it, based on your decisions, meaning there’s always a reason to go back and play it over again, choosing a different path and getting a different outcome. There are numerous quests throughout the game, where you’ll do different jobs, meet different people, and so on, good ol RPG style. You can chose between three classes, Mage, Warrior and Rogue, which are pretty straightforward if you’re an RPG fan.
Dragon Age 2 takes the inventory and skill-set management and greatly simplifies it, which is never a bad thing. But this time, it’s been simplified a bit too much, which might disappoint hardcore RPG fans. On the upside, the simplified management and combat means that you’ll be spending less time tweaking things and pausing the game to manage stuff, and more time actually playing it. Remember in Dragon Age 1, where you had to pause the game before every big battle and navigate through your spells to get the upper hand on your enemy? In the sequel, it’s a bit easier.
One thing we didn’t like a lot is all the talking that’s going on. There’s a lot of dialogue — but good dialogue — which sometimes gets in the way of actually playing the game. This time, your character is fully voiced, meaning there’s a lot of back and forth discussions with other characters, like Mass Effect, another BioWare series. On top of that, the story is kinda bleak, certainly not up to par with Dragon Age 1 and the two Mass Effect games. You character is homeless and his job is essentially to rise out of poverty. Why? No real reason. No real motivation. Meaning the quests aren’t really connected, but they are quite good, in and of themselves.
Overall, Dragon Age 2 simplifies some of the combat and inventory management, and the game plays a lot faster as well. Visually, it also looks better, but still looks kinda dated, with low res textures and a washed out look. Story wise, it’s not as good as the previous game, and the dialogue cut scenes tend to go on for longer than necessary. Dragon Age 2 might not be the best RPG to recommend for veterans of the original game, especially if they’re hardcore RPG fans who like a challenge. In many ways, Dragon Age 2 is a lot easier and simpler to play than the original. For better or worse.
The Good:
More streamlined combat
Great quests
Interesting characters
Great soundtrack
The Bad:
Visually, still looks a bit dated
Story is weak
Atrocious loading times on consoles (PC version loads quickly)
Too much reliance on dialogue and cut scenes
Overall score: 8/10
