Dragon Age 2 – Game Analysis & Review
By Patrick Newman
Developer: BioWare
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Composer: Inon Zur
Engine: Lycium
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Mac OS X
Release Date: March 8, 2011
Genre: Role-playing
Mode: Single-player
Rating: Mature
The second game in Bioware/EA’s Dragon Age franchise (discounting the Awakening expansion pack and DLC), Dragon Age 2 boasts impressive graphics and voice acting, rendering its city of Kirkwall spectacularly, but fails miserably as the gameplay becomes bogged down in simplistic combat sequences and menial tasks. The sense of excitement and adventure that was so abundantly on display in Dragon Age: Origins has diminished significantly with this sequel.
The plot kicks into action with the introduction of Hawke, the protagonist, fleeing his/her village from a cadre of invading Darkspawn. After being rescued by Flemeth the witch, last seen in Dragon Age: Origins, Hawke moves to Kirkwall and within one year begins to mount a quest to the Deep Roads with a squad of dwarfs. The first order of business is to collect 50 gold pieces by enlisting in side quests for the townspeople. Since Dragon Age 2 is a frame story, contrasting the fated future with the immediate present, it becomes clear that Hawke is destined to become the Champion of Kirkwall, and that the world off the game is riding the razor’s edge of a massive war.
The action and plot of the game, unlike others of its genre, is concerned almost solely with the political developments within the city of Kirkwall. Though the city contains districts with distinctive aesthetic and visceral qualities, such as the foreboding Darktown and the Camelot-esque Hightown, overall the smaller scope of the game robs it of the epic quality most players expect from games inspired by stories from the likes of Tolkien. The sense of the journey that is so central to these narratives isn’t made integral here, and the storytelling style of Dragon Age 2 is more linear than its predecessor, focused on only a few arcs that branch away from the main line.
A highly enjoyable aspect of Dragon Age 2 that often compensates for the uninspired gameplay is the characters that populate Kirkwall. Much like the first game, first-rate voice casting gives characters in the game a high degree of human complexity, even if the character models aren’t up to its standard. Dialogue becomes central to the game’s quests, as lines dictated by characters such as Aveline or Varric can take Hawke down new avenues, involving him with quests.
These quests range from the mildly stirring to flat-out-boring, involving rescuing one caste of the townspeople from another in clashes between Templars and Mages, and saving civilians unfortunate enough to be set upon by thugs or to have fallen to the foot of a mine. While the combat system in Dragon Age 2 benefits from having more player-driven controls, there is a repetitiveness to the battles that drains enthusiasm for them fast. Strategy, save for a few compelling boss fights, is nearly absent from Dragon Age 2’s endless skirmishes, and the magic system isn’t implemented in an accessible enough way to prompt anything more than spamming spells during the big battles to get ahead.
More streamlined than its predecessor, Dragon Age 2 boasts distinct graphical improvements, excellent voice-over and full-blooded characters, but suffers overall from repetitive environments, gameplay routines more concerned with the mundane than the fantastic, and a limited scope to its environments. For hardcore fans of RPG’s, the twenty-one hours of gameplay that Dragon Age 2 offers might be worth the minor quibbles, but one can’t help but compare the sequel to its original, and find this development of the franchise to be broadly disappointing.
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