1 Track Mind

So my computer exploded and died in a dramatic fit of red dots and pixelated squares, which put a stop to my efforts on World of Warcraft.  The worst part about it was that I was flying around to some quest point some where when it happened, so my hiatus won't even gain any sort of xp bonus for being logged off in a city or inn :/  Oh well.  But all in all, that leaves me completely without a PC, which blows because I was looking forward to writing a review on League of Legend's new Co-op vs AI program to be launching soon (if not already).

While I was sulking about the death of an inorganic non-living friend, I decided to buy Dragon Age 2... to the dismay of my roommate.  He gets very attached to games, and I usually don't buy one's that he's getting as a courtesy to his feelings, that and I don't play his games until he's had his hand at them.  But he's moving out in a month or so, which means I wouldn't be able to play it anyways.  So I went ahead and bought a 2nd copy for myself.  I lucked out at the store which I got it from, as they had a few Bioware Signiture Additions left over from people who didn't pick up their pre-orders, so I snagged one :3

So onto the nitty-gritty of the review of Dragon Age 2.

Platform: XBOX 360

Rating: 8  It's as solid as bronze marigolds...


My first impressions are this, and simply this:  It's a very solid well built game.  Much like the same company's Mass Effect 2.  Choices and dialog are well thought out, well written.  A nice and deep story, which is a decent change from the recent military shooter games.  Game mechanics are very smooth and stream line.  Controls mostly fit well with what tasks are at hand.  All of these things interweave together to make a very nicely packaged game.

I might be nit picking, however, I did have some issues with the game in several areas.  The biggest problem I had was that the disk would some times not load or the Xbox couldn't read it here and there.  Graphics issues like the ground disappearing, large swatches of textures turning into bright green, yellow, blue, red, glowing patches, and things like that.  I had to cross my fingers at every loading screen, which there are many, and hope that I didn't get kicked out to my Xbox dashboard.

As far as in game issues go, SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH SO IGNORE IF YOU WANNA, in a way, Dragon Age 2 is a step backwards from Dragon Age: Origins.  In Origins, each decision you make, every step of the way, has a feeling of "meaning" something.  That is to say, if you do 1 thing, as opposed to another, you can see repercussions throughout the game, and deal with the consequences later on.  In Dragon Age 2, you can pretty much do what ever you like, and the only real changes are dialog outcomes...which in their own right had me laughing pretty hard, but still.  Through out 2 playthroughs, using decisions that are complete polar opposites, I was rather disappointed the outcomes are exactly parallel with only minuscule changes.  Party members you loose, you still loose.  The "how" might be different, they may die, they may decide to dress up like a whore and wonder the wilderness of another country for a few 100 years, but regardless, they are still gone.  A character dies off during a quest no matter what...which sucks, because it seems that you SHOULD be able to save her at some point, but no.  Hell, in the real world you could just say "Hey, there's been some stabbings, don't go out at night, and by no means, don't let any crazy fuckers buy you flowers.....with knives in them..." But no, you keep your mouth shut and she goes off to meat death....which the first time through made my jaw drop.

MORE SPOILERS: It's really as if what you did, doesn't matter.  And in the grand scheme of the game, it really doesn't.  The same betrayal happens, the same results, the same what ever.  Regardless if I'm the evil but lovable female rogue who has a very distinct hatred for mages that makes her sadistic....or the snarky do gooder, who just happens to be your friendly neighborhood blood mage.  Which brings me to another point that I was really sad about.  In Dragon Age: Origins, learning new skills, new abilities, and becoming something, was special.  Why?  Because you had to go out and find it along your travels.  Want to be an archer, train under some one with a bow.  Want better crits? screw the pirate whore.  Want to be a blood mage/blood rogue/blood sucking anything? Drink the vial of dragon blood like it was liquid candy.  In Dragon Age 2, it's handed too you.  No explanation, no waiting, no glory of conquest, just "plop" your a blood mage at lvl 7 and no one cares.  I disliked that you could only be human.  In Origins, you could select a small selection of races (dwarf, elf, human) but what made it great, was that each race had it's own story line to it.  Poor dwarfs were serfs, rich humans were nobles, elves were basically slaves, that sort of crap.  In Dragon Age 2...not so much, all three classes have the same exact intro.  The only difference is which 3rd wheel character dies at the ogre.  In Dragon Age: Origins, mages had their own special story line.... No one really knows your a mage.  It comes up in conversation and dialog options, and has a few special options here and there, but really, nothing major comes from it.  The last thing I didn't like was the fact that there was a very limited number of maps.  There were about 3 building floor plans, 2 caves, and you visit them over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.  The entire game I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to venture away from the 1 city, but no, your stuck there.  It makes the game feel a little unfinished.  As if there is supposed to be another town or city some where later, but they just never get around to letting you go there.  As a cruel joke, they have characters constantly ask you if you want to leave, then just glaze over the fact that you can't.

Somethings I do like in Dragon Age 2, are the fact that exits to levels are abundant, and there's quick travel options scattered throughout.  I like that the game progresses by skipping over boring sections.  When they say "You work 3 years as _____ job" they just time jump montage to the "you finished working for 3 years" rather than having you waste time doing menial quests over and over.  It got rid of a lot of busy work to allow for more plot.  The characters were great....most of them.  The whiny healer I just wanted an option to give him the knife to slit his own wrists, but all the other characters I really enjoyed.  My favorite is Verrak or what ever...Dwarf + Chest hair + Crossbow.  If you play a snarky character, which I recommend, always keep Verrak in your party, ALWAYS, the results get better and better as the game goes on.

Something that I'm surprised they didn't do, was a bigger quick map option.  You can only hold 6 spells/abilities in the quick map, and they really should have a way to switch it out for multiple sets of 6 (like using the + pad to rotate sets).  But other then that, and the spoilers above, I liked the game.  It's quite solid and nice overall, and I feel that it's a great game to pick up if your into the fantasy RPG.  The combat is decently placed, the difficulty is at a very nice scale making it a challenge at a very acceptable pace.  Timing is done nicely in a WoW style cooldown format.

Conclusion (minor spoilers):
Could use more rogue armor, needs more maps, needs more places to go, needs more "special"ness by adding unique quest rewards and abilities from decisions and quests, needs more impactful decisions.  Has a wonderful story, has great game mechanics, has great controls, beautifully written, art is spectacular, overall looks impressive, yeah, that sums it up pretty much.