Dragon Age II (Electronic Arts) Review

Gaming Age

16th March 2011

Dragon Age II

Author: Mike Palermo
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Machine: PlayStation 3 (US Version)

Being a huge Mass Effect fan has its disadvantages. The biggest problem is that I instinctively compare every RPG that I play to ME even when they aren't the same type. The reason this is so detrimental is that I'm usually disappointed in other RPGs that are, in most cases, fairly solid in their own right. Other BioWare RPGs are no exception... In fact, I may even hold them to a slightly higher bar because they should know what works better than most. Unfortunately, even though I know this is a "it's not you, it's me" scenario, I can't help it.

That is probably the only reason why Dragon Age: Origins failed to grab and hold my attention despite my hearty helpings of anticipation for 'BioWare's next big game' after Mass Effect. Needless to say, my hopes were substantially more lukewarm for Dragon Age 2, and you know what? I was pleasantly surprised.

Dragon Age 2 centers around the city of Kirkwall and its political scene (read 'hatred'). Because the tale is being told retrospectively, you know from the onset that you'll eventually be hailed as the Champion of Kirkwall and as someone whose influence (or rather, bad-assery) is in high demand by the ailing religious group, the Chantry.

Now being that the story is the re-telling of the past 10 years, you kind of know where the game is heading. Other than a few, obviously major, decisions, DA2 is somewhat more straightforward than you may be expecting. That said, there are quite a few decisions to be made in those 10 years that the game derives its playthrough deviations from. This mostly comes in the form of letting someone live or die in the first half of the game; they may return the favor in the latter-half of your journey or your mercy may come back to bite you in the ass. It's kind of like having somewhat fixed starting and ending points, but what happens between them is up for grabs.

It's important to note the benefit of this system; there are no dire consequences of being overtly good or bad. Whereas normally you may base your decisions from wanting to be either totally good or totally evil (does anyone ever ride the fence?), in DA2 it's much easier to say and do whatever you want without having to worry so much about where it'll put you in the karma-side of things. And this freedom from a karma system makes the next feature all the more potent...

The biggest and immediately noticeable improvement of DA2 over DA:O is the conversation system, which is much more ME-like (including dialogue-wheel). Fully voice acted dialogue is one of the best things ever to be incorporated into RPGs; it's not only more fun to watch than read, but also adds heavily to the believability and humor of the characters. The game feels vastly different as a result and I had as much fun just conversing with characters as I did with the game's action sequences (I felt the same way with ME). The mingling of action and discussion really sets this game apart from its predecessor, which is kind of surprising because on paper it doesn't seem like that big of a change.

As a side note, with Dragon Age 2, I'm now convinced that BioWare could make a game based almost entirely on conversation and it'd still be entertaining... As in, a gun-less/sword-less game that plays out more like a courtroom drama or political debate (maybe with thriller or espionage elements thrown in for pacing and additional fun), rather than your typical 'talk-then-kill' type of RPG. But I digress.

Aside from the changes to the dialogue, the game plays very much like Dragon Age: Origins. Moreover, from what I can tell, the differences between PC and console are far less dramatic than what I remember from the original. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since most people loved what DA:O had to offer. Luckily for me, the dialogue system change by itself has been enough to keep me playing.

As blasphemous as it sounds, this is the first multiplatform game I've felt that the controls on the PC version were slightly more cumbersome than I would have liked. Sure you have an easier time with the strategy and selection of items in menus with a mouse, and it's not much different than DA:O, but from what I've played of the console version everything seemed streamlined for the controller. Normally with games like this it's fairly obvious that the controls are retrofitted to dual analogs, but with DA2 it actually felt just as solid playing on a pad.

Fortunately there are other, more objective benefits to playing on a decent rig; specifically the graphics. Don't get me wrong the game looks good on all platforms (not as good as ME, mind you), but playing at full 1920x1200 with all the bling turned up is distinguishably better than the console counterparts, which should be expected. Plus DA2 can use DX11 while the console versions are going to be locked into DX9 with trickery and compromises needed to make up the visual differences. So, if you've got the hardware in your comp, you can turn on things like environmental tessellation, dynamic lighting and shadows on pretty much everything rather than just a couple of light sources, and diffusion depth of field.

If I said something like, "Dragon Age 2 is a great RPG, just not as good as Mass Effect", I'd be wrong. It's not matter of being 'as good as' or 'better than', but different. Dragon Age 2 is a great RPG that's different than Mass Effect. Granted taking the thing I love most about ME, the fully voiced acted dialogue wheel, and transplanting it into the DA universe can only make a winning combo. While I don't feel DA2 has changed my expectations of RPGs, I had a blast playing it, which doesn't often happen with sequels released within the same hardware generation.

Mike Palermo