Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age 2 (That really could use a subheading couldn't it?)
Rating M. (Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual content, Violence.)
Players 1

Character- The characters in the game are always a strength of Bioware. There are only six companions that you can keep with you and of those you are only allowed to bring three with you at any given time. As Bioware does each one of those is well fleshed out and has their own wants and needs as well as their own reasons for staying with Hawke. My personal favorite of the characters is Varric the dwarven rogue. Bioware also made sure to make them feel like real people by having them talk to each other as you are out walking around. More than once I wandered around with the camera swung around to watch my companions so that I could read what they were saying to each other. Unfortunately for fans of the first game the only companions that show up are Alistair and Zevran; provided they weren't killed in the first game. In my mind another strong point of the game is the fact that when you want to talk with you companions you have to seek them out at their home base. Unfortunately you can only do so whenever you have a quest to talk to them. Another good point is that if you don't manage to get enough influence with certain characters they may leave at certain points in the story. I would however like to see a bit more of the final conflict played up a bit more because a large part of it is character driven and we are told about it but only very briefly shown.

Plot- Well with the way the game is structured there are actually three plot arcs. While each one leads into the next one in a logical progression it would be possible to play the game as an episodic adventure rather than straight through. Doing things this way however made it so that each arc is fairly short and the game feels a little stuttered. As I said above I'd like to see some more of the final conflict throughout the game. It doesn't have to be the entire plot. I personally like the plot and structure but it would be nice to get a better look at the tension that is supposed to exist in this world and these two opposing forces. They even managed to do so with the first and the second plot arcs. The two are nicely linked together by certain events. Really its only the third arc that seems to be off on its own.

Gamplay- Unlike its predecessor DA2 is an active combat system. Meaning that the player doesn't merely tell his character to attack and he will until whatever it is dies. You must personally continue to hit the attack button until it dies. I do really like that the speech options that you take as Hawke affect the things that s/he says that are strictly out of your control. I'd like a little more variation in the things that you can say but as it stands there is nothing inherently bad about the system. I know my friend has some issues with the fact that your character actually speaks and the line may not be what you as a player really wanted him to say. I would also like a persuade back in the game but alas it isn't to be. The combat is in itself ok there's nothing to really say about it. The only problem with the combat is that they will keep sending enemies at you even after you have killed off the entire first group. I would advise as a protip to make sure you have someone with AOE attacks things get rather enemy heavy and having that additional ability to hit multiple targets is a big deal. Especially with the long cooldowns on the potions and the one healing spell. As for exploration; there isn't any. Not a complaint mind. However I would have liked to see some more different environments instead of recycling the one dungeon map every time we went underground. In my mind that's just lazy design.

Appearance- Looks good. I think its on the same engine that the first one was so many of the basic character models look similar to the ones we've already seen. The spells look good and while the environments are very samey they do look nice.

Accessibility- Easy. That's the best way to put it. The game is extremely easy to figure out and play. More advanced players can use the tactics system to make things even better. I never did but it is a great system to tweak the AI into doing what you want. I'm torn on the large removal of inventory management for your companions. It does make things a little easier but its a part of the genre to tweak their gear just the way you want it.

Odds and Sods- Like I said I'm torn on the, lets use the industry term, streamlining of the inventory system. On the one hand I like the fact that you aren't dealing with decimal places of improvement but also you still pick up terrible gear for Hawke. I played a warrior and more than once I found equipment for a mage I couldn't use. I'm glad they didn't remove the management of Hawke's equipment but that seems to be the direction their moving in. I will say I really liked the fact that you spend the entire game in the same city. While some people may not have I liked that you actually seem to be living your life during the time breaks rather than your character constantly assailed by life or death situations all the time. I also really loved the frame of it being told through a story being told by Varric. You know right at the beginning of the game that you, or one of your companions, did something very bad and people are looking for you. Of course you don't know what that is until you finish the game.

Looking forward to the third game. Good Gaming everyone

Hambone out.