Dragon Age 2

So I recently got my hands on a copy of Dragon Age 2, excellent title by the way, because that's just the amount of dragons you actually get to fight.

I loaded the game with anticipation, hoping it would live up to its predecessor. I must mention before you get into this game that finishing Dragon Age 2 takes approximately half the time it took to finish the first game, not including the DLC. That means your finished saves probably won't be above 50 hours, even on the hardest difficulty.

Don't let this get you down however, as it still exceeds expectations in many ways. I shall try my best to inform you of the silver lining without ruining any plot details.

As for my first playthrough, I chose a mage because as everyone who played the original will know, mages were damn overpowered. I feel classes are more defined in DA2, the ability system allows for a multitude of builds within the confines of their role. Warriors are able to focus on tanking and physical damage dealing hitting multiple targets, and can make an wonderful hybrid between the two. Rogues are similar to the first game, they have a couple of handy tricks like stunning bombs and stealth, but they shine at single target nuking, especially against mages. Mages are back with plenty of tools at their disposal, be afraid, be very afraid. Choose your class carefully, because you might not have the patience for a second/third run at the game.

The new Mass effect style dialogue system was developed to accomodate the introduction of a talking protagonist, Hawke. While this limits your options when wanting to be a cruel evil bastard, it smoothly allows your character to come to life. Hawke can kick up a pretty good quote once in a while.

In my opinion, combat has never been better in a single player RPG. Fights can be fast and brutal, or as slow as you choose with a tap of the pause. This is nothing new however, what amazed me was how fluidly you can beat your opponents into the ground. I found myself pinning several enemies into a wall, while tossing them around so my party can eat them.

Overall, the new dialogue and combat mix together wonderfully, your party members are somewhat interesting although sadly rather two dimensional at points. However, you will find yourself propelled to push on with quests because of the characters, there's a lot of decisions to be made that affect you later on.

What really grinds my gears about this game is the world map, simple and efficient, but repetitive and dull. Even so, the graphics are quite beautiful, a definite upgrade from the lacklustre scenes from the first game.

I have tried to lump the good with the bad throughout this review, because the game has a lot of standards to live up to. It's definetly worth paying for as an epic game, but it is likely you won't have the enthusiasm to play it as much as Origins.