I remember downloading the demo for Dragon Age II on PS3, coming out of several Origins playthroughs and being hungry for more RPG action. And oh boy, did I get action, with the new game gearing much towards that than the quiet, strategic gameplay of its predecessor. Units zoomed across the field and dished out attacks at impossible speeds, mages flung out spells like confetti, and enemies flooded the battlefields. As jarring as all of that felt, what really stood out was how unpolished the game looked and felt. "Surely this isn't coming out for at least a year or so, right?".
"...What? What do you mean 'it's coming out next week'?!"
Following hot on the success of DA:Origins, the geniuses at EA thought Bioware could pull a Majora's Mask and make a sequel to that game in a year or so. The result was not only massive crunch within the studio, but a final product that lost them much of the hype DA:O had garnered. While not exactly critically panned, it didn't come close to the acclaim of its predecessor, and its uneven quality set the fanbase ablaze -- to this day, some wince at the title's mere mention.
Myself, I was merely disappointed by the game's demo and completely forgot about it up until I was met with a very cheap copy on a retro game store a couple of months back. Somewhat reeling from the shock of realizing that its age was closer in years to the Pokémon Snap cartridge I picked up on the same trip than to the present year, I decided to dive in and see just how bad Dragon Age II was. By the end, I was positively surprised: the sequel to DA:O might not have reached the same heights as the original, but it hardly warrants the hatred it gets.
Dragon Age II opens rather unusually: a dwarf by the name of Varric, under arrest, is being interrogated by Cassandra, a Seeker of the Chantry. It's suggested that a great crisis struck the city of Kirkwall and then spread throughout the rest of the world; at the epicenter of said crisis, there was a key figure referred to by the Seeker as the Champion of Kirkwall, who has disappeared amidst the chaos and is wanted by the Chantry. Cassandra barely knows who they were, however, so she has Varric tell her the story of what transpired in Kirkwall. The entire game is told as a tale within a tale, with Varric recounting the Champion's ascension to the Seeker as he remembers it... with a few creative liberties, of course.
That story begins in Ferelden, still during the events of the first game, right after the fall of Ostagar. With Lothering soon to be overrun by the Blight, the Hawke family, led by the playable character, who's their eldest daughter, attempts to flee. Stuff happens on the way, but the group makes it more or less safe out of Ferelden, reaching the port of the city of Kirkwall, in the Free Marches. There, Hawke's rise to power, beginning all the way at the bottom of the ladder, begins.
As with many high-profile titles that were rushed -- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet being the most recent ones that come to mind -- that fact is immediately apparent by the wildly disparate levels of polish applied to different parts of the game. For instance, DA2 features much more impacting character designs than the original: the new designs for the Qunari and Flemeth stand out, as do the iconic designs for the main character and most of the main and supporting cast. Everyone feels more like characters from a fantasy setting instead of someone straight out of the character creator.
But then you look elsewhere, like the environment design, and that spark is gone. The opening segment areas look hideous; the city of Kirkwall is so little like a city and so underdesigned for the amount of quests that take place in it; most famously, for every other type of area in the city and its vicinity -- caves, dungeons, warehouses and so on -- there is one map for that type of place. Every grotto, every maze, every temple has the exact same layout flipped around and with new enemy placements, and sometimes having a couple of paths cordoned off. More than repetitive, this becomes extremely confusing not too many hours in.
Systems also have their own ups and downs: instead of the janky morality systems of other RPGs, DA2 has a personality system which keeps track of the style of dialogue options that gets picked the most and performs subtle changes in dialogues, like adding or taking away certain choices in conversations, or having NPCs take Hawke's threats more seriously if she's been consistently aggressive. It's a fantastic idea that, unfortunately, ends up very underused in the final game, and may even confuse those who don't know about it. Its subtlety should also not imply that the dialogue wheel is as smooth as it could be, as this is the easiest of all Bioware games with it to get jumpscared by a dialogue option that causes Hawke to say something completely different from what was expected.
My biggest dislike in terms of systems, though, has to be the combat. I specifically want to say that "I disliked it" instead of saying it's bad because what happened with Dragon Age's combat was a bit tricky. One would think, by the way DA2 seems like much more of an action game, that Bioware had created a more streamlined experience, but it was actually quite the opposite: skills are a lot more diverse and splashable in DA2, opening up far more possibilities of builds. Characters also end up with a ton of active abilities, so if playing a mage, for instance, players will be unleashing a constant barrage of spells, which means having to stop time to aim all the time.
All of that, combined with a more dynamic and faster paced game, in which the party is constantly getting ambushed and flanked, make for a far more tinkery experience, one that can't be survived without elaborate tactics setups and plenty of micromanagement on top. It's perfectly functional, and there are people who like it and have gone to great lengths theorycrafting around it, but I, myself, despite usually playing DA:O on Hard or Nightmare, grew less and less willing to put up with combat in DA2, lowering the difficulty to Normal by Act 2, then Casual by Act 3.
So... all those downsides in mind, why is Dragon Age II so great even then? Simply put, the writers and actors hard-carry it. As flawed as the main plot might be at times, there's a legitimate warmth to Hawke's story that is hard to ignore: Hawke loses almost everything to the Blight and has to start from scratch elsewhere, rising to the top from the lowly status of refugee -- it's an underdog story, and everybody loves an underdog. Plus, that rise is enhanced by a sociological aspect to the storytelling that greatly enhances it, owed to the brilliant choice of setting.
Kirkwall is a fantastic place to set DA2 in: being only a city-state, a place of a much smaller scale than the kingdom featured in Origins, it allows the writers to tell more personal stories, focusing on developing the characters close to the protagonist, as well as the dynamics between the different castes of people living in the city. The latter is important because, as one soon realizes, Kirkwall is a disaster waiting to happen, with serious tensions building within it from way before the moment Hawke and company set foot on its shores. These tensions feed into one another, and are ultimately going to reach a breaking point she interferes or not.
Dragon Age II resembles, in that sense, the first Mass Effect, by featuring a character who's but a tiny piece of the story, and also in how it always leaves that feeling of disgusting inevitability when looking back at the chains of events that shaped that world of the game. The three act structure, with a time skip between each act, also echoes the satisfying feeling of continuity from that series as the consequences of events in previous acts snowball into the next. Since DA2 is a self contained game instead of a trilogy, however, it enjoys a more consistent vision -- unfortunately, that does not save it from having a haphazard conclusion, but I guess that can also be considered a shared feature between the two series.
The more personal focus of the writing means that even with the main story removed, however, The Daily Adventures of Ms. Hawke & Pals would have been worth the ride for the phenomenal character writing alone: Hawke is an amazing protagonist and delivers on great lines regardless of whether she's being played as diplomatic, humorous or aggressive. Her responses, and sometimes, unhinged monologuing, would have easily earned her the #1 spot in fans' favorite companion lists in any other game, but the fact we have direct control of her makes it even more special. And that's not to say that the companions in DA2 leave anything to be desired.
Almost immediately upon booting the game, Varric wins over everyone's hearts. He is the ideal sidekick to Hawke, and the two play off each other spectacularly, with the game presenting a legitimate, wholesome development to their relationship over the years. The same happens with Aveline, an honorable warrior met still while on the run from the Blight who, despite a rocky start, becomes almost like family to Hawke, a friendly face with whom a bond of complete mutual trust is shared. Speaking of family, though, we have that too! Hawke is accompanied by her mother, Leandra, as well as her siblings Bethany and Carver. It's so rare to see a good sibling dynamic in fiction, some good old butting heads but with a lot of love sprinkled in, and Dragon Age II nails it perfectly.
And there's more! Do you like weird, asocial mages? Anders is back from Awakening! Do you enjoy a pirate lady with killer gear and even more killer looks? Isabela, once a minor character in Origins, has gotten a makeover and is now a stand-out member of Hawke's group! Do you like unhinged elves with dangerous magical powers? We've got two of them! DA2's cast is almost as large as its prequel's, and the seemingly unending stream of character interactions are bound to get chuckles out of the player for the whole ride.
Like the rise of the champion of Kirkwall, Dragon Age II is a glorious mess: a game rushed out the window that, despite the odds, still managed to come out with an incredible amount of heart. It's definitely a terrible starting point to Dragon Age for new fans, but fans of the series really ought to give it a fair shot.
"...What? What do you mean 'it's coming out next week'?!"
Following hot on the success of DA:Origins, the geniuses at EA thought Bioware could pull a Majora's Mask and make a sequel to that game in a year or so. The result was not only massive crunch within the studio, but a final product that lost them much of the hype DA:O had garnered. While not exactly critically panned, it didn't come close to the acclaim of its predecessor, and its uneven quality set the fanbase ablaze -- to this day, some wince at the title's mere mention.
Myself, I was merely disappointed by the game's demo and completely forgot about it up until I was met with a very cheap copy on a retro game store a couple of months back. Somewhat reeling from the shock of realizing that its age was closer in years to the Pokémon Snap cartridge I picked up on the same trip than to the present year, I decided to dive in and see just how bad Dragon Age II was. By the end, I was positively surprised: the sequel to DA:O might not have reached the same heights as the original, but it hardly warrants the hatred it gets.
Dragon Age II opens rather unusually: a dwarf by the name of Varric, under arrest, is being interrogated by Cassandra, a Seeker of the Chantry. It's suggested that a great crisis struck the city of Kirkwall and then spread throughout the rest of the world; at the epicenter of said crisis, there was a key figure referred to by the Seeker as the Champion of Kirkwall, who has disappeared amidst the chaos and is wanted by the Chantry. Cassandra barely knows who they were, however, so she has Varric tell her the story of what transpired in Kirkwall. The entire game is told as a tale within a tale, with Varric recounting the Champion's ascension to the Seeker as he remembers it... with a few creative liberties, of course.
That story begins in Ferelden, still during the events of the first game, right after the fall of Ostagar. With Lothering soon to be overrun by the Blight, the Hawke family, led by the playable character, who's their eldest daughter, attempts to flee. Stuff happens on the way, but the group makes it more or less safe out of Ferelden, reaching the port of the city of Kirkwall, in the Free Marches. There, Hawke's rise to power, beginning all the way at the bottom of the ladder, begins.
As with many high-profile titles that were rushed -- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet being the most recent ones that come to mind -- that fact is immediately apparent by the wildly disparate levels of polish applied to different parts of the game. For instance, DA2 features much more impacting character designs than the original: the new designs for the Qunari and Flemeth stand out, as do the iconic designs for the main character and most of the main and supporting cast. Everyone feels more like characters from a fantasy setting instead of someone straight out of the character creator.
But then you look elsewhere, like the environment design, and that spark is gone. The opening segment areas look hideous; the city of Kirkwall is so little like a city and so underdesigned for the amount of quests that take place in it; most famously, for every other type of area in the city and its vicinity -- caves, dungeons, warehouses and so on -- there is one map for that type of place. Every grotto, every maze, every temple has the exact same layout flipped around and with new enemy placements, and sometimes having a couple of paths cordoned off. More than repetitive, this becomes extremely confusing not too many hours in.
Systems also have their own ups and downs: instead of the janky morality systems of other RPGs, DA2 has a personality system which keeps track of the style of dialogue options that gets picked the most and performs subtle changes in dialogues, like adding or taking away certain choices in conversations, or having NPCs take Hawke's threats more seriously if she's been consistently aggressive. It's a fantastic idea that, unfortunately, ends up very underused in the final game, and may even confuse those who don't know about it. Its subtlety should also not imply that the dialogue wheel is as smooth as it could be, as this is the easiest of all Bioware games with it to get jumpscared by a dialogue option that causes Hawke to say something completely different from what was expected.
My biggest dislike in terms of systems, though, has to be the combat. I specifically want to say that "I disliked it" instead of saying it's bad because what happened with Dragon Age's combat was a bit tricky. One would think, by the way DA2 seems like much more of an action game, that Bioware had created a more streamlined experience, but it was actually quite the opposite: skills are a lot more diverse and splashable in DA2, opening up far more possibilities of builds. Characters also end up with a ton of active abilities, so if playing a mage, for instance, players will be unleashing a constant barrage of spells, which means having to stop time to aim all the time.
All of that, combined with a more dynamic and faster paced game, in which the party is constantly getting ambushed and flanked, make for a far more tinkery experience, one that can't be survived without elaborate tactics setups and plenty of micromanagement on top. It's perfectly functional, and there are people who like it and have gone to great lengths theorycrafting around it, but I, myself, despite usually playing DA:O on Hard or Nightmare, grew less and less willing to put up with combat in DA2, lowering the difficulty to Normal by Act 2, then Casual by Act 3.
So... all those downsides in mind, why is Dragon Age II so great even then? Simply put, the writers and actors hard-carry it. As flawed as the main plot might be at times, there's a legitimate warmth to Hawke's story that is hard to ignore: Hawke loses almost everything to the Blight and has to start from scratch elsewhere, rising to the top from the lowly status of refugee -- it's an underdog story, and everybody loves an underdog. Plus, that rise is enhanced by a sociological aspect to the storytelling that greatly enhances it, owed to the brilliant choice of setting.
Kirkwall is a fantastic place to set DA2 in: being only a city-state, a place of a much smaller scale than the kingdom featured in Origins, it allows the writers to tell more personal stories, focusing on developing the characters close to the protagonist, as well as the dynamics between the different castes of people living in the city. The latter is important because, as one soon realizes, Kirkwall is a disaster waiting to happen, with serious tensions building within it from way before the moment Hawke and company set foot on its shores. These tensions feed into one another, and are ultimately going to reach a breaking point she interferes or not.
Dragon Age II resembles, in that sense, the first Mass Effect, by featuring a character who's but a tiny piece of the story, and also in how it always leaves that feeling of disgusting inevitability when looking back at the chains of events that shaped that world of the game. The three act structure, with a time skip between each act, also echoes the satisfying feeling of continuity from that series as the consequences of events in previous acts snowball into the next. Since DA2 is a self contained game instead of a trilogy, however, it enjoys a more consistent vision -- unfortunately, that does not save it from having a haphazard conclusion, but I guess that can also be considered a shared feature between the two series.
The more personal focus of the writing means that even with the main story removed, however, The Daily Adventures of Ms. Hawke & Pals would have been worth the ride for the phenomenal character writing alone: Hawke is an amazing protagonist and delivers on great lines regardless of whether she's being played as diplomatic, humorous or aggressive. Her responses, and sometimes, unhinged monologuing, would have easily earned her the #1 spot in fans' favorite companion lists in any other game, but the fact we have direct control of her makes it even more special. And that's not to say that the companions in DA2 leave anything to be desired.
Almost immediately upon booting the game, Varric wins over everyone's hearts. He is the ideal sidekick to Hawke, and the two play off each other spectacularly, with the game presenting a legitimate, wholesome development to their relationship over the years. The same happens with Aveline, an honorable warrior met still while on the run from the Blight who, despite a rocky start, becomes almost like family to Hawke, a friendly face with whom a bond of complete mutual trust is shared. Speaking of family, though, we have that too! Hawke is accompanied by her mother, Leandra, as well as her siblings Bethany and Carver. It's so rare to see a good sibling dynamic in fiction, some good old butting heads but with a lot of love sprinkled in, and Dragon Age II nails it perfectly.
And there's more! Do you like weird, asocial mages? Anders is back from Awakening! Do you enjoy a pirate lady with killer gear and even more killer looks? Isabela, once a minor character in Origins, has gotten a makeover and is now a stand-out member of Hawke's group! Do you like unhinged elves with dangerous magical powers? We've got two of them! DA2's cast is almost as large as its prequel's, and the seemingly unending stream of character interactions are bound to get chuckles out of the player for the whole ride.
Like the rise of the champion of Kirkwall, Dragon Age II is a glorious mess: a game rushed out the window that, despite the odds, still managed to come out with an incredible amount of heart. It's definitely a terrible starting point to Dragon Age for new fans, but fans of the series really ought to give it a fair shot.