Unfulfilled Hopes or a Mini Review
After the success of Dragon Age: Origins, many fans eagerly awaited the sequel's release. When the sequel finally arrived, opinions among players were divided: most considered the game a failure of the year, while some praised it for significant innovations. This is understandable, as players expected a continuation of DAO that would surpass the original in every way. Let's delve deeper into why this happened.
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In Dragon Age 2, players can only play as a character with the last name Hawke, but the choice of gender remains. As in DAO, three classes are available to choose from. These are the familiar warrior, mage, and rogue. There is now only one origin story.
Class and gender selection screen. It’s apparent that the game has its own visual style.
The first thing that outraged many fans of Origins was the revamped dialogue system (borrowed from the Mass Effect series). Each response option comes with an icon that indicates the tone of the line (diplomacy, sarcasm, question, etc.). They believe this has led to a reduction in the branching of dialogues, but let's analyze it. Depending on the class and the predominant style of replies (diplomacy, aggression, sarcasm), new response options become available (in DAO, a leveled-up persuasion skill opened nearly all available response options, which was quite uninteresting). Additionally, the manner of speech of Hawke changes. So, it's not as simple as it may initially seem.
Potion-making and enchanting have also been revamped. Now players don’t brew potions themselves but buy ready-made ones from merchants. This makes sense, as a hero cannot be a jack-of-all-trades. All you need is to find ingredient deposits. You can order potions, bombs, and runes right in one place – at Hawke's home. In my opinion, this is a useful innovation, as the hassle with vials and the endless running for deep mushrooms to the deep roads in DAO was excessively exhausting. Potions and runes are no longer categorized into tiers (such as novice, skilled, master, etc.). The effectiveness of runes now depends solely on armor or weapon class.
Potions and bombs are now ordered from merchants instead of brewed by the player. You can order right from home.
There are no more heartfelt conversations with companions by the campfire; instead, each of them now has their own individual residence. When someone has a topic to discuss, it is noted in our journal. A bold idea, considering that most conversation topics in Origins were exhausted by the middle of the game.
The game interface has been completely revamped. Ability icons now have different shapes depending on their type (diamond – active, circle – passive, hexagon – toggle), and the mini-map has become much more user-friendly. The global map now shows where each quest is being carried out – it has become impossible to get lost!
The skill tree has been significantly overhauled and has finally become non-linear.
The combat system has also improved: new spells and abilities have been added, and old ones have been reworked. Each companion has their unique specialization. The nightmarish difficulty level has indeed become truly nightmarish (albeit with a few caveats).
Some may argue that a game with such enormous merits should undoubtedly claim the RPG of the year title. But alas, it is also full of frustrating shortcomings. The main one is undoubtedly the repetitive side locations that become quite tiresome by the game's end. The detailing of some secondary objects also leaves much to be desired. Bugs that hinder the completion of certain side quests do not bode well either.
The main locations in the game are surprisingly well-designed.
The environmental detail remains as unsatisfactory as it was in DAO: most NPCs do not notice either you or your actions. Seeing a passerby in the game going through the thick of battle and discussing their poverty is nothing short of trivial.
Let’s summarize (on a scale of 0-10):
Graphics (7)
+ Bright and vivid visuals
+ Well-crafted main locations
– Other locations feel copy-pasted
Sound (7)
+ Music mostly carried over from the original. It does not evoke special impressions.
Story and Characters (9)
+ Well-developed personalities of key characters
+ Excellent plot
– Overhyped non-linearity of the story (which, in essence, is nonexistent)
Interface and Gameplay (8)
+ New interface with a convenient mini-map and icon system
+ Overhauled combat system
+ Revamped crafting system
– Interaction with the environment is lacking (for instance, NPCs do not react to fights in the middle of the city)
– Imbalance in certain battles
– Numerous non-critical bugs
Final Score (8)
Bioware and EA somewhat rushed the release of the sequel, and the revolution in the genre did not occur. Nevertheless, Dragon Age 2 is a solid middle-ground title that RPG fans should at least take a look at. Especially since the long-awaited Witcher 2 is coming out soon, and we'll see if it can surpass Bioware's creation ;)
P.S. Yes, I know that much of this is already well known to many; but some, not knowing even this, dismiss the game prematurely. And, by the way, the presence of almost the same drawbacks in Origins did not prevent many from loving the game.