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Okashii's Dragon Age 2 (PS3)
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| [April 29, 2011 11:57:01 AM]
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Dragon Age 2 – Saturday, Apr. 2nd (both games)
Dragon age 2 is the sequel to the popular Dragon Age Origins. It is a very story driven RPG, and the characters in it are extremely memorable. I played the version for the PS3.
Genre:
As I already mentioned, this game is a role playing game. However, Bioware (creators of the game) really stepped up the pace of this game with their character animations and the speed of various possible movements. In my opinion, this makes the game play feel like the game play of an action game while still being an entirely stats driven, tactical RPG like Dragon Age Origins. I consider this quite an improvement.
Initializing play:
For my first game, initializing play was about character creation. I messed around for a long time trying to get my character to look the way I wanted. After trying the look out, however, I decided to go with the default look for the male character. It was not all about looks, though. I also created my character to be a warrior (out of warrior, rogue, mage), and I set his stats by giving him almost entirely points towards constitution as I planned on making a tank.
Initializing play for my second gaming session was simply a matter of loading my save file.
The hero/plot:
One of the best things about this game, in my opinion, is that you get a lot of control over what your character says and how others perceive your character. Your hero could be a reluctant hero or the more traditional hero just depending on the various dialogue options you use. In Dragon Age 2 they added in voice acting for the main character, and it is my opinion that this really made Hawke likeable as character unlike in Dragon Age Origins where the Warden really seemed to have no personality or character.
This game builds on the tension present in the first game with the mages versus the templars and the chantry. And it has not lost its appeal as I found this still fascinating. There is also a lot more in this game to give the Qunari some background rather than just being foreign strangers. It also presents more mystery about what lies in the deep roads when Hawke and the others find that magic idol.
The world:
This game takes place almost exclusively within the city walls of Kirkwall. There are accessible areas that exist on the outskirts of this city too. This is a bit of a drawback to the game as I really wanted to see more places. However, it is also a great strength of the game because they really put a lot of work and detail into giving this city a lot of character. It was a very interesting place, built on the foundation of slavery. This parallels excellently with the city’s current form of slavery – the circle – which they so aptly placed in the gallows.
Game play:
For my first playthrough, I played up until Hawke joined with either the mercenaries or the smugglers (I chose the mercenaries). This was not very far into the game because I had spent so much of my time trying to create a decent looking character. The controls felt natural, likely in part to them being relatively the same as the controls for the first game. Leveling up was actually a lot more fun than in the first game. Most likely this is due to the level up system being a series of graphs rather than some table like in the first game. It may not be much different in the end, but the way that I perceived it changed the experience. I was most impressed by how much faster paced the game felt as well.
My second playthrough took me from that point until some point after finding Isabela. Isabella was a minor character that made an appearance in the first game. It was a little unnerving that she was supposed to be the same character, given that her appearance was so different. This was somewhat the case with Flemmeth earlier in the story, but Flemmeth was a shape-shifter anyway. So far, I am very interested in the backgrounds of Isabela, Anders, and Varric. I feel like their personalities are all very interesting. Anders (from Dragon Age Origins: Awakening) has become a very interesting character. I have watched my wife some as she played through the game, so I know how Anders becomes a terrorist in the end, and I really look forward to watching his progression into madness throughout the game.
Overall:
You cannot ask for a whole lot more from a game in terms of plot and character development (ESPECIALLY the latter). The gameplay is even very interesting, which is something I usually care the least about in an RPG. I really feel like they did a much better job making each character interesting than in the first game (I really hated Sten and Ohgren and did not care too much about them in general). Of course in this game, there is Sebastian. And Merill. However, neither are quite as bland as Sten was. Overall, this is a must play RPG, even if you only play for the interesting characters.
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Okashii's Dragon Age 2 (PS3)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 2 April, 2011
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