Dragon Age 2 is a flawed masterpeice. It's an incredibly fun and ambitious game that was sadly rushed out early to avoid being released too close to Mass Effect 3's release. In some ways it manages to outdo its predecessor, in other ways it fails spectacularly by cutting corners in ways that I thought the gaming industry had abandoned years ago.
First the good. Dragon Age 2's story is excellent with terrific companions that are loaded with personality and bring the game's world to life. The narrative structure is similar to The Princess Bride, where a narrator tells the story of how somebody named Hawke caused a war and takes place across three acts. Along the way, Hawke's story will take multiple unexpected turns that are guaranteed to take the player by surprise the first time through. Moreover, cameos from many of the characters from Origins are present and will often make references to choices that players of the previous game made which should bring a smile to the faces of everyone who played the original.
The dialog is handled well with three main personalities for Hawke that all come across as unique while companions have very distinct and diverse personalities that differentiate them from the Origins companions who all had a tendency to drop snarky one-liners. Villains all have their own motivations aside from performing random acts of villainy, which makes them seem more like actual characters rather than obstacles. Then there are the sucker punches that I'll leave unspoiled except to say that when companions inevitably betray you, there is indeed a real sense of shock. I'd expect no less from Bioware's writing team and while a few characters like Bethany come across as dull, it's mostly because everyone else in this world is so exciting to listen to.
The combat is intense and exciting given that it has undergone not only a speed increase but is now possibly the first party-based tactical action RPG. Now playing like a more complex version of Bioware's previous title Jade Empire rather than DA:O, the hack and slash battling is far more fun and entertaining than its predecessor's combat ever was. The same amount of strategy is required to win battles but everything simply runs smoother than it did in the past. This amounts to the console versions being worth playing for more than just the storyline which should bring the game to a new audience that simply couldn't get into the original game.
The graphics are also a noticeable improvement from DA:O's generic art assets. Everything appears brighter and more stylized this time around though no less detailed. Enemies explode into bloody chunks in the same way that they did in Baldur's Gate II which is a nice homage for longtime fans of Bioware's work. Dragon Age 2 doesn't shoot for realism, it instead attempts to look amazing by its own standards and succeeds beautifully as each and every spell effect, major character and background has a unique flair that stands out as memorable and visually striking. While the game may look like a cartoon now, it looks like an amazing one that's far more Pixar than Scooby Do and dethrones Mass Effect 2's technical graphics and Jade Empire's artistic designs as Bioware's benchmark and does a lot to shed Bioware's reputation as the developer that makes great albeit ugly games.
The sound is equally impressive. Being a massive Torchwood fan, it was a true delight to hear Eve Myles voicing a companion who is a massive departure from Eve's role as Gwen Cooper. While Kate Mulgrew and Brian Bloom are the only other notable names, the rest of the cast consists of mostly unknown actors who still manage to perform stellar jobs that sound perfect for their characters. The soundtrack is also far more epic this time around. While I never bothered to listen to anything other than the title theme from Origins and can't remember a single other piece of music from it, Dragon Age 2's music is far more impressive, anthemic and memorable. Dragon Age 2 is as just much fun to hear as it is to look at which should please anyone who was let down by the soundtrack of the original.
Unfortunately, there are some very serious problems with Dragon Age 2. As good as the gameplay and story are, there are a myriad of other problems with the game that simply can't be overlooked and lie entirely with the design and quality assurance teams. For as many positive things as there are to say abut Dragon Age 2, there are also a number of deeply serious flaws with the game that have really hindered my enjoyment in ways that most contemporary developers would never allow to become present in their titles. Dragon Age 2 suffers from some absolutely atrocious level design and truly game breaking bugs
One thing that must be noted is that Kirkwall is a very small city that doesn't change much with each act and the outlying areas are nearly as static. The only things that change are the locations of the dungeons which all have the exact same layout. This reuse of dungeon maps is inexcusable and made much of the game feel like a chore to play through and if the combat and storytelling weren't as good as they were, there would be no way that I'd finish the game due to the sheer monotony of revisiting the same exact areas over and over again. One of the best parts about an RPG is exploration and yet there was nothing left to explore after the first act, merely a multitude of cut and paste caverns that filled otherwise entertaining quests with a nauseating sense of deja vu.
There are also countless sidequests that consist of nothing more than finding an item and having to deliver it to somebody whom you never encountered before who Hawke suddenly knows would need the item. Fetch quests are an RPG staple and probably won't ever go away but receiving quests with no context is simply sloppy design. This was a problem with Borderlands and it's a shame to to see a developer known for creating such excellent stories run out of ideas for how to handle story-based content. As it stands, there's a real abundance of content that should have been cut due to being underdeveloped.
Then there are the bugs. Dragon Age 2 is quite possibly the buggiest AAA title to be released since Fallout: New Vegas. I encountered my first bug during the first cutscene before any actual gameplay started and I noticed that the sheer amount of bugs increasing exponentially after the first act ended which ranged from obnoxious and immersion lessening to absolutely game-breaking. Dragon Age 2 remains proof that a fifteen month development cycle isn't enough time to develop a sixty hour game. When character models implode during cutscenes and companions get locked into my party for no apparent reason, it's a sign that Dragon Age 2 truly needed more time spent in post-production.
Overall, Dragon Age 2 is indeed a step forward for gaming as a medium, it's just a shame that it's so much of a rocky one. While it's enjoyable and worth buying, another four to six months of development time would have quite possibly made this a perfect game. As much as I absolutely love the game for the most part, it's still a flawed product that's obviously rushed and should have been delayed until summer. For every step two steps forward, the game takes a step back, another sideways and then stays stagnant where a step should have been taken to improve upon Origins. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come and Dragon Age 3 will be the game that Dragon Age 2 could have and should have been.
Pros
+ The characters, story and dialog are excellent and among Bioware's best
+ The Graphics are sharp and stylized
+ The music and voice acting are packed with personality and memorability
+ The combat is fun, addicting and challenging
+ Possibly the world's first tactical action RPG that mixes the best of Risen with that of Front Mission
Cons
- Many quests are random and have no context
- Reuse of dungeon assets is both annoying and unbecoming of a title developed by Bioware and published by EA
- The game is unforgivably buggy
7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment