FTG Review: Dragon Age 2 (PC)

Dragon Age 2 has some very big shoes to fill. Dragon Age: Origins is critically acclaimed as one of the best RPGs of all time. Dragon Age is continuing the legacy of great CRPGs like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, and we have some high expectations for this game. Sadly, Dragon Age 2 doesn’t live up to it’s predecessors.

The Story
The story is very well written, but it’s not a very good story. In other words: the dialog and what people are saying is great, it’s the overall plot that isn’t great.

The quests are each cool on their on, but they fail to join together in an interesting way. I never really see a main quest standing out from the other. I just walk over a dude with a quest, get the quest, finish the quest, and move on to the next one. I don’t know what my purpose in the game is. Even when I’m almost finished playing, I still don’t know what this is all about. It’s just a long collection of side quests loosely connected to each other.

Origins had such a strong and clear goal from the beginning. You are a Grey Warden, you must kill the Archdemon and raise an army to fight the Darkspawn. Dragon Age 2 doesn’t have a story like that. It’s just about your main character Hawke, and her (or his) life. To be honest, that is really boring. There are some great moments over the course of the game, but nothing that comes close to the sheer epicness of Origins…or most other RPGs for that matter.

The game keeps insisting on having characters that Hawke is supposed to know, but you have no idea who they are. You really don’t even know who Hawke is. The game starts off with Hawke and her family running away from a city that you never see being overrun by Darkspawn. Once outside the city, the game actually starts, Hawke is outside the city with her brother, mother, and some other people. Depending on which class you choose, one of your family members dies, and I think I (since I’m Hawke) am supposed to care. I didn’t. I didn’t know this dude from Adam. Hawke’s mother cries, and this other chick was his wife I guess so she was all sad too (editor’s note: Bethany is Hawke’s sister).

Later on in the game you will keep bumping into “familiar” faces and have brief conversations with them. Everyone acts like they are great friends and we all have drinks every Friday night. I vaguely remember some of these people, and others are complete strangers to me.

The game wants to immerse you into the life of Hawke, which is good, but they skip over one of the key parts of any story: a beginning. Sure, the game has the whole thing with this guy telling a story about Hawke and the story starts with you running away, but it doesn’t set anything up for you. You don’t know these characters, you don’t know these cities, and you don’t know jack about the lore. If I hadn’t spent so much time playing Origins, I would assume that this was just another generic fantasy world.

Good games take the time to set up who your character is, and what the world is all about, before starting the full story. This is especially important in RPGs since the story is everything. You need to be immersed into the game’s lore and characters. You need to be Hawke. I don’t feel like Hawke, I don’t really like Hawke, and I don’t feel like she was my character.

This lack of proper introductions quickly spoils the rest of the game’s story. You won’t develop a need to care for these people, and these events are meaningless. Your brother is an ass, and you won’t care. Someone that you “love” dies, and you won’t care. You’ll have enemies to kill, and you won’t know why. The game asks you to just go along with it’s story and doesn’t bother to try and lure you in. You are just expected to jump in, and trust that these are people you should care about.

Head to the next page to hear about the interface and combat.

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