Dragon Age 2 Re-post

Again, away until next monday, so here's another old review (I'm running low on theses, not much more filler material left :( )
Enjoy!

I want to talk about Dragon Age 2. As you may have guessed from my previous reviews; I am a Bioware fan boy and almost everything they do will win me over, and this was no exception.

I absolutely loved Dragon Age 2, from its story to its gameplay, I loved the characters, the dialogue, it was absolutely amazing, however... I do understand most of the issues people have had with the game. True; the graphics aren't amazing, true; there has been a lot of customisation taken away from the player and true; the re-use of maps does seem a little cheap and tedious.

Since I'm such a fan boy we'll get the positives out of the way first so I can pretend there are negatives in more detail. The story was great; it was based around Hawke, the protagonist. He or she starts out as a refugee, recently forced from his home in Lothering (you might remember Lothering as the first place you went after you escaped Ostagar) with his mother and brother and sister. You decide to go to Kirkwall, where your mother has family.

From arriving in Kirkwall to the end of the game the player is constantly trying to move up in the world, from refugee to lord all the way up to Champion of Kirkwall.

The story doesn't have one over arcing villain or any impending doom that directs you, however the player is told at the beginning that something happened. Throughout the story there is a general undercurrent that the Templars and the Mages are at war, secretly and that is generally what the story is about. However even if I did love the story, without the intensity of a master villain to slay the story does seem unfocussed and lacks drive until the final act.

From the outset the player is told that the champion was there when this major event happened, and that he is the only one that can put the world back together, you're also told that he vanished, but you're told this by one of your party members. There’s something about giving the story narration from one of your main characters that takes away from the risky choices, at least when it comes to that characters general survival.

My major problem with the games narrative, regardless of my love for it, was (without giving too much away) in the end it felt like a massive introduction to the next game. most games where it starts as a story to learn something at some point you learn it and then you are able to do what needs to be done, with Dragon Age 2 the character doing the interrogation does not find the information they seek, they simply know that the Champion, just like the Warden disappeared and the world is falling apart.

I also loved the characters from DAO popping in every now and then, Zevran, Leliana, Alastair... would have liked to see Sten or Shale, but I loved the other guys’ appearances none-the-less. Gameplay wise I thought that the quick paced action of this game worked a lot better than with the previous iteration. It kept the player on their toes with the need for constant control of your character and your whole party. So far I've only played through as a Mage, but I played the demo as both the Rogue and the Warrior and all classes are incredibly fun to play. All of the abilities are more showy and, in some cases, far more useful. The only thing I can fault is, and this is purely personal preference, the inability to target team mates for spells. In DAO I would often let my Alastair get all the enemies crowded around him and then cast blizzard of lightning storm on him, in DA2 I was forced to target the floor or an enemy. It's only a minor thing, but then I did also really, really enjoy the game.

The Missions were well put together, and while many people complained that the game re-used a lot of maps to me that made sense. Your in a city, one city, working your way up, you're likely to visit places more than once, when a place has been swept of enemies you're not likely to come back three years later and find it still empty or with the enemies bones resting on the floor. Still, it was a big city; more locations would have been nice. Maybe some different shaped estates. I don't know, you'd have to poke a Bioware level designer to see what went wrong there.

My main grievance with the game was that they took a lot of customisability out of the user’s hands. In DAO my character was a mage, but he was a mage with sword, shield and armoured up to the chin. I understand that the lack of powerful armour could be chalked up to there not being anyone to teach the Champion Arcane Warrior to transfer Str/con stats to Mag/Wis stats, but then I didn't even get the choice to give the sword and shield character a great sword, even though she had the stats. The archer couldn't wield daggers, it annoyed me. I like to dictate what my characters can do, I don't like it when that choice is taken away from me.

That said, of course looking at it from a narrative point of view I agree with it, a person trained with a sword and shield would lose a lot of skill when faced with using a great sword, just as an archers skills are not in tuned to using twin daggers.

Still, on a petty note, I wanted my mage to wield a sword.

Over all I loved this game, but there were some major flaws, too few locations, the removal of customisation, the lack of drive to the story and the feeling at the end that I just paid £29.99 for a massive advert for the next game.

I'd give it a biased 9/10 and an un-biased 8/10.

Seriously-Bioware-CG-Ads-Are-Awesome

- James

Dragon Age Re-post

As I'm still away I've set up an old review from my old blog to post today.
I gotta be honest, I didn't re-read this, my opinion may have changed.
Enjoy?

Legend tells that darkspawn were not always the vile creatures that tear at the flesh of man woman and child alike. Once they were mages, mages who attempted to usurp the throne of gods.
These men were cast out, left to transform, bend, mutate into vile creatures; the first of the darkspawn. Tortured souls led by the Arch Demon.
These creatures killed and destroyed everything in their paths, it appeared that nothing could stem the tide, until the grey wardens came. Men and women, dwarves, humans and elves, warriors, rogues and mages alike who had given up everything in order to defeat the darkspawn and the arch demon, and they succeeded. For a time.
Thousands of years and a hundred battles later and the grey wardens feel the stir of an arch demon once again.
It is here that Bioware lands you, at the entrance way to the latest blight of Ferelden, to create a character in the middle of a world torn asunder by magic, politics, greed, ambition and hatred to make things right, amass an army, become the next grey warden and the final line of defence against the darkspawn.

Before I continue I want to clarify the rest of my review with the following statement;
Saying that I am a fan of Bioware is like saying that Christians think Jesus was an all right guy.
Which means that anything positive I say should be taken with a grain of salt and anything negative should be treated as gospel. This being said I try to be as impartial as possible, so hopefully this review will be accurate, not a Bioware promotional seminar.

Next in line is the games character creator. As with most character creators in modern gaming this one is fairly intricate, offering the ability to define your characters facial appearance down to the minute details of the characters eyes. Still, while it is a very customisable editor that lets both hard-core and casual players create relatable characters it isn't by any stretch the best editor out there. It has too few options for my taste and solely allows head editing, this is common place in many RPGs, of course, (Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, Fallout) but when the capability is out there I don't see why not allow the player to create a character of their own description, except that it might look a little odd to have a 300 lbs. 6 ft. woman charging angrily into battle at the head of the wardens, granted it would look balls, but it should be the players choice.
The player must first choose their gender, Male or female, a pretty straight forward decision as this adds nothing and takes nothing from the characters stats. The only real difference it makes is slight dialogue changes and character interactions this all and ever so slightly different opening stories.
After this the player is given the choice of race, Human, Elven or Dwarven, each have their own possible back stories, and individual style, Humans and elves can be any class of character, while the Dwarves are limited to Rogue and Warrior. However the biggest difference is in their starting stats. Human characters have the highest cunning, while they share high strength and dexterity with Dwarves, who have the highest constitutions, and the Elves have high willpower and magic but fairly average stats everywhere else. To decide which race is best for you depends on two things, which you feel comfortable with and which class you intend to become.
Players are asked to choose between three classes, Mage, for the mystical ability loving, highly intellectual player, Warrior, for those who have a passion for brute strength and thuggery or the rogue for those back stabbing, dextrous tricksters out there. Each class has four sub-classes, that widen their abilities, but that's information for later in the review. Each class is primarily ruled by 2-3 stats. Warriors are based on Strength, Dexterity and a little Constitution. Rogues are ruled by Dexterity, Cunning and a little Will Power. While the Mage uses Willpower, Magic and a drop of Cunning.
Lastly you are given an option of 6 back stories and choosing them depends on both your character's race and class, and on your own idea of what your character is like.
Humans must either choose the noble back story (you are the youngest son of a lord of Denerim, flee the castle as another lord takes everything you hold dear), or the mages back story, the elves may choose to be Dalish (forest dwelling elves with hatred for humanity in their hearts) city dwellers (impoverished elves living under the oppressive boot of humanity) or, again, use the mages back story. Dwarves may choose to be of noble birth or impoverished, what these two options mean I can't tell you, as I have only played four of the six back stories to date. Finally magic users of both Human and Elf kind are forced to join the circle of mages, offering them only one entrance into Ferelden, something I maintain as a lost opportunity. Giving the players an apostate back story to choose from, in my opinion would be pretty cool.
After deciding how you want to play the game you are then given 5 stat points to place how you wish in order to improve your character. I personally chose a Male Human Mage, on my first play through, throwing all of my stats on the Magic basket.
A skill point to give you an extra one of the 8 skills. As a mage I automatically started with a Combat Tactics slot and an Herbalism slot, so I opted to add one point to coercion in order to be better and conning people into believing my bull shit.
And (in the mages case) 2 spell points to spend on the 16 different paths of four spells, all set out in groups of 4 under the titles 'Primal', 'Creation', 'Spirit' and 'Entropy'.
I chose to go the route of the elemental and throw a point into buying an ice spell and a point into creation magic to get 'Heal'. You know... just in case.

Finally done with character creation I was thrown into my background story of the Circle of Magi. A tale of oppression, fear, love and loss. Good magic and Blood magic, I won’t ruin the story or any readers, however suffice to say My character ends up accidentally breaking some of the most carnal Magic user laws in existence, causing the grey warden, 'Duncan' to take an interest in me and whisk me off under the law of conscription to become a Grey Warden as the King and the Grey Wardens are about to fight off a blight.
Upon arriving war camp in a little place called Ostagar I am greeted by none other than the king, who welcomes me to the crusade. After talking to his highness I am sent to find my first permanent group member, the ex-Templar, Grey Warden, Alistair.
I quickly establish myself as capable, after performing various tasks around camp and then going out into the wilds to retrieve ancient agreements of aid, where I meet the sarcastic but ultimately alluring Morrigan, my future second permanent team mate, she shows my group to her mother, who returns the deeds to me and sends me on my way.
Skip to the battle for Ostagar and Alistair and I are sent to a signal tower to light the flare which signals the flanking attack of general Teyrn Loghain, however once I followed these instructions I was overwhelmed by forces, only to wake up later in Morrigan’s home, having been saved by her mother.
It appears Loghain turned on the King and fled, naming the Grey Wardens as traitors.
Now I am forced upon a quest to make Loghain pay for his crimes, to gain the support of Elves, Dwarves and Wizards for a final fight against the dark spawn and destroy the arch demon or good.

Dragon age: Origins is an action packed engaging story with many colourful characters and scenarios along the way. Players collect group members with incredibly well designed personalities around them to help against your foes.
The combat is done using off-screen statistics and dice rolling, as with most Bioware games of merit, however this is easily its best iteration.
There is an obvious feel of progression throughout the game without the feeling of becoming overpowered. As the player gets stronger the enemies come with more force. As with all games the gameplay gets tedious over time, however with the engaging and original characters as well as the heavily story based gameplay this minor issue gets easily overlooked, where in other less well thought out games it wouldn't be.
The world feels real, ancient and the player really feels for the state of it and of the people all around them.

I personally love this game. It's the best game I played in 2010 and I'm still re-re-re-re-playing it.

If I had to give it a score out of 10 I would give it a 9/10, seriously. The only thing letting it down is its graphics. As awesome as the game is my initial reaction watching trailers and looking at screen shots was that it'd be terrible, but I was wrong, thank the maker I was wrong! The story, the gameplay, the expansive world and unforgettable characters all make up for the 2008-2009 graphics engine. More than make up for it.

Bioware-Just-Does-Cinematics-Amazingly

- James