Dragon Age 2 review part 1 - Gotmadskillzson's Blog

Gotmadskillzson's Blog

Dragon Age 2 review part 1

Posted on March 10, 2011 at 05:40 PM.

(3)

Ok so I had this game since release day, logged a good amount of hours into it where I felt I could give a decent early review of the game.

The Good

Graphics, much improved, more detailed, they remade how the Quanari look. They look more bad arse now.
The Mass Effect style of good, neutral or evil answer choices, which determines if a person will be friends with you or a rival.
The size of the map. Map is HUGE, lots of districts, a lot of people to interactive with, variety of shops.
Dialogue is great between your party members and people around the city.

The Bad

Combat system has been simplified, which I can understand that for it can appeal more to console players.
In the beginning, lets say 1st 10 quests, the level of enemies you face are very weak and can be killed with one arrow. Thankfully this changes big time, the level of enemy quicky kicks up 4 notches and increases over time.

So far so good this game is awesome. Seems to have some very good length to it. I mean I have logged a whole lot of hours into it and still have a whole section I haven't made it to yet.

Mainly because of the following:

Spoiler

I am in love with the storyline. It isn't your typical oh we have to fight the arch Demon or find out about a talking darkspawn. This is the story of a refugee who over time becomes champion of his adopted new city.

You will find out pretty early in the game that everybody in the city is shady and crooked with their own motives. You can make allies or you can make rivals. Like the last game and much like the Mass Effect series, what ever you do effects the story line.

And if you import your save from the 1st game, that effects how people treat you in this game. So make your choices wisely. This is a huge city and you are on the bottom of the food chain. It wouldn't be wise to make enemies out of everybody.

I must stress how important tactics are in this game. In the 1st 10 quests sure you can get away without it, but eventually you will be in for a rude awakening when the level and amount of enemy kicks up 4 notches. You will be forced then to really pay attention to your tactics and how you level up your party members. If not you will find yourself getting wiped out a lot.

Oh yeah unfortunately you can't play as other races, you can only play as human. But fear not it is a ton of dwarves and elves walking around the city. A whole lot of elves actually.

You also have daytime and night time missions, which is pretty cool. At night time the city is mainly empty on the streets except for a few people hanging out, but you will find all the market stalls closed like it should be.

The battles are fast paced, which to me is a good thing. Over time though when the level of enemy becomes more and more powerful, it will keep you on your toes that is for sure.

I have noticed in this game you really can't just bull doze your way through up the middle during a battle. I remember in the last game I would go straight for the mage, ogre, demon or who ever was the highest ranking enemy and take them out 1st.

This game that tactic doesn't work. Because unlike the last game, this game the AI does a very good job of protecting their mages and other high ranking member with support troops.

Also the mages and high ranking party members does a very good job of constantly moving around when they are being attacked. This in turn makes you move around. Be mindful of this.

The AI in this game does a very good job of flanking you and always looking to flank you. And they also do a very good job of determining who is the biggest threat to them and then surrounding that threat with numbers.

They also always try to take out your ranged attackers 1st. So protect your mages and archers. Another thing I noticed is the enemy always seem to have their own group of archers with them and the archers always seem to be on your flank or behind you.

Over all I give this game a 9 out of 10, from what I played so far. The story line might start off kind of slow, but it picks up and gets better and better. The interaction between party members get better and better too.