The Dragon's Second Age

Not too long ago I did a review of Dragon Age Origins, the article entitled "Damnit Bioware!" for those who wish to look back. Why am I bringing it up? Because I got my hands on and played Dragon Age II for the Xbox 360. Anyway, I started the game, expecting much the same thing I was when I played Dragon Age Origins...you know, crappy "Click and Go" navigation with a controller.

I am pleased to say that this, indeed, was not the case in Dragon Age II! They upgraded the graphics and combat system. So the game starts, and I pick a Rogue class (naturally) and the game begins, seemingly starting me with an arsenal of deadly moves and tomfoolery to kill an army. Me and one ally decided that Darkspawn was a nuisance, so I got a really good look at what was possible for my character in this playthrough.

Varric is awesome at bullshitting stories. Look at
Rod Hawke's awesome costume and weapons!

The combat system is no longer click-and-go, but especially as a rogue, it was hack n' slash to the extreme. You had to keep hitting the button to keep attacking, and moreover, it was overly satisfying to crush my opponents with lightning button-pushing skills. The abilities it started me with were all of them, but I preferred Miasmic Cloud, a skill that stunned a group of enemies for a short time, coupled with the ability called "Backstab", which teleports your character behind an enemy and causes a critical hit nearly every time.
After wasting legions of Darkspawn, the story takes another turn, with someone calling total BS on my asskickery. At first I was like, "What!?" then I was like "Oh..." as the story elaborated that it was, in fact, a recounting of the actual tale. The two characters, Varric and the Seeker, as she is called, are speaking. Well, Varric being interrogated, more like.



Anyway, after having BS called, my character, Roderick Bonesword Hawke, (Rod Hawke to his friends) was downleveled to Level One and I had to deal with having only Miasmic Cloud and Backstab. Conveniently, the two skills I felt most at home with. (And the two skills that carried me through the game, even though they were well-enhanced by the end)

So I finally fight my way out of Lothering with my family, decimating all Darkspawn in my way, and we are met with a Templar. "Cool," I thought. Then Rod Hawke did something I wasn't expecting...he TALKED. My character has a voice in this game! Then I found out I had an Apostate family, then I'm like, "Crap, I have to hate Templars now."

After a couple of waves of Darkspawn, an Ogre spawned and killed my last teammate, so I was left doing my Rogue-ey thing. Running like hell and using Miasmic Cloud and Backstab wherever possible, drinking Stamina Draughts like nothing before. So I finally win, first try, a lone Rogue, all by myself, then a nifty cutscene happens where a Dragon comes down and wipes out every Darkspawn nearby.

At first I was like "Damn, an Archdemon for the first boss?!" then it turned out to be Flemeth then I'm all like "Ha! I killed you in Dragon Age: Origins!" She saves my family's sorry arses, and I make a promise to do something for her. She's dead, right?

The story continues where my character basically becomes a slave for a year to live in the city of Kirkwall. A Templar City. A bunch of Apostates moving to a Templar city...absolute freaking genius. So a year passes and I am a little bit more badass for it. Then I have to muster 50 whole sovereigns, enough to buy me out of poverty, to join an expedition.

This is Fenris. He is abnormally badass. Don't mess with him.

So I do. I gain allies along the way: Anders the Grey Warden Mage, Fenris the Mage-Hating Lyrium Encrusted Badass, Varric the Storytelling Master, and an Elven Mage whose Name I forget at the moment. Anyway, we're all badasses and form the badass club of Kirkwall while venturing to the Deeproads to find ancient treasure.

We find it. Sadly.

So another timeskip, and I am a nobleman. AWESOME, I decide, and wave it around in criminal's faces as I promptly annihilate every gang in Kirkwall. Hey, why not? Make some Qunari friends, stand up for the oppressed, be the good guy. Little did I know that would cause a Religious War between the Qunari and Kirkwall. Caught in the middle, Rod Hawke had to slaughter his way through Qunari, Elves, and Mages, all the oppressed peoples he was protecting prior to that event, to get to the Arishok and hand his ass to him on a silver platter.

After the One Day Religious War, I decided to be an ass to the Templars anyway and decide I was going to still fight for the little man, even though they tried to kill me on multiple occasions. By the way, another timeskip and I am the Champion of Kirkwall! Ha-cha! The whole story is about Rod Hawke becoming that. I am glad they continued it after.

So Rod Hawke decides to go on another celebratory Crime Raid, slaughtering another couple of gangs. Keep in mind, this is all optional, I don't have to kill these criminals. I just do.

Woahwoahwoahwoah. I got this.

So then I find out that one of my assets has stopped communicating. Curious, I check it out to find the mine, what I was getting cashez from, attacked by a High Dragon, equivalent to an Archdemon. Roderick Bonesword Hawke would not stand for such blasphemy, and killed the dragon posthaste, teaching all dragons near and far he is not to be trifled with as he completed his Champion Armor.

Then I start yet another religious war and we find out what the whole story is about. Apparently being a dick like Roderick was, the Templars didn't like him. But being a crime fighter and philanthropist, always fighting for the little guy, I found an army where I wasn't really looking for it.

In short, Rod Hawke kicks ass, takes names, and goes home. He got lost somewhere in Varric's story...

Now the fun part is over, to the actual review. Dragon Age II did a good job of setting a unique perspective on the story, and was creative in manipulating that aspect. They didn't forget this was hindsight by a frequently bragging dwarf, and there are several times it shows. It makes for an intriguing story, though I was dismayed by the lack of class choice and past choice.

You can only choose the Human. Can't be an elf or a dwarf. Your past is always "Runs from Lothering like a pansy" and it makes for a stale opening. Dragon Age Origins had it right by allowing choice of race and class, as well as a reflexive past based upon your choices. However, Dragon Age Origins had a click and go feature that was promptly replaced by II's hack n' slash system.

The party is a lot better at fighting in general, and you have more in-depth Level Trees. It is a better RPG experience, in my mind, than DAO. However, DAO represented RPG in a better way, which was actually creating the role you were born to play.

In the end, I really enjoyed Dragon Age II. They got right what they got wrong last time, but they screwed up what they had going for them last time to do it. But hey, we all need to have a few faults here and there.

Until next time I post, peace

PS:
Also, let me know through one of my contacts (on the left, I believe) if you would like to see more of Roderick Bonesword Hawke's Adventures through Kirkwall and it's outlying areas, and I will dedicate an update to it everytime I can.

Damn it Bioware!

So I was playing through a decent game of Army of Two, The Fortieth Day on Solo Mode, when one of my friends logs in and I notice what they are playing. Dragon Age: Origins. That's cool, I think, so later that night I do a little research on the game: The thing? It looked beautiful, and best of all, expansive.

After I borrow it from him, I quickly discover what a "Halo Ring" is, when I mistakenly kicked the console over. So I buy him a replacement and install onto my Hard Drive. That way I can play with the damaged disc, so I now own Dragon Age: Origins, by Bioware.

What was that? Fight and not run? OH. That could have
saved us some trouble...

Anyway, seeing as it was Bioware, I was comparing it to Mass Effect by a lot. There were a couple of things I hated, and other things that I loved about the game. First of all, being: Why is this click and go?!

Sure, you can walk around and move. But you need to physically move the camera to point at an enemy, and click your attack button of choice to attack. You have skills and shortcuts for the other buttons, too, however it is still "Point and Go" on a console. On a PC, point and go is a brilliant interface--I point, you attack. Why? Because in the blink of an eye I can move my cursor and click on my enemy. Using a control stick from a console, the cursor has a set speed so you don't outpace yourself--it is slower and more cumbersome in general.

Having played the game on the console, not the PC, I disliked the way the game played. Especially because moving the control stick even slightly off-course and you end up going in a completely different direction.

Sometimes, I thought my character was just being a pansy about the way he was attacking. Maybe a status effect? Perhaps he didn't have a high courage stat? Then I realized there WAS no courage stat!

Then we have the character interface. Seeing as this game came out after Mass Effect, I expected the character to be able to talk. I know this is out there, especially considering how many different characters you could be, but since you can change your battle voice, maybe go the extra mile and have those voice actors voice out your character? It seems logical, if a little bit more expensive, at least.

Finally, after getting over my discrepancies with the game, having it face a corner for an hour and a half and saying it loses it's TV for a month, I decided to play and try to forget the interface. Looking at the actual story, and the choices possible, I was blown away.

Examples of characters you can be

First: Your origin. The point of the game, possibly expanding on Shepard's origins concept. You can be a human, dwarf, or elf, the stereotypical races in fantasy games. As a human or an elf, you can be a warrior, mage, or rogue. Dwarves can't be mages as the story outlines that dwarves are stupid and can't use magic.

So as a human rogue or warrior, you get the "Human Noble" storyline. You are a prince, basically, and your powerful family is betrayed and destroyed when your brother is sent out for war. You survive, of course.

As an elf, you can be a "City Elf", which are the oppressed peoples of the world. Kind of like, and I do mean this as purely a historic reference, the black peoples after the Civil War and before Dr. King Jr. They aren't slaves, per say, but they are hated and oppressed and they did recently become not slaves. You are getting married, and your marriage is interrupted and depending on whether you are a guy or a girl, you are either saving your wife from being raped, or saving yourself from getting raped.

These are the only two origins I have explored so far. Although no matter what race you are, if you choose "Mage" you get the "Magi" origin, because unlike City Elves, Mages are the slaves of the Ferelden Empire.

Commander Shepard ain't worth shit to me.

So I make a human warrior, and name him Shepard. Sue me Bioware! Afterwards, I decide to make him as much like my "Jak Shepard" as possible, though I quickly found that you actually had to back up your talk, unlike in Mass Effect where Shepard took care of that for you.

After making it to the last boss and figuring out how much of a FAIL my Shepard character was, I restarted the whole game as a female City Elf. I didn't bother naming her--so the default name "Kallian" took precedence here.

This guy? He's an asshole, so look out.

As Kallian, I was a nicer person, and had extreme armies at my command by the end of the game, and it was GRATIFYING to kick the final boss' ass.

The basic story is, that you become a "Grey Warden", a warrior who drank the blood of the "Darkspawn" and became the good version of the Darkspawn. As in, you keep your mind.

The Darkspawn are the greed and hatred of men's hearts given form. (*cough*Heartless*cough*) So, naturally, they need an antithesis. They need you to be there to kick their ass everytime they decide to show up in what is called a "Blight". A Blight is when the Darkspawn get an Archdemon leader, a big darkspawn version of a Dragon, and march across the land slaying all in their way.

Like the football team after school, the darkspawn are planning
to beat you  silly for no good reason.

It is Darkspawn vs Grey Warden warfare, basically. Unfortunately for you, due to Ferelden politics, you and your partner are basically it. The only two people fighting for people to stay alive--and the only two people that Ferelden wants really, really, really, without a shadow of a doubt, completely and one hundred percent--dead.


So you must bring the political environment of Ferelden to order, or risk "Civil War II" during the Blight. Being the badasses that darkspawn are, they would trounce the country and move on to kill everyone on the planet that I assume is Earth in fantasyland.

To do that? Call on every peace treaty the Grey Wardens own, befriend powerful political leaders, forge a kickass team of your own from travelling the land, and defeat a tyrant in a fight any way you please. Seriously--there is "All Out Brawl", "One on One Duel" and "Alistair, kill this man for me." Of course, I always balled up and kicked the dude's ass.

Once you bring Ferelden to order, your war with the darkspawn starts. Depending on your decisions through the journey, you have different armies--my winning army was composed of Dwarves, Elite Dwarven Mercenaries, Mages, and Werewolves. Yes-werewolves.

It is a lovely game, very involving. The interface sucks balls, and the lack of voice on your character's part makes me somewhat upset, but after grounding your game from TV for a month it becomes a much better game. The graphics are beautiful, dungeons are limited but prevent repetitiveness, the skill tree is expansive and grants a lot of choices for your character.

All in all, I recommend it highly. Enjoy until next time!

And I'll try to update again within the month, I promise.