Okay, just finished Dragon Age II a few days ago, and now the two cents are really coming out big.
_________________________________________WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Released by Bioware in 2011, Dragon Age II is a RPG action-focused fantasy game and a sequel to the first Dragon Age (Dragon Age: Origins). It takes place in the world of Thedas, in a different country from the first game, which avoids repetitiveness and enables you to discover a bit more of this world.
You are Hawke, a human character that you can customize in several different ways: appearance, gender, and three classes (warrior, rogue, or mage). You begin the game fleeing your hometown with your family (your sister, your brother, and your mother) as it has been invaded by the bad guys from the first game. Depending on your class, one your siblings will automatically die during the prologue...wait, what?
The end of the run ends up with you being transported to a part of the world called The Free Marches, in the city of Kirkwall, where most of the plot and the game will happen next.
The game is divided into three main sections, called Acts, where essential events to the plot happen, and where the plot itself is more focused on one particular aspect of the environment, although several elements are common to all of them (like the opposition between mages, who were born this way, and templars, people trying to control the mages so they won't create issues as they can become potential monsters and hurt a lot of people with their abilities).
Act I!
The first plot is about you making a name for yourself in a gang of the city, as you came here without any money, and your uncle sold your estate due to his issues with debts (it sucks, huh?). You are gathering money and intel for a specific expedition in The Deep Roads, a underground zone of the dwarves' realm where many things are abandoned and tresaures might be found...
It ends up with the brother of your main dwarf friend betraying you for a possessed statue, and your last brother/sister dying from an illness or being captured, thus being unavailable for the rest of the game.
Okay...
Act II!
A part of a race called The Qunari found themselves stuck in the city due to a shipwreck a few years ago. You are acting around them based on the viscount's orders, as your return from the underground enabled you to reclaim your estate and status with all the money you brought up with you. The act ends up with you trying to find the relic The Qunari have lost in the city and have been looking for for years...only to find out it had been stolen away by the pirate member of your crew. She will actually take it away from you a it is her only way to get rid of a gang, causing The Qunari to invade the city, kill the viscount, and attack citizens. As you face off their leader, your "friend" may come back to give back the relic, but you will have to kill the leader anyway.
Oh yeah, I forgot...you mother got killed after being turned into a puppet by a mad man during this act, and you end having only your uncle left in your family...wait, WHAAAAAT?
Act III!
People who helped you defeat The Qunari in Act II are the leader of the mage group, first enchanter Orsino, and the leader of the templars, knight-commander Meredith. They represent their own faction and the tensions existing between them. Then tension grows more and more intense as the act goes on, culminating when one your mage friend decides to make the equivalent for christianism church, called The Chantry, blow up, and thus causing an all-out war between them.
You have to choose a side, but either way, you will have to kill both leaders to finish the game.
I was a bit disappointed by the end of the game, not as epic as in the first opus. You just kill two bosses and there are three packs of enemies between them.
However, fighting Meredith is quite a challenge, and it's a nice boss battle.
Pluses:
+ The action-packed combat system: in Origins, you would have to determine the course of your actions very slowly. The fights, although wanting to seem dynamic, weren't at all. Attack animations were not that great, and music was kinda "meh", sometimes. In DAII, you have to pay attention a lot more to the battlefield, as your teammates can be isolated and singled-out very quickly by enemies who pop out of nowhere (wait...why is my mage dead? Ah, kay, a fucking assassin backstabbed him :'(...). But you can also move across it very fast and take care of some enemies like archers in a more practical way.
Mages attack moves are way nicer and more badass: you actually do damage with something else than spells there!
+ The focus on one particular place: Sure, you could go around an entire country before, while here it's mainly focused into one big city. Some may find it limiting, but Bioware managed to immerse you quite well into your surroundings: graphics are great and well done, and you care for everything happening from hightown to lowtown.
+ Plot twists: although they are somewhat "predictable", these twists are pure evil. In a game where you can make choices and influence people around you with them, Bioware shows there is still a great part of it you can't control, especially about your family and your teammates. Hey, who would expect while starting to play that almost all the characters showing themselves beside you in the prologue would end up dead at the end ANYWAY? (Only Aveline stays, and she can leave you in the final part). Anders and Isabela are kinda assholes, as they lead to the issues you are facing at the end of Act II and Act III.
+ The final fight: Oh, man, this fight is worth a raid boss in World of Warcraft. If this happens in a RPG game, you know it's going to be hard to do everything right.
Meredith is a nightmare for any close-range fighter, and even a big tank with tons of resistance has a hard time against her. Not ot mention she can jump your range characters at ease, makes statues fight for her, or throw a freaking big AOE burst which send you flying over the entire court. That's a hell of a last fight, and it probably saved the ending for me.
+ Teammates' richness: well, that's a common thing in Bioware games. They are known for producing some of the best characters i've met so far in RPGs, whether it be through Knights of The Old Republic, Mass Effect, or Dragon Age. And this game is no exception: from the vary-reserved and professional Aveline to the swearing and slutty Isabela, they all have a very unique personality and their impact on your story is quite essential. I'd say only the elves are a bit shallow (Merill is okay, but Fenris is, huh, not really exceptional for me).
+ Varric Tethras: I could have talked about this guy in the previous +, but, well...he's Varric. The guy telling your story though the entirety of the game, always fond of very good jokes, and looking so handsome. Like, who would think a dwarf would be THAT handsome? Everything in his chracter fits very well into the story, and he's probably the only reason why it's doesn't look so dark with all the nasty things happening in Dragon Age II.
I could talk a lot more about Varric, but I guess you should play the game if you want to see what he's all about.
Minuses:
- Movement during fights: Talking about this as I played rogue, so it's maybe not as much important for other classes.
If you are engaging an enemy at a certain distance with rogues, they will usually do a tumble or a big jump to reach them faster. The big deal is that this move is blocked by terrain or not reaching its target if the enemy is runnig away from you or to one of your teammates fleeing him. and this is just SO ANNOYING. Most of the time, it's better to walk around to do the same thing, losing you a good amount of time and breaking all the thrill about playing a rogue and switching targets at ease. Fuck this...
- A main plot not that progressive: with each Act, a different main plot, more or less. And that's the problem: it's hard to see the end coming or building up. I didn't see it until Anders made the church blow up and mages and templars started to fight each other. And then, I was like, "oh, well, the grand final is there...".
- The ending: Yes, I'm repeating myself, but you simply engage a fight after you chose a side, kill Orsino first, then Meredith second, after just a few packs. In the first game, you would have to go through several stages of a city, fight lieutenants, and manage the fighter ressources you had gathered through the game: you could ask for the help of dwarve soldiers, elven mages, humans, and even mercenaries if I remember. Plus you have a limited amount of them and you can only call one faction at once, so you can't roll over the entirety of enemies there are here.
So, yes, the final stage of the game was quite disappointing. I was expecting a bit more, even if the context didn't allow for such a nice setup.
Pfiou, that's it, boyz'n'girls! Overall, a good game to play. I'm planning on buying Dragon Age: Inquisition, which came out only 6 months ago, but it's still very expensive (60 €...EH?).
