Hello readers lets first make it clear that this is in no way a review of Dragon Age 2. This is a opinion piece and I am not attempting to sway readers one way or another from purchasing the title. The game has been out for about ten days now and I wanted to spend a good amount of time with the title before putting together any content on the game. I am a huge Bioware fan and I believe they always have a reason for what they do in game design or marketing a product. Now let me say this right off the bat I am very upset with how Bioware took a great start in Dragon Age Origins and destroyed it with a broken sequel.

I am going to try and fit all of my points into this one article but the amount of flaws in this game are insane. Now before I get into the meat and potato’s let me say the few things that Bioware did get right. The combat is improved ten fold over the original title and there is no room for argument there. The conversations between characters also is quite enjoyable and can really have you laughing. Now to the broken elements and the main reason I think Bioware slipped and fell on their butt with this game. The similarities to Mass Effect 2 are so obvious it really hurts and I see this disease in the gaming industry all the time. The developer looks at a title (one of theirs or another) like say Call of Duty and the money its making and clones the game with some differences hoping for the same success.

Now Bioware was able to do the same for the combat in Dragon Age II that they did for Mass Effect 2 but the other Mass Effect 2 aspects they brought over DON’T WORK with the Dragon Age series. The minute they decided to have you play as one main protagonist and only be able to choose between three classes and not three races anymore it spelled doom. The fantasy role playing genre demands choice and lots of it. The little mention of the Grey Warden’s and fighting ten Darkspawn through the entire game is a huge disconnect from the original title. The gamer who spent fifty plus hours with their character in origins feels insulted by having their character referred to a few times as “The Hero of Ferelden” a huge slap in the face.

The other aspect that made DAO so amazing was the story, questing, and epic feel of the game. The story being told in the sequel is all over the place, and you never feel like you know what the main story point is thats driving the game. (SPOILER ALERT!!!) You meet Flemeth in the start of the game and she saves you in an epic way. The game really feels like its setting out to be a real struggle for survival, and a great adventure. Then you see her one more time and she says a couple words and is never seen again. I really felt as though the writers dropped the ball big time here or were on drugs.

The game itself takes place in one city Kirkwall and a few surrounding locations which is fine. The major problem ALL THE ENVIRONMENTS look the same. They took a few designs for caves and underground tunnels and just reused them over and over. I don’t think there is any excuse for this at all! The environments and different cities in DAO were amazing and fun to explore. The quests were also a huge let down in this game being very short and boring. The characters who join you along the way which are an amazing aspect of every Bioware title are boring. There is one character who joins the team who I enjoyed which I will display a pic of below. For the most part though they were a let down, they even managed to ruin a character(well two technically) from Awakening I actually like before! In closing I know now why Bioware kept saying “A great entry point into the series” because anyone who played the first game would be upset with the sequel. All in all its hard for me to write this article because of the love I have for Bioware but in the end REALLY WTF!

THE ONLY DECENT TEAM MEMBER IN MY OPINION!

Games: Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age II, Platforms: Xbox 360, Genres: Action RPG, Publishers: EA, Developers: Bioware