Episode 6: Dragon Age 2—You Can’t Hide That Mage Pride

Dragon Age 2

Platform: Playstation3, Xbox, PC

Release Date: North America: 3/8/2011, Australia 3/10/11, Europe 3/11/11, Japan 2/2/12

Difficulty: Baseline easy, but with options to make combat more difficult.

Amazon Price:  Standard Edition: PS3 $14.99, Xbox360, $14.98, PC/MAC $20.34, PC Download $23.68, MAC download $15.29.

Podcast: Download, iTunes, PodOmatic

Terra’s Review (Now with bad photoshop!)

Clean your house, Fenris.

The Good

• An in-depth, politically based storyline that stays politically based, instead of turning into a quest to kill/revive/become/flip off God.

• Improved animation, especially when it comes to the main character’s facial expressions—in DA:2, the player character can express emotions other than “stoned!”

• High replay value. Although the main events of the storyline same the same, such as Hawke’s rise to power and the growing tensions between the templars and the mages, a variety of events are  under the player’s control, including Hawke’s personality type, who to romance (if anyone), and who to side with when it comes to mages vs. templars.

• Easily adjustable difficulty level that ranges from “casual” to “nightmare.”

The Bad

• Gameplay that has been simplified from DA:Origins, including easier combat, repetitive dungeons, and fewer dialogue options for the player character. This is theorized to be due to a combination of rushed development and making the game more accessible to casual gamers.

• On the topic of repetitive, cut and paste dungeons…Every house in Hightown has the same layout! There are suburban housing developments with more variety.

The Ugly

• Carver’s stupid whining face.
  
  
  

Ser Pounce-A-Lot and Anders <3 <3 <3

The lowdown: Dragon Age 2 gets big points with me simply for having a storyline that starts out politically based and continues to be politically based the whole way through, with the action focused on the fate of one city and how the events in Kirkwall will affect the world. It’s a refreshing change from games that start politically but quickly escalate to saving the world!!! Although gameplay suffers slightly in comparison to Dragon Age: Origins and definitely been simplified, DA2 remains a strong and entertaining game.

Marian Hawke, Champion of Kirkwall and Fashion Icon

Music Credits:

RPG Roundup Theme Song: "Video Game Theme," J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.

Dragon Age II OST