Thursday, March 10, 2011

Dragon Age II

Featuring a gripping new storyline and stunning visuals, Dragon Age II allows gamers to experience the rise to power of Hawke, the male/female human mage/rogue/warrior.

Unlike most RPGs, which depict a prevailing evil presence that can only be defeated after a lengthy and arduous adventure, Dragon Age II has instead opted to document the political struggles of the city of Kirkwall. While this may seem like a progressive idea, most of the 30-hour game-time is spent in and around the city looking at similar architecture.

The animations, details and overall art direction glisten with tons of polish. However, due to the unique storyline the entire adventure is set in just one area and, hence, the sights quickly start to become repetitive. Character customization has also been dumbed down. Unlike the prequel, the game's story insists you play as a human and lets you only choose a gender and one of three classes (mage, rogue, warrior). You are also assigned the surname Hawke, though you can select a first name.

The gameplay is faster paced than previous games and it has a satisfying 'kill-everything-on-the-screen' style with plenty of blood and gore. Nevertheless, your party's AI isn't smart enough to allow you to ignore them in a battle. Unless you set up specific instructions in individual characters' tactics menus. Tactics are fairly easy to set up, so that's not the end of the world, but you'll still need to keep a careful eye on your party's health to make sure they don't go kamikaze on you.


Verdict: Buy It!
(if you're a fan of fantasy-style games)

2 comments:

T. Banacek said...

I'm going to pick up a copy this week, I think.

Raw said...

I can't wait to play this, nice review!

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