Dragon Age II – Disorganised Thoughts
Having rented Dragon Age II and played 24 hours of it, most of that time while in the throws of a severe head-cold that feels like a sack of marbles has taken up residence in my nasal cavity, I have been thinking more and more about the notion of a “good game.”
What, exactly, makes a game good? Surely the sensible answer would be “high-quality visuals backed up by decent gameplay and a story to hang that on.” But I don’t believe that’s entirely accurate. I posit that a good game can be any game whereby the sum of its parts creates an above-average experience for the player. Dragon Age II is a good game. It’s deeply flawed in many, many ways, but the core of it is good. If you feel compelled to read on, please do, although this article may end up quite a bit long. Depends how bored I get in a couple minutes or until the meds kick in and I get distracted by a milk bottle top or something.
Dragon Age II has an excellent combat system, above-average visuals and a great story. The story of a lowly refugee from a foreign land carving his/her way to the top is a classic in literature and this trope has been put to good use here. It is a good game. However, underpinning all this is a serious lack of content.
Yes it’s got a good story but the fact that most of it seems to take place in exactly one house, one cave, one mine, one hideout, one docklands warehouse etc. really detracted from the experience. The landlords on these places must be raking it in, what with all the thieves, mercenaries, blood mages, necromancers, chanters, templars etc. taking up residence for their super secret hideouts. You’d think that all these groups could come to some sort of co-operative consensus considering they all want to kill Hawke for some reason or another, but no. A clean, empty hideout is just a few loading screens away and hey, they deal with all the corpses too.
Speaking of the combat (sort of, I’m awful at segues,) the combat in DAII is, in my very shallow opinion, excellent. It mostly retains the tactical elements from Origins while speeding the whole process up. I’m playing as a rogue, and watching Hawke leap about and making people explode into piles of gibs not seen since Quake 3 puts a wry smile on my face every time. Admittedly I am playing the Xbox 360 version, which isn’t the preferred choice for some others, but I really like playing these sorts of games with a control pad. I would never have gotten through Origins, for example, with only a keyboard and mouse. I know, because I have it on PC and it flummoxed me. Also, I’m lazy, so my tactics go as far as “mash this button to win.” Most of the time, that has suited me fine. The larger encounters require a bit more planning, but I’m muddling my way through.
This is definitely not intended as a review, since I’m not quite finished with the game, but I think that if I had paid full-price for it I would’ve felt a little bit let down. Origins was such a great game in spite of its flaws, and in many ways DAII is too. However, with the lack of content I can’t recommend this at full price. Now, the obvious caveat with this wall of text is that I rented it. However as the game has been out a while you should be able to get it a bit cheaper; I’m able to find copies online for £20. I am always tempted to buy it, but then I think about the almost-inevitable ultimate edition that theoretically could be coming out next year. Overall this game leaves me feeling a bit “meh.”
On the one hand I really like playing it, because it is a good game. But I am very well aware of its flaws, and sometimes they crop up so quick in succession that the spell is broken and I see those flaws as if they were magnified.