Dragon Age II: Impressions Part 4

This is the fourth and final part on a series of opinion pieces on BioWare's latest action-RPG title, Dragon Age II. In this post I focus on what is arguably the game's most polished aspect: characterization, interaction between characters and the cohesion between said elements. As this is a more story-centric article, there are a number of spoilers; you have been warned.

NPC animations during dialogue
are a major improvement from DA:O.

Coming into this title, one would expect (according to BioWare's earlier track record) a series of characters fleshed out in a competent, if formulaic manner. Unexpectedly, however, whereas the game comes across as lacking in most aspects (or at least, severely diminished), characterization seem to be the one thing they "got right". This is partly due to the writers' apparent efforts to reinforce verisimilitude, by fleshing out the characters' interactions (mostly between party members, which is known as "party banter") and finally tearing away from the cookie cutter templates they use for their previous games.

The dialogue wheel, apparently
"inspired" by Mass Effect.

Starting with Hawke, there has been a huge improvement from BioWare's earlier Mass Effect series (which also attempts at characterization give the main protagonist a clearly defined character as opposed to the "tabula rasa" approach of the Origins one); Hawke was, for starters, given an accent - sounding British though I'm by no means an expert - and this works wonders for the game, as it gives the character a much less bland and monotonous voice (something Mass Effect failed at, for the most part). Hawke also comes with a small prologue chapter, giving the game the much-needed foundations on which the character's development is built upon.

The conversations also appear to be polished for the most part, as they now feel less like scripted sequences of binary, good/ evil choices and more like actual, emotionally invested dialogues. The animations used during said dialogues help on this subject as well, perpetuating the much-needed illusion of speaking to actual characters instead of merely sifting through conversation trees to get to the end as fast as possible. This, again, enhances the feeling of verisimilitude in the game, ending up as the saving grace for an otherwise mediocre entry to the series.

Anders introduced, one of the
better characterized companions.

Where the game truly shines, though, is on the amount of polish and detail given to the party members. Each comes with a hugely detailed back story, told either via the aforementioned party banter, the companion-specific quests becoming available during each chapter and the conversations between Hawke and them. Work seems to have gone into diverging from the usual templates BioWare was known to be using for most of its' published works; while they are still present as a concept (the soft-spoken healer, the grim but determined warrior, the innocent girl with no outside world experiences to name a few), there seems to be a genuine effort to break loose of these stereotypes: the healer has a rebellious attitude which ends up in a (not-entirely unexpected) plot twist in the finale, the warrior is ultimately, emotionally stunted and the innocent girl's determination and sheer persistence does not (refreshingly) end with her losing her innocence and turning into a "forged by hardships" heroine.

A minor complaint: Hawke's sibling
is absent for much of the game.

Special merit goes to the characters' integration in the game's story; whereas in other games companions feel like extraneous additions to the story and world, here they have been involved to a much higher degree to the main plot. It is perhaps for this reason that I felt I was invested in my companions in a far more consistent manner than other recent games. From a personal perspective, Anders and Aveline appear to be the best-developed characters, the former a tormented mage playing host to a warped spirit of Justice that ends up murdering one of the game's major political forces in order to spark a war that forces the issue of societal discrimination to the forefront, while the latter is a honour-bound guardsman that climbs the ranks during the game's story arcs, ending as the guard captain left to deal with the finale's anarchy and unrest on the streets of Kirkwall.

A minor mention needs to be made, as well, to the voice acting of the game's cast; while the majority of the actors share distinct British accents, it ultimately works towards consistency and verisimilitude, as it reinforces the notion that the game takes place in a singular locale, rather than spanning across several - making it feel consistent and persistently believable.

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Here I'd like to thank the reader for persevering through a series of posts that detail a personal analysis of my time with Dragon Age II. While it was by no means a bad game, it was crippled by the developer due to overuse (and in some places, abuse) of combat, recycling levels and inconsistent story structures.

On the flip side, it offered a much deeper view of character interactions and integration to the game world, a highly polished combat system and a believable world (working despite, rather than because of the story structure).

Summing it up, my impression of Dragon Age II was that of a game that attempted to counteract the flaws of the previous title in the series, which it did achieve to some extent; sadly this was balanced out by a series of new design flaws that (in hazarding a guess) stem from the game's unusually short development time.

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As a point of interest, I played as a male warrior Hawke that favoured Diplomatic/Helpful dialogue options, romanced Isabela (and defended her in a duel with the Qunari Arishok), sided with the mages in the finale, tried to complete as many side missions as possible and spared Anders after his betrayal.

Resources

=========

* Dragon Age II Wikipedia Entry

* Dragon Age II Official Site

* BioWare Official Site

* Dragon Age Wiki

Dragon Age II: Impressions Part 3

This is the third part of a series of posts about Dragon Age II, in which I elaborate upon the combat system the game utilizes. As a few of the characters' skill sets draw naming and inspiration from their background stories, I have included a spoiler warning as usual. You have been warned.

Note the simple interface, doing a
good job of keeping things plain.

If you follow this series of posts, you have no doubt figured that my impressions of Dragon Age II's story and level design have been mediocre at best, with a handful of locations recycled constantly between the game's three acts, which in turn feel largely unconnected to one another. I feel this was the inevitable outcome of BioWare's determination to streamline the game, possibly to appease a less RPG-centric fan base, which I suspect they attempted to facilitate by focusing heavily on the combat system.

Said combat system works remarkably better than it's predecessor's, with a much more frantic pace, an easy to learn (and thankfully, minimal) interface, a combo function which promotes teamwork, intelligently designed skill sets with no (apparent) game-breaking abilities, and some of the best battle flow I've seen in a recent game. Unfortunately, it seems that even in this area, BioWare has obscured some otherwise excellent ideas beneath run-of-the-mill techniques designed to pad out the game experience far longer than they should.

Battlemaster skill group.

First, the good; each character has a pool of available skills which can be acquired via levelling, with progressively more powerful ones unlocking at higher levels. These are grouped into categories per class, so that (for example) a warrior might have a grouping under "Weapon and Shield", another under "Two-handed Weapons" and three or four more that define his role in the group, such as "Vanguard" (for damage-dealing) or "Battlemaster" (general party utility). As with most games of the genre, focus in two or three of these trees provides the best results, as certain combinations thereof can provide an effect that is greater than the sum of it's parts (as an example, Taunt will focus enemy attention to the character, while Turn the Blade with ensure that said character can evade incoming attacks from the aforementioned enemies). There is also the option to instead improve upon a previously acquired skill instead of learning a new one, which in most cases directly translates into higher damage output; less often, said skill will instead acquire a secondary function, such as being able to "stagger" or "disorient" opponents (leading into the game's combo system).

A "brittle" enemy, identified
by an overhead icon.

Special mention merits to the NPC party members' skill sets, as they're usually meant to guide the player into what amounts to "archetypes" for each NPC, specific functions within the group; a good example is Anders, a mage NPC who's exclusive skill set contains Revive and Aid Allies, the former allowing any fallen party members to resume fighting and the latter a party-wide healing spell, both of which are otherwise only available if the player chose a mage Hawke. This, while limiting party choices to two or three valid party setups (especially for higher difficulties), also allows for less mistakes during levelling; thus providing a more enjoyable later-game experience and a high degree of character specialization and, therefore, consistency.

The actual battles themselves are also quite enjoyable for the most part, with attack combinations smoothly meshing with one another, flowing animations that (usually) convey the intensity of the moment accurately and, for the most part, a visceral feeling as your characters hack, slash and maim their way to victory. The combo system itself is simple, yet efficient: each class has a special type of status it can inflict on an enemy - warriors can "stagger" an opponent, rogues can "disorient" and mages can render a foe "brittle". While these effects are in themselves beneficial to an attacker (a "staggered" foe, for example, suffers reduced attack and defense scores), they really come into play as cross-class combinations; for example, a warrior can inflict up to 300% of their base damage with certain abilities when using them on "brittle" targets. This lends the battles a slight depth, as often (again, especially on higher difficulties), you are required to take advantage of as many factors as possible to emerge victorious in combat.

Screenshot with a good example of
player-to-enemy ratios in the game.

All these positives are, however, sometimes overshadowed by what is essentially a series of bad design choices which I can only assume are put in place to emphasize on the action segments of the experience. The game seems positively delighted to swarm the player with hordes of weak, yet annoying foes and (in 80% of the cases) is in the habit of spawning "reinforcements" once the original threat is dealt with, most often than not with a badly-implemented "drop from above" animation, which might work in the city environments, and even the cave environments (of which at least three quarters of the game is composed). It seems like bad design, though, to have enemies appear in that manner in the game's  outdoors areas (for example the Bone Pit area and High Dragon fight, in which newly-hatched, *wingless* drakes spawn as reinforcements during the fight by literally dropping from the sky).

As for the diversity of the foes encountered, while it is by no means limited, there seems to be an inexplicable focus on the more "human" adversaries (which, again, may just be a side-effect of the game's insistence in large groups of enemies), which strikes me as odd in a game set and marketed as fantasy.

Ultimately, the combat system is functional and in places feels refined and well-thought out (achieving at points the "easy to learn, hard to master" design creed); sadly it is obscured often by what I can only assume to be a weak attempt to escalate the game's scope - overusing enemy encounters, inappropriately used on most occasions at best, deliberately attempting to lengthen game play at worst.

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The final post will attempt to give insights  into the party members' characterization, along with some minor thoughts on the game's audio - mainly character dialogues and soundtrack.
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As a point of interest, I played as a male warrior Hawke that favoured Diplomatic/Helpful dialogue options, romanced Isabela (and defended her in a duel with the Qunari Arishok), sided with the mages in the finale, tried to complete as many side missions as possible and spared Anders after his betrayal.

Resources

=========

* Dragon Age II Wikipedia Entry

* Dragon Age II Official Site

* BioWare Official Site

* Dragon Age Wiki

Dragon Age II: Impressions Part 2

This is the second of a multi-part post regarding the game Dragon Age II. As with the last one, there are a few spoilers used to illustrate some of the points I make. You have been warned.

This is about 90% of all available
locations. Seriously.

Naming conventions and recycled areas aside, I felt that the biggest fault Dragon Age II succumbs to is the story, or rather, the story's structure. DA II is structured into a three-act story, with each act being separated by a time skip mechanic that is ineptly handled at best. It is styled as a "story within a story", as Hawke's exploits are recounted by Varric, one of the early party members that'll join you during Act 1. Again, while this gimmick has the potential to enrich the story experience, here it comes across as an afterthought, a shoehorned overlay to the already disjointed three acts that make up the game's storyline.


The first act begins with Hawke, a refugee from the recently fallen Lothering (a "cameo" of sorts from the first game), fleeing towards Kirkwall, an overseas city-state to which all of the recently expatriated Fereldans (Ferelden being, again, a name drop from the previous game) hope to find refuge. A few misadventures later (during which Hawke either takes up work as a smuggler or mercenary), he is admitted to the city and sets up camp in the city's slums.

The overarching goal for Act 1 then shifts to joining an expedition to the Deep Roads; a vast underground complex from where the previous game's villains emerge from every few decades to wreak havoc on the surface, and where there are rumoured to be treasures of immense value. In effect, this involves Hawke running a multitude of errands for various interested parties, during which he assembles a group of NPC characters and is gradually introduced to the city of Kirkwall and the surrounding countryside.

The Qunari, major plot focus for Act 2.

This was also the part that felt padded out the most, as most of the quests involved some sort of "go to point A, kill individual B, return to quest giver C for reward" structure, which gets old soon. This feeling was intensified by the constant battles with hordes of enemies (annoying at best), though this part of the topic is reserved for a subsequent post. At the finale of this act, Hawke and co. manage to explore the Deep Roads, acquire through misadventure (which, kindly put, was not entirely unforeseen) the rumoured treasure, then returns to Kirkwall.

This is where there should have been a plot hook for the second act, information of some sort that sets the stage for the next set of adventures so that the player's interest is kept. Instead, the game skips forward a few years, during which the gist of the story is that "Hawke got the treasure, moved up in society, lives a life of riches"; no character development, no connections whatsoever to the previous act's exploits (save for a "mysterious artefact" that ties into the final act, and which is cryptic in implementation at best) and for the first time, the story flow comes to a screeching halt before Act 2 comes into play and tries to get things moving again.

The Templars, zealots to a fault.

Act 2 shifts focus to the Qunari, previously encountered during Act 1's flurry of quests, a race presented as militaristic and disciplined to a fault. As tensions rise between them and the Kirkwall leadership, it falls to Hawke to investigate and attempt to smooth out relations between the two parties. Again, this is never elaborated upon: how did Hawke suddenly become so important as to be personally asked by the ruler of the city to be involved, other than the virtue of now being rich? A missed opportunity to flesh out the character at best, disjointed story segments by design at worst.

The majority of this act falls yet again into a formulaic pattern of (mostly) fetch quests, which is not helped when the entirety of the locales from the first act is recycled verbatim (see previous post for more thoughts on the subject). At the finale, the situation finally explodes (again, not so subtly hinted at from the onset), with the Qunari capturing and eventually killing the viscount of Kirkwall. Hawke defeats the Qunari, is dubbed "the Champion of Kirkwall" and, yet again, the act resolves itself with little in the way of loose story threads, therefore lacking once again cohesion and continuity with the final act.

Can't decide if these are the good guys?
Neither can the game, apparently

The story then skips a few years ahead (again), to the final act which mainly concerns tensions between the Templar and Mage faction, with the former rising to power during the interim between the second and third acts, and the latter being oppressed by them. Here the focus shifts towards a more societal struggle and moves away from the black/white characterisation the previous acts' adversaries followed, in favour of some surprisingly deep social commentary that mirrors real-world situations with admirable skill... at first.

The onset is promising enough, with several thought-provoking quests in which there is a considerable effort to not paint either side as right or wrong; this is the part I enjoyed the most and where, in my opinion, BioWare's pedigree of intelligent story and dialogue shines through. This enjoyment does not quite make it to the end though, mainly because the finale makes such a fine mess of giving your choices weight.

To elaborate: At the very end of Act 3, you are given the choice to support either of the groups, which in turn affects how the finale is played out. In theory, this should give players pause for thought, as the effort that has gone into this act to show both factions as morally ambiguous would present the player with an interesting dilemma in choosing between supporting the Templars or Mages. In effect, however, little changes in the end sequences: regardless of choice, the leader of the Mages succumbs to temptation (thus invalidating any favourable actions of the faction during this act) and the Templar leader turns out to have been corrupted all along (therefore also destroying any redeeming qualities the faction may have had in the eyes of the viewer).

With this ham-fisted resolution (both leaders are dead by Hawke's hand, regardless of his alliances), the coup de grace is dealt by the story writer here: a hugely inappropriate "to be continued" is dropped, with a (presumably obligatory) cameo from an Origins character, which I can only assume to be a weak attempt to tie both games to a third instalment in the series.

You'd think the game would have
more of these, considering the name.

In conclusion, the three acts have very little in the way of cohesion between them; it isn't much of a stretch to say that they would have worked just as well (if not better) if they shifted focus entirely from Hawke to someone else and the story would suffer little for it, and while the final act shows some initial promise, it's all destroyed with the ending, presumably designed so that Hawke is portrayed as a hero regardless of choice, which in turn undermines the "role" part of the Role Playing Game label.

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Follow-up posts will elaborate on my impressions on the combat philosophy BioWare seems to have followed in this instalment and give an opinion into the party members' characterization.
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As a point of interest, I played as a male warrior Hawke that favoured Diplomatic/Helpful dialogue options, romanced Isabela (and defended her in a duel with the Qunari Arishok), sided with the mages in the finale, tried to complete as many side missions as possible and spared Anders after his betrayal.

Resources

=========

* Dragon Age II Wikipedia Entry

* Dragon Age II Official Site

* BioWare Official Site

* Dragon Age Wiki

Dragon Age II: Impressions Part 1

Dragon Age II box art.

This will be a two, or possible three-part post regarding BioWare's latest release, Dragon Age II. As there are quite a few points I can only illustrate by giving away plot info, here's the mandatory spoiler graphic to warn off those that don't wish to read anything regarding the game's plot. You have been warned.

Having found myself with some free time over the weekend, I finally got started on Dragon Age II, the sequel to 2009's Dragon Age: Origins - a self-titled "dark fantasy" RPG by BioWare. What was apparent from the start, however, was how much of an effort had gone into this game to differentiate it from it's predecessor.

Default Hawke's appearance.

Gone are the charming "origin" stories that set some sort of character basis for what was essentially a tabula rasa approach to the main character. In it's place, a Mass Effect-esque system which locks the main character to the surname "Hawke" (regardless of gender), while the first name is chosen by the player - and then is mentioned once or twice (?) in some form of in-game correspondence. Granted, this allows for much better dialogue interactions with the rest of the non-player characters in the game, but it's spectacularly mishandled on a few occasions where characters that are otherwise close to him/her should by all accounts be on a first-name basis (prime example: the love interest); this is however a very small (and otherwise unnoticeable) blow to suspension of disbelief.

Quite a big blow, though, is dealt whenever Hawke and co. venture into any of the quasi-dungeons of the game's main and secondary quests. This happens primarily due to them being copy-pasted versions of one another, with different enemies, entry/exit points and either enabled or disabled doors to slightly alter the path the player has to take. The main level architecture is the same, though, and there seems to be no effort to hide this: the mini-map constantly displays areas you have no access to, the textures/loot-containing crevices/enemy spawn points are always the same.

Expect to see this cave again,
and again, and again...

In particular, the caves in this game are guilty of this behaviour, with no less than ten off the top of my head being based in that abysmal series of corridors, in relation to various quests that Hawke undertakes. This strikes me as a particularly distasteful habit they've picked up (and sadly, built upon) from the first Mass Effect game, which also shared the one-area-fits-all design philosophy (at least there it was limited to the side missions, whereas the main story ones had distinct level designs).

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Follow-up posts will elaborate on the story discrepancies between the game's three acts, as well as the framing device(s) used. Finally, some impressions on the combat philosophy BioWare seems to have followed in this instalment and a few thoughts on the game's voice acting.
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As a point of interest, I played as a male warrior Hawke that favoured Diplomatic/Helpful dialogue options, romanced Isabela (and defended her in a duel with the Qunari Arishok), sided with the mages in the finale, tried to complete as many side missions as possible and spared Anders after his betrayal.

Resources
=========
* Dragon Age II Wikipedia Entry
* Dragon Age II Official Site
* BioWare Official Site
* Dragon Age Wiki