Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Impressions

Disclaimer: This opinion piece is based on the "Give me Deus Ex" difficulty (i.e. highest difficulty) - while the article notes which parts are likely to differ in gameplay due to difficulty, a few discrepancies might occur.

Additionally, this article contains copious amount of spoilers; read at your discretion.

The Deus Ex brand (derived from the "deus ex machina" literary technique) has become a household name among PC gaming circles ever since the first game's release in 2000; presenting a rare degree of coherent and involving storytelling, intelligent design, a gripping narrative and - above all - the hitherto unseen ability of multiple paths across any of the game's levels.

The game is generous with its flavor text, ranging
from emails and public announcements...

Now, after eleven years (and a surprisingly mediocre sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War), the franchise returns with Human Revolution. The game is styled as a prequel to the original, featuring a dystopian society that has begun to witness the next degree of human advancement; bio-mechanical augmentation of the human body, ranging from minor prosthesis (such as cognitive aids) to full body-part replacement.

The game spends a great deal of energy to develop a believable world; the environments are designed in such a way as to reflect the recent technological advancements, the various overheard conversations hint at the side-effects of such breakthroughs, even discarded newspapers and compromised mail accounts color the world with a pessimistic, dystopian hue - this also presents one of the title's minor problems, as most of the "flavor" text is easy to miss for a player not in the appropriate frame of mind, rewarding careful exploration and a slower pace while "penalizing" faster, all-guns-blazing approaches (something which the developer fails to communicate to the player properly).

...to overheard conversations in the streets of
any of the major city hubs.

In fact, the entire game seems to be favoring the stealthier approach to any given problem; neutralizing opponents without killing them, hacking doors and security systems (even when having the correct login credentials), finding side-passages (almost always ventilation shafts) and completing objectives without being detected will always award more experience than their more combat-heavy parallels.

This would not be a problem normally, except that the game has been marketed heavily as a "suit all styles" game - rewarding one play style while penalizing the other (by withholding said rewards) seems like a bad design choice, especially when with some tweaking it would have made a more (apparently) fair and even system (for example, while there is a "No Detection" bonus, there could also be a "Clear All Enemies" bonus to accommodate players of a more aggressive mindset).

DX: HR sadly rewards stealth far better than
aggressive playing, despite previous indications.

The game begins with protagonist Adam Jensen getting a tour of Sarif Industries (one of the game's major factions), where he works as a chief of security; it is worth noting that at the onset, Adam is not augmented - the game does a great job of highlighting his vulnerability, with large groups of enemies proving to be vastly difficult challenges (as one would expect realistically), although the final fire-fight might be a bit too hard (on the highest difficulty setting - I assume lower difficulties have an easier time of the encounter).


At the tutorial's end, in which Sarif Industries is invaded by a mercenary army which massacres the on-site personnel, Adam sustains heavy injuries; this allows the game to introduce the augmentation mechanic, which has been used in an effort to save Jensen's life. The developers opted for a free-form upgrade system; each of the possible augmentations (corresponding to various body parts) can be acquired by spending Praxis points (earned via in-game items and at specific experience point thresholds) - there is no preset path of upgrades; every upgrade is available at any point in the game, provided the player has the required Praxis to unlock it.

The inventory system is highly intuitive; note the
ability to rotate any item to fit.

This offers a wide variety of approaches and play-styles throughout the early levels - sadly this does not persist, as by mid-game a particularly stealth-oriented character can gain enough exp. and Praxis kits to unlock nearly every augmentation (though upgrading them all takes a good deal more time). This eventually robs the game of replayability - from a certain point onwards Adam reaches a "default" level of power, diminishing the upgrade mechanic to a mere point-sink.

The augmentations themselves are interesting for the most part, offering a wide variety of tools to suit each play-style: from the stealthier "Glass Shield Cloaking System" augmentation that renders Adam near-invisible for a limited amount of time, to the more aggressive "Typhoon Explosive System" augmentation that blasts nearby enemies, to the more exploration-centric "Icarus Landing System" which allows Jensen to fall off great heights with no injury.

The augmentation mechanic feels highly rewarding,
even if a lot of the augmentations feel useless.

The energy system for these abilities has been balanced against overuse; every single activated ability (including silent takedowns, stealth, breaking down walls and running silently) shares a common energy pool - while it depletes in a rapid fashion, the final "cell" recharges over time, ensuring both that players are less likely to get irrevocably stuck and are rewarded for conservative use.

The combat itself is weirdly balanced; as mentioned above, stealthy characters are rewarded over their action-oriented counterparts, which is itself the result of both the level design and experience system - the levels favor stealth, with multiple side-routes built into nearly all combat areas, while experience awarded for stealth/non-lethal methods outweighs its more direct/lethal analogues.

Boss fights, the game's second-worst element, was
apparently outsourced to a different studio.

Sadly, while the general combat and navigation is well-executed (if a bit stealth-oriented), the boss fights are a different story. At specific points in the game, certain characters will challenge Adam to one-on-one combat (usually after a cutscene); these NPC's are badly characterized, with no apparent motivation nor reason for wanting to hinder the player's progress - these fights are also very combat-oriented, presenting an unfair disadvantage to players who (up to that point) had to rely on stealth and hacking skills to advance.

This shift in pacing is also apparent in the game's finale, which has Adam literally decide on the ending by activating the corresponding console, thus invalidating (in a certain degree) the choices the player has taken up to that point - all while being spoon-fed a good deal of exposition by one of the game's NPC's. The endings themselves are also highly disappointing: each consisting of a short collection of still images coupled with Adam's narration, who justifies his choice - no mention is made of the fates of the game's major factions or characters, thus denying closure to the player.

Ultimately, while the game succeeds in building a consistent, believable world with an intriguing narrative and an interesting combat implementation, its shifts in focus (boss fights), unfairly balanced experience/augmentation system (stealth vs. combat) and disappointing endings rob it of the all-time classic status.

Resources
=======
* Deus Ex: Human Revolution Official Site (requires age check)
* Deus Ex Series - Wikipedia Entry
* Deus Ex Wiki
* "Deus ex machina" - Wikipedia Entry

Portal 2 - Impressions, Single Player

A two-part piece regarding VALVe's latest release, Portal 2 - the first part concerns itself with the single player portion of the game and thus might contain minor to moderate spoilers. Since the game relies heavily on key plot developments, it is strongly advised to not read this article until you have completed it. You have been warned.

Portal 2 Box Art.

In Portal 2, players once again step into the (spring-heeled) boots of Chell - the protagonist of the series' previous game - who, due to various circumstances, finds herself waking up from cryogenic sleep several years after Portal 1's conclusion by Wheatley, an artificial intelligence construct trying to enlist her help in escaping the decaying Aperture Science facilities after a catastrophic power failure. The player navigates the environment by using a portal-generating device which can open two interconnecting portals on certain surfaces, transporting matter between them (including objects, light, fluids and of course, the player).

Portal 2's predecessor was known as a sleeper hit, originally "bonus" content featured in VALVe's compilation, the Orange Box. Portal went on to earn critical acclaim from the press, mainly due to its quirky brand of dark humour, clever level design , puzzle dynamics and excellent characterization. VALVe's staple ability of maintaining verisimilitude was also credited as a major factor behind the game's success, with the Aperture Science facility offering a multitude of side-stories, both humorous and serious in tone - thus building a believable, persistent world for the game to take place.

Effort has gone into portraying the
decay due to the passage of time.

Story-wise, Portal 2 picks up at an unspecified amount of time after the first game's conclusion, with Chell being awakened from cryogenic sleep by Wheatley (voiced by Stephen Merchant, who delivers his lines with admirable gusto and skill), the cryogenic facility's supervisor trying to escape the now-defunct building with the player's help. The story is, true to VALVe standards, integrated flawlessly into the core gameplay mechanic of portals, offering a variety of main- and side-stories that flesh out the game world considerably. There is a marked improvement in the story development over the last game, provoking thought in a much better way than its predecessor; the plot twist(s) during the game's latter half are quite well executed, if not entirely unexpected and as such merit special mention.

Redirecting lasers, one of the new
gameplay elements introduced.

The game is divided into 9 chapters, the first acting as a tutorial introducing the portal mechanics, with subsequent chapters introducing new gameplay elements ranging from the mundane pressure-activated buttons to the more exotic ones such as the Repulsion Gel, which allows the player to 'bounce' off any surface it covers. These gameplay elements are continually combined to form the game's many puzzles, ranging from simple box moving exercises to complex, gravity-defying acrobatics and high-speed infinite portal loop exploitation. This simple, ramping difficulty structure ensures that the player seldom gets stuck in any single puzzle for long, while providing a both rewarding and challenging scenarios - a few of the late-game sequences in particular proved to provoke thought in interesting ways and a satisfying feeling once they were solved.

One of the many combinations of
devices the player must tackle.

Sadly, this structure is also the part of the game that I found lacking the most; a few of the challenges felt like retreads of previous rooms, giving a slight feeling of padding out the latter parts of the single-player campaign - the various gel sequences are especially guilty of this. The thought occurs that, if the seventh and eighth chapters were merged into a single one, the game could avoid this easily. In addition, a small number of rooms (those generally involving long-range jumps, better known as 'portal flinging') are guilty of deceptive non-solutions; namely jumps that fall about an inch short of safety, sometimes tricking the player into repeating the same actions (and failing) again, in fear of not having the required velocity to perform said jumps.

Fluid physics are particularly fun to
watch; find a Propulsion Gel pipe...

In regards to the audio/visual component, the game is built upon a heavily modified version of the Source engine and as such looks beautiful (if slightly dated in comparison to other 2011 releases). Fluids are especially well done, with the aforementioned gel variants reacting with the environment and the various in-game entities in a satisfying way (such as coating enemy turrets in Repulsion Gel, then watching them bounce off every surface until they are destroyed). The character animations are also very well done, with Wheatley's character model taking the fore; the work gone into his character model in particular shines as an example of body language execution (no mean feat, considering he's basically a disembodied orb).

...and coat a nearby walkway; this will
hugely accelerates Chell's walk speed.

The game's audio is also of high quality, with ambient sounds that blend in perfectly with the scenery and accentuate the environments the player moves through. The music consists mainly of a series of techno tracks that are mixed on the fly depending on the player's actions; the 'frantic' segments in particular (the final chapter's intro is a very good example of this) evoke particularly strong feelings of urgency and pulse-pounding danger in a way reminiscent of Deus Ex, which also featured adaptive techno tracks (though of much lower sophistication than Portal's ones).

Voice acting warrants special merit, with the trio of Ellen McLain, Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons providing the voices for GLaDOS, Wheatley and Cave Johnson, respectively. GLaDOS is once again portrayed in a most compelling manner, while bumbling artificial intelligence Wheatley's British accent and mannerisms and Aperture Science CEO Cave Johnson's off-beat manner, often with dark humour overtones, are the real show-stoppers this time around; both voice actors offer a wide range of lines delivered with genuine feeling and often to hilarious results.

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In conclusion, the single player portion of the game delivers a compelling, quirky story in tandem with intelligent gameplay mechanics, some of the most clever humour in recent games, spot-on voice acting and excellent characterization.


On the flip side, a small part of the content feels repetitive, particularly in the latter half of the game, as well as some minor complaints on the otherwise great level design concerning high-velocity jumps. While the single-player portion's duration (averaging at about  7 to 8 hours) isn't any worse than any other recent release, the somewhat rigid level structure and singular solutions limit the game's replayability.


*Portal 2 Box Art pic courtesy of www.gamepron.com
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Resources

=========

* VALVe Official Site

* Portal 2 Steam Page

* Portal 2 Wikipedia Entry
* Portal 2 Official Site

Bulletstorm - Impressions

Bulletstorm box art.

In the past few years, the Halo template on first person shooters has been prevalent (limited weapon capacity, regenerating health, "realistic" character endurance et al), to a degree where most current generation titles share some worrying similarities. There have been a few exceptions to this rule however, titles like Serious Sam or Painkiller which forego the norm in favour of frantic combat, finite health (and restorative items) and generally involving enemy numbers which a more "realistic" game could not accommodate as easily.

Thus comes Bulletstorm, the latest title from People Can Fly, the Polish developer behind Painkiller. The game follows Greyson Hunt, part of a commando unit gone rogue, waging guerilla warfare against their former commanding officer General Sarrano who has been ordering assassinations on civilians. The game begins with a space battle against the general's forces, forcing both him and Greyson's team  to land on the nearby planet Stygia and, for most of it, centres on Greyson's attempts to reach Sarrano and escape the planet with the last surviving member of his unit, Ishi Sato.

Main cast members Greyson Hunt
(left), Ishi Sato (right).

As far as stories are concerned, this one's average at best; there is an ongoing attempt to cast Greyson in what amounts to a remorseful anti-hero, struggling to cope with his bad decisions. This, however, falls spectacularly short of the in-game dialogue, since it seldom manages to retain any sort of atmosphere - the character may quip sarcastic remarks one minute and brood over his comrades' deaths the next. It feels as if character development was of two minds on this project, with the mood jumping disjointedly between dramatic and comedic settings. The dialogue also comes across as juvenile in some parts, mainly due to the cast's tendency to use profanities with every other sentence - making any sort of atmosphere building (comedic or not) crumble away for any player past puberty.

Leashing enemies often leads
to interesting skillshots.

Gameplay-wise, the game shines and the developers' previous work shows its influences; frantic combat that is genuinely fun to play, with a multitude of weapons, each with a variety of effects to suit a good deal of play styles. The premise is that the game awards points for performing kills in specific ways, ranging from the mundane headshots or killing multiple targets, to the more exotic environmental kills or "trick shots"; such as killing an enemy with a sniper round, then exploding the body so it takes out a different enemy. This system rewards creative thinking and works wonders in breaking up the dull tedium of most first person shooters of today, by giving some much-needed variety to the entire combat mechanic. Points awarded by this so-called "skillshot system" are then used to upgrade weapons and purchase ammunition for the player's arsenal of weaponry.

The water effects are also a
beauty to behold.

Greyson also comes armed with an anti-gravity boot attachment, used to temporarily slow down enemies during combat, as well as an energy leash used to pull enemies towards him (also allowing activation of certain mechanisms during exploration). Said exploration is usually short, doing a good job of providing contrast against the frantic, fast-paced combat segments - a function the majority of today's FPS collective foregoes completely. The controls also warrant mention here, as they facilitate smooth navigation with a flowing control scheme that allows for seamless transition between running, jumping and sliding around the battlefield.

Graphics are also a strong point here, with lush, colourful environments and gorgeous scenes that really push the limits of what the Unreal Engine can do. Of merit is the dam scene, which does a great job of giving the player a sense of scale, as well as a particularly enjoyable carnival level, which also features one of the most hilarious weapons of the past few years I've seen in a game.


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All in all, this is a return to form for the FPS genre, with many old school shooter elements incorporated in a fresh and interesting new way, dressed up in current-gen graphics, only let down by a poorly executed plot and bad character development; thankfully, this turns out to be largely inconsequential in lieu of the sheer amount of enjoyment to be had by the combat system, making Bulletstorm a highly recommended title for a few hours of mindless fun.
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Resources

=========

* Bulletstorm Official Site

* People Can Fly Official Site

* Bulletstorm Wikipedia Entry

* Bulletstorm Demo (via Steam)

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Impressions

This post contains minor spoilers on Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective's plot. You have been warned.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
box art.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a 2011 (in the EU/US, at any rate)  NDS game by Capcom, developed by Shu Takumi of Phoenix Wright fame, in which you take the role of the titular "phantom detective", a recently deceased man named Sissel. It's premise follows Sissel's adventures as he attempts to solve the mystery of his murderer's identity, by utilizing the eponymous "Ghost Tricks", his unexplained ability to manipulate objects as a spirit.

The concept, while not entirely original, is delivered through a story that's unique and robust, managing to keep the player's interest in seeing it unfold. The game's opening scene does a good job of setting the stage, with recently-deceased Sissel discovering his abilities to travel between objects by "possessing" them and manipulating them, such as opening cupboards or swinging desk lamps. A mysterious presence called "Ray" acts as the game's tutorial, by tutoring Sissel in his recently acquired abilities throughout the first chapter.

Game's interface during
"ghost mode".

Said chapters form the game's narrative, with each giving a clear goal for the player to follow; this turns out to work well as a pacing device, as the game enjoys a tight narrative with excellent set pieces and masterfully implemented characters, locations and music. The story itself in particular is very well said, with a few particular plot twists that (despite a slightly overdone tone) help bring the experience up from an average "whodunit" mystery to a gripping murder mystery.

Gameplay-wise, the game's unique selling point (object possession and manipulation) is structured as a series of linear puzzles, in which the player must usually work out a route to a specific set of objects, where manipulating them advances the plot in some significant way. Most of these advancements are centred around preventing certain characters from dying, by means of experiencing their final moments (specifically, 4 minutes before their death). The player might, for example, be tasked of preventing a person's death from heart attack by bringing their medication closer to them, or prevent a car crash by viewing the circumstances surrounding it and counteracting them in some way.

Linear to a fault, presumably
due to the game's premise.

This is where the game's greatest strength also becomes it's greatest shortcoming; the rigid structure it follows helps the pacing and atmosphere remain at their highest throughout the experience - however, this also means that due to all of them having a solitary solution, the replay value becomes non-existent (not to mention that the trial-and-error method could be annoying to some). Combine this with an average of 6-8 hours of gameplay, depending on how much the player likes to experiment with (what amounts to) red herrings, the puzzles being usually clear-cut (at least up until the final three acts) and for the most part, having easy to figure solutions and you get a very short game that for some people might not be worth the asking price.

Vibrant colours that accentuate
the characters.

Special merit is due to the game's graphics, with character animations in particular being smooth and enjoyable to view, while the colour palettes used often work to accentuate them from the rest of the world, much to the visual benefit of the game. In general, the use of bright colours gives the game a comic book feel that, strangely enough, works to enhance instead of detract from the atmosphere created by the story. The characters are thus rendered memorable, an impression aided by the effort done to give them all distinctive traits and mannerisms.

The soundtrack also deserves mention, as it does a good job of reinforcing the chapters' action and pacing; in particular, the "urgent" set pieces, aided by the soundtrack, offer an exhilarating feeling seldom found in similar games. Character themes are in themselves functional, if uninteresting, content in taking the back seat while exposition and character development take the forefront of the game at those points.

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Ultimately, the game boils down to a superbly executed puzzle-adventure with a unique take on death, some truly unpredictable plot twists, well-developed characters and a great combination of smooth graphics - memorable soundtrack.

The only downside comes from the game's rigidly linear nature and short duration; depending on your mileage, this could be a deal-breaker in purchasing the game. 

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Resources

=========

* Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Official Site

* Ghost Trick Wikipedia Entry

* CAPCOM Official EU Site

* Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Demo (via browser)

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.
===================================================================

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

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* Dragon Age II Wikipedia Entry

* Dragon Age II Official Site

* BioWare Official Site

* Dragon Age Wiki