The Dragon Age series is something of a weird one - I've never understood why the advertising seems to make such a fuss over the gore, as if it's the only thing the games have going for them. Taking the trailer for the first game as a case in point, all that showed was a number of decapitations and dismemberments, to the tune of Marilyn Manson, without so much of a mention of the storyline. After playing earlier BioWare games - like NeverWinter Nights - I was quite interested in the first Dragon Age, until I saw the trailer, which made it seem like a mega-gory, hack-and-slash-fest, with blood spurting everywhere and more enemies than I'd be able to cope with. Hence, I had no further interest in whatsoever - until I played it, anyway.
Once you play Dragon Age, you see, you realise that EA have marketed it in completely the wrong way. Yes, there is blood spurting everywhere, and it does seem a bit extreme in places (Tell me BioWare, why does my character need to keep blood splattered over him during conversations?), but there's far, far more to the game than that - with a huge, absorbing story, with plenty of twists and turns along the way, complex characters and of course, romance, it's a game that well and truly ticks all the boxes - not just the one labelled "violence".
Playing as [insert your name here] Hawke (you have a choice between male and female, and three classes - Rogue, Warrior and Mage), you and your family have to flee your home town of Lothering because the 'Blight' has taken it over. Eventually, you reach the city of Kirkwall as a bunch of lowly refugees, and, over the next ten years, you'll find yourself rising through the ranks of a city which is slowly slipping into an inevitable war. The story is told in the form of flashbacks, described by your hairy-chested, dwarven mate Varric, to a woman with man-hair, who seems to have more than a passing interest in you, the new Champion of Kirkwall.
Try tickling me and I'll tickle you with my axe.
As with most role-playing games, a lot of your time in Dragon Age 2 is spent wandering from place to place and talking to people, which can sometimes have a tendency to get a tad boring when you're having to trudge from one side of the map to the other. Luckily, in Dragon Age 2, things are made a lot more entertaining through the arguments and discussions your party members have - everything from the 'guess what colour my undergarments are' game, to a discussion about elves having designated, er, "frolicking" areas, to what would happen if you tickled a Qunari. Your companions all have their own quests associated with them too, as you progress through the game, which could involve rescuing a friend, getting an item from someone, or - perhaps the most entertaining one so far - clearing enemies on a patrol so Avaline can have a chance talk to the guard she has a crush on. Avaline's idea of flirting is... different... to say the least.
At this point, you might be wondering what the 'Blight' is, or what 'Qunari' are, much in the same way as, if you play the game for a bit, you'll be wondering whether the Templars are good or bad. Herein is Dragon Age II's problem, as understanding the extensive fantasy world they've put together is a bit of an upward struggle if you've not played the first game. There are books you can collect, and a Codex, which fills up with information on pretty much everything you encounter during your travels, and these do give you some background knowledge, but you often leave more confused than you were before, because of the impenetrable wall of Dragon Age-speak. If you stick with it, I promise things will begin to make sort of sense eventually - although it's not easy for people, like me, who choose to start with Dragon Age 2.
Most of your time in Kirkwall will be spent doing quests for people, which generally take the form of go here, do that, fetch this, kill a monster, then come back here for your reward - you'll be tracking down the Kirkwall killer, fetching someone's daft dwarven kids from down in the Deep Roads, and sourcing various potion ingredients for the Herbalist. Unlike most games of this type though, there seems to be much less of an obvious divide between side quests and main quests, with some of the side quests and secondary objectives having effects on the main plot.
Conversations play a big role in the game - what you say in them can affect what happens in the rest of the game, as well as your party members' opinions of you. It seems strange then, that BioWare would make it hard for you to tell what responses will have what consequences, because they hide behind icons that mean very little. For each response, you're given a few words and a picture to try and indicate the tone of the response. For example, charming responses are represented by a picture of a diamond, good options seem to be represented by either a picture of a branch or a pair of angel wings and a halo. Smart comebacks seem to be represented by a Greek comedy mask - but if you can't tell the tone of the options by the words, and can't make head or tail of the pictures, you'll find you'll have to experiment with different responses to get the one you want. To add to the confusion, the summary of what Hawke is about to say can sometimes bear very little resemblance to what you thought it did. There have been a few times I've ended up in a fight, simply because an option didn't turn out how I thought it would.
I didn't mean to insult your mother, Mr. Scary Ogre - it was all BioWare's fault...
Speaking of starting fights, combat plays a large part in Dragon Age 2, and can be as tactical (or as simple) as you want it to be. You can swap between the party member you're controlling on the fly with RB and LB, and, if you really want to get in depth, you can even edit a long list of instructions, to dictate how each character should act in certain situations (called Tactics in the menu) - and when they level up, you can distribute the status points they earn however you want, so you can round the characters to your liking. Alternatively, you could do a me, and just mash the A button (standard attack) during combat, perform the occasional healing/resurrection spell and auto level up all of your people. This being said, I am playing on the Casual difficulty (the easiest) at the moment, so there's every chance that on Normal or beyond, to Hard and Nightmare, you might need a bit more planning during combat... Increasing the difficulty will increase the number of simultaneous injuries you and your party members will sustain when resurrected in battle - each injury takes a chunk off your maximum health, mana and stamina - but can be easily fixed with a spell or injury kit. Luckily, when your character falls in battle, it doesn't mean you instantly get a game over, either - providing one of your party members is still with it, you'll be swapped to playing as them, meaning that you effectively have four lives before it's game over.
Dragon Age II isn't a game for the easily offended - with more than a splash of blood, Brothels and bedding your companions, it's very much a 'grown up' game. But with its absorbing storyline, witty characters and an easy-enough-for-me Casual difficulty setting, it's one of my favourite games so far this year. Between this and Bejeweled Blitz Live, you won't be seeing me for a long, long time.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
