Remember the days of good computer RPG's? Baldur's Gate (1&2), Planescape: Torment, and various other like them? No? Me neither. I've never actually played those games. I was a console gamer growing up due to my father's love for Apple computers, which he now hates (and rightly so I might add). I grew up with games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III/VI, Lufia and the Fortress of Doom, Illusions of Gaia, and those types of games. Most of us refer to this as the Golden Age of RPG's. I'll talk more about these wonderful games and the garbage that they're publishers have turned them into later. Right now, lets get back to PC RPG's
In case you haven't heard, cared, or were interested to know, Dragon Age 3 was announced. (here is the link) This made me think of the previous two Dragon Age games, Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2. I played both of them when they were released and beat them both at least once. Due to the announcement, I decided to play through them again.
First, I want to give mad props to Dragon Age: Origins because it was built with the blueprint of the above mentioned games and was widely popular for that reason alone. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
So, this review is going to be like the Conan: Compare and Contrast review. Lets talk about what made these games great and not so great. Characters, Plot, gameplay, and even graphics play some role on how fun/interesting/immersible/reasonstonotleaveyourapartment/GOOD a game is.
Characters: Dragon Age: Origins had wonderful characters. The fact that you are your main character and that they provided, for the most part, large enough dialogue options made me feel a strong connection between myself and the other NPC's. The other characters in the game, of which there are originally 8, provided enough diversity to keep me happy between them. With that diversity, you could form a party of whatever you wanted and they could gel with one another. I used Liliana, a holy rogue, Wynn, a wizened healer, and Alister, Ex-templar Grey Warden. Since I tend to play a somewhat Altruistic character, they agreed with most of what I wanted to do and I got benefits from it (mostly the NPC's got stat bonuses). The main character in DAO had high customization. You could pick from 3 races, human, elf, or Dick dwarf (not to be confused with these kinds of dwarves), 3 classes, warrior, rogue, or Mage and 6 different backgrounds.
So, for Dragon Age 2 you get 6 NPC's that can stick with you the whole game (I know 1 leaves no matter what you do, while another can leave depending on your choices). They're 2 of every class and offer what the other doesn't. For example the two rogues you gain are Varric (a dwarven Ranged rogue) and Isabel(la?) a human melee two-weapons rogue. The characters themselves weren't really that interesting, except Varric (Varric was super cool and a staple character in my party. He also narrates the tale.). They had plot and, for the most part, big things that define them. I won't give any of them away here, but if you've played the game you already know what they are, CAUSE YOU HEAR ABOUT THEM EVERY 15 SECONDS! The banter you hear through out the game gets really realllllly annoying near the end. In Dragon Age Origins, for the most part they were either informative to the character or rather funny. Then there is the banter in DA2...yeah. People in real life aren't defined by one thing only, but in DA2 they are.
Winner: DA:O
Plot: DAO has a big one and it's connected and involving. DA2 does not, really..sort of...kinda...but not really have a big, connected, involving plot.
In DAO you're a Grey Warden, sworn to protect the world from evil creatures known as the Darkspawn. What's this you say, Darkspawn are everywhere? well shoot. What? Obi-Wan is dead? Crap, lets get an army of ragtag races and peoples and stop all this. That's the plot in a nutshell. You know what though, getting all these people together, each with their own motivations, wants and desires and baggage, you learn to appreciate what you go through. Each set of people have their own quests you need to complete before they join you in your fight against the Dark Spawn. Most of them are pretty cool, except the dwarves, theirs sucks (it made me feel like this frustrated). Every quest is different and poses questions to the player. And these are pretty good questions. I favorite was the Elves quest. I don't want to give away too much, but the question here, or at least how I saw it, was when does a thirst for justice turn into a quest for revenge and when do you forgive those that wronged you? The, I hesitate to say main (since the main antagonist is the leader of the darkspawn), antagonist is actually a fairly deep character. He acts a little like this guy. The plot is, I think, somewhat cliche. But you know what? It's enveloping and engrossing. Long and somewhat tedious, but good.
In DA2, you play a refugee that is trying to run away from the Darkspawn (Immediate DA:O tie-in here). You have a punk whiney brother and a sweet sister and one of them has to die (kinda of like that scene from SAW but it plays out more like this). But the plot isn't cohesive. Once the family and butch reach the new city of Kirkwall, that is where you stay, the rest of the game...All. Of. It. I'll talk a little more about this mistake later, but let's focus on the plot right? So to actually get in the city, you have to be a slave/henchman/minion to Rigor Mortis, I mean, a smuggler or merc group. Thus passes the events of DA:O. We return to our heroes after a year not really knowing what things they're up to other than "getting a name for themselves." So the real plot begins right? No. You learn that since the Blight ended the Deep Roads (where Darkspawn come from) are mostly empty and ripe for the plundering. But you have to get 50 gold pieces first (which is like trying to get 50 gold pieces in real life or this except gold pieces). You learn of a few things that might carry over. Like, there are some Qunari (Kinda like the violent embodiment of an Ayn Rand/Karl Marx mix (if you know your philosophy, I'll have to explain myself, but if you want great philosophy check our my buddy's blog here)) that might one day kill everyone. And that everyone hates Mages. But they don't feel connected, because they aren't! After the deep roads you deal with the Qunari after 3 YEARS pass where your character just kinda kicks back and does nothing of relevance, kind of like This guy. After that happens another...what 3 or so years pass and then you deal with the Mages/Templars debate which feels a lot like this argument (where the villain is either the mages or the Templars) And the end.
Winner DA:O
Gameplay
Okay here is where we do a switch.
In DA:O the gameplay is El Clasico style, and I have issues with that. When you get loot (and I love Loot) they don't exactly make it easy for you to sell your loot. When you get to shop you have to figure out which of your loot is the selling loot. and then drag it over piece by piece. Then once you've gotten rid of your first wave of junk, you have to go through and figure out what new equipment is better and replace it accordingly. Then repeat the selling of the junk equipment. It gets really old really fast. About this fast. The fighting in the game is also incredibly slow. I mean SLOW. You feel every time your 2-handed weapon fighter swings their sword (kinda like this guy) and you see how your bowman waits to shoot until their sure they'll hit. AND IT'S OBNOXIOUS! The game is long enough as it is with dialogue scenes and dungeon crawling, the last thing I want is for my combat to take just as long. This last time I played through it, I downloaded some game-breaking mods (Not quite this bad though) just to get through combat faster.
DA2 on the other hand, has combat moving very very fast. Your 2-handed weapon fighter fights faster (like this) and your bowman (the dwarf actually) shoots like a madman. Combat moves in such a way that it no longer feels like "oh crap...here comes another battle that I have to wade through". It's more like "Let's Murderlize'em". Then there is the treasure. So I didn't mention before but in DA2 you can't give your party new pieces of armor. They have the same armor throughout the game unless certain criteria are filled (usually the romance). This made selling equipment incredibly simple. If you're playing a wizard, you sell all other armor pieces that you can't equip. They also created a "junk" folder for item you find that are just meant to be sold. They took it a step further and added a "Sell all Junk" button when you go to market. These made the game so much more bearable that I played through it twice before I played through DA:O twice. It's these little things that make a big enough difference to add replay-ability.
Winner: DA2
Graphics
Okay, graphics on both games are good. I lied earlier, graphics don't matter that much in these games. Don't get me wrong, I don't think these games would be as great if they were 16-bit, but they would be if they had the same graphical capabilities as say Baldur's gate.
Winner: The player
Conclusion: Both are great games and both deserved to be played through at least once normally (if you're going to play through DA:O again you might want some Mods)
DA:O - 8/10 It's great the first time through, but after that you'll struggle to pick it up again
DA2 - 7/10 It's shorter, easier, and faster. But it's also dumber and less immersible.
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