When you are regarded as one of the best gaming developers out there you are given the benefit of the doubt when you make a average game or when you slip up just a little and thank god that over the last few years Bioware have not been one of those as time after time they seem to hit the right notes and release pure quality with every game that come out however it seems that time has come for Bioware to slip up a little and unfortunately it had to be the follow up to what some people call one of the best action RPG's on this generation of consoles.
To kick things off with Dragon Age 2 you have the usual Bioware thing where you get to create the look and style of your character from what their face looks like to their gender, after this has been done it's time to choose what class you will be playing as throughout your journey and trust me when i say this that this is one of the most important decisions you will have throughout the game.
You have 3 classes to choose from, first off there’s the typical warrior who will be able to wield big swords and charge at enemies like they are covered in £5 notes, secondly there’s the Rouge class who prefer to attack their enemies with a bit more stealth and love to sneak up on their enemies before hitting them with some devastating attacks, lastly and by far my favourite class is the mage who loves to use magic and likes to stay in the background attacking from afar with some devastating magic attacks.
So why is choosing your class one of the most important things well when I created my character I thought I would play it safe and use a warrior however I soon found out that the warrior is rubbish and I was starting to becoming more and more interested in the mage, by the end of the game I don't think I used the warrior that much as i just couldn't get to grips with her.
So after all of that you are ready to set foot on your journey from a lonely poor person all the way up to being the most important person in the game, now I’m not going to bore you with the story as in my eyes it's very week but I will say that for the first 2/3 of the game it's very generic it's not until the last 1/3 when the game comes alive and you fully find out which one of the characters you meet along your journey that you really do care about.
Speaking about the characters there are a few hit and miss ones for me the best character in the whole game and the one I seemed to use the most is Anders the mage, he seemed to be the most interesting character with a story that you want to take interest in.
The same cannot be said for most of the rest of the characters who are just boring and whine a lot apart from the brilliant varric who interjected with a few wise cracks throughout your quest.
Like I said in the opening paragraph Bioware are geniuses when it comes to this type of game so why did I feel like they missed the mark on a few aspects first off it takes ages for the game to become interesting, during the first 2/3 of the game you have the same generic quests that seem to be a part of any of these games it's not until you have gone past the 2/3 line before it becomes more gripping and interesting and by the time you hit that mark you will see that you have been playing for 20 hours plus.
Secondly the areas that your quests are set in get used over and over again so while they do look interesting the first time you see them they just becoming boring and lifeless the more you have to traipse through them.
Lastly throughout the game I came across some really stupid bugs from characters not loading to cut scenes repeating themselves over and over again.
It's not all doom and gloom though there are times when Bioware flexes there gaming muscles with some really interesting quests especially the one called haunted where you have to journey through a haunted house to help one of your team mates.
The graphics have also got a really interesting simplistic look to them which in my eyes work really well for this type of game and the soundtrack does have a very epic movie feel to them.
The best thing though about this game though is that when it gets the quests right and the characters stop being whining moaning arseholes then you are in for a treat as the game becomes something we have known Bioware for and that’s pure excellence.
Overall
There is nothing more worse than when you have the highest praise for a company only for them to let you down and while this is not a terrible game it just doesn't hit the mark like some of the previous games, yes it does have some fantastic elements to it and yes you will be captivated with it for some of the game but it takes so long for it to get it right that you really do have to stick with it and by that time you just think to yourself why bother.
+ Some really Interesting characters
+ When the quests are done right they are really engaging and interesting
+ Some nice graphical touches
+ At it's best the quests are brilliant
- Takes too long to get going
- Some really annoying characters
- Boring and over complicated conversations
- Some of the quests just seem to be to pain by numbers
Rating 75%
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