Two Two-Game Two Page Reviews

It's time for another review! Because of the large number of games released over the past while, and large number of games releasing in the coming months, I'm going to merge two games into this one article. Both of titles will be games that end with 'two'. Each review will be two pages long. Noticing a trend here? The first review is Dragon Age 2. A sequel to the very popular Dragon Age Origins game I raved about a while back, DA2 is a game I've been looking forward to from one of my favorite developers ( Bioware ). The second game is Portal 2. I was a big fan of the first Portal game, and I was looking forward to hearing more of the subtle humor and fantastic dialog I came to love. Not as much as I am looking forward to the third episode of Half-Life, but here we are. On to Dragon Age 2.

Bioware is making a big name for itself lately. The highly popular Mass Effect games, along with Dragon Age Origins which brought the company back to it's roots somewhat. Many people remember Bioware for their Baldur's Gate, and Icewind Dale games of the early to mid 90's. The Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights games reminded us what Bioware could do with the RPG genre. Then came Dragon Age Origins. I called the first Dragon Age game a success and touted it as one of my more favored games in a long while. I did notice some things that changed between the first Mass Effect game, and it's sequel when I reviewed Mass Effect 2. Dragon Age 2 contains even more changes in it's first sequel than the changes between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. I'll talk about that as we go.

The story of Dragon Age 2 begins around the start of the DAO storyline. You join the Hawke family as they try to escape the blight. After some fighting and loss and tears you cross the ocean to find your character and the Hawke family in a hostile city called Kirkwall. Formerly wealthy and respected, the Hawke family must bribe and sneak back into their city of origin. Kirkwall is where the whole game takes place, and you will spend the entire playthrough in and around this city. If this sounds disappointingly confined compared to the many areas and locations of DAO, that may be because it IS more confined and cut down than Origins. Simply looking at how much smaller DA2 is on your hard drive tells you a bit about the design (and cut corner nature ) of the game. Dragon Age 2 takes up far less space than Origins. The lack of multiple varied locations probably plays a part, but the most likely reason for the smaller space requirements is the repeating dungeons. Houses, dungeons, and locations repeat. Dungeons, houses and locations repeat. Locations, houses and dungeons repeat. Playing through DA2, the first thing you'll notice about the combat locations is that they all take place in the same few locations, with the starting point moved, or paths changed slightly. This is a VERY lazy tactic, and I am calling Bioware on it. It is unacceptable to see this sort of lazy design, and unimaginative way of adding content, without doing much work. I can't believe I find myself accusing Bioware of being lazy, but that is exactly what I'm doing.

The story as a whole isn't all that bad, though it doesn't really do much to advance Dragon Age as a sequel. Most of the game revolves around two main themes. The primary task is to bring the Hawke family back to the nobility of it's past. This climb from nothing, to nobility is mentioned throughout the game. The second major theme is the growing troubles within Kirkwall. A group of Qunari crashed their ship and made a settlement in the city. The constant back and forth bickering between the Mages and the Chantry / Templars creates even more tension. For some reason the main character gets involved and you must do your best to hold the city together. The problem is that none of what goes on has the grand scale that the events of DAO had. You do your thing in your city. When complete you are left to assume, based on the narration, that what you did had far reaching impact. In DAO you could see the world slowly changing as a result of your actions, and the spreading blight. Because DA2 lacks this, so I was less satisfied by the story.

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