Dragon Age II

Dragon Age II came out recently and it has done a good job of just simply building off its predecessor. With everything that that was loved about the first one improved and some new features added as well make this a top contender for an RPG. Developed by Bioware who has put out some big name titles in the past including the Mass Effect series and Knights of the Old Republic. Made for the PC, PS3, and Xbox, this game has everything from pirates to mages and there is always someone who needs a couple errands run.

The game starts out with a dwarf being dragged into an interrogation room. He precedes to tell the story of our champion Hawke and how he started his rise to power. You then take control of Hawke as he takes on a horde of darkspawn, as he is escaping from his village. After an ogre comes down and you quickly get rid of him a dragon swoops down and sets fire to the next wave of darkspawn. This is when the dwarf gets interrupted and the interrogation continues and this time demands a little less exaggeration. You then take control of Hawke and you start to get the real story of what happened as he flees Fereldan and heads to Kirkwall to make a name for himself. You will meet many characters during your journey to make a name for yourself. This is when the game starts to really open up with there always being new quests to do and decisions to make that will effect the future of Hawke and the city of Kirkwall. So the way it is setup is that there are the main quests and there are the sidequests these do not effect the main story but they will effect how people in the city will treat you. Then the main storyline quests are used to help progress the story even further. As you get more people to join your cause there will be the chance to do quests for them in order to get them to like you more. Now character development is one point that this game does a good job to make ever character feel important and having there own ideals and morals.

Now the game play is very similar to Origins however the pacing of combat is much quicker. I find myself hardly ever pausing combat to give directions to my entire party but using it just to make sure I click on the right target. The way that the characters are leveled up and given new abilities is very simple and easy to pick up. With every level you get three attribute points to put into whatever you want and one ability point to use to purchase a new ability. The amount of customization that you can do is very complex on the Hawke but a lot more streamlined on the other characters this makes it so you spend less time in a menu and more time cutting people in pieces. You get to put whatever armor you want on Hawke however the other characters you can give them weapons and choose their abilities but there armor is locked to them but it will scale up to there levels. Another key feature that makes its return is the codex. This is where you can keep track of all the lore that you will run into while out in the field. This can make the world seem a lot more flushed out and more important. Along with the journal to track quests making it easy to see what quests are important for the main story and what can be put off for a little while. One thing that I am enjoying is the character quests where you can do favors for your favorite characters and get to find out more about them. One thing that you will notice however is that most of the game is spent in the city of Kirkwall, and most out skirt areas are recycled and you will notice this. This luckily does not take that much out of game and still makes it a very enjoyable experience. This game has a broad spectrum of appeal and let me tell you why.

With this game being for people that like to get the most out of there money I can definitely see you being happy with this purchase. It has a lot of replay-ability with there being multiple classes, decisions, and abilities to choose from makes this a very content rich game. This game will also be great for anyone who likes to get really into the game they are playing and obsess over it would have a great time with there being hours of text to read and so many people you can talk to to learn about the world. This game would not be a very enjoyable experience for someone who gets burnt out after playing games for a while because this game might never actually get finished which would be a shame because it does have such a good story with great characters. Also don't get this game if you just simply do not like RPG's that much because spoiler alert it is an RPG.

Some of my opinion on this game is that it is very well done and does a great job of improving on what they already had with Origins. Although there is a lot of stuff to do and with me being a completionist I tend to want to do everything before I move on with the story and this can make me get a little burnt out after a while.  This also made me get a lot of exposure to the areas that are used a lot and this made me get a little sad because I also like to explore a lot in games that is one of the reason I like MMO's. Anyway I am very happy with it and it is a very good adventure and easily over thirty hours of play for just one time through. This game is going for $59.99 right now but look around for deals I was able to get it a little cheaper on Amazon so just want to give you guys a little help to save you all some money. Anyway happy hunting and good luck on your rise to power.