Dragon Age II starts you off as Hawke, a refugee from Lothering which if you remember from Dragon Age Origins was overun by the Darkspawn just after your fabled Grey Warden escaped the battle of Ostagar. Infact Dragon Age II starts off just as Lothering was being invaded by the Darkspawn horde. Just like most Bioware games you are given a wide variety of customization for your character and in Dragon Age II unlike Origins you are not able to choose any other race but human however you can still choose amongst it's classes which are Mage, Warrior and Rogue. The warrior is for those looking to charge in wearing plate and wield either a sword and shield or a two-handed weapon. It is designed as a Tank and a Damage dealer whereas a Mage is a wielder of magic ofcoarse hurling arcane bolts and dealing some serious damage however vulnerable to attacks. They can also be used as healers. Rogues on the other hand are all about speed and fancy tricks which they do very well and since they are the only class that can detect traps and make poisons they are almost a necessity to have.
All these classes have their advantages however that is not what Dragon Age II is about, aside from the great customization Dragon Age II like all of Bioware's games has an extremily gripping story. It will take you out of Fereldon and to the city of Kirkwall and a new country called Thedas. However the goal is to take you from being a refugee escaping Lothering to the Champion of Kirkwall which the game will span over 10 years showing you how it is infact that Hawke got there.
The game is very solid speeding up the combat from Origins and changing the style of which you fight into two separate sections either of which you can choose. The first being a toe-to-toe button masher where your primary attack will be hitting the A button however it feels surprisingly gratifying and ofcoarse there are your other abilities which all have some great effects. Or there is the strategic way which will have you approaching battles with an obviously more strategic approach by pausing the game and issuing specific orders. These are some great changed from the original Dragon Age Origins as here at BKG we were not fans of the slow paced action of the first and felt it was more suited for hardcore PC RPG gamers as aposed to console gamers, but DA2 looks to make it accessible for both kinds of gamers which they have done very well with DA2. The visuals are beautiful when you stop to take a look at them and the voice acting is superb.
There are afew problems however that DA2 suffers from. For one there are far too many loading screens, it is a fact with many RPGs that loading screens are prone to be in big numbers however DA2 there seems to be one around every corner from traveling to a new zone in Kirkwall (Which trust me you do alot) or simply entering a house. It is not a huge fall for the game as the story and cinematic experience will make up for it but for me it was somewhat of a mood killer when you are gripped in the story and then all of the sudden a loading screen will appear... Another issue I have with it is you revisit the same zones countless times and much of what you see always feels the same as what you passed 5 minutes ago.
Overall Dragon Age II was a fantastic game and is stepping up from Origins and Bioware has not let us down. If you are a Dragon Age fan or even just someone looking to start in the world of Dragon Age or an RPG for the first time then this is the game for you. (9/10)
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