Dragon Age II

BioWare Corp.

“Dragon Age II’s” predecessor, “Dragon Age: Origins” largely consisted of marching across a fantasy landscape, killing pseudo-orcs and exchanging witty one-liners with party members. Ferelden needed to be saved; there was no time to delve into silly things like the in-depth mythology and social structures that lurked beneath the surface. It was like visiting a foreign country and saying, “Oh, what lovely cultural sites you have. Let me kill some orcs, and not inquire any further!” “Dragon Age II” takes the world of “Origins” and creates a game worthy of it.

You are Hawke, an epic badass who will change the world. Hawke and family fled Lothering, a town destroyed by Darkspawn, the previously mentioned pseudo-orcs, which “Dragon Age: Origins” veterans should remember passing through early in the first game. You arrive in your mother’s hometown, the city of Kirkwall to find corruption, looming war and myriad moral dilemmas. Your first taste of human indecency there is your dear uncle, who is more concerned with how you can help him than making sure his sister and her family are safe after nearly dying gruesome, horrible deaths. Over the course of the next 10 in-game years, you will become the Champion of Kirkwall.

“Dragon Age II” has taken the world created in “Origins” and dived in, head first. Social injustices are no longer a side note; you can actively fight against them. No longer do you walk by the Circle of Magi, the prison-like home of mages, and say, “Gee, I wish those templars wouldn’t be such jerks to mages. It’s really not fair.” In DAII, you get to smash the templars in the face while helping mages, the oppressed and feared magic users, escape tyranny. Unless you don’t like mages; then you join the rest of the world in hating them.

One of the best parts of DAII was the way my rogue went about stabbing people in the face. In “Origins” and other video games, the combat movement is routine, with characters’ feet planted on the ground and arms making the standard stabbing motions. My rogue stabbed, then stabbed from another direction, disappeared in a cloud of smoke before stabbing the opponent in the back, and jumped in the air to kick enemies in the face while still stabbing them. In DAII, every fight scene is an amazing experience of fireballs raining from the sky while assassins kick and stab their way across the scene and warriors swing giant hammers around or slam opponents with shields. Using activated abilities, such as “back stab” or “explosive strike” to finish your opponent sometimes causes them to burst into a shower of gory mess, spraying you and your companions with a delightful veneer of blood.

One of the best things about the combat system in the game is that you have to play like your class. A rogue can’t carry a sword and shield and act like a warrior, a mage is vulnerable to all sorts of smashing and bashing and warriors are proper tanks, holding the attention of foes, while rogues dance around stabbing them in the back and mages keep the firestorms, paralysis and healing flowing.

The rogue character is actually agile enough that in single combat, an Ogre (about four times as big as Hawke) can be handled solo on the “hard” difficulty setting. Granted, forget to dodge, and you’re dead, but so long as you play your rogue like the light-footed, dodgy fighter you are, you should be fine. In fact, you’ll feel kind of like a ninja. Each activated move has a cool-down period before it can be used again, as do health potions, which keeps you from blindly button smashing your way through.

DAII copied the “Mass Effect” conversation wheel and used options like good, aggressive, witty, charming and extortion to make every conversation an adventure in attitude. Hawke, whether man or woman, is fully voice-acted, and no matter if you’re a jackass or a saint, Hawke never sounds like anything but the most epic hero the city has ever seen. Unlike “Mass Effect,” there’s no hardline “good person” versus “aggressive jerk” options; either your party members don’t care that you just punched someone in the face instead of negotiating, or you earn friendship or rivalry points with that character. You won’t be forced into a persona of sainted hero or damned villain, unless you really want to be.

You can have up to three companions in your party at once, following you around and helping you destroy your enemies. Every companion brings not only his or her combat skills to your party, but a range of opinions about your actions and random battle cries. My personal favorite: “If we kill them we get their stuff!”

Companions won’t always approve of your methods though: Isabela the ex-smuggler disapproves anytime you give up money and Anders, a mage who shares his body with a spirit of Justice, will give you rivalry points anytime you turn a runaway mage over to templars.

In conversations, you can sometimes call on your party members to answer for you, which usually gets you friendship points. Of course, the same action could annoy your other companions, so choosing a party that shares similar morals and expectations is usually wise, or they’ll be arguing with you and each other.

The downsides of the game were few. You can no longer go to your map from any fully explored part of the world and select the next place you want to go; instead you have to find the area exits marked on your map. Many of the side quests are built using a few dungeons with cave-ins and cosmetic changes rather than entirely new content. Of course, no video game has completely different scenery for every place you visit.

With more than 50 hours of game play available, “Dragon Age II” will satisfy every craving you possess for role playing, fantasy storytelling, in-game romance, blood spilling and butt kicking.