Dragon Age II (Xbox 360) review "I guess people liked the origin stories in the first game so much that BioWare went ahead and made the sequel one giant origin story that cuts short just before it actually goes anywhere. It’s as if someone made a Batman movie that ended with Bruce Wayne putting on his costume for the first time."

Anyone who was unfortunate enough to have played Dragon Age: Origins on Xbox 360 or PS3 is probably well aware that the game took a number of hits in its journey from the PC (the platform for which it was originally designed) to consoles. Namely, it looked a hell of a lot worse and the battle system just didn’t operate as well without the aid of a mouse and keyboard. Well, after Mass Effect 2, no one could accuse BioWare of not taking criticisms seriously. In fact, while I loved Mass Effect 2, the game’s most commonly-cited fault was that BioWare took criticisms for the first game too seriously and in the process skewed what made it so special. And speaking of that, here’s Dragon Age II, a sequel that fixes nearly everything that was wrong with its predecessor and still somehow manages to be a significantly worse game.

My experience with the PC version of Origins is limited, but I’ve played enough to understand why it’s so heavily admired on that side of the gaming pond. It was one AD&D ruleset away from being a Baldur’s Gate sequel: BioWare’s classic pause-and-play system allowed you to rather intricately coordinate your party’s efforts in a real-time environment and the sharp, brutal difficulty curve demanded that you do so. But between restricting control to one character at a time and replacing the original interface with a clunky radial menu, Origins lost something in its transition to consoles. BioWare’s only solution was to make the game easier, which didn’t work. They were fully committed to rectifying that error in the sequel, and regardless of everything the new game does wrong – all of which I’ll get to in a moment – the combat is the one thing Dragon Age II does absolutely right.

There’s much more immediacy to the battles in Dragon Age II. Characters move about the field quickly and cleanly (without the abundance of pathfinding issues that plagued Origins), players are forced to hit a button repeatedly to continue attacking (as opposed to tapping the button once and putting your character on autopilot), and each blow is delivered with a loud, crunchy, earth-shattering oomph. Any modifications to your character's attack methods are there to provide a more instantaneous reward. In Origins, for example, rogues received backstab bonuses for attacking enemies from behind; in the sequel, backstabbing is its own ability, one that transports the player behind the target and delivers a crushing stab. It’s bloody, brutal and satisfying.

What’s impressive is that the developers have given Dragon Age II the aesthetic of an action game without outright making it an action game. Combat remains as reliant on stats and behind-the-scenes character building as the original was. The difference is that it now moves faster and feels more responsive. Unfortunately, hyper-coordinating your party still isn’t realistically possible, but at least the retooled radial menu (which now has quick-tabs for healing items) and added flexibility in customizing your AI-controlled teammates’ behavior make up for it. It’s been noted that Dragon Age II is a hair easier than its predecessor, but that's the result of the increased control the player now has over the combat. I can see why PC fans are upset by these changes, but as a dedicated console player I could hardly be happier with the solutions on which the developers settled.

What I love about these improvements is that they’ve been established without the drastic simplifications that made Mass Effect 2 such a controversial sequel. I mean, yes, it’s silly that I can’t customize my teammates’ armor or craft items on the spot, but these aren’t alterations that will cause me to lose sleep. The skill trees have been made easier to navigate without sacrificing depth, and the slightly more exaggerated art style results in a game that’s much easier on the eyes. Even the load screens are neat to look at, which is a relief, given how frequently they occur.

The biggest and most talked about changes, however, relate to the main character's presentation. Players are restricted to controlling a human, and the dialog trees have been replaced with Mass Effect’s conversational wheel. This gives players less flexibility when talking, but it comes with a trade-off: the main character, Hawke, now has a voice and an identity.

Let me tell you about Hawke. The folks at BioWare have been spending the last decade fine-tuning their storytelling game, and the most frequent roadblock has been that their insistence on player choice results in static protagonists. Even Commander Shepard, with his wooden voiceovers and distinct “good cop, bad cop” temperaments, never felt like more than an empty shell on which to project my decisions. Yet Hawke feels like an actual character. He’s fleshed out enough, with an extensive back-story and several of his family members playing key roles in the plot. All of his dialog options are consistent with his personality, thanks to both the clever writing team and the convincing voice actor they hired to play the part. Hawke feels at once like an independent force and a projection of my own actions. That’s a triumph.

In fact – and I realize I’m in the minority here – I’d say that Dragon Age II’s cast easily trumps its predecessor’s. With the exception of Shale (who was limited to DLC anyway), I never felt guilty about leaving any of my original party members at camp for the length of the entire game, but Dragon Age II practically forces you to get involved in your partners’ ordeals through various character-centric missions. As a result, I wound up feeling more sympathy for each of them. There’s also more to the process of earning your teammates’ trust than simply showering them with gifts. BioWare has offered consequences for developing both friendships and rivalries. And for once, the romance subplot is more than simply a one-night stand at a key moment just before the finale; it’s a key element in what is ultimately a very personal tale.

Dragon Age II is so focused on its characters that it seems unconcerned with actually telling a straightforward story, and that’s where the game begins to fall apart. Similar complaints were leveled against Mass Effect 2, but at least that game had a clear enemy, a central objective, and the sense that every step we took brought us closer to completing that objective, however slowly. Dragon Age II follows Hawke’s family – all refugees from Lothering after it’s invaded by darkspawn – as they try to build a new life in the city of Kirkwall. That’s it. There’s no antagonist and no real goal; you just wander the city and do whatever and hope that it eventually amounts to something.

Your first major task, for example, is to fund an expedition to the infamous Deep Roads. Making the money to do so requires hours and hours of errand-running and bounty hunting, participating in dozens of little subplots that have little to no connection to one another. That would be fine, given the entertaining combat and excellent writing, yet BioWare constantly reuses the same handful of identical dungeon layouts for the entirety of the adventure: the same cave, the same mansion, the same volcanic ruins, and so on. And even that wouldn’t be so punishing if the hub world wasn’t so criminally confined. Kirkwall and its three or four surrounding regions are entirely too small to sustain such a long game. It’s damning that so much of our time is spent running up and down the same streets, dropping off items and engaging battles in the same locations.

I’m trying not to let my disappointment cloud my better judgment here, as it’s a well-known fact in these parts that I’m a huge BioWare fan, but padding an RPG out with the same recycled environments over and over just to hit the 40-hour mark isn’t acceptable by any standard. It’s as if Mass Effect had been three times as long and composed entirely of those repetitive planetside missions that nobody liked. These issues are present due to either time constraints or downright laziness. My guess is that the former is the culprit, given the game’s short development cycle.

I’m sure it’s possible to finish the game in less time than it took me, yet everything in Dragon Age II feels so insignificant that it’s difficult to tell what’s mandatory and what’s optional. That it’s such a personal story (the Blight is barely even mentioned) is hardly a flaw in and of itself; the game dabbles in themes, such as the mages-versus-templars conflict, that leave me in awe of BioWare’s continued commitment to fleshing out its fictional universes. But the plot goes nowhere. We know, via a framing story in which a dwarf named Varric recounts Hawke’s escapades, that he will gradually rise through the ranks and eventually become the Champion of Kirkwall, but then what? Then the sequel happens, apparently. I guess people liked the origin stories in the first game so much that BioWare went ahead and made the sequel one giant origin story that cuts short just before it actually goes anywhere. It’s as if someone made a Batman movie that ended with Bruce Wayne putting on his costume for the first time.

That’s ultimately what Dragon Age II feels like: a placeholder, a prelude to something better. It’s got all of the elements of a good sequel, but as much as I like the characters and combat, they belong in a more engaging game. We all loved the demo because it’s impossible to perceive Dragon Age II’s flaws from its short prologue, but it’s disappointing to witness 40 hours of glacial buildup without any actual payoff. Dragon Age II has actually made me worried about Mass Effect 3, and that’s the most impressive thing about it.

Freelance review by Mike Suskie (March 24, 2011) Mike Suskie is a freelance writer who has contributed to GamesRadar and has a blog. He can usually be found on Twitter at @MikeSuskie.