I may very well be the last person in the world to review this game. There’s already been a Zero Punctuation on the subject, as well as an Extra Punctuation that everybody should read. Just about everybody from top-tier professionals to amateurs with forum logins have gotten in on the act. My wife recently posted a rather balanced review, so it’s far past time I did the same. Anyway, grab yourself a drink, let’s get started.

Fenris is way ahead of you.

Instead of picking up where Dragon Age: Origins left off, Dragon Age II actually takes us back in time, to the aftermath of the rout at Ostagar. As the tide of the Blight washes over the little town of Lothering, the Hawke family flees from the oncoming darkspawn. Helping their mother escape is Carver, the headstrong warrior; Bethany, the fearful apostate mage; and you. You are not the savior of Ferelden, a Grey Warden or anything else particular special. You are Hawke, and the game would have you believe your path is not determined, as this story is more personal and less sweeping.

While the story does open up more of the world of Thedas, in the form of Kirkwall and some of the surrounding countryside, it also eliminates many of the features that made Dragon Age: Origins such a daunting, time-consuming and ultimately epic experience. The result is a game that is much shorter, but also lacking in many areas that, given more time, could have been fleshed out and made it an overall better experience.

Get used to the Wounded Coast. Hey, at least it looks nice.

For one thing, just a little more time in development could have yielded some variations on the caverns, warehouses and basements you have to traipse through for various side quests. Changing the entry points and door locations doesn’t make up for using the same map over and over, nor does BioWare get away with it because they hang lampshades on it. It’s pure laziness, and one of the indications that this game was rushed out the door before it was really ready for play.

I’m not just talking about things like bugs, either. The story needs work, as it’s barely there. You have three strung-together acts with increasingly engaging subject matter. While the framing device works, it still feels like one act has almost nothing to do with the others. On a level, they almost feel interchangeable, with the exception of the very end of the game. While I feel the second and third acts had some decent story points, and characters changing over the years is always good to see, the first act felt particularly shallow and disposable, given the plethora of side-quests one has to engage in to get the appropriate amount of money to undertake the main quest to make even more money. I’d like to think, at least on my first playthrough, that there’s more to Hawke than that.

He does look good in furs, though.

While I’m still not entirely sure why the proportions of the elves had to be changed so dramatically to differentiate them from humans, most of the art direction in Dragon Age II is very well done. In addition to its looks, there’s also a feel of actual life to Kirkwall. Hearing snippets of conversations from others and being greeted on the street lent the setting of the game a bit of weight and immersion that I appreciated. It gave me one more reason to power through side quests, other than being sick of the copy-pasted maps. I wanted to get back to Kirkwall, wander between its high stone buildings and listen to my party members banter.

One of the true saving graces of the game is its characters. They’re well-rounded and rather deep, as is appropriate for a BioWare game, but they all have very different reasons for supporting and travelling with Hawke. Another good thing is the somewhat simplified combat mechanics, coupled with a vastly improved skill tree system. I was very happy to not have to spend any skill points on Coercion, Herbalism or anything else that took away from my ability to melt faces. I played a mage, as I tend to do, and my skill points should go to magical skills, not potion-making. Speaking of mages, let’s get back to the characters and one of the reasons I feel this game is worthwhile.

Hawke will stab you in the face, then melt it.

As Dragon Age II carries on, you get to know the characters, develop friendships and even engage in romances. One of the things that the writers never forget is that everybody has disparate motivations for doing what they do. And sometimes, those motivations will test their relationship with the player. I encountered such a moment, right at the very end of the game. I won’t say what happened, but the impact of the event was so great that I had to sit back, take my hands from the controls, stare at the character I considered a friend and weigh my options carefully as I would were I in that actual situation. That moment, that sort of immersion in the moment, making a decision that I felt had weight; that is what I want to take away from a game like Dragon Age II. A lot of what got me to that moment sucked, yes, but in the end, I have to say I felt it was worth the journey.

Stuff I Liked: Replacing the Arcane Warrior spec with new staff designs and mechanics was a neat change, and I liked it. Kirkwall’s a very cool fantasy city. There were some great nods to the previous game along with the usual BioWare shout-outs. Smooth combat and a simplified skill tree system. Neat ‘crafting’ mechanics.
Stuff I Didn’t Like: The copy-pasted environments. The look of elves kept throwing me off. The feeling that just a little more polish could have made the story more coherent. And why is there no isometric view anymore?
Stuff I Loved: The characters, from the main party to the arishok and Flemeth. Getting pulled into the story when it bothered to be there. Hearing my party members banter.

Bottom Line: Dragon Age II was something of a disappointment, as in there were a lot of things that could have been done better. That said, it’s still a decent game with strong characters, smooth combat and enough good story points to balance out the negative, lacking aspects in the rushed design… but only just. I do plan on replaying it, and I’m more than likely going to enjoy those replays, which I guess makes this a game I would recommend. Be prepared, however, not to be entirely blown out of your seat. It isn’t a great game, but neither is it a terrible one.

This review contains spoilers. Fairly be ye warned.

This is a review that’s admittedly been a very long time coming. My experience with Dragon Age: Origins, from my initial enthusiasm to my gripes about bugs and length, is pretty well documented. I picked up the expansion, Awakening in lieu of playing through the base game again. Having finally made the time to finish it, long after my wife played, beat and reviewed it herself, I was surprised with how much the expansion had in common with the original game, for better and for worse.

Having saved Ferelden from the Blight, the Grey Wardens now under your command are given the arl of Amaranthine, a land in the northern reaches of the kingdom that formerly belonged to one of your biggest and most irritating enemies. It is your charge to both protect the people of the land and rebuild Vigil’s Keep and the order of Grey Wardens it now houses. This is easier said and done for a variety of reasons. The nobles of Amaranthine are wary of you, the Keep is in shoddy shape and the darkspawn, who usually all but disappear following a Blight, continue to assault the countryside and, despite the loss of the archdemon, appear shockingly organized. It’s down to you to lead the charge against them, and try not to lose your new land in the process.

Stuff I Didn’t Like

I wore this face of Sigrun’s a lot.

Okay, I know that a patch came out back in July for some of this stuff, but damn are some of the initial bugs in Awakening annoying. Approval ratings on companions were messed up pretty badly, some quests were impossible to complete and others you couldn’t pick up at all. Some of the character posing was a bit off as well. Nothing catapults you out of the gameplay experience like your character wearing a dumb expression or standing in a ridiculous pose while something of great dramatic import is happening.

Another major problem I have with Awakening is a minor one I had with Mass Effect 2. There are fewer opportunities to chat with and get to know your party members. While Anders is Alistaire 2.0 (less shy, magely, every bit as snarky) and Velanna is Morrigan 1.1 (defrosting ice queen but now with pointy ears!), the additions of Nathaniel and Sigrun are quite welcome and I would have liked to talk with them more. And why are there so few opportunities to commiserate with our old friend Oghren over some brews? It’s like walking up to Garrus to ask him how he feels about Tali being back and all he says is something about calibrating the guns on the Normandy, only worse because we get even less dialog with the new characters in Awakening.

Don’t even get me started on how often this game crashed in the middle of a boss fight. I don’t know if it’s this computer or the unpatched game, but it’s like Crash Man got bored working for Dr. Wily and decided to start screwing with Amaranthine instead.

Finally, the game is frustratingly rigid in its handling of its ending. You are given the choice between saving the city of Amaranthine or staying to defend Vigil’s Keep. If you’re like me and got every upgrade for the Keep you could, and left it to save the city hoping to ride back to the Keep in your very own Big Damn Heroes moment, you’re in for a massive disappointment. Also, choose your ending party well, because you’re stuck with them for the rest of the game. Finally, the choice between destroying both the Architect and the Mother and listening to the Architect’s persuasive argument as to why he can and should help you shouldn’t be so black and white. Either you listen to him and give him a chance to free the darkspawn or he’s a monster and you kill him. Where’s the option to enlist his help but then chain him up in the Keep’s dungeon under guard while he does his work to ensure he keeps his word? All in all, Awakening feels a lot less open-ended than its core game.

Stuff I Liked

“Let me live and work to free the darkspawn, and there will be cake.”

On the subject of the Architect, I will admit he’s probably my favorite kind of villain. He’s intelligent, well-spoken, propelled by complex motivations and willing to do just about anything to accomplish his goals that doesn’t compromise them, even allying with the heroes if necessary. Being that my character was an intellectual mage despite wearing plate and swinging a magical sword (Arcane Warriors rock), I listened to what he had to say and saw things from his point of view. Again, it would have been nice to not be tied down to only the two options in this part of the ending, but I appreciate the distinction existed at all. It would have been easy to make him less dimensional and water the motivations of the heroes down to “kill everyone” right from the off.

The new spells, specializations and equipment in the expansion are all pretty well-done. I liked that I could spend skill points to get some increases to hit points and stamina/mana instead of putting more points in tracking or something equally useless. It was difficult for me not to notice that mages were still rather over-powered in comparison to the other classes, and realizing that the final boss fight was a rehash of one from Origins, once I had the positioning down it was a matter of waiting for the big area of effect spells to recharge after casting them one on top of the other. Still, it added to the epic feeling of the game, even if it was felt a bit “more of the same.”

Stuff I Loved

Yeah. “Fucking epic” indeed.

The Queen of the Blackmarsh, on the other hand, was a breath of fresh air. Or lightning. Not only was her introduction pretty damn epic, the fight itself felt like it belonged in an instance in World of Warcraft. It required changing tactics mid-fight, coordinating party position and being fully aware of what was going on. Provided you didn’t get killed by Crash Man, the process of trial and error was that equal part of frustrating and exhilarating that I’d missed for most of Dragon Age.

What dialog we do get from the new characters is pretty well-written. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the things I love about most of BioWare’s work is the character interactions they build into their games, and Awakening is no exception. In addition to this, the actual story of Awakening is well-told for being somewhat unnecessary in the wake of the core game. It conveys a lot of that medieval fantasy feel and continues the BioWare tradition of hard decisions that need to be made. While there’s surprisingly less coherence between this expansion and Dragon Age: Origins than there is between the two Mass Effect games, it’s still more time spent in a well-realized and familiar setting. In addition to decent writing and memorable characters, BioWare seems very good at world-building. And this one didn’t require the applied phlebotinum of Element Zero, unless you count lyrium.

Bottom Line: The biggest thing that kept me from finishing this expansion sooner than I did were the problems I had with its bugs, crashes, companions, structure and superfluousness. Unlike Mass Effect 2, which recaptures and deepens the experience of being in that particular world, Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening: Revenge of the Colon is an expansion in every sense of the world. Everything from the core game is extended, from the stuff you liked (companions, classes, epic scope) to the stuff you hated (bugs, length, stupid story points). If you’re a fan of the core game and are curious to see what the characters are like with a few extra levels or what came after the fall of the archdemon, pick this up. Otherwise, I think you’re better suited waiting for Dragon Age 2.