Taking an Adventure

A month or so ago, at a loose end on the gaming front, I asked my especially excellent friend Terr (whose The Moving Finger blog is well worth reading if you have any interest in the wonderful world of games) for a recommendation. She suggested Dragon Age 2, which she had recently reviewed.

I needed a little persuading - as I have said on numerous occasions, the whole traditional RPG world of swordplay and slaying dragons holds no appeal, and the Dragon Age franchise appeared to be well in this vein. However, I was assured that the game featured a crucial strength that would appeal to me: an engaging storyline.

And how right she was. I put a good 50 hours into my first play through, and it didn't feel at all wasted. Mercifully, it was accessible enough for the likes of me to get straight into the action without the need to spend hours working out the combat mechanics, probably due to the real time nature of it. At times, it can be a wee bit dull mashing the x button a lot and hoping the AI ensures your other team members don't plunge headlong into suicidal moves, but never enough that you don't carry on to see what happens next.

The meat of the game circles around your interactions with various characters with whom you can form friendships, rivalries or romances, though in the case of the latter it appears a bit half-arsed and doesn't seem to make too much difference to much. Kind of progressive that gender doesn't mean much in this world, mind.

Graphically, it's nothing to shout from the rafters about, but the ability of personalise your characters appearance is always welcome in my house, despite my usual uselessness at making my guy look anything like me. The voice acting wasn't too shabby either, with plenty of comedy and sadness to play with the emotions.

With a story moving through the best part of a decade, it was pleasing to see the results of my actions bear fruit, such as a random encounter with an elven woman whom I'd saved as a child from a psycho killer some years before. With the bulk of the game set around a single city, it was easy to get a feel of being part of a community and wanting to do the "right" thing to benefit it. Of course, the interesting part will be to play again as a total bastard and see how different things work out.

But first I'll be playing through the prequel Dragon Age: Origins, which I picked up last week. In a clever touch, after I complete this, I can use my save file when starting a new Dragon Age 2 game, and the decisions I make will effect certain events. It's a very cool way of ensuring continuity in a series, and I'd hope it carries on with the sequel, which the ending of Dragon Age 2 is essentially suggesting will be forthcoming.