Dragon Age II Retrospective

Eurogamer’s Paul Dean has penned a retrospective article on BioWare’s 2011 fantasy title, Dragon Age II.  While perhaps a few years too early for a genuine retrospective, that hasn’t stopped the authour from reminiscing about the game’s strong characters even as he critiques its other more gameplay-relevant elements.

In spite of the magnitude of the city and its surrounding mountains, for all the dramatic beauty there was to be found under the heavy, grey skies, treading these same few streets and paths time and again made them horribly familiar, until Kirkwall and its locale became a chicken run, its adventurers forever skirting its edges, pecking experimentally at the wire.

Yet it almost pulled off its attempt to look inward, to turn the focus of the narrative upon the adventurer, the party and their role in the city. The unusual collection of hangers-on that you gradually amassed were distinct and interesting characters who you could grow to love or hate. Stand-outs included the dry and droll Varric, the naïve yet worryingly dangerous Merrill (voiced superbly by Torchlight’s Eve Myles) and, of course, Aveline, practical, pragmatic and ever-reliable.

While the GameBanshee staff weren’t especially engrossed by Dragon Age II, it’s always refreshing to see a different perspective.