Borderlands Review

Written 12/21/2010

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video were taken on my machine.

Borderlands is a pretty hard game to categorize. The official website and advertisements claim that it's the offspring of an FPS and RPG's union, and I can believe that. I've also heard it classified as a Looter-Shooter, which is also accurate. In short, this is the hybrid genre to beat all hybrid genres. It does make you wonder though, is it a good idea to cross-breed an FPS and RPG?

Visuals and Presentation

As I sit here and think about how I'm wanting to start each section of this review, I'm realizing how truly difficult Borderlands is to describe. Everything is a hybrid of two things, except for the sound. The visuals in particular are very stylized but yet they try to give off a somewhat realistic feel at the same time. It can be a little jarring at first, with realistically detailed textures that are slightly cell-shaded, but the effect quickly grew on me to the point that I quite liked uniqueness of it. The same treatment can also be seen in the environment, player, enemy, NPC, and weapon models; and the quality remains quite consistent throughout the entire game.

Pandora is a desolate place very reminiscent of the Capital Wasteland of Fallout 3 with the exception that a nuke hasn't hit this planet. It's a very barren and unforgiving place, but not a particularly varied one. Expect to see a lot of sand and rock with the occasional bandit camp littered about when roaming outdoors. The interior areas, while largely reusing textures and prefab models, are all uniquely designed so that they really feel original. Toward the end of the game you begin to see some real variety, but it doesn't last very long. The most variety you'll be seeing in the game will be in the DLC areas such as Dr. Ned's Zombie Island. I only purchased the initial three DLC packs available at the time of this writing (The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, and the Secret Armory of General Knoxx), and they provide a much more pleasing visual package than the core game with environments specifically tailored to the individual topics of each DLC. In all, the core game looks and feels great, but if you're looking for a little more variety, buy some of the DLCs.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

Sound is probably the most straightforward, non-hybrid, aspect of Borderlands. Most of what you'll be hearing is the gun sounds, and there's quite a few to be heard. Each sound is perfectly appropriate for the type of gun you're firing, and avoids making any particular weapon sound weaker than it actually is. The music and other general sound effects are also solid, but the music can be a bit repetitive. You're going to be hearing the same exploration tune so much it's going to get stuck in your head for a while. The combat music is good, but it really blends into the background when things get heated up. The music in the Mad Moxxi DLC however, is just plain awesome! I found myself so distracted by it that it would almost get me killed; it's that good! Voice acting is good as well, if you can hear it. Some voices come in loud and clear and are performed very well. Others are hard to tell because you can't hear a dang thing they're saying. So keep the subtitles on and be ready to speed read. Other than that, I have no real complaints about the sound. It won't win any awards, except for possibly the Moxxi music, but it's by no means bad either.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

More often than not, games are either supported by strong gameplay and have a very weak story, or vice-versa. Borderlands is most definitely a perfect example of the former. The gameplay is so solid that it makes the admittedly non-existent story just disappear (more on that in the next section). As I've said earlier, Borderlands is the offspring of an FPS and RPG's union, and there's really no better way to describe it. If you've played either Halo or Call of Duty, the shooting mechanics will be very familiar to you. If you've played World of Warcraft or any other MMO, the loot and skill-based mechanics will be very familiar to you.

At first glance, it's very difficult to distinguish between the shooting mechanics of Borderlands and Fallout 3. Both give you weapons with damage, accuracy, and fire rate stats, and let you shoot in a traditional FPS style. The difference is where Fallout 3's shooting mechanics are ruled by the RPG “number-crunching” method to determine hits and misses, Borderlands' shooting mechanics are ruled by your actual accuracy and twitch skills in an FPS method. That's not to say the stats on your weapon make no difference, because they do, but rather to say that you can overcome the poorer stats of your weapon with sufficient FPS skills. A weapon with poorer accuracy stats simply means your reticule is bigger, thus forcing you to either waste more shots or get closer to your target.

I can't really move on without talking about the weapons themselves. There are literally anywhere between 100,000 – 1 million guns in Borderlands. It seems like black magic, I know, but the system used to generate weapons is really quite ingenious. To put it as simply as possible, there are roughly 10 (I may be exaggerating, as I've not really counted) gun manufacturers in the game, and each specializes in certain weapon stats. Some focus on damage while sacrificing accuracy or fire rate, while others focus on high accuracy with limited damage potential, while others focus on giving the weapon an elemental property, and so on. Then there are a vast amount of individual gun parts, like stocks, scopes, barrels, etc, for each manufacturer. So when a chest is opened with a weapon in it, or an enemy drops a weapon, a manufacturer is (I assume) randomly chosen. After that is established, then random individual gun parts are chosen within that manufacturer available options until the weapon is complete, and that determines its stats. This means you will hardly ever come across the same gun twice, and assure that the weapon you're using is truly unique to you. For a more detailed explanation of this, among other things, check out this dev interview by GameSpot.

The RPG side of things becomes most apparent in the amount of looting that you do, and the skill tree used to specialize your character. To put it bluntly, if you don't loot, then you won't progress, then you will surely die. It's like this in almost every RPG known to man, and Borderlands is no different. You need to constantly be scavenging for better and better loot to stay competitive with the enemies you're fighting, and it almost becomes a meta-game in and of itself. Your skill tree allows you to specialize your character to your playstyle. I played the Soldier class (there's also the Berserker, Hunter, and Siren classes), and my skill tree allowed me to progress in offense, defense, healing, or a bit of each; which is what I chose to do. The skills themselves, aside from your one active skill, serve to buff your character to make them more proficient in a certain role. Considering the Soldier's skill trees above, it's pretty easy to guess what each one does. You also level up just like in a traditional RPG by completing quests, killing enemies, and completing challenges to gain XP.

Pandora itself is a pretty large place, and you're going to be traveling a lot. Luckily, there are Catch-A-Ride stations scattered all around the planet that spawn vehicles, and generally make your life more enjoyable. Typically there are only two-player vehicles available, but in the Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, there is a vehicle that can carry a full group of four players. Speaking of full groups, Borderlands' multiplayer is a whole lot of fun. It's basically just a four-player co-op through the single-player campaign, but going through the empty wastes of Pandora is much more enjoyable with a friend at your side. Just keep in mind that your connection is dependent on which player in your group is the server host, so be sure the one with the best connection is hosting the server. With all of that said, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a more unique and enjoyable gameplay experience than Borderlands.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

This is going to be a really short section because there's just not much to say here. You're on Pandora because you are a Vault Hunter. What's in the vault, no one knows, and you never find out. That's it, case closed, the end, no joke. The story in the core game is an excuse to shoot everything in your path, and that's ok considering how good the gameplay is. Just don't expecting anything deep and engaging. The DLCs on the other hand have very enjoyable and focused stories. So if you're looking for any kind of story at all in Borderlands, buy the DLCs.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

If you enjoy the gameplay at all in Borderlands, playing online is enough to keep you happily occupied for a very long time. Playing the campaign alone took me roughly 53 hours to complete, and I still have a few side quests left to do. Then after you complete the game once, a second playthrough option opens up that brings everything's level range up to high-levels. So even level 1 areas become challenging again. Overall, it just depends on how much you enjoyed the game the first time. I can definitely see myself replaying this in the future though.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

To answer my initial question in the opening paragraph: yes, it is definitely a good idea to cross-breed an FPS and RPG; so long as the product is as awesome as Borderlands. If you enjoy originality in your games, give Borderlands a try as soon as you can! The game is available for PC, 360, and PS3.

Borderlands Overall Score:

System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP/Vista
• Processor: 2.4 Ghz or equivalent processor with SSE2 support
• Memory: 1GB System RAM (2GB recommended with Vista)
• Graphics: 256mb video ram or better (GeForce 7 series or higher/Radeon HD3000 series or higher)
• Hard Drive: 8 GB or more free space
• Sound: Windows compatible sound card

Mass Effect 2 Review

Written 02/02/2010

Note: This review is written for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video were taken from my machine.

Let's get a few things out of the way here and now. Mass Effect 2 is better than the original by nearly every sense of the word. If you haven't played the original though, go and buy it before you play Mass Effect 2; it makes a monstrous difference in how much you'll understand in the storyline and enjoy the experience overall. So if you ask me, you should stop reading this right now and go buy Mass Effect 2 (and the original if you haven't played it yet). Bioware has truly outdone themselves yet again! And no, I'm not joking, go buy this...right now!

Visuals and Presentation

The original Mass Effect, though still pretty by today's standards, was plagued with countless texture pop-ins, cookie-cutter “dungeons”, and many mostly barren planets. It was as though Bioware hadn't fully mastered how to get the most bang for their buck out of Unreal Engine 3 yet (that is, if I can properly pick out my engines). It also could have been the fact that they were working with a now three year old build of the engine. Either way, all of those issues have been fixed in Mass Effect 2 and it's a welcome change to say the least. Gone are the texture pop-ins of the first game. Each “dungeon” is fresh and unique; with far more detail in each than before. The planets, while not quite as big as in the original, are greatly refined and feel more alive. The models and textures have all been updated as well, and look truly spectacular. The ambiance is calming at most points, but can effectively heighten the tension when it needs to without any problems. In all, I just can't say enough about how good this game looks!

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

Sound is something Bioware has always excelled at, and Mass Effect 2 is no different. The voice acting is top-notch, with everyone who was in the first Mass Effect reprising their roles in Mass Effect 2, and some excellent additions to the already stellar cast. The dialog is smart and thought provoking with just enough humor when appropriate to keep things fresh. General sounds also have the same excellent quality as the voice acting. Guns pack the same audio punch as you would expect. Ambient sounds and music are very subtle, but immensely help develop the mood for any given situation. When the music does crank up though, expect an excellent score that is very distinctly Mass Effect. In short, Mass Effect 2's sound is the audio equivalent of art.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

At first I was kind of on the fence on Mass Effect 2's gameplay, but it grew on me to the point where I now find the first game's mechanics greatly inferior. Unlike the first game, where combat is ruled by the stats of your equipment moreso than your skill, Mass Effect 2 plays much more like a 3^rd person action game in the same vein as Gears of War than a traditional RPG. Weapons no longer have stats that you can readily compare with other weapons. Instead, you're given a description of the pros and cons of each weapon and allowed to choose whichever weapon suits you best. Armor still has basic stats, but you can essentially wear anything you want and be almost as effective as you would be if you nit-picked your stats to death. With this greatly decreased emphasis on stats, combat requires a bit more skill than the first game. Finding and utilizing the best cover spots is often paramount to success. You still have skills like you would see in traditional RPGs, and they do really help, but it's not impossible to go through the entire game on solely the shooter mechanics and cover. As far as bugs go, there really aren't any except for the occasional instance where I would get stuck on something and need to reload; as well as two instances where the AI just stopped working.

Make no mistake though, this is still an RPG at its heart and it should be approached as such. You're going to be spending more time progressing the relationships with your crew and figuring out what's going on in the story than blowing someone's head off. Some of the conversations can be pretty long, which may turn some people off at times; but if you're a thorough person like I am, it won't be much of a problem.

One of the main features of Mass Effect 2 is the ability to import your save file from the first Mass Effect, which transfers all (and I really mean ALL) of the choices you made in the first game so you can either reap the benefits or suffer the consequences of those choices in Mass Effect 2. This is a HUGE deal because the way you play the original Mass Effect has a meaningful and permanent result in Mass Effect 2, and it has already been confirmed by Bioware that you'll be able to import your Mass Effect 2 save file into Mass Effect 3. So if your Mass Effect 2 save has all the choices you made in the first Mass Effect, and you import that Mass Effect 2 save into Mass Effect 3, then you will experience the consequences of all three games' choices. Now simply consider if you replay Mass Effect 1 and 2 and change a few choices before playing Mass Effect 3, something completely different could happen in a certain situation. Nothing like this has ever been done in gaming, and I'm very glad Bioware is the first developer to make it happen; they completely deserve it!

Gamplay Rating:

Story

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

Considering that great stories in games is what put Bioware on the map in the first place, it's no surprise that the story is by far Mass Effect 2's strongest point. Let's face it, as good as the visuals, sound, and gameplay can be, the main reason you're going to play a Bioware game is for the story. They are easily one of the biggest pioneers of game stories in the industry.

The story itself can be hard to describe because the way you played the first Mass Effect can possibly change how the story progresses. So the way you go through the story could be completely different from the way I did. To put it generally though, Mass Effect 2 continues the story of Commander Shepard and his mission to destroy a galactic threat of sentient machines known as the Reapers. In the opening sequences, everything seems to be going peachy until something...bad...happens and Shepard becomes....indisposed...while the Normandy floats away...in pieces. Shepard remains in this indisposed state for two years while he's being...fixed. When he gets back on his feet, he discovers that human colonies are disappearing without a trace. After a little investigation, he finds out that the colonists are being abducted by a race known only as the Collectors for an unknown, but obviously nefarious, purpose. After the Collectors abduct their targets, they disappear through the Omega 4 relay; a mass relay that whoever passes through it, save the Collectors, never return. The Collectors, he learns, are working for the Reapers and must be stopped. Seeing this as a suicide mission, Shepard scours the galaxy for those willing to join him.

Without giving away too many more spoilers, the story progresses fantastically! Characters you know and love from the first game make their returns and their reactions to you now can be quite interesting. They are extremely well developed over the first Mass Effect and feel that much more alive. Even though you could really connect with your crew in the first game, the deep and meaningful interactions you have with them in Mass Effect 2 are that much more profound. It all leads up to an ending that sets up the story perfectly for what's sure to be an utterly amazing finale to the Mass Effect saga!

Story Rating:

Replay Value

The replay value of Mass Effect 2 is highly dependent on if you want to see what happens when you make different choices. Also considering that making different decisions in the first game will change certain dynamics in Mass Effect 2, so there's really a lot of potential there to mix and match how you want the story to progress. Unlike the first game though, when you finish Mass Effect 2 you're given the option to continue your current save and finish any side quests you may have missed or start the whole game over with all of the equipment and experience you already have. Personally, I always love it when an RPG allows you to continue playing after you finish the main storyline, so that's what I picked. It helps me get a little more closure on “what happened to so-and-so after such-and-such happened?” until the next game is released. Which ever way you go though, you can easily get three complete replays out of the game at the very least. Considering that the game took me 42 hours to finish one play-through, doing it three times is quite the bang for your buck!

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

As I've said before, Bioware has truly outdone themselves yet again with Mass Effect 2! It is quite easily one of the best, if not the best, games in the company's portfolio. The depth of the story, very well rounded characters, fluent combat system, and the sheer amount of choice combinations is simply staggering. Any fan of RPGs, or gaming in general, would be doing themselves an extreme disservice to not experience this at least once. So whether you pick this up for 360, PS3, or PC (system requirements below), make sure you've finished Mass Effect 1 first, and get ready for a wild ride in Mass Effect 2!

Mass Effect 2 Overall Score:

Minimum:

OS: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7

Processor: 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU

Memory: 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Graphics: 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support)

DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)

Hard Drive: 15 GB

Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible

Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.

Recommended:

OS: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7

Processor: 2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU

Memory: 2 GB RAM

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended

DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)

Hard Drive: 15 GB

Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible

Final Fantasy XIII Review

Written 04/25/2010

Note: This is for the PS3 version of the game. Screenshot and video courtesy of Google Images and Youtube respectively, and credit goes to the original recorders.

It's been four years since Final Fantasy 12 on the good ol' PS2, and fans of the Square-Enix super-franchise have been itching for the next installment after finishing FF12. We've been teased with tidbits of Final Fantasy 13 for almost the entirety of those four years, and now it's finally here. Was it worth the wait? Does it hold up to the rest of the series? Does it compete with the most legendary entry of the franchise: Final Fantasy 7? In short, yes, yes, and yes. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy, or JRPGs at all, go buy this game right now. I'm serious, stop reading, go to GameStop or Wal-Mart, and buy this...right now!

Visuals and Presentation

Square-Enix claimed during FF13's development that the game would tap into the full power of the PS3. After spending a considerable amount of time with the game for myself, I can believe it! Think of the best CGI cutscene you've ever seen in an RPG, and that's how FF13 looks at all times. Everything you can see in the game is absolutely spectacular, and I mean everything! Sure, there is still the occasional CGI cutscene, but at times it's nearly impossible to tell if you're watching events unfold in CGI or in-engine.

Although everything in the visuals department is superb, I have to make special mention of the facial animations. They are of such a high quality that any emotion or motivation a character experiences is etched into his or her face, which will change the character's body language dramatically. At times, those animations can be more expressive than a talented real life actor or actress. I could on and on about how good FF13 looks, but I think I'll leave it at this.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

This is the first Final Fantasy that I've played which strays quite a bit away from the series's traditional sound techniques, and thankfully it doesn't suck! The typical intro song you're likely used to is replaced with a calming, yet somewhat sad, piano score that portrays the journey your party goes through very well. The victory song that has been in every Final Fantasy that I can remember is gone. That's right, that iconic fanfare jingle you either love or hate by now...gone! While some may be shouting for joy at this, I personally kinda missed that little tune during my playthrough. The new music and sound that is there though is very appropriate and of great quality. The voice acting itself is excellent, and matches what's portrayed in the animations perfectly. The dialog is also well written for every character. Overall though, the sounds take a backseat to the amazing visuals.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

It is in gameplay where Final Fantasy 13 is the most different from every other entry to the franchise. If you've played any Final Fantasy, you know the combat consists of both sides standing opposite of each other with each taking turns using skills and magic until the opposing side dies. You may also recall that in Final Fantasy 12 the ability to move around freely during combat. The combat in Final Fantasy 13 is a hybrid between those two systems with turn-based combat and a limited amount of free movement. There are four fundamental differences that make this system unique however: control, speed, staggering, and paradigms.

Basically, you no longer directly control your entire party, but only the party leader. To help prevent things from becoming utter chaos however, a class-based system was instituted which allows you to better focus the skills of your now purely AI companions. A paradigm is formed when you put together different classes in the same group. For example, one of the paradigms I use the most is Relentless Assault, which means I have one character as a Commando and the other two as Ravagers. What if I need healing though? Neither the Commando or Ravager classes have any curative spells. Well, considering that every character can specialize in as many classes as you choose, you can switch between up to six paradigms on the fly during combat depending on how you set up your party's classes. So when I need a quick heal during combat, I switch to a paradigm like Combat Clinic, where one character is a Sentinel and the other two are Medics. When I'm appropriately healed, I switch back to the offensively oriented Relentless Assault.

Controlling only the party leader in combat seems ridiculous I know, but once you see that the combat moves so quickly that you hardly have enough time to issue commands to just one person, the idea will start to grow on you very quickly. Fights that would normally take you two minutes in a traditional Final Fantasy take between 10-30 seconds in FF13. Something that truly is ridiculous is the fact that if your party leader is defeated it's game over, even if someone in your party is still alive to revive you. I'm sorry Square-Enix, but that was a bad design choice on multiple levels.

During combat, you will also notice a light-brown bar at the top-right corner of your screen. This is the Stagger Meter. As you do damage, it will gradually fill. When it eventually does fill, your target will be staggered for a short amount of time and you will do at least 300% damage until the Stagger Meter empties again. While in a fight with a high HP enemy or boss, staggering it can mean the difference between life and death. Overall, even with the one serious design flaw, FF13's gameplay is among the best of the series.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

This section is going to be short, and intentionally so. I simply can't think of a way to describe the story without revealing some pretty major spoilers. Basically though, the themes surrounding Final Fantasy 13 involve the irrational fear of the unknown to the point of hysteria, love, hate, loyalty, unjust destiny, and the tenacity to change that fate or die trying. They are presented in such a way that, if observed in the proper light, they could apply somewhat to the world today. The story is told and progresses well, but I did find myself occasionally lost as to what was going on; especially in the very beginning. Every time I did become lost though, the story would quickly tie up those loose ends and renew my understanding. In all, this is definitely a story worth telling and hearing, and should not be missed!

Story Rating:

Replay Value

This is a Final Fantasy, and that already puts its replay value pretty high. The problem is that this is the most linear of the Final Fantasies that I know of, and that makes FF13 considerably shorter than its predecessors. If you were to pass up every single side quest in the game, you could easily finish it within 30 hours. Considering that every other Final Fantasy I've played takes at least 80 hours to finish, that's a pretty huge cut in gameplay time. If you decide to take on every side quest though (of which I believe there are about 60-ish), you can easily extend your gameplay time to the 60-70 hour range; which is far more acceptable. The game itself is worth at least one entire replay, if not more, due to the exceptionally strong gameplay and story. It really just depends on how much you liked the game the first time around.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

On the whole, Final Fantasy 13 takes quite a few risks to achieve what it is; but I think they all paid off excellently. This is a fresh approach to the tried and true formulas founded throughout the franchise's history. It's definitely not a revolution, but more of an evolution. Personally though, I feel that Final Fantasy 13 has the potential to influence how JRPGs are made in the same way that Final Fantasy 7 did many moons ago. Great job Square-Enix, you've given us yet another classic!

Final Fantasy XIII Overall Score:

Dragon Age 2 Review

Written 4/3/2011

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken from my machine.

Back in 2009, Bioware gave us Dragon Age: Origins, an epic dark fantasy with an excellent story, great characters, and solid gameplay. It suffered from the occasional crash, the combat could feel a little bland at times, and the main character had no voice-over work done except for the occasional one-liner. Now, just about a year and a half later, Bioware graces our hard drives with Dragon Age 2. If you thought Origins was mature, get ready because Dragon Age 2 is much darker and the choices much harder.

Visuals and Presentation

Dragon Age 2 takes a slightly more stylized approach to the visuals than Origins. It sacrifices realism slightly in order to achieve a more concept-art result. With that said, the game definitely still feels like Dragon Age despite this. The environments are richly detailed with equally solid characters, textures, weapons, props, and animations. If you’re playing the PC version though, Bioware offers a high-resolution texture pack (which you can grab from FilePlanet here) that makes the game look markedly sharper than without it. You need a pretty beefy machine to run the game with the hi-res texture pack though, with a video card with at least 1GB video RAM and support for DirectX 11. So basically, the hi-res texture pack requires you have a Radeon HD 5870 or better video card. I’m unsure what the Nvidia equivalent is. If you don’t have such a video card, you can run the game in DirectX 9 without the hi-res texture pack no problem.

If I had any complaints about the visuals, it would be that that environments are somewhat limited and repetitive. You’ll spend 90% of your time in the city of Kirkwall, and while it’s not a bad thing, I would have preferred there had been more variety outside the city aside from the three or four small locations available. The same building interiors and caves are also used moderately often, and can grow a little tiresome after some time. Also, I did experience a few steep framerate drops during gameplay, but I would be willing to attribute that to my using the hi-res texture pack. Overall though, the issues present in no way distract the very pretty visual package of Dragon Age 2.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

This is a Bioware game, and if they are great at anything aside from excellent stories, it’s excellent sound. Most of the voice-actors that appeared in Origins are back with one notable exclusion, but I won’t spoil which character it is. The new additions are all excellent, and all up to Bioware standards. The best addition is the fact that Hawke, the main character, is now fully voiced-over. I really missed that in Origins, especially after playing both Mass Effect titles. The writing is excellent and well performed, but feels a little more serious than in Origins. It makes the world more believable in my oponion, but it also means the moments of comic relief are fewer and farther between. The music is also great, and feels appropriate to the Dragon Age style. Overall, you simply can’t get much better sound than in a Bioware game, especially when it comes to voice-acting!

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

The gameplay of Dragon Age 2 is where most of the improvements over Origins were made by far. Just like in almost every Bioware game out there, half of the game is focused on having conversations with the people around you and making choices that directly influence your character, the world around you, and at times how the story progresses. The other half of the game is focused on combat and clearing hostile areas.

The conversation system has changed from your choices being selectable in a list, and say exactly what your character is saying, to a choice wheel exactly like that of Mass Effect where the choices represent emotional responses moreso than knowing exactly what will be said. There are usually three responses available in conversations: positive / peaceful, neutral / sarcastic, and negative / aggressive. So when a choice is presented to you, your decision should be based on how you feel about the situation and what’s really going on. I find that to be a much more natural way of doing a choice system than knowing the exact dialog of each choice, as it helps you respond in a much more realistic way. Occasionally, you will be given a fourth choice that allows you to seek a romantic relationship with the character you’re speaking with, but they are completely optional and can all be skipped entirely if you so choose.

Combat in Origins always felt inappropriate to me except for the killing blows, considering the brutality Bioware was trying to achieve. It was slow, methodical, and repetitive. While combat in Dragon Age 2 is still methodical, it’s also much faster and flows more naturally. Each strike is now fast, precise, and deadly. The violence and brutality are raised to 11 with dismembering bodies and explosions everywhere. I think the combat in Dragon Age 2 is what Bioware tried to achieve in Origins but fell short of. If you were to casually glance at the combat, you would think it was an action game. You can still pause the action and issue individual orders to your party for a more tactical style of gameplay; though this is much less necessary than in Origins. You can mostly get by in normal battles by playing like it’s a third-person action game, but the boss battles almost require you to pause the action and issue individual orders. The skills all pack a wallop and are great fun to use, but I found that there were less available to me at the end of the game than there were in Origins. That could have just been how I decided to progress my character though.

Finally, you can no longer give your companion characters different equipment except for their weapons and accessories. Their armor levels with them, but you can find certain items tailored for each character that increases those stats slightly. While some RPG purists will cry foul at this, it definitely makes for less micro-management, and thus more time actually playing the game. If I have any complaints, it would be the fact that the auto-attack range is very easily broken in melee combat, forcing you to right-click the target again to continue your assault. It’s a minor inconvenience, but one worth noting. Overall though, the gameplay in Dragon Age 2 by and far exceeds that of Origins.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

There’s not really much I can say here without giving away some pretty major plot points, so I’ll be a little vague on purpose. You begin the game with your family as a refugee in the city of Kirkwall fleeing from the Blight occurring in Origins. You try and make a new life for you and your family, but destiny has its hand on you, and you become the key influence of events that change the state of the world forever. I know that brief description sounds cliché, but the story goes much much deeper than that, with themes such as unjustified and justified fear, oppression, slavery, religious zealotry, corruption, the occult, and hopeful belief in what’s good and right permeating every facet of the story. Other themes such as sexuality are also explored, as a party member will try and initiate a homosexual relationship with you. As a Christian, I disagree with that, but the beauty of a game like this is that you can choose to turn down such advances. After that first encounter, the game only tries to initiate it once more. If you refuse again, it’s never brought up again.

On another note, each of your companion characters are genuinely interesting, with their own agendas and motivations; some of which are directly contrary to your own. Depending on your choices, you may lose a party member permanently or gain their undying loyalty. How they interact with each other can also develop or tear down their individual relationships, though it has little impact on how they perform in combat together. Overall, my description is a little general I know, but this is one of the most engrossing stories in recent gaming history, and should not be missed by anyone that even remotely cares about story in their games.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

The game took me 42 hours, 40 minutes to complete on the Normal difficulty and completing every side quest I could find except for four. Considering how your class choice directly influences some initial events and how people treat you, I can easily see myself replaying the game as a different class with different choices when I get enough time to do so. The simple fact that you can experiment with different choices in itself is worthy of another playthrough, but the game and story are so amazing that it’ll be hard to put this one down!

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

You just can’t beat Bioware when it comes to deep and thought provoking stories in games. They have outdone themselves yet again not only in story, but in gameplay, sound, and visuals. If The Old Republic is anywhere near the quality that is presented in Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 2, it very well could be the one MMO to rule them all. In the meantime though, Dragon Age 2 will hold you over most excellently for some time to come!

Dragon Age II Overall Score:

System Requirements

Minimum:
• OS: Windows XP with SP3; Windows Vista with SP2; Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater; AMD Athlon 64 X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
• Memory: 1024 MB (1536 MB Vista and Windows 7)
• Hard Disk Space: 7GB
• Video: Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB and the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB cards
• Sound: Direct X 9.0c Compatible Sound Card Windows Experience Index: 4.5 

Recommended:
• OS: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz Processor or equivalent; AMD Phenom II X3 Triple core 2.8GHz or Equivalent
• Memory: 2Gb (4 GB Vista and Windows 7)
• Video: ATI 3850 512MB or Greater; NVIDIA 8800GTS 512MB or Greater; DirectX 11: ATI 5850 or Greater; NVIDIA 460 or Greater