All I hear is people complaining about Dragon Age 2. It’s linear. It isn’t as good as Dragon Age: Origins. Blah blah blah. But you know what’s different — and better — about Dragon Age 2 vs Dragon Age: Origins or Dragon Age: Awakenings?
In DA2, you have to decide where you stand on certain fictional issues. In DA:O, the Templar/Chantry/Mage trinity was set up in its most ideal way as the three pillars of a supernatural triangle, each checking the power of the others.
In DA2, though, the mages have gone insane. Almost any time a mage is involved, they are involved in the worst possible way, taking any situation and making it hellworthy. It would be easy to just draw a line in the sand and say no more, mages must be dealt with. Many will ask you to do exactly that.
But your sister is a mage. YOU may be a mage. And the only healer I have come across is not only a mage, but an insane murderer who is possessed by a demon. You’re forced to admit that, while essentially making a deal with demons is BAD and all, you sure could use a heal right about now.
You’re not going to win with your companions all the time, either. All of them tend towards a particular point on the Templar/Chantry/Mage triangle, and will resent your efforts to stay neutral (or much worse, take sides).
Thing is, all your NPCs are MISSING THE POINT. But don’t think that lets you off the hook.
I like Dragon Age 2 because it defines several sets of values and forces you to look past how smart, endearing, cute or funny someone is to what their values are, and if they gibe with yours.
Also, dragons. Dragons dragons dragons I love killing dragons.
I have lost against the High Dragon above twice… but I think I have come up with a new strat.
8 thoughts on “Dragon Age 2: Money shot”
Comments are closed.
Third time was the charm for this dragon. I beggared myself making fire ward runes, found all the fire resist items I could, and went with Fenris, Merril and Anders. Trying to do it without mages was futile; needed the healing, needed the crowd control.
Also, there was quite a lot of kiting and dodging fireballs.
Congrats on the dragon 🙂
One thing that struck me about the relationship with Anders. He certainly doesn’t start as an insane murderer (or at least no more of a murderer than the main character), but once you are involved with him, you see things get worse over time. There’s quite a poignant moment (I thought) in Act 2 where he’s about to attack an innocent mage and if you have a good friendship you can talk him back from the brink. Asking the player how they feel about being in a relationship with someone who has deteriorating mental health issues and may need a lot of support (to not murder people when demon possessed!) is actually a pretty mature sort of storytelling, imo.
I also was pleased with a similar assessment in Friday’s Penny Arcade commentary; you don’t get to pick all of your companions, and you don’t get to pick how crazy or not someone is. You don’t get to separate Anders the charming and sometimes funny healer with a bit of political extremism from Anders the spirit-possessed sociopath. They’re the same person. Merrill is doing something awful, yes, and she’s doing it for all the right reasons; the Keeper is trying to stop her in the worst way possible, also for all the right reasons. You don’t get an option to make that choice easier by making Merrill less likable.
The mages are insane, the templars are insane, and the chantry is essentially an absent force for most of the game. The qunari are decent people with ways of viewing the world that you can’t influence beyond the sharp end of something pointy. There are no “good guys” or “bad guys”, and you aren’t saving the world; you’re making one of a series of choices with no way of knowing how many people will get hurt by a choice motivated as much by morals as it is by simple immediate necessity.
That is the game. The stabby bits are window dressing.
Odd. Do your choices really affect the game around you that much? So far in my playthrough the mages have generally been normal folks trying to get by despite the oppression of the completely psychopathic Templars. The exceptions are mages that have gone crazy due to the abuse of the Templars, and turned into psychopaths when it comes to anything to do with the Templars.
I’ve generally sided with the mages while trying not to kill any more people than necessary, and all my NPCs seem to like those decisions. Granted I’m not using Aveline or Fenris who would likely lean the other way.
As to the dragon above, haven’t fought it yet. How much of the damage output is fire? I currently have a gear set that gives my warrior about 96% fire resist 🙂
How do you get those 3D screenshots? Is it a special screenshot program or do you actually have some 3D variant of the game?
I just pause the action and take a picture, rotate the view very slightly, take another one, then combine them in GIMP.
Peter. Play the game a few times, and each time make different choices. It really does affect what is going on. It affects alot. Like, the story, companions(i.e which ones you get, and keep.), and the way you may view the mages.
And the dragon is a tough one. Long fight but beat it first try. Make sure you have a tank, very very helpful.
would not have bought this game (DA2) if i knew about the se changes!!!!