1) Dragon Age 2 (2011)

The first official game that I started and completed in 2025 is both a sequel to a previous game I've covered, as well as a game that I have played through multiple times. I swear this is not going to be a running trend, though you can probably guess a future entry or two by now. After the unexpected success of Dragon Age: Origins, EA, true to form, gave the team at Bioware 16 months to produce a sequel. This obviously led to a lot of crunch time, which, much like the candy bar, is bad.

Despite the crunch and much shortened development time, Dragon Age 2 proves to be an incredibly competent action RPG. While its predecessor was developed for PC and adapted to consoles, the sequel was designed from the start with both console and PC players in mind. In addition, the team strove to address many of the criticisms of the first game. All of this is quite ambitious for a game that was originally unplanned and made in just over a year.

The story is told, literally, by a new character, Varric. All we know of him at the start is that he's a dwarf, he's being interrogated about some incident, and he's voiced to perfection by Brian Bloom. I don't know if it's the attitude or the chest hair, but the deep, smug voice fits perfectly. The player then chooses their gender and class and are thrust into a battle against Darkspawn alongside their sibling. Combat is much faster and action oriented this time around, with rogues and warriors in particular playing much more active roles in combat. As an Ogre shows up, so too does a dragon. We then find out another fact about Varric: he's a storyteller who likes to embellish the truth.

It's at this point, after being urged to tell the whole truth about the incident, that we get to create our character proper. Unlike in Origins, you don't get to choose your character's race. You are a human, plain and simple. The choices made in character creation do affect the story. This time, our character, referred to by their surname "Hawke", is fully voice acted. In addition, the choice of which preset you choose to build off of determines the appearance of your mother and siblings. That's right, I said siblings, as in more than one, which is already different from Varric's original telling.

The opening sees the player, their mother, and twin siblings Bethany and Carver, fleeing Lothering as the Darkspawn horde descends upon it. This is an event that happened early in Origins, so it's interesting to see another side of it. If the player chooses to be a mage, then they, alongside Bethany, are apostates, or mages that live outside the Circle of Mages illegally. Carver is a warrior, and we're soon introduced to another warrior fleeing the Darkspawn horde, Aveline. Aveline is a town guard trying to escape with her husband Wesley, who just so happens to be a Templar. This causes a bit of friction, as Templars hunt down apostates, but there are more pressing matters at hand. We then come to a familiar scene from Varric's first telling of the story, the appearance of the Ogre. The Ogre kills one of the player's siblings based upon the player's class. If the player is a mage, Bethany dies. If the player is a warrior or rogue, Carver dies instead. We then have the appearance of the dragon, which Varric is once again called out upon, but insists this part of the story to be true.

The dragon turns out to be Flemeth, whom we met in Origins, though her design is drastically different. She offers to escort our party to safety as long as they do something for her in return. An offer that the party takes her up on after having to kill Wesley, as he's been infected by the Darkspawn. The player is then taken to the city of Kirkwall, where the rest of the game will take place. We're given a choice of how to enter the city, as refugees are abundant, and we discover a bit more about Hawke's family, more specifically the mother's side, the Amells. If that name seems even slightly familiar, it's because it's also the surname given to the human mage character in Origins if you chose that background. They are related, and even mentioned if that's the background you picked. Oh yeah, I guess I should mention at this point that you are given the option to import a save file from Origins. While the choices made in the previous game don't have any major impact here, certain characters and quests show up depending upon your actions.

The story of Dragon Age 2 is much smaller in scale than its predecessor, focusing on one city and the area around it over the course of many years. The story is more personal, with the bonds between the player and their party relying more on genuine bonds rather than being allies of convenience. As such, it's a smaller group this time around, but almost all of the characters are well written with their own motivations and nuance. There are a total of four characters for the player to romance, and all of them can be romanced by either a male or female Hawke. While the game keeps an approval rating for your companions, it's no longer just about making the number go up, being more akin to the light side/ dark side gauge in the Knights of the Old Republic games. All of your companions can be friends or rivals depending upon your actions, and you can absolutely romance a rival, which is fun.

The biggest shortcomings of the game, as I see it, come down to two things. Firstly, the smaller scale, along with the blatant reuse of assets throughout, combine to make the entire experience seem bland and stale by the end. This can be chalked up primarily to the game's insane production timeline, and when viewed with that in mind is actually quite a remarkable achievement. The other, I feel bigger, problem comes from how the narrative is delivered. While I can certainly appreciate the framing, having another character tell the story means that, ultimately, your choices within the story become limited. Combined with multiple time-skips, it kind of seems as though your choices have little bearing on the outcome. This is nowhere more prevalent than during the story's climax, which is an absolute moment that has to happen. Hell, the next game in the series uses that event as a springboard for its story. After dealing with a growing feud between mages and Templars in the city over the years, it all comes to a head and the player is forced to choose a side. Don't stress too much, as this really doesn't change things, regardless of how stupid it makes certain NPCs appear.

Speaking of stupid characters, I feel I should also bring up another grievance I have. Of your companions, three of them have a direct connection to the previous game. There's Merrill, who you meet if you chose the Dalish Elf origin; Isabella, an NPC you potentially meet who teaches you the Swashbuckler class and can be seduced by the Warden; and Anders, a companion from the Awakening DLC. While the first two are fun characters who have unique dialogue depending on if you interacted with them previously, Anders is a textbook example of character assassination. In Awakening, he was a fun, sassy, womanizing mage that was conscripted into the Grey Wardens. Here, he's a brooding, humorless mess, and while there is a reason for his shift in demeanor, it still feels as though he's not the same character and serves only to advance the plot. Which, oh boy, he does.

Overall, Dragon Age 2 is a good game that gets bogged down by its short development time and legacy of it's predecessor. As a stand alone experience, I can highly recommend the game for fans of action RPGs. However, when put up next to the ambitiousness of Origins, the sequel comes up a bit short. And, of course, there's DLC. Most of the DLC is, sadly, weapons and armor that are better than most things you'll find in the base game. The actual story DLC is wonderful, and shows what the game could have been like given more time. We have a fully integrated story of a new companion, Sebastian, who is actually a fun and compelling character unless you choose to romance him, which only female characters can do. Then we have a story that really delves into the Hawke family history, as well as showing us the Grey Wardens in a less flattering light. Finally, we have a fun heist themed adventure that features the likeness and voice of Felicia Day. Everything about Mark of the Assassin is great, and shows the direction that the series will take next.

I was pleasantly surprised with my time revisiting this game. The characters were more engaging than I remembered, and the reuse of assets didn't really bother me as much as it did initially. The combat and writing are true treats, even if it ultimately feels like my choices barely impacted the narrative. Surely this would be the last time that meddling from EA would negatively impact the franchise, right?