Dragon Age 2: Redeux (My Second Playthrough)

My overall opinion of Dragon Age 2 shifted dramatically once I started my second playthrough, when I realized just how little was changing, how little effect I had on what was going on. I went from "passive approval" to "passively aggressive" concerning this game BioWare delivered, and I found no shortage of people who ended up hearing my rants about the game. (Even if they had no idea what Dragon Age was!) But, you know, I pressed on. I continued with my second playthrough, if only because I wondered just what might happen if I played fast and loose with my mage in Kirkwall. Would the templars eventually be forced to haul me off to the Circle or something to that effect? Would it make me a target in some other way?

In short, just how much really changed my second time through? (Possible spoilers ahead.)

The first obvious change was that Bethany bit it instead of Carver. The reason for this being that if you play as a mage, the majority of your companions would end up being mages if Bethany survived, and vice versa with the two melee classes. It's a shame that I only had as much attachment to the ill-fated sibling as I usually do with Jenkins at the beginning of Mass Effect 1. Maybe less; he really wanted to show the Alliance brass what he could do... and I admired him for that...

R.I.P.

Anyway, this provides most of the changes for the first act, since now we're going down into the Deep Roads for Hawke's sake, rather than Bethany's, even though that really wasn't something I'd choose to do. Ever. But I played a long for a while, did the fifty or so quests that pad Act One and got through without much changing, aside from Carver's banter about... things. He always seemed to be frustrated at everything I did, but I never could quite grasp why. Even after he disappears at the end of Act One, none of it really made much sense.

Act Two was a little different. There are some quests in Act One that come back to bite you in Act Two, so I went out of my way to make sure that I responded differently to each one. But on the whole, everything pretty much ended up back where it was before, and I got the same quests under different contexts. For instance, there was one quest that made you decide whether or not to send this mage to the Circle or to the Dalish. Last time, I chose the Dalish, this time I chose the Circle. To my surprise, you're stuck with the same quest to bring him back from the Fade in Act Two, with only one line changed to tell you that he's with the Circle. It didn't make much sense to me. I know there's the illusion of choice, but why layer on a bunch of choices that ultimately amount to nothing?

And I also noticed something else that was a little interesting. Dragon Age 2 really, really wants you to be thrown into moral dilemmas, to the point where it manufactures them based on how you respond to things. Like with Varric's brother, you get to a point where you can either spare him or take revenge on him. The first time I faced him, I wanted revenge, so I chose any response that made Hawke gung-ho to kill the bastard. That certain party member's response was something like, "No, Hawke, I can't do this! I thought I could, but now that I'm here... I just can't kill him." The second time I hit that part of the game, I was feeling a little more generous and voted to let the guy live, and, likewise, that certain party member changed his tone. "I can't let him live, Hawke. After all he's done, I'm not gonna let him walk away!"

Interesting.

The one thing that undoubtedly changed in Act Two was the romance, but that was a given. My Male-Hawke-Rogue romanced Isabela during my first playthrough - which might not work out to well for me in the long run - while my Fem-Hawke-Mage decided she had a thing for elves, and ended up romancing Fenris. Now, my reasons for doing this were twofold. 1) I think Fenris is the best thing to come out of Dragon Age 2, followed closely by Varric, followed closely by nothing. 2) Fenris really doesn't hide his hate for mages during his companion quests and regular banter throughout the game. I thought it would be interesting to see if he would actually fall in love with an apostate without a word for it. To my surprise, he does have something to say about it.

But only once.

For the most part, Fenris, whose whole reason for existing is to seek revenge on all things magic, just ends up not giving a flip that Hawke is a mage. It's just so funny to watch him dive into these tirades about the evils of magic, of mages, of the abominations they collectively create, while my mage just kinda stands there in the background, possibly pretending like she hadn't just heard what she thought she heard. "What does magic touch that it doesn't spoil?" he says, looking Hawke straight in the eyes. If only there'd been a *cough* option.

Act Three has been something to behold. Lest we forget (or haven't played yet), this is where everything comes to a head. The mages and templars are finally having it out in small ways: a slow build to the inevitable final battle between the two. The slap fight before the battle royale. A mage, an apostate even (possibly even a blood mage depending on your spec), has just become the Champion of Kirkwall after having saved the troubled city-state from the qunari threat. This merited such renown that a statue was built in Hawke's honor, and Kirkwall has become a place where everybody knows her name. They have all felt Hawke's influence because they're alive, and they're alive to feel that influence because of Hawke. She is Paul Revere, George Washington, and Keanu Reeves all wrapped into one.

But that's just not enough to put any part of the mage/templar debate to rest, apparently. Meredith and Orsino both talk to me like I've never casted anything in my life. Scratch that, Meredith did say one thing about my mage-hood (as a threat) and then went about lecturing me about the dangers of magic. Even Anders (during that certain collect quest) talks to me like I'd never known the plight of the mages firsthand. That I just couldn't understand. Ugh.

To summarize, I've made the discovery that Dragon Age 2 just doesn't change much (to state the obvious, after this long post). The decisions that the game poses aren't really decisions because, in the end, most players will end up at Square One, plus or minus their romance option. I can think of very few decisions (aside from the kill or not to kill missions) where your choices actually have a lingering effect. In fact, thinking about what will import over to DA3, I can't really figure out what they'd do!

Best case scenario here: BioWare learned that they can't pull something like this on the fans who have supported them for so long. The unfortunate thing is: we know just a little too well what they're capable of, and when they turn in a product that isn't up to snuff. Dragon Age 2 isn't up to snuff, and I hopefully won't be saying the same thing about Dragon Age 3.