The Age of Another Dragon Age 2 Preview

Now that I’ve played about four hours of Dragon Age: Origins and really enjoyed it — more than Mass Effect, so far — I feel like I have the tiniest amount of things to say about Dragon Age 2. Mainly, that the combat in DA2 looks more varied, more free, and more fun. Also, it appears the main character speaks in DA2, so that’s good. I count both of those as improvements. I’m also glad they kept the “everybody looks like they starred in Evil Dead 2 after a battle” character models, where you look less like a heroic warrior who’s been slaying darkspawn and more like a very disorganized serial killer. It makes me giggle.

And lest some of you go bat-shit crazy in the comments, I should say that while I’m guessing Mass Effect is the better game with the better story, I like DA:O more because the combat and leveling up and equipment and everything else is more intuitive for me. It’s not super-intuitive, because I’m kind of stupid, and because I don’t think either game explained the systems very well. After 25 years of game-playing I’m used to in-game tutorials hand-holding me through everything, and neither of the games can be bothered. Still I have a better idea what I’m doing in DA:O than Mass Effect, and hence I’m enjoying it more. That’s really it, at the moment.