The Witcher 2 vs. Dragon Age 2 and lessons learned

I have purchased exactly 2 action RPG sequels this year. Can you guess which ones? After spending several hours with each title it has really brought me to a few stunning conclusions. Today I will focus on the first conclusion and also why Dragon Age 2 ultimately failed.

FACT! Good writing does not translate into a good game.

There is no game out there that had terrible gameplay mechanics, but the writing was so awesome it made it a positive experience and Dragon Age 2 is the epitome of this concept. Please allow me to ellaborate!

As per the usual, I know I am sounding like a broken record but video games do not share the "luxury" that books do as an artistic medium. It takes more than one skill mastery to create an effective work of art. What makes and effective video game? Of course a game that is very fun is a game that works but a great video game can be so much more than that and it takes more than above average writing. The mechanics need to work together to create an experience that works better as an interactive medium then any other.

I still haven't finished Dragon Age 2. I got to about midway through the second act and, despite loving the characters, the politics, and the idea behind setting the game in one location and not making it the end all be all epic quest to save the world, the game got eaten, nay devoured by it's massive shortcomings.

In my opinion Dragon Age 2 would have worked better as a book because it is only the superior writing that really brought me in to the world of Kirkwall and kept me engaged. The sub par graphics, reused environments, generic power-ranger enemies, and overall lack of polish and progression of the environment really prevented me from becoming obsessed like I did with Dragon Age Origins.

The sad truth is it really seems that BioWare put out DA2 to help pay for The Old Republic.

It is an unfortunate fact of life and of our industry (or any inustry). It is just such a shame when what should be a brilliant artistic statement gets rushed out the door when it clearly needed minimum another year. Just imagine if DA2 had the same 4 year development cycle that The Witcher 2 enjoyed. Continue to imagine the game if we had more than three dungeons to explore for all the quests. If we had more enemy variety and battles that ever played out differently then Dyansty Warriors. If the city actually grew and changed along with the characters. It is incredibly un-immersive when the game just tells you 2 years pass, but everyone is wearing the same outfits and armor, the city looks the exact same as it did, and the only way we can tell that any amount of time passed is the text on the screen. It is always bad game design when the game tells us and doesn't show us. May as well be a novel.

The only real success of Dragon Age 2 is the strong characters who are incredibly well written. When writing is your strongest aspect that should be your focus; ie an amazing book. If I read the dialogue and the plot my mind would be free to imagine the city of Kirkwall, Hawkes epic beard (default male look FTW), dew glistening off a templar's armor in the hot, Freemarches sun, the pointed and misshappen horns on a Quanari, etc. You wouldn't have to worry about good level design or using a somewhat updated graphics engine. Hell the game doesn't look as good as Half Life 2 that came out the better part of 7 years ago!

Quick side note.... there is no excuse for DA2 looking as terrible as it does when Mass Effect 2 looks as amazing as it does. WTF guys?!

Let's be clear; I am (or certainly should be) BioWare's target adience with DA2. I played through Origins 3 times soup to nuts. I have been playing both console and PC RPG's for 20 years (yikes). If they aren't making that game for me then I have no idea who they are making it for. I came in to Dragon Age 2 as excited as could be! I mean hell, it was BioWare's follow up to one of my favorite games of all time! How could they miss (see above)?!

Bottom line is everything but the story and characters reeks of laziness, forced time tables, and rushed deadlines. It is cursed with the stench of what could have been. It ultimately proves to me that good writing doesn't make a good game. It also, unfortunately, demotes BioWare games from day one purchases to wait and see if we can snag a Steam or Amazon deal.

BioWare, we will always have Origins, KOTOR, and Baldur's Gate (which I bought again on GOG.com ironically).

Tomorrow the opposite with The Witcher 2!

BioWare vs. Bethesda

I love March because it means it's time for not only PAX East, but also March Mayhem on the Escapist. We are getting to the final rounds of voting for our favorite developers and there are some really interesting matchups, the most interesting right now being BioWare vs. Bethesda (hence the name of this post). By the way you have been warned; BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!

Despite being a huge fan of both developers, I opted to vote for BioWare mostly because Dragon Age 2 is out right now this very moment and I have been having a blast with it. A very good friend of mine decided to troll me for my public display of favoritism which really got me thinking about both developers. In my opinion Bethesda and BioWare are the two best Western RPG houses the world has ever seen and for two very different reasons.

Bethesda creates the best worlds, period. Despite spending easily 200+ hours with Morrowind I never actually finished the game because I didn't need to. I had more fun exploring Vvarfendel, reading all the amazing books, drinking in the different architecture of Vivec, the Telvani towns, the ashlands, etc. Granted the magic system was pretty useless endgame, the alchemy system was broken, and the hit detection was incredibly questionable; didn't matter. The game was magic with a V8 engine, 12 gig of ram, wrapped in bacon, and pure awesome sauce spread all over. I spent easily as much time with Oblivion and the continent of Cyrodil. The cool, weird architecture was replaced with more familiar high fantasy archetypes, but the game world was so meticulously well crafted that I had an amazing time closing gates, exploring towns, and (like any great open world game) picking flowers. The gameplay trailer for Skyriim looks nergasmically fantastic!!



BioWare games are really fantastic because no one tells a story quite as well as BioWare. From KOTOR to Mass Effect to Dragon Age, no developer has ever written characters that are as vivid and that suck you in. The quests and decisions in BioWare games are also so incredibly well thought out it actually gives one time to pause and really take into account the weight of one's decision and how it will affect the story and the world. When we had to decide between Kaiden and Ashley staying to set off the bomb in Mass Effect, or whether to spare, kill, or enslave Loghain, I never really cared about the characters in any other game like I do in BioWare games.

BioWare have made it pretty difficult to really support their studio as a fan lately. Despite having an amazing time with Dragon Age 2 right now, I am certainly not the first to report the game was obviously rushed. From the same subpar graphics to the environments that are used over and over again, the game certainly would have benefited from another 6 months to a year of development time. The flood of premium DLC as well has been down right disrepctful to fans and consumers willing to spend $60 hard earned USD's (or the local equivilent if you live elsewhere) to play a complete release. Dragon Age Legends on Facebook can cost up to $99.99 (as much as both Dragon Age's 1 and 2 combined on Steam right now) to play consistantly without waiting for energy to refil. Hell, Dragon Age 2's presence in the marketplace this soon really only leads me to think that the game exists soley to fund the upcomming MMO "The Old Republic" (which does have one of my favorite game trailers ever).



One advantage for Bethesda is that they certainly do not have the aggressive release schedule BioWare does. The last full priced entry in their catalogue was Fallout 3, which came out in 2008. Their next release will be Skyriim, which is due to release November 11th this year, approximately 3 years later. Figure the game began development in 2007 I would estimate.
I absolutely love this philosophy. Every game Bethesda releases is always of such high caliber and concept, and despite being hardcore action RPG's always are a commercial success. I would rather wait 5 years for an amazing game then 3 for good enough.

Despite the clear lack of development time for DA2, BioWare still has a huge hit and an amazingly fun, tactical, and deep RPG that has characters that are written incredibly well. The game is certainly compelling despite itself. If both studios ever could join hands and come together to create a game, it would absolutely epic.

Bottom line is there is certainly room in my heart for both. Only thing is Hawke is here now FTW! I mean, that is certainly points for BioWare; their lead character's name is Hawke.