Dragon Age II

Dragon Age II is a role-playing video game developed by Bioware's Edmonton studios, and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major game in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Mac OS X on March 8, 2011 in North America, and March 11, 2011 in Europe.

Set in the same mythical world introduced in Dragon Age: Origins, the player assumes the role of Hawke, a human mage, warrior, or rogue who arrives in the city of Kirkwall as a lowly refugee but becomes its legendary champion over a turbulent decade of political and social conflict.

Plot
Set in the mythical world of Thedas, Dragon Age II tells the story of Hawke, who fled the nation of Ferelden during the events of Dragon Age: Origins and arrived in the neighboring state of Kirkwall as a refugee. Within the span of a decade, Hawke would rise in power and influence to become the legendary "Champion of Kirkwall", and the center of events that change the course of Thedas forever. The game focuses on Hawke's rise to power and is framed through flashbacks by one of Hawke's old companions, Varric, who relates the Champion's 'true story' to Cassandra Pentaghast, a Seeker of Thedas' religious Chantry.

The story begins with Hawke and family fleeing from Darkspawn after Ferelden's defeat at Ostagar. After being surrounded by Darkspawn, Hawke and fellow survivors are rescued by Flemeth. Hawke tells Flemeth that they will try to flee to Kirkwall, since they have family and an estate there. Flemeth decides to help them get to Kirkwall, in return for delivering a pendant to the leader of a group of Dalish living outside the city. However, when Hawke finally arrives at Kirkwall, the city has closed its gates to Fereldan refugees. Hawke's uncle Gamlen admits that he squandered the family fortune and estate, but manages to convince several groups to bribe the city guards to let Hawke's party in, in return for a year of service to them.

Once the year has passed, Hawke begins looking for a way to get out of Kirkwall's slums. Hawke delivers the pendant to the Dalish, which is revealed to have contained a piece of Flemeth as a contingency in case Morrigan killed her. She thanks Hawke for honoring their deal before leaving. Meanwhile, with some help from Varric and Anders, Hawke manages to take part in a Dwarven expedition to the Deep Roads led by Varric's brother Bartrand. While exploring the Deep Roads, the party stumbles across a Primeval Thaig, which contains an idol made out of pure lyrium. Bartrand steals the idol for himself and leaves Hawke, Varric, and the rest of the party to die. Fortunately, they manage to find a way back to the surface, as well as a vault full of priceless artifacts.

Three years later, Hawke is now extremely wealthy and famous thanks to the Deep Roads expedition. Hawke buys back the old family estate and continues adventuring in order to improve Kirkwall. Eventually gaining the trust of Kirkwall's leader, the Viscount, Hawke is tasked to act as an intermediary between the people of Kirkwall and a group of Qunari staying in the city. The Qunari leader, called the Arishok, explains that he hates Kirkwall due to the city's corruption and lawlessness, but is forced to stay due to theft of an important Qunari artifact that he must recover. Meanwhile, Chantry extremists within Kirkwall attempt to promote discrimination against the Qunari as more of Kirkwall's citizens are converting to the Qunari's religion the Qun, but their attempts are stopped by Hawke. Tensions between Kirwall and the Qunari heightens to the point where the Viscount's son, a recent convert to the Qun, is killed by religious fanatics seeking to stir public opinion against the qunari, prompting the Arishok to invade the city in retaliation, killing many civilians including the Viscount. With help from Knight Commander Meredith and First Enchanter Orsino, the leaders of Kirkwall's Templars and Circle of Magi respectively, Hawke defeats the Arishok and saves Kirkwall, gaining the title of "Champion of Kirkwall".

Another three years pass, and despite the repulsion of the Qunari invasion, conditions within Kirkwall are not improving. Meredith usurps the deceased Viscount's position as unofficial ruler of Kirkwall, and her methods for tracking down and controlling mages become increasingly harsher. In order to protect themselves from the Templars, numerous mages begin turning to forbidden blood magic, which further inflames the Templars. Orsino also begins to encourage the citizens of Kirkwall to openly rebel against Meredith. These tensions finally come to a climax when Anders, angry at how the Circle of Magi allows itself to be oppressed by the Chantry and the Templars, destroys Kirkwall's Chantry. Meredith angrily declares that all mages in Kirkwall must be exterminated, and a civil war breaks out. Hawke is then forced to choose to either side with the Templars or the Circle of Magi. However, despite Hawke's allegiance, the Champion will be forced to fight both Meredith and Orsino. In desperation, Orsino resorts to using blood magic and turns himself into a horrifying Harvester Abomination, forcing Hawke to kill him. Meredith then reveals that she obtained the cursed lyrium idol from Bartrand after the Qunari uprising and forged it into a sword. The idol's influence has been corrupting Meredith with insanity ever since she usurped the city's leadership after the death of the Viscount, causing her to deem all of the Kirkwall Circle of Magi's members as corrupt, magic itself as a curse that must be cleansed, and eventually Hawke as an even greater threat to her power, worse than all mages. After killing Meredith, depending on whom the player sides with, Hawke can either become Viscount of Kirkwall or flee the city.

As Varric finishes his story, Cassandra admits that she must revise several preconceptions she had about Hawke, whom she is still determined to find. It is revealed that the events at Kirkwall have caused all of the 14 Circles of Magi in Thedas outside the Tevinter Imperium to rebel from the brutal injustice of the Chantry's Templars. With the Chantry in shambles and the Templars also rebelling, it appears that the entire world will be plunged into war. Cassandra asks Varric if he knows where Hawke is, to gain the support of the Champion's faction so they and the Seekers can convince both sides to make peace before it gets worse. However, Varric reveals that all of Hawke's companions (except the love interest) were forced to abandon the Champion, whose whereabouts are unknown. Cassandra then leaves and meets with fellow Seeker Leliana, where they both stress the importance of finding either Hawke or the Warden, the Hero of Ferelden and protagonist of Dragon Age: Origins, since they are the only individuals capable of averting total war.

Choices that the player made in Dragon Age: Origins, its DLC content, and expansion pack Awakening can be imported into Dragon Age II and are reflected by allusions to Thedas' political state as well as appearances by past characters.

Features
Dragon Age II has a linear framed narrative story, mainly based on the protagonist's choices. Romance is possible with five party members in the game. New combat experiences and spells have been added. Dragon Age II is set in a city called Kirkwall located in the region known as Free Marches, which is referenced in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening but not shown. Unlike Origins, Dragon Age II features a fully voiced main character, which is part of the reason the main character's race is fixed, and a new dialogue wheel based on the dialogue system from the Mass Effect series has been added. In addition, races such as the elves, dwarves and qunari have been redesigned. Saved information can be imported from Origins as well as Awakening. This data will affect the background story of Dragon Age II.

Development
Development of Dragon Age II was announced in July 2010 and BioWare's Greg Zeschuk stated when interviewed by Joystiq that "I think one of the key things we're working on in Dragon Age II is the technology. I can confirm that we're doing a lot of work on the Dragon Age engine, and doing a lot of stuff to pump it -- to make it visually super hot."

A trailer for Dragon Age II was released on August 17, 2010, showing some of the new characters and places that Dragon Age II is based on.

Dragon Age II uses an enhanced graphic engine and the controls are more responsive. The combat system is same as the previous game for the PC version but different in console versions, tailored to the strengths of the control pad.

A special feature of Dragon Age II is that the "story" will span a decade whereas the story from Dragon Age: Origins ran its course over a period of two years. As the main character moves on year by year, the choices that the player made in the past will affect the present and the future.

The original "dialogue" system is replaced by the "wheel" system previously seen in the Mass Effect series. Unlike its original version, however, the "wheel" will now clearly indicate what tone the main character's response will have (such as anger and flirting).

During the pre-development of the game, Brent Knowles, a veteran lead designer who had been with Bioware for a decade and the central figurehead behind Dragon Age: Origins, decided to resign during the designing process of Dragon Age 2 and eventually left the company, stating “I’m not the same person I was when I started, and BioWare isn’t the same company.” He later went on to clarify his decision to leave, elaborating "I never thought Dragon Age 2 would be a terrible game. It was just that a highly cinematic, action-leaning RPG wasn’t what I wanted to work on. That is all." After playing the game's demo, he praised how polished and immersive it was, but mentioned that its combat had identity issues and did not seem to fit properly into either the action or RPG genre. In an overall assessment he felt that it was a strong title, especially considering the short development cycle, and called the demo "promising", though the amount of changes from the first title in the series seemed excessive to him, citing gameplay issues and the lack of ability to play as another race than human.

By February 11, 2011, the game had gone gold for all platforms and was set for release. On February 22, the demo was released across all platforms.

BioWare released Dragon Age II on March 8, 2011 in North America and March 11 in Europe. Two versions were released: the normal edition and the "Signature Edition", the latter including the Day 1 DLC known as "The Exiled Prince", premium packaging, a download code for the game's soundtrack, and 4 in-game items. The Signature Edition was available for pre-order until January 11, 2011 and was priced the same as the normal edition.

Bonus and downloadable content
Orders placed before January 11, 2011 were automatically upgraded to the Dragon Age II: BioWare Signature Edition, with additional content. Orders placed before March 8 qualify for pre-order bonuses. In an attempt to discourage purchasing used copies of the game, purchasers of a new copy (before or after the release date) receive access to additional features. Further in-game bonuses can be obtained by completing the free Dragon Age II demo, through Penny Arcade, and by signing up to the newsletter. Purchasing the game Dead Space 2 before March 31, 2012 also unlocks a Dead Space themed armor item. Bioware announced that 2 in game items would be unlocked for all users if the total number of demo downloads reached 1 million in the course of one week (which occurred), and that a further and more powerful item would be unlocked if each post on the official Facebook account between February 28 and March 4 received 1 million impressions the day it was posted.

Reception
Dragon Age II has received fairly positive reviews. However, they have been less positive than its predecessor, Dragon Age: Origins which holds a Metacritic score of 91/100 - David Radd from Industrygamers noted that "Dragon Age II has had the most mixed critical reception for a full-retail BioWare product perhaps ever (assuming Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is not counted)."

PC Gamer UK magazine highly praised Dragon Age II mentioning the improved combat system, dialogue wheel, skill-trees, and solid storytelling as its strong points. The game earned their "Editor's Choice" award and was stated to be, "The best RPG of this decade? Nine more years will tell, but for now, yes." Official Xbox Magazine gave the game a 9 out of 10 mentioning that although it was slightly altered from its predecessor, the game "offers some of the deepest, nerdiest, most worthwhile 40 to 60 hours you'll ever love losing sleep over." Gametrailers gave the game high marks and stated, "Though it doesn't hold a candle to its predecessor when it comes to sheer breadth, Dragon Age II has quite a bit more soul" and that it had "some of the most gratifying RPG combat we've played in a long time."

Not all of the reviewers have praised the changes however. VideoGamer said the game "never progresses beyond the identity issues it had with Origins", criticized the lack of noticeable characters, small area of setting, while adding "simplification of combat doesn't work in the game's favour". Game Informer gave the PC version of the game a score of 7.75 and the console versions an 8.25, criticizing the poorly designed combat system, stating "On all platforms, Dragon Age II caters to an audience that didn’t connect with Origins, while alienating those who did" and "improving the polish doesn’t do much good when the basics still need work".

Eurogamer settled for saying the game is "never quite as great as it could be" but also conclude that it is still a "Satisfying epic", awarding it 8/10 while Gamespot noted that the game suffered from "unnecessary simplification and unfocused storytelling" but still left a strong impression. RPG Site awarded the game 80%, arguing that "the discussion about Dragon Age II doesn't need to be 'is it good?' - It is - but needs to be 'is this what fans wanted from a sequel to Dragon Age: Origins?'", suggesting that is where some of the fan animosity towards the title may arise from.

Dragon Age II's lead designer, Mike Laidlaw, in an interview with Gamespot, addressed the fans' concerns toward the changes in Dragon Age II by stating that Bioware will "[despite Dragon Age's players' criticisms] continue to tune and capitalize on that 'fusion' between the Origins experience and Dragon Age II". Additionally, he also noted that a return to the more hardcore RPG style of Dragon Age: Origins is unlikely, proclaiming "The big key is to not adjust 180 degrees again, because we've done this."

One million copies of Dragon Age II were sold within two weeks of the launch, faster than Dragon Age: Origins.

These numbers were primarily due to the many preorders that the game had received from the many fans of Dragon:Age Origins. Unlike Origins whose sale numbers really started to climb after 3 weeks, DA2 have failed to do so, with sale numbers fast dawdling towards zero.

Controversies
In March 2011, reports began emerging from consumer-advocacy website Reclaim Your Game that Dragon Age II was being distributed with the controversial DRM software SecuROM, despite assertions from EA that it would not be. Producer Fernando Melo stated that although the game uses software made by the makers of SecuROM, it is a different program completely."They have the same support site through which is the URL you're seeing." The software is a form of release-date checker, designed to prevent copies of the game from being played before the release date in that territory. The software runs from the disc, and does not install anything on the system. BioWare confirmed that there is no SecuROM DRM in the game and clarified that in case of downloaded versions, the release date check program's executable deletes itself after having performed the check.

Further issue arose when a player was unable to activate his purchased copy of the game due to being temporarily banned from the BioWare forums for repeatedly posting "Have you sold your souls to the EA devil?". BioWare's Stanley Woo replied to the user in support of the ban by pointing to sections 9 and 11 of EA's terms of service, which state "EA may terminate access to any online or mobile products and/or EA Services at any time by giving you notice of such termination within the time period specified when you joined the particular EA Service." Woo clearly acknowledged that “These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC,” adding that players should “consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you’re going to follow.” Technology news website Ars Technica called the incident a "potentially dangerous precedent, where saying something inflammatory about a developer or publisher could result in the company revoking the player's right to play a game he or she lawfully acquired." When the story was later picked-up by several news websites, EA's Andrew Wong said the entire incident was actually an unforeseen glitch, and that the player's account had been reactivated.

A BioWare employee was caught posing as a consumer on the review site Metacritic. The employee, Chris Hoban, who posted under the name of Avanost gave a score of 10/10 saying "Anything negative you'll see about this game is an overreaction of personal preference." A representative for EA responded after much online controversy saying "Of course the people who make the game vote for their own game. That's how it works in the Oscars, that's how it works in the Grammys and why I'm betting that Barack Obama voted for himself in the last election", though it is unclear if Hoban acted on his own behest or on that of the company.