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Dragon Age II is really great.

By breaking the storyline into three distinct time periods, Bioware has managed to create characters that grow and interact with each other in cool, realistic ways. It is really rewarding to see your party members’ stories unfold, instead of just your own. It’s even more rewarding to see your party members interact with each other, both in your party and outside your party, in realistic ways. It makes them feel like actual people, instead of just pieces to use in combat.
One of the best examples of this that I encountered was with Aveline. I had given her a shield as a gift, and I got attacked for it. See, I had sold Aveline’s dead husband’s shield earlier, because I had a better shield for her. I thought nothing of it: it was just gear. Aveline, however, was unhappy I had gotten rid of such a sentimental piece of gear, and that I was now offering her something else. This blew me away. This was a realistic reaction to something I was doing in the game. It was fantastic. Dragon Age II is full of little moments like that.

The other thing that really appealed to me is how well-written the side-quests were. I went into the game planning to rush and “only do the interesting side quests.” However, every side quest had voice-acting, decisions, and long-reaching changes on the storyline. I enjoyed doing things like taking over and taking care of a mine over the course of years. They were all interesting, and I did them all. Compare this to the bullshit “checkmark on the box” sidequests from Origins, which weren’t interesting at all. They really did a good job making their optional content feel as important as their non-optional content, even if it wasn’t quite as epic in scope.

On top of all that, they also managed to fix a lot of the common problems with the relationships in the game. Again, having these relationships play out over a period of time removed a lot of the problems. I moved in with Merrill, who I was sexing up, and thus had an actual relationship with her, instead of a fuck before the final battle. The fact that the climax of the relationship with a touching kiss before running in to fight one final time actually made it mean a lot more. Sure, a lot of the “flirting” dialog options were still fucking terrible, but at least they’re still moving in the right direction.

Really, though, the big moment that really got to me was, super spoilers, Anders blowing shit up at the end. I was really frustrated and betrayed by that. I knew he was up to something stupid, but taking out my chance to negotiate made me pissed at him. I told him to fuck off. However, what truly showed me that I cared about his character, and felt betrayed by him, was when he reappeared in the little prep room for the final battle. I was so pissed that he returned after I sent him away, and that was because I felt a level of connection to the character. I told him to fuck off again, and he left. It was fantastic.

Seriously, the story and characters, the reason I play RPGs like this, really were top-notch for the most part. Little touches, like which sibling living being determined by your class, so you have a better selection of party members to choose from, is also fairly brilliant and adds replay value. It’s not a perfect game, but it was a lot of fun.

Yeah, Dragon Age II is a pretty fun game in a lot of respects.