Dragon Age II is the sequel to BioWare's Dragon Age series of role-playing video games and was released on March 8, 2011 in North America and March 11, 2011[1] in Europe. Unlike Dragon Age: Origins, the main character's race cannot be changed; however, the character's appearance, gender, class and first name are all fully customizable. Hawke, the main character, is a Lothering refugee who rises to power and becomes the Champion of the Free Marches. Dragon Age II is set in the same world as Dragon Age: Origins, but takes place in the Free Marches.[1]
Dragon Age II tells the story of Hawke,[1] a survivor of the Darkspawn horde's destruction of Lothering (a village featured in Dragon Age: Origins) who rises to become the Champion of Kirkwall. Using a framed story format,[5] Varric, one of Hawke's companions, tells Hawke's story to Cassandra Pentaghast, a Chantry Seeker; "decisions" made in the game by the player determine more than a decade of history that changes the world of Thedas forever.[1]
Choices that the player made in Dragon Age: Origins can be imported and reflected in the world of Dragon Age II.[6] Choices from Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening will also be imported, if the player decides to take this action.[7]
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Windows[8] | ||
| Operating system | Windows XP 32-bit with SP3, Windows Vista 32-bit with SP2, Windows 7 64-bit | |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater, AMD Athlon 64 X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater | Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz Processor or equivalent, AMD Phenom II X3 Triple core 2.8 GHz or equivalent |
| Memory | 1 GB (1.5 GB Vista and Windows 7) | 2GB (4 GB Vista and Windows 7) |
| Free space | 7 GB of free space | |
| Graphics hardware | Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB, NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256 MB cards | ATI 3850 512 MB or greater (To run Direct X 11 - ATI 5850 or greater), NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater (To run Direct X 11 - NVidia 460 or greater) |
| Sound hardware | Direct X 9.0c Compatible Sound Card Windows | |
Dragon Age II has a non-linear 3.2framed narrative story, mainly based on the protagonist's choices.[1] [3] Romance is reportedly possible with party members or with non-player characters throughout the game.[1] New combat experiences and spells have been added.[1] Dragon Age II is set in a new area known as Free Marches, which is referenced in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening but not shown.[1] Unlike Origins, Dragon Age II features a fully voiced main character,[1] which is part of the reason the main character's race is fixed. A new city called Kirkwall [1] and a new dialogue wheel based on the dialogue system from the Mass Effect series have been added.[9] In addition, races such as the elves, dwarves and qunari are being redesigned.[3] The game takes place across a decade,[3] and saved information can be imported from Origins as well as Awakening. This data will affect the background story of Dragon Age II.[3]
Dragon Age II was announced in July 2010[10] 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,[1] showing some of the new characters and places that Dragon Age II will be based on.
Dragon Age II will be using an enhanced 3.2 graphic engine and the controls are more responsive. The combat system will be same as the previous game for the PC version but different in console versions, tailored to the strengths of the control pad.[9]
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 past will affect the present and the future.[11]
The original dialogue system will be 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).[9]
BioWare expects to release Dragon Age II on March 8, 2011 in North America and March 11 in Europe. Two versions are set to be 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.[12]
As of February 11th of 2011, the game has a 3.2 gone gold for all platforms and is set for release.[13] On February 22, the demo was released across all platforms.[14]
Orders placed before January 11, 2011 were automatically upgraded to the Dragon Age II: BioWare Signature Edition, with additional content.[15] Orders placed before March 8 qualify for pre-order bonuses.[16] 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.[17] Further in-game bonuses can be obtained by completing the free Dragon Age II demo,[18] through Penny Arcade,[19] and by signing up to the newsletter.[20] Purchasing the game Dead Space 2 before March 31 also unlocks a Dead Space themed armor item.[21] 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 28th and March 4th received 1 million impressions the day it was posted.[22]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| GameRankings | 84.1% (PC))[23] 82.5% (X360)[24] 82.1% (PS3)[25] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| G4 | 3/5 [26] |
| IGN | 8.5 |
| Official Xbox Magazine (US) | 9/10[27] |
| PC Gamer (UK) | 94%[28] |
| PlayStation: The Official Magazine | 9/10 |
| VideoGamer.com | 7/10 [29] |
The game currently holds a meta score of 8.2 across critics. 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."[28] 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."[27] The game also comes with a release-date checker that has garnered some negative backlash, mainly from European gamers.[citation needed] They cannot play the game, even after buying it legally in stores, before March 11.[30] Other reviews say the game "never progresses beyond the identity issues it had with Origins"[31].
While it might appear to run on a new engine, Dragon Age 2 employs an evolved version of Origins' Eclipse engine (now called the Lycium engine internally).
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