How do you make a successful sequel? Of course it's simple - you strip out absolutely everything that made the first game awesome, limit the ability to explore, change the combat system, change the storyline, throw in some repeated dungeon design and make your character a generic dullard who ends up caught in a silly political conspiracy. If you couldn't interpret the disdain for Dragon Age 2 dripping off that previous paragraph, let's make one thing clear. I didn't like Dragon Age 2. It was such a slap in the face for those of us that loved the first game, all stripped back in favour of trying to nab the attention of more people through a dumbed down experience. Yep, it's great that more people should be playing a game, but surely the best way to nab the attention of gamers is to actually make a good game, rather than a truly painful experience filled with more loading screens than is suitable for maintaining sanity. As such, it's hard to like Hawke, the burly man with the beardy thingy or the generic woman without the beardy thingy who rapidly becomes far too difficult to mould into the character you want, like you could on the original game. The fact that multiple race options, such as dwarves and elves, were also removed from the equation, meant even less choice. Hawke was basically an attempt by game developers Bioware to replicate the success of Commander Shepard from Mass Effect. Unfortunately Hawke very much isn't our favourite character on the Citadel, and should not return for the (hopefully) better sequel Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Dan Curtis is approximately one-half videogame knowledge, and the other half inexplicable Geordie accent. He's also one quarter of the Factory Sealed Retro Gaming podcast.
