Alright, so I’ve bashed Skyrim enough, right? There’s always two (or more) sides to every coin or Internet argument, so I’ll present here my thoughts on what Dragon Age II should really learn from Skyrim:
More expansive environments
How many times have I had to carefully watch the minimap in Dragon Age II, so I could find my way around the twists, turns, mazes, staircases, and tiny rooms of the game? Too many, that’s how many. In Skyrim, if I see it, I can get to it.
That huge mountain looks sweet, let’s go there. Ooh, can you see that weird building in the distance? Yeah, we can totally get to it right now. Skyrim kicks Dragon Age II’s ass when it comes to expansive environments, and I guess I just want it all.
Allow for unscripted encounters
There’s got to be a way to bring in Skyrim’s powerful (and sometimes hilarious) dynamically generated goodness into a heavily scripted game like Dragon Age II, right?
After playing Dragon Age II for a while, I start to long for interactions with characters that will complain about their knee injuries or their brother in the army without having to slam through a dialogue tree to do so. Even the “random” fights in the bad parts of town feel fairly planned and obligatory.
I sure would like to skip some of the dialogue as well, especially the fourth or fifth time around. In one egregious example, no matter what I choose to say to that jerk of a Templar, he still cuts the throat of the Qunari and then has his followers try and kill us all. Sure would be fun to try and flatter him a bit and get out without having to fight the whole flock, right?
Dragons should be scarier
Let’s face it, the dragons in Dragon Age II are fairly insignificant. The creatures the actual game is named after are relegated to occasional miniboss dungeons, with little baby dragons, for crying out loud. What is up with that? Skyrim brings the fear of dragons to the game screen.
These are fearsome creatures, ready to burn or freeze me to death in every encounter, scripted or not. While I wish I could befriend a dragon or two in either game, the Skyrim dragons are much more terrifying, probably owing to the fact that they are the only enemy of their kind.
The Dragon Age II dragons, on the other hand, are simply another wave of monsters to get through on the way to more story moments. Not scary at all.
Make combat more realistic
In almost direct conflict with my praise of Dragon Age’s combat animations above, I really wish they had taken a page from Skyrim’s obsession with weapons and load stats and the like. It’s way too easy to just press the shoot button and let the game auto-target and kill the hordes of enemies. While Hawke looks good downing baddies, it’s really rather preposterous that she is able to take down such incredibly large numbers of opponents with relative ease.
Also, how do those Dragon Age II characters die in a battle but somehow revive when it’s over? I think they’re just malingering.
Epic story needs to be epic
I spend a lot of time in Dragon Age II running from petty ruler to petty ruler, from terrified mother to captured child, and from dwarf merchant to conniving dwarf merchant. Aren’t I “The Champion?” Where’s the epic?
The quests, while easily figured out and managed with a fantastic visual interface, feel a lot less fraught with world-spanning intensity than those in Skyrim.
Learning how to shout the dragon tongue, getting my first dragon soul (and wondering what the hell that was, anyway), learning about the Dragon Born legacy from sages across the map really lent the whole thing a gravitas somewhat lacking in Dragon Age II’s regular quest progression.
Yes, a lot of this is nitpicky, and yes, some of my points conflict with other points I just made, but isn’t that the joy of gaming? I can want it all, right? I want a game that has the storyline, voice acting, humor, and color of Dragon Age II with all the seriousness, realistic combat, and scary dragons of Skyrim.
Don’t you?