Bettina Bich

What a disappointment. 86 hours of my life and $70 down the drain. Dragon Age is (maybe was is more appropriate now) a medieval fantasy game that desperately wants to not be a medieval fantasy game. Everything truly unpleasant or gritty (which medieval history was) has been nullified into a Disneyfied replication of the idea of Dragon Age. Everything we loved about Dragon Age is gone. If all you want is an ending for your Lavellan, by all means, save yourself and just watch it on YouTube. The romance is flat. The companions are flat. Rook is the most forgettable failure of a protagonist yet in the series and I am including Hawke in that assessment. All of the work you put into the previous games is thrown out in a letter, like they wanted to wash their hands clean of all the world building in past games. Don't get me wrong, it is high production value. But high quality art doesn't make a high quality story and design. We all know Bioware suffered when EA bought them out, but this is worse. Like they have made it their goal to use this game and the fan base to try to prove to Disney they deserve the next Star Wars title. I will never preorder anything Bioware makes again.

Best game ever, yes there was one mechanical flaw in game play I noticed. Once an NPC vanished while I was targeting them and guess what? I don't care. This game is the best because it is raw emotion. It explores grey morality like no other contemporary story has. They used their ability to make you empathize with new characters in a way that was successfully jarring. I started in one place emotionally and ended in the opposite. It was only a "slap in the face to fans of the original" if they are incapable of evolving emotionally and are attached to their ideas of the original cast. The first one is my second favorite game, only beat by this one because it challenged my ability to feel. Naughty Dog is good because they are willing to do something different, change our expectations AND especially because their stories are driven by emotions. If you are looking for more of the same story, you will hate it. If you are looking to feel struck deeply by something, you will love it. Naughty Dog, please give us more of Abby and Lev.