Questioning Video Game Hype and Hatred
As should be obvious by this post (if not by some of my other blog posts preceding this one) I play quite a bit of my leisure time (and sometimes not so leisure time as well) playing video games. My latest project is setting up multiple endings in a series of games called Dragon Age so that when I finally play the critically acclaimed Dragon Age Inquisition, I will have the endings from the previous two games that I so desire to influence what happens in the newest game.
To this end, I am currently playing through Dragon Age 2 and unlike its prequel and sequel, this game is excessively hated by the fan base. Until recently, I considered myself part of this hatedom. As I had played Dragon Age 2 right when it was released and hated it at the time, I figured the fan base had made a correct assessment.
However, now I am playing through the game again, and am left wondering why I hated the game so much the first time. Clearly, there are some issues with the game. The game is clearly unfinished due to Executive Meddling. Many of the Dungeons look the same. The game feels confined.
Some of these complaints seem silly now that I look and see that many other games that are much more liked that suffer from the same problems. Mass Effect 1 for example has limited romance and its cookie cutter dungeons are far more obvious than the ones in Dragon Age 2. You can even make the argument that the identical buildings in Dragon Age 2 are an act of brilliance since the entire game takes place in a City, cookie cutter buildings actually make sense. Having identical buildings by different factions on different planets though, that’s a bit of a stretch.
And now I am going to highlight what I like about Dragon Age 2 and probably get hated for doing so. While the romance is much more limited, the characters you get to romance are far more interesting than in Origins.
Dragon Age Origins has in my opinion, four interesting characters. While Morrigan is without a doubt my favorite Lady of Black Magic in all of fiction and Yashel from my own book The End of Utopia was heavily inspired by her (As Evesta was heavily inspired by Flemeth) That leaves just heroic “Betty” Bard Assassin Leiliana, Adorkable Alistair, and the Dog. Wynn, Ohgren, Sten, and Zevran all fall into stereotypes that have been overdone too much for me to really enjoy and Logain, the thought of him makes me want to go Molag Bal on his ass and kill him and then resurrect him so I can kill him again. (for those of you who don’t play video games and are not getting the references you may want to Google these characters I am referencing)
Meanwhile in Dragon Age 2, I find all the characters at least amusing, if not just amazing. For example, while people claim that Pirate Captain, Prostitute, and Snarky Isabella has also been overdone, I call to question any time in fiction where this kind of character is female?
Ten seconds up? I have nothing and I doubt you do either. That’s the point.
You also have characters like Anders who seem to be really really hated by the fan base. I can’t figure out why though. I would much rather bring him everywhere than Wynn in Origins.
Anyway, before I go off on a long tangent about the things I like in Dragon Age 2, I just want to caution you all about hype and hatred. The first time I played Dragon Age 2, I fell for the hatred train and thus my feelings on the game were made up before I even played it.
On the other end, how many of us think that Star Wars the Old Republic or Destiny are among the greatest games ever made?
Ten Seconds are up and I hear nothing.