Dragon Age’s Anders Taught Me To Stop Skipping Dialogue

thegamer.com:

I’ve just finished Dragon Age 2 for the first time. If you’re a regular TheGamer reader and/or general Ben Sledge enjoyer (I’m sure someone out there is), you’ll know that before this year, I’d never played a BioWare game. So, I leapt into Dragon Age: Origins and gave it my best shot. It had everything from forgotten deadly sins, to betraying best friends, to an incredible Sloth Demon dungeon in the warped realities of the Fade. I loved it, so naturally I moved onto the sequel when I was done.

I don’t think I liked Dragon Age 2 as much as I did Origins, but that’s not to say it was bad. I think the combat is an improvement – I prefer the action slashing to the intensely methodical and tactical approach, which felt tired by Origins’ finale as I faced wave after wave of Darkspawn. However, I don’t think the dialogue is anywhere near Origins’ level in the sequel, and your response options boiling down to ‘good’, ‘bad’, or ‘funny’ feels limiting. Being confined pretty much to Kirkwall, a city I, a Ferelden refugee, didn’t care much for, also felt limiting and a poor use of the original’s thorough worldbuilding.

Related: Dragon Age 2 Satirised Cancel Culture Before It Was Even A Thing

Things came together in the final act, though. Suddenly I felt that my decisions mattered as the Mages and Templars fought for supremacy. My Hawke, a Mage, sided perhaps predictably with my magical kin, taking down Meredith once and for all to end her tyrannical rule of the city. However, that’s not before Anders had his say.

Spoiler warning for a game released over a decade ago, but Anders is a terrorist. He blows up the Kirkwall Chantry with what appears to be a lyrium-infused fertiliser bomb. And you helped him do it. Despite the fact it was