Dragon Age 2 - Why Some Fans Did Not Like It

Couch spotted an article on Gamasutra where the author tries to investigate why Dragon Age 2 left some fans so cold.

Gamers are notoriously whiny about even small faults, but the utterly enflamed tower of hatred the game inspired in some quarters is something that could only come from a more primal revulsion, and I suggest that it emerges from Hawke being an NPC come to life.

It’s disempowering to stand in the shoes of someone who can’t bend the world to their whim in a videogame. It disrupts the power fantasy if you find yourself cast adrift in a relentless storm instead of causing it

It’s a less common path taken in RPGs and one that the fan base built up by Origins was unprepared for. But it is not without a certain measure of precedent. Another controversial second entry in an RPG series, Knights of the Old Republic II, does something similar with your character’s relationship to her mentor Kreia. One of the most common complaints I heard, regardless of one’s status as a “hardcore” or “casual” gamer, one’s political affiliation, or age, was that Kreia’s manipulations throughout the story mean your character’s choices don’t matter.

A similar charge is often leveled at Dragon Age II, though it’s complicated there. There are places in Dragon Age II where, narratively, choice should’ve mattered--like choosing the Mages or Templars at the end of the game; that was reduced to something that was functionally cosmetic. You get the same boss fights with basically the same ending. But the complaints go beyond that. Hawke, some seem to think, should’ve had the power to dispel all the plagues of Kirkwall, fix and heal everything that was broken, and conjure perfect endings for everyone.