We Didn’t Love… That It Doesn’t Offer a Great Intro for Dragon Age Newcomers
Now, I might have just said I’m an easy mark for any and all connections to Dragon Age II, but it’s admittedly a bold move to tie the endgame of Absolution into a major connection to the supposedly dead villain of—as much as it pains me to personally say it—the least-popular Dragon Age game. It’s kind of emblematic of a lot of Absolution’s vibe, which is very much acting on the presumption that you already are deeply enmeshed in the lore of the games for much of its stakes and world.
There’s little to no explanation for why Elves are so looked down upon, especially in the land of the Tevinter Imperium, and not enough to explore the Imperium’s magical theocracy—and what makes it truly different to the rest of Dragon Age’s world. Blood magic becomes a major element of the story, but there’s likewise not much explained to newcomers about just why it’s so taboo. It’s not that Absolution needs to hold people’s hands about this world, but it sort of flies on by the seat of its pants with a lot of stuff that even people who’ve played all the games—Inquisition, the most recent and arguably most widely played of the series, is eight years old at this point—might need reminding about.
