It’s best to get some things out of the way when you’re talking about games like Dawn of Magic 2. What anyone reading a review of an action RPG really wants to know is, it is a good as Diablo 2? The answer is not even close. If you don’t need anymore justification than that, feel free to stop reading now.

Assuming you’d like to learn a little more about the game, it’s a straight forward action RPG with the emphasis heavily placed on the action. You do quests and attack enemies to level up your character, find and equipment various bits of armour and weaponry and all the usual RPG stuff.

It’s the same game we’ve seen plenty of times before, but with a slightly more magical twist on the affair. Dawn of Magic is all about the spells, and there’s certainly plenty to go around, with over 100 available for you to use against your enemies, if you can find them.

Dawn of Baking

The tutorial of the game is set in an academy that’s about a tenth as interesting as the academy you start off in during Neverwinter Nights. Even more worrying is that it’s only marginally more attractive than the graphics of the 2002 release.

We’re not exaggerating here. The graphics really do look like something that might have been impressive at about the same time George Bush became president. Now, the complete lack of smooth animation, terrible textures and washed out and barren looking environments are just plain ugly.

We’re not just being petty about the texture resolution though. The overall style is bland and completely unimaginative. Even the character design is boring, with one character oddly ripped straight from Harry Potter, glasses included.

How you can include ‘Bakers Wife’ as a playable character and still make the idea not appealing is beyond us.

Everything about the graphics and style is utterly lifeless. Cities look dead and people look like they have no idea what they are doing there at all. There’s no charm, no surprises and a draw distance that covers everything more than 2 feet ahead of you in a purple haze, even when turned up to maximum.

The games single visual positive is the enemy design, which is often interesting and original, even if it is continually let down by the engine itself.

“Thanks, cutie”

It’s clear from the first few hours of playing the game that Dawn of Magic 2 isn’t about to give you a fantasy epic in terms of story, either.

The already dull story is made worse by the games complete lack of ability to actually tell it. You’re never given any real reason to care about the world you inhabit.

Its people are mindless clones that walk around and say nothing at all. Its cities are a collection of buildings notable for their lack of nearby trees.

Quests have no real logic and your input in conversations is ‘no’ or ‘yes’ if you get any input at all. A few times the game threatens to move beyond this format but every time you think the story might start moving forward, you’re back to killing ten rats.

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