没有背叛、没有国王的陨落、没有graywarden悲壮的牺牲——总之,没有blight的步步紧逼,本作的氛围相比dao而言,要少了许多末世的凄凉。故事的开头选择了Ferelden大陆的灾难开端之年——Ostagar之役的惨败以及接踵而至的Lothering的毁灭,无疑是出于对故事氛围的过渡考虑——就连darkspawn都比前作看起来英俊了些(笑)。在这样的背景下,或许只有Flemeth the wild witch 的登场,才能让本作的开场勉强赶上前作那悲壮华丽的开头的一小半。如我们所料,这位睿智而强大的夜巫显然没有被她天真的女儿和她愉快的朋友们(笑)杀死,然而遗憾的是,仅仅一个Long way home的任务,便将她的故事简洁干脆到让人绝望地交代干净,“Flemeth没有死”是唯一可以被确定的信息。不过无论如何,这或许是一个不那么会让人因此而产生再读一遍《The Silmarillion》的念头、但却还算顺利的开头。
比起Denerim,The City of Kirkwall或许不算是个美丽的城市。“the City of Chain”——牢笼,过去是,现在仍是。区别仅仅在于被锁链所拘束的对象。嘈杂、严苛、肮脏、尘土飞扬——这本应是个丑陋而却真实的城市,不由地让人想起那座属于Atremis Entreri的城市——卡林港。然而遗憾的是,DA2对这座故事中唯一的城市的刻画却十分简陋,整座城市仅仅是一些毫无生气的建筑物和街道以及无法交谈的路人的组合,甚至缺乏必要的细节和互动性——就连hightown市场这样的地方,都只不过就是在一块毫无特征可言的小广 场上放了几个帐篷和商贩;没有随风飘扬的旗帜,没有飞扬的尘土,没有流浪的动物,没有烈日暴雨,没有随随处可见的城市守卫与窃贼间的追逐......尤其到了晚上,这座城市便原形毕露——少了白天路上仅有的几个npc,这哪里是城市,简直就是一座dungeon。作为一个从事城市规划工作的人,我无法判断Kirkwall的城市形象的灵感来自现实中那个时代的文明城市,缺乏层次感和核心感的空间构成平庸而缺乏逻辑,我简直怀疑bw是不是准备在da3推出地图编辑器。
"What hope of this city,when we fail our own so completely?"
Act2是最令我感到满意的。这句Viscount在爱子遇害后发出的悲痛呼号,令人心头一震。这几乎是整个故事的点睛之词——在没有blight威胁的时代,人类是什么样子?所有这些令人绝望而悲痛冲突都来自人类自身,那么还有什么希望?——这令人扼腕的主题与dao的故事遥相呼应;并且得益于对故事节奏的把握——Viscount与他唯一的儿子之间的矛盾、Qunari在城市中独特而微妙的存在感以及对Arishok的生动刻画,最后,矛盾的中心甚至与主角的同伴之一有着密切的关联,并且在故事达到高潮之前就有铺垫——比如Isabela总是会借口拒绝与你一同前往Qunari营地。“人性的黑暗”——相比blight而言,这或许是更难治愈的顽疾——即便是“天灾”blight,不也是因此而产生的吗?
Kirkwall once lived on the edge of the Tevinter Imperium and was home to nearly a million slaves. Stolen from elven lands or shipped from across the sea, all slaves fed the Imperium's unquenchable thirst for expansion. They worked in massive quarries and sweltering foundries that produced stone and steel for the Empire.
The city's complicated past is not easy to forget, history having earmarked many corners of the stone city. A ship approaching the harbor spots the city's namesake: an imposing black wall. It is visible for miles, and carved into the cliff side are a pantheon of vile guardians representing the Old Gods. Over the years, the Chantry has effaced many of these profane sentinels, but it will take many more years to erase them all.
Also carved into the cliff is a channel that permits ships into the city’s interior. Flanking the channel are two massive bronze statues—the Twins of Kirkwall. The statues have a practical use. Kirkwall sits next to the narrowest point of the Waking Sea, and a massive chain net can be erected between the statues and the lighthouse, closing off the only narrow navigable lane. This stranglehold on sea traffic is jealously guarded by the ever-changing rulers of the city as the net trolls taxes, tolls, and extortions in from the sea.
—From <In Pursuit of Knowledge: The Travels of a Chantry Scholar>, by Brother Genitivi