If you are fan of Mass Effect, then you will love it, like me. Bio ware you are best.
Dragon Age 1 path to 2 part looks like Me1 to Me2. Many people forgot that is rpg means Role Play Game, when you play a role with your decisions in dialogs.

game was worse than the original, but still very solidly madeâ

I'm not hugely far into the game. I haven't experienced all it has to offer. But I played DA:O for ~30-40 hours before I just gave up on it. I didn't like it, playing on PS3. DA2 so far is just a much more fun and smooth experience. I have a fairly high end PC (two 5850 in crossfire) but it plays great at 50-60fps with DX11, all options on, Very High detail, and the HD texture pack. No lag or crashes yet. If I set it to 4xAA I can record video just fine (which I'm doing) above 45fps. The funny thing about some of the negative comments is they comment on the convo wheel sucking then also praise former BioWare RPGs. Apparently they never heard of Mass Effect... Anyway while it's hilarious that some fanboys or whatever they think they are decided to negative bomb this game, it's definitely worth picking up. If you're on the fence just go check out some Let's Play videos and decide for yourself. I'll be uploading my stuff to YouTube on the weekend (TheWolfram23).… Expand

I like it, I will be happy to play! And I can not understand why so many negative reviews? The first game was very good, I think the second will be even better.

Okay, I've been playing every spare moment I've had since the midnight release and this is a phenomenal title by Bioware. Graphics: if you want max graphics you need a GeForce 500 series card or higher to enable it, or you'll stutter. High is for DX 11 cards and it would only let me have medium with my 240. So more graphic control on the PC with clearer wording on what I can use and what I can't would have been nice. Reused locales are present and I had thought after ME 1 they had learned to stop rehashing stuff, but then again this game's development time was a fraction of the first titles. The reason? They tell a very specific story in a refreshing 2nd person narrative. Characters all go through development over the title, people who want a challenge: roll with Nightmare. Combat on console: people keep posting about button mashing. It's optional, go into the options and turn on auto attack if you don't like it. Cliffhanger endings: It's BiowareEA, there's going to be a stream of DLC, there's going to be an expansion pack, and there's going to be a GOTY edition. Events from your DA:O game transfer, most of the cast make guest appearances, and the lore is solid. It's clear this is being considered a franchise and that we haven't seen the last of DA or the main character, they've told us from the start what this title is about: one man's rise to fame and glory. BG 2 fan? Tactical view is toast. DA:O was a claim to the past, DA2 is moving forward mainstream style. It's huge, lots of content, lots of choices, fully voiced, and replay value for days with lots (almost all) of the quests that take about 15 minutes or less to complete. Can't choose your race, but you get gender and class. For the casual, you can bring who you want without worry of party balance and still make it through. Inventory: mostly your PC exclusive. Most characters have their own weaponsarmor so you can't outfit their every detail. Micromanagers will be sad, I think that's obvious in the user reviews. I absolutely adore BG2, Neverwinter 2, Witcher, Mass Effect 1 and lived and breathed Mass Effect 2 and DA:O. Hope this review helps/… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. i must say that this game is one of those, that you must play based in what you see and NOT in what you read. i just toke a risk buying it, and im pretty happy i did. Certainly the dislikes from ppl came because of the change on the direction on history line and some gameplay changes. i have 7 Hours Playing already, and as RPG fan, this change was quite enjoyable. i was waiting for a little more of graphical improvement, but the changes are OK to me.

IS NOT A BAD GAME, but they changed the direction about to DAO. They did Add a little more action to it. They did it more like Mass Effect Style, and that its what some DAO´s fan dont accept. i Love DAO and ME as well, so this DA2 is great for me.

Could be Better? of Course, we can allways Want more from Bioware, this time we was waiting for a lot more. and i think that is the real problem.… Expand

First, I will justify why *I* rate this game as a 10, I think this game is a pure masterpiece in story-telling, gameplay and just overall "fun", this game appeals to me on so many levels, it is so immersive, the voice-acting is of the highest quality, the story is insanely good, the combat is "fun", on the higher difficulties the combat is challenging and the best thing I can say to sum up this game, is when it ended I wanted to go through it again and again, regardless of the "lack of reasons" to repeat the content: I wanted to do it.
I'll point out some negative points first though, The default difficulty is too easy, I mean I appreciate the toning down of the "spikyness" of DA:O normal difficulty, but essentially it is a fuel for people to hate this game, having said that Hard is a very good difficulty setting and normal needed to be somewhere between where it is in the game and hard, I am playing through on hard and I have to use a large amount of tactics, position my characters carefully and aim spells properly. Pausing is a major part of my gameplay and although FF is only on in nightmare, it also means I can have more fun with freedom of spells in my arsenal rather than being limited to a "nightmare only" build.
There are also some lazy layout designs, most of the time the game revolves around a generic "dungeon" for each type of area, a generic cave, a generic sewer, a generic camp, a generic mansion. Where the only differences in layout are where they decided to wall off the area, this certainly was very lazy imo, but it doesn't detract from the gameplay experience.
A mixed point is the amount of "console-porting" this game has done, and in reality I find it has done very little, the only major one is the removal of the tactical camera. Whilst I don't care about this because I believe it reduced the difficulty of lots of fights in DA:O to the point of obscurity, I would like to have seen a system where I could pan with the aiming of my spells rather than limited to my controlled characters field of vision in order to try and place a spell, it doesn't really matter on any difficulty besides nightmare but it is going to make nightmare have an arbitrary difficulty scaling.
Having said that the combat is fun, it is active, but it retains all the tactical positioning of it's predecessor. If I am not careful about positioning my mages in relation to my tank they can be dead in seconds. Boss fights require you to "move out of the fire", whilst adopting large amount of phases to their battles forcing you to change tactics midfight, healing has changed (for the better imo) to be more supporting, healing has a long cooldown so using it at the right time in combination with potions (which again have a shared cooldown) mean that it's ever so important your weaker party members don't get jumped on or they are dead.
However, I think the hugest selling point of DA:2 is it's immersive story. Arguably it's story is actually quite weak at the core, but the way it is told, the way it slowly leaks information to you, the way that your actual character stays in character (If you are very jokey with your choices your character is very jokey when investigating or making plot decisions, same is said of being aggresive etc). So in a sense you feel like you are being consistant, even if I make an aggresive move as a "jokey" character, I do the aggression in a more candid tone.
I got the feeling that this story was essentially placed as a "filler" to get from DA:O to DA:3, but the story is told in such an amazing way that drew me in like no game ever has done. The female Hawke voice is exceptional, along with the other voice-acting work on this title. Having read reviews I was expecting the story to be not that special, but in reality the story was insanely well told, small elements coming back up later to be huge influences to key plot points. Whilst all the time remaining totally unpredictable. Whilst, I kinda knew how the game was going to turn out before the final scenes, I couldn't have guessed how awesome the ending would be.
DA:2 surprised me again and again, made me burst out laughing from snippets from your DA:O imported history and from my character just staying in character and putting the thumb up to authority at the right times I wanted to. I want to point out that the demo is nowhere near indicative of how this title sizes up on the whole, the fact the demo was limited to normal difficulty was a poor decision by the devs imo. Hard is a great difficulty setting and anybody playing this game should start out with this setting unless you only want to see the story, which is just as worth it.
To sum up:Play the game before judging, it's an amazing RPG imo… Expand

Fantastic game, i like this. Is amazing... the only downside is that history is a little out of Dragon Age: Origins
Good innovation by Bioware. The game innovates in many ways and the combat is amazing. The graphic quality (a full) is wonderful and unique characters.

Game is a HUGE step up from Dragon Age 1. The only reason people don't like it and why it's getting unfavorable reviews is because it's not EXACTLY THE SAME as dragon age 1. If they called it something else and cut off all ties with the first game it would get 10's across the board. There's more emphasis on combat and human interaction than ''adventure'' and lore. Personally i love the direction they're going with both this game and mass effect 2, and i hope it continues.

Keep up the good work, bioware!… Expand

I felt this game was interesting in story (something other people seem to disagree with, I'm not sure why??) and was very entertaining. I'm not much of a critic, but I felt I'd come with my opinion anyway, seeing as I had been slightly worried about the quality of the game after reading so many poor reviews of it.
I truly enjoyed playing it and to me, that's really the most important part. I'm not sure about the quality of the graphics. I rather liked them, but other people seem to find them outdated? I haven't got much to compare it to tbh because I don't play that many games. The story was good and I liked the way they did the narrative (and I also found myself really liking the narrator, lol). I knew of the companions beforehand, yet I still found myself liking some of the ones I did not expect to like. I mean, there are problems with the game, sure, hence why I didn't give it a 10, but really, they are so insignificant compared to how great the other parts are. So I think if you liked Origins and don't play Dragon Age 2 with a "GOD DAMNIT I HATE THIS" attitude from the start, you will be pleased. If you are content being dissatisfied or unwilling to try because of the bad user reviews, then your loss I suppose :/… Expand

To all the suckers out there, rating the game by 6.0 or less. DIE, you worthless sons of a motherless ogre. This game, in my chart, is the second best game I've played in my life right after Mass Effect. The story's catchy, the voice-over is AMAZING and the decisions! OH THE DECISIONS! Also, romances... The only thing I'm sorry for is the lack of nudity in the romance scenes (At least some lingerie, lol...) ! But whatever, I'll go watch a pron for that :-D All in all, this is the game for a true RPG fan. (Who has a life...) 10/10.… Expand

I wonder whether some of these reviewers have actually played the game or are basing their reviews on the demo or hearsay. This shouldn't be taken to mean that the game is without major flaws; it definitely has problems, but the current user score of 4.0 is laughably low. An unconventional and well-told main story, supplemented by imaginative and fun inter-party dialog and a more cinematic presentation are all giant positives. There are some missteps here; the interface feels consoley, with too many clicks to get in and out of subsystems, and the inventory streamlining does some nice things (like the Junk tab) but the loss of party customization is inexplicable. Still, aside from combat I think the game is generally great with some minor lessons to be learned. Unfortunately, the game is primarily about combat, and while the core changes to the combat system are interesting, the encounter design is terrible; almost every fight in the game plays out the exact same way: an initial group is present or is spawned in somehow, and once you've beaten most of them a second wave spawns in. This is highly annoying, partly because it makes every single little fight more of a slog than it should be, partly because it makes the more important battles just more of the same, and partly because it breaks immersion (e.g., second wave coming from a room you not only just cleared, but to which you are guarding the only entrance.) This is exacerbated by the extensive re-use of levels; there are essentially one each of every environment, so every time you're in a cave it's a piece of the larger single "cave" level, and the same is true of the sewers, the wilderness, the wilderness. It's a dismaying lack of content that adds up to truly monotonous combat. There were times I kept playing only to find out what happened next in the story, and actually playing the game was an obstacle to that, rather than fun for its own sake. However, I did keep playing, and I found the ending satisfying (even if the boss fight mechanics, which should have been special and memorable, ended up feeling like minor variations on a theme I'd been listening to for forty hours.) The overall combat experience probably does deserve a 4 actually, but the rest of the game is top-notch. I'll split the difference and rate the game a 7.… Expand

As a Bioware fan girl i will try to make as much of an unbiased review i can do for this game. I'm not blind to it's flaw. But dont want to bash it rediculously for some of the scandals on the game reviews.
Even if some of the features of Dragon Age Origins return, this is not the same game at all, for the good and the bad. We return to Thedas the same universe and we still are playing a tactical RPG like the first one, who let you customise the enemies tactics (Richards that's not an unfinished feature, it's necesseries with all the customisations possibles, and it allow to to addapt the tactics to your liking).
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I wills tart out with the bads
Less customisation than the first one, It's no longer possible to play an elf or a dwarf.
Recicled environements
Lack of environement variety
straight lined missions

On the good side
The story is nice and very personal a good change of the epics stories
The voice acting is excellent as usual on a Bioware titles and the dialogue well work well in the game
Uge improvement on the graphical side (the art style have changed a lot trought and you like it or you dont)
Good replayability with lot of things who can change in the game plays

It's not as good as the original but still a good game… Expand

While Dragon Age Origins is in my opinion the perfect game and ive been waiting for it's sequel, i must say the disappointment was too great for me to even finish Dragon age 2. This game just ruined the franchise, it seems like Bioware wanted to make Dragon age 2 to be appealed by the most of the audience and because of that Dragon Age 2 doesn't have anything that might make him different from the others Rpgs games, the gameplay is faster paced but also plain, the story is boring, character also are boring, exploration ? there is nothing to explore... graphics might even be worse than its predecessor. In other words the game is a huge let down and might have just killed the franchise good name… Expand

While not nearly so epic as it's predecessor, Dragon Age II is still a pretty solid entry into the Bioware library. Interesting subject matter for a sequel, while more subdued than the original, it's in keeping with the flavor of Origins. The most disappointing aspect for me was in that it wasn't made clear for many hours into gameplay the direction the story was heading in. While you can theorize earlier on and realize tensions are rising among local factions, the "enemies" were not clearly defined. I feel this greatly crippled the ability for Bioware to establish the same intensity that was experienced in the previous entry and helped the story feel rushed and quite nearly shallow.

Aside from this, it feels almost as if each character was written in such a way as an attempt to recreate the original cast - a difficult if almost imperceivable task given the emotional impact each of these characters had originally had on me. I find myself indifferent to or even disliking the greater bulk of the party. Using an "enhanced version" of the original engine hurt, though despite this the graphics were a significant improvement over the original (especially with the texture pack) the end result being neither fantastic or terrible. The soundtrack was also acceptable, though not quite as compelling as the original.

Gameplay itself was simplified, streamlined for console gamers and carried over to the PC release. Battles were less strategic,and were in many cases significantly easier. In a sense it felt like this game were geared at more casual gamers. I would say overall the improvements are significant enough to make up for this games shortcomings, though only to the point where it breaks even in most every facet but for the storytelling. Which is supposed to be the most compelling part of most any game in this genre.

All things said I did really enjoy this title. It was certainly entertaining for me. I just would have liked to have cared more, like I did for the original. Perhaps this title would have better served as an expansion for the original, as it seems most complaints are about technical issues as opposed to story content. At this point I just feel inclined to beg EA to leave Bioware alone to work their magic free of pressure from publishers.… Expand

Without going into to many details. Great voice acting, love the way your character stay in voice character should you be angry, funny or serious. However that alone does not carry a hole game. DA2 is infact incredible repetitive with the method of reusing areas for pretty much everything throughout the hole game, while the environment is very well made and detailed it gets very and i mean very boring really fast. Everything from the city to the dungeons are reused over and over and over, very tireing and you are constantly sitting with a feeling that somethings gotta change soon, but it never does.

Moving on to combat. I got abit of mixed feelings on this one, while i enjoy the faster combat and the class cross combos you can do i absolutely hate the exploding bodies and massive gore that spew all over the place. Fatalities is another thing i liked from DAO but were totally removed from DA2 with exploding enemies. No much strategy in combat either, while you still got the tactical setup for your party there is no strategy to be made on the go, you can still pause and issue orders but you can no longer zoom as you did in DAO. Planning a combat in DA2 isnt to great either anymore considering the game just throw hordes of weak enms at you from all direction making it a total mess for any type of planning. Its clear the combat was not designed for your typical RPG but more of a hack n' slash type.

Story time. The Hawke start interesting with them fleeing Lothering. Its all a nice setup for well, nothing. After that you just go around picking up side-quests and do main quests with any real story behind you, without any real sens of a goal or any sens of having a villian to fight. They make it clear that its all about Mages and Templars, but your in for a huge suprise when you realize that everything you did getting to the end didnt matter one bit. Every choice you make have zero matter on the world around you.

Your party. You got a emo elf which is clearly some homage to J-RPGs, a naive elf, a brute ginger female, a pirate whore and a dwarf. You can romance either of em except two. Sadly DA2 have also gone taken a step back here, the romance that had a nice touch in DAO is just blend and dull in DA2.

Dialog wheel. While i dont mind it to much, its abit to simple. Gone is persuasion, now you get a clear picture of what is what. If a romance option is ready the wheel make it clear with a heart shaped icon. Very simple, maybe to simple (?).

Bugs and glitchs. Way to many, and that baffles me. Since iv never played a bioware game where so many glitchs and game breaking bugs actually took out the fun.

Closing. Being a bioware fan and a fan of Dragon Age Origins i say that BioWare did not come through this time around. DA2 is short, unfufilling, lack and sens of purpose with the characters and the hole game have been simplified beyond words, it dosnt feel much like an RPG anymore. I think might have tried to appeal to a to wide of an audience and came up with something that didnt quite work. In short, it feels very rushed like it had a deadline they just barely made.

I will look forward to Mass Effect 3 and hopefully Dragon Age 3. And i hope BioWares once and for all start improving their sequels, and dont let a deadline or something else get in their way of making a great game.

My first thought was a solid 7, but after completing DA2 and learning that nothing you do matters it has lost all appeal to me. So sadly, very sadly i give DA2 a 6. =(… Expand

Enjoyable, but, ultimately, disappointing.
I suppose that, after loving Dragon Age: Origins, I can't be blamed for having high expectations. Even when they were 'hyping it up' I was like 'that's just marketing'...but along w/ the anticipation, there was, of course, some worry.
After my first playthrough (somewhere between 60 - 70 hours. I like to be thorough: my first DA:O was a little under 110 hours), I definitely had mixed feelings. It was enjoyable, but even while I was playing, the thought that 'it could have been SO MUCH BETTER' kept nagging at me.

Pros:
- faster pace of combat: the current pace works for DA2's mechanics, I guess. Same goes for the animations (I liked the one for the 2-handed warrior in my first playthrough and the one for the mage in my current playthrough)
- better visual atmosphere (in terms of lighting for structures/interiors. Better than DA:O, but could still be much better, methinks)
- interesting/amusing banter/dialogue
- story, as a whole, particularly the latter part of the game
- characters: some characters, and their dialogue, are quite interesting. Varric, Arishok, and the short appearance of Flemeth come to mind.
- voice acting: for the most part, the voice acting is quite good (FemHawke speaks too softly, IMHO. The Arishok and Flemeth are great)
- performance: I'm using an older PC and, generally, it runs smoother than DA:O did. I've had some crashes and freezes, but they seem to be related to how long I've been playing (memory leak?).
- visuals: IMHO, DA2 is an improvement over DA:O in terms of visual quality. The art style change grew on me so I didn't mind the change, much (and am curious as to how my favourite DA:O characters would like w/ DA2's style).

Cons:
- faster pace of combat (DA:O's may SEEM slow, until one is suddenly fighting multiple, tough, opponents...then one may be inclined to think "I wish combat were slower"). At times the animations may seem a bit too fast, too (particularly the rogue's, who moves like he's a member of a wushu demonstration team), but they're generally ok (DA:O's animation speeds were 'ok', IMHO, but I always thought that they could've been a wee bit faster. So I guess something between DA:O's animation speeds and DA2's would be just about right).
- re-used environments: going from one quest to another, in different parts of the city/area, only to end up in the same caverns/mansion/warehouse/etc. breaks immersion, IMHO.
- lack of access to see more of the city (an 'establishing shot' or a 'fly through/by' at the start to see most of Kirkwall, to give a sense of scale, would've been welcome, especially since you'll be wandering most of it's interiors throughout the game. A short cutscene arriving/departing from one part of the city would've been nice, too, and would've helped show scale)
- story: IMHO, it feels 'disjointed' for the better part of the game, until it picks up near the end. (at which point the player may have already felt a 'disconnect' w/ the story/plot) Also, the 'jump' in time between 'acts' could have been handled much better.
- quests: the 'bring me' quests where you immediately know the location of the found items, or the lack of quests/unlocks for the Specializations (unlike in DA:O where you had to unlock specializations)
- linear environments: most of the locations that can be visited feel...constrained or linear. It doesn't help that most of the environments look bleak.
- bugs: CTDs, memory leak (I guess) and, most annoyingly, Quest-related issues (example: a rather 'jarring' one where you have the quest resolution dialogue w/ a companion BEFORE even getting the quest)
- feels like they rushed it out

Conclusion:
Is the game worth getting? I still think so. Is it worthy sequel to DA:O? Hmm. I personally wouldn't like to think of it as a sequel...just the second game in the same setting, and contributing to the story of the setting as a whole. On it's own, it's a decent enough game, but definitely feels 'rushed out'. As a sequel, DA2 is disappointing. Would I recommend it to anyone? Yes, but grudgingly and warning him/her to be patient, as I do think the story, as a whole, is quite good. If anything, it feels like the entire game is a 'set up' for something else, like a 2nd movie or book in a trilogy. It is my sincere hope that, if all the negative feedback is to go by, Bioware takes their time on the third game. It sucks to be disappointed, after all.… Expand

A good if somewhat tragic story in the Dragon Age universe, that is smaller than the first game's but spread over a ten year time span. I still find the design of some of the characters to be off-putting and the story is not quit as epic as advertised, but I enjoyed my playthrough and getting to know more of the Dragon Age world.

I just finished the game on pc and i'm still not sure how I should feel about this game. It's definatly a fun game. The story, dialogue wheel and combat mechanics is a positive change for me but the fact to you play the whole game in 1 city and that all the dungeons are the same puts alot of it's charm backwards.

I give it a 7 cause it has dragon age slap on it and i'm a fan of the series.If it had been a new rpg I would have rated it a 5 or maybe 6.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It is much worse than the first part, talents are bad, story is too short and quests are so simple so i didnt have to think to finish them, the game was made for stupid people who dont want do anything just watch the grafics.… Expand

Loved it. All of the best elements of mass effect brought over to the series and they streamlined a lot of the tedious things in rpg's that used to annoy the hell outta me like loot management, time of day specific quests, and hand me down armor to the rest of the party.

Bioware improved class balance and eliminated many of the difficulty spikes that plagued DAO, but at the expense of a great many options (e.g. dual wield and archery warriors are out). DAO combat animations often seemed slow and dull, but DA2 goes to the opposite extreme of being way too fast. The fun fatality animations of DAO have been removed in favor of opponents who literally get pulverized into component body parts in a cloud of blood, it looks ridiculous. Maps get reused a lot, every mansion and cave seems to use the same map. I didn't mind the game being set in a single city and visiting the same areas over and over, but the area is full of caves and almost all of them are identical. DAO reused elements, but the redressing hid the reuse quite a bit, DA2 lacks any major redressing of maps and the reuse is very obvious. The UI in DAO was horrid, DA2 improves upon it greatly, both in terms of clarity, aesthetics and screen real estate. The redesigned races are much more interesting, especially the elves which have a more fey-like appearance, as opposed to the short humans with pointy ears they were in DAO. The game is much more stable than DAO, DAO crashes frequently for me, whereas I have had only one crash on DA2 and that was with me cranking up the graphic options to see how high I could go.

The characters were great, well voiced and Bioware went above and beyond in terms of the party banter and interaction. Having the different companions have relationships outside the main character was a nice touch. The story as well was good, not another 'save the world epic' where we have to ponder why the villains conveniently wait while the hero does all sorts of trivial side quests. I can't deny there aren't some lame side-quests in DA2 (those delviery quests) but overall the quests for your companions and the people of the city fit together with the main plot much better than they did in DAO, ME1 or ME2, simply because you aren't on this ultra-important mission to save the universe as we know it.

The silent protagonist in DAO always bugged me, the fully voiced Hawke is a plus for me. The subtle effect your dialogue choices have on Hawke's personality is also a nice touch, if you choose the sarcastic option frequently, your Hawke will be more sarcastic in other conversation. The dialogue wheel is a mixed blessing, I liked the icons that give you a clue as to the tone of what Hawke is going to say, but sometimes the paraphrasing is so far off from what you expect, that you don't get the result you wanted.

DA2 is a fine game that suffers from 2 main things, a rushed development cycle and Bioware's tendency to over correct for criticism in their previous games.… Expand

After reading Some really ridiculous reviews one involving "bioware should go bankrupt". I thought I put up a review first off The immersion of the game is still there however modified to work for everyone such as exclusion of being able to interact with your team mates constantly in my opinion this was good because through out origin you'd run in to a interaction block where the characters would repeat the same thing when interacting with them face to face.
Graphically its clear that it is superior than Origins and also the battle system is more easier to use and is faster than the previous titles making it better and easier to keep you allies alive.
I have a problem with the rehashed environments though It gets annoying always being in the same cave but named differently. But overall it was a great game lacking in the hours however still gives you a great sense of immersion and creating a connection with each characters stories just like in Origins. But don't take it from me as try it for yourself and make your own opinion of it. There are some improvements that the game should have but there's no need to say on a review when bioware check on their forums constantly looking for user input… Expand

After replaying through the initial Dragon Age multiple a time, it was a no brainer to pick up DA2 as well. While the openers magic is slightly lost along the way the sequel does a lot right. The story itself is written nicely, albeit missing out on a lot of potential drama and interesting scenes. Characters are all around nicely done and actually have a lot of unexpected reactions and decisions which make the game feel genuinely interesting.

On the minus side the game has a bit too much of fighting going on. After you learn the gimmick of the fight, it does get nice. Yet wave after wave of extra enemies per each fight does get kind of tiresome. Either way a very well done sequel and a way lengthy as well. Clocked at 90 hours on nightmare after completing about every quest I could find.… Expand

Such a disappointment. Dumbed down and SAD. I have to say that PC Gamer has now LOST my respect. How can this be rated at 94? They did the same this for Crysis 2 (89) when critical opinion of the players has revealed that it is also a bitter disappointment. I had such high hopes for DA2, like Crysis 2, and they both have one thing in common don't they? .......Always trust the PLAYERS not the media to give a true assessment and review of a product.… Expand

Most Origins players will say that Dragon Age 2 does not live up to the original. However I was not a big fan of Origins, it felt like a chore to play. Dragon Age 2 actually feels fun to me, it's more streamlined and easier to play. It's not as frustrating as Origins was and it gives more focus on the story. The fact that you can only upgrade your companions' armour does kind of suck but at the same time it is less to worry about and makes the game overall less stressful. The game is very combat heavy and it can get tiresome fighting limitless amounts of enemies over and over again. But this is made up for by the enjoyment of the combat itself. No matter what class you play there is fun to be had when slaying demons and defeating Templars. Sure it's only one city with outskirts but Bioware makes this work, especially for the story. Playing as a set character with a fantastic story and still having those many difficult choices there makes the game even better. Unravelling your companions' pasts and learning about how they came to be living in Kirkwall is one of the best parts of the game. All the RPG elements of leveling up your character and choosing their specialization are not only still there, but are drastically improved. There isn't as much customization as Origins but I don't think Bioware games work well with Origin's level of customization. I think that level of customization is more suited for Bethesda games, not Bioware. Bioware is better at making story driven masterpieces, such as Mass Effect, and should continue to do so.… Expand

The game is good. At first I was surprised there are so many negative reviews, but after reading through some, I realized that they were not about a game. This talk is about feelings, which were apparently hurt, as the ritual accusation of "dumbing down' a game surface again. Some people obviously fell in love with DAO and feel "cheated" now when the sequel proved to be a different game. Well, BG2 is very different from BG1 as well, but it was better (more dialogs, better graphics, less B/W approach to quests). Same goes for FO2.
Same thing with DA2 - it's different from the original... So what? it's still better! The battles are not as boring, voice acting is good, NPCs are interesting, and there's plenty room for strategy and tactics (well, let's be honest, DA:O was not exactly ummm Total War kind of game, so what can you expect from a sequel...) I played both games on hard difficulty and I can't say DA2 is any less challenging - only it's more pleasant to look at which is apparently a CRIME in the eyes of some people. Oh and you can actually see to the end of a battle without looking at the watch a dozen times now. For those of us with jobs â… Expand

Dragon Age II is a very good game, but it is not a great game. It suffers from a distinct lack of polish, poorly recycled areas, several bugs and a distinct lack of pacing during the late-game. Despite this, I found the game to be engaging, intriguing and fun to play, with well developed characters, and interesting and atypical storyline and fun, tactical combat.

The last of these seems to be an issue with a lot of people, and I feel I should make something clear: the difficulty setting essentially completely changes the way the game has to be played. Casual and Normal play more like an action game, with little thought or tactics required on anything but the toughest of battles. Hard and (particularly) Nightmare by contrast play more tactically with precise tactics and micro-management of your team required to excel or even succeed. Nightmare, for example, introduces enemy immunities and friendly fire, which greatly change how the game needs to be played. Playing on Nightmare, I found the combat and gameplay systems far more engaging and fun, and a vast improvement on Dragon Age: Origins. My recommendations to the player is to experiment with the difficulty until they find one that matches the game they wish to play.

That aside, the combat has several flaws. Foremost of these is the way enemies are pigeonholed into certain "types": Enemy Rogues, Templar Hunters and Rage Demons, for example, fall under a common "Assassin" category that shares behavioural traits. Short of differing elemental immunities (only on Nightmare difficulty), a carefully-thought-out tactic for dealing with assassins will work on *all* of these enemies with almost no variance. This mechanic makes combat for less strategic that it could have been. Other features, such as the more stylised animations, the 'wave' system of enemy encounters, cross-class-combo system and others are more a matter of personal preference: I enjoyed them all, and with some tweaks in future titles I feel they form the basis of an excellent combat system.

The plot has been similarly dividing. Unlike Dragon Age: Origins, this is not a story about saving the world or defeating an ancient evil. Players looking for that story should look elsewhere. DA2's story is a lot more personal and narrow in scope, focusing on the main character and her or his family and companions as they deal with the evolving religious, social and political situations in Kirkwall, where the majority of the game is set, over a period of 7 years. Overall, I found it more engaging than that of Origins. However, it does suffer distinct pacing problems in the final Act, and ones enjoyment of the story will depend entirely on how one relates to the various companions and situations arising. Again, this an area where opinions will differ.

A note should be made about the main character, since this is one area I found the game excelled. The player assumes the role of Hawke, a human refugee. Hawke can be male or female, a warrior, rogue or mage, and is completely voice-acted (by either Nicholas Boulton or Jo Wyatt depending on gender). Further, throughout the game the player has the option to pick from distinct 'personality' choices in dialogue. These fall broadly into 'helpful/diplomatic', 'sarcastic/humourous/charming' and 'aggressive/direct/rude'. The more the player picks one of these option, the more it cements Hawke's personality, meaning that when Hawke responds without player direction, he or she often reacts in the manner of the player-directed persona. Unlike the Paragon/Renegade selection in Bioware's other RPG, Mass Effect, the player is not penalised for switching from one personality to another, allowing more fluid role-playing. The reason I bring this up is because, for me (and opinions will vary), Hawke managed to walk the fine line between a player-customised character and a character in their own right. Hawke managed to be both *my* character and *a* character. In my experience, this is incredibly difficult to pull off and I feel Bioware should be commended for the accomplishment. For references' sake, I played an aggressively direct, sometimes sarcastic and rarely diplomatic female Mage. To summarise, Dragon Age 2 is a solid RPG with some interesting gameplay and roleplay systems, an engaging story and characters and fun combat. However, it suffers from lack of polish, recycled dungeons and somewhat underdeveloped tactical elements. The game probably needed another 6 months to a year in development to be the game it could have been. Overall, the Original may be the better game, but DA2 makes certain key improvements. It is not a great game, but it is far from a bad game. It is, indeed, a very, very good game, and well worth playing.… Expand

No, I'm not clinically insane, or a hack-and-slash fan. I actually do like the game enough that its flaws are overcome by the enjoyment, in my opinion.

Combat, to my eyes, is improved -- I don't feel constrained to take more than one warrior to any one place anymore, as opposed to the last game where my tank (Alistair, or Sten) had to come by every single mission. The story, too, is more immersive by my standards.

If it weren't for fit and finish issues, like the recycled maps and the more cartoonish face morphs, I'd say this was clearly the better game. They're enough of an issue to cause me to take two whole points off, I'll admit, but they didn't kill the game for me.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. While I would like to create a long, fully elaborated review on the game to explain the core features and everything in depth, I honestly cannot, as the game is without much merit whatsoever. The combat took… Expand

Developer: BioWare
Genre(s): Role-Playing Those two lines are very inaccurate, This game doesn't look like any game BioWare made and It's certainly not a Role-playing game but an action game. If you have to call it RPG then call it Arcade-RPG.
The game was clearly designed for little kids, Sexy? No, Nothing sexy about a bunch of companions hypocrites. Better graphics? No. There is no variety in the graphics, everything is just BROWN, everywhere you look You'll see BROWN. Better Story? NO. Many plot holes from origins. Better gameplay? No. This game combat is so unrealistic, even the Matrix looks more realistic then this.

I know some of you DA:O fans reading all those bad reviews here and think "It can't be that bad, there's no wayyy". I also know some of you think this is some of sequel to the original game, Well, If you don't listen to those bad reviews here You'll get a BIG FUUUU to your face when playing this game.… Expand

This game is so amazing! i mean who could ask for a better game from bioware! the game centers around a character named Hawke, he has a pointed beard that points out on both sides! thats so badass! thats what more RPGs need, badass things like that! I love badassery in video games. I love the blood splatters on the cover, it shows that its a dark and mature game, for mature gamers such as myself. Gone are the diverse dungeons and cityscapes of Dragon Age: oregins. Now you will be spending the entire game in Kirkwood! i bet thats a reference to captain kirk! im glad bioware are such Nreds like i am *squee**Glomp* nreds are so cool!. The Dungeons are copied and pasted like they should be! people who want variety are just entitled! The graphics are a step backward from the original dragon age, which is a good thing! those shiny new graphics just hurt my eyes!. The game deals with many real world issues, like killing, violence, and homosex. It deals with the latter in a very mature manner, there are multiple option for homosex in Dragon Age II, some of them can be initiated after a few positive lines of Dialogue! this is exactly what homosexes are like in real life, i walked to the hardware store today and recieved at least 3 or 4 homosexual encounters after asking for directions, its a very accurate and non patronizing portrayal of homosexes. Drag Age II is game of the year, its the best game of the decade and is amazing and good and great in every way. If you dont like it you are a homophone and a nazi.… Expand

I agree that Dragon Age 2 has been dumb down a notch. It has taken the mainstream path to lure in more young players. This is the road that all games take now days when money talks and unique gameplay walks. None the less. You will not find a better game in this genre for a few years. It is money well spent. Not only for the quality of the gameplay, graphics and voice acting but also for the extensive campaign.

The game should be considered as a action-rpg from now on. If you are the one who love the old pen n paper play style and prefer baldurs gate 1 & 2 in front of Dragon age 1, then maybe you should take a second thought, but I would suggest you to pick this up anyway. It's not money wasted, no matter what your preferences are.


/dancodan… Expand

(Note: I basically explain in this review the actual game there is no spoilers or anything but it will basically give you the idea of why this isnt really a DAO sequel)

Alright so after playing through Dragon Age Origins and the Mass Effect series, I picked up real quick on what Bioware was doing with Dragon Age 2... A lot of people expected this game to pick up, fill in some gaps and give use a new cause to well save the world as usual... This however is a middle ground game with a strong prologue plot. So itâ… Expand

I am so sick of everyone bashing this game!!! I mean seriously! Yeah it's different that doesn't mean you have to hate it!!! Do you want DLC??? Do You want expansion packs??? Do you want DA3??? Then STOP bashing it!!! Seriously!

I only singed up to metacritic to give this pile of dung the worst possible score I could. I never liked the 1st one, although I loved BG, BGII, IWD & IWD II.

DOA2 picks up almost exactly where DAO left off... No, not as in story, but in its ham handed bludgeoning and blundering approach to the high fantasy genre.

DAO and DA2 are both heavily (sorry I mean entirely) aimed at the teen market, which I guess means the most moronic market available. Instead of Bioware evolving and maturing along side there (previously) faithful fanboy, i.e. me they seem to have undergone some kind of unbelievable retardation process where upon they have de-evolved into a dribbling, giggling, illiterate fool of a teenage boy with all the same sensibilities and philosophical approach that would come with that.

Both games absolutely smacked of immaturity and both have sunk my hopes on a titanic scale.

But... this is meant to be a review of DA2 and as such I would like to state that...

Everything that I absoluetely hated with a fiery, burning passion about DAO is worse by the power of 10 in DA2 and the few things I did enjoy about DAO (like the tactical return to BG for combat) has been ripped out and replaced with the most mindless, mundane and repetative 3rd person shooter style combat system.

Another shameful change to the format would be the all round sense of adventure. I played most of the game wondering what the plot is? I was often left wondering "What the hell is meant to be going on?" and "Why the hell do I care about menial task A, B, C, or D?".

Finally (and I mean finally from me as I need to go and make my self a comforting hot drink and calm down before thinking about how awful this game is gives me another panic attack), you are almost entirely stuck in ONE city.... This could have been done very well, look what Rockstar mange to do with their console games located within one area, why not a high fantasy version of a GTA game, maybe? Please don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting to introduce police chases and Ho's into DA2 world. I am merely saying with some time, money and a little hard work on the development side Bioware could have made a intricately designed city full of explorable wonder. Instead they gave us endless brown corridors.

And brown corridor brings me nicely to the end of my review (well more a rant I guess), as DA2 feels as though Bioware have brought us this game directly from one.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I think the user scores here are a little harsh, its a good enough game generally just a terrible one for what we are used to from Bioware.
They removed most of the things I love about rpgs and especially from DAO and flashed up the combat a lot. Saying that I liked some aspects of the combat but not enough to justify the removal of all the crafting and personalising of characters and party members.
I missed terribly the immersion from being able to converse with my team members whenever I liked and of course the romances were for me totally lacking especially compared to other Bioware games.
The story was okay, missions were ok. The mirror of transformation an awesome idea, so we could change characters appearance mid game, yay!
I would recommend this to friends but I would stress, do NOT expect to be able to enjoy it the same way you did as Origins. It plays and feels more like an action/shooter game… Expand

I was absolutely blown away by how fantastic this game is. Great characterisation, a wonderful story with brilliant cinematic set-pieces and very fun. A brilliant evolution of the Dragon Ago franchise. I can't wait to see more.

As someone who found Dragon Age:Origins to be disappointing (good, but not great), DA2 was actually good enough to actually make me like DA:O better than I originally did - as all good sequels should. The storytelling shows off the depth of the game world, and the storyline actually has something to offer beyond, "The big bad is coming and only you can kill it." The game improved on every factor that actually matters to me:

The main character has a voice. One of the big benefits of playing RPGs from this generation is that my character doesn't communicate telepathically.

The combat isn't miserable anymore. I personally loved the BG series, but that was more than a decade ago, and we've moved past it. The retro gameplay of DA:O brought up vivid memories of how long and miserable the Underdark dungeon crawl was in DA2. I have no problem with having to work to win in boss fights, but when I have to pause and give orders to every group member every 5 seconds to beat routine trash fights, every dungeon crawl becomes an awful slog. I remember wishing every last dungeon crawl in DA:O was over before it even began. Combat in DA2 is actually enjoyable, which is a nice change from every RPG ever made prior to Mass Effect. It's not even the fact that it's easier, which it is. It's the feel of the gameplay, which feels more like a video game and less like a second job.

More interesting companion characters, who have real motivations behind the way they react to your actions. Instead of Morrigan's "You did a nice thing for someone, so I hate you," your people have backgrounds and causes that make them behave the way they do. They're also hilarious.

The focus of the plot is a genuine moral quandary. It's not just "Beat the bad guys who are obviously bad." When you talk to Cullen about his beliefs, you understand why he feels the way he does and can sympathize with him.

A lot of tedium was removed. Inventory management was less of an issue, and I didn't have to worry as much about gearing out my companion characters. Thank God. I don't know about everyone else, but I definitely do not play video games to fish through my inventory every two minutes looking for Frostrocks and Nature Salves to destroy so I can pick up things that matter. The only thing lacking in this respect was the absence of a "Destroy all Junk" button.

The sidequests were, nearly without exception, fantastic. I never felt like the legendary hero retrieving cats from trees for old ladies as I have so many times in so many RPGs in the past - including DA:O. They all felt appropriate for someone of my stature at each stage of the game.

The bad:

Reused areas. The first time you see any given dungeon, you can count on seeing it countless times afterwards. It's irritating, but not game-breaking.

A major portion of the plot was pushed a little too hard. Especially at the end.

I still had to run around looting after every single battle, and I still had to destroy gear constantly to keep enough space in my pack. Deliver the gear on a silver platter and give me unlimited inventory space. When are game developers going to stop imposing artificial inventory limits? I'm already carrying around 15 suits of platemail on my person - is it really a stretch to just ditch the limits entirely?… Expand

A joke of an rpg. The story is rushed, there's little to no character development and it's filled with technical bugs. They touted it as having "super hot graphics" and it barely looks like a modern game. The voice acting is weak, the characters all suffer from the usual Bioware daddy syndrome. It's a game that is built for the lowest common denominator, not that there's anything wrong with that. But when a company touts it's game as mature and different than the usual rpgs, it makes me laugh. The framed narrative is nothing new in games no matter what the hacks at Bioware want to tell you. A lack of mod tools, which the previous game had and kept it alive for quite some time, were never released but oh boy, there's DLC appearance packs! Do not buy this game unless it's for your worst enemy. There are many other rpgs out there that are well worth your time. Bioware has hit a new low.

Dragon Age 2 can be summed up in one phrase, "Go go Blood Magic powers!"… Expand

The worst game of the year . Don't buy it, it's better to spend money on something else. Everything is inferior to the first game. I don't know what to say about this thing.

very poor game

This is my revenge for lowering rating of the witcher 2.

simply, THIS GAME SUCKS !

f..k you bioware

bioware sucks bioware sucks bioware sucks bioware sucks bioware sucks bioware sucks 8=======B

Best RPG of 2011. Good story ? Check. Good characters ? Check. Difficult combats ? Check! It's just perfect. You can't go wrong with Bioware.

Trust in Bioware, go with me.

I don't think this game deserves the REALLY low scores it has gotten but I too am dissapointed in the game. DA:O was a fun rpg with an engaging story that I enjoyed and actually played through several times to see what the different outcomes were. The sequel on the other hand feels like they dumbed it down. I'm not the most savvy of gamers on here but even I could tell this just didn't feel like it was made for the PC and lacked the appeal the first one had. If you HAVE to play this, wait for it to go on sale.… Expand

While I still found this game to be great, it wasn't as good as DA:O. While I think that the gameplay got better, the dungeons got too repetitive and it was not nearly as replayable as DA:O. I think the story was just as good, if not better than DA:O.

The story setting and atmosphere does feel exactly as though it is the Mediterranean of DA:O's setting. 2's storytelling is shallow. It's not a bad game; It feels like a hack-and-slash spinoff of the original game instead of a sequel. If Dragon Age 3 approaches the quality of Origins, 2 could be this franchise's equivalent of an odd number Star Trek film.

I started Dragon Age II with eager expectation, but after an hour I found myself having to motivate myself just to keep playing... "It MUST get better soon"... but it didn't. Bioware has stripped out everything good about Origins and made what was bad even worse. The combat is even easier and more simplified; the plot is confusing and hollow at best; the environments are repetetive (c'mon Bioware, like we wouldn't notice...); the characters are lame and undeveloped. In fact, everything about the game just feels poor. Worth a play for Bioware fans, but by no means get your hopes up.… Expand

The combat felt more engaging and exciting, but the interaction with companions was sacrificed, which made the game far less enjoyable. I wouldn't purchase another game in this series if this is the way things keep going.

On the positive side, DA2 vastly improved the combat system making combat in DA2 much more interesting and intense than combat in DA1. Additionally, implementing a Mass Effect sort of voice/RP system dramatically improved the overall "feel" of the game making it much more enjoyable on the surface than DA1.

Unfortunately, DA2 missed the mark in one key area--a compelling plot. Although the central idea of the plot was an excellent one, its execution throughout the storyline left much to be desired. This is largely due to the mostly forgettable cast of DA2. I'll never forget Zev, Alistair, Morrigan, Sten, Wynn, and Lilliana, but the only DA2 character that really sticks out in my mind is Fenris. Part of what made DA1 great was its ability to pull you into the plot so that you cared -personally- about what was going on. Even when you weren't playing the game, you were thinking about something you had just experienced in DA1, and pondering the overall implications of your decisions. Also, your quest seemed far more epic with the whole kingdom relying on you to deal with the massive threat to Ferelden. None of these things seemed present in DA2. Part of this reason, I think, was the pre-determined outcomes of the 3 main divisions of the plot. In DA1, you could really change the plot dramatically depending on your actions, DA2 offered no such abilities. Thus, a player felt far less "in control" of the plot. Additionally, elements of the DA2 plot seemed senseless or random, for instance the event that befalls your brother/sister after the deep roads excursions, the reasons your party members may sometimes leave you, or the fact that in the final confrontation -both- bosses act...they way they do. Without significant plot support to back these up, these actions seemed out of place, and confused the player.

Despite all of these serious plot issues, though, DA2 is still extremely enjoyable to play. It's certainly not as enjoyable as DA1, but is certainly more fun that Awakenings. It's still worth playing, and will certainly provide you enjoyment, even if not at the same caliber as DA1.… Expand

It's easy to forget this game is supposed to an RPG. Most of the time spent is running around with no sense of purpose killing repetitive enemies by repetitive means in repetitive locales. An RPG is supposed to be richer than a straight action game, but this "RPG" feels too hollow to bother with playing at all, much less compare to other RPGs. The dialogue is not engaging. The visuals offer no excitement. The rest of the game makes the experience feel more like work than play, and not in the good, rewarding way that RPGs are supposed to. Time and money spent in this game can generally be considered wasted.… Expand

An incomprehensible mess of a cash in. Utterly lazily made with the same dungeon map used over and over, cringe worthy line delivery from the voice actors and a storyline that jumps constantly from theme to theme. This game also highlights what is very wrong with the gaming industry, as almost all "professional" reviewers give it 80+ despite the 4.2 user score. This is because EA blackmails reviewers into giving good reviews by threatening to blacklist them if they don't give positive reviews. In short, it's a pathetic game and anyone who likes it is either a rabid fanboy or a corporate sellout.… Expand

Wow! This game is just sad. After DA:O, I expected a game at the same (or similar) level. My expectations were huge. Luckily for me, at the time of game release I had my exams so I waited with the purchase. So, when I was almost on my way to the store, I decided to try the game. And thanks to that I have saved 60$. Not to mention cost of DLC. The game is weak. Control is weird. I played it only for 4 hours, but it was enough to now, I don't want it. Grapics is poor. Gameplay is way too easy. It doesn't seem like RPG to ma at all. Hack'nSlash maybe. The main storyline seems interesting, but on the other hand dialogs are naive. And the fact it is DragoN Age??? It hurts. Because it has nothing common with DA:O… Expand

The game is very boring, cost me a lot to finish. Only finished because I was told that the end is good enough. I don't know what is thinking Bioware when they do this game.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It was a ugly DLC?Really forgettable. Bioware must think about their "work". This is a game that cannot compare not only with the original but with Nverwinter Nights 2 too.… Expand

If you forget that this game is called Dragon Age 2, it is actually quite an enjoyable game. The combat isn't necessarily difficult but it is fast paced and there is quite a variety in combat styles to choose from. The story in itself is decent enough, although at times certain developments feel strained, making it too obvious that certain choices in the story are made to sacrifice good storytelling just to be able to insert some more (pointless) combat.

Comparing this to Dragon Age: Origins would leave this game coming up short in every aspect. Had this game been called any differently though, it would not have received such a downright hostile reception as it is receiving on this website. Make no mistake, for the Dragon Age franchise, this game is not a step forward. This game offers less choice, a worse plot, and all in all not as much eye for detail. Of course, Dragon Age: Origins had been in the works for much, much longer, while Dragon Age 2 was clearly rushed out the door, leaving it rather unpolished and unfinished in places. There is no excuse for the way areas in this game are re-used. All in all this is a decent game, it's just not a great game.… Expand

If you want to see how a company cashes in on a hot property by churning out a terrible sequel, then look no further then DRAGON AGE 2. The first dragon age was a classic for the ages, and this game is a classic for the dumpster. I knew withing the first 20 minutes playing this game that something had gone horribly wrong! For example the first time i used a "shield bash" attack, the enemy literally exploded and his arms and legs and head fell off. I can not begin to explain hwo humoursly stupid it looked and how horrified i was. Not horrified by the ultra violence, but horrified by how gosh darned stupid it was. Maybe i shouldnt have played the orignal DRAGON AGE ORIGINS from beginning to end the week before DA2 was released, because it really showed how far the game had sunk. I will make this review a bit shorter by saying the characters, story, equipment, enviroment, and for some reason even the graphics seemed to take a step or two in the wrong direction. If the first game had never existed, then this game would have been OK and thats about it. It plays just like every other console action-rpg out there today and that the problem right there. Dragon age origins was designed to be a PC GAME that got ported to consoles, and the Dragon age 2 is a CONSOLE GAME that was ported to the pc. Thats it in a nutshell. The two games were designed and made for two different groups of people and those two groups of people will see this game in two totally different ways.… Expand

The game isn't bad, but as the estimable Gertrude Stein noted: "There's no there there". I would probably give it a 5 on its own merits, but I have to deduct 2 points for ruining the luster on the incredibly awesome DA:O. Everything that was right in the original has been toned down and dumbed down. The story is meh, the characters are meh, the loot is meh, the locations are meh, and the outcome is meh. I realize it would have been hard to top the first game, but this pales in comparison to even the Awakening DLC.… Expand

As a very big fan of the RPG games, like Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale etc. and after playing Dragon Age : Origins + Awakening, i really couldn`t wait for this game. Everything what developers showed us on trailers looked amazing, new battle system, new story, everything. Then day of relase came and i was more suprised than ever. After Dragon Age : Origins i expected something good as it or even much better, but EA and Bioware suprised me with wrong decision. Ok, let`s say the main plot wasn`t that bad but could be better, side quest was almost the same and then cherry of the top of the cake THE SAME CAVES. Ok, i can understand that making some maps or caves can be very boring but if you are making game when all the caves are the same, then something is wrong, oh and one small minus for equipment for team members which you can change apart of weapons... that sux. Anyway, apart of those mistakes everything was quite ok, new battle system is very interesting, new dialog system is quite good aswell (BUT DELETE THIS SYMBOLS NEXT TO EVERY SENTENCE). If you are big fan of RPG, you can play it but don`t expect from this game too much.… Expand

Such a poor, poor game...not nearly as good as dragon age I.
This is just a laim game, poor text, poor design, i even encounterd repeatable maps, different quest same map different location. Poor design of charchter, voice acting, dialogue is annoying.
Hawke feels like retard, I can honestly say that this game has one of the worst dialogue in rpg.
I think this game has been made by some other studio not bioware, cause its so dissapointing.
I am trully sorry that i have paid for this game… Expand

Unbelievably disappointing. I can't fathom why they abandoned what proved to be an awesome style of game (Dragon Age Origins) in favour of generic garbage like this.

Amazed at all these butthurt fanboys giving this a 4 or below when it's clearly not a horrible game. No, it doesn't have nearly the depth of the first one, but on the other hand the combat feels greatly improved and the general interface, skill trees, inventory system and companion AI are extremely well thought out and eliminate a lot of the boringness that tends to go along with so many RPGs, such as wasting time on inventory management or babysitting every companion so they actually do what they're supposed to in battle. The story and character development aren't quite as gripping as the original, but it's still 100 times better than what you would get in most games. I found the game challenging on hard, without being frustratingly difficult - most difficult encounters can be figured out after a couple of tries.

The worst thing about the game is probably the recycling of all the environments; the game could have used a few more templates for cave and dungeon design, or better yet use a Diablo style dungeon generator. The other bad thing is, because the game progresses more over time than over game area it feels much less epic than the original, you seem to have a lot less of a world to explore so to speak, and the cities and towns feel a lot more generic, and hence have much less atmosphere. E.g. the difference between the mage, dwarf and elven areas in the original was huge, whereas in DA2 all the town areas kind of look alike, apart form the general difference between rich and poor areas. I appreciate the game might have been worse on release than it is now, since I'm currently playing on the 1.03 patch and haven't experienced any real quest bugs, glitches or crashes yet. To sum up, this is a solid RPG that's worth playing, especially if you're into more tactics/combat based RPGs. It's not as good as the first one but it's definitely worth more than a score of 3 or 4.… Expand

A poor sequel to DA:O. Copy pasted areas, inconsistent difficulty, and a feeling of being hemmed in.

A shame really since it was a promising IP and one of the first BioWare games I just didn't like that much.

That said, I did see it though to the end but it felt like a chore not a joy.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Dragon Age 2 is a pretty average RPG that strips back the good parts of the last game and replaces them with cheap versions of it.
I'm giving it a six as it's a quick game, which allows it to be replayed very easily. Even though the replay value is so low, the player still has a chance to go back and play with a different personality Hawke, and romance different characters.
Good points include unbelievably quick combat that feels action-packed, witty dialogue, a wide range of weapons that look different from one another, and kinda interesting characters with different pasts.
The downside of the characters are that there are just too obvious stereotypes with them. You have a warped Mage who wants to free his brethren and an elf who hates mages. Put these two together and you just have hate-spew. Other downsides include being unable to tell the party to HOLD and stay where they are, as when you move, after a certain distance, they follow you; being unable to use half the armour and weapons you find as characters have specific armour; being unable to mod the game apart from tiny tweaks; the list goes on.

Not bad if you're only gonna pay $20 for it, but any more than that and it's not really worth it.… Expand

Behold one of the worst sequels in history: Dragon Age 2, the adventure of Hawk in copy&paste Land. If you ever wanted to see serious recycling this is the game for you.

Avoid like a plague if you played and enjoyed Origins. If not then you sure can get some fun from it, but as a sequel it fails terribly. Graphics are so-so but overall the game is lacking in every aspect. Characters are not entertaining at all, you just can't feel anything when you interact with them... Hell I don't even remember half of them. Fights are also terrible, just button mashing and killing NPC-s who simply appear from nowhere. Oh, and your choices means nothing like in most recent RPG-s. You just kill everyone and only big decision is who will be killed first...… Expand

After over a year now, I still can't forget the disappointment when I first played the game. After playing Dragon Age: Origins, I'd been looking forward to the sequel in anticipation, but was even more taken aback than when Neverwinter Nights was released.
It's truly terrible in every respect, it's basically a hack-n'-slash action RPG badly ported from an outdated console (like PS2 ore something). I was so paralyzed I actually played about 10 hours, waiting for the story to kick in, or anything to kick in, really, but it didn't.
And it would have been so easy to make a great sequel to a great game - just leave mot of what made the game intact, improve upon the more technical stuff (graphics, interface responsiveness), and you're good to go. But no, they had to waste that chance and s**** it up (like what 4E did to D&D).

Sad. I'm never going to pre-order anything Bioware again.… Expand

This game is not even a shadow of its former self (DA1). Insultingly reused content, stuck in just one city, very short duration, combat system is worst than DA1's, a dull plot and many more negative aspects and litle to nothing positive to comment here. I give this game a 3 because it's a Dragon Age... or maybe not. I don't know. But this game is an insult to every Dragon Age fan.

A so-so game that probably feels worse than it truly is because it is the sequel to one of the best games ever, Dragon Age Origins. It is a much, much smaller game, made even smaller by limitations such as you can't equip your companions with armor and in some case even with weapons of your choice; you spend most of your time running quests in a very few different locations, instead of the enormous world of Origins; and when you do travel to other places, you find they re-use the same maps as places you've already been to.

The saving grace is really the combat, which is fast and quite a bit of fun once you get used to the new system. Still, even that has its serious drawbacks: encounter design ranges from run-of-the-mill to amateurish, full of immersion-breaking nonsense like knights in heavy armor dropping from the sky all over the place in mid-battle as waves of reinforcements. There is also really only one way to build each character, a far cry from the flexibility of Origins.… Expand

This game is bad, initially it can seem that it goes for good way but then it becomes monotonous, boring and short. And yes, it is possible that the system of battle is better than DAO but for everything else it's a pity that shares name with a great game, his predecessor.

El mes pasado me detectaron cáncer y ayer me operaron para extirparme el tumor. Cuando me lo sacaron resultó ser el Dragon Age 2. Me cago en EA, tendrían que enterrar todas las copias de esta malformación en forma de juego y que no se volviera a saber nada más.

I played this game before Dragon Age Origins and, since I couldn't compare it with its predecessor it didnt feel that bad... Sure, the hack and slash combat wasnt the best idea for a RPG and the story was kinda dumb, but overall it felt like a mediocre game, not a terrible game.
Then I played Dragon Age Origins and understood where all the hate was coming from: Dragon Age 2 butchers the franchise in pretty much every aspect.
I stick to my original feeling for the game at this review since i did not replay it after playing Dragon Age Origins and give it a 5: Far from great, still not absolutely terrible game. But if I had to compare it to DA:O, I would give DA2 a 2 at most.… Expand

Dragon Age II was the most enjoyable game I will never play again. The companions were great, their side stories were interesting and their dialogue was hilarious. I loved how deep and rich the characters were, as I do in all Bioware games I have played to date. The game is completely different to DA:O with the choices you made having minimal impact in DA2, which is really disappointing as this game is supposed to be a trilogy. The gameplay changes were interesting, they are not DA:O but they make for a different game rather than a worse one. I also enjoyed how the main character is more involved within the storyline, however, the gear system was very limiting and I found myself just getting the special "class" set of gear that is available in each act, it really felt like I was back in the day playing Diablo II again but with less customisation. The main plot was very interesting and kept me playing despite the problems of the game. Sadly, the plot within the final act just turns into an abysmal mess and this really damages the experience of the whole game, I absolutely loved the plot in this game but it had such a weak storyline by the end. I play RPG's for the rich immersion I get and despite its final act I still do feel Bioware delivered a wonderful experience overall in this area. By far the biggest disaster of the game, one the developers surely were aware of but decided customers are utterly stupid and won't notice, was the reusing of maps. Not only are maps reused over and over within the world, they are all repeated again every act. No attempt is even made to hide the reuse of maps, the mini map doesn't even show the changes and doorways just appear blocked. This made the game extremely repetitive and I found myself grinding through the same set of maps endless times trying to get my story fix and reach the ending. For this reason alone I will never play Dragon Age II again. This was a disgraceful result from a company that has such a strong reputation for creating worlds to explore and interact with. I really tried to be understanding of this game, I love the games Bioware make and have been a long time fan. Unfortunately, for me Dragon Age II Act by Act started great, stayed great (but annoying in regard to the maps), and then went uncontrollably downhill until the ending. Overall it fell very short of not only my expectations but also what I consider an industry minimum. DA:O was an enormous success and a much desired modern rehash of some classic fantasy RPG's (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights), I have no idea why they just didn't improve on an already acclaimed format. I'm not saying DA:O was what I wanted in Dragon Age II, I like to mix things up, but Bioware has dropped its standard (except for characters) trying to be different and that is the problem that I have with DA2. I have the feeling that Bioware and EA will need to re-evaluate a lot of things before DA3 if they want to redeem the Dragon Age trilogy.… Expand

This game has terrible story direction, bad graphics (compared to DA:O), unneeded reimagining of monsters, elves and mages alike. The dungeons are endless repeats, with waves of generic enemies coming at you at the same dungeon (but different name) that you were in an hour ago. The writing for the story feels like a weeaboo fanfic rather than a professional piece of work, and the combat has been casualized click to win. Repeatedly my suspension of disbelief was taken away by quest's objectives just pulled out of air for me to complete without any mystery, especially with items found in caves. Not only that, but my control of my character was taken away from me repeatedly as well, going as far as to take years of my character's life away from me. I'd expect this from an action game, but not from an RPG. On top of this, my choices did not matter at all, and I was railroaded in the story line so no matter what I did, specific things always happened. The dialogue system was removed from DA:O, instead replacing it with a mass effect style system. Wouldn't be so bad if the dialogue was well written, instead whenever I picked the "Joke' dialogue option I felt like punching hawke in his smug **** mouth. This half finished game was not worth the 60 dollars I paid for it, and it wasn't worth 10. Buyer's remorse to the nth degree. That is all I want to say.… Expand

This game isn't even worth my time to write a review about, avoid Dragonage 2 at all costs! Terrible game on all platforms. 2003 graphics, mediocre gameplay, underwhelming story. Just go replay Dragon Age: Origins or Neverwinter Nights 2 instead and avoid this disaster. Spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate.

It's a game that tries to cater to everyone, but in the end is satisfying to no one.
Yes combat fluidity is improved, but making it an action game with wild swings of greatsword, and that one where you can't even use the top down camera? That takes too much away from the tactical, group based combat experience.
In fact, there are mods to DAO like Nightmare+ and Combat Tweaks on dragon age nexus that resolves the drawbacks of DAO's combat system, without taking away the core experience.
Also, while it ventured into the area of action based combat, there is hardly anything it can offer to compete with real action games, there's no rolling or even jumping. You do it right, or you don't do it at all.

The characters are also rather bland characters. Many are minor characters of Origins with one dimensional personalities. Which is fine, but when they become major characters of DA2, you have to add more dimensions, and by that I don't mean Isabela's boob size.

This is the game that marks the beginning of Bioware's downfall. It is no longer a game; it is a formulated product. Bioware thinks writing + combat = game, which is definitely not true.… Expand

I borrowed an account to play this after Origins and Awakening made me skeptical about buying any more BioWare games. Wow I'm glad I didn't pay for this. Ugly graphics, bad voice acting, terrible writing, uninteresting story, crappy gameplay, recycled locations... I just have nothing positive to say.

Of late game designers seem to have gone the route of making sequels less intricate instead of more intricate. Dragon age II suffers from this exact same problem and ruins the experience. Dragon age 1 was a game for the ages, an old school CRPG in the baldur's gate tradition which met with much enthousiasm from gamers everywhere. I remember thinking to myself "this is going to be AWESOME if they get an expansion going, with a follow up story and more classes!" Imagine my dissapointment when I ordered DA2 and found out that DA2 really has nothing in common with DA1. The story is completely unrelated to the DA1 story, the combat system is incredibly dumbed down to the point of just relentlessly button bashing and seeing pretty colours and the origins system, which was very promising, was axed alltogether. Can't give this one more then a 3, and I'll be holding off on any bioware purchases untill they prove they can get it right again.… Expand

this game was pretty hardcore, but I think it could have been hardcorer. needed more weapons and death animations because they make games better always.

DAO was an awesome game whit a cool story and in the second one they just trhow it away , and give us just a lame game : no continuity, awful scenarios, and characters

This game would have very likely received a slightly higher score from me had it not been named "Dragon Age II". Going into this, I had some (reasonable) expectation that the quality of the RPG would live up to its predecessor, and unfortunately I was disappointed in almost every way possible. The voice protagonist is an entertaining novelty, but I would have gladly given it up if it meant a richer story and more immersive environment rather than simply trekking about a city running errands for dozens of hours. BioWare really dropped the ball with this one, and I hope they can get the franchise back on track with Dragon Age III.… Expand

Greatest disappointment in history of RPG's... Poor story where every action has only one prescripted outcome You are playing an emotionless doushebag Terrible graphics Untactical and repetitive combat Short Tiny amount of scenery and locations Boring WoWesque quests Poor animations Overhiped piece of **** Only thing it was good for was for showing how corrupted gaming magazines actually are.… Expand

Boring story that didn't pull me in, unlikable characters, reuse of dungeons, butchering of the rpg genre and the dragon age franchise. There are so many things I dislike one of the more important ones......the diolouge wheel. Your are not you, this is not a sequal this is a basterdized couzinof the origonal.

What a piece of **** this game was. The story is written like a 10 year old's crossover fanfic, the characters are so cliche and poorly made, that I'm surprised that they aren't made of cardboard, and the graphics are just awful to look at. Not only that, but there are issues such as the dialogue options are too vague and don't show what your character is actually going to say. The worst issue though, by far, is the layout of dungeons and the setting. It's set in one **** city and the outlying countryside around it, but that's not the worst part, the worst part is the constant recycling of dungeons for every quest, meaning if you actually pay attention, you will notice you've been going through the same cave systems for the 30th **** time. The combat is the only thing good about this game, it's fast paced and keeps you on your toes, but everything else just sucks. Dragon age 2, suck my **** dick… Expand

A lot of people got their hate on for this game. If you payed $60 expecting a reasonable sequel to Dragon Age:Origins I don't blame you.
I read the reviews and eventually bought this game anyway when the price was much reduced.
This is a great example of a low end $20 bargin bin game. There is fun to be had. Interacting with the characters on your team is where most of the fun lies. And the plot is simple yet functional. Its a tad predictable but it doesn't really get in the way. They recycle maps like a son of a gun. I mean several years are supposed to pass between acts and your player is generally stuck in the same city. It would be cool if you could watch the city grow and evolve or maybe show off some of its devastation as the game progresses. I mean by the end of the first act I was sick of all the same old places that went basically unchanged as the game went on. Because every warehouse is exactly the same everywhere right? Just the way they designed the maps it feels very sandbox. But it is a solid play. And while it isn't "Epic" in any sense of the term I went into it with modest expectations and it didn't disappoint.
Don't get me wrong they killed the franchise here. DA:O was an epic and could have started an epic franchise and its a shame this is the sequel. But looking at it as a stand alone game its alright.… Expand

For a game that really only had to improve on the fluidity of combat, they changed pretty much everything from the first game, for the worse I might add. Combat seems to be the only thing they got right, for the most part. ----- The story was linear not allowing for multiple outcomes to situations. Bringing a hero through tragedy is okay, but absolutely dropping the story after the downfall is not. The point of a hero is the journey back from disaster and the choices that they make shortly after tragedy. Dragon Age 2 after every major event skips ahead in time missing all those pivotal choices. Immense tragedy with no option for justice is a good way to piss people off, not get them emotionally invested. because there was no proper response to events it made me realize that this is a game, and I don't want to play it anymore because my reaction was not expressed. Not even close. That's the opposite of immersion. ----- Speaking of immersion, the use of a main voice actor could have been an amazing addition, IF... the tone of the voice were more versatile. RPG's requires that you feel like you are the role you are playing and when you cannot be aggressiveness sharp-tongued or be righteously stern then voice acting obliterates immersion. Forcing voice acting into pansy good guy, cheery joker, and jack-off bad guy, means you do not get real characters but cliche stereotypes. And when you are choosing multiple reactions during a scene you get unrealistic multiple personality mood swings. ----- Party Character options got an axe to the face. No ability to equip characters with armor and no ability to choose any skill tree, killed this game for ever RPGer that played, and loved Dragon Age: Origins. One of the great things about DAO was that if you didn't like someone in the party, you could give that role to someone more interesting. The fact that I had to run 90% of the game with the soulless, emotionless, thought and humor inept Aveline because she was the only tank, was... well the dumbest character choice I've ever come across in a game. Lastly, I'll quickly touch on the combat. Really the only problem I had with the combat was the cooldown system. In DOA there was a dedicated tank and a dedicated healer, for the most part. This system works, use it. Healers were made extinct because of the over-powering cooldown system. I downloaded a mod to lower all cooldowns making this game faster paced and much more fun since the healer was viable again. ----- Needed mods to enjoy: http://dragonage.nexusmods.com/mods/3194#content (Armor for Party Members) http://dragonage.nexusmods.com/mods/2407#content (All Skill Trees for Party Members) http://dragonage.nexusmods.com/mods/2186 (Reduce All Cooldowns)… Expand

Amazing game, not as good as Dragon Age Origin though but still very close. The story is good and there are plenty of choices to make. And most of the character are interesting.
I recommend it. 10 points for Dragon Age 2 :)
.

-Bu ney oluyor?

-Witcher 2.

-BuÄ

Yeah sure the combat isn't as strategic as Baldurs Gate II and the story isn't as engaging as the original Dragon Age, but I still had an absolute hoot.

Frankly, I am baffled by so many negative responses. With user score 4.3 the game has to be real crap. Surprisingly, it's not. I spent about 6 hours with it, and I must say Bioware made a good job. As I hoped, they managed to transfer a lot of Mass Effect 2 look and feel into the new Dragon Age game.

What I like most about ME2 and DA2 is that for the first time in many years Bioware is doing something that feels fresh and new, and not yet another Baldur's Gate clone. Don't get me wrong, Baldur's Gate was great, probably the best thing that the company has ever done, and I immensely enjoyed it. Almost every game from Bioware after that tried and failed to live up to this high standard. It's time to move on. DA2 is an honest (and rather successful) attempt to do some change in the area.

Probably, other gamers are outraged by simplification, and there is indeed a lot of that. Personally, I think that it had to be done a long time ago. NWN2, for example, was a nighmare and completely unplayable because it was overloaded with all kind of junk that simply was no fun anymore: unwieldy inventory, complicated party control, monstrous class system, etc. DA2 makes an excellent job of cutting out everything that failed to work.

Now, dialogs. Maybe they are a bit oversimplfied, but defnitely an improvement. Don't get me started on dialogs in DA:O. They were horrible. The idea of "approval" ratings for party members was a distaster. To please everyone, your character had to be a real hypocritic bastard. The whole exprience was digusting, frustrating and boring. So good riddance. In DA2, it's "rivalry" vs. "friendship", which is much more fun, because both extremes have their advantages (similar to "paragon" and "renegate" in ME). Graphics. Ok, maybe it's not perfect. But "2003"? No way. I am running on "medium" detail level, cause my graphics card is not fast enough, and it looks great. Again, I see it as an improvement over DA:O, which didn't exactly work for me. I think in DA2 it's stylish and atmospheric. The city of Kirkwall is just beautiful. All races (dwarfs, elves) look definitely better. Darkspawn are scarier, etc. What else is needed?

To summarize, the game is a lot of fun. It's very well paced, packed with action, and there is much less boredom and pointless running around than it was in DA:O. Try it for yourself, if you haven't yet. However, keep in mind that the demo is real crap and doesn't give a good impression of the game.… Expand

My my, what a week It has been! Like so many others around the world, Iâ

Dragon Age 2 is still a average to good game from Bioware. After putting 50 hours in this game, I can understand why so many people hate this game, but if you calm down and try to enjoy it you will find it has its won merit. I spent 45 hours on my first play through in hard difficulty, right now still on my 2nd play through in nightmare difficulty. Story wise, I read a lot of reviews saying how shallow the story is. However, I think the reason is most people are used to 'the lord of ring' formula. This game is not about slaying evil like the first game but a story through Hawke's life in Kirkwall. It seems there is no clear goal for the story, but there are lots of lore about dragon age world. The plot is simple, just about How the Ferelden refugee Hawke gains power in Kirkwall. But through Hawke's life you will find the conflicts between Qun and Chantry (the religion conflicts between human and qunari), you will know more about Dalish's and surface dwarves culture and of course you will learn more about the struggles between Templars and mages. The most engaging part of the game is Hawkes family and companions all have their own story, you wont feel they just suddenly pop out. Though the plot is pretty linear, you can still make lots of choices, side with different forces and influence how they will end including the companions. Origins did better Companion characters. Dragon age 2 is similar to Awakening. You can not interact with companions unless there are companion's quests. Of course there are a lot of quests from companions. Through those quests, you can push them to Friendship or Rivalry with Hawke based on your dialog choices. It's actually interesting to see how different they will treat Hawke as friend or as rivalry. And one thing I like about dragon age 2 is you actually can see how the companions are interacted with each other through cut scenes, also they will act differently as friend or as rivalry. To avoid the spoilers, I do not want to talk about companions in dragon age 2, but generally Origins' companions have more distinct personalities, of course you can see several cameos of them. Also the Warden in first game is cited a couple of times. as for combat, Many hardcore rpg gamers may hate this combat system. I can see the reason behind that. But generally combat in dragon age 2 is better and well balanced despite the animations. I did not play in easy and normal difficulties, because I know they are not designed for PC gamers. However, I found the hard mode is a satisfying tactical combat experience. Mages and rogues are vulnerable to physical damages and their actions will be interrupted often, so you will need to pause often and relocate them to avoid damage and use warrior to taunt enemies wisely. Boss fights will take quite a while, because of their huge amount of health and continuous reinforcements, however most bosses in the main plot are not very challenging, the hard parts are all in side quests. So it wont be very difficult to finish the game in hard mode. I played in nightmare for a few hours, it really takes a long time for a single battle, because you either have to relocate party members or kite frequently to avoid friendly fire or you have to kill enemies one by one without skills or spells with area effects. And bioware is being lazy on this, they put even more health and resistances to enemies but not working on AI, so some battles are just being tedious at the end. The environment design is the major flaw of this game. A lot of recycle dungeons and recycle music from Origins. I can see Bioware really rushed this game to be released (or EA forced them to rush). However, I probably will tolerate this, since this is really not the thing I care about. Because of the revamped combat system, I can see a lot of people will lose interests in this game, Though personally I do enjoy my first play through for 45 hours and I still have a couple of side quests I found but did not finish them. It's certainly shorter than Origins which took me 60 hours for first play through on hard mode. But this is still a good game if you really get into it. if you like party based tactical combat like dragon age origins and world of warcraft, I suggests you start with hard difficulty and most likely you will like dragon age 2.… Collapse

This has been review bombed because it's the cool thing to do, however I am going to review the game based on my 40+ (and counting) hours I have spent on it. Currently on my 2nd playthrough. First, my credentials: I'm a hardcore girl gamer. I spent countless hours on Baldur's Gate, NWN, Planescape Torment, Mass Effect to name a few, and of course DA:O. Second of all, I absolutely love it for some inexplicable reason, which may have something to do with a rather engaging story requiring a lot of your input and attention, fast paced visceral (not just a buzz word) combat, beautiful looking art, some cute injokes (about the world being too brown, lulz) amazing attention to detail, a levelling system that is simplified but actually makes more real world sense than the previous one did, non-repetition (something I had a big gripe with in DA:O) and some neat throwbacks to your imported DA:O save. I have ALWAYS wanted to see where my character choices would take me over time, so it is extremely gratifying to be able to play over multiple years and really have a big impact on the events of the game, rather than just playing through them. My favourite thing about RPGs is designing characters, and in Dragon Age 2 they've allowed you plenty of room to shape Hawke how you want. There's also the thing where no matter what speech option you pick, Hawke comes off sounding completely badass and awesome. The voice acting is phenomenal. It's also worth noting that every character is voiced and lip-synched, you don't do any reading. Not long ago that was unheard of. I was unprepared for how emotionally invested I got into this, which is party why I'm rating it so highly. I really cared when... okay no spoilers, but there are some character deaths that kind of got to me. At first I was determined to play a "renegade" character, but I found myself responding to conversations with the choices I really would pick in real life, because I was so damn invested.

One other thing I really want to mention is that I am replaying immediately after finishing the game, as I can't bear to think about all the stuff I missed by choosing certain options. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. Why it's not a 10/10: Some things were dumbed down too far, like conversation choices. It by no means stopped me from enjoying the game, but micromanagement is a popular hobby of a lot of hardcore gamers, so it's nice to have the option there. Secondly, it's too short, and the ending is rushed, I'm guessing this is because Bioware are looking forward to rolling out masses of DLC to us. I did notice the price on steam was a bit less than what I paid for DA:O on release date, (as far as I recall I paid $100 for it, which is common with AAA new releases, keep in mind I'm Australian and everything is expensive) paying $70 for a new release is a little easier to swallow. Awakening was a great expansion, so I'm up for more of that. Anyway, I just wanted to balance out the negitivity as I have really enjoyed this game and it's up there with ME2 for me. A lot of people had a whinge about how bad DA:O looked when it came out, and I have to wonder if they bothered playing it on a decent PC. These games look great pumped up to max settings. If you can't run those, then don't whinge. If you have a PS3, reflect on your inability to upgrade your video card.

Seriously guys, stop looking for flaws and just enjoy it. It's not a perfect game for the reasons I stated above, but it really is worth playing for anyone remotely into the fantasy genre. I'm curious how many hours some of the other reviewers here spent on the game. Did they just play the demo? I thought the demo made the game look pretty **** actually. It's apparently cool to hate on big companies (that secretly review their own games) but it's not cool to just jump on a bandwagon without evaluating something for yourself first. I tell you what though, I am damn well sick of killing abominations. Makes me almost want to lock those mages up. Sorry Anders, that was a joke. I DIDN'T MEAN IT ANDERS.… Expand

If you are looking for a game with a good storyline and decent voice acting for the protagonist this game is great. The fighting is quick paced and the graphics are a step above the predecessor but only if you get the high res pack and run DX11. If you are looking for a Dragon Age: Origins clone with a new story then you will be disappointed. The game has the great lore of the original but lacks a bit of personality as they didn't have enough time to fully develop the world around Kirkwall. I would guess that after the DLC comes out the Ultimate edition will be great and on par with the world of Thedas in Origins. All in all. I love the game and find the story gripping.… Expand

I'm hearing a LOT of anti-DA2 feedback going around. Frankly, I can't understand it. It seems merely out of a fear of change, rather than if the change was a good or bad thing. When I first played the demo, I was freaked out by many things, but after finishing the game, none of those things held water anymore. It was simply me being "whoa different game is different" and none of it made it a bad game in the end. I know the quick phrase to describe the changes is "dumbed down" -- and trust me, I hear ya. They dumbed down Mass Effect from game one to game two, and I was totally pessimistic about DA2. But you know? "Streamlined" is honestly the better term for it all. In the end, it is an amazing game. One of the most memorable RPGs I have played in a while. Is it worth it's selling price new? Yes! This is a $60 game. There's so much crap out there selling for the same price and is just a huge disappointment. This is one of those games. Please, ignore reviews and just play it for yourself. And I am not talking about just the demo. The demo is in no way indicative of the tone or experience of the main game. Look to Denerim in DA:O for a better idea of how it might feel.

If you find you skip dialogue scenes, it might be just an okay game, because you're skipping the best part. If you're just watching your family's cutscenes with a "okay okay I'm getting a quest" attitude, then it's not going to work its magic on you.

As a visual novel community, I can honestly say that WE will see what the developers were doing with the story and appreciate it. The hordes of action games may not see it, but I certainly did, and I will defend it rabidly. I was so surprised by how good it was. Maybe because of all the pessimism. Maybe all these bad reviews are good -- so you go in thinking "this will blow", but then blown away.

It's a shame that it will take too damn long for people to find that out, since everyone is going to take one look at the negative reviews and decide to wait until bargain bin day. Or worse, the developers will see the negativeness and not make DLC for it. Christ. I've never wanted DLC more for any other game before. I don't want this game to be over.… Expand

Imagine all of these reviews spoken in the voice of comic book guy from the simpsons

(great game though, it's certainly not the same as DA:O and bioware has decided to take a different route and all that good stuff)

If you are fan of Mass Effect, then you will love it, like me. Bio ware you are best.
Dragon Age 1 path to 2 part looks like Me1 to Me2. Many people forgot that is rpg means Role Play Game, when you play a role with your decisions in dialogs.

It's a very good game and a worthy successor to the first. I loved Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and would love it if Dragon Age 3 had that sort of depth as far as environments and spell mechanics and NPC's are concerned. That said, the combat is a lot of fun and the streamlined combat mechanics don't take anything away from the tactical elements. I do recommend playing the game on the Hard difficulty setting. Normal is pretty trivial, at least early on, whereas Hard is a challenge on par with the Infinity Engine games… Expand

Wow, I am not liking the haters on this one. The graphics are beautiful, they story is great, the combat is a bit dumbed down but I am still thoroughly enjoying this game. Isabella is a better Leliana and Alistair is a drunk in a bar. Origins was iconic but this game is great as well. My wife and I have already got 15 hours into the game each, and we are greatly enjoying it. Don't listen to the smelly trolls, this game is a blast.… Expand