I can't believe that a game this freaking good scored this freaking low! i have Played through four times now! the story is top notch, the characters are great and the loot is good! who cares if a few environments were recycled a couple times! It was a great game! Can't wait for the third DA game and I can't wait for DLC and expansions for DA2.

I really enjoyed the first game a good deal and ultimately found the sequel to be a big letdown. The combat is more enjoyable and I the companion AI seems more flexible and responsive. The main character feels like it has a bit more personality having a voice. That is about as good as it gets. The narrative does not feel as cohesive as the original game nor does it feel like it has the same epic sense. The lighter roleplaying elements and the more limited character creation choices detract from the freedom of the roleplaying experience. I did not feel like I was forging my own destiny/story in DA 2 like I did in DA:O. The game world design sucks; the city hub setup that lasts for the whole game is uninspiring both in layout and in visualizations. The repeated use of the same scant amount of maps/areas throughout the entirety of the game is repetitive and speaks of cheap, lackluster game design. Overall DA2 is mostly a letdown as a sequel and part of the Dragon Age world. The overall experience feels a bit more streamlined but at the cost of being much more on rails than the sequel, as well as having a narrower and less epic storyline and being entirely too repetitive and un-immersive. Honestly, I am in the third act of the game, almost near the end, and I just can't find the interest to finish it. Poorly done Bioware, poorly done… Expand

awful story / awfully repetitive --> very disapointing.
It felt like they spent more time on the cut scenes than that actually did on the game content. I didn't mind the combat system so much but the whole effort to complete the game just felt pretty pointless. I"m still a little puzzled at the choice of plot line - in the end there was really no sense of 'satisfaction' at completing the game. Certainly not worth a replay IMO.… Expand

Dragon Age 2 â

Dragon Age Origins was years in the making. Truly the spiritual successor to Bioware's claim to fame, the Baldurs Gate Series. Dragon Age II however, was made in considerably less time, with considerably less foresight. This is a wonderful example of two steps forward, one step backwards.

Dragon Age II removes many of the classical RPG elements in order to streamline it into a Mass Effect type best seller. What fits one series doesn't work for everything. There are a inane amount of reused environments which are generic and sterile. Everything is rushed, between the lack of character interactions and the "when is it going to end type" story.

They swore up and down that they didn't forget where they came from while making the first Dragon Age, and for the glimpse of time, maybe they didn't. But.. Alas the memory is gone again.… Expand

Ta gra nie jest najgorsza ( wiem że narażam siÄ

My beef with this game: NO replay value!!! This is a disaster!
NO character creation, forget playing different races or alternative start. Combat reduced to button mashing. Almost entire game is set in the same city, yet they put no effort in making it beautiful and interesting to explore. Brown dusty streets and nothing to look at!
To call this..abomination a sequel to Dragon age is insulting!

In some areas, it fell short compared to Dragon Age: Origins. In other departments, it surpassed it. If you aren't expecting Origins 2, you will like this.

I clearly expected to play another ... This is an absolute failure! Boring gameplay, repetitive locations, stupid plot, monotony of what is happening ...

After having had beat Baldur's gate before trying out this game, I can only think to myself how hard Bioware has fallen.Depth exchanged for puerile romance and tasteless violence.

First of all, sorry for the absolute low score - the game is worth a bit more than that in itself. But in all context, this is the definition of utter disappointment, a travesty made so by the horrid EA. The unintelligent but very business-like marketing, the overall rush to producing the game and the overall artistic direction/overall picture was such that many fans of Bioware felt just anger. EA is Rome, Bioware Pontius Pilate and the "role-playing game" or Brent Knowles the ones that were meant to suffer.

Actually I'm being pompous for the camp and irony of it. But the funny thing is that I think this kind of thinking in the right about DA2 - and you don't need to be actually angry to be like this. Though it's really difficult to differentiate "trolls" from actual disappointed reviewers, and even moreso the ones who are genuinely angry from the ones who dissect DA2 calmly, I do believe this production gets a low score from actual people who actually felt DA2 to be a let-down, or even an insult. And it's many more than 2000 people.

The reasons have been discussed. I might mention the unaesthetic overall and not-smart-combat with the isomeric camera torn out of the game, but the real reason for feeling this a let-down is how people who appreciate classical role-playing games like Baldur's Gate for their inherent and perpetual qualities are being looked down upon and told "you give money to us, we don't listen to you".

Smart move Bioware. May you strike poor, EA. But all the best to the many people who make games (or business or anything else) with love and for thinking people. And I'm not saying you can't enjoy DA2 without being a dumb console-kiddie. I'm just angered that the plans of my favored company seem to be going ONLY in the direction of "cinematic experience", neglecting their die-hard fans.… Expand

It's hard to think of anything that probably hasn't been said already about this game, short of just how badly Bioware has handled it. Before this i was convinced they could not make a bad game but DA2 will dissapoint you especially if you enjoyed Bioware's earlier work. Suggest getting Baldur's Gate instead.

Really disappointed with this game. I have been a fan of BioWare games since BG1 and this game along Jade Empire(if I remember the name correctly) are the biggest disappointments. This honestly just feels like a huge money grasp. Hopefully BioWare learned from this that they can't just put out anything and expect to people to be happy with it...

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

Great game.

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

Not as good as DA:O but still a lot of fun to play, besides the recicled caves and endless waves.

The voiced PC gives the game a lot more depth and I also liked the faster combat and the more personal story.

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

I honestly didn't even play through this game halfway. Dragon age 2 has none of the strategy, customization, or gameplay the original dragon age, or any bioware rpg has. They dumbed down everything . This game might as well have been a fps except with fireballs and swords.

This game will get boring to re-play, it is because we can't customize our companions so we will see the very same thing. Each companions have their own designed and theme that we can't change it. There is no actual plot for the entire game, it is just about the survivor of the recent war make a living in a new city and then happen to be involve in numerous conflicts either by his/her companions or the city he/she live. Those conflicts are actually none of his/her problem, he/she doesn't even have to involve in anything either. The ending of the story is the same with a little different no matter what choices we make. Combat is anime-like, with no tactic, because of enemies can pop up from thin air, re-spawn randomly, so it will be hack and slash all the time. The maps are just copy and paste, recycled everywhere. The graphic is okay, but the rest is just dull. This game can be played just for fun and nothing serious about it. This game destroy it's predecessor Dragon Age : Origin.… Expand

An unworthy sequel to a great game. Dragon Age 2 falls short in every single way except the story, that being the story is vastly unrelated to the first game and waits for proper tie in with the expected next sequel. If you were expecting a new game with new innovations then you will be sadly mistaken. If you want closure to stories pertaining to those of Dragon Age Origins/ Awakening then you this will only cause more questions than before. My advice for any dragon age fan is to wait for the next one and then play this, this barely has any purpose as of right now.… Expand

While DA Origins certainly was a spiritual successor to Baldurs gate, this second installment certainly is not. There are things I certainly do like about DA II , such as the Champions dialogue and realistic graphic and character advancement, the Qunari for example look more evolved and some of the textures in the towns and the fighting areas. I have however played over 25 hours now and I am starting to see what Bioware have done. They have concentrated mainly on the "action" side of the game and removed some of the hardcore RPG elements that made Origins an instant success with RPG fans from the PC market. Fights are now alot faster, animations look sleek and some of the elemental spells and skills now look amazing. However, I am very dissappointed with the fact I am unable to change elements of my party's Armour, I am only able to find upgrades littered sporadically around the world map, via merchants. I am also unable to craft within my party, so they have removed the alchemy and poison making abilities and re routed the player to the merchants. You are also unable to gather raw ingredients to make your potions and poisons. Now you only have to find "sources" of raw materials, which then enable you to make the more advanced recipes with the more sources you find.
I must say I am also dissapointed with the world map, it doesn't give you a sense of travel, it just zones you in. They have removed the random element of meeting trouble on the road too, so those random clearings you would come across filled with bandits seem to have been dropped also. I am only 25 hours into the game but I am also finding the dungeons and maps quite generic and repetitive thus far and I am hoping this may change. To summarize, we are living in an age where Console gamers now have the power to determine the future of the PC market, they are numbing down games for lazy gamers who just havent got the time and effort to really get stuck into their RPG's. I am a Mass Effect fan and I've really loved the ME series thus far, but they have practically butchered the Dragon Age series to fall in line with a heavy dialouge success that they have had with ME. I love heavy dialogue but all they needed to do was keep the same ingriedients they had with DA : Origins , with the main character dialogue like they have done in the second installment and that would have been perfect. I have been enjoying the game so far, and reccommend it if you played Origins, but if you loved Origins for its Baldurs gate nostalgia you will definately be dissapointed with DA II. Lets hope they can salvage it with some good DLC.… Expand

Dragon Age 1 was my favourite game of the last year, this sequel is my least favourite so far. The game mechanics and dialogue has been dumbed down to the point that its just too boring and monotonous to play.

I played DA:1 for about 60+ hours without once getting bored. DA:2 gets very boring, very quickly. Like others have said, this is more like a Mass Effect action game than an RPG with any depth. I've been a bit fan of Bioware games in the past, I hope they dont ruin the next Elder Scrolls game as much as Dragon Age has taken a step backwards.… Expand

While BioWare's sequel to Dragon Age Origins makes a lot of compromises to satisfy casual gamers, there are many innovations in the RPG genre that make this game a worthy sequel. First the bad: Party customization is simplified a bit too much, and copy pasting areas isn't just lazy, it's also a repetition of a mistake they made in the first Mass Effect.

The good: The story and characters are an improvement. Dragon Age II steers away from the cliché fantasy plot and instead opts for a more personal story and a political conflict. This is a bold move and while I understand that many people will not like this, I think this is a huge step forward because it's not done very often. Origins also had cliché characters, like Morrigan who says 'fool' in every sentence and rejects the idea of love and friendship. The characters in the sequel, with some exceptions, are much more likable. They develop friendships with each other over the years and the biggest improvement in this sequel is the party feels more connected. They visit you at your house, they visit others at their house, they play cards in a bar, etc.

Combat is often criticized for being too simplified while in fact it's almost ecactly the same as in Origins. It's quicker but that's about in. I do find it disappointing that I can't zoom out because it makes targetting harder for mages.

In short: Big improvement over Origins. Lazy level design is disappointing but character relationships and the less epic storyline are more interesting.… Expand

I had read previews for this game and although I was dubious coming in, I was still willing to give it a fair chance because I really enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins. I am extremely disappointed in the final result. I prefer to play the Infinity Engine RPGs and DA:O on the highest difficulties because of the challenge. The combat mechanics really haven't changed that much from DA:O, but the nightmare difficulty in DA2 is flat out broken. The encounters are the driest and most uncreative things I have experienced in an RPG in a long time. *Every* fight ends up with the initial group of enemies plus two to four waves of additional NPCs that materialize from nowhere. The fights become less an ability of tactics and more of an endurance battle where you are whittled down and praying that another wave of enemies isn't coming. Another major problem is the lack of an isometric camera. In the Infinity Engine games and DA:O, the camera was placed overhead which allowed easy command of your characters. In DA2, you do not have access to such a feature and targeting becomes an arduous event. It is apparent that this is a console game first and the PC version was merely an afterthought. The storyline is also disappointing. The game starts out in an unnamed mountain with characters we know nothing about and within fifteen minutes, something happens to a major NPC. I am guessing that Bioware wants us to feel sympathy during the event, but there is no way to have any sort of connection with the characters because you do not know them. The story is also supposed to take place during a ten year period, but there are jumps in time spanning several years and you never see any of the characters age, therefore you are left confused. Sadly, Dragon Age 2 is a product of Bioware being bought by a corporate giant and being forced to rush out a game and appeal to a specific demographic. The days of wonderful fantasy RPGs are long gone for this developer. I am in greatly disappointed that the creators of the finest RPG of all time has fallen from grace in a mere decade.… Expand

Dragon Age 2 is a great successor to the classic and a good candidate for a GOTY of 2011. Way better fighting system than bloaty and unintuitive Origins one make the gameplay so much more fun. Story is interesting and exciting, you grown really attached to the characters thorough the game. Voice acting on Hawke really puts life into him instead of being a marionette without feelings like in the first game. Overall must have for all RPG fans.… Expand

This sequel I must admit was a big letdown they took what was a challenging strategic game for PC and dummed it down to a button mashing console game. The combat system in DA: O was a bit slow but turning every kill into a messy kill just makes it boring, every time I slice a group of foes in half with one swing I feel like pulling out my hair...aah! Nonetheless the narration has improved though the story has suffered, regurgitating codex from the previous game no use reading them. I must say I was very disappointed with the leveling up too, who told them to dumb it down to attributes and abilities that clearly don't add anything as I can hack all foes to death with normal attacks. I must say that the graphics though are better and the narration actually gets you to like your character.
I don't see myself playing it the 4 times I have played through DA: O( maybe one more play through is in order to remember a true masterclass).That said my only salvation is that the Witcher is coming out later this year I hope they don't disappoint… Expand

A step back in every respect from Origins, if you enjoyed Origins, don't expect to enjoy this, it caters for a low tier of gamers, one day DLC is another slap in the face from a money grabbing company.

Designed by focus group. By trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, Bioware has created game that never really develops it's own personality. Utterly forgettable, DA2 tries in vain to be darker, edgier and sexier, but only succeeds in trying too hard. The violence is bloody, the "sexiness" is a bit blatant and ham-handed, all the while giving the impression that behind the scenes is a 40-something game director saying "this is what the kids want, right?" Rather than focus on making a solid, entertaining game, Bioware tried to include all things for all gamers. They have created a game with something for everyone, but not enough for any one group to enjoy the experience.… Expand

mass effect with swords. the game is so horrid its not even worth my time to write a review about it.

I don't believe anyone could give this game a good score. I'm thinking, the reviewing sites (gamespot etc) are scared bioware won't give them any more interviews, which is why they gave it an 8, instead of a deserved 3 or 4.

the game is not dragon age 2, simple as that. if you want to make another mass effect, use a different franchise name, instead of insulting dragon age fans.… Expand

Utterly disappointing. I've been a Bioware fan since the first Baldur's Gate and I can't believe what they did to Dragon Age 2. What were they thinking? Maybe they were blinded by the buzz of how Mass Effect 2 was received and decided to implement a same kind of system to DA2, who knows?

I loved the DA: Origins, it essentially resurrected the classic computer rpg genre for me. I even welcomed the few compromises for the console versions in the Origins, because despite those alterations it was still basically the same game we all know and love.

Unfortunately, in Dragon Age 2 they took it all away and created a some kind of deformed monstrosity of a dumbed down hack'n slash action game with adhd-button-mashing-orgy of a combat. No space for tactics or strategies, and the teammates' AI is retarded. Even the abilities/talents system was simplified and aside from few exceptions, worse than in the Origins. To give the game some slack, I won't even go to the graphics thing (which was later remedied a tiny bit by the high-resolution texture pack, at least for PC). The only good thing is the storytelling part (which has always been Bioware's strong suit), and even the story lacks in some parts.

I honestly can not recommend buying this game for any reason, except if you're so into the story or settings that you think you can bear with the game to the end. I could barely finish the demo when I first played it. I'm so sorry Bioware, but this time, you screwed up. What happened?… Expand

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 a system which felt unrefined in DA:O and rather that improving it and making it better, just completely ruined it to make a system without thought or challenge. Unless you're on hard mode, there is nothing to discuss as far as combat goes, you may as well be watching a film.
For which matter, the story is far, far below Bioware's standards. Ploddingly written with a conversation wheel that not only dumbs down decisions to their smallest parts with "GOOD BAD SILLY"~esque replies, but are poorly written as they are. Voice acting is a nice touch, however, though it's frequently done without emotion. I'd like to write more on the game, but after a mere few hours with it I honestly have no drive to play it any more. That didn't happen until Orzammar with DA:O.
Graphics are an utter trainwreck. I'm not even going to go into this. Game outright bugs out, runs horribly or doesn't run at all, despite looking awful WITH an optional HD fix. Utterly pathetic showing on PC.
If you want the game, do not buy it now. Wait for a sale or a GOTY version with a reduced pricetag. Putting out a game that's blatantly this unfinished and rushed in a year that has many, many blockbuster titles that look stellar is quite frankly a ludicrious move, and Bioware have proven in the past that they are better than this tripe.… Expand

Were all the critics bribed? how is this game managing to get such a high critic rating!? this is a terrible game, awful graphics & rubbish story held together with average gameplay. Avoid at all costs, I wish I had...

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

DA II failed to be remotely as good as the first game. Much as Mass Effect 2 was nowhere as good as the first one, Bioware has tried to make it "easier" with a lot less elements of role play. Instead of making a great PC game, they have made a console game and ported it over the PC. I give the first one a 10, this one was hardly worth playing, was it not for Isabela's great lines, it wouldn't be.… Expand

Bioware's identity crisis and tribute to the color brown gets a sequel with an even greater identity crisis. If Dragon Age: Origin's crisis came from its overly generic universe, it was at least an honest attempt to recreate the magic of Baldur's Gate, even if it had none of the charm of Forgotten Realms, needless micromanaging, and 1% of the monster variety (Darkspawn and dragons, yay. I thought dragons were supposed to be hard to kill and usually optional?). In Dragon Age: 2, the identity crisis extends to the gameplay, where it either feels like a dumbed down version of Dragon Age: Origins, or a really bad God of War, depending on your personal preferences. This is really too bad because the dialogue is solid; they replaced the mute character of Dragon Age: Origins with a Mass Effect-style dialogue system and the story is decent enough for an RPG, in my opinion. It just doesn't feel like enough to make up for the bastard-child gameplay.… Expand

I would have given this game 7 or 8/10 if it wasn't called DA2. This is not the sequel the first game deserved and is a traversty to the RPG genre set forth from its predcessor. Having said that, if you ignore the title and assume this game isn't within the DA lineage then it is actually quite entertaining, even though it is a hack & slash 'RPG'.

This game is an embarrassment to the western RPG genre. Unpolished, choppy, and broken gameplay. Horrendous voice acting. And a soundtrack that makes me want to put on Justin Bieber just to drown it out. Oh lets not forget graphics. The Graphical presentation was just horrible. I strained my eyes on this game more than from playing Custard's Revenge on a 1080p flat panel monitor. The first Dragon Age was amazing, and I really had high hopes for this game, but in the end it turned into another over hyped, over advertised piece of crap. If you buy this game get ready to regret your purchase because I know I regret mine.… Expand

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

Pros: Ambient music is nice and not intrusive. Voice acting, the characters are believable. The storyline is all right thus far. Some eyebrows raised at Aveline, but. The Qunari are excellently portrayed, even the physical changes seem right. Cons: The graphics are on par or worse than the original. The camera keeps shifting up, obscuring large portions of the field unless you use the keyboard. Combat is way too quick, it allows little or no time for strategy or adjustments, it's usually over before you have time to implement them, anyway (it literally took about 10-12 hours before I had to use my first health potion.) The characters are way too far away, meaning you often have to squint to figure out what the hell you're doing. Sets are constantly recycled, even in the main storyline. I can understand side-quests, but you could have crapped out a level or two for the main line. And, the minimap does not accurately reflect the area. Bioware, seriously, what the hell were you thinking? Barely playable, definitely not worth $60. Dragon Age 2 was seriously rushed. Ten of these cons are easily fixable with a little time and beta testing. Didja skip a step? And, to the critics: What game were you playing, and or/smoking? I'll take both.… Expand

I am extremely disappointed in Dragon Age II. I should have done the research, I should have waited a few days and read the reviews. Instead at 10 AM today I was at Gamestop picking up my copy not knowing just how disappointed I was about to be. I expected a lot of this game, what I did not expect to receive was a dumbed-down almost direct console port of a video game. The graphics look terrible even with the "high-res" pack installed and running. The vegetation is so sparse it is comical. The inventory system is deplorable. For every character other than your main character you can only change their weapon, rings, and amulet and belt. No boots, no gloves, no helmet, no grieves. The battles amount to nothing more than, "Here fight these 8 enemies you can one shot. You killed them? Here is another 8. You killed them!? Bet you didn't see this come, here is another wave. Good job, you won." There is no strategy involved, indeed, there CANT be strategy when just about every one of your abilities one-shots your enemies. There just isn't time. I am writing this review in the hopes of saving someone else the disappointment I am feeling. I just played 13 hours of Dragon Age 2. All 13 hours of the same thing was going through my head, "This game is nowhere near as epic as its predecessor because it is FIRST a console RPG, and then a pc RPG, not the other way around like DA:O was". Save your money if you own a pc, rent it if you on a ps3 or 360. Don't make the mistake I did.… Collapse

I gotta say, this game is utter garbage. You would think that they would improve SOME things from the first DA, but no, they go ahead and make a rpg for ten year olds. Let's add a couple of curse words and then charge people ten bucks for downloadable content on the first day. I mean, you completely disrespected everyone that the first game was made for. The combat is atrocious, the dialog is too simple, so far the decisions i've made in the game are pointless and have no weight to them. The graphics are a step up though. All you gotta do is look at the main characters last name, hawke, to tell that the developers have no clue on how to make a TRUE rpg game. Hell, the main developer left in the beginning of development! That should have been a sign for me to not buy this game. It is truly one of the most disappointing games i've played in years.… Expand

A slap in the face to PC gamers, a slap in the face to all fans of the original Dragon Age: Origins game (regardless of which port you played). I don't understand why they'd go in the opposite direction of the original DAO. I can understand making tweaks here and there, but this sequel has been dumbed down from the original. Less focus on tactics and more on playing like an arcade RPG. Why get rid of the overhead camera? Why not allow switching armor for your companions? These changes make absolutely no sense and now it plays like a bad 25 cent arcade game. Here's to Dragon Age 3 (if it's ever made) coming back to it's former glory.… Expand

This game is an absolute joke. They've taken the best parts of DA:O and excised them, choosing instead to distill the franchise through a Mass Effect 2 flavored filter and then serve the resulting abomination with a nice glass of Console Port. The funny thing is, I played the demo on my PC and was already disappointed; I don't know why I was expecting the actual game to be any different. There's a big difference between "simplified" and "dumbed-down," and DA2 gruesomely illustrates the latter. Options, preferences, camera controls and dialogue options, all reduced to the absolute minimum of interaction and usability. Bioware (likely at EA's behest, with the aim of broadening market appeal) has created a hobbled gameplay experience that is neither pedestrian enough to appeal to mainstream console audiences nor nuanced enough to appeal to hardcore PC RPG enthusiasts. In trying to please everyone, they've pleased no one.

It's truly misleading to call this a "Sequel," as this game has very little in common with its predecessor, choosing to ride the coat tails of name recognition instead. And the promise of perpetual DLC down the road from day one (arguably content that should have been included for the price but was held back in favor of stretching profits) only further exposes this shameless $60 cash grab for what it is. The fact that it's receiving such glowing reviews by paid critics leads me to believe that somewhere, someone was crossing palms with a few "gold pieces" of their own to get some good feedback.… Expand

Im doing my best not to rate this lower than I feel because of all the bogus 9/10 reviews given to this game by big name gaming sites. This is not a 9/10 game by any stretch, 8/10 maximum.
I felt this game was a huge step backwards from DA:O, its like Bioware put hardly any effort into it this time around. Almost everything is worse; the dialog, the graphics, the gameplay. I did enjoy the new skill system, and I'll give them props for fixing it. But it is still nothing special and pretty boring, it's just better than DA:O's level up system which was a travesty.
All in all, this game is not good, but it is enjoyable. And the fact that certain sites are rating this 9/10 should be a big 'red flag' on which sites not to trust in their big budget game reviews.… Expand

Here goes...reserved the game months ago because I loved DA:O and even Awakening. Bought a couple of DLC even. Thought the game was a bone to the old-ish veteran gamers who enjoyed Baldur's gate, NWN, etc. Here's my opinion on the game: Pros: -Characters are pretty interesting so far (played about 8 hours) -Voice acting is great. Cons: -Action oriented, which is a matter of opinion. But considering this is the sequel to the 2009 GotY that used a completely different combat system more based on strategy, this just sounds like Bioware left its old fans behind and tried to reach for a new market. On that note, ''Strategic pause'' isn't very strategic. Button mashing feast.
-Graphics are unpolished. Unexcusable, especially the NPC's look horrible up close.
-Dungeons rehashed only 5 hours in the game...really Bioware?
-No isometric view. Makes me believe the PC game was more an afterthought than anything else.
-Story is unfocused. Jumping from point to point in time and following the story through someone else's viewpoints isnt a bad idea (Diablo 2 everyone?) but it's poorly done this time, at least in my humble opinion.
-Dialogue wheel was fine for Mass Effect, but it breaks the mood for this game. Having a choice between being overboard angelic, a complete **** or a wisecracker doesnt sound like a lot of choice to me.
-So little choice on how to customize the main character...human male or female. Poor immersion, I never believed for a second I was Hawke the way I identified to my warden in DA2.… Expand

Super Dragon Age Fighter 2 Turbo: Tournament Edition Round 2.
Console trash. A money grab. A precisely calculated move. When you make a deal with the devil (EA), he always comes back to collect. Bioware is dead.

Never good when you make a game worse than it's prequel. So many problems with the game. So much hype over it by DA fans. The "professional" reviewers are giving it a high score for some reason I do not know.

The best RPG ever, you never played as fun and tactical party RPG combats, it's the biggest and most interesting town that you ever seen in RPG. There are many player choices with consequences on the story. The story is very well written and will make your eyes wet many times. Some companions are much more attaching than any companion of DAO.

DA2 fixes many weakness of DAO, the fights are better balanced and more deep. DAO fights was ridiculously easy and now at Hard difficulty they are hard and at Nightmare it's a real challenge. In DAO the companions was sort of dead puppets once out of the camp. Now they are lively and really participate to the adventure, and even, your companions will influence the evolution of the story. In DAO you had only very few build per class, now in DA2 you have plenty more builds making you character building a lot more fun and deep. In one play through DA2 isn't as long than in DAO, because of the multiples alternatives coming from player choices and companions choose the replays are much more interesting and setup a longer play value with replays.… Expand

This isn't a RPG! It's a hack'n'slash! There is nothing else to say: it's a game for casual gamers! At technical level there's only one interesting thing: the soundtrack! Everything else it's really really poor!

At the time of writing this, the user score (based on 143 ratings) is *3.6*; the critic score (based on 12 ratings (11 "positive")) is 8.4. You could not have a more embarrassingly obvious exposition of the vapid, dead vacuum-of-integrity that is games journalism. Really, it should be obvious to everyone now that the people who wrote these reviews don't have a single atom of sincerity or regard for truth. As far as the game itself is concerned, it's a lobotomized, bordering on the retarded, dumb-down of a game which was itself a lobotomized rehash (of the Baldur's Gate series). You really could not remove more depth from this if you were desperate to. We're at rock-bottom here, and hopefully that means the only way is up. Generic, unremarkable, uninspired, utterly forgettable fast-food for the masses. Nobody who worked on this should be proud.… Expand

The amount of effort spent on making the game playable has all but been completely overshadowed by superficial additions to make the game look more appealing. Even so, graphical errors and awkward visuals are abound. Very sad day for RPGs, Bioware has lost its touch completely. Will we ever see a game as good as Neverwinter Nights again? Not if DA2 is any indication.

This game is so disappointing to me. I can live with the unintuitive new UI, the new fast-paced (hack and slash) combat, and the uninspired art design. I really can. What I can't live with are the forgettable characters you encounter and the abysmal "story". There really is no "arc" to speak of; just a bunch of loose ends. Your companions have no personality. I can't even remember their names most of the time. If they had numbers instead of names it would not make one bit of difference. They are forgettable and so is this game. I do not have the feeling of becoming "attached" to anything or anyone, including the main character (Hawke). There is no reason for me to care. Terrible, terrible writing. There really are no redeeming qualities. If Dragon age 2 wasn't made by Bioware, the professional critic scores would be much, much lower. This game is a generic, uninspired, rushed piece of trash. I am incredibly disappointed. Please do not waste your money like I did.… Expand

Boring button-mashing combat, okey story, dull dialogues, lame dialogue options.

Overall, should not be classified as an RPG. Way too linear and laughable so-called "romance".

I could not say it better than the many reviews here. I expected DA2 to build on DA1; instead it removes and dumbs down many of the features of the original. I also do NOT want publishers throwing day 1 DLC at us. It its ready for day 1 then include it in the game for free - we paid premium cash for this game and milking us at release for more money is shameful.

This game is just a disgrace to the name Dragon Age and even more so to the name Bioware. Just stay away from this misery, it represents everything that goes wrong right now in the gaming industry. Dont buy Dragon Age 2, thank you!

This is the Dragon Age game to get into if you have never played Dragon Age Origins. I played through my 120 hour campaign of Dragon Age Origins/Awakenings and this game is a breath of fresh air and this is why. I didn't want Dragon Age 2 to be Dragon Age Origins 2. Here are the main gripes people have. 1. It's a console port. 2. The graphics are terrible. 3. The combat is overly simplified.
4. The conversation wheel.

1. There is no way around this. The market is what it is. Vote with your dollar, and know that other people are voting with theirs. If a developer needs to put the title out on multiple platforms, so be it. I'm not sure what they're talking about with this complaint. 2. The graphics are the best I've seen in a fantasy game in a long time. Especially with the day 1 Texture Pack you can download, and if you have a directx11 capable card. 3. Playing through DAO I know the combat was different. The combat in DAO always felt clunky to me. Strategic yes, but clunky. Almost like your characters were in slo-mo. Now, the combat is visceral and fast paced and does not lack the depth that most users have commented on.

4. I LOVE the conversation wheel. I'm around 4 hours into it and I LOVE the fact that the game plays through like a movie similar to Mass Effect. After 130 hours or so of DAO I was pretty happy not to be reading a novel while I was playing my game. I should let you know that Bioware has been VERY communicative about relaying the information to their fans prior to release and there was a demo on PC. That said, there should be no reason why any fanboys of DAO would be dissapointed as they have had ample time to become educated before making a purchase. This of course would speak to the invalidity of many of these user reviews. If you knew what you were buying why did you buy it? I don't see any legitimacy to the claims the negative feedback users are putting out there. They simply don't like it, and they give it a bad review without playing it. There's no law against it, but I love this game and I wanted to put out my two cents.… Expand

Improved upon in almost every way. More immersive, better storytelling mechanics (especially the fact that relationships develop over a series of years) and combat is just downright more fun. If you think the graphics are worse than the original, you are lying to yourself. The combat is strategic as ever, just FASTER AND MORE FUN. The abilities all actually DO something, unlike DA:O where you spent points on things you would never use. And if you really have a problem with the dialog wheel, go play D&D in your basement. Interactive cinema is what its all about.… Expand

Terrible graphics, terrible dialogue, forgettable music, bland characters, linear gameworld, uninteresting locations, terrible button-mashing gameplay. Overall: A very very bad game that you should avoid

What can i say? This game fails on every aspect you can imagine. From promised DX11 graphics we went to watered down character models and a bland city which is the main course of the game. This game suffers from acute and extreme consolitis. Bad graphics, way to simple gameplay (whack a mole) and the interface is completely tailored for consoles! Do NOT believe any "official" review sources, they get paid big money by EA to give it a 8 or 9!

The biggest insult of them all is the load of DLC there is pre-installed on your disc, but you cant acces it without paying or doing stupid facebook games.

Steer clear of this game and any future BioWare games, vote with your wallet!… Expand

this game sux in any way it can. worst console port ever. DA1 was good RPG, not perfect but just good.
DA2 is just step back: bad graphics, bad gameplay, bad story and incredible high requirements.

if u want play good cRPG just stay away from DA2. it's waste of ur time

I tried hard to like it but the exploding people, rehashed areas, **** dialouge, and gameplay. This is the biggest thing though marketing it as the best old school style tactical RPG only for it to turn into a **** of sexual innuendo, gore, bad VA, PS2 era graphics, hack n' slash gameplay, limited customizability and a 12 hour story mode. So all in all it had potential to be a great game but Bioware sold out producing what will be the biggest disappointment of the year if not the biggest disaster of the decade. Oh how the mighty have fallen, Bioware going from a game like Baldur's Gate 2 down a game like this and the worst part is knowing that the people of today will eat this **** up.… Expand

1. Rogue Archer is useless. The NPC dude is much better and it's almost impossible to run from mobs with two rogues and one mage. I had to cheese every single engagement. I hope you get a warrior if you keep playing because ****
The worst thing: The difficulty on insane is not from tactical depth. All you need is luck and button-mashing (and running around in circles, if your party sucks). At least I can spec the Dwarf to be melee if I want my character to be ranged. Oh wait I can't. That's right, **** your RPG-ism. You play like we want. 2. The gameplay has nothing to do with tactical RPG. Your only real option is when to press the ability buttons. Tactical placement of characters, stealth, backstab etc. doesn't mean **** All you need to do is press the button since _everything_ is an ability now. I don't even see what I could be doing differently. There are a few battles where you can chokepoint enemies in doorframes, otherwise there is little to do tactically. It feels like half of the elements of BG2 combat are missing. In BG2 I usually ended up planning hard engagements, leading different enemies into traps I set earlier, buying specific items and buffs just for that engagement. DA2 is so far away from that complexity. DA:O wasn't perfect, but it was at least a bit closer. Rogue used to be about using a few things like stealing, positioning and stealth. Now it's just like beeing a mage - a Rogue mage. Also, I hate the amount of enemies. The screen is littered with em and any amount of tacticality that remained is pretty much an efford in futility. Most mobs should have been about the size of your party, but with interesting foes. I don't even particulary analyze what enemies I am fighting, I am doing the same charade over and over again. Miles and miles away from previous RPGs. 3. You never get to plan ahead anyway, since ALL enemies just drop on you literally. This is the worst thing ever and I can't grasp how they thought this would be a good idea. It's almost like Mass Effect 2 now. "Oh look an empty room. Welp, ambush. How surprising" Preparation doesn't get you any further. I also haven't used any potions or buffs yet previous to engagements. Maybe it was too early in the game for that though. 4. Camera angle.. whatever. Isometric view wouldn't have salvaged the gameplay. 5. Everything feels so restricting. You have almost no choice in what your character does and how he looks etc. Inventory has become more or less obsolete. It doesn't even feel like an RPG in that sense. For some reason the character creation process and the initial RPG immersiveness has - for me- never felt so disappointing in any PC RPG. It feels like a movie. Everytime. Cutscene. Go somewhere, enemies appear out of thin air, second wave, cutscene. Repeat. Every.. single .. time. Immersion level is very low. If you care about those things. 6. Graphics are fine, voice acting is nice etc. 7. Art style is ****ed. The ****ing Dalish elves look like cartoon characters. This has bothered me the most. It's like an anime. I expect this will be even worse later on. Not that the gameworld is completely unattractive. It just feels like EVERY SINGLE THING they changed is worse than in DA:O. I HAVE to use that dwarf with the cyberpunk Machine gun in an high fantasy RPG? Yeah thanks, totally works for me. **** you. 8. You can interact even less with the gameworld. In the spirit of dumbing it down this is not too surprising. But there is so little loot, so little to pick up or see or get. You just don't get the feeling the enemies are actually carrying weapons or whatever. It feels like you get a generic reward, instead of actually "going through their stuff for useful ****". Feels wrong. 9. The interface is **** I don't even know why, but it annoys me hugely. Probably because back in the day the interface symbolized a backback or inventory or a spellbook or whatever. Now it's literally a list of computer buttons. Just like the loot is not actual loot, but a computer-given reward. Also feels wrong. With a decent story I could see myself buying this for 10â… Expand

I really liked this game because it has dragons and dragons make me happy when i play my games, in the game there is a dragon that has become old and you have to make sure it dies peacefully (which explains the name of the game, ofc) after you make sure the elderly dragon is in piece you get to have sex with a womin who gves you more powers if your a mage but if your a warriro she has sex with you instead of the other way rond. i gave it 10 out of 10 because whenever i see the intro i smile. it also has a nice menu and gr8 textures… Expand

I'll preface this mini-review with: I actually like the game. I do, it's mindless. After working long days at my terrible menial job that saps my mental capacities; it's nice to sit down with a mindless game that takes absolutely no thought what-so-ever to get through. But that's a problem. This is a Bioware game. It's set to a higher standard than other games, it's supposed to draw you in with it's story and setting; the characters are supposed to be memorable, witty, devious, intelligent. But none of that really applies here. What we got was a game so vapid, so unintelligent, so... test grouped, that it's now not much more than a mindless Facebook game. Re-used maps everywhere. Lack of personality in it's setting and characters. Plenty of loot, but only one character to equip it on. (Oh that's nice, a 'mage only' item that has stats that my rogue will never be able to equip. Maybe I'll equip it on to one of my mages on my team, oh wait..) Poorly written characters that are voice acted quite well. And what happened to the Qunari? I mean, what? I honestly thought they were Darkspawn. Who even thought that was a good idea? I'm starting to go off the rails, the game itself is not worthy of calling itself a sequel. The people who spent the passed year or two working on this game should not be proud of their work. They were forced to make a game that they I'm sure knew would be a big disappointment for the people who actually enjoyed the first game. Sorry fellas, people aren't trolling, they're genuinely disappointed that you (Bioware) made a subpar game. Borrow this from your friends if you really really want to play it, please do not spend your (or your parents') hard earned money on this.… Expand

shame people cant be realistic with reviews... just finished the game and heres what i think PROS: the new combat sysytem is great, allows for more fluid fights so great if you dont like to pause all the time. skill trees that are unique to chracters other than the main, encourages people to try diferant teams rather than the one team all the time. character stats remake, stats are much more role specific making it less strenuous by not having to balace stats. the storyline is extreamly adaptive and unless you actuly try to you will never play it the same way twice, also with the ability to create the backbone of the story with a DAO save.

CONS:
the game is based in a single town so the landscape get old. some DAO cons are follow into DA2 such as multiple sotryline 'busness ventures' that the player may invest into or buy and that do not actuly bring in any income other than a possible longer quest line for that 'venture'. some parts of the game put you at a fork with quests allowing you to take one and not the other however it does not specify that you wouldnt be able to do both you simply need to figure it out the hard way. gold just like in DAO is extreamly hard to come buy if your wanted decent items, if you do all the quests and sell everything you find you wil get about 250g total, depending on the dificulty alot of that will be spent on potions, runes and armour for your team so you will only ever have enough gold to buy one item that is 120g or there abouts and saving for it will take all game if you dont skimp.

even tho this game has alot of cons i dont know any game that doesnt
i had fun playing this game, i probly wont beat it with every class but i will certainly beat it one more time over on the hardest possible trying to get everything

with a few patches this game will be much better

and to all those people who rated this a bad game, i certainly hope your not waiting for D3 to come out coz it wont have much more specially not in the graphics department… Expand

Sadly, yet another developer has abandoned their PC core game base for the mass appeal of the console. Bioware games have historically been extremely deep, really customizable games, with a strong focus on tactics and strategy. The industry as a whole has been moving away from these kind of games because of the increased profitability games have on console, and the simplistic console controls limit what developers can do. Dragon Age seemed to be one of the last remaining franchises truly designed to be a hardcore RPG gamer's type of game. However, the console has struck again, and we are left with Dragon Age 2, a game that does nothing but let down Bioware's long standing fanbase and fans of the genre. Let me preface this by saying that if you aren't familiar with Bioware games (aside from Mass Effect), like hack and slash type games, and are a console gamer, chances are you will enjoy this game. However, to the rest of us, this game signifies everything that is wrong with the market and the way gaming is headed. The depth of PC games of old is dead, and Bioware is no longer doing anything to prevent it.… Expand

Wow, DA:O is my 4th favorite game of all time and this "Sequel" / pile of dog barf makes me wish that i had completely avoided it. Be warned if you like RPGs, Interesting stories, and engaging combat look elsewhere. However if you like casual button-mashing garbage, and picking 3 of the same "choices", please by all means go out and spend 60 dollars on this aborted fetus of a game. My eyes strained to make sense of the "art direction". This was like staring into Rumor Willis' face while getting beaten with a sock filled with quarters and being castrated. I would rather stare into the sun for 5 hours until my eyeballs dried into tiny protein raisins, take them out of their sockets and insert them into my colon than have to play 10 more seconds of this game. What the hell was Bioware thinking?

I can only hope to god that Laidlaw, and Gaider were just shooting up coke and saying "Hey know what would be really funny! Trolling all of our fans in a sad attempt to gain new ones while ostracizing the original ones!" Because no sane being would ever have let this pile of aborted llama fetuses ever escape from the planes of Peru. Avoid. Avoid at all cost. If you want bioware to actually make good games instead of this crap don't buy it and send them a message that you wont just gobble up this vomit because they slapped their name on it. Don't let all those "Biodrones" tell you otherwise. anyone who pledges loyalty to a company that only cares about profit isn't worth listening to. Again.

Stay away, for your own safety. Please.… Expand

What an utter disappointment. DA 2 feels like god of war. I have trouble even calling it a real role playing game, conversation options are simple and dumbed down, decision making is relatively unimportant, gameplay remains quite linear. The world is small, the story uninspiring, the voice acting is some of Bioware's worst. As far as combat goes, it really feels dumbed down from DA:O (which already felt dumbed down to me). Animations are overdone and the art direction is absolutely ridiculous. To top it all off, levels are recycled to an absurd degree and the game runs like crap on Nvidia hardware despite not looking especially great.… Expand

This game is such a wasted potential. Bioware made a fortune off of preorders of fans of the original knowing full well that by over-streamlining the game and the pervasive console first attitude they would only alienate those fans. This game looks and sounds better than Orgins but that isn't what I want out of a PC rpg, I want a massive world, mountains more stats, the ability to see background calculations as they are happening and mod friendly design. Once again consoles **** things up for PC gamers who want a product that utilizes their machines full capabilities.… Expand

Big disappointment BioWare...we get a console port far inferior than DAO...huge mistake. We have a DX9 based game with less cameras, options and so on. I though you love gaming BioWare, and gaming on PC is by far the best for real gamers.

As a Player of Baldurs Gate 1 &2 , Planescape Torment , Morrowind and all the other RPG´s which deserve to be called "Role Playing Games" i am shocked were the Genre is heading. I played Dragon Age origins and enjoyed it. I loved it, Really! That´s why this game hurts so much. But now Bioware made a game where i have to think : Is this a RPG or a Action Adventure/Hack´n Slay ? THIS, Dragon Age 2, is the Call of Duty of RPG´s. DA2 doesn´t even deserve to be named a RPG. One Town, No Worldmap, ridiculous characters, a "not so interesting Story", Graphics from 2005 (Hello bioware, we have 2011 now, Even the current console generation hardware is bored to death with this program), really bad environments, no armor management for party mambers and always the same cloned level structures like the dungeons in Oblivion. They oversimplyfied everything in this game. DAII does not make ONE simple point better than part 1. A downgrade all along the line. DA II is no RPG. It´s a slap in the face of every single person who loves role playing games.… Expand

You like to hurt me you know that you do. You like to think in some way that it's me and not you... but we know that isn't true. You like to have me jump and be good, but I don't want to do it. You don't know why I won't act the way you think I should. You thought they'd make me behave and submit. What were you thinking? Cause I don't forget. You don't know why I won't give in, to hell with the pressure I'm not caving in.
You know that I got under your skin.
You sold your soul but I won't let you win.
You talk to much, you say I do, difference is nobody cares about you.
You've got all the answers, you know everything, why nobody asked you, it's a mystery to me.
I'm sorry for you, not sorry for me.
You don't know who in the hell to or not to believe.
I'm sorry for you, not sorry for me.
You don't who you can trust now or you should believe.
You close you eyes, all well and good, I'll kick your ass like I said that I would.
You tell them stories they'd rather believe, use and confuse them, they're numb and naive.
Truth is the truth hurts, don't you agree?
It's harder to live with the truth about you than to live with the lies about me.
Nobody owes you, not one damn thing.
You know where to put your: "Just shut up and sing."
I'm sorry for you, not sorry for me.
You don't know who in the hell to or not to believe.
I'm sorry for you, not sorry for me.
You chose to hurt those that love you and won't set them free.
You don't need anyone else to be sorry for you.
You've got no heart.
You can't see all that you've done for me.
I know the reasons you tear me apart.

Sorry
Guns N' Roses
Chinese Democracy… Expand

If you want to ever get decent, smart CRPG again, if you dont want the whole genre to die out - Dont buy this slasher game! Under any circumstances - dont buy this slasher, labelled as RPG!

This slasher needs to flop. Bioware should go bankrupt. Laidlaw, Gaider, Muzyka - all these... ahem... businessmen... no longer have moral rights to wear the same badge as Baldurs Gate 2 creators.
If DA2 succeeds comercially, this kind of gameplay re-imagining may very well happen to possible Baldurs Gate 3. Just imagine this nightmare - Baldurs Gate 3 : God of War style.

So skip the railroad locations, ugly graphics, nonexistant stats, uninspiring generic characters Dragon Age 2 has to offer - not only for avoiding boredom, but for the sake of brighter future for RPG gaming.… Expand

So terribly dissapointed. Don't we have enough watered down mainstream games out there? That might even have been okay if this game was a good mainstream game. But its not. It tries to be a hybrid between an action game like God of war and a classical rpg, and it ends up failing at both. The story is also the worst I have seen from Bioware. The story never picks up a main goal and all you do ALL game is run around in one city and do quests that all feel like side missions. Suddenly the game ends with a bam and a cliffhanger... Not only that but they reuse every dungeon like 15 times, and there are only like 6-7 small dungeons. Any real rpg elements are taken out, you never even get the opportunity to talk your way out of a fight everyone just charge you. If I want an action rpg I will rather play diablo or titan quest.... this is a bad action rpg and it shames the dragon age franchise. I might be a little harsh, its an okay game, but nothing more... don't expect anything.… Expand

I'm too tired to be angry any more...Now I'm just sad. It's fun...kinda. But it is a gesture of disloyalty to the avid fans of Bioware. It's basically Dynasty Warriors meets the Dragon Age Universe. And the lore IS the absolute only reason I'm playing this game. I'm going to hold out on condemning Bioware. They are my favorite gaming company and I really hope they get the message that the people who have been buying their games year in year out are hurting right now. I understand companies make money, that's what they do but this is not going to gain them the popularity vote. I mean, Jesus Christ look at the damn user metacritic score! Hell, look at the critic score, 8.3 for a contemporary Bioware game? That's the first time in a while that a Bioware game wasn't automatically slated for a nomination in all of those RPG of the year titles. Truth is, I love you Bioware...And I have to believe that you won't cheat on me with those Australipithicene Afarensis console gamers anymore but...OH MY GOD YOU'RE A WHORE!!!! (crying ensues)… Expand

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

You'd think bioware would learn from their mistakes, but apparently they don't. Putting in a mass effect conversation wheel was possibly the stupidest choice they could have made, add a couple of copy and paste dungeons and N64 level graphics and you have yourself the worst game of the year. If they spend half as much money on developing the game as they do on paying of reviewers, they might actually make a decent game.… Expand

A huge disappointment. The reduction of RPG to stupid idiotic slasher. Simplification of all components of the genre. Dragon Effect - another console squalor of BioWare.

Previous game was miles better. This one is just average at best, definitely not worthy of a good score. But I can see EA payed every relevant reviewer to have a descent score on Metacritic, though If you see the user scores It clearly shows the discontent of gamers about DA2, too much hype and all we got was a game where the only descent point is the combat mechanics (just at hard). Even the graphics are really bad. I have a high end PC were I can run Crysis at max at 60fps, but DA2 consumes a ridiculous amount of resources even on medium settings, and it's not like it has state of the art visuals or employs real time physics in every interaction either. I was going to give it a 5 but now. Bioware, banning a gamer and not letting him play the game just because he talked bad about your overlord, EA? That's low, and not just Activision low. See if I ever buy another game from you.… Expand

It's ... difficult ... to express how utterly disappointed I am with this game. Since any reaction is just an opinion, and we must agree that our opinions are no more or less valid than any other, I will simply say this was a serious disappointment from the joy and love I felt for the first Dragon Age. It's ... wow ... it's just nothing like its predecessor in any of the good ways.

Play the game before you come to the internet to complain about it people. I played both Origins and I just beat this game and I love it just as much. Give the changes a chance before you condemn them for being "dumbed down."

Combat had a big drop. Caves all look the same. Story was generic. More of the same "good response, neutral response, bad response" choices for dialog. It's like you kept all the things I don't like from your games and got rid of the enjoyable parts of DA:O.

Furthermore, I can no longer support a company that has a division within EA that is willing to suspend people's single player gameplay for activity on their forums. In a multi-player setting, it is sometimes appropriate to ban individuals who ruin the game for others. But that is not the case when we are considering single player activity, especially not with forums. http://i.imgur.com/xkhUI.png - Source.

In summary: Poor decisions in game design. Poor design in company policy.… Expand

Yes, I created a meta critic account just to post about my disappointment with this game. I have heard it said that it should have been marketed as something like "Hawke's Story: A Dragon Age Adventure" - this would have made much more sense, because this certainly isn't the sequel to that enthralling rich game that was DA:O. It has been simplified to the point of boring. Who is Hawke and why the well should I care about him? I get to pick snippets of words and then he goes and says something completely different. With the inclusion of the speech wheel I no longer have to work out what is the good, evil or neutral response - I can just pick the pretty picture. I no longer have to discern if my investigative questions will provoke a reaction, cause the big question mark tells me that they are just questions. I can't change the character the way that I want to, I am fighting arena battles instead of "random encounters". What REALLY annoys me is that this game flies in the the face of what DO:A was suppose to be "a spiritual sequel to the late great baldur's quest". This game seems more akin to a MMORPG guest hunt. The shame bioware... the shame... I am also now no longer interested in Knight of the Old Republic MMO. In fact... that is what this game reminds me of. Die by the sword... but without VSIM.… Expand

I've played this all of the way through before writing anything. I've always been a Bioware fan, but seriously, DA2 is disappointing and I cannot see how the bulk of review sites can ignore some its fundamental flaws. Granted I can see how the combat has improved for console platforms, but it's really the rest of the game that leaves me feeling irritated. For instance, the dialogue options and conversation interactions have really been dulled down - I assume this is due to the fact that Hawke is now voice-acted. I would love to sit down and talk with whoever came up with the 'sarcastic' replies for Hawke - he just sounds like an idiot. Taking the character of Isabella as an example - we get it, she is a sex addict - there is no need to constantly remind the player over and over again aside from the obviously intended hit with the younger male audience. There is no connection with the characters, you just don't end up caring what happens to them. The exception to this in my opinion is Merrill, whose dilemmas and underlying story fit in more with what I'd come to expect from Origins. The constant 'cameos' from older characters only reinforce the lack of interest with the supposed main cast of this installment. The story is definitely a lesser scale than origins, which makes me feel quite angry as to the marketing propaganda hinting at some sort of epic ascent to 'power'. Whilst the combat mechanics are a little more streamlined, as is item and inventory management in general, this doesn't fix the issue of repeated zones, reuse of assets, the low variety of enemies and the incredibly annoying 'walk-into-an-area-and-keep-spawning-stuff' ideology. Perhaps it is my fault for having expectations that were too high, or not checking beforehand that the entire game was essentially going to be set in one relatively bland city with a few outdoor areas which would be reused at periodic intervals as 'years' progress. I see a lot of the positive reviews being given here with scores of '10'. I just don't see why. Especially the 'OH MY GOD IM LEVEL 7 AND THIS IS AMAZING' - I too was still 'giving it a chance' at that stage hoping that it would open up and improve. Others suggest increasing the difficulty somehow compensates for the bad storyline and being locked into only a few zones just so that you can engage in slightly harder repetitive combat where on occasion people jump randomly from the sky, up from the ground or pop out of nowhere. I'm not a professional review writer - and I've never posted a review on metacritic before despite being a deidcated PC gamer for well over a decade. I just felt massively let down as a player and as a fan of DA:O that the experience of DA2 was quite simply a let down. Honestly it feels as if they sat down after the Awakening expansion and thought 'lets do that again with a new character and implement some of the ideas we couldn't fit into the scope Awakening - we'll call it Dragon Age 2'. P.S. Bring back more of the mage schools and spell combos. Why remove them?… Expand

What reason do we have to believe Mass Effect 3 won't be given the same shoddy treatment as Dragon Age II? So disappointed. Bioware has bought into their own hype and is throwing their well-earned reputation into the proverbial toilet.

It shouldn't be titled DA2, for it is Mass Effect: Dragon Age Mod. You can easily see how rushed the game is and each area is recycled over and over again.
As a sequel to DAO, the game SERIOUSLY disappointed me.
Sadly, BioWare chose to rush out a mediocre action RPG instead of further enhancing DAO cRPG elements. I hope that they have not fully forsaken Classic PC RPGs altogether, for easily forgettable mediocre Action console gaming.… Expand

Stay away. This game is a failure of epic proportions. The game re-uses environments so every dungeon you visit is exactly the same. The entire game takes place in 1 tiny city, it would be like playing all of DA:O in Denerim or playing all of Mass Effect on the citadel and never being able to leave. The city is lifeless, you can't talk to anyone or do anything, the people just stand there lifeless. This game is beyond epic fail, if I were president of bioware I would fire the entire DA:II design team for this disgrace. It's a sad day for games.… Expand

The combat in Dragon Age 2 was actually a lot more fun than the original. But the gameplay, story, atmosphere, music, and just about everything else made this game a steamy pile of **** compared to the original. You stay in one area for the ENTIRE game and environments are recycled 5-10 times, holy **** The characters are decent, but it's hard to get attached to them like you could in Origins. Now as a modern game it was mediocre, but for a Dragon Age successor it was a huge disappointment... I think I beat the game 100% in a little over 9 1/2 hours, Dragon Age: Origins took me over 60 hours to fully complete it, huge step backwards. The story was a mess, serious **** mess, I won't spoil it for anyone but no connections are made and it's a huge cluster **** of nothing. The game has polish, but it doesn't have that epic feel like Origins did. Oh well, maybe Dragon Age 3 will be a little different.… Expand

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This is one of the best RPG in the world. Unlike the first part of the game is 10 hours and she's fun and interesting. I do not understand people who put her 0 and 1. You even played in it?? Why spoil a game rating? Do nothing else or what?

My review? Recycled characters ( no more than 5 models for each race) , like 3 types of caves , 1 interesting boss fight , empty city , only ONE city , unidimensional characters ( the whore , the innocent , the brave ). MOST **** RPG EVER , whoever gives this piece of **** more than 5 most be paid by Bioware . I WANT MY MONEY BACK.

OOO , and you call the blood bath gore and realism? You must be **** kidding me , you don't blood all over your body when you kill a SKELETON , you retards .

Don't buy it , if you did , try to get your money back . You sold yourself to Ea , bioware , **** YOU… Expand

I am really disappointed with DA2, it has poor story, poor characters and npcs, combat system is completely awful, with mobs constantly spawning in waves from absolutely random locations you can forget tactics and positioning.
Why is there an inventory and loot in this game at all is a mystery to me, you donâ

OK so I left a review of this awful game, and Meta critic went and deleted it.

Seriously this is starting to get seriously out of hand. I left my review so that people would be aware of how much of a boring crass waste of time this game is, and I get censored? LOL

Gaming has hit an all time LOW guys, seriously. EA have taken one of the last bastions of hope in gaming (Bioware) and turned them into a driveling group of money sucking leeches.

If you want the depth generally assumed in an RPG, then you will be disappointed. This is action rpg at best, with rpg being used very loosely here. for me that is not good enough OK. It was marketed as a sequal to DA:O, an RPG. That is what I expected.

What I got was linear corridors, poor graphics in terms of immersion, weak plot and paper thin characters and dialog. This is not the game I was expected. Please stop telling me that I should change my point of view or call me a troll because I feel totally ripped off here. My GS user name is the same for those curious. Cheers.… Expand

How could Bioware have got Dragon Age 2 so very very wrong? Performance is terrible even if you are fortunate enough to be able to get the game running, and forget about it running in anything greater than DX9! And then on to of that Bioware have wormed their way through our collective back doors and inflicted us with securom. I honestly couldn't recommend anything more than a rental of this deeply flawed abortion, or perhaps picking it up on the cheap ... :(… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Everything is great in this game!!!Meet the Best Rpg for teen years Dragon age 2!!! I love this game!! I complete the game already and i want more play it.i want more adventures,i want more dlc which tell us about Hawke s fate)))dont listen people who give negative review its all flashmob… Expand

I give it a 1 for the effort. The rest is honestly a typical and shallow console game. This doesnt even deserve to be called an RPG. On top of it the DX11 support is a draconic way to get people with a DX9 or DX10 card to buy a DX11 card. Why else would the textures (amongst many other things) be extremely bad with DX9?

Im not even starting on gameplay because it is what I already said. Shallow and boring with console controls and gameplay. This is BioWare now? I am pretty pissed how the gaming culture is being dragged down by corrupt developers and publishers who dont even know their own product.… Expand

Never in all my days have I seen such a concerted effort to destroy a games reputation in the history of the internet.

Dragon Age II is as good a game as Dragon Age: Origins was, in its own way. The difference in the styles of the two games are not entirely all that different, the biggest change to DA2 in regards to how its played out is the lack of full itemization for your companion characters and thats really about it.

The story is fantastic, anyone who says otherwise doesn't understand that the games dynamics are secondary to the games story. And DA2 delivers, on story, in spades. Whats more the changes to the combat dynamics are so miniscule that the concerted and concentrated attempts at slagging the reputation of the game by "user score" alone seems like its been done by a huge group of angst ridden "fans" of the Dragon Age franchise that refuse to see the good of the game simply because of the few things that have been changed.

DA2 is a ever growing, intense story that travels over 10 years of your characters life in Kirkwall. And while some may complain that the game is "smaller" than DA:O because its only in and around the city of Kirkwall most of the environments in DA2 are actually bigger than any of the environments in DA:O, instead of fighting in a tiny little area, or parts of the city being about the size of a breadbox, Kirkwall's different districts stretch out quite a bit. To compare, take the Market District of Denerim in DA: which is about the size of the village of Loethering (fields not included), as compared to the Hightown or Lowtown districts of DA:O which are comparably the size of the Brecillian Forest areas in DA:O.

Its got just as much total play time, if you do all the quests in each act as a single game of DA:O and twice as many epic moments. In fact nearly every decision you make as you progress in DA2 will have effects and ramifications on what occurs later in the years of the game. And whats more none of these decisions have "clues" as to what the right decision is, something you do with all intention of trying to do "right" may have dire ramifications in the future of your game, regardless of your good intentions.

This game not only has all the replay value of DA:O, it is missing a lot of DA:O's slowdowns in regards to replay value. DA2 doesn't need "Skip the Fade" mod because there are no sections of DA2 that are universally tedious. Whats more there are no sections of DA2 that are as universally predictable either, even the Fade sequence that is in DA2 is much shorter, has some fair rewards in it and some interesting differences in occurrence depending on who you take with you.

The 720 or so people that have negatively reviewed this game have done so on the basis that the game is now accessible to people who enjoy action RPG play, and while i won't disagree with them, there are some changes to DA2 I didn't like as well, the major thing I will disagree with them on is that just because its "different" doesn't mean its a piece of trash that has fallen far short of the mark of BioWare's usual quality.

I've been playing the game since the day of release and I still have not completed it on my very first character and I can already see, from the 3 acts I've played that there are going to be a lot of different ways for me to replay this game as I wait for DA3, as compared to DA:O where I more or less just kept replaying the SAME GAME just with a different personality, with DA2, the game can change substantially depending on the choices I make.

DA2 is a fine platform for the continuation of the franchise and I feel that other than the itemization issues and the locked itemization for companion characters its a worthy successor to the DA franchise. Making it more exciting, giving it more replay and best of all, making me hungry for more of the story, in a way that DA:A did not do, after DA:O was released.

Please keep in mind as you read this page that this game has been subject to a concentrated flagging by a collusion of unhappy niche RPG fans that are all part of the same group on the BioWare Social Forums, a group that was specifically formed for this purpose alone, to come to Metacritic and to drop the user score as low as they could. And as you can see even with this concerted effort theres only around 800 people as compared to the hundreds of thousands of preordered copies of DA2 that were sold.

The game isn't perfect I give it a 9 of 10 and I do so because they did strip out some elements of RPG control that I'd have liked to have kept, but the story is fantastic, the way the game changes and morphs around your decisions is awesome, and the new combat pace is also quite good. DA2 is everything DA:O should have been, but missing a few things DA:O was that DA2 should have kept.… Expand