This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. There's a lot of things to like about this game, and a lot of things to dislike. Combat is over the top, the story is unfocused and weak, and the entire scope of the game feels a lot less epic than Origins did. This has already been discussed at length in most of the reviews. For the purposes of time, however, I'm going to focus on the thing that bothered me the most. For me, the MOST annoying factor is the fate of the siblings. You only get to have your sibling for the first act of the game. At the end of the Deep Roads, no matter what you do, your sibling leaves the party, either dead or with another faction - the Circle, the Templars, or the Grey Wardens. This was annoying for me. Getting to know the family that came with Hawke was one of the big draws for me. Why give us a character and let us get to know them only to take them away before half of the game is done? It seems almost like it was done because of the development time - like they didn't have the resources to do both stories for the entire game since you only get one or the other, and so, to cut corners, they took them out of the equation for most of it. It's not even the fact that I used Bethany as my healer - I liked her as a CHARACTER beyond that, and so her fate was particularly upsetting for me. It's probably not fair for me to judge the game harshly because of this, but I do. If the sibling was able to rejoin the party sooner, perhaps towards the end of Act II or at the beginning of Act III, I wouldn' mind as much. I'd even enjoy it. It would add some drama. But by removing the ability to get around this, to find another solution, it forces you into losing the sibling and removed one of the better connections I had to the main character. Combined with the fate of the mother, it was just too much. With so many unavoidable tragedies, I started to detach myself from everything that was going on, and made me question why Hawke would stick around after all of that personal loss instead of just moving on to somewhere better.… Expand

A complete failure. Graphics look like a PS2 game. Gameplay is like God of War except not real time and boring as hell. I'd rather take an enema from a disgruntled lumberjack than play 5 minutes of this trash. If for some reason you decide to buy this game and feel the need to complain, you better not post anything negative on the BIOWARE FORUM or they will not only ban you from the forum, they'll block access to all of your EA games.… Expand

This game does not deserve a rating of zero, but it's going to get one - Because I think a statement needs to be made to Bioware (and all these oddly fawning press sites) about the direction this franchise is headed in.

When Dragon age : Origins came out, it was a refreshing throwback to the classic RPGs of yore (specifically the Baldur's Gate series) and it had just enough depth and complexity to live up to its predecessors. It wasn't quite what they were, but it was bloody close - and it had all the modern bells and whistles on top. I played the hell out of it. Along comes "Awakening", and suddenly we're starting to see a change. The role playing is getting "lite" , the combat is becoming more and more prevalent and repetitive, and the depth of choice is suddenly shrinking. Where once we had a vast world to explore, dozens of characters we could converse with in each area, and a variety of possible story outcomes, we are now being limited to a small selection of areas with very linear paths, and characters who exist solely to sell us potions, or do battle with us. Very Diablo-esque. Only Blizzard knows how to do all that much, much , better. And that brings us to ... Dragon Age II. Or Dragon Effect, or God of Dragon Age, or whatever you want to call it because it doesn't really feel like a sequel so much as a mash-up with some other action oriented game. The world has now shrunk to the point of ridicule - literally, a single city. The quests have been simplified to the point they more or less complete themselves (pick up an item, follow the quest marker, click on guy who takes item from you automatically and gives you 50 silver pieces) and the combat has become this frenzied slash'em up style thing with obvious anime influences (your characters waltz around the battlefield like in fast forward, and one of the swords you can wield is actually a direct replica of Cloud's Buster Sword in FF 7 . The story is as flat as the gameplay, failing in its attempts to evoke emotion (family members in peril) by fast forwarding through all the potentially dramatic stuff and leaving a few quick cut scenes which are poorly animated and awkwardly voiced. The game always feels like it is in a rush... You are never allowed to contemplate what has happened, its feels like the developers are just telling you to "be sad now!" or "laugh at this joke!" and then they move you immediately back to the action, and the buster Swords and Final Fantasy Hair do's. I will end this novel by saying that Dragon Age 2 will probably appeal to a certain demographic of gamers who enjoy heavily action oriented games and fantasy settings (God of war, Diablo) but to the (apparently old, and forgotten) Role playing gamers who grew up on the likes of Icewind Dale, BG, Planescape torment, etc. This game is a joke. It is a bastardized, dumbed down ( do NOT tell me that being unable to change my companion's equipment is anything other than this) farce, which squanders the good will I had toward Bioware and the Dragon Age franchise and leaves me cold to the thought of a DA3. Thanks for DA:O Bioware. I think I'm going to play that one again, instead.… Expand

This is not even a game. I do not like bioware along with the other low scoring reviewers so I as well am giving them an incredibly low user score to make this game look bad for bioware.

Dragon Age II feels like it want to statisfy the customers basic needs but nothing more. You can buy it and may get up to eight hours of basic entertaiment. However, it's not enought for me. This game doesn't look finished after one and an half year. It hast a great story development but all ends up in some mess of trivial stuff. Freedom of choice is only an illusion - nearly no one of the huge ammount of descissions you doing have any effect. So, why a 3 out of 10 when it is 'basically statisfieng'? Because i think Bioware doing things in a bad way. Someone there may've got that you only have to do 'the basic things' to get the customers money, but it's the wrong way. I really wish that the next Bioware product get the time it needs.… Expand

This game is simply an apple that fell too far from the tree so to speak it is absolutely an insult...... There are too many problems to list. I have over 500 hours into the original Dragon Age and in comparison the new game is not even recognizable. Thumbs down.

I accept some of the criticisms leveled at this game, but some of them are just plain wrong. Graphically to my eyes this is a big improvement over the disjointed and inconsistent Origins, which looked great one minute and awful the next. With the hi-res texture pack and all the DX11 effects on it's an impressive sight in my opinion. The depth of field and motion blur are especially improved over DAO. While I'm not a fan of the re-used environments they're generally more detailed than the same old caves that DAO recycled through the deep roads and half the rest of the game.

Difficulty is a bit iffy so far for me, playing a mix of normal and hard I've found a lot of the game too easy, excepting a boss fight that took me 5 goes to get through on hard. Let's not forget this is far (FAR) better than the train wreck of difficulty in DAO that seemed to be programmed by a bipolar sitcom star. A few random encounter wolves harder than masses of darkspawn anyone?

Anyone who expects Bioware to keep remaking Baldurs Gate for all eternity to appease the D&D crowd, or compares this unfavorably to NWN2 (I enjoyed it, but really?)

For mine this is more of a return to KOTOR, a much better an refined return at that. It deserves the ~85% it's getting from real reviewers (who've actually played the game, unlike most of the posters here who seem to be going off the demo - a couple even admit to never playing the finished game).… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Well its been 4 days and I went through DA2 twice to try out the impact of different decisions. Did my second run through on casual to get over the repeated dungeons asap. A good game on its own but it shouldn't be called DA2. Yes yes we all want change but not too much shall we? We can't franchise Macdonalds and not sell burgers!

Some plus points first. It was nice to hear my character speaking, but this is nothing extraordinary. Music was average, and the environments were well designed and nice to look at (I like the wounded coast sky), if one ignores the reuse of environments and the static nature of everything. The grey area of decisions is a good step forward, but it was not used properly and left players (me at least) hanging. Cliffhangers are good, but a balance is needed. There was no closure at all (not to mention the cliffhangers from DAO).

I must say, that if Kirkwall was ruined and converted entirely into one expansive dungeon, it would have been kinda cool (Like ghastheim in good ol' ragnarok). It would have served excellently as ONE major quest, but the content given to us was far to short and limited to be DA2 in its entirety.

Also, the entire of DA2 had to do with mages. The problem is that the enemy mages were useless! They casted less spells than their demonic counterparts and there are so many interrupts available to stop them (or to kill them in one shot). In DAO, a battle with just 2 emissaries could be fatal if you didn't plan your tactics properly. In DA2, a rogue can tank 5 mages that do nothing but shoot at you with their staves. As one of the core classes of the story, this was one major disappointment. Improvements to the combat system were definitely appreciated, and I liked the junk system as well. However, I felt that the items were just bland, and there was no kick from getting an EPIC item from a boss kill. The star system wasn't really helpful.

I missed how expansive the word of DAO was. Yes you can say that DAO was just in ferelden and it is good to move out of ferelden but the fact remains that the entire DA2 was in one city! Uptill "chapter 3", I was still thinking that the entire game was just one small chapter of a larger story, and was waiting for some epic war against tevinter to materialize. How disappointed I was when the game suddenly ended (WAY TO SUDDEN).

One major attraction of RPGs is the variety: of environments, of creatures and of items that a player faces. It is an expression of human imagination: it is thrilling and refreshing. Cutting back on these three aspects is most disadvantageous: they the pulling factors that retain old players and draw new ones. Remember how deep we could go into the deep roads in DAO? Remember the myriad of creatures found in each area in DAO? There was so much variety just for every single chapter, and now this? Obviously there has been a massive shift in corporate strategy, and from my financial background, this is one colossal red flag. Note that DAO is just one basis of comparison. All successful rpgs (Diablo, WOW etc) tend to have large varieties of enemies and deep lore. Also there were some comments on how the escape from lothering didn't feel like an escape. Well I think the demo sums up what you can expect from the game. I remember other 'escape' scenarios in other games, like Maiev running away from Illidan as the cave collapsed all around her, or the Protoss evacuation from Aiur. These were ancient games but with whatever technology they had, the missions actually embodied the urgency of an escape. It is this lack of atmosphere, coupled with the reuse of environments, that has degraded the utility of DA2.

Also, you rescued Flemeth, one of the characters that has had an excellent redesign, and she was like "KTHXBYE". What? Thats it? Ain't even a cliffhanger.

Such a pity for a game with an excellent foundation. There were so many advances and improvements (including good looking characters), but the developers did not realize the full potential of their creation. There is no need to rush games to increase revenue (why else would you rush it?). Investments have long horizons are take time to realize their true value (Look at blizzard!). Was it worth it to risk Bioware's reputation (You cannot deny all these honest, negative reviews when they are the majority!)? Will I buy DA3? Yes, but only because DAO was really good, and because I am waiting for Diablo 3 to come out (which better not be a disappointment) and have nothing to play in the mean time.… Expand

Plus-1. Battle is must faster and responsive 2. Better graphics than Origins 3. Main character has voice
Minus-1.Story is uninteresting 2.Repetitive environment 3. Zoom is not sufficient to get full view of battlefield 4.Companions are boring 5. Battle is easy even on hard.Button mashing is the way to win. 6.Crafting is mnimal 7.Armor customization is very minimal 8.Choices are bland and mostly without any real consequence
So,this sums it up.The worst bioware game ever.Though a good action game,but whether its an rpg and successor to Dragon Age Origins is questionable.
My Score: 6/10… Expand

If you liked and are expecting the same quality of game as Mass Effect or Dragon Age Origins this game is not for you. I wanted to like this game, but after 10 hours of game play I've had to put it down and doubt I'll be finishing it. I wish I could get my money back - my opinion of BioWare has been absolutely shattered by this. There's a few things that I found absolutely unexceptable:
1) Reuse of the same locations (one cave, one warehouse, one coastline) the entire game. All the maps feel like hallways with no sense of open exploration you expect in RPGs.
2) Item drops are just uninteresting and uninspired. Most things are just named belt, or ring, the graphics for items don't really change, and you can't really use much of what drops anyways. They actually have a "junk" category... why are you making me pick up junk in the first place?
3) Dialogue/relationships between characters is pretty shallow/contrived/immature.
4) Ending is abrupt - ends in 7 years... where's my decade they advertised?
5) Combat is horribly dull and uninspired. There's no strategy, you just fight wave after wave of enemies that spawn out of nowhere. 6) Many of the quests are just tedious and boring. This just feels like a very stale and poorly executed RPG with none of the innovation, twists, and intelligence I'd expect from a AAA title.

I'm not sure where the "professional" reviews are coming from but I feel like they can't have played the game for very long because it's just so obviously a subpar game.

Bleeeeeh… Expand

As fair as i can be... Almost a week ago this 35 year old man sat sipping an early morning coffee in egger anticipation of the postman visiting his door, because on this morning two great things where happening... 1. the day off work (not to mention the following three as well) 2. the much anticipated Dragon age 2 signature edition was arriving. I was planing on writing an in depth, insightful review but instead i am just going to list pro's and cons and a brief summery at the end. Pro's - Graphically its very good, the characters and landscapes are done with a very high level of detail i was only playing on medium settings and found some of scenery quite stunning at times. The spirit and mood of DAO is there, it pops its head up to say hellonow and then, not quite frequent enough for me to fall in love all over but often enough to keep my hopes up that it will blossom and flourish any minute now. the cast - i really liked the cast and supporting companions, i seem to be very loyal and stick with the first /tank/mage/healer that i come across in games and my fear was in this i would not take to the new characters as i would be missing the old ones to much but they grew on me instantly in most cases and for me the real reason i will revisit the game will be to tryout the characters that i did not use often in my first play through. combat - right this is tricky, im going to list comat in both the pro's and cons of the game because i do believe that improves have been made in some areas but bioware have dropped the ball in others, but as this is pro's lets stick with those first. First thing you notice is the visuals of certain abilities and spells, i played rogue in the original and in this one as well and the dynamic of this has been greatly improved, in DAO to perform backstab you had to position yourself behind your target and low and behold you could perform backstab, but targets dont often like to stand in the one spot so your character could end up chasing thenm around till they hold still long enough for you to perform backstab rendering it useless very often. In DA2 its a different story, at the click of a button you vanish, appear and perform backstab all in an instant making it a viable talent and much more pleasing on the eye . The other great thing about combat is the talent trees, there are at least six yes thats right six trees to choose from meaning you can play the same class over and over but have very different characters, experiences and results. Con's - Repetitiveness on maps, i wanted to play the whole game so i made sure i did all side quests before moving on the the main quest/storryline. I found myself repeatatly visiting the same cave/house/coastline to kill bandits/spiders/mercenaries (very similar to the bandits from where i standing) and after a while this felt like a chore rather than a joy, the quests themselves had very little imagination pretty much forgettable for the most part i can only compare it to my experience grinding in MMO's for money/XP. Something i have never before experienced with any bioware game before. combat - its easy, way to easy i was worried by my lack of a healer in the party and kept hoping to meet one down the line but i never did nor did i need to, i can only recall using 2 health potions outside of boss fights and this is with no healer in the party remember, this made fighting tedious, there was no feeling of danger at any time and the fights consist of hordes of mobs coming at you in waves but you feel like a man fighting toddlers, i personal felt like a bad ass for the first few fights but the novelty soon wore off and it became a bore, something in the way of me getting to where i wanted to go. Epicness - I keep comparing it to DAO which is slightly unfair but understandable as this is it's(supposed) successor but it just lacks the depth, variety and feeling of Epicness, overall the game still feels really good but when your riding on the coattails of Epic, really good just does not cut it.. Summery - Had this not been the follow up to Origins or a bioware game i think it would have been far better revived, i personally think Origins as close to a gaming masterpiece that you can get. and those are impossibly big shoes to fill but if anyone could i had faith bioware could. They did it with Baldurs gate, the squeal improving on the original in many ways yet keeping the same things that made everyone fall in love with the original, they did not pull that off this time. I just have the feeling bioware have gone from setting the standard to following the standard, taking the extraordinary and making it ordinary. Is this down to EA the timing of their involvement with bioware cant be dismissed as coincidence in my eyes, given biowares excellent back catalogue of games it strikes me as odd the would go from "sublime" to "quite good" all of a sudden on their own but maybe EA are an all to convenient scapegoat… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. [Previously rated an 8]
Personal experience is 50% of what makes a game fun, not all of the weight is on Bioware's shoulders. MMORPG games can be extremely well-crafted, but still not my game of choice. My personal experience does not represent their failure to produce a great game.
All that out of the way - I've had a lot of fun with this game; 60 hours in and most likely to break 100 hours next week. Most people gripe about the Black and White morality choices, though I haven't honestly found one that's simply put "Kill bad guy/Give bad guy weapons." The Yes/No decisions aren't as limiting as you'd think, if you are playing across multiple accounts at once, you will be able to see how differently certain quests accepted/declined affect the world around Hawke. In my opinion, the game is, in essence, simpler than DA:O. Bioware themselves have chuckled to this idea within their own game, passersby saying things like: "Have you noticed that everything is getting... Easier? Like everything from eating, to fighting is a lot Simpler?" [Talkative man, from Hanged-Man Pub.] The game certainly feels a lot more like Fable II, but that doesn't mean the entire game is just a joke and a clink of mugs, there are some moments you wish you could cut people down in, but simply cannot. Not all problems can be solved by mashing "r."
Which brings me to combat - it is simpler, without being "Dumbed-down." In this, a Soldier is just as well to have Cunning, Dexterity, Strength, Constitution, and even Magic, whereas in DA:O, Magic was pretty passable if you had a healer, though Potent Health Poultices pretty much made the whole 'Magic increases health regained from poultices" useless. And the 'Sneak' skill is brilliantly implemented, making the original look a little weaker in the Rogue department. People have stated that 'Even on Nightmare setting it's way too easy, with no need to pause/fiddle with Tactics.' Whereas even on Normal, fighting bosses/challenging encounters may require a pause here and there. Casual is basically for people too lazy to type "runscript killallhostiles" in console, as it makes using any abilities pretty useless, considering you're mainly attacking low-tier enemies most of the time - though it's intended to be that way. I've ended up fighting a Dragon boss 3 times total, once in Nightmare, twice in Hard, and eventually beat it. To most people, they'd focus on the fact that I had to fight a Dragon 3 times, when in truth, I *wanted* to fight the dragon thrice, on a hard difficulty. Plus, Difficulty can help 'immersion,' cranking it up whenever you fight the supposed "Nightmarish Darkspawn" actually being a challenge rather than an average horde.
I rarely thought I'd enjoy any other RPG as much as/more than DA:O, but my overall experience with DA2 certainly outdoes DA:O's (Which I have 370 hours and counting on). As an avid Dragon Age fan, DA2 isn't a disapointment, and does explore the unique world DA:O created much more in-depth than the first. In DA:O, your goal is to get aid from Mages, Dwarves, Dalish Elves, and perhaps the Arl of Redcliffe, in DA:2 your goal is to get a high enough standing to protect your family from the religious fear of your Sister's/Your magical gift, fearing the Templars will rush in some day soon...… Expand

A serious disappointment. They removed everything RPG about this game. Actually I didn't mind the combat system, but the immersion was just gone completely. It felt like walking through a painting, I was not in a real game world. The complete lack of items and lack of variety among the few that there were was also annoying... so was the inability to equip your companions... so were the new dumbed-down character trees... so were the recycled dungeons... I could go on...

And the story was just stupid. Anders blows up the Chantry WHY? "HURF DURFF IT MUST END HERE!!!!" Not to mention the whole thing being rather predictable. The fact that so many DA2 fans cite the "complex and challenging story" as a factor in this game shows how f*cking stupid you have to be to like this. WHOAH **** THE OLD LADY WENT MAD HUH? AND IT WAS COS OF THAT IDOL? NOOO surely not!! Magic driving people insane? WHOAH better slow down there Bioware, you're breaking new ground here!!! Neither did the story hang together. There were lots of plotlines and events that seemed to be relevant but just happened and remained unexplored. More annoyingly, they ruined the character of Anders. Instead of being a bumbling moron making crap jokes, which meant you could laugh at him if not with him, he became a whiny wuss who kept hitting on you (I'm gay irl but seriously, get lost fgt).

This game is 60% an unfinished rush-job and 40% an attempt to commercialise RPGs. Evidently someone at EA failed to notice that cRPGs are ALREADY highly commercial. Hopefully this will flop and they'll learn their lesson.… Expand

Dear EA, why you think i'am so stupid to buy THIS говно некаÑ

I play Rpg games on pc by 15 years. I have them all starting by Ultima 8 avatar...
This game is a pure disaster on each side you try to judge it.
Dialogues are bad, Combact is bad, Graphic is bad (I play at max resolution 2500*1600), History is bad, party is bad, Inventory is bad, statistics and talents are bad. Environment is bad. Difficulty is ridicolous (i am playing at most difficult level and believe me it is too easy...) Camera and pause are soo bad that even seems they not exists... It is quite impossible to make tattics with a so bad camera angle.
Really a disaster... Even Hack and slash games are better than this... Where is the Bioware of the past that releases true rpg games like Baldur's gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment ???
I buy the signature edition and i wont my money back...… Expand

Mindless, dull, boring and generic are the first words that come to mind when playing this game.
There is literally nothing good you can say about this game, absolutely nothing; the story is boring, the characters have very poor personalities and don't add much depth to the game, love interests are there to appeal to "mature gamers that play mature games" and don't add anything to the story either, the characters themselves look somewhat decent with the texture pack, but the areas and surroundings feel very dead and generic. And oh wow, the UI, it feels like I'm playing **** alpha, it is just that bad, most custom WoW UI's (hell even the regular one) look much better than this piece of **** Luckily I didn't pay for this piece of **** as it truly is depressing for a company like Bioware to **** out a turd like this. I'm still trying to come up with something good I can say about this game, but nope, I just can't do it.… Expand

Dragon Age 2 is a poor game and extremely disappointing. While some changes from DA:O were made to "improve" the game, the result is appalling and a joke. Some principles of what makes a good "RPG" are universal and can be assessed objectively, such as a unified overarching story that makes sense, varied combat and environments, and the ability to immerse yourself in the game. Unfortunately this is not possible in Dragon Age 2 for a number of reasons:

1. After completing the game, I struggled to recall what the main purpose of my journey was, or what I achieved. Honestly, what the hell was the point of Act 1??? I don't want to give away spoilers, but it was very difficult to enjoy a story that was put together in far too short a space of time and where there was no direction in character or plot development.

2. The re-use of the same environments was an insult to any gamer who spent their hard earned cash on this product. It is not asking too much to play a 30+ hour campaign without seeing the same environments ad nauseum. I believe I literally saw a total of 10 environments a dozen times each. If the designers couldn't get some more environments designed within the release date, then they need to push the release date back. Gamers expect more for their money, and rightly so. We are not stupid 12 year olds who cannot see the cust-cutting short cuts that have been taken.

3. Re-spawning enemies in battles. I mean honestly, is there anything else that could make it more difficult to immerse yourself in Kirkwall? You find a set of enemies, proceed to kill them, then randomly 20 more sprout from the skies. Is there an explanation? NO! It just happens and you deal with them. Sorry, but this is just extremely lazy programming and game design. You wanted to make the game challenging so you just add more baddies. Well, from a game design point of view this may have been the easiest option, but how many modern classic videogames employ such a draconian approach to game design? None. This was disgusting and a discgrace and I expected better for a supposedly AAA title.

4. The loss of real decision-making. It would be hard to describe this section in detail without spoilers, but it should be noted that although the game presents itself as giving you a "choice" in your story, the sad fact is that no matter what options you take in the story, there is little to no bearing on the final outcome.

5. The game feels "incomplete". While DA:O had it's own well contained story, and a lot of DLC and even a full expansion, the original product itself felt complete. The story made sense, had a beginning, middle and conclusion (as all stories with STRUCTURE have). This game does not have structure, and feels like a petty cash grab to throw in some more overpriced DLC. Honestly, I don't mind DLC, but the core product should be complete enough that it doesn't feel like I have to buy DLC to enjoy my experience. Give me a complete product and story for my money, not this farce. (I believe this may just be an approach that EA adopts, as I swear to god that the Sims 3 was also one of the world's most incomplete games)

6. The city of Kirkwall is a joke. Do you honestly think I didn't see how you made all the high buildings so that you didn't have to create a greater draw distance, or add textures or design to objects in the distance? Sorry, but there shouldn't be so many "high rise" buildings in a game set in an era that is similar to medieval europe. Where are all the other towns and cities? The forests? Nothing, just one bland city with too many buildings blocking any views.

7. Gameplay. So you said that the game can still be played tactically but you took out the tactical view and made enemies need a single button to be killed? Lazy, boring and stupid This was blatantly lazy from a design point of view, I'm sure you saved some money in your design on the game, but you have lost money on future purchases with this rubbish.

Granted there are some redeeming features such as improved graphics (in comparison to DA:O) and the new dialogue system show promise, however this is never fully realised as Hawk is rather bland and generic and hardly customisable, leaving little to the imagination. Therefore a 4/10 is a fair assessment. I would like 36 hours of my life back and 100 AUD.

EA/Bioware may have made a conscious business decision to expand their audience, but this business decision has backfired on them as they have lost a customer (and likely many more), and let me tell you, the COD ADD audience that this game is targeted at are largely uninterested in a fantasy RPG that takes way too long to complete considering there is so little content.

By the way, I understand this is my first and only review, but I feel so strongly about this game that I felt the opinion should be expressed. I am not a troll, just a very angry customer who has been ripped off.… Expand

What a horrible game. Bioware dropped the ball on this one, don't waste your money. It's really short - It took me 17 hours to complete, and I wasn't even rushing. Compare that to the original Dragon Age which took me well over 60 hours to complete. Then you have DLC's ready to milk your wallet on the friggin same day as the game was released.

This sucks. Bioware sucks. EA sucks.

Dragon Age II is great sequel to Dragon Age. It feels more like Mass Effect 2, which I think was Bioware's idea. Some aspects of the game were made more simple which probably alienates some hardcore RPG fans. But for me the game feels like a novel in a book series, and I can enjoy the game and the story, rather than spend most of my time finding better equipment and leveling to survive the game. All in all a great game, and I have high hopes for future DLCs and Dragon Age III.… Expand

There could be a long list of things I could mention that are just wrong with this game. Lets just say if you like Dynasty Wars, console button mashing, over the top animations, lazy implementations of game themes and finally, you like your RPGs, well, not as RPGs but as arcade style games, then you will love this. If you like traditional RPGs, save your money as this is pure powder puff. Very disappointing. If you play it, remember to keep inserting $1 to continue...… Expand

Biggest disappointment since Spore. This is what happens when you take a complex genre and try to dumb it down so that everybody can enjoy it -- the result is a mess that bores the longtime DnD fans while still being too inaccessible for today's wave of newcomers. Take Dynasty Warriors, but remove the cool and interesting characters, varied settings, and adrenaline-pumping music, and this is what you are left with.

I highly recommend researching Bioware's handling of criticism before deciding to purchase this game.

Hopefully Bioware will learn from their mistakes, and their next game will have a more decided focus -- either a silly waggle adventure game for the Wii that mom and dad can play, or a REAL sequel to Baldur's Gate II. Trying to smush the two together is a recipe for failure.… Expand

I can't describe the level of disappointment with this game. I've bought every Bioware game in the last ten years and thought they can go no wrong - how wrong was I. Dragon Age 2 is a bad game and a terrible sequel. The developers tried so hard to pull in the casual crowd that they changed and destroyed almost everything that was so beautiful about Origins. As a result we got exploding bodies, combat where you have to pause the game every 2 seconds in order to be tactical on higher difficulty levels, ridiculous waves of enemies, reused environments, bland companions, uninteresting and illogical story ..... i could go on and on.
Stay away !!… Expand

I've now logged in over 25hrs into Dragon Age 2 and am simply not impressed. Everything about Dragon Age: Origins was absolutely epic, the story, the characters, the combat etc. DA2 changed a lot of what I loved about DA:O. I know there are a lot of folks clamoring about people giving this game poor reviews because it isn't a real DA:O sequel, but I'm not sure I fully understand this. DA:O was excellent, the formula worked IMO, I just don't understand why they changed so much. I'm a HUGE Bioware fan, so giving this game a poor review wasn't easy. The story is very week in my opinion. I feel no attachment what so ever to the main character and sup[porting NPCS, they seem extremely generic. In DA:O the work hung in the balance and you were at the center. With DA2 it just doesn't feel the same at all. The two launch DLC, which I feel is a total scam are absolutely not worth it. I have to pay to respec my character? What a load of junk.

Save yourself the cash and wait for a few of the soon to be released RPGs. DA2 misses the mark by a long shot in my book. And don't be seduced by the "professional" reviews. They all seem infatuated with the new combat system, which I feel makes this game so much worse.… Expand

DA2 is a good game with improved graphics and fun companions but it's not quite a worthy successor to DAO. It stands alone better as an expansion. As an RPG, DA2 falls short on the story side and your choices don't seem to matter much. On the plus side, the combat is much faster and the shuffling present in DAO is no longer there. But it can be too fast and with the waves of enemies ninja-spawning, tactics don't seem to matter as much as they did in DAO. I found the game a bit dumbed down for a classic RPG but it was still very enjoyable as an action RPG. New models, especially the Qunari, look fantastic but it's unfortunate that Bioware chose to re-use the same environments for so many quests. It's a fun game and definitely worth a go if you're an RPG fan (I'm on my second play through now). Bioware has long been my favourite game company but I do feel let down by this entry in the Dragon Age world after so many years of superb gaming experiences with them. My fingers are crossed for another DA sequel with all of the legitimate concerns addressed. I don't mind waiting!… Expand

Im actually quite surprised by the negative reviews of the game. The only thing I can think is that they didnt give the game much of a chance. When I first started DA2 I thought it was pretty lousy. Definitely a step back from DAO. But after playing it for a few hours I completely changed my mind. I love the game, and while I admit some elements are not as good as DAO, some are better. The character creation is somewhat flawed, models with MASSIVE chins and tiny eyes. Almost as bad (at first) as Bethesda's. But once you play around with it you can get some nice looking models. The animations are much better. Especially for the mage. No more poky, poky with your staff. You now execute fluid spins as you shoot ice and flame from your hands. It gives the mage a much needed upgrade. Playing with an archer has become a lot more fun. Sound effects are amazing. Score is well done. And Im so confused as to why people would be so down on the story...the story is what's drawn me in and made me a believer in DA2. I would suggest playing on hard or nightmare, as normal is just a bit too easy. But hard presents a challenge, and nightmare is well...a nightmare. Plan on dying a lot if you go that route. Reviews are nothing more than opinions. DA2 is NOT that far a cry from DAO. You still need to pause, the tactics are all there. Thats simply a fact. Playing on hard/ nightmare you cannot get through without micromanaging your party. Its just not possible. The animations are fluid and well done. The graphics are almost exactly the same as DAO with some minor changes (Qunari are a bit more brutish looking and have horns for example. And elves...well, elves dont look all that pretty anymore.) There is a demo out for DA2. Play it. If you like it even a little, pick up DA2. You wont be disappointed.… Expand

While the game is not as good as it's predecessor, it surely doesn't deserve the backlash it's getting. Combat is satisfying, the story is as good as in any other Bioware game. The only negative things about seem to be some repetitive locations a smaller (but still quite big) game world and a bit lesser follower interaction. None of which disqualify the game as a triple A title.

Dragon Age II is filled with choppy, wooden animations, it suffers worse soulless faces than the Mass Effect series had, graphics worse than Origins, and it is not an immersive RPG despite the high budget and amount of voice acting. They dumbed down the UI and spell casting system to appeal to people who's first RPG was probably Dragon Age 2 and to take in the casual Call of Duty players (http://n4g.com/news/696379/bioware-we-want-call-of-dutys-audience). This is without a doubt Bioware's worst RPG by far. It's a shame to see that the name they've grown through RPG treasures they made like Jade Empire and Kotor are smeared by trash this. I've decided to give up on Bioware until I hear some enlightening news about TOR… Expand

I have enjoyed this game very much since release. I think the graphics are beautiful, and the game play enjoyable. ( I have a high end PC) I feel I have already got my monies worth out of it, and I have barely scratched the surface.
Yes, the playable areas are recycled more than I would like, but the combat is satisfying, especially if you have a weapon that creates extra gore. Pausing the game right when an enemy gets dismembered is classic. I am enjoying the game for what it is, not what I want it to be.… Expand

Dear Bioware:
You may not see your sales sink for this game, because many of us purchased this game with hopes that it would offer the same depth of gameplay as DA:O, but you will see them sink for the next one. Basically, we had a bait-and-switch pulled on us, and you can expect most of to know what to expect next time. Your company has plummeted in my mind over the past few years, and I don't think I am the only one. This game is what I will think about in the future when I hear the name "Bioware" -- a shameless money-grab at the God of War crowd. Bioware is now the bait-and-switch company in my mind, thanks for helping me make up my mind on that.… Collapse

I am a massive BioWare fan, and their games are my favorite of all time especially Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. But this game was a huge disappointment. It had no identity. The Action was too "actiony" even for a action RPG let along a RPG.

The stages and levels were rehashed and used over and over again. Difficulty was sending the same waves of mobs at you over and over again.

This is probably BioWare's worst game to date. I usually went around saying "BioWare games can't fail" I guess I was wrong. This game didn't really fail but was average at best.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Compared to DA1, the sequel is trash in my honest opinion. The game lacks depth in storytelling, lore and quests. Storytelling was even lower quality than DA1. What I mean is that if I am playing a "movie RPG" like DA2, I expect to see some scripted custom animations, high quality dialogue or even nice prerendered cut scenes but when I completed the game I felt empty handed. I was also expecting to see some advancement in the Dragon Age core lore but after the brief introduction of Flemeth and her reappearance mid-game, the game just kept centering on the Champion of Kirkwall. Lore-wise speaking the game should have been an expansion or DLC to original DA, very much like DA:O. The quests themselves are mindless, which might be enough for some people but I feel that there should be something new to these "go to the point X, kill Y and bring me the Z". Recycling maps is usually acceptable in this kind of games but if we are just running around one city lik in DA2, I get the expression the game was pushed out too early. Every mansion looks the same, every house has the same rooms and even all the close by caves, five or six of them, look completely the same. I felt like playing one of those low grade Asian role-playing game made for kids which would not see the similarity of the maps.

Combat and skill system is surely better than in DA1. Fighting in general feels more smooth and even thought number of abilities/spells was reduced, I think the general feel of the abilities/spells is better. The "combo states" (staggering etc.) game the fighting a little more depth too but overall these positive features can't save the game.

All-in-all, I feel like I've brought an overpriced and hurried expansion pack to Dragon Age. Makes me a sad panda.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. While DA2 does not live up to the reputation of games previously released by the developer, it does offer numerous hours of enjoyable play. The storytelling mechanic is fun, aspects of the main storyline are intriguing and, yes, to my surprise, the combat is generally better than its predecessor (Dragon Age: Origins). But the game also has more than its fair share of warts, including the story and the rushed production schedule which shows itself in the reuse of environments. The story itself, generally one of Bioware's strengths, is sorely lacking in focus and direction. A number of different minor story paths are unfolding throughout the game and they are, for what it's worth, mostly tied up by the end and shown how they all connect, yet none of them on their own are terribly interesting and several of them are quite two dimensional. One of the "major" tensions in the game is that between the Templars, a militaristic order with the task of policing (oppressing) the city's community of mages, and the mages themselves who are frequently the target of accusations they practice particularly foul and evil magics. Unfortunately, while the leader of the templars is never shown in a particularly positive light, she does have some compelling arguments and some of her subordinates are positively good people. In contrast, the vast majority of mages are revealed to, in fact, be practicing exactly the kind of dark magic they are accused of. The only excuse the game really offers the mages is that they were "pushed" into it by the templar commander's overzealous persecution. It's a circular logic that may serve the story's purpose but ultimately rings a bit hollow.

The game also reveals a horribly rushed production schedule. Environments are reused over and over. And I'm not talking about 90% of the game taking place in a single city. I'm talking about the "dungeons" themselves, or perhaps I should say "dungeon". There is precisely one outdoor random encounter (or "ambush") map that is reused for each such encounter. There is basically one cave map that is reused over and over again, the only difference being that certain doors may be closed or passages are blocked by rubble. There is one warehouse map, again used repeatedly for each and every warehouse. There is also one under city map, which looks a lot like a mine (including the mine cart), but doesn't make a lot of sense when that map is used for the sewers (a mine cart in the sewers, really?).

There are plenty of other negatives as well. The lack of friendly fire in combat as well as significantly increased cooldown periods (compared to DAO) for the use of healing spells and potions argues in favor of simply spamming area of effect attacks rather than having to prioritize targets and fight strategically. Enemies now enter combat in waves, and frequently come in right behind or on top of you, tumbling out of windows or descending from the ceiling above. As a consequence, tactical positioning becomes almost pointless. Companion interactions are still entertaining but limited as compared to its predecessor, with fewer opportunities to explore their backstories and develop a sense of attachment to them.

Despite these flaws, there have been improvements. The graphics are better and, on the whole, so is the combat. I didn't think I would say that, but I am enjoying the combat more than in DAO. Some of the "improvements" may have been ill-advised (discussed above), but the overall tempo and artistic style of the combat is improved. And while not up to the standard of Bioware's previous work, the story itself is perfectly serviceable and will keep most players going through from the prologue all the way to the end. If you can borrow the game from a friend, I'd advise you to do that. If you have to buy it to play it, I'd wait for a price drop before taking the plunge.… Expand

This game is so bad, EA Bioware are trying to fix the bad publicity by posting 10 scores here on metacritic themselves... and are so dumb they actually got caught!
http://vividgamer.com/2011/03/14/bioware-employee-caught-reviewing-dragon-age-ii/

The game is weaker and dumber than Dragon Age Origins, and its most foul stink is the fact Bioware's usually saving grace, its coup de'tat, its shining star - it's story - is the worst culprit.

When playing the game, I noted in my mind when actual plot points occured in my gametime, after being 5 hours in and wondering when something was going to happen main plot wise.

10 hours.

10 hours of sidequests before it had tried to allude it was building up to something that would happen. Before then, Hawke was just mulling about.

Then, when that first stage is reached, you think "Finally! Something is going to happ..."

Then, you return to Kirkwall, and are put back to work on -another- 10 hours of sidequests.
Sidequests that build up to an event that was clearly designed for the story in the next game, not this one.

At this point, i thought... "Is there even a main plot TO this game?"

Then the main plot begins. ... 20 hours...

20 hours into the game, then Bioware rushed the main plot by in the remaining 10 hours; and even then, was very pushed through and contrived in places.

For me, any game that takes 20 hours to start the main plot is born out of a lack of a good script/story director.

And considering that is what covers up Bioware's minor faults usually, it gives the terrible faults in this game nothing to hide behind at all. I honestly kept sighing through the last twenty of the the thirty hour gameplay... I never got sucked in by the story, the dimensionless character of Hawke, or built up a rapport with anyone as much as you did in Dragon Age 1 to care about them.

In short - Its not the worst game ever made, i would have scored it a 4 out of 10, but to counter the EA/Bioware cheats scoring it 10, i docked 3 points. But despite it not being the worst game ever made - it certainly is not worth buying until its on sale for $10 or £12.… Expand

Not worthy of the Dragon Age franchise. Short, uninteresting, characters, repeated dungens, no world map, limited party customization, rag to riches storyline. Very dissapointed.

Dragon Age 2 is a disappointing sequel to one of the best cRPG games of all time (Dragon Age: Origins). DA2 fails on many levels. I'll pick two reasons: 1) recycled content. Numerous bland quests send you back to the save cave, warehouse, or sandy beach over and over again. 2) tactics have been removed. Tactical combat has been replaced with a fast-paced hack & slash system. On the plus side, the game is very stable.… Expand

I honestly found this game to be a glowing success. There are certianly issues, my biggest gripe being with the slightly less manevrouable camera, but this game goes so far beyond the scope of the first game (which I also loved) and really creates an amazing experiance. The combat is faster, which has negative and positive effects because of that, and although people say "oh, the conversation system is just a console one now" it was exactly the same in number one, this time it just gives a slight hint at what reaction you'll get before you say it. I dont like how abysmally this game is doing review wise, as I personally beleive it is truly the best game of the 2010/2011 period.… Expand

Is DA2 a bad game? No.
Is DA2 a bad game by Bioware standards? Definitely.

Currently Bioware seems to become a true EA Games drone, by wanting to release a game every year at the cost of quality. It is mostly the Bioware fans that are seriously pissed off at them, and are giving all the bad scores. People who don't care much about RPG's but much rather prefer action-oriented games like Call of Duty are the ones giving the high scores.

Lets focus on the good parts first. The combat *looks* great, the companions are interesting, the graphics are pretty decent, the lore is still awesome to read, and the story while less epic than in DA:O, is still written very well. By industry standards, this is a very decent game.

Sadly, there are also bad parts I need to mention. Like previously mentioned, the combat *looks* great, but when looking deeper at it, you'll notice it's actually pretty bland. Almost each encounter has waves of enemies (kill first group, 2nd group spawns, etc), and while interesting at first, it's overused.
Speaking of overusing, if you have seen one cave / villa / sewer, you've seen them all. This is the biggest evidence of Bioware focussing on quantity over quality. They don't even give you a different minimap, certain passages are just blocked off.
They've also reduced a lot of customization, with the excuse of 'streamlining' it. You can't even change your companions' outfit. But here's a newsflash Bioware: RPG fans LOVE customization. Sure, our companions may not always look great then, but this makes upgrading their outfits to more powerful ones even more satisfying.
The biggest part of the quests you'll do are simple find and drop off quests, without even specific dialogue. You won't feel much of a connection to anyone or anything but some of your companions. Dialogue shouldn't feel like a bother, hence you should have the ability to skip it. But a total lack of it only makes us feel less involved. This goes so far that you don't even buy wares from merchants themselves, but from boxes next to them. BANG, and the immersion's gone.

In conclusion: DA2 isn't bad, hell it's sometimes pretty good even. For the industry standard. But it's far, far away from the Bioware standard.… Expand

First of all, amazing that the consumers en masse see this game for the filth it is, while the professionals give it 9 and 10's. Must be losing touch with the people they write reviews for.

I was waiting with the utmost expectations for this game. I mean just polish dragon age give it new maps improve graphics and you have a hell of a game.

Instead they decided to do things all over and focus not on the customers who made dragon age a sales succes but to potential new customers. I.e. action console players. In all , voice acting is bad, Reuse of maps is a disgrace, ( the same cave over and over) gameplay boring. I have decided never to buy games again without downloading and testing them first. 50 euro's for this piece of garbage is ridiculous,… Expand

C'mon guys those of you who gave it less than 6 are pretty harsh aren't you? What did you expect a perfect game from Bioware? For God's sake if you didn't like the demo why the heck did you buy the game and then **** and moan and give it a zero?! I've played it for 10 hours so far and personally I feel that the story feels more personal this time, I'm quite intrigued by the whole idea of 10 years of the main protaganist's life spanning the entire game. Really interested to see how things will progress from here on. And when you do things in the game it feels like you'll actually building up your reputation and relationships, due to the no so insignificant matter of the main character actually able to speak. That's a welcome addition and personally I feel that it covers whatever the game lacks as compared to DAO. Yeah inventory was simplified and stuff but c'mon did it really matter what your party was equipped with? If all you guys out there wanna compare DAII with Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate or whatever fantasy epic you've put on a pedestal go ahead. And continue to **** and moan and probably not enjoy any of the games coming out now and in the near future cause you guys never will, since no modern rpg will ever match whatever exacting standards you guys have. Don't get me started on those zeros, now those are really insanity at work. Personally I'll give it a 9 because Bioware is one of those companies who consistently push out decent and enjoyable RPGs, despite having to endure the crapstorm that inevitably follows every time people don't like certain changes. Imagine having only Baldur's Gate to play for what the next ten years? I WILL go insane. Anyway just wanted to say a big thank you to the developers for loving what they do and being brave enough to change certain aspects of the game, for better or for worse, rather than spinning out Dragon Age Origins II… Expand

this is the worst game made by bioware. graphics, animations, character design, dialogues...all i really crappy. if i wanted to play a action rpg, i would play diablo, but i expect MUCH more from bioware

Being a fan of Bioware since Baldur's Gate. I loved Dragon Age Origins, Started Playing Dragon Age 2 and I felt like Bioware just gave up on the franchise. The combat felt more like an action game, meant for 10yr olds to keep them entertained. Story wasn't even as good as the original, where I was always wondering what was happening next.. DA2 just felt like side quest after side quest. and oh your done.. With a slap in the face ending.. I feel very disappointed in the direction Bioware is going, and defiantly not recommend this game to any of my friends.… Expand

Totally disappointed for a game shamefully dumbed down, poor in content, and with very low production quality. Probably sold for the only reason to make quick money on the name of the previous game.
This is the last Bioware game I spend my money on.

I always like the games of Bioware, all of them are greats. But this one, was really disappointed for my: -No character creator (Race and origin like the first part) -To short dialogues and with the companions its worst -The characters looks like comic a not like the DAO (darkspawn looks like living dead, Qunari looks like a ogre) -The main character, in my opinion, its no a good choice. I dont like his appeareance, the voice.
-The combat its to low qualiti in comparation to DAO.
-The skils are to simple and the spells too, has no details.
-No air camera

Sorry, but im disappoint.
I really expect a sucesor of Origins, and this one was another type of game.
This is no Dragon age 2, its an Action Game based in the world of Dragon Age.
I Hope Bioware make a great game in the Tird part

Best Wishes… Expand

Another great game from Bioware! I don't understand the people giving this game a negative review, did they even play the same game? The gameplay is far better than the slow-paced gameplay of Dragon Age: Origins and the story is amazing. Sure the graphics could be better but I think these graphics fit the game. Dragon Age 2 is a must have for every rpg fan out there!

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A little dissapointment for this game im not suprissed for thisgame its been a big hype and im from begining been sceptic this game is not bad bad very bad graphics,simple combat,not so good story and many people wil sad that this games is bad but its not but bioware im dissapointed… Expand

After seeing all these spam reviews I want to give one as well. As we all know spamming a review site about a game we really like but pretend we don't makes our e-penis grow. Hey look mines doing it right now!

Oops gave it 10 by mistake!

The entire main storyline of DA2 could have been told in a expansion or a DLC and does not compare at all to the epic story of DA:O, the rest of the questing content is irrelevant fillers. Combat is simplified beyond belief and requires no strategy at all. Without the high res pack my graphics were locked at medium and only added to the disappointment.

No multiplayer, very short, HUGE amount of copy paste, allot less skills, allot less items, enchantment system could have been flushed out and made far better then it is, and worst of all this game will not have a toolset.

Finished the game in about 60 hours really enjoyed the game. I do miss some aspects of Origins like the level up system and inventory system for companions. But its not a deal breaker . The story was alright not great but worked. I feel this was a good sequel and helps progress the story for the next Dragon Age. Graphics wise the game looked great on my system but I would like a 3rd rendering path for DX10 GPU's.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. First let me explain where my review comes from: I found Dragon Age: Origins by accident. My husband was playing it, it seemed interesting, as a bit World of Warcraft and Fable fan, I could get on board with the levelling up, gaining skills etc. On my first play through, within ten minutes, I was engrossed in the Dwarf Noble Origin- I screamed when my brother died and when my other brother turned against me, I swore at the screen and vowed vengeance. I play for the story, not so much for the combat. The character development and plot drives me, and DA:O had this in bucket fulls as well as giving me loads of room to create my own back story, present stories (what's happening in camp etc) and future happenings of my Grey Warden. The same, however, cannot be said for DA2. I tried to view it away from Origins, I tried to judge it withot bias, even though I knew the changes were happening - I tried to avoid all spoilers and even avoided the demo. I wish I hadn't. People say not to compare it to DAO, but it's a Dragon Age Game, it's the same franchise, it even has the number 2 after the title, so yeah, people ARE going to compare it. So compared to DAO the whole game just feels shallow and empty. There is no big bad guy that's pressing you to complete tasks, that's urging your game play forward. DAO allowed me to feel that if I moved away from my PC when I came back the Darkspawn would have overrun Ferelden and all would be lost! DA2 makes me feel that I can go away and never come back and everything will still be the same.
Below is a lit of things that I want to pass comment on.
* INTERFACE is pretty looking and very sleek. However, I don't like the positioning. Minor personal thing.
* COMBAT ANIMATIONS I'm a 29 year old woman, not a 14 year old boy. Really, the flashy kicks and the exploding mannequins just took the p***. Bodies just don't explode when you stab them, nor do their heads and limbs fall to the ground like broken mannequins. It's a game aimed at the 'Mature' market, not 'Teen'. COMBAT itself is tedious. I fight a group and I go phew!... then suddenly there's freaking ninja style drop down waves of MORE bad guys to fight... really? I have to go through the same fight THREE times before I can go on? Bored now. Especially as I DON'T CARE about combat in a RPG game. I'm playing a role, a character, I'm building a story. Sure I want to cut the bad guys down, but c'mon!
* AREAS - repetitive, boring and dull looking. I liked the day/night switches though, but I miss being able to jump to the 'World' map tho.
* DIALOGUE - UGH. The wheel needs to go. NOW. Voice Acting needs to shush. The Actor was good, she did well, but I felt I was watching someone else play, instead of me. Hawke never feels mine.
* ARMOUR - like that you can hide helm, don't like that armour is not customisable. * ROMANCES / COMPANIONS. This is one area that interests me the most. I LOVED the different companions that DAO provided. They all stood out, all had their own personalities, all added a little something to the story. I felt connections with them - with DA2 it seems that you're TOLD you have relationships with them once you've met them. I romanced a certain mage, who told me in Act 2 that for three years he had lain awake each night aching for me... REALLY??? I told you you were handsome, but other than that, I really haven't spoken with you - 'cept in quests. The romances in Origins made you work for them. You had to say the right thing, you had to stroke their ego a bit, you had to listen to their stories, enquire, and learn about them. This is just a quick fix. On the COMPANION front, the banter is good as we're walking around, you tend to learn more about them from that than you do from talking to them. It's more a we're TELLING you what's happening instead of SHOWING you. However, VARRIC - I want him in my life full time. I had him at my side the whole way. The only other character I enjoyed hearing the story of was Aveline, which surprised me as I didn't think I'd like her. I felt disconnected with the rest, even my sister - she was apparently my best friend, but I didn't KNOW her. Also I miss the 'accidental', sometimes awkward, talks. I HATE running to a home for a chat.
* STORY - ahhh the big one; the thing you watch a movie for, a reason you read a book, the whole point of my playing a game. To me Story is the most important element of a game. After the first 20hrs of playing I still didn't really know where the game was going; I just had to get enough cash to go to the Deep Roads on an expedition that lasted about an hour of game play, if that. By hour 35 I have completely lost interest in WHY I am playing this and I ended up closing down and restarting Origins. I will finish DA2 some day, but it won't be any time soon.
TLDR? Overall a 5 - lots to do in game, but no REAL point to it so far.… Expand

They sold the Baldur's gate soul of this game to make a poor playing Mass Effect Fantasy game. While not unplayable the game makes you feel you wasted all you time in Dragon Age Origins by bot allowing character carry over. Worse yet Bioware took the highly unethical practice of having their own employee rate this game perfectly (check the news stories). Given Bioware has lost its moral compass under EA any redeeming elements of this game are not worth rewarding the now soulless EA/Bioware with a purchase. Wait for the bargain bin.… Expand

I have to give this game a ten just to balance the score! My honest number would be closer to nine or nine point five

Dragon Age 2 improves a lot of things if you bought the game for PS3 or Xbox360. I understand how PC players are frustrated though. Bioware removed the isometric camera and took out certain elements from the game that will most certainly annoy the Baldurs Gate generation. I'm in the third act at the moment and the game is very entertaining. The story has more depth this time around and the voice acting works really well. I'm slightly dissappointed with the removal of other races but that's what happens when you decide to give a voice to the main character, compromises compromises.

I would have liked the option of being able to customize the equipment of all your team members but atleast you can give them weapons and rings. People are obviously overreacting at the moment. I don't know how you can justify a score between 0-4 unless you're just trying to troll. YES, DRAGON AGE 2 HAS BEEN CONSOLIFIED but it's still a very good game. BOTTOM LINE : DO NOT trust the reviews! Yes, the game has decided to abandon a lot of old school rpg elements but most of these people are just pissed off teenagers and pc elitists from rpgcodex / **** This game is still great if you can appreciate it as a stand alone title. Do not go in expecting to play a remake of the original or Baldurs Gate. It's a consolified action RPG.… Expand

I really, really liked this game even after playing the first one and all of its rpg glory. In all honesty, that stuff got a tad boring - I mean the strategy was great and all, but the game looked like crap, ran like crap, and lacked a personal story. This game fixed nearly everything - the story is great (albiet a bit choppy), characters voice their own opinions, and combat is satisfying. People need to stop complaining about how it isn't like Baldur's Gate because this ISN'T Baldur's gate. Dragon age is its own franchise, and they can change things to appeal to a broader audience. This was a lot like Mass Effect 2, so many things got revamped, people started complaining. Grow up, accept change, and have fun with one of the best rpgs ever.… Expand

Gosh, Bioware, why did you destroyed such a great game? Mass Effect 2 can never be Dragon Age 2. I hope youll learn and make a better DA3 with same complexity and good graphics that Origins has.

Expect an oversimplified hack and slash with quite dull and linear storyline and pseudo choices that does not matter for a thing for you character or storyline. Camera works terribly in this game and the overuse of generic dungeons is an absurd....This is kind of "Prince of Persia" or "Tomb Raider" game more than it is a Dragon Age" Origins successor, not mentioning Baldur"s Gate. I am very disappointed with this title, although if you like arcade games you may like actually it.… Expand

Don't feel as though this games deserves a 10 (an 8 would be fairer) but everybody else seems to be doing hyper-positives or hyper-negatives to draw attention to their opinions so I might as well participate. Combat: Never had a problem with Origin's combat system and was never aware anybody else did, so I wonder why Bioware changed it, but I can't help but feel as though people who are deeply upset about it are letting their negative impressions about other aspects of the game color their experience of an otherwise solid system. Why exactly is an intense and fast-paced RPG-party brawl with plenty of room for diversity and optimization a bad thing? And on a more positive note, the spell/ability animations are beautiful. Difficulty: The game itself flashes messages in-between loadings which often recommend you adjust the difficulty if you've reached a segment of the game that is too hard or too easy. People want a golden mean where the game perpetually hits a point where things are hard enough to feel challenged but never difficult to the extent you feel obstructed; people need to realize that video game's almost never turn out that way, and when they do it is mostly a happy development accident. And in the 8-bit era they were almost universally hard. In letting you switch difficulty modes within the game, Bioware let the player do as much as any gaming company can be expected to do. So, difficulty works fine as long as you are prepared to pull up the menu and adjust it. Story: Dragon Age II has the best paced plot and character development of any game ever made, an artistic achievement that has been completely overlooked for some reason. Telling the story in "Acts" divided over years allowed them to approach the characters and the story in a distributive way unprecedented in any game. I thought it was fascinating, but other people seem disappointed it didn't conform to the inferior Origins standard. The one thing Origins had over Dragon Age II is a larger and somewhat more epic setting, but in terms of characterization and pacing the plot Dragon Age II surpassed it. I'd be happy to explain my viewpoints more in depth to anyone who wants to inquire. Inventory: Always the weak point of a Bioware game; their inventories are either cluttered with useless objects or all options are streamlined into oblivion with equipment divided into early game and late game. They combined the Mass Effect 2 streamlined system with Dragon Age: Origin's Graphics: Graphics aren't really important to me. Granted superior graphics are consistently more aesthetically pleasing, but I think any game which combines colors and images dynamically can look good, regardless of its time period. I think that the aesthetic of A Link to the Past and Final Fantasy VI (two of the best Super Nintendo games) have a unique appeal that no contemporary title can bring to the table. Comparing 16-bit to a game like Crysis is like comparing Impressionism to Cubism; they aren't comparable and both have unique appeal. In those terms, I think Bioware's attention to detail pulls through to make a visually compelling game. The biggest point against them is that they recycle sets a lot, but that's nothing new. Bugs: The single biggest problem with Dragon Age II is also a trope of early Bioware releases; there are bugs. The ones that intrude upon companion quests are particularly grating. Prospective customers might put off buying the game until a few patches get released that address these problems.… Expand

They would have been better off naming this game "Diablo Age 3". The incessant combat, random loot generator, uninspired voice acting, and complete lack of RPG elements made for a thoroughly underwhelming gaming experience. Had EA been honest and told everyone up front that this was going to be a hack-n-slash gear hunt with some cinematics thrown in for good measure, I think people would have been willing to cut them a little slack. To claim this half complete abortion as the inheritor of the crown of Dragon Age and the "spiritual" successor of Baldur's Gate is a spit in the face of every RPG gamer who has ever played those games. If you are an RPG player, DO NOT BUY THIS GAME, it sucks (as an RPG). If you're just looking for 30 or so hours of mindless hack and slash in repetitive and over used environments on an aging graphics engine, and you have $60 that you just can't find something better to waste on, then this might just be the game for you.… Expand

Firstly, I was always a huge bioware fan. I played all the rpg/frp games created by them (hell I finished Baldur's gate 5 times). I preordered Dragon Age 2 and I was so disappointed that I am not even sure if I'll finish the game. Beatiful voice acting, gorgeous graphics and sadly zero game play satisfaction. Sometimes you don't even know what's going on in the screen. It's just a hack and slash game with zero burden on your brain. Combats just play themselves automatically, dialogues are non existing, good evil choices are too plain with no real content in it. And on top of that, most of the dungeon maps are repetitive, copy paste, including the hidden doors and their entrances. Literally, two dungeons I visited on after the other had the exact same cave room. Do yourself a favour, go and buy Baldur's gate 2 and start playing it again.… Expand

I don't take issue, like so many of the others, crying about the changes to DA:2 from DA:O. I remember the same complaints from people about the changes to ME:2 from ME1. Yes, the combat system is easier and more fluid but put it on hard or nightmare and you'll being pausing till your heart's content. Yes, I understand you can't dress your friends, they dress themselves now. And good for them, they're grown ups...you can still give them weapons and jewelry if you feel the need to manhandle them. Yes, the story is not about saving the world again, its a bridge story to set up a cliffhanger for a greater conflict to come. Same as Mass Effect 2.

Yes, you have to be human and have a name. If you want your character to actually speak and be addressed in a non generic way then you'll have to live with slightly more limited options...otherwise it's back to having a silent no personality character as in DA:O where the game is more about the npcs than you...and for me that aspect of DA:O made it lack real immersion.

And Yes, the story primarily takes place in just one city... but so did Baldur's Gate 2 and that still worked wonderfully.

All of these things I can live with and some I even enjoyed more than the original.

No my problem is that the game was clearly rushed, and this is evident in the constantly repeated environments. Every cave, dungeon, beach, sewer, and house is exactly the same except for a closed door or passage here or there. It seems lazy. Had they taken their normal 24-30 month development phase, I feel like this game could have been truly wonderful. At times you can feel what could have been and its too bad. I had a sneaking suspicion that this would be an issue when I saw the release date and they ended up keeping to it. Either way its still a very enjoyable game, and a character I wouldn't mind playing some more, albeit in a more thoroughly developed environment. And all the recent bashing is really a symptom of people expecting so much from Bioware, so they should take it's for what its worth and just put more time into the next Dragon Age.

All in all its still a 8 (maybe a 7 if you were that attached to all the trappings of DA:O) and worth playing/buying although waiting till the price drops and some DLC is announced to add more background depth is not the worst strategy if you're not a die hard fan of the series. But giving this game a 0 because you can't give your friends armor or whatnot is obviously is an intellectually dishonest overreaction.… Expand

Terrible gameplay, outdated graphics, underwhelming story, the if you want play DA... go play Dragon Age: Origins. This is not a sequel, is the end of the dragon age series.

I haven't played this, nor will I ever play this.
Due to metacritic poisoning by EA/Bioware employees this title fails it's chance to be reviewed there by retaining the base score of 1.
Further the employee of EA/Bioware was from Alberta & it shames me to have such unethical persons in our country so much so that all EA's recent decent to good customer service with me has been set back by a marked amount.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Ð… Expand

this game is a joke!!!! and seeing the high reviews from reviewers makes me sick!!!! you should be ashamed of yourselves!!!! 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, MY ASS!

I loved this game. It fixed the slow, pedantic, repetitive combat, evolving it into a fast, involved scene that makes the player involved. I got an admirable 30 hours of gameplay, which is fantastic, though it flew by thanks to fast pacing. The story, as far as I know, I above average, though under par for Bioware. But under average Bioware is still leagues ahead of competitors. The graphics are better than the original although simplified. I attribute that fact to all the little extra details that quick opinion trolls seem to miss out on like the companion options in dialogue, differing presentation depending on what kind of dialogue you chose, and dozens of branching paths. I won't say it's perfect. Locations repeat, but never to the point of annoyance since you start in different spots most of the time. The dialogue menu, which I enjoyed since it fixed the one problem I had with Mass Effect's menu, the fact that the skip button doubled as a selection button, tended to glitch and choose an option sometimes, but usually defaulted to the sarcastic choice so nothing lost. And the game froze a few times, though that could have been the fact that I had been playing it for ten hours straight. Overall, a very good game. I want Bioware to do more games like this. Shorter, simpler, and released more frequently. Imagine if they released a new Dragon Age game every year that averaged twenty hours long with minor tweaks to the new fast gameplay. I think we all can agree that such a dream would be awesome.… Expand

First things first: this is NOT a direct sequel to Dragon Age: Origins (DA:O). It's a sequel to Dragon Age, as in the World of Dragon Age (the term "Dragon Age" though, ultimately comes from the Chantry calendar: it is the present Age the world is in and succeeded to the Blessed Age thirty years before the events of DA:O). It is a sequel in time and geography only. You do not play the same character as in DA:O, but you come from the same region of the world, as a way to tie the two games closely and to better show the consequences of the Blight on the neighboring regions that have not been directly affected as was Ferelden. So you start the game playing Hawke, fleeing the blight that has overtaken your native city of Lothering, and you're trying to reach Kirkwall, a free city over the Waking Sea. Dragon Age 2 is the story of that guy (or gal), and that guy only, as he rises up to become the Champion of Kirkwall. In this game, there is only one origin.
That said, Dragon Age 2 is fricken awesome. Many say it was consolized. It was not, at least not any more than DA:O was already. At worst, you could say it was MMORPG'd. Instead of you waiting hours and hours for the game to roll dices to see if you hit your enemy or not, now you just hit him, most of the time. So combat feels faster, and using your abilities feels more rewarding. The new combo system also works much better than the failed spell interactions of DA:O. It forces you to actually use your party as a team, with rogues and warriors finishing off targets softened up by your mages and vice versa. Each class can put enemies in a special combo-able state that only the two other classes can take advantage of, resulting in more tactics and deeper skill tree planning. The skill trees were redone from scratch, allowing for a more organic development than the linear "trees" from DA:O. Specializations are still here, one at level 7 and one at level 14, giving your Hawke access to two more skill trees out of three, while your companions each have a unique personal skill tree in addition to their class', with one skill activated based on whether you become friends (or rivals) with them. Some feel the fact that you can't change your companions' armor is bad, but really it's much better this way. You can still change their weapons and trinkets (belt, rings, amulet) and you can upgrade their armor throughout the story, even up to allowing you to put (removable) runes in them. This way they keep their unique look and feel, befitting their stations and way of life.
The companions themselves are much better than in DA:O, too. The game taking place over a 10 year period in the same city, your character knows a lot of people. But only those that cross your path a lot and stay by your side all this time are your companions. And as in Mass Effect 2, companions can die. In the demo, you could see that one of your two younger siblings dies, based on which class your Hawke is. Depending on your choices, others can die too over the course of the game. Romances are also possible, of course, although not with your sibling (that would have been awesome, in a sense). From a Fereldian refugee becoming the city's captain of the guards, to a former prince of Starkhaven (another free city not far from Kirkwall), with a savvy dwarf in between, the list of companions is long and each one has their own story, in parallel to yours. Of course, as they are your companions, your paths will cross more than once, and your actions and decisions will influence their fates.
Some may be disappointed by the story, or by the ending. They may feel it is not epic enough, or whatever. But these are the kind of people that don't invest themselves emotionally in games. They don't care about the lore. They don't care about the World of Dragon Age. That's why they don't get that Dragon Age 2 is not DA:O 2. DA:O is the story of the Blight in Ferelden, the birthplace of Andraste, founder of the Chantry. Dragon Age 2 is the story of the Champion of Kirkwall, and it puts the Chantry against the Circle of Magi in a struggle for political control over the free city. And then there's the Qunari, who play their part in this struggle. This conflict begets unforeseen consequences, which are hinted at even in the opening scene of the game, where Varric (the savvy dwarf) is being questioned by the Seeker of the Chantry. But only at the end, after your Hawke decides the fate of Kirkwall, will you know how your actions over ten years in this city have changed the World of Dragon Age. Just as in DA:O you stopped the Blight from engulfing the whole continent of Thedas, this time too your actions have global consequences. So hang on to your Dragon Age 2 save, you may very well need it for Dragon Age 3.
The combat is faster, so 43 hours of playtime for ONE (out of at least three) complete playthrough on normal. And the bugs are nothing worse than what DA:O had at launch. People just have short memories.… Expand

Its comparable to offline single player generic MMOs. Are you trying to make Dragon Age 2 MMORPG Bioware? Planning to sell DLC/Patch to add more contents Bioware and fix that MMOrpg-style battle? MMo can do that for free, showing that your game is not really that complete in term of deliverable. But , hey, there is a good new, there always next time. good luck with DA 3.

Best RPG of last years. As for me - this game much better than DAO.Developers remaked all thigs i hated in DAO: 1)Story-telling become more dynamic, and it's not about FATE OF THE WORLD, like others like to do 2)Graphic is brilliant in DA2 3)All characters in this game are elaborated 4)Fights become more spectacular, interesting, dynamic. 5)This is game for everyone, not only for hardcore gamers.U have no need to spend time on collecting items,equipments, or on learning poisoning,trapping or on choosing the way how to lvl up ur character and etc.
6)Brilliant sound.Excellent.
And two things i don't like - same locations whole game and same faces of all npc's in game.I met like 10 mothers of main heroe during the game.
So i give it 9 saying "Well done" to Bioware.And i also "wildly-furiously" wish to see what will happen in DA3.… Expand

Thoroughly disappointing sequel to a fantastic RPG. Fans of Origins and/or anyone interested in immersive, character-based roleplay should avoid this like the plague. Gone are the multiple choice dialogue options of true RPG classics, replaced by the dialogue wheel seen in Mass Effect. While that works in the epic setting of what is effectively a sci-fi blockbuster, it doesn't here. Its shallow, poorly written characters and script are totally forgettable. Seldom does your choice of action or speech affect anything at all. The environments themselves would look average 10 years ago. Areas that look awful in the first place are re-used many times over. The one saving grace is the combat, but with so many other faults, it's barely worth mentioning. The bullet-point nature of this review feels apt, as the disappointments hit home one after the other. As a friend of mine put it; "About as gripping as a lubed-up hand with no bone structure." Colour me shocked and appalled, Bioware.… Expand

Its like this, the developers didnt even try, you fight the same enemies over and over again, the fights are all EXACTLY the same, you run into a group of mobs, with 1 or 2 mini bosses, kill a certain number of mobs and one more wave of mobs will spawn. EVERY DUNGEON IS THE SAME, they just shut off or open some passages and move a chest around, its like they didn't even try, Dragon Age Origins was a good game, so they capitalized on its success by taking a **** in a box, throwing some glitter on it and selling. Oh and they obviously payed of quite a few reviews. DO NOT BUY! THE DEVELOPERS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES!… Expand

A pile of ass. Really, why does this exist? Did the demo not tip you off? If you're going to buy it, I probably can't stop you... just be aware that you could buy many better games for the same $60. Also, I paid $60 for a PC game. Brb, shooting self.

This is not a game. Bioware is selling you a $60 EXPANSION PACK.

The major problem with this game is REUSED ASSETS that are of a very small number to begin with. I hope you like fighting bandits, zombies, revanents, quanari, and the occasional dragon because that's literally all that there are in this game. Not just that, but the faces, armor, and weapons are almost completely reused from previous games.

So, while your using these reused weapons to fight reused monsters, I hope you enjoy REPEATEDLY exploring the same locations: there's the town of kirkwall, of course, and there's one map for the coastline, one map for a cave (that is reused at least five or six times), one map for the sewers, and one map for the deep roads. THAT IS IT. You are constantly revisiting the same places over and over.

Now, the story itself is...not bad. Largely forgettable--about on the same level of Jade Empire's, but more predictable. The main quest line is bogged down by tons of mini-quests that seem ripped from your favorite generic MMO--go here, crawl through the same rehashed cave map, kill this guy, come back to me. Combat is fun at first, but quickly turns dull. Enemies either die way too fast for any kind of strategic input or have giant health bars that take minutes to whittle down. I turned up the difficulty to hard, even though I consider myself a casual gamer, to try to make combat more bearable. It doesn't. It just makes it last longer. Enemy AI is non-existent. Melee guys charge you. Guys with bows stand in the back and take pot shots. That's all. Character's are pretty dull. Varric is awesome, and Fenris had his moments. The rest were merely bodies. Voices are disjointed, especially with Hawke (I played female--male might be better, I don't know.)

Graphics are meh. I'm lucky enough to have a DX11 card and was able to push it up, but the character models themselves are pretty uninspired and even the prettiest cave still looks like a cave, especially when its the same cave over and over and over...

All in all, I cannot in good conscience recommend buying this game. Everything about it seems like it was just put together as quickly as possible to make money.… Expand

What killed the game for me was the heavy re-use of area layouts. I'm all for re-using the same textures when generating area's of minor importance but to use exact mirror images of area's constantly is just down right criminal in a triple A title. Towards the end of chapter 2 and in chapter 3 I started to miss out on crafting components and codex entries because I was just over going to check out 'hidden cave number 3' that looked not only the same as hidden caves 1 and 2 but also other area's in the game i'd already been through multiple times. Wish i'd kept count of how many times I had to revisit sundermount and it's two caves that are the same anyway for example.

I can live with less companion customization, I can deal with the romances being disjointed due to time elapses, hell I can even deal with the fact that none of my decision really effect the gameplay in any real way but to only have a very limited number of area's in the game to begin with and then just re-use them over and over... unforgivable. If this was a vast sprawling world I'd happily accept it but if you sat down and tallied up all the area's and caves in the game the percentage of overlapped content is depressing.

As for positives I liked the skill tree layout, I found that to be an improvement. Combat was a little more refined, though the leaps in difficulty on some of the fights was a bit weird (if you can call just throwing more waves of enemies that appear out of no where or huge boss hp pools with easy to avoid mechanics difficulty of course). Some of the random companion interaction could be amusing, personally it fell short of the DA:O interaction but others surely would disagree which is fine, personal opinion there.

To sum up DA2, when I finished DA:O I immediately through myself into my next playthrough to see what else there was to explore. When I finished DA2 I tried to replay playing a more evil persona and couldn't even force myself to get past the 20 minute mark. Where as parts of my first play through felt like a chore due to the issues I mentioned above, every part of my second playthrough has felt that way.

Maybe it's because I fall into the catagory that has been playing rpg's for a very long time (as opposed to those who just jump on message boards and say they have to try to get credibility) and if a game doesn't have enough innovation it doesn't impress me or maybe DA2 is just lacking in general. Either of these factors could potentially modify my score, I can't rightly say to be honest. All I can say is at the Dragon Age 2 did not leave me with a feeling that i'd played an enjoyable game at the ending credits.… Expand

Hack and slash combat, bad graphics, terrible dialogue system which reminds me more of a guessing game ... And most importandly, story is not that great. Misunderstanding.

YOU TOOK DRAGON AGE AND MAKE IT SUCK SO MUCH IT MAKES FFXIII LOOK GOOD. That's scary. AVOID.

Graphics: DX11 looks worse than most DX9 games I've seen. Flashy, crappy textures, silly rendering artifacts, clipping issues, etc. New "stylized" design is kinda bs and lame.

Story: There is no story, really. It has a few nice moments, but there is no PLOT. Just a long list of **** happens." Oh, also, it doesn't respect your DAO decisions. Imports dont mean much. And, the ending is just the worst sequel hook ever. And that's saying something after Witch Hunt DLC.

Characters: Your party members can actually... like... do quest-related stuff when you take them along. This is pretty cool. They're also really one-dimensional. And slightly retarded. Anders... makes some questionable choices, Merrill makes the most idiotic childlike observations despite her age, Isabella is just... vacuous - and she makes questionable choices, Fenris is a damn "manly emo" ripped straight from some kind of extra-bad FF game, Aveline is a well-meaning hardass, etc. Oh, Merrill and Anders are returning characters in name only since they're so changed they're completely different characters now.

Sex: Enough of it to deserve it its own section. Brothel isn't even funny this time. Ninja-romances are horrible. You have a Male Hawke who acts nice to Anders (WITHOUT flirting) and after his questline Anders just... seriously comes on to you (WTF?) and for your responses you have 3 options where 2 of them are heart-shaped romance options, so I pick the third, angry one, which apparently means gay ragesex time. OKAY, NO THANKS.

Interface: No tactical camera is pain. You can't give orders well. Add to that classic "helpful" AoE targetting to automatically select enemies and... yeaugh. There is a horrible bug going on where pretty often I cant make any orders because the interface is bugging out and thinks I'm assigning a different order (click fireball on mage, go to warrior, be unable to do anything as game expects you to keep assigning mage order with warrior, try to assign/cancel mage order, be unable since you selected warrior, switch to mage, assign/cancel order, switch to warrior; I somehow get it to happen a LOT). Inventory star rating system to tell you what to wear is just insulting.

Character attribute and ability system: The new system for leveling skills is cool, but the way it's used is just dumb (they really like asking you to get two abilities which absolutely do not work together - like, activating one requires disabling the other - to get access to other abilities). There might be some good potential for trying out different builds if only it felt like builds really mattered (they don't, really). For attributes: You also have a choice of 6 attributes, but you will really just be using 2 at most (these 2 are determined by your class). The other 4 are just bait for you to shoot yourself in the foot.

Balance: Yeah, tons of OP stuff in there. You wont feel like you're playing this game before long. You'll just be bored while watching enemies die. I think the game is intentionally made stupidly easy because the game is so rushed (It was developed in ONE year.) it was the only way to make it playable.

Level design: Insulting. Everything is narrow, too straightforward, and to top it off levels are re-used WAAAY TOOO MUUUCH. Also, cutscenes keep repositioning your team into bad locations. And the game really likes to spawn waves and waves of enemies right out of nowhere to keep you busy fighting. Classic console BS. And all the encounters feel the same. Bioware seems to have gone for quantity, not quality here. Also, Kirkwall (This is the city where the entire game takes place.) doesn't feel like the bustling mega-city it's meant to be.

Questing: A lot of pointless padding quests in there. It even has fetch quests where you hardly talk to anyone.

Game length: I'd say around 35-40 hours tops - that's if you decide to do every sidequest except the completely mundane fetch quests. 20 hours tops if you don't waste time with that.

Dialogue: It makes Mass Effect's wheel system look good. All regular dialogue will have Investigate menu (ie. ask questions) plus 3 options: Nice, Silly, and **** Because picking too many options of one flavor "sets the flavor for your character" there will be a lot of automatic dialogue you wont get to pick. So now, you have even less of an idea what your character will really say. The "flavor" will just take over.

Music: I don't really remember it.

DRM: Disgusting. Unethical and amoral even. Go to www.reclaimyourgame.com and read about it. ...And you need internet to be able to play this game, even though it has NO multiplayer or anything (just DLC). PAIN. To top it off, people have gotten locked out of their Bioware accounts for forum offenses, which LOCKED THEM OUT OF THE GAME. Yeah.

I'm going to hope for The Witcher 2 now.… Expand

Bottom line, If I didn't play DAO, this game would be ...ok. But if it was not labeled DA2, I would never have bought it. I understand the move to cater to console, I don't agree with it, but I understand it. I feel like i just got kicked in the nads by my grandma after she promised me fresh baked cookies. How disappointing... and painful. I'm a casual gamer, but man, i was really looking forward to this one, I don't think Ive ever been so let down with a game release. Why would they alienate their loyal RPG supporters? It just seems foolish at best. I'm not outraged, just annoyed and confused to the core. I feel/felt nothing with this game and that is possibly the worst thing that can happen when playing a "RPG" title.

-Graphics were ok, but lack of effort takes away considerably. Cut and paste! Really? Mods were released for DAO with more original thought(and my hat tips to all of those who work on mods...for free, Dev team was paid, whats their excuse?). And speaking of which, no tool set info...c'mon guys. DAO tool-set was released far after the game, but to leave everyone so in the dark makes me think that there isn't even one being planned, and the elusive attitude about it is just a way get more sales. what happened with auto attack on consoles...."a mistake was made", right. And it only came to attention a day before release, which makes no sense, because the game was already sent off, and we would all have seen this "mistake". Clear, in your face, deception. The good,(i suppose)Lots of gore, fast paced, voice acting is acceptable, interesting characters.
The bad, Story in general, cut and paste used frequently, cant even dress companions, no tool-set, dumb dialogue choices, No tactics needed, Buggy, and most importantly the sheer amount of recycled material from other titles. Graphics models=DAO, but with a new format to screw over modders. Menu/dialogue=Ripped right out of ME series. What exactly took two years to develop in this game?

As a standalone game, its a 6. entertaining for about 90 minutes, then repetitive...literally.
As a sequel to the GOTY DAO, its a 0. doesn't even deserve to stand in the prequels shadow.… Expand

Inspired by the success of Mass Effect 2, Bioware decided to send the Dragon Age franchise down the same dirt brown road. Taking an interesting universe, populated by interesting characters, and replacing it with a bland hero story that tries to hard at every direction. The only button you should press to make something awesome happen with this game is the eject button. :D

This game SUX i tried to get my money back but i cant

an absolute disappointment. from begining to end it is far inferior to DA:O and is a complete failure on bioware's part. I hope that DA3 fixes what this game broke because the world of Thedas is a cool one

It distresses me that so many people are slamming this game without giving any real evidence other than general opinion. Yes, we know you "hate the story" or "think the dialogue is garbage", but your negative opinion on the game doesn't make it a bad game. Personally, I think Halo Reach is a boring, generic FPS in space. Does it deserve the glowing scores it got? Sure it does, because it delivers a quality experience to the fans of the previous entries in the series. If you're going to argue that a game is bad, please back it up with evidence that TRULY supports your claim. Now, I'll start by saying that this review may be a bit biased due solely to the fact that I absolutely love the dragon age universe. I think the lore behind the game is a well thought out enhancement of the "dragons and magic" paradigm. I won't spoil any specifics, but the plot of Dragon Age 2 is broken up into three parts. These individual parts are made up of an assortment of side quests and main quests that ultimately lead up to a finale. While I think each "section" is good in its own way, the ending of the game does fall a bit flat. You're left hanging on the majority of the plot points, and it's clear that Bioware is setting up for a sequel of sorts. Graphically, the game looks nice. It's nothing ground-breaking, but the facial animations are fairly well done, body movements are captured fairly well, and lip syncing is solid. Unfortunately, you'll be spending a LOT of time in the city of Kirkwall, and the basic textures of the walls and buildings do get a bit drag after the 10th time you've walked past them. Sound is done very well, and voice acting is not only well ranged, but delivered well across the board (with the exception of Aveline and male Hawke on some occasions). Now, I played Dragon Age 2 on the Xbox originally and pretty much hated it. I felt like I was playing dynasty warriors all over again and just MASHING the A button for hours on end. It didn't really bother me after a while (mostly because I'm a sucker for RPG storytelling) but it's something to be noted. I actually ended up buying it on the PC, which offers a much different experience. It could be said that the PC version is more like "watching a movie" than it is real-time combat (considering you basically issue commands and then watch how it plays out), but fans of strategy RPG games will enjoy the pause-and-play action. It allows you to plan out each fight and adapt to drastic changes on the fly. Finally, I want to address the companions and classes. For the most part, I was pleased with my selection of party members, but I did feel as though Bioware was forcing certain party members upon me. If you don't play as a warrior, you're almost forced to use Aveline as your tank, which is very frustrating if you don't like her as a character. If you don't pick a mage and then decide to heal, you are almost forced to use Anders. I would have liked to see a bigger selection of members to choose from. The classes are well balanced and each class will give you a different experience when you play them. Even the different skill trees within each class can offer a vastly different experience. Overall, I believe Dragon Age 2 to be a very solid strategy RPG on the PC, and an action RPG on the consoles. If you love RPG games that allow you to "craft your own story" and offer up an insane amount of content in the process, you'll love Dragon Age 2. If you can't get past the small graphical glitches, repeated zones, and restriction to the city of Kirkwall, then I can't recommend this game to you. One last thing, people need to stop instantly saying "This game sucks because Origins was better and this game is a step backward in every way!!!". The game is NOT a direct sequel to Dragon Age : Origins. Bioware obviously saw the success of Mass Effect and brought in elements from that game to make this game better. Whether it worked or not is a matter of opinion, but saying that DA2 is bad because it doesn't improve on Origins is a null argument.… Expand

The Immersion and combat of this game are unmatched! A truly moving and fun epic. Anything negative you'll see about this game is an overreaction of personal preference. For what it is, it is flawless executed and endlessly entertaining.

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).
.
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

I'm kinda split here. The negative aspects cannot be ignored, and the actual price paid per hour entertained, cannot be ignored. I think I reached about ten hours playtime in the game before I started feeling really cheated. After this point it became less and less fun and the recycled stuff became more and more annoying. I wouldn't necessarily consider it straight ten hours of play time either due to abundant cut-scenes and what felt like a walking noncombat pace to go here then there.

So about $6 per hour of entertainment. I could pay $8 for a 2 hour movie ticket, this game can be compared to a slightly interactive movie...

Negative points: 1) Limited mob diversity. This includes AI. The AI for Assassins across the few mob types, undead, templar, insert faction here... are all the same. This shows with Undead popping healing pots. I bet all the archers and the ranged spiders have the exact AI/Abilities too. 2) Almost all mobs have previously been created and produced for a previous title(this compounds point1, why not finish the duplication you already started?). 3)Constant reuse of maps(I should have asked how many DVD's it took to install before purchase). I think the very first map in the prelude is even partially copied for the Wounded Coast map. Caves are done over and over with the same mini-map on your radar(even though some passages are blocked), even the spawn triggers are in the same locations(So fail). 4)Crazy player interrupts. Fight a mini-boss/boss that takes a larger area than you can see or hit and this gets worse. You will stumble and get interrupted if the Dragon walks next to you. Don't forget about getting stun locked into an invisible wall in that reused cave map. I'd also like to add that I noticed quite a bit of Dragon Effect 3. Watching some of the interaction with the characters looked exactly like the model movements in ME2. A lot of the character models felt very ME2ish, not just the male Hawke and human male Shepard. Don't see it yet? Order a drink at the hanged man and then take Shepard for a drink somewhere, same exact interaction/body movement. I understand the whole concept of not reinventing the wheel. But you don't want that to visually creep into totally unrelated titles. With the amount of copy pasta in this game(AAA title I might add), the developers fail IMHO, because it should have been out at least six months sooner. Or I guess the blame could be put on the tracers, I mean artists. I'm feeling quite lazy so I'm not gonna list the positive points in my review, and there are some. Like EA/Bioware I'm not gonna finish what I started/promised. Too bad I can't make large profits from duplicated-half-finished reviews. I will finish by informing reviewers that said something in the effect of: "Revel, savour and bask in the brilliance; this is a game that no gamer can afford to ignore. Everything here is bigger, better, brighter, faster, longer, sicker, cooler than the series has ever been before" You can find your check in the corner of the round room, but first bend over real quick. And metacritic here's to you stripping all my newlines from 3.277k characters to create a wonderful wall of text for everyone not to read.

tl;dr Metacritic gets a critic.… Expand

10.0 If you like the first one, do yourself a favour .... absolutely buy this game and try to avoid all the bad comments around here, your opinion is simply the best¡¡¡ don´t let this "angry mob" spot your unique experience on a great and similar game ( but not the same) to origins. Once you have managed with the new gameplay you have all the fun that you had with the previous game and enjoy with a new emotional and powerful story about the wonderful world of Thedas. If you choose to play in Nightmare mode you´d have a incredible challenge with all the flavour of a classic rpg like Baldur´s Gate or Neverwinter with tough battles with an urgent need of tactical choices to win. The companion and their stories are awesome like origins. The main story is ... hold your breathe, is passionate, elaborate, intriguing and is built step by step around your path, again with all the flavor of a classic rpg, you always had the feeling that you are forging a new legend , (you have a destiny to fullfil ) A lot of different side-quest with a big impact in the inmediatlely future of the game and a duration that maybe is not so long than origins but don´t have anything to envy ( nightmare mode 88 hours ).

Don´t loose yourself this fantastic game ( unless you don´t like Dragon Age origins ) serah¡¡¡… Expand

I accidentally put my original review on the xbox version which I haven't played. Instead I played this on PC.
Once you get past the horrible inventory system and if you can get past the reused dungeons, this is a really solid game. The game is also very long and I loved the unreliable narrator. The story is about the player rising from being nobody to being the champion. The story and the characters felt really diverse and I have the feeling that there should be enough content for a second or third playthrough. This is based on my experience of finishing the game on nightmare difficulty on a mage. Playtime 60 hours but that doesn't include all the reloading I would guess.… Expand

After Dragon Age: Origins I was so hyped and wanted to get my hand in this game. And what a waste of time that waiting was. It's not a good game. Almost everything that was good in Origins are thrown out of the window and what we get is a generic, action rpg for consoles. The story is horrible, they use the same caves and areas over and over again. And we cant even leave the god damn city! It's horrible, dont touch this piece of garbage!… Expand

Per quanto concerne la mia esperienza di gioco, in un'ottica GDR, dopo diverse ore di gioco a questo nuovo titolo, devo dire che è davvero poco appagante.
Non c'è immersione: ci si limita a galleggiare in superficie, intuendo che poteva esser fatto molto di più.
La grafica è abbastanza curata, anche se preferivo i toni più maturi di DAO. Quello che non va proprio bene è che ci saranno una cinquantina di location che vengono riproposte allo sfinimento, il che non aiuta certo ad immergersi in un gioco di ruolo, dove l'ambientazione dovrebbe essere resa minuziosamente a video.
La grafica dei menù è a dir poco oscena. Mi chiedo, con una grafica tanto scarna, come sia stato possibile rendere il sistema di menù più confusionario rispetto al precedente DAO... mah: ci sono riusciti, proponendo, ad esempio, un sistema grafico di avanzamento nei talenti che richiede ogni volta di visualizzare un albero di skill, impedendo una visione globale ed un confronto veloce tra le varie abilità.
Il sistema di dialoghi è abominevole: in base a quale malato ragionamento non si può più cliccare sulla esatta frase che il nostro PG dovrebbe pronunciare, con senso chiaro, ma si deve interpretare una linea di scelta che spesso ci mette in bocca cose che non volevamo dire?
Lasciamo perdere il combat system, e la gestione dell'inventario, il sistema di crafting, la possibilità di interagiore con gli altri personaggi in senso ampio, che di ruolo qui hanno mantenuto solo ed esclusivamente la dicitura.
Coerenza a video rispetto alle abilità dei PG, a quelle che dovrebbero essere le loro effettive capacità e limitazioni: inesistente.
Si salva qualcosa? Forse la storia sì, quella si salva, anche se è raccontata in modo non più che discreto.

Ma parliamo di altri aspetti: COERENZA ed IMMEDESIMAZIONE..
Ogni mondo, quello reale, ma anche quelli immaginari, ha delle regole.
Regole sia fisiche imposte dalla natura, forza di gravità etc, sia convenzionali imposte dalla società, sistemi giuridici, etc., sia di altro tipo.
Queste regole sono fondamentali perché qualsiasi mondo possa funzionare.
Stessa cosa in un gioco fantasy, in cui i personaggi si muovono in un mondo di certo immaginario, ma comunque con delle regole.
Se, ad esempio, un mago passa tutto il suo tempo a studiare magie, di certo non avrà potuto studiare le tecniche di combattimento corpo a corpo... se volesse imparare queste tecniche dovrebbe sacrificare parte del suo tempo (leggi: punti abilità) e così si creerebbe un personaggio ibrido mago/guerriero, che però non eccelle in nessuna delle due classi.
Stessa cosa per le caratteristiche fisiche del guerriero: un'arma a due mani implica colpi più lenti, ma più potenti.
Insomma le "regole dei mondi" fanno sì che se tiri la coperta da una parte, la accorci dall'altra...
E allora?
Semplice, tutto ciò è fondamentale per due cose importantissime: CREDIBILITA' e, quindi, IMMEDESIMAZIONE.
E l'immedesimazione è tutto ciò a cui punta un GDR.
Se faccio venir meno il realismo fregandome delle regole, tutto il mondo immaginario creato crolla, e non è più credibile: e la mancanza di credibilità fa venir meno l'immedesimazione.
Per questo la COERENZA è tanto importante, in ogni sistema-mondo fantasy: perché rispettando il realismo (con riferimento alle regole del mondo immaginario creato) permette l'immedesimazione.
Se in un film di cawboy ambientato nel passato del nostro mondo ad un certo punto gli indiani si mettessero a volare come pipistrelli, lo spettatore verrebbe catapultato di forza fuori dalla storia e comincerebbe a ridere.
In un mondo fantasy, quindi, il realismo è ancor più importante che nel mondo reale: per il semplice motivo che nel mondo reale il realismo c'è per forza... e ci mancherebbe! Mentre in un mondo immaginario va creato e mantenuto con arte e sforzo e fatica: ma è prprio da quel realismo che nasce la magia!
Ora, Dragon Age 2 non rispetta le regole del mondo in cui è ambientato, e quindi non è credibile, e quindi non è coerente e quindi chiude le porte in faccia all'immedesimazione.
Cosa comporta ciò? Che:
- se DA2 fosse un DGR, sarebbe davvero un pessimo GDR
- se DA2 fosse un gioco action, sarebbe un brutto gioco action se paragonato ad altri del genere (soprattutto dungeon siege...)
- se DA2 fosse un misto action-GDR, lo troverei tirato via e poco studiato.

CONCLUDENDO
Dopo aver giocato per diverse ore la versione definitiva di DA2, purtroppo, devo confermare le mie impressioni inziali.
Brutto gioco, fatto in fretta e male: basta guardare la ripetività delle location o la scarnissima grafica dei menù.
Coerenza zero, tatticità zero, personaliazzione zero.
La storia si salva, ma non è assolutamente ai livello di DAO.
Io ragiono nell'ottica GDR, che è quello che mi aspettavo di trovare e che mi sarebbe piaciuto giocare.
Peccato!
Spero che alla Bio ritrovino presto il senno e sfornino un GDR che sia un GDR vero!… Expand

May as well start by saying that if you're looking for a hard-core RPG, then Dragon Age 2 is not for you. It's RPG-lite at best. Not necessarily a bad thing, but you may have to adjust your expectations of the game. Initially I was dissapointed as I was hoping for a bigger and better DA:O, but it feels like bioware has taken DA in a completely new direction.
I guess the easiest way to sum it up is that DA2 is simpler than its predecessor. The combat is faster and less tactical, even on the harder difficulty settings I rarely had to play with the custom tactics or pause to set up an attack. The loss of the tatical overview was dissapointing but I would argue that you hardly need to use it in this game. I actually enjoyed the more arcadey feel to the combat but I think the corpses that explode body parts all over the place at the slightest of touch was abit much!
The game is centred around one major city and at 30+ hours long there's a reasonable amount of content to get through. The story starts slow (the first 6 hours feels like you are just plodding along) but the second half is definitely better than the first and develops into quite an engaging storyline. The writers do a good job of keeping it interesting but after spending 80% of your time in the same city you do find yourself wishing for newer landscapes, the choice of locales is limited.
This leads me on to, in my view, one of the major downpoints of the game. The dungeon areas are horribly over recycled. You may not notice it for the first few hours but by the end it becomes jarringly obvious. It seems that blood mages and smugglers are more than happy to share a hidaway while bandits and spirits of the fade clearly swap interior decorators.
The graphics are a step up from the original and the cutscenes look pretty good but you will find better elsewhere.
The voice acting and script is competent without ever being spectacular and some of the characters are likable, even producing some chuckles. The conversation wheel works well and some of the choices you have to make are genuinely difficult.
The skill trees give a pretty decent choice for customisation but some skills feel like fillers. I liked the new approach to crafting, not having to search for millions of ingredients and instead just discovering resources works well, but the range of recipes seems limited.

I would recommend this game to anyone but for some it may be too bigger step away from the original. If you can look look past that you'll find an enjoyable game, that despite its flaws, easily gives you your moneys worth without ever being anything special.… Expand

2 years we all (Bioware devoted fans ) were waiting this game, and at lats it is on my PC... Its hard to see that some mean and not very clever person (or group of people) has decided to spoil score of this uncommon superb game. I will not describe all than i like and that is perfectly well in new bioware game. I will simply say that it almost 10.

Dragon age 2 (DA2) have put a real dynamic fighting BUT too many bugs in the strategic mode made this game disappointing. Too many details (conversation, equipement) with companions, choice of race and background of own characters, the cue aren't reflect sometimes what the characters said (it is perhaps a problem of translation, i don't know). In fact the fans of RPG will find less in Dragon Age 2 than In DA Origins. I have more said "it's a pitty" than "Excellent" in my play of DA2.
My score is 7, sure there are gaps but it stay a real good RPG game. People wait perhaps too much from Bioware which perhaps have to take much time to finish Dragon Age 2. It's not an Epic fail, just choices from Bioware, not really satisfied their gamers.… Expand

the worse rpg ever made...no customization, cheap web design interface that looks like a student made it, no toggle helmet key, no toggle weapon key, lame story with choices that have absolutely no effect in story line and recycled dungeons over and over again. Origins seemed too complicated for console boys, so EAware decided it would be easy to butcher the game and appeal that console crowd and rush the game...horrible graphics, that are way over demanding because they're badly coded...witcher 2 is middle ware, with an 8800gt maxing it out, and it looks 10 times better than this piece of crap...square shapes everywhere, lame environments, and coming form 150 hrs, to 30 (everything done, 15 hrs just story line) this game is the biggest piece of crap ive played in a while..i cant even finish it without cheating because its that **** you bioware… Expand

DA:II is, in essence, a role-playing game without the role-playing. Bioware has never been a studio which creates particularly interactive environments, but the large, wide-open spaces of nothing in particular seem particularly jarring in this game because there is so little else to occupy the gamer. Dungeons are recycled. Citizens stand around, doing nothing and having no relevance: there is no pretence at their having any significance other than being part of the (non-interactive) furniture, rather than offering even the little one-liners which BioWare managed as long ago as Baldur's Gate. Quest-related characters cannot be engaged until the relevant quest has been triggered: if discovered before the appointed time, they simply stand around, looking ominous. The engaging and entertaining party interactions of the previous game have been simplified to the point of worthlessness. The party members are flat, dull and lifeless. The inventory now contains a "junk" slot, into which the vast majority of items go, as if the studio were acknowledging the pointlessness of an inventory-loot system in which the armour of three of four part members cannot be modified. The aesthetic of the game grates: Hawke and co. heft swords of frankly comedic proportions, while the armour in which some characters are kitted out seems to have been designed by people who have heard of armour, but never really seen it up close or fully understood its purpose. While other reviewers have raved about the qualities of the "dialogue wheel," I fail to see what advantages it actually offers over a list of answers. As with Mass Effect, an unwary player may be tricked into selecting an option on the basis of the synopsis on the wheel, then have Hawke say something while, which not entirely unrelated, is hardly what was foreshadowed. This is a gimmic which needs to be quietly abandoned. Even to characterise this as an "action RPG," in an effort to deflect from the fact that the game offers no immersive qualities, would be misleading, because combat is a simplified version of the same old pause, point and click. The game's increased emphasis on individualism, emphasised by the camera angles, makes approaching battles from a tactical, party-orientated perspective less rewarding and less intuitive than in DA:O. There are, of course, flashes of decent writing and some of the voice acting is quite good, but it doesn't hold a candle to its predecessor. All told, this is a game which might engage fans of "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance," or "Diabolo," but gamers seeking the escapism and immersion of a "proper" role-playing game will be sorely, sorely disappointed. Bioware flaunts the positive reviews of a number of respected reviewers on its website. My only question at this stage is: can I have a go at the game they played?… Expand

It's sad that this game has turned out how it has. Where i would play DA:O hours on end cause it immersed me into a beautiful world with diversity and a compelling story, i have to take a break from DA II every half hour because of the fatigue the game gives me, it's the same thing over and over, covered in bland and repeating surroundings and a general 'meh' feeling toward anything character or story wise.

I miss bird eye view alot when positioning party members, which is a shame since you haveto reposition alot due to enemies spawning out of nowhere. Simplified loot system is so uninteresting and easy to get around with that it's an annoyance to be bothering with.

Managing companions has been reduced to giving them jewelry. I never liked Massive effect to start with and the introduction of that wheel selection thing is just horrid to me.

In the end i felt like all options that would activate some braincells have been reduced to such simple tasks that i can't find it more challenging than setting one foot in front of another. It's so straightforward and linear :-S

The character selection system is restrictive and doesn't offer in any way what DA:O did, not at all. I don't feel like i'm playing a unique character at all in this game.

This game might of been received better if it hadn't been named the sequel to DA:O. But even if you take the first game out of the picture it still doesn't add up to a very good game in it's genre. I'd say i would rate it a 6 without ever playing DA:O. It's just not good. :(… Expand

I just signed up to write about this game. I have beaten it, every quest possible and I have completed Origins. The only thing that connects this so called sequel and Origins is the plot at some point, the rest...Im afraid is gone. First thing that kicks the faithfull fans in the nuts is fights - its no longer a well thought battle with deep tactics...its a SLASHER. Is it a good thing? Probably. But the fights, even though fast and flashy, are not memorable - wave after wave of 5-6 faceless enemies (who appear out of this air...yep magic) start to bore after about 1 hour. In the origins you could talk about one battle for 20 minutes, this one - "well I clicked on the dude and his head flew off"...The graphics are not as bad as people say - I mean how would you improve it? Everything looks alright for me. Everyone knew about the lack of customization, so lets forget this issue. The characters in the game are decent with back stories...now lets talk about the REAL PROBLEM - AREAS...I cannot find a good reason for developers to make 2 damn caves which you will have to run through OVER and OVER AGAIN! So lets sum it up:

In this game: Decent Story and Characters (+1)
Decent graphics (+1)
Voice actors did a very good job (+1)
Fighing techs (would be +1 for Xbox/PS but on pc not so much)

there you have it - areas are: Denerim is grey textures, 2 caves, a couple of deserted areas with respawning enemies.

If anyone at Bioware is reading the reviews...guys I will pay twice as much for the next game if you make it more like Origins, I am deeply dissapointed and sad...I couldnt find a game which weill really "take" me and then I bought Origins, so when I heard about 2nd part I was so excited you wouldnt believe...And I get this mindless unfinished H'n'S… Expand

I've am a huge dragon age fan and bioware games fan however bioware continue a trend of creating games with that think we are ten years old kids. Dragon Age 2 follow that trend, this game is a dispointment the story modiocre at best, the environment feel lifeless, use of the same zone over and over again, the control and camera suck. I wouldn't touch this game with a ten foot poo stick

This game has many problems. It deserves a zero b/c as a sequal to to DA:O, it has to be compared to DA:O. If it was just some new game in a new IP, I'd give it a 5 or 6. Bioware has really trashed this IP though.

1. It's not "innovative" to have the whole "RPG" take place in one generic and forgettable location. It's just lazy and cheap.
2. It's a shame that the combat was changed from a complex tactical/strategy game into a more of a light show where you mash the same button over and over. Once again, if this wasn't a sequal to DA:O, I wouldn't mind so much. But you can't follow up a game like DA:O with a game like this. It's sort of like, what if Dead Space 2 had been made into a halo clone w/o any blood, in order to appeal to a "broader audience."
3. The game was clearly rushed. You shouldn't waste 60 bucks when half the content is still in development. In a year, you can buy the game, along with the other half of the content, for less money. It's not like the game is new or innovative in any way shape of form. So why buy it now? Just wait until the DLC is packaged so it wont' be such a ripoff. Or better yet, just dont' buy the piece of garbage.… Expand

While not a perfect game, this metacritic score is skewed due to a "backlash" over two reviews written by Bioware employees (there is currently no evidence they were doing it at the behest of their employers simply they wrote two glowing reviews and if they were close to the game they may have a skewed perspective on the content.)

Any how, having played the game I can say whilst not perfect it improves on the formula behind the first game. The first game was much of the time, at best, unforgiving but since you could drop the play slider down to easy and not suffer any loss of game play or even achievements/trophies it compensated.

Thus far the game play does not show the same level of challenge, again a game best suited for the PC the graphical fidelity is vastly improved but even on my high end machine at times there are moments when Frame Rate drops through the basement. The load screens are much improved over the previous iteration and the story, as always, is well crafted. This is where Bioware excels.

One short coming is the change in scenery, or lack there of. Dragon Age: Origins and it's expansions gave you a vast swath of geography to cover. Dragon Age 2 does not, you have Kirkwall and a handfull of external locations. Now the story with it's framing device is setting this up as a Usual Suspects/Noir Fantasy. The city of Kirwall is intended to be as much of a character in the game as the players. That being said it doesn't carry off as well as hoped. I have a feeling if as extensively supported via DLC as Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins was this will be remedied as more DLC comes out but right now there are anemic points where it feels like you are rehashing locations and enemies over and over.

Combat is much more frenetic with more lifelike animations and in the case of the Xbox 360 due to a glitch button mashy game play (which isn't the case on other platforms as it still has the auto attack ability.) This will supposedly be addressed via a patch shortly. The PC really is still the premiere platform for this title, you maintain the same style of gameplay from the first game with the ability to zoom out and que commands for characters.

They have streamlined some aspects, the ability to micromanage gear on your characters has been reduced, not removed entirely but reduced which detracts from some of the old school feel but this is an extension of the Bioware ethos which is using games as a platform for story telling. The story it's self is compelling with interesting character interactions and some genuine relationships developing in interesting ways.

Not a perfect game but well worth checking out.

(And for the record I am not an employee of Bioware and never have been, I think instead of giving zeros to the game out of spite people should give genuine ratings on how they feel as many of these people giving zeros have never even played the game.)… Expand

This game is terrible. I don't think this can be even called an RPG at all. It looks just plain ugly, recycles the same exact locations. The gameplay is simply a joke. Doesn't Bioware have any shame selling this to people? Biggest disappointment this year so far.

Why would they do this? What was so broken that it needed such drastic actions? I don't understand anything...of the user complaints. Dragon Age 2 has been criticized for being too easy, dumbed down and bland. I will discuss the gameplay first, then talk a bit about the setting and story. DA2 is not easy. Yes, if you pick normal in DA2 it's easier then in DA:O, but you can go up in difficulty if you want a better challenge. Personally, I'm playing hard, and have met quite some interesting challenges. It's even nice that you can play the game pretty easily on normal, so that everyone can enjoy the game without the but-you-played-on-easy-shame. Just pick the difficulty that fits you, and the too easy problem is fixed. I guess it's just too hard to switch to another difficulty. I seriously don't get what's the problem with dumbed down. The skills are well distributed and tons of combinations are possible. While finishing my first game as a two-handed-weapon fighter, I was already thinking how I would make my new two-handed-weapon fighter play different. I've also been moving my characters around a lot more then in DA:O, and not just because I needed to clear the way for a mages fireball. Friendly fire has been disabled, which I applaud since that does not belong in a realtime team-based RPG. Moving all the characters in DA:O before casting AoE was just annoying imo, and I'm glad its gone. The isometric top view is gone, which makes it a little harder to move around the characters or casting AoE spells, but its nothing that hindered me from having fun. The tactics work pretty good, and the AI is very decent. I still paused the game a lot in difficult situations, which is good. Potions and healing have a much bigger cooldown, so health is a valuable resource again. The only problem I have with combat is that it's easy to kite an opponent, buying time until you can drink a new potion. It almost feels like cheating, especially if there are no ranged enemies nearby. Other then that, the combat is fun and quick while being tactical whenever you want it to be due to difficulty settings. It certainly made the game more enjoyable for me. Wrapping up gameplay, it has been one of the best for RPG's, surpassing DA:O.
The story and setting have a hard time to hit off, but once it does, it sticks pretty well. I'm very happy with the character design and like everyone of the party. I have no idea why people would say it's so much worse then DA:O. However, getting to know a character better and finding out their likes has become somewhat more difficult. The friendship between the characters must develop over the whole game, which sometimes gives an odd feeling. Why can't I talk about an issue now? What do you even like? I don't want to wait 3 years to develop something! Because of these obvious secrets, the characters grow enigmatic, even though they're not meant to be like that. Another thing that is a bit annoying about the story is that because everything is spit into acts, your character only develops significantly at the end of each act. This feels a bit unrewarding. I'd liked to see Hawke gain a normal job, rising in ranks, rising it stature etc. not only at the end of each act. One thing that is annoying in my eyes, is the derailing of the story which is almost mandatory. The game plays in different acts, and every act has 4 to 5 main quests to proceed the story. All other 30 or so quests are sidequests. It's nice to have sidequests to know the city better, but I think they slightly overdone it. The game can be played as a collection of sidequests if you don't know where you're heading, especially in Act 1. This underlines the unrewarding feeling of character development. The sidequests can also be hard to find sometimes, leaving you with the " did I miss something?" feeling a bit to much. I have mixed feelings about the environment. Kirkwall is a great city, but "propped" down a lot. Most people seem static, and if it wasn't for the sidequests, the city might feel dead. The other environments are also pretty grey, like the bonepit and sundermount. This leaves the game in a grey tint, never being refreshing like the forests in DA:O. The graphics look pretty good, but certain animations are still to clunky. especially when two characters are interacting, the suspension of disbelief breaks immediately. The game could do with a little more ambiance. The moral choices you have to make are again suburb, and the dialog wheel, even though it influences your choices to much for my taste (I want to say A, but I don't want to break my character who mostly says B), it gives Hawke some character. THANK GOD they did not made the important choices be influenced by the wheel!
Wrapping it up together, I enjoyed DA2 alot, and I'll keep playing it to explore different situations and tactics. It certainly has some setting problems, but it's still a lot of fun. 8.8… Expand