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

Dragon Age II is an awesome game hands down. On most of the major points it is a really fun and engaging game. The combat is much better this time around, allowing you to feel more involved. This is especially true for Warrior's and Rogue's who benefit most from the combat changes. Hard to believe mage is even more awesome.

The game really has not changed dramatically from its core Origins roots. Overall it provides all the great aspects you expect from a Bioware game. Some of the only noticeable negatives I have found are the reuse of dungeon layouts. This was relatively disappointing since the game is centered around one area and adds to the feeling of repetition. This is where the time constraints are very obvious.

To finish up this short review I'd like to comment on the graphics. They look great, even at the medium settings. The art style might not be to everyone's taste ( on a related note kill animations are not as satisfying) but everything from my point of view looked very nice.

Solid game, can't go wrong, that is if you are not a jaded Origins fan.… Expand

This game is atrocious. By "attempting" to appeal to a wider audience, all Bioware managed to do was alienate its fans while failing to grab the attentions of those they were aiming for.
The DX11 graphics are abysmal. Just go look at some screenshots of the NPCs.

Not the best Bioware RPG ever. A lot of copy/paste, strange design decisions (corpses in the house of one of the characters staying there for six (!!!) years. Game is about seven years long but there are no big changes in this little world. Bugs do not let me finish some quests. Ending (not just it, actually) looks like a good place for DLC. Want to know true end? Just pay EA/Bioware 5-10 (more?) dollars. I spend on this game money and now I don't think, that it was a good idea. I could write much more, but do not see any need in it: just look at demo and think on your own about 50-60 euro/dollars (1000 rubles) you can spend on it. Does it really cost so much? I don't think so.… Expand

It's my fist review on metacritic but I can't keep my mouth shut this time. This game is unforgivable! How Bioware can do this with such a wonderful beginning as DA1? We waited DA2 so much! And now I still can't believe that it's so bad. I spend 34 hours playing this game till it's final. It has it's moments but that's all. I really like and respect Bioware but this game is disaster. I hope that it's not going to happen with ME3. I was very disappoint with it's story, locations, dialogs and rpg-part. This game is boring and monotonous. You don't have any interesting events there - it's just an endless killing of identical enemies. Locations are small, identical and dull. Why they place a ME dialog system there? There is even no reputation or special dialog options! This game is like a personal insult to all rpg-gamers. I was waited the journey that never began. Bioware should be ashamed.… Expand

users - 3.67/10 payed critics - 8.40/10 TRUE SCORE 6.03/10 As you can see the pro's overate games. Pros 84% but we the gamers give it a real score of 38%. AVERAGE META SCORE 60%. Who do you trust? Based on the 'user reviews' the average score is 3.67 out of 10. This is based on 79 votes given 5 or 6, 427 given 7,8,9 or 10 and 822 votes given 0, 1 or 2. The meta critic meta score based on 16 'critics' is 84 out of 100 out 8.4 out of 10.

I have found over the years the so-called professional reviewers over rate games
An average game should get 50% not 75% or 85%. We vary rarely see games getting below mid 80's these days even if they are bad.
So I thought i'd find the average of the true gamers - us the buyer - and combine that score the the payed reviewers to see what the TRUE META SCORE is.… Expand

I absolutely loved Dragon Age origins so I preordered DA2 as soon as I could. There is a fine line between streamlining and dumbing down, and unfortunately this feels very much like it's been dumbed down for a more casual console audience. Much of the geeky tweaking and customisation of most RPGs has gone - you can't even change your companions' armour, so effectively any armour you find in the game is either for your main character or for the scrap heap.

The various scenes look graphically (slightly) better that Origins, which is good, but almost nothing can be interacted with. Combat is messy and too fast, so it's hard to keep track of exactly what each of your party up to, and descends into a hack n slash affair.

I think some of the UI improvements are pretty good but it's been taken far too far and sucked all the fun and 'RP' out of the 'G'. My advice to Origins fans would be to restart Origins with a new character as you'll have a lot more fun.

I'm not a ranting troll by the way, but rather a genuinely disappointed fan, who really wanted DA2 to at least be as good as its predecessor. Fingers crossed, if they do a third game then they'll revert some of these core changes back, but I doubt Bioware/EA would want to be seen as backtracking, as that would be an admission that they've made a blunder on this one.… 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

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

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

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

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

A SHADOW OF ITS FORMER SELF! Normally bioware do a good job of upgrading their sequels (Example Mass Effect 2) they get rid of the probelms they had with the first. But i'm sorry to tell people but bioware have made a big boo boo with this sequel, they simplfied to the point of embarrassment and the element story that was so so solid in Dragon Age: Origins has all but disappeared, you seem to just do the quests because you want to see if the main story is going to get start and it doesn't! Big disappointment can't believe i preorder it!… Expand

This game is an abortion, I have never been so disappointed by a sequel... ever. They ruined the combat system by making a button smashing, roll your head on the keyboard mess. The story is made to seem like your decisions matter, when in reality the story is on rails the entire game. Even with the texture pack the graphics are nothing special, and it looks like they spent about 5 minutes on the environment. The two most frustrating things about this game are the fact that they recycle the same dungeons and levels many times over, and the new dialog system is made for people who failed 3rd grade reading comprehension. We don't need pictures telling us what effect our response is going to have on who we re talking to. Hopefully based on the awful scores this game is getting EA will let Bioware do their thing on the next installment of this game(assuming there is one). The bottom line, Don't let EA steal your money with this one, make them responsible, and tell them they need to give us worthy content when trying to expand upon a game as awesome as DA:O.… Expand

This game starts out with well intentions. You are tasked to save your family from the incoming darkspawn, who would of thought that would of been the most epic moment in the game. From there you will see the same buildings caves and good ole beige kirkwall the rest of the game. now if we want to break down the game into factors like other reviewers i will so i won't get taken down for spam. I will be comparing this game to its predecessor.(although i probably should compare it to fable or god of war since thats the way this incarnation is set up.)
Gameplay: this game is nothing but a Spam R fest on most difficulties while removing most if not all tactical aspects of the game with the inclusion of respawning enemies. not to mention the lack of decent specializations for most classes. Sound: 7/10 i think this is the one aspect of the game that was done well so i will not bag on them more than i have to.
Graphics: Worse than the first game even with the Hi-Res pack explain that to me.
Story: it was going fine throughout act 1, but after and during act 2 and 3 the game just lost me and the ending was very sub par. When you complete the main story most people including my self are sitting there reading the credits thinking this is it? this is my epic 10 year story to end like this?
Replayability: With out Origins story i dont see this game being played much more than 1 or 2 playthroughs for most my self i didn't need more than 1 to know i was done with it.

All in all buy the first game if you haven't bought it and were thinking of buying this one. If you already have the first one save your money for the witcher 2 or skyrim, and give DA:O another run through cause its clearly a superior product.… Expand

Still a good game. It feels like it was rushed because it is so repetitive but the story is very good. The low score is probably because we expect Bioware to be very good and not like this. It is enjoyable but then again the use of the same assets again and again makes the game look bad. If you compare this to Dragon Age: Origins, it's like a younger brother who will never be better than his older brother. Compare this to non-DAO games and you get a very immersing game with a good story and better combat.… Expand

I`m big fan or RPG games, hell big fan of Bioware but come on, OK lets start with graphic really great (compered with DA-O)but i don`t think it has more than few maps and who play RPG games for great visual, we play for story, making our character more and more better with next level, going trough lots of mission to get that perfect item, so at the end of the game we can see how our perfection look like. Fighting well big zero click this and yeee this explode click that and wow another explosion, story well i can dig it but this is part 2, the story should have been much better you have 3 dialog and that is it? come on i have finish 5 time allover ahead Dragon age origins just because of story, and now i play DA II i`m level 11 and still trying to find good reason for play(damn how a great commercial and reputation can make you feel stupid for paying 50 euro). Skills really you can chose what ever you want, trust me i`t going to look great when you click to use it and there it end it`s value , inventory well i like how they handled resource but that is it if you want to upgrade armor of your companion you need to look out trough all town just sad. Items also i don`t see some great innovation there, and what the f*ck is junk. if you liked first dragon age this one is going to be huge disappointment, really how it get that great critic review i don`t know, this is what it is a mediocrity game with nothing special, and please guys from game industry enough of DLC and promo item that we need to pay, make it free or don`t make it at allâ… Expand

Commander Hawkes incredible city runner When DA2 was announced I was afraid about the promised improvements also known as catering for the casual. But silly me I thought Bioware could not make a bad game. So I preordered the game anyway. After the rather irritating beginning with bland uninspiring atmosphere it was time to start the game. I was ready to be the hero as usual and my hero is always a chaotic good smooth talker.
Well the first few hours flew by and I was feeling ok about the game.

But then just after few hours the maps started to feel repetitive:
- Wow the exactly same map again with just different doors locked is this really a different place in the city?

Then I noticed that no matter what dialogue options I chose the end result was always pretty much the same. So that meant that I could not be the smooth talker my hero has always been , meaning I like to talk my way out of situations. Instead now I had situations like:
I have to get past some thugs lets talk to them:
- Option 1 : Positive reply
- Option 2: Witty reply
- Option 3: Slaughter the baddies

Well no matter what I tried it always ended up in bloodbath suppose that the edgy and sexy part of the game when you are being forced to kill everything without option Yay...

Then the combat , at fist I liked it , but then it got repetitive the combat required no tactics at normal , and little to none at hard until you met enemies that one shots you , talking about balancing difficulties.
But the most ridiculous part was all the flashy moves and gore. I mean since when all the mages become some Ninja masters with their staffs? Since when has warrior in full plate been able slide across the room like he was on ice with jetpack?

And the gore my god its silly. I stab you with a fork and you explode to gazillion pieces and splatter all your innards in the process I mean even bad splatter movies are more realistic. Another issue for me was the lack of real healing spec tree talents or pretty much anything. There was TWO yes TWO healing spells in the whole game and the extra one is on one of the followers. This means that bringing an healer to fight means more about bringing an boom explosions mage to the fight that just has an ability to give someone extra health potion now and then.

And how about the waves of enemies randomly appearing? It made the use of tactics pretty much void since every time you meet enemies you can count on that Spock will be beaming down more of them during the fight. This again kills the immersion completely. How about the companions then , well they are ok , but the lack of customization is horrid. I mean sure it makes a nice unique feel to a companion perhaps when you cant change their armors but bloody hell since when a skimpy dress has been a good pick for an armor to bring into a fight?

Also most of the items are way too generic , you will find plenty of amulets , belts , and rings named yes you guessed it amulet , belt , ring. Oh the joy. All the armor you find is pretty much useless since well you cant give them to your followers.

And what about the brilliant junk system. Yes you will literally picking up junk during your travels. Since in DA2 you are Hawke the great janitor. BUT wait there is more , the city that you will spend your whole adventure in is boring and bland. There is the gray zone , the brown zone and so on. There is no feeling of life or excitement in the city. I have seen ghost cities more alive than Kirkwall. The background inhabitants of the city are just props if you happen to have the change to click one of them they will probably say something just as dull as the city.

But wait I am bringing my DA:O save to DA2 that should make things interesting? NO
The imported save game brings no depth to game. There is little to none references to your DA:O game suppose they did not want to confuse all those poor farmville gamers that might buy DA2 , (no offense intended to farmville players).

Top if off with minimal replay value. Because of the linear game play , reused maps , and Commander Hawke I`m sure this game is the flop of the year.

I suppose I have to say something good about the game too. Well the good thing is I won`t trust bioware assuring that they are not dumbing down or forgetting us old RPG gamers.… Expand

You do not play Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age 2 plays you.

Your character's choices and actions have no bearing on the larger story. Everything important in the game is caused by an NPC - most of them being your party members. Your character is little more than an observer to the world around them. Even when your character could feasibly influence the events around them, Dragon Age 2 seems to purposely deny you the ability to do so to force less plausible outcomes upon your character.

Throw in easy, repetitive combat and generic, re-used dungeons and you have a flop I would not have finished had Bioware's label not been on the box.… Expand

Absolutely disappointing. This was my last bioware game...
For the next 5 years I will give the money for every bioware game released, to charity instead buying the game !!!

The copy paste RPB of the decade everything in the game is the same copy paste the mines a all the same the caves a all the same and the areas around the city a all the same, armor only have diffrent colors. Im having trouble playing for more than 10 min at the time before getting bored This game is dumbed down to console players with no brains at all You can sit and watch a movie just pressing R and still win a battle… Expand

I wish I could say it's pretty like some of the other reviews on here, but due to the game not even supporting nVidia cards properly(because obviously no one uses them right?) it looks/runs terribly on my computer that should be able to run it maxed out. I loved DA:O, I love both of the Mass Effects, but this is honestly one of the most disappointing games I have ever played.

Shame on you Bioware, and shame on you EA for appearing to have ruined both a good title and a great company. It's just sad. :(… Expand

A dumbed down experience. Hack and slash combat, cluncky graphics, recycled enviroments bad pacing, boring storyline, bad dialog and companions. All the naysayers have been right since day one, this game has not been made with the spirit of an rpg and it's an insult to what Bioware used to be.

Really awful game. Most of the game has you doing low-effort quests in the same quest hub, fighting battles full of constantly spawning waves of garbage enemies that require no thought to defeat. The writing is terrible. All of the companions are written terribly as is BioWare's forte. Almost nothing you do ever seems to matter in the end. They don't even try to hide that the templar are Nazis.

Completely forgettable.… Expand

This game is terrible. It looked great, when I saw it from a playthrough, and the critic review was rather nice{Speaking of critic reviews, were they bought off or something? Good thing I never trust the critic}. Then I realized how wrong I was when I actually sat down with it on the pc. I rolled a warrior. The gameplay is unbelievably bad. I have to continuously tell my character to attack, regardless of being swarmed by enemies, because she'll simply stand there dying otherwise. The play itself is atrocious; clunky to an impossible degree.

The graphics look like something from at least five years ago, even on highest quality(and it eats processing and ram like no tomorrow to do so).

The camera has no fixed point so you more often than not find yourself trying to continuously right click on enemies 'in front' of you which aren't in range, otherwise you have to drag your frame to see them.

Targeting boxes are at the base of the enemies, so when you're engaged in combat you have to try and select the small location near their feet to target the one you want, otherwise you click right through their hollow bodies, on the ground behind them, then try and stupidly run to that point; somehow breaking the clunky system even further, as though that were possible.

Worst of all.

I haven't even managed to progress past the first 'real' battle yet. That's right. This is my review of the game five minutes in. Why?

Because ally AI, which you need of course, is so unbelievably, impossibly, terribly, freaking retarded, that the game is borderline, if not, unplayable.

I'm stuck with two warriors trying to take on a small band of undead things, and a single 'troll'. Okay what's so bad about this? My tank warrior ally is tanking the troll, all's good. I'm out there taking out the badies, and hitting the troll when I can. Okay all clear. Wait...

WTF?!

My mage. Whom I had modifed into an entirely medical roll, through both abilities, and selected tactics. Is standing there.

Not healing me, or my ally, like an idiot. Full mana mind you, I even set her on 'near but not to be engaged in direct combat'.

She stands there, looking at me, or a rock it's hard to tell to be honest, and watches me die.

My ai medic, fails at the one task of being a medic. How can a game fail so hard?

Dragon Age 2 is quite simply: terrible.

Thankfully I never purchased it, having borrowed a copy from a friend to see how it was. There's cash I certainly didn't need to spend, glad I did it this way.… Collapse

The storyline really isn't bad and certain side-quests are of interest, often tying into the bigger picture. Unfortunately the mechanics and gameplay have been popamole'd to the extreme, with many of DA:O's best things "streamlined" (dumbed down) or removed. Companions range in quality from very good (Varric) to very bland (Fenris). The re-use of maps is unforgivable and makes even the above-mentioned side-quests a grind at times as you run through the same cave you've seen 100 times with a door blocked here and opened there. Bioware's attempt to "streamline" the game in an attempt to attract younger action game fans seems to have failed big. Not only have they failed to draw in a significant amount of those based on early sales but they have also jaded those of us who love a proper RPG and had faith in them to improve on the original title. Instead, not only is this much inferior, even the rushed out expansion to DA:O, Awakenings, is a better game than this. I worry for Mass Effect 3 now...… Expand

Just finished playing the demo! It was fantastic!!! NOT!!! IT WAS A STEAMING PILE OF **** How could they do this to Dragon Age Origins!?

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