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

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!

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

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

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

So far it's been terrible. Clunky controls, terrible graphics. The characters are shallow and have exceptionally little dialogue. 27 pieces of DLC. Not much else has to be said. They've sold out and now cater to the lowest common denominator instead of providing high quality RPGs like they used to. Terrible.

Critics, wow 80+ review average.
Us poor saps that believe them and have to spend money on the game 60- review and that is probably only because of people voting 100% for no reason other than Love of the dev's previous work.

Personally combat is terrible- stats, skills, crafting all useless. There are no tactics required. The Story and characters are poor to laughable, don't even get me started on the childish "romances".. And honestly I've said enough, not wasting anymore time on this abomination.… Expand

I am extremely disappointed by Dragon Age 2 as a RPG game style, but if you can cast away the nostalgia of Baldur's gate, you'll find a good game nevertheless. Too bad this series have to continue like that, since the previous system was so much better... Why did they want to butcher the combat system like that ? They should have tried to improve it, not drastically change it ! On hard difficulty, it feels like a hack'n slash ! But sadly, this is how developers tend to do their games... And sadly, it works beautifully. I won't say this game is stupidly bad, it's not. It's a good game, but far from being a real sequel to one of the best RPG of these last years, The Witcher included. I guess we'll have to wait for The Witcher 2.… Expand

Dragon Age was an above average game with many decent elements that should have been improved upon. The biggest flaw of Dragon Age was the uninspired encounter design, where they tried to replace the lacking quality of encounters with the quantity of copy-pasted trash encounters. Instead of improving / enriching the character system and reactivity of the story and the game world and providing challenging tactical combat, with proper encounter dosing and design, the designers decided to cut the gameplay out of the game in order to replace their former target audience with intellectually impaired people who are unable of performing tasks like basic arithmetic and basic reading comprehension. Character customization and development and character stat based gameplay, which is the staple of RPG genre, is gone, tactical elements of combat are gone in favour of button mashing, text responses are gone, replaced by dialogue wheel for the illiterate attention deficit disorder crowd. God forbid that there are proper multiple dialogue choices consisting of complete sentences in the game, it would hurt the feelings of the target audience. Sticks and stones may break their bones, but big words hurt their tiny brains. Instead there is the game that has done away with numbers and reading, and replaced it with "cinematics" and button mashing. Of course, numerous trash encounters have only increased in number and frequency. Without a proper character system and considering the way story is presented, Dragon Age 2 is more of a homosexual porn movie than it is an RPG.… Expand

Boring, boring and boring ... Can't even compare it to DA:O not to mention BioWare's older RPG games. Incredible disappointment. No much more to say.

How the mighty have fallen. Bioworse does it again. Making a really great game, then completely destroying the sequel. Where do we even start with this? Dragon Effect II stars Hawke, a faceless human only hero. (Why did I even play a dwarf in the orginal?) That is destined to lead his friends to greatness. The first thing you will notice is the completely lack luster character creator, that they literally cut&pasted from the first game, give or take a few UI changes. It sports less choices, less variety, and terrible lighting. Don't even get me started on the EXACT same hair styles from the first game. The dialog wheel is a step back from origins and makes the game feel more and more like Dragon Effect II. The combat, while being faster, and incredibly flashier then Origins leaves little room for any real tactics, and thinking before engaging in battle. This too feels like a step backwards. After an hour or two you might grow incredibly bored with the combat, seeing as how even origins has decent blocking/parrying animations.
Rogues lacking backstabbing bonuses, and mages lacking tons of skills that I enjoying using from the first one is a disappointment. It all seems very watered down for a younger/mass audience. The graphics are absolutely sub-par, at best. Some how Bioware managed to make the second game look worse than the original. WAIT THOUGH, if you want to, you can visit their site, and download a high-res pack that was mysteriously not even included in the game itself? They could have made the High-res pack DLC, for 15 $ and most likely gotten away with it.

The writing is absolutely atrocious on all accounts, and steals from the games immersion.

Lots of things in the game they have you doing feel incredibly similar to the things they had you doing in origins. Being a jerk to merchants that make to much money, being forced to help bumbling fools.

The companions are now spineless, brainless drones. Blindly following hawke for any reason "I guess I have no choice". It all feels very forced, and not thought out very well..

I want to like this game, but I just can't bring myself to do so. For every improvement, there is easily 5 other disappointments on the screen. From the horrid looking UI, to the incredibly low detailed environment of Kirkwall. Having loved Dragon Age: Origins, this game has left me feeling empty, and pain stricken.

If this is the price we have to pay in a bioware game when the main character gets a voice actor, I'd rather they left him a mute, and focused on other areas.
This game has left me nothing but upset at bioware, for even releasing this game its very obvious the entire game was rushed, and kicked out the door, though with their recent habits I'm sure they don't even care. You can always just add the rest of the game as DLC, so you never have to release a finished product these days.… Expand

Very saddened to see the game go this way, the game itself is an ok game but from what the original Dragon Age was this is terrible. Combat has been dumbed down, on release there were over 20 DLC items available only for doing silly things such as 'likeing' the game on facebook or preordering before a set date from a set place, there we're also quest DLC's from preordering, DLC on release is crazy but that much is just insane. Not to mention that you also HAVE TO download over 1gig of data to get graphics better than the PC version. STAY AWAY!… Expand

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

WNxWind has got to be the biggest idiot ever. First he claims the game isn't a console port because Bioware released a high res texture pack. Wait a sec...if the game wasn't a console port IT WOULDNT REQUIRE A HIGH RES TEXTURE PACK. And the combat? What? You would have to have an IQ of less than 10 to find the combat challenging. The graphics even on very high with the high-res texture pack aren't amazing or even that good...the lighting is **** terrible. Not to mention if you have a Fermi card (or in SLI) you'll notice massive lag spikes since nVidia's drivers suck. The overall UI (apart from spell selection) look like it was designed in 5mins with no real thought.

This game is a console port, that's been dumbed even further down to satisfy the casual market.… Expand

A slap in the face for fans of DA:O, seriously where did they get the idea to main the masterpiece that DA:O was into this piece of filth. Everything's dumbed down and simplified, what on earth were they thinking. Don't buy this game, buy DA:O instead.

An uninspiring sequel to a fairly fun and decent title that needed some minor polish. This game looks and feels rushed from the over the top, hack n' slash combat, to the horrible dialogue and environments. Throw into the mix massive piles of day 0 DLC, lack of mod tools, and a zoomed out camera, and you have a very alienated PC user base.

Overall a major disappointment.

After playing the demo, hoped that the full game would worth something. But, simply no. Basically, a hack&slash game with conversations, companions, etc... And those alone doesn't make a game one RPG. Just an insult. I'll no longer buy any Bioware games, they don't exist for me anymore.

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

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

I can rant a lot about the game-play being horrible, the graphics being sub-par, the CC being plain dumb; but the real thing that pisses me off is the story. This game has an awkward plot and an ending that made my eyes bleed in horror. It is unbelievable that I paid 60 dollars for a completely needless cliffhanger ending. Someone has got to answer for this crime against gamers in general...

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

one of the worst RPG games i have ever played.

Controls are terrible and clunky There are no other control schemes (Only Point and click - click to move)
Dull story
Weak dialogues.
Graphics environments looks terrible (DX11)
Dumbed down RPG for casual wide audience.
Its ultimately feels like a step back from DA

The way Bioware changed this franchise from DA:O is devastating. I mean seriously, no isometric view? Are you serious? Plus the camera controls and overall camera is just horrible. The mediocre gameplay experience is nowhere satisfying and if I want to just concentrate on dating sims I'd play a game that's genuine dating sim. (Oh, and FYI the graphics were terrible too.)

Read these comments The majority of the people played only a couple hours of this game before realizing that it wasnt worth it to invest anymore time into playing something like this. By proof of contradiction, I will show you why this game doesnt deserve anything above a 5 Suppose, that the true rating of this game was actually 90+ as rated by PC Gamer, then it must be the case that this would be:

*The best RPG ever
*The biggest and most interesting town that you ever seen in RPG
*Many player choices with consequences on the story.
*Well written story that will make your eyes wet many times
*Much more attaching companions, more so than any of DAO.
etc.

But anyone who has played the game will see that:

*The best RPG ever?

Not by a lightyear

*The biggest and most interesting town that you ever seen in RPG

What?

*Many player choices with consequences on the story.

Im hungry

*Well written story that will make your eyes wet many times

lol

*Much more attaching companions, more so than any of DAO.
etc.

nope

And there you see by proof of contradiction 0/10… Expand

The gameplay is dissapointing at best, insulting at worst. In an attempt to streamline the gameplay for consoles, the PC version has suffered. No isometric view means it is very hard to see the action and micro manage your group. The very quick cooldowns and lack of difficulty coupled with the bad camera effectively make pausing the game a waste of time. The game reusues the same cave layout with the exact same door placement and the exact samevisuals from start to finish. You enter many caves yet somehow they are all the same. If you thought Mass Effect was bad then DA2 will blow your mind. The dialogue is very poorly written. It reads like a bad harlequin romance novel, something of the grade that you'd find in a trashy teen vampire cash in. The voice work feels dead pan and boring for any non party member NPC and that coupled with the unrealistic fangirl-like writing makes for some truly cringe worthy scenes. One character tries so hard to be cute, so hard to appeal to the "moe" loving crowd that her lines make her seem borderline retarded. It works with little girls because they are young and the stupidity can be excused. But when a grown woman speaks like a nervous 14 year old and calls swordsmen "sworderers" that "do something with a sword" then you start questioning this person's IQ. The game has the textures of an N64 game and that isn't even an exageration. There are pictures floating around the internet showing the low res (even with the supposed high res pack) of the ground, the buildings and the people most of all. All the NPCs asside from those in Hawke's party and in cutscenes look as detailed as the Happy Mask Salesman from Majora's Mask.

This is a bad game. Don't buy the hype.… Expand

This is a complete insult of a game, an obvious attempt to milk the cashcow. BioWare's reputation has taken a hit because of this game. This is a review of the PC version which is a port of console version. Before I get into the PC aspects I will open the bag and say that BioWare flat-out lied about the console version having auto-attack. They knew that feature would not be included, after openly saying it WOULD be included but admitted a mear 12 hours before release that their had "been a mistake". A BOLD FACE LIE.

Onto the PC version thoughts.

The conversation is dribble, utter dribble. For a RPG to have such a uninteresting story, AND method of story telling in a AAA title is insulting. Pressing escape is half the gameplay time, because the story is garbage. Camera view is horrible, worse then the first game. Another sign that the game was rushed. They didnt want to put in the resources in order to make this happen.

The characters are uninspiring, very generic. The textures are uneven. Some a good while other are unacceptable.

The combat is the only thing acceptable. If they had completely removed all story and dialog and just stuck with combat, called it a hack and slash and not named it dragon age, I would be a happy camper. I would have not been suckerpunched.

The fact their really is no point to the inventory system considering they cherry picked what items could be equipped, shows a complete sense of ineptitude. They refused to put in the effort for "Items" and made 10% effort in what is considered baseline expectation. Considering in the first game you could pick a multitude of races to be, in this they allow for only ONE shows their lack of consideration for anybody interested in this genre.

BioWare: Focus groups, critic bribery, lies and excuses won't save you from the laughing stock this game is, I'm sorry the only thing u can do is laugh all the way to the bank because this game is a joke and I hope you all are proud of yourselves.


P.S. Don't F'up ME3 or the MMO.....Fool me once shame on you fool me twice......… Expand

Bioware has officially alienated the entire audience that made Dragon Age: Origins the hit that it was. Graphics:
In short: The art style rework looks horrible. The new orcs and hurlocks look like rejects and don't convey a threatening visage at all. In general, all the new enemies lack a sense of danger or urgency, which I think is the main flaw with the game (main point later). The new draw distance does look great, but there are so many poor textures in the game, it honestly makes you go "What is this". Just for reference, I am playing the game on my PC with full graphics in DX11 mode, so it's not my computer it's just either laziness on Bioware's part or my standards are too high (For DA:O it wasn't). The new cities look great, as do the caves, but honestly the new landscapes look bad compared to the original.

Gameplay:
I think this is where most of the problems derive from: Combat and animations are too fast. There is no need for tactics because the game boils down to to a hack and slash (especially at the lower difficulties. This mindless fighting leads to no memorable fights unlike the first game, which is another point. Nothing in this game is memorable. Your companions feel hollow. They all have back stories and some are interesting but it's hard to connect with any of them. It might just be the fact that Hawk is voiced over himself, but I just felt detached from the entire experience unlike the first game. I was no longer able to choose my back story, choose how I started the game, and feel like I was the protagonist of the game. It honestly mimicks an JRPG such as final fantasy. It's weird, I originally thought the voice over would be similar to mass effect, but it ended up just making the game feel like a movie. Thinking back I think the main issue with the disconnect was simply the story. In most Bioware RPG's you are a normal bloke, and something bad happens and you get drafted into a special league of people to solve the problem. In DA2, I was simply "told" that I was the champion kirkwall, all I accomplished, everything that I was and would be was predefined. The story telling medium really just made it feel terrible, extremely similar to the vibe I got from Fable 3 (Also another terrible RPG). The story is simply too disjointed, where most of the story line entail quick missions that involve mindless running through hurlocks and friends, killing everything, all to recover an item or to meet/rescue someone. It just felt terrible.



I rated the game a 3. It is "meh", which in my book is a 5, but I feel that Bioware has royally screwed up on this game. The alienation gives it a 3. Note at Bioware: You can't say that you are "improving" a game by removing everything that made the original a success. You have alienated the PC gamer group (I'm sure the game is fun more so on consoles) and it will show. Catering to the console audience will be your demise, as the PC community is what originally valued your games and gave your company the notoriety that it has today. Yes DA:O had clunky issues, but what you have done in order to improve and streamline the game has backfired horrendously, and it shows. It really does. Just looking at the original and the sequel compared, it's as if the sequel should have been the original, everything just seems a stepback.



Or maybe because it's Bioware, everyone will buy it and say that it's fit for worship. Who knows, but the future of RPG's look grim.… Collapse

Plagued by FFXIII-level linear maps, copy/pasted dungeons, and more dialog and cutscenes than MGS4. A step forward in terms of, well, flashiness, but a step backward in graphics, number of options, cities, and even the number of bugs on launch day seems to be greater than in its predecessor. The voice acting is bad enough to make me want to punch a baby and the dialog is horribly written with quirks like "I LIKE BIG BOATS, I CANNOT LIE". Seems to take every flaw DA:O had that was generally forgiven for its PC alternative, expanded upon those flaws, and make them the core basis of the game itself. Not worth getting, not even worth pirating.… Expand

After purchasing Dragon Age 2 and playing it for some 8 hours, I've come here to warn the people against buying this game. First of all, it is completely unbelievable that a triple A title that had millions upon millions of dollars of production budget has graphics that looks like it's from 2001. I'm playing with the high resolution texture pack that needs to be downloaded and installed separately, and DX11 on my AMD 6970 and yet Morrowind has prettier graphics. The game was also designed with 12 year old children in mind by giving laughable and ridiculous amounts of gore and sex innuendos with party members that it's on the verge of being a parody of itself. The writing is terrible, invoking cliches from the worst airport novels. Story is an incoherent mash of gibberish and stuff we've seen in Origins. Level design is boring and some maps are literally copied from Dragon Age Origins. Dialogues can only be explained as retarded; no living creatures sputter the words with no meaning and completely inappropriate to the situation so often as DA2 characters. There is no fun to be had from this game, and that's a shame to see Bioware go this way.… Expand

This game was a huge let down. From the very beginning of the game, it was obvious that there was not nearly enough time put into it. They took a huge step backwards from DA: O, and dumbed down this game in almost every way imaginable, and the sub-par graphics are inexcusable for a company of Bioware or EAs prestige and budget. They removed any tactical aspects that the original game had and replaced them with mind numbing button mashing as you get flooded by seemingly endless waves of enemies. The game also lacks the detail and overall quality of the first. There are many little things in the game that indicate the lack of development. For instance, the first thing I noticed when I arrived in Kirkwall, was that there was no collision with most of the townspeople other than guards, merchants, and vital characters. You can walk right through most of the people, which in itself is not a game-breaker, but shows how little time they put into detail. Other instances include s having to be lined up with certain objects in a very precise manner to interact with them, poorly rendered textures, and just the overall lack of detailed environments that were abundant in the first game. The lack of exploration and interaction with people other than merchants or vital characters was also a huge disappointment, and you even have to manually cycle day to night on the area selection screen. This is unacceptable as games on the NES made in the mid to late 80s had working day/night cycles. The amount of day one dlc is insane, and the Prince DLC really makes it feel like Bioware/EA are trying to milk every penny out of their fans. I gave this game a 0/10, because instead of improving their game, the developers dumbed it down in every way imaginable, and cut many corners in development, making it impossible for me to enjoy.… Expand