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

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

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

As a sequel to Dragon Age: Origins this game was a big disappointment. You can tell this game was rushed like crazy with the ridiculous number of recycled dungeons, enemies, and graphic tilesets. This should have been a great game but instead fell victim to EA's ongoing overhype-and-overrush-quality-be-damned business strategy at making new games. The fact that most critics gave this game a 90+ score just shows how lacking in integrity game journalists are.… Expand

For the original Dragon Age i wrote: Very immersing story, believable world, interesting NPCs, fun and demanding combat. Well, Dragon Age 2 has nothing of those.

Incredibly disappointed with this. I was a huge fan of DA:O and was eagerly awaiting the sequel but this is nothing short of shameful. The combat system is absolutely terrible - sometimes change is bad. Very very very bad. Contrary to what some think, a negative score does not equal troll - it's a farce or a release from a company capable of oh so very much better than this. I'm so very sad that this game turned out like this - really was looking forward to it so much. :(… Expand

Awful...I thought the user reviews might be a bit off, so I took a chance. After loving the first game so much I can now see why everyone says this is just horribly bad. I will not go into all the problems with the game as they have been explained over and over...but I'll just say that Bioware has completely done themselves a disservice by completely removing the challenge and strategic combat of the first game. Just plain awful from story to combat...how disappointing indeed.… Expand

console, dumbed down game, since the first trailer I knew this would happen, no distance view, fast paced hack and slash, no freedom do develop YOUR character, uninteresting companions ... it is and failed attempt to make DRAGON EFFECT tried the demo, hated it, thank heavens I did not pre-ordered it bioware is dead to me, but we still have obsidian, paradox and cd projekt

I really appreciate the detail that is evident in the texture pack on the PC. I've got a hefty desktop, but with settings on the DX11 renderer on very high, my system lags. Apparently it's an issue with nvidia drivers, I installed the beta ones. Still lags. If I can run Bad Company 2 on Max Settings and Pull 45 FPS, there is NO reason this game should stutter. I've got an i7-960, 6 GB of Ram, GTX 470 1280 mb GPU...I can only imagine the problems for people with midrange systems.

I though the art is a standout feature, the lighting is significantly improved.
Disappointed by the streamlining in general. Not being able to equip my companions with better armor seems counter intuitive at times. Combat seems faster but I don't like watching people explode from dagger hits or arrows. I thought the "300" style finishing moves in DA:O was more realistic and gritty.

Animation is choppy and ridiculous at times. Watching Avalene poke someone with a mace thrust is just silly, running looks choppy. I miss the "sync kills" (dawn of war term for cool finishers). It appears that the number of animations has actually decreased. I find myself wishing that Bioware had created a Return of The King Styled action game or something. It just feels awkward. In Mass Effect shots are based on skill, in addition to the stats for your weapons so it feels like you have an impact. In Dragon Age 2 that's not the case.

Locations are recycled several times. I found myself getting lost because I thought I'd already been in an area, but it was a new quest using the same resources.

My biggest disappointment is in the dialogue and character development. Conversing with Sten was a challenging experience. Now talking to my new companions, I know how they will react based on a picture.

I don't like not knowing what I'm going to say and just having a picture to base it off of. It really doesn't translate intent that well as summarized at times. I don't feel as attached to my characters because I can't chat to them anymore except when the game allows it.


I miss isometric view. I find myself having trouble aiming skills and hopping between characters to get formations for combat because the camera swings wide to compensate for being in a wall. It's frustrating.

The UI isn't as pretty. I miss the portraits with the Mana and Health Bar. Looks Sleeker than the Red and Yellow. Also, found myself bored with the quests. No sense of urgency like the warden had. Just, oh I returned some random trinket. Cool. One Gold. Some neat twists. If you wanted to take something from Mass effect, wouldn't have minded those "action interrupts" where I end up shooting someone in the middle of their speech.

I'm pretty disappointed. I played 20 hours. I know everyone is passionate on both sides. I hope those of you who enjoy the game have a good time. Bioware is an Amazing Studio despite this game and all the crappy DLC you've made. I will buy this game when it's 20 dollars on Steam just becuase I love you guys. And I might even beat it. That being said...

rant:

It feels to me like another "Witch Hunt" that is 60 dollars and with pretty streamlined tweaks to appeal to Angry Birds fans that want to "Hit a button and make something cool happen so they can get back to playing Madden or Call of Duty on their Xbawkz."

Console games for me, are a disposable experience, fun but fleeting. I can enjoy a round with a friend, but when I PC game, it's a big deal for me. It's my only hobby that I can still enjoy in my pathetic life.

I mean to say that I don't feel immersed in the world. I was actually getting bored and having to try and struggle through. I know some games take some time to warm up, (here's looking at you, KOTOR 2) and then get (mostly) good. So far 20 hours and I'm glad I can take this back tommorow and get a refund.

/rant

Mount and Blade was a lot more fun combat wise and there was no story, made by a small dev team. Would have liked either more animations or direct hack and slash. I really don't like action games though.

Except Crash Bandicoot. That game was Amazing. Like, all of them. Maybe you should make DA3 like Crash Bandicoot, Wrath of Cortex. I feel let down overall.… Collapse

Dragon Age II is like taking everything that made Dragon Age: Origins good, strip it away, add a mediocre mainstreamed gameplay with repetitive actions and environment, a story where your choices doesn't affect the outcome at all and the most boring overall game I have played in a long time. Yes, the combat is more action packed and flashy, but it ultimately is also a lot more boring, because it stripped away the entire strategic element. I speak this after completing the game on Hard and not needing any sort of healer or crowd control at all. A simple combo of damage, damage, damage and damage was more than enough due to the fact you can easily set up group kills with the Disorients or Frozen, easing up the gameplay even further. The game, is bad, and I suggest buying Origins instead if you're new to the Dragon Age series.… Expand

The Dragon Age story has lost it's soul with this console-implementation. It's incredibly dumbed down, and feels like a simplified game you would expect on an iPhone or mobile device. While the graphics are indeed amazing, the voice acting fine and the interface slick - it's just disappointing. The unusually high average scores from professional "reviewers" just shows how large the divide between commercial expectations and end-user expectations really are.… Expand

Alright, so I finished this, and while it may have been a good stand alone game from a lesser known developer, this is not a $60 epic from a critically acclaimed company that we were promised.

All I can say is - I played this for 3 hours - Stopped - and reloaded DA One
The story might be great if I had continued with it..maybe, but the gameplay mechanic and combat is nerfed beyod recognition.
Why? Bioware Why destroy the depth of a great game. You've been nerfing stuff since BG2 - what next? Pong? I fear for Star War the Old Republic - probably turn out with the gameplay depth of a spit puddle.… Expand

Bioware itself sets the bar for quality RPG, where the act out role was paramount. Now act out the role can not, in principle, the class character only changes the way of killing meat, not the sollution quests . ring of conversation way interactive system (hello Mass Effect) also does not help back the role. Since by the choice of possible answers, we only permit the tone of the conversation. (Good-neutral-evil). Sad to see how Bioware rejects all "unnecessary" gameplay elements to please a wide audience. Perhaps if the game was called Adventure not RPG, she would have received a much higher score. If only player would not be bored running around the monotonous dead locations.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. So, it takes 14 hours to get past the first 4 years of game play and during that time you're just hoping the game gets better from then on. Nope, the game stays at the same level of tediousness and is painful to complete. The ending doesn't even feel like an ending. When the credits started rolling I just wanted to throw something. Final verdict: painful waste of $60.… Expand

The User ratings have this one almost dead on. No it's not the worst game out there but just because you can make a game look relatively pretty doesn't mean it's good. Dragon age suffers from one game breaking flaw, greed. EA and Bioware show their true colors here. They have changed everything that made Dragon Age Origins such an incredible game. Not in the name of improvement but to sell more copies. I do see how some of the changes could have been for the better if done properly yet others are just senseless. The battle system needed reworked if only for the console versions. However the changes they made left it feeling less like an RPG and more like a bad hack and slash. Gone are all the deep character customizations. You simply choose gender and class. No more custom backstory. If this was any other franchise it would have been better off. Calling it a sequel to Dragon Age simply ruined it. No one buys a sequel hoping it will be more simplistic with a simple story and fewer options. If you buy a sequel to a beloved franchise you expect it to improve on itself. The story is borderline garbage and the way it's delivered is even worse. Don't get excited for some upcoming exploration or engaging plotline as the game will simply skip ahead just as you're getting into it. Yes this dungeon looks exactly like the last one just make a left here instead of a right. Bioware has openly admitted to using the same dungeon layout multiple times. Here is the bottom line. I like many others was expecting a sequel. Hoping to continue my story or atleast flesh out the world of Dragon Age. Instead I was sold a crappy 5 yr old baldurs gate wannabe with modern graphics. I was not expecting Mass Effect Medieval Edition. Bioware is hands down the most overrated developer around. They consistantly make terrible games that have great stories. They really should just consider making movies instead of games. We would all be better off.… Expand

Waste of time and money, shouldn't be labeled as an RPG, more of an action/adventure hack & slash... Loved DAO, so disappointed with this game:( Why would you take perfectly good game and ruin it? for a quick profit that's why

Compared to Dragon Age: Origins this game is totally uninspired and boring. It seems they took everything that was good in the prequel, removed it and replaced it with everything that was bad in DA:O. The combat system is too simplified and the story never takes off.

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

This game is boring, like its predecessor. It's also shorter in length, (as indicated by the size of installation and number of words written for dialogue, compared to DA1), and dumbed down to a hack and slash game. Games like this or CoD:Black Ops make me question the validity of critic reviews. Somehow these 'big' games get positive reviews no matter what, even when the majority of players disagree. If there is a lesson to be learnt, it is that you should trust reader reviews, at least on this website; they're really helpful and detailed. Critic reviewers, on the other hand, are probably forced to write positive reviews on famous games made by famous developers, or maybe they're too scared to be honest about how bad these games really are. Ugh.

Mass Effect series is much better than DA in my opinion. DA has bad story, bad graphics, bad dialogues (cheesy), and boring combat. DA2 "improved" this lackster combat by simply transforming it into a hack and slash game that can be enjoyed by simpletons who like to press a button. (Dynasty Warriors anyone?) Unlike DA1, DA2 is made with consoles in mind, and as such, the depth of the gameplay is gone from what I already considered a mediocre game. Last but not least, no, I am not blinded by PC elitism; I enjoy console games as much as PC games. I just think that DA was better off as a PC game. If I really wanted a hack and slash game, I could find many games superior to this. But there aren't that many PC RPGs anymore. DA was never to my liking, but at least it rejuvenated a dying genre. DA2 does not.… 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...

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

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.… Expand

DA:2 stands testimony to the fact that Bioware has gone the way of many other developers in the last few years; tailoring experiences and titles for a younger, more mainstream audience, and less of the gamers of yesteryear. Much of the complexity of DA:O is completely missing, and what remains has been stripped to the barest semblance of what it was in the previous title. Many of the mechanics and elements are directly attributable to Mass Effect 2 (Resource "Locating", Conversation Wheel, etc), which makes the game feel like a Dragon Age flavored Mass Effect, and what few mechanics are newly implimented (Namely the combat) feels like it belongs in a Hack&Slash, Gauntlet-type game. Pair all that with a totally stripped down Inventory/Character management system (Feels bad man) reminiscent of Fable 3 and other new-RPG titles that feel "Depth bogs down storytelling", and you've got one abomination of a title. I was looking greatly forward to this release, hoping for grand things from the people who brought us DA:O, but what I've got is an attempt to bring in newcomers to the genre which strays so far from the "Brilliance in the basics" of basic RPG conventions that it feels like i'm watching a linear movie take place in the city of Kirkwall. Overall, the reasons for score follow:

Graphics: 5 (Being an obvious console port, at least they took the time to create a Hi-Res texture pack and release specialized drivers in coordination with a major video card company. This shows effort, albeit the wrong way of approaching it) The graphics are lackluster and feel very grainy. Running on full dx11 / highest graphics settings, the game still seems to me to be less beautiful and cinematic than DA:O. Mysterious. Would have been a 2/10, but the extra effort to make the port prettier for PC gives them credit.

Gameplay: 2 The combat (I'm playing on Nightmare) is challenging but not in a tactical way, like DA:O was. I loved how in DA:O i felt like Baldur's Gate, pausing every few seconds to assess and re-assign new actions, move to new locations, and have a very rewarding experience from a tactical standpoint. DA2 feels like i'm playing a rpg-ized Gauntlet Legends and prancing around pressing one of my six one-shot-kill buttons on wave after endless wave of the same four enemies. Pausing is of little value, as the combat is instantaneous-speed for all actions and most of the important things occur too fast to feel cinematic or rewarding. Character Development/Story: 1 I'm not a fan of predestined stories being told in retrospect, but the storytelling is EXCELENT. If only the story they were telling me was any good, or the characters had any real depth to them. The voice acting is well done, the tones and undercurrents of the narrator's persona are well scripted, but that all means naught if the story itself is a weakly contrived ascent to power of a predestined hero, followed about by his caste of hollow-headed, unemotional minions. All in all, this would have been a higher score if they didn't try to use DA:O as a starting base for this game, but they're following an EXCELLENT story with a VERY poor one, maiming the legacy they're coming from in the process. The weak story is the most terrible flaw in DA2, as everything else can be forgiven for a beautifully crafted tale.

Overall, it's about a 3/10, not because it actually deserves a 3/10 as an independent title (It'd be closer to a 6 or 7), but because it's Dragon Age 2. Not an independent work, or a new series basis. It's the much anticipated sequel to an amazing game, and fails in almost every way to advance or even match it's predecessor. It feels like a half-hearted attempt to drag Halo and Fable players into the Dragon Age universe and hold their hands all the while. 0/10 for naming it Dragon Age. 6-7/10 for actual production value and quality of product.

p.s. I registered with Metacritic just because of this game.… Expand

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Dragon Age: Origins was basically the last frontier of Classic RPG's out there, and it's follow-up can't be further from that title. Dragon Age 2 is a massively dumbed down version of DA:O, with shallower combat that basically negates the need to pause the game and issue orders, which doesn't help you at all on Nightmare mode. Items are basically useless at this point as well, since the only person that can use armor is Hawke. Yeah, you heard me, you can only use the armor you collect during the game on the main character. You can't equip anything except belts, rings and amulets on your companion. The characters themselves are emotionless and don't even begin to compare to the first one. Remember how fun it was to hear Morrigan and Alistair fight about every small little thing? None of the new characters even begin to reach that. They're boring beings with only a superficial motive, and most of the time they won't have an opinion regardless.

There are many more bad things I could say about this game, but I don't feel like spending the time to write them, because BioWare certainly didn't feel like spending time to make this game good.… Expand

The game was advertised to me as the second coming of Baldurs Gate 2, as a game that would save the wrpg genre, and as a sequel to the DA: Origins, which although had it's own problems, was good enough.

Well, DA2 is bad. It plays more like action-jrpg than a wrpg. Many things that made DA: Origins so good and appealing to me were butchered in the sequels, most prominent amongst all are the options for creating your character, which were severely limited.

The dialog is laughable, I've seen fanfiction better written. The dialog wheel is atrocious compared to system in the previous game. Many times choosing an option, that didn't relate to spoken words much, and hearing the dialog made me cringe.

The graphics and art direction are godawfuly bad. the textures and locations would look good in a PS2 era game, but not on PC in 2011. Textures are low resolution, object blocky, and locations empty of decals. Completely void of anything worthy of interest - just plain ground with a texture pasted on. Games from 5 years ago are eye-candy compared to this.

And why are there so few people everywhere? Wasn't Kirkwall supposed to be a city bursting with citizens and other scum?and end up with, what, five people at most on screen? It's ridiculous.

Also, DLC. On day one. DOZENS of DLC. Publishing a half-finished game and then making you pay for the rest of your goddamn game is just **** And the high-res texture pack released as a patch only few days after the game? Really? If someone tells me this game wasn't rushed, I will smack him in the head.

This game shouldn't have been released for another few months at least. Maybe it will get good, after a year or two, with multitude of patches and mods... but relying on the community to fix your half-finished game is just plain pathetic.

3/10 , had some minimal fun, would get a refund if could.… Expand

really dont like what bioware and EA have done to this game i really liked the first game but this one doesnt fill like an RPG to me it feels more like a action game.I got very bored very quickly of the combat in DA2 i dont like the dialogue wheel it is fine in a game like Mass Effect but not in a RPG its just stupid.Also why cant you change your teams armour all rpg in know have that option sorry but this game is poor… Expand

Up until release of this game, I was cursing the name of EA, and to a lesser extent Bioware, for gouging their customers with endless amounts of DLC and maiming their game in the name of money, more money and even more money. I was sure, absolutely and completely sure, that the game would be amazing, that when it came out all my fears and hatreds would be allayed and I would be dining in a smorgasbord of RPG wonderfullness punctuated by plot, intrigue, character development and strategic gameplay that rivaled the best RPGs ever made.

And then the game came out. And then I knew, exactly, why EA was gouging people for money.

Because the game sucked. Because the plot was linear, unexciting and predictable. Because there was no character development. Because everything that could be fun and important in the story was skipped over in a cinematic. Because there was no causality, there was no flow, there was absolutely no explanations given for extremely important bits of plot development aside from some badly voice acted dwarf telling a story to some equally as badly voiced french chick.

Why? Why was all of this skipped over? Why was all of this glossed over and forgotten and put on the shelf? Why did Bioware literally go through potentially one of their biggest and most beloved franchises with a blowtorch and acid?

Because NOW, dear readers, Darkspawn explode into BLOOD when you kill them! And so do people! And you swing a sword around really fast and do this really cool thing where you slide on the floor and 'scythe' through a bunch of mobs and then make a sweeping arc with your sword and take out enemies and then OMG another wave of enemies appear and THEY TOO EXPLODE INTO BITS OF BLOOD. IF YOU STUB YOUR TOE, THE ROOM IS FULL OF BLOOD.

Dragon Age 2 is a travesty. It is the apex of companies attempting and failing to bring their games to a console audience for the sake of brand recognition and more money. It is the absolute failure of Electronic Arts and Bioware.

They managed, somehow, to take a good game, a good franchise, something that would have taken minimal work to make into an excellent sequel, and run it into the ground like a mole machine.

Congratulations, EA. You successfully transmuted gold into guano.

Don't buy this game.… Expand

I was honestly hoping the demo was a quick hash together of what Bioware was trying to showcase. But unfortunately, it isnt.

For a company that has prided and based its core values on polish and presentation, Bioware has let out a sloppy, poorly executed let down -Technically and creatively.

The creators made a fatal error in judgement storywise, telling the game in flashback (which instantly detaches you from your character, because subconciously you dont believe you are making choices which will affect the outcome. You've already made the choices, now you're just "replaying" them back).

On top of which, the actors were badly miscast. Hawke sounds like he is trying out a bad imitation of Sean Bean, and spends so long getting his Queen's English correct, it completely loses all emotion from the role. The others fare just as poorly, with the exceptions of the pirate woman, Isabella, and the cameo of Flemeth, Kate Mulgrew reprising her role and as expressive as ever. When you compare it to Origins, the diversity and depth of character in the actors voices alone made the experience feel more like a movie than a video game. The gameplay is repetitive and dull, with no thought seemingly gone into expanding on Origins' systems, just simplfying them for a console audience. This goes into the animations and art, which are leaning purposefully towards Japanese RPGism. Fast, unrealistic animations and a complete detachment from your characters movement all lose the charm the original cast, even with its minor flaws. The darker, more brooding look could have worked in its favour, if it had held to the principles Origins set out. Also, for some reason, cities like Kirkwall seem far less cluttered or "lived in" than places like Lothering, or the cities from the previous game. No litter, or copious amounts of barrels or gear lying outside houses or places of work. Again, you get the nagging suspicion this was cut for speed of production.

The Qunari (an important race in DA), also, are completely redone - as if the creators didnt like the idea they had already set in motion 2 years and 6-12 months of production thinking ago. So they changed their look completely.... midway through a trilogy. Granted if George Lucas had done this with Gungans, we'd of all breathed a sigh of relief. But to do this seriously in what a company was billing as one of its major franchises is a little bit ...unnerving. What if Tolkien had decided he thought Dwarves were too small midpoint through publishing Lord of the Rings? Just changing things willynilly through a series or trilogy pangs of a lack of creative integrity and professionalism. If this becomes a trend, whats to stop JJ Abrahms changing the character of say... Chekov, in the next movie, to a female? It is these sort of amateurish small mistakes that pile on top of one another in Dragon Age 2. The small things that came off in Origins were what made and built up the game a popular following. The only, and i mean only, really redeeming feature of Dragon Age 2 - that not only lives up to, but equals, and then betters the original - is Inon Zur's wonderful soundtrack. He got the feeling of epic brutal savagry mixed with dark, poigniant despair in the original immediately, and he pulled off the grander, more unrelenting nature of what this game was *supposed* to be brilliantly. This man should be writing scores for Hollywood, not games.

So all in all. The graphics are a let down if you dont have DX11 (cant even access high rez textures if you dont). The gameplay is a detached, unfeeling, boring mishmash of the original. The story also detaches you from your character in a way Origins never did; and the rough edges are enough to cut yourself on.

If you love music scores though, you'd be better served waiting for the inevitable Dragon Age 2 soundtrack to be released however, rather than buying the game itself.

So sad. One of the most anticipated games of the year has been a complete and utter let down. ... It was only time i guess before Bioware's tremendous record of creating wonderfully playable and engrossing games, came to an end. I just didnt expect it would be Dragon Age to do it.

I rated it a 3 purely for Inon Zur's music. If not for him, i would've put this even lower. Dont listen to the professional game critics - they get paid and given incentives by the big companies. Listen to all these reviews from actual *gamers*… Expand

Like many others I have to say that DA2 has been a disappointment. Others who have mentioned that DA2 is like a fantasy Mass Effect game is actually insulting the Mass Effect series; Mass Effect I/II were great action-oriented RPGs in their own right and should not be lumped in with this incomplete game called DA2. When you played Mass Effect you felt as if you were in a futuristic world. When one plays DA2 you fell like..... well you dont feel anything really. I've played RPGs for over 25 years and I have to say without a doubt that the interface in DA2 was one of the worst ever conceived and used in any RPG game to date. DA:O used a very stylistic, engrossing interface that featured bloodied parchment to display multiple fantasy elements. DA2 uses a characterless, lifeless interface that does not support a fantasy setting (nor a futuristic setting for that matter). In fact if a gamer was just shown the DA2 interface without prior knowledge to the game he/she would have problems identifying what genre of game they were looking at; this should never be the case.... ever.... If that wasn't bad enough the producers decided to simplify the game so that my 3 year old daughter could participate in combat... and WIN!!! Now I know what youre thinking....'He's just saying that... He's exaggerating..' The really sad part is no... Im not. My 3 year old daughter did in fact fight one of my battles and actually killed several creatures before the battle was over (difficulty was on hard). The inventory/character screens are also TERRIBLE! For example.... the equipment that my character has equipped are represented by symbols..... SYMBOLS!! You dont even get a graphic icon to represent the equipment; its all done with symbols much like from a map legend!! I cant tell one ring or amulet from another except when i mouse over and get a very detailed description such as this 'RING +3% to physical damage'; no item history, no description, not even a picture.... I could go on and on and on, but why should I? I really wish I read the user reviews before purchasing this game. I would have honestly passed on this one and thats really sad considering Im the biggest DA fanboy going! I cope with this game like I cope with the movie series "The Matrix", I just pretend that only the first Matrix was ever created....… Expand

Alright, after reading most of these reviews and playing the game for a few hours. I want to share a few glimpses of what I got out of the game. Well, first of all, I'd like to address the combat. In DA:O it was tactical, you had to use your brains, rushing straight-forward was a no-no. In this game, you basically spam one or two abilities on group of enemies and wait them to die. Maybe get a heal spell from a mage or gluck down a health potion. The combat is seriously boring and repetitive, it actually makes you wish you'd just get over with and move on with the plot without beating dozens of same looking monsters in same looking environments. Now about the areas, the recycling is hell of a bad thing. Having to run the same looking mine cavern really isn't what I define as immersive. Couldn't Bioware put any more work on the areas instead of recycling every type of area (there's one cavern, one beach etc.) for the duration of the game?? Really now. The dialogue and conversations.. well they aren't bad, the voice acting is nice but.. does it really matter what you choose? It always ends up in the same situation as with every other choice. Sigh, I really expected too much of this game. It is dumbed down heavily from the original, for the CoD-playing little boys who want to see flashy gore and easy, casual gameplay. I'm going to join the bandwagon and give this a low score, for pity's sake. If it would had been a standalone game, maybe it would been decent. But this is a sequel to a great game with great combat and great dialogue. This game takes two dozen steps backwards in everything. And what's with the stupid exploding bodies? Really, I see an archer shoot a thug with an arrow, and the thug explodes into 6 pieces?! And some of the characters are just lame beyond imagination, namely this one elf.. He's a one big cliché, I've got to say. I'm already tired of this game and I haven't even finished it..… Expand

I say briefly - this is not a RPG game, it's a true slasher. Beautiful, dramatic, easy slasher with a very simple plot. Epics? It is not. Romance? Very little. Tactics in battle? Minimal. Conversations with the characters - in its infancy.
Make a better once more DLC for the first part, please.

Excuse me for my poor English.

Took me 18 hours to finish playing it to 100%. Most of that was traipsing around identical areas and fighting the same waves of enemies I fought since the beginning with larger health bars. The writing is mainly horrid much like the non-branching storyline. I don't think i've been quite this pissed about a game before. It starts out okay and just rolls downhill at a constant pace. Gets even worse if you redo certain parts (or open the debug console) and realize there's almost no branching paths to speak of.… Expand

(skip to the paragraph starting with "Then along came DA2" to skip the DA:O-related intro) As a PC gamer, DA:O was my introduction into RPGs. And I have to say, even getting started was daunting to me. I had envisioned a vast open world of freedom, choice, adventure and fun, based on the reviews I had read and all the buzz I had been hearing about the game. Instead what I got with the first Dragon Age was a linear, repetitive, unimaginative and boring affair where nothing really seemed to come alive and "choice" was a thinly-veiled illusion conjured up most ham-handedly by uninspired developers. Also I did not care for the looks of this world and its inhabitants, which does not help immersion one bit (bland lighting, unimpressive structures, flat and unexpressive faces, goofy armor, ...). What got me the most though was a thing called "level scaling". Gone is the thrill of slaying a beast that once seemed completely indomitable, after having spent hours "training" your characters in preparation for your revenge. Instead everything and everyone simply levels up along with you. Disgusting. Then along came DA2. From what I was reading this true sequel to the Dragon Age saga promised to be substantially different from DA:O, and I was excited. Even though DA:O was a huge letdown, it had kindled within me the hope for something truly epic and inspired. I had been reading various outcries from die-hard RPG fans and DA:O fans, but since the latter game had disappointed me so these outcries only strengthened my conviction that DA2 might actually be different; and I might actually enjoy it. Not so. Take all the negative comments on DA:O above (uninspired, unimaginative, linear, ugly, repetitive, devoid of actual choice, ....) and multiply them by any factor you may deem impressive, and you have DA2. * The corridors of DA:O have become even narrower and more confining; * The level design is unapologetically lazy (copy-pasted dungeons and caves); * The choice of story-progressing replies has dwindled to a basic three; * The graphics are at a playstation 2 level (although the overall style has improved); * Combat has been dumbed down to a button-mashing fest artificially rendered more difficult with mid-fight enemy spawns (only remotely enjoyable difficulty setting is "nightmare" but as said before the difficulty is artificial); * Kirkwall (where all but the entire game takes place) feels and looks artificial and devoid of any bustle and - indeed - life itself; I could go on and on about how much I have started to loathe DA2, but in the end it really is my fault for pre-ordering a game which promised to be "different" but turned out to be merely "worse". Much worse.… Expand

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

Dragon Age 2 is RPG lite. A significant amount of what made the first game, Dragon Age: Origins, endearing has been either removed or watered down. Combat is unfulfilling, it is very difficult to lose. Battles are won by keyboard mashing, not tactical planning. The synergy between the Classes has been decreased, and you are left with the feeling that your party members are only following you to provide comic relief. However, even their comedy is no relief. The dialogue in DA II is stilted and the characters are poorly developed. In many cases, the main character's dialogue options are reduced to oversimplified stereotypical one liners. Oh, don't worry if you lack basic communication skills and cannot discern the meaning of simple phrases, DA II tells you when the main character is joking or serious. Bioware no doubt attempted to create something greater than Origins. Sadly, the changes they made to the original were unnecessary or poorly executed. DA II feels like a B-rate movie. After the novelty fades away, you will want your money back.… Expand

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

I hate 'simplification' and 'dumbing down' - this game is the epitome of that. If you loved DA:O you will HATE this game. If you loved ME2 you will probably love this game. Made for unintelligent morons, like most games, unfortunately there are dramatically more morons than intelligent people - so Bioware is going to make a lot of money, and smart people no longer can trust Bioware. If you liked this game your intelligence is in question.… Expand

Very boring gameplay your in the same location for most of the game i got very bored of the fighting tactics very quickly it is simply not an RPG it is more of a hack and slash game very linear paths to follow dumd down dialogue wheel like mass effect 2 cant change your parties armour like the first game no over head camera all in all this game is no were as good as the first game very dissapointed.… Expand

It would be nice to say that Dragon Age II fell short of lofty promises and unrealistic expectations for a sequel to a quite successful game. It would be nice to say that, but DA2 is in every sense of the word rushed, and oozing focus-group driven development. DA2 is to RPGs what a mockup of Avatar done in Poser would be to film: an anaemic, shallow, mass-market appeal piece of shlock that also happens to look like crap. The same four (count em, four!) different dungeons will be trawled through the entire game, with some minor variations in which doors are hard-locked. The enemies are similarly monotonous and repetitive, coming in three types: basic, auto-attacking warriors and archers, and spellcasters that will hang back. No difference in behaviour or special abilities seem to exist between the different species of monsters. Fighting the same endless waves of spider-people and dwarf-orc "run up and attack" monsters with no variation quickly dulls the mind, which is almost comforting given the writing, setting, and level design. The encounters in which these brilliant tactical AIs are presented consist of copy-pasted waves of monsters spawning from nothing, ad nauseaum. The levels are incredibly linear, and one quickly realizes anything resembling an open area will probably just mean lots of spawns of identical mobs before trundling down the next corridor. Despite being a triple-A title from a star studio, the game manages to look like Poser models battered in jaggies and fried in tones of brownish-red low-res textures. The "Push button; receive Awesome", fun-finds-you game design leaves little or nothing to the player's imagination or skill. The dialogue is offensively cheesy, even by generous RPG standards, and the ridiculousness and awkwardness of the romances and massive out-of-place gazongas on ancient crones and tiny elf women speak to state of mind of the writers and who they were writing for. Maybe Bioware is too high on a decade's success to realize they too are capable of producing trash when churning out the most tepid, repetitive, cash-in sequel imaginable in as little time as possible. Maybe the blog posts by senior designers about the old staff not being on the project and the design going entirely another way tell the story. Either way, leaving aside the questions of developing for consoles and DLC, leaving aside expectations from old-school RPGs: Dragon Age II does not stand on its own as an RPG. It is a dull slog and a massive failure of a game. Save your money and please, vote with your wallet. Keep your hopes up for the Witcher 2 and Deus Ex 3 for quality franchise RPGs in 2011, but give DA2 the widest possible berth.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Being a fan of both Dragon Age Origins and the Mass Effect series I looked forward to this release with glee, but after completing Dragon Age 2 I am sorely disappointed with it. While at first the faster game play while in a battle was refreshing by the end of the game each battle felt hollow, in comparison with Origins each battle requires much less thought or strategy and I would often find myself simply pressing the same combination of number keys at the start of a battle, using a health potion if needed then repeating the same actions until the game decides weather it would send an additional 8 enemies into the fray after the first group had been dispatched or allow me to continue a quest. The game seemed content to throw a large army at the player simply for walking along a path between quest points and to do so at every possible opportunity, one stretch of road I remember would have taken the players group a mire 30 seconds to traverse unopposed but instead it took the better part of 10 minutes because the group was set upon by a band of undead, short distance up the road another pack of undead would attack and after they had been dispatched a third group of miscellaneous rouges decided there number was being served. I expect a game to throw a large group at the player once in awhile but must a quest involving the retrieval of a herbal plant or an unimportant crystal require the attention of a horde large enough to sack a moderately size town Every Time? The enemies the game presented me with end up not acting the part of a band of rebels or thugs intent on kidnap or slaughter of innocents but as pebbles in the bottom of my shoe, striped of character in my mind by the sheer tedium of having to fight the same groups of 7 or 14 enemies every turn of the corner to finally reach a bag containing ultimately worthless and trivial items. Dragon Age 2 shares more in common with an MMORPG than it does it's predecessor in that you will be spending a large amount of time doing fetch quests like returning a lost piece of clothing or freeing some damsel in distress until you reach some arbitrarily decided point where the main plot is allowed to resume. Dragon Age 2 greatest weakness is in the way it treats the story, while Origins had a somewhat cliche but warm over arching storyline, giving vaguely defined goal that slowly solidifies as you make progress, Dragon Age 2 there was very little to grip my attention or engage my curiosity, the game leads the player forward by glimpses of coming glory told from a future vantage point where the actions the player had taken or had suffered were judged and debated for there merits and sucked all mystery and opportunity of total surprise out the window, you were constantly made aware of what you would become and the story completely skipped so many of the small but vital aspects of storytelling. For those of you that have played DA2 Demo, I felt that the Hawke responded in a cold and matter of fact way to your siblings death no matter which conversation option you pick, that there was lack of effort from some of the voice actors and that sense that the event lacks in gravity never left my mind through the game, Bioware seems to have forgotten how to create realist characters that actually give the impression of life, all the companions conform to one trait of there character at all times, for example one companion will join you as an outcast of their people due to their one core trait and at the end of the game and personal quest line they carry and react the same way they had upon first meeting the player, caring for their people but never says anything if in the course of their quest line you end up killing their people or not, they just feel like a cardboard cutout and unfortunately this is not isolated. As for the main plot itself, I went from one major plot to the next without feeling any real need to do the involved quests because it is hard to feel that my main characters attempt to save up the money to Buy A House (Act 1; Hawke attempts to get on the property ladder.) is worthwhile after running fetch quests for pennies nigh on 4 hours. To boot the ending to the game had me questioning weather or not my characters moral choices had anyway bearing whatsoever on anything at all, aside that it all lead up to what was in essence a promotion for Dragon Age 3. Before this game had I asked myself what was the worse Bioware game I had ever played, I would probably not answer that question very well, And unless Dragon Age 2 is the beginning of a downward spiral, I can answer that question without thinking. fans of Origins story and lore should stay well clear of this game, and to anyone one else I'd say wait for a drop in the price.… Expand

I'm a girl and I finished the game so I'll write from my perspective. I like smart games and this one wasn't so smart. The conversations were boring, hardly no wry humour, romance (Hawke and Anders) was rushed. The worst part was that you weren't able to speak to your heroes unless you went to their room AND you were lucky enough to see the yellow arrow above their heads. The tiny conversation was held and then it was just "back to normal". I've played Dragon Age: Origins and I know that they could do better. Srsly, were you saving money on voice actors? I also missed the camp or at least some house where EVERYBODY hangs out.
Secondly, I hated how the game felt like an action game. Well, it is. I hated it. It should be an RPG, not Half Life.
I hated the ending. There's hardly any continuity of DA:O and on top of all that, there's this unresolved ending. "so this is the story about the champion" - kthxbye. The story feels unfinished. And no, I won't buy the DLCs.
Revisiting old locations was boring. The city was awesome with the day/night system, but it was still sometimes boring.
The game was too dumbed down. Where was the button for selecting all party members? There wasn't any. I had to hold shift and click every one, which was annoying. Sometimes I selected all members and just clicked on an enemy and waited 2 minutes until they kill him. Boring.
I missed the camera from above. I missed being able to equip all party members. Collecting armor was no fun.
I liked the cutscenes, the loading screens, the art, the music. That's it. I suggest to Bioware that they merge DA:O and DA2 for DA3, if there will even be one.… Expand

Two words: huge disappointment. While DA2 by itself might not be too bad by console standards, but it's absolutely horrible and degraded sequel to one of the best CRPGs. I really regret my decision to preorder. Spending $60 not only didn't buy me a good game, but also I've just spent the money to encourage developers of this garbage.

I loved DA:O and mass effect 1 and 2 but Dragon age 2 is clearly a rushed product. Shallow characters, shallow ,story, no real choices. No sense of exploration like DA:o becouse of Re-used places over and over again. This game would have needed 1 more year of development to feel complete.

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

Pointlessly removed the overhead "isometric" view from the PC version. Hacky, unmotivated writing and mediocre graphics. Cut and pasted quest areas. Bioware took a good but imperfect first game and turned it into a focus-grouped monster.

I am very disappointed by this game, it just make you dumb-boy pressing 1,2,3,4,5. Everything is bad, absolute regress comparing to the first part. This is actually not RPG, this is something different and I don't like it. Shame to developers, I expected much more.

1. Shockingly disappointed beginning with character creation Recycled hair styles from DA:O used in DA:II character creation (this is especially awful because the modding community has already produced a vast number of beautiful hairstyles for DA:O available through mods) Tattoos from DA:O were re-used in DA:II and not improved upon -No freedom to choose race Only 3 classes Unable to customize default Hawke face (can't even change his eye color)

I went from my first playable experience as hawke being totally awesome, high level with skills/spells/armor to being 100% useless and weak in a span of 2 minutes...this approach made me feel like playing my low level pathetic hawke was lame.


2. Uninspired introduction to game (I didn't care about Hawke's family)

Hawke's family didn't seem interesting to me, at all, except for bethany who was actually kinda hot and interesting but my sister...so yeah awkward...

Hawkes mom has the same voice as my human noble mom in DA:O...wtf?

DA:II failed to capture my interest from the get go, leaving me feeling unmotivated to play the game, and disinterested. Whereas, ME1, ME2 and DA:O all managed to capture my interest early and in a powerful way

3. Playing an entire game in 1 city... is failure.

Playing 80% of the game in the same city removed the feel of exploration and adventure (it would be like removing every location from ME2 and forcing Shepard play the entire game on the citadel, epic fail)

Re-used dungeons, locations etc, this is so beyond fail for many reasons but when I think back to diablo 1, even way back then they had an awesome randomized dungeon/location concept working so you never felt like you were in the same spot twice, why not use this approach?


4. Companions were much weaker than in DA:O or ME1 or ME2!

Maybe you set the bar too high with Morrigan, Leliana, and Alistair and shot yourself in the foot? Because these DA:II companions just don't cut it, by any standard.

ME1, ME2, DA:O companions blow DA:II companions out of the gaming universe

DA:O chatting with companions was vastly superior and more personal to DA:II approach.

I hated not being able to dress my companions and change their items


5. The Story is...where?

Hawks story is a bit uninspiring. I don't really care about Hawke or his rise to power. It feels insignifcant to me. Poor story, especially compared to DA:O, ME1, ME2 etc. The best part of playing DA:II is the comfort that at least I have Elder Scrolls: Skyrim to look forward to.… Expand

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

The only honest review I saw of this game from a pro was Adam Sessler (THANK YOU ADAM.) He kept it honest that it has a great story but the combat ruined it. Between the flashy animations that looked like the damn Power Rangers fighting grey faced goons to (speaking of the Power Rangers) how about that Rita Repulsa...I mean newly designed Flemeth?

Even past the initial stage its just Kirkwall...and limited dialog that does have some impact on the game...but the damn thing isn't long enough to really make you get into it. Only in the 3rd act does the story pick up.

We expect more from developer Bioware. The publisher EA? Not so much.… Expand

As an old school crpg player I originally bought Dragon Age Origins due to Biowares steadfast mantra that the Dragon Age franchise will be a resurrection of the crpg genre. So I bought Origins, it was pretty good with some flaws. Figuring Biowares next entry in the series would clean it up and be at BG NWN levels of quality I continued to support them. Then DA2 was announced and the first game play was shown. From the increasingly Dynasty Warriors esq combat, to the unbelievably horrible graphics and art style changes. We were told to wait by Bioware and their more rabid fanbase, that I couldn't form an negative opinion because I haven't played it. Well its out now, and its just as big a pile of mediocrity as I suspected it would be. The Dialog is for one, is utterly terrible. Some of the best gems are "Im Hungry" and "I want to be the Dragon!". The Dialog wheel is also another terrible "INNOVATION!" thrown into Dragon Age due to the success of MICHAEL BAY PRESENTS MASS EFFECT! Not only do you not know what you will say with the wheel sometimes what you say is not at all what the words are on the wheel. With the addition of only 3 options with Upper Right being NOBLE GOOD BRIGHT, middle JOKE LOL JOKE JOKE JOKE. and bottom I KILL PUPPIES FOR SATAN BECAUSE!. To go along with that you have tiny pictures of the tone of what you will say. Red for Renegade....errr, green for good, and purple for idiot. The graphics and art style. While im not one to put much in graphics a game needs to at least have a good art style and use its assets well. I actually wouldn't care about this if the game had any GOOD aspects. Sadly it does not. Bioware said that the original Dragon Age didn't have an art identity and for the sequel they wanted to make it so different that you would immediately say THATS DRAGON AGE! Good idea right? Certainly. Except they already accomplished this. Very few games do Dark Medieval Fantasy anymore. DAO was one who did and it looked gorgeous on the PC. Which is where the game belongs. So now DA2 gets a new art style ok im down with it until. Its generic WOWesq light colors with terrible terrible exaggeration and jaggies. Combat. One look on youtube for Dragon Age 2 Combat will show you what I mean. lets just say AWESOME BUTTON is not awesome. This is just scratching the surface. All this combined with EA banning people from even playing because of posting negatively about DA2 on Biowares forums, along with Biodevs saying any negative review is some magic **** raid, along with EA slipping in securom on your machine without telling you "which is highly illegal I might add" along with constant locks and bans for anyone who post constructive criticism. All makes for one sour second entry into the series. OH GOD NO! STANLEY WOO HAS FOU This meta critic review is inappropriate. lock down End of Lineâ… Expand

Only went half through the game and already lost interest. Can't believe this game comes from bioware and is entitled "DA". The plot is not even decent, and all dialogues are plain & boring. Staring to worry the trend bioware is adopting and the future of DA series.

Listen, I have never taken the time to actually sit down and write a review for a game before, and I've been playing both PC and consoles for years. This game actually pissed me off to the point that I'm going to say something. I am actually angry I paid 60 bucks for this game. I have never complained about spending money on a game... even bad ones... ever.... and I bought NFL Head Coach! Who thought it was a good idea to make a sequel to a game by REMOVING content from it? Am I crazy? The story is fine, and just like Mass effect 2, I will finish the thing and just chalk it up to an expensive day at the movies, which this has basically been. I will not however play the game again. Once I know what happens in DA2, I will go back to Origins and start a new game, or maybe dig Neverwinter Nights out of a closet.
A couple of bullets:
+ I am not an RPG purist. The new talent trees is fine, I could care less about the DPS of a dual wield warrior vs Dual wield Rogue. The new COMBAT however, is ridiculous. Why does everyone turn to red jello? Why do I feel like im fighting waves of Foot Soldiers from the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles arcade game? I thought the final battle of ME2 was stupid, but there isnt a single fight in this whole game that wasnt retarded. Why are people repelling from the rooftops? Why am I fighting random gangs of people every time I walk around at night? Who are these people? why are they angry? Why do they insist on fighting me if they are all dead after two swings of the sword?
+Why is every environment I walk through identical to the last one? I actually read a forum post where a Dev said they removed the overhead view to allow for more detailed environments... ALL THREE OF THEM! WHAT A LOVELY WAREHOUSE! WHAT A LOVELY STREET! WHAT A LOVELY CAVE! I swear to god, on my last run through the same exact cave in the mountain I swear I saw Hawk yawn.
+Why have three conversation options if they all have the same result? Why talk at all? chances are the person im talking to will be red pudding after one hit with the boom stick.
+Why cant I choose my race? why cant I dress my team in the stuff I want? Better Question, WHY AM I PICKING UP LOOT THAT NO ONE CAN USE?!?! Just have everyone drop coin! why am I carrying junk?!!?
+These things wouldnt bother me if the game title didnt have a "2" at the end of it. Why would you remove content from a game in the sequel? Why would you limit the options and level of involvement in a game THAT HAD IT IN THE FIRST INSTALLMENT. I heard the Dev's were streamlining the game because it sold well on consoles and they were appealing to that group. Did the console people ask for less of a game? Did anyone ever consider that the console people bought DAO because it had a lot of immersive elements that other games didnt have? again

I PAID MORE MONEY FOR LESS GAME. I would have posted this review on Biowares social site, but I dont want to have my accounts locked and game accounts voided for daring to criticize my betters.

the three points I gave this game are out of loyalty to the Bioware I once knew.… Expand

Dragon Age 2 has been simplified to appeal to a wider audience. The dialogue wheel from Mass Effect (good, bad and cheeky choice), action-combat, less customization (no race selection, limited party equipment control). Instead of improving the game they dumbed it down. It's also obvious that Dragon Age 2 had a short development cycle. Less play time, recycled environments, small game world, even the story is below Bioware standards. What a disappointment to true role playing fans!… Expand

The Dragon Age franchise has been tossed into the corporate machinery and spat out as a bruised and crippled shell of its former self. The game manages to deliver a thoroughly mediocre and disappointing experience to both RPG and casual gaming fans alike.

The combat could possibly be the largest flaw with the game, however it is but one of many large flaws. Many skills and abilities present in DA: O which made the game an overly tactical, challenging and rewarding experience have been removed in favor of more 'exciting and fast paced' combat. In Dragon Age 2's case 'exciting and fast paced' equates into the mindless ability bashing. Combat now relies heavily upon 'wave' mechanics. Where instead of individual mobs of enemies the player will be bombarded by wave after wave of enemy turning an epic skirmish into a tedious exercise of endurance. Most side quests are trivial and generic which furthermore offer no further insight into the game world and hold little other responsibility other than keeping the player distracted for a few extra hours collecting X number of items..

The visuals have undergone an upheaval, yet surprisingly manages to look worse than its predecessor.
The combat now resembles something out of a Devil May Cry game, rather than the style set in DA:O. The visceral and realistic style of Origins now replaced with an over sensationalized gratuitous flood of warrior aerobatics and bloody explosions. Many Caves, mountains, roads used again and again presumably due to constraints imposed by the soulless suits over in EA pushing for a speedy release and a fast cash-in. Dragon Age: Origins was a modern day throwback to classic RPG games: It incorporated engaging Tactical gameplay , interesting characters and appropriate use of dialog selection and an immersive fantasy setting imbued with a touch of gritty realism to provide a satisfying fantasy experience. Because of this the game was critically acclaimed and sold very well.
Now letâ… Expand

The game is decidely rushed as is apparent in repettitive scenery and combat, poorly fleshed out narrative with stereotypical characterization. It is basically the anti-thesis of what one expects from high quality RPG's from the company that used to set the bar themselves. Not only does the game itself have little merrit, the name behind it makes it all the more tragic. Poor show Bioware, really hope you can step up your game.… Expand

Dragon Age:Origins had everything going for it and instead of taking everything that the fans loved and expanding on it, the development team completely ignored them and took the game in a completely different direction.
Immersion/Atmosphere: This is the biggest problem because those are gone from the game. The quests are uninspiring "run between arrows on the map until the quest is completed" type. You can't speak to your companions unless you are in a specific place, which takes away from the immersion. For the large portion of the game you feel like a glorified errand boy. The dialogue wheel is a disaster, since the choices range from "Nice, Cunning, and Jackass", and are conveniently marked by the appropriate icons, so you don't even have to read the text. This doesn't feel like the same caliber of RPG that DA:O was.
Surroundings: Bland and uninteresting. Unless small brown dull dungeons are your thing.
Characters: Most characters are pretty one dimensional and are not well written. The only decent one is Varric. Inventory/Abilities: The star rating for items is very annoying. Why not just equip it FOR ME already, if you obviously know what's better for my character? The abilities don't have any thought put into them, with names like "Weapon and Shield". Why not name a talent tree "More HP" or "Stabby Stabby"?
Interface/Icons/Graphics: Interface is an annoying fest of red and black screens. If you want to laugh, try to go through talent trees and click on icons for abilities and guess what they are. It's basically impossible because they are so poorly drawn. On the plus side, the sex scenes look like two mailboxes banging each other :D… Expand

Don't beleive the people giving this game 10/10 it is no were near a 10/10 game their just lying to you at best this game is a 3/10 this game has been dumbed down so much how can they call it an rpg game its just complete and utter rubbish as im said the people that are giving 10/10 are just lying buyer beware

Let me start the review with a quote from the content description by the BBFC: "Throughout DRAGON AGE II players are constantly hacking and slashing at enemies". Hack&slash, this accurately describes the combat in Dragon Age II. The dialogue system has been dumbed down. It offers three choices: good, bad and snarky. Dialogue related skills like coercion are gone. The customization options have been reduced. There is no race selection for the main character. Several passive skills beside coercion have been removed (as well as some crafting skills). It's not possible to change the armor, boots, gloves and helmets of your party members. The player is cooped up in one city (Kirkwall) for most part of the game. There are a few outside locations like caves, which all have the same layout. Kirkwall is split up into several areas. Whenever you leave an area, you get a menu of other locations to visit. There is no sense of travel or exploration. The play time is considerably shorter than Dragon Age. Story and characters are sub-par Bioware standard. There are many flaws in Dragon Age II. Bioware has overly simplified the game and its mechanics, to make it more accessible to the mainstream casual market. They dumbed down the good features of the first game like dialogue system, customization, combat system and added the bad features like enemies appearing out of nowhere and awkward underwear love scenes to the second game. The original game was an epic journey, with memorable characters - the second game is an epic failure. Don't waste your money on it.… Expand

This is not a sequel to dragon age, it a new story based in the same universe. Some thoughts....

1. Huge amount of copy/paste levels. All the environments are the same used over and over and over and over. Takes place in one city (region). 2. Characters are lifeless, you don't really care anything about them. Very bland backgrounds

3. You only have full control over the main characters inventory. 4. They basically threw out everything in the first game and started from new. Only the lore seems the same.

If you have not purchased this please wait for the bargain bin. Not worth a 60.00 buck price tag.… Expand

I hate to be so tough on a game that was at least slightly enjoyable, but given the fact that we all know Bioware is capable of creating outstanding games, I have to give this game a pretty low score.

Part One - Laziness

Graphics were mediocre at best, by 2011 standards. Felt like I was back in 2006 playing TES. But more than that, every dungeon map was identical...no actually, really. At first I thought it was just me, but no, Bioware really was that lazy. Second was the inventory system with items that had the exact same name and appearance but different stats. I mean, wtf? Is it really that hard to make one more name up? This game was not polished at all, total rush job. This was confirmed by the guy who recorded the score for the game (though it was more EA's fault for rushing to capitalize on the popularity of Origins)

Part 2 - Bugs

Maybe the consoles are a little less buggy, but it's hard to find someone that didn't have problems with this game. From date-check activation failure to random crashes to broken quests that occur out of order or not at all, the bugs in this game should have been fixed. If I'm EA and I'm putting my name on that game, I would not let such a bug-riddled excuse for a final product reach store shelves.

There are so many other things about this game that are infuriating, like the clunky combat system ( and the bugs inherent to it). But those i can live with.

The characters were OK. Not great, but less stereotypical than in Origins. There was more moral "grey area" and the future impact of your actions couldn't always be guessed.

So overall, I'm pretty disappointed in Bioware for being coerced into taking a series that had such high hopes attached to it, and putting it through the meat grinder, creating this sad excuse for a game.… Expand

This is game can not be termed as sequel to Dragon Age :Origins. Period. Normally I never write on public forums but the way DA series is being treated after such a great game like DA:O saddens me. Origins had it owns short comings but hey BIOWARE should have improved on them rather stripping Origins completely and making DA2 a hack & slash game with few rpg elements.
Why I am disappointed, - Re-used maps, I mean same place over and over again ? what happened to exploration ? -Communication System - hello this is rpg right ? so why is the interaction with npc so restricted ? how do I build relationships with them or actually feel anything, right now I dont feel or give a damn if any of the the companions live or die
-Weapons,Crafting,Loot - You can not equip companions the way you want, damn restricted, the loot you get after killing seems meaningless ... Crafting .... well there isnt any !
- Voice Over : Some may like it , some may not but this Hawke is not me or atleast certainly not my warden. I dont feel connected with this guy
-Companions - well, the characters arent deep either, I mean really they are shallow, I feel like I am playing an action or adventure game not an RPG

Combat System : Well I must say it is more fluid and I liked it but they took it TOO FAR, this is not suppose to feel like HACK & SLASH game. They have almost killed the tactical aspects of the battles, which I hate it. It is not a shooter with swords... come on ! The combat is a mixed bag, you like some you dont like some things. I will take it with a pinch of salt

Verdict --- If you loved DA:O for what it was with its shortcomings - then you will hate DA2… Expand

If you bought this thinking it was a sequel, like I did, you're going to be disappointed. What you're getting is really Dragon Age:Kirkwall with a very heavy handed dose of Mass Effect.

You have a home that serves as your mail box, storage chest, crafting station and all of your companions have their own designated spaces in town much like ME. No more cozy campfires where someone bursts into song or confesses their deepest regret and you can forget about getting 'one public display of affection'. Other than picking who you want and chosing the sparkly heart on the dialog wheel, the game decides the path and speed of your courtship, not you. Not that it matters because the companions are fairly one-dimensional or in Isabella's case bluntly stereotypical-- I can deal with her giganormous boobs and lack of pants, but couldn't you have given her some brains instead of making her a running sex-joke?-- though Fenris had the potential to be interesting if they'd bothered to give us more than the Cliff Notes version of his life. Instead we we're just supposed to accept that magic did it and he wasn't a biotic like in ME

My biggest pet-peeve all the pieces were there for another multi-option game. Qunari. Surfacer Dwarf, Lothering Refugee (human), Kirkwall Native (elf). Instead they decided to go the ME route and do a singular character, linear story and game defined looks for your companions. The game may be bland but the improved graphics and Why all the changes to the format though? DA:O sold well. People liked it and bought all the DLC. In ME you gathered a team to chase down a rogue spectre and saved the world. In ME2 you didn't go to Earth, you got into your brand-new spaceship with a new evil to fight and went out to save the world again. So if they were so keen to borrow so much from ME why couldn't they give us a new evil to fight with our hand-picked character?… Expand

This game is not an RPG, and it is not what we expected from the Dragon Age Franchise to develop in. It focus on combat and resembles more and adventure game, aimed at teens, that its predecessor, Origins. This game is a let down, and in certain way I'm happy they take over a new history, and not ruined the one builded back in Origins. The game es short, and dumbed down. Do your self a favor and don't buy it.… Expand

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Game is full of bugs, story is stupid and you can't affect anything, graphics are sometimes ok, often ugly, quests are usually stupid and blablabla. Game is worth 10â

Dragon Age 2 is the "Phantom Menace" to Dragon Age: Origin's "A New Hope". Thank you George for making this comparison possible and instantly recognisable by nerds everywhere. In many ways, I wouldn't need to say anything more than that, but I will anyway: When writing a review of Dragon Age 2, you probably have to say a few words about where you are coming from first. Are you the wide-eyed fanboy or the disgruntled, estranged hater formerly known as a "true" fan? Then you claim to be neither, but the one true voice of reason who's got a neutral view on this issue. Personally, I have bought and played repeatedly pretty much everything Bioware published since Shattered Steel and I've enjoyed each game on his own merits. I loved Planescape Tormet, Baldur's Gate 2 just as much as Jade Empire, even though that game is radically different in terms of combat. I'm saying that to illustrate that I am very well capable of enjoying a game that does not have the traditional isometric view of tactical combat.

Dragon Age 2 however, I cannot get into no matter how much I want to like it. This game is a train wreck of Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age and not in a good way. Let's take a look at some of the "bad" things. First of all: Combat. I cannot, for the life of me, see how anyone could view the new system as an improvement. They tried to make combat incredibly fast paced and action packed, but somehow this does not play out the way it's intended, at least not for me. Seeing a guy in full platemail armed with a huge two-handed weapon move faster than Neo in the Matrix doesn't just break immersion for me, it shatters it beyond all hopes of repair. Most enemies die in one hit now and they do so in a spectacularily silly and over the top gory way. There's more blood in here than in the silliest splatter movie I ever saw. There's a fine line between "adult" and "graphic violence" and enemies EXPLODING into 20 gallons of blood and shishkebab upon being stabbed in the chest once. To compensate for all the insta-kills, enemies now spawn in waves by the dozens. This robs the individual enemy of any significance. How can I be intimidated by a blood mage or a horrible demon if there's 20 of each under every other rock? Beats me. The sadest thing about DA2 is that it actually fails where bioware usually excells. The story and dialogue. Take the human noble origin story in Dragon Age Origins, for example. Before everyone dies a gruesome death you spend some time to get to know them. Thus, when they do die, their death has some impact on you. In DA2, we skip the first part in favor of turning the gruesomeness of the death up to 11. The thing is, if some random red shirt dies twice as horribly, I don't care twice as much. The "main story" if it can so be called, is anything but an improvement over the original as well. Granted, you are not saving the world, which in theory can make for an interesting story as well, but many people take this fact alone to mean the story is brilliant. Unfortunately, that is not quite true. The writing is incredibly ham-fisted at times. I cannot count how often the game prevents you from using obvious solutions to problems simply because the plot requires that this problem cannot be solved in a simple manner. This adds to the "rushed" vibe the game gives off in general. There's barely any "fluff" anymore. You cannot talk to your companions at will anymore, for example. Some of the events of DA:O are imported and the game shoe-horns them into DA2, but if you spend even 2 seconds thinking about "Why was Alistair here just now?" you'll notice that he had no significance to the plot, provided no insight whatsoever and was there simply as a little bit of fan-service. Oh yea, and the RPG part got dumbed down some more, but that was to be expected I guess and is barely worth mentioning in light of all the other shortcommings the game has. Still, rating the game a 0/10 as many people do is just as silly as rating it 10/10. There is good to be found if you can look past your expectations for a bit. Some of the quests are indeed well written and fun. The voice actors did a really good job, almost without exception. Flemeth's new look is a vast improvement over her old one, too bad she is in the game for about 5 minutes, tops. It's almost like she notice "Oh snap, this is gonna hurt!" and flapped out of the game on her dragon wings. I cannot say I blame her. In conclusion, Bioware lost a lot of credibilty with me for this game. No longer will I blindly buy whatever they release. Once burned, twice shy. The shady things they did here on metacritic are not helping that image. I hope they learn a lesson from this disaster and can recover and return to what made them successful in the first place instead of succumbing to EA's corruption for good.… Expand

TDLR: A fun action game, but a sad disappointing follow-up to the rpg masterpiece "DA:O". It should had been named as a dragon age spin-off ( e.g DA: dynasty warrior/legend or something )||||

DA2 is a fun action oriented "rpg-ish" game which sadly failed as a sequel. Its only redeeming quality is perhaps the revamped combat system which is much more action and "button smashing". The lacklustre plot, the small set of repetitively recycled dungeons/environment/enemies and numerous glitches indicate a rushed unpolished product. The game has a long long list of flaws, but its cardinal sin was the failure develop any semblance of a role playing game. Most quest were simply reduced to a generic formula of "click me ---> teleport there ---> click/kill". The fame choice system of bioware games became a mere selection of your speech tone as opposed to any significant degree of plot branching. The game has simply been reduced to an excuse for button smashing. EA/Bioware should had just brand and market this game off as a dragon game spin off.… Expand

Combat system improved, but everything else is worse than Dragon Age: Origins.
Nobody needed a game like DA II. There are tons of titles like that.
We needed an improved realistic, revolutionary & innovative npc interaction. Because there wasn't an RPG like Origins for that aspect before.
In DA II you cannot talk to your company whenever you want, you have to wait for a Cutscene (quest or gift). You cannot talk to your party friends about your accomplishments, while the old good Origins did.
We got a step back to something pointless, instead to improve the innovation, they killed it.
A static location into the same city for the whole game and some anonymous random cave, BAD.
No longer an epic journey like Origins, but the dumb match Templars Vs Mages.
Efforts reduced on DAII, a team weakened to work on an other project like SWTOR. BioWare revealed in July that the ME2 system has been adopted cos the Dragon Age system requires too many efforts and resources, despite the higher quality / success of DA compared to ME2.

The DA2 sales are pushed by what people know about DA:Origins.
If DA3 will never ship, it will be a fail, because DA2 won't push anything.… Expand

I'm quite disappointed tbh. I managed to finish it in 17hrs on normal, doing most of the side quests. After playing the Mass Effects, I was expecting something a little longer. Thought the story was a bit so-so.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Story was my greatest disappointment. I understood that Bioware wanted to make a smaller story this time, but rpg is about making choices which have effect. I did not feel like I had the ability to choose in this story. Certain things happened no matter who I sided with, and the ending and main story remained the same. No replay value here. Different dialogue choices were just for flavor, sarcastic Hawke will have the same story as heroic Hawke.

Lack of build-up with companions and family. I would have expected that time span of ten years would have added more depth to relationships instead of losing it. There was very little companion interaction.
The family focus was a joke.

Recycled areas. All caves look the same, all ruins look the same etc. Only some doors won't open, depending on location. Irritating.… Expand

It's rather unfortunate how this game turned out. The combat is no longer tactical, it simply requires you to hit your abilities as the cooldowns refresh. The story is bland, and makes it difficult to press on, nothing "hooks" you. If this game had been released as a stand-alone title not under the Dragon Age name, it wouldn't have been nearly as disappointing. Also, 27 different DLC's at launch is rather excessive and a terrible trend to follow. I'm all for DLC, but I want game expansion that couldn't have been included on the disc.… Expand

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This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. OK I grabbed this from the steam user forum, from "loa1452". Sorry to plagiarize, bit his/her review really hit it on the mark for me. To summarize, this game is TERRIBLE: reused levels (again and again and again), the same fight over and over again, very limited enemy types(lots of spiders...), and incoherent story.

From loa1452
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DA:O was not perfect by any means, but boy did it immerse you. There were so many minute details that just sucked you in. Didn't care about the graphics, didn't care that my party of mages steam rolled every battle on the hardest difficulty. It was fun. That is the whole point of RPGs: Laugh, cry, battle and forget that you are playing a game.

Kirkwall

One of the well known 'features' of Dragon Age 2 is that the whole "story" takes place in Kirkwall. When I read this in a game preview, I didn't mind. I assumed (wrongly) that Kirkwall must be HUGE. The first thing you will notice after stepping into Kirkwall is how tiny it is. It takes all of 10 minutes to explore the whole entire city. You think you are going up some stairs to explore a new area when a dialog box pops up, "Would you like to gather your party and continue?". Uh, Ok. A screen pops up where you have to click a new area. Boom. You are transported to the new area that looks exactly like the first and is tiny, tiny, tiny. There are a few crates and sacks to open, but that is it.

Oh well, you say. "I don't care how tiny it is, my attention span is so short every area will seem new to me anyways". Well you will also notice Kirkwall is filled with tons of people going about their business! What a sprawling city just filled with life! Unfortunately, you can't talk to any of these people. None. Zero. Clicking them does nothing. Area recycling

OK, so now the dreaded area recycling that fangirls everywhere try to justify. I'd like to remind everyone that I play games for fun. I realize many of you now play games as a form of repetitive work (like WoW), in that case, you still won't like this game. It is truly ridiculous. Accept a quest, go through a mine, return back and get a reward. Good, it was fun. Accept another quest, go back to the exact same mine, but now somehow there are doors closed off with rocks, and new doors magically have opened. WTF? Ok whatever, I'll let it slide. Oh wait, please don't make me go back to Kirkwall to accept another quest. I know we have moved past this but Kirkwall is so small that I memorized every area, where everything was in just one pass through of the city. I can see how people can convince themselves that this area recycling is fine, as I did myself for a little while. But finally I cracked. I hate it. I hate this game. If you haven't cracked yet, just keep playing. It will happen. I promise.

Battles

Not much to say about this one. Every battle is the exact same, with the a lot of the same enemies. This is just a real let down. Here is how it works: Approach an area, kill off about 7 - 10 enemies, a second wave of 7-10 enemies appears. Kill them. Move on. Every. Single. Battle. Is. The. Same. Two waves. Then done. All of them. So when you enter a battle, you know exactly what will happen, this absolutely kills immersion. Items They seemed to have made an effort to add a ton of gear into the game. Only problem is that most of it is only for the main character. That leaves a tiny subset of stuff you can actually equip to others. It is obvious that the game was rushed. A few items have actual clever names like, "Gloves of the unknowable unknown". Ok, whatever. Cool. But then it stops. Items that have different attributes are all named the same, "Ring. Belt. Helm. Staff". Annoying to sort through 5 "Rings" in your inventory that all have different properties.

Story
Ah what else. How about the story? I never could figure out what was going on. It's full of endless side quests. Inever did figure out what the overall goal was. There was an area in the journal that listed the "main plot" quests, but they were no different than the endless, forgettable side quests.

Conclusion
I was expecting an epic sequel to DA:O. This is such an embarrassment of an RPG that I actually feel used, and conned. There is no possible way that BioWare was putting the finishing touches on this baby and thought, "Wow, good job guys. This game is really fun". The game is small, repetitive and just plain boring. Why are there 2 waves to every fight? Why are all the areas the same? Why is Kirkwall so damn small?! I am surprised that it took them this long to release the game. It should have taken 4 months, max. I just wish the gaming media websites would actually rate games truthfully. They should be embarrassed.… Expand

Origin was not perfect, but it was a good game. Here, on DA2, every aspect of the game is a downgrade. No more strategic battle, no armors for companions in inventory, no crafting (NPCs make it for you), no dialogue skills like persuasion or intimidation (you can ask a companion to interfere in conversation, but it's an automatic succes). This game is a waste, and I'm worried about Mass Effect 3.

As an absolute lover and fanatic raver of Dragon Age: Origins, I was desperately looking forward to the series' second installment. Unfortunately, for every step forward this game took, it removed everything that made it's predecessor special to RPG players. The removal of the tactical camera, seemingly endless and predictable waves of repetitive enemies, and an AI that makes your allies slip into loops of stupidity make combat frustrating, though it is not as difficult as in Origins. Non-customizable or usable loot/armor for allies makes treasure hunting, one of the keystones of the RPG genre, feel largely unimportant. The WORST part is the constantly recycled dungeons. Each setting only has one map, with different doors closed off or opened up. These, among other travesties, are what makes this game a nightmare to play. It is not a follow up to Dragon Age: Origins in any sense of the word, and has gone from being an RPG to make you think and formulate tactical strategy to being one of mindless hack-and-slash. Do yourself a favor: save your money and pray that Dragon Age III, if it is ever made after this hack-job, goes back to its roots.… Expand

Reason it's getting such a High Critic review, E.A./Bioware are literally throwing money at them to write anything nice & give it high numbers. Trust the User's, we know how much this game failed us.

This game should never came out when it did, they just wanted to make money & be damned of the issues, they'll just throw more money at it, say look see have this great game, expect stupid awards for it, because more money is being thrown at the judges.

JJ… Expand

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

Terrible game. It's poorly written, has no MAIN PLOT whatsover. It feels like a crappy collection of side quests. You never really get to know any of the characters. The combat is abysmal, and felt like crap to play.

Just go play Dragon Age: Origins again, and you'll get 100 times the enjoyment out of that than this crap.

The combat system revamp does not bother me. What does bother me is when party members don't ****ing hold position when I tell them. Let me give you an example: fighting the first dragon you come across in the deep roads. I want to kite the boss back to a better position, I tell my party to HOLD POSITION, meaning that unless I get a loading screen, or a cut-scean, they should not move from that spot under any circumstances no matter what. What actually ends up happening is that the horrible party AI system decided to teleport them to me three times in the course of no more than a 15 second walk from where I told them to HOLD POSITION. Since I'm playing on nightmare and my party for the most part is completely useless anyway, due to iffy at best aggro mechanics, (I have abandoned my warrior since she does so little damage, once the 10 second taunt is up, it all runs to the casters anyway), and party member's AI being too stupid to move out of the way of 1 shot kill boss mechanics, I have abandoned my party almost all together. This has let to the already nearly non existent party member story lines, to be nonexistent all together since it is not worth it to bring them with me.

Furthermore the lack of being able to give your party members armor, has made it so that my mage has both twice the armor and defensive stat of the game's intended warrior tank, making that party member useless (she is also a bit of a stuck up **** anyway).

My largest gripe BY FAR is how lazy the level design team was: FIVE count them FIVE times, the game reused the EXACT SAME DUNGEON. I don't mean, oh you have to go back into the dungeon, no, a completely different area has the EXACT SAME DUNGEON layout, even the set pieces are the same. This game has no re-playability at all, $60 is a rip off for this piece of garbage, maby $20 is worth it. I wouldn't know, I'm glad I torrented it or I woudl have been pissed off that I wasted $60.… Expand

DA:O is one of my all time favorites. In one play through of the base game, expansion and DLCs I've racked up over 200 hours. I explored every companions back story, I've read nearly every codex entry, and I doubt there is a stone anywhere in Fereldon that I haven't seen at least once.

DA2 on the other hand has been a struggle to play. I've forced myself to give it 10 hours, and I highly doubt I'll ever touch it again. Boring, lackluster, repetitive, uninteresting, dumbed down, and just bad.

This game has no business wearing the Dragon Age title.… Expand

Whilst I truly enjoyed, the immersive, dynamic storytelling of the first game, I have to say, the second installment is very much a disappointment. The scripting seems exceptionally stunted in comparison, and the voice acting, a key selling point of the first ranges from poor, to absolutely terrible. The combat feels unwieldy, and unintuitive, the party system unbalanced, and the storyline contrived. Granted, these are all points relative to the quality of Bioware in general, and the original Dragon Age, but they set the bar- And instead of clearing it, they've rushed an underdeveloped, flawed sequel to release, seemingly in the hopes that the Bioware name, and the success it's predecessor alone will create a good gaming experience. Sadly, I'm certain that it will be enough to ensure sales, at least, however undeserved....… Expand

So I made a metacritic account simply to put in two cents about the game, it was that disappointing. DAO was a well refined game. Did it have it's difficulties, yes. Needing Wynne in the party or a massive amount of health potions was a frustrating element.

However, DA2 is bad. It's Chrono Trigger to Chrono Cross bad. The combat has lost all semblance of strategy, it is an orgy of lights and effects with no tactical element whatsoever. I am not sure you even really need to control the main character most of the time to survive through combat. Rather, you can sit there are watch the fireworks. The lack of coherent purpose or direction has me drifting in a video game wasteland of purposelessness. I went from saving Ferelden in DAO to owning half a mine in DA2. Honestly, if I wanted my days to feel like a vain wandering through menial tasks, I would stay in the real world and quit playing video games. All in all I will see the game through, but it feels like a slow, inevitable death; the game is a giant slow-motion train wreck. I want my 59.99 back for DA2, 59.99 for MA2, and 10k for pain and suffering.… Expand

This is not a sequel, this is a stand alone game set in the DA universe. The combat leaves a lot to be desired. The supposed over all story arc really doesn't happen until Act 3.You spend most of your time being a n errand person running from once short story of a quest to another with no unifying thread. It is disjointed and repetitive. They reuse maps (which they admit is a problem) and you are pretty much stuck in the city of Kirkwall and places just outside it. So it is claustrophobic in a way. There is no real connection to the character you play who seems to make no impact on the world with their decisions, but rather has to go with the flow and gets pushed into one horrible situation after another. And overall the game is so depressing it is a wonder your Hawke doesn't run mad. There is no break from the angst. You can't talk to your companions when you want, only at their houses and when the game tells you. The convo wheel is horrible, you never know what your character is actually going to say, not that is seems to make any impact on what little story there is. I hate that they basically gave a lobotomy to one of my favorite characters from Awakenings which made me not like the game, and didn't really make me feel for the plot point at the end they were driving towards. Having a relationship with the companions proved difficult most of the time and did not have the connection of the companions in DAO. I hated the zerging battles, endless wave after wave of enemies, which requires no strategy just a lot of potions, mostly for stamina.

I did love the companions, save the lobotomized one. All of them (despite being tricky in getting your relationship the way you want them) are well done, and fun. I like the new armor designs for my Hawke.

Overall this game has a shallow feel compared to DAO. The little details, easter eggs, and side quests are missing. hidden items, hidden doorways and passages, small stories and loot missing. This was ready in a year and half, and it shows. It feels rushed and unfinished.… Expand

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This is actually the first time after completing a game that i felt compelled to register at this website just to state my opinion about this game and warn people who are thinking of buying this game not to make the same mistake as I did. In my opinion, the only thing that's close to being decent in DA 2 compared to DA:O is the combat system (for the Xbox 360 anyway). Any professional reviewers who gave this game more than a 3 should be ashamed of themselves. The entire game consists of repeating areas and a weak storyline not to mention the horrible graphics. The whole time I was playing this game I just felt like I was on a one-way track to the end. At least in the first Dragon Age there was a sense of adventure where you were travelling from town to town meeting new people etc. I think I spent roughly 80% of my playtime in DA 2 in one stinking city... and even when I got a new sidequest it just involved visiting an area I ran through 10 mins earlier. I must say I am very disappointed with Bioware for releasing the game as it is now and I'm even more disappointed with the so-called critics who actually give the game more than 3.… Expand

The 1st DAO was 100% better than this piece of garbage. I have had it since release and I dont think that I will even bother to finish it. The rehashed areas are boring, the plot is terrible and for a dx11 game(patched..) the graphics are not that great. If you have DX11 running just take a look at your characters(or party members) feet sink into the floor..just shoddy. This game seems rushed and has a terrible plot.… Expand

I was very upset to see DA2 go this way, I must admit. After spending hundreds of hours playing and replaying DA:O, it fast became one of, if not my favourite game ever. It was so in depth, you feel in love with the world and with the characters, such an amazing storyline etc. Like any game, it had its flaws but they were minimal compared to its successes. DA2 is frankly, the biggest letdown sequel I have ever played or seen. It has no character to it, the storyline is anything but engaging, the game itself is far too short and felt too me to be far shorter than its predecessor. The characters are bland and boring, with no particular personality or back story to them. Hawke him/herself is in my eyes a complete failure, aided by juvenile dialogue, no emotional depth and the typical generic broody hero trait ¬_¬
The graphics are apalling. Games on my iPhone have better graphics. Games on my ps2 had similar graphics. Kirkwall is horribly unattractive and plain, as are the few other locations in the game, including all the locations that are EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE REST.
The combat is I suppose interesting in its own way (I liked the actual time fighting rather than swinging your weapon once every 5 seconds) but also incredibly repetetive and easy. Even on the harder difficulties, I could wipe out a group of 10 enemies with only my mage (a feat that was impossible in DA:O)
But on to the real aspect of an RPG, the story. Well, what of it? There is no story in DA2 as such. The whole game is just a series of monotonous 'go there, do that' tasks with little story in between. It didn't bring anything new to the table because we know the Qunari invaded Ferelden and are constantly trying to conquer the land, we know the mages hate the templars and vice versa. But then anything it does tell us, it doesn't tell us anything about. What the hell was up with Flemeth? With all the media and press that had come out before DA2's release, it seemed like she was going to be heavily involved. She barely had 5 minutes in the game, all of which explained and went towards nothing. It was like 'Oh, there's Flemeth, the monsterously powerful Witch of the Wilds. Ok, that's done with.' And what the hell was up with the whole thing witn Cassandra and the ending. Ok, we gather the world is apparently on the brink of war, BUT WHY? GIVE US SOME DETAILS!!!! And then the ending is left not even on a cliffhanger, it's like the designers just gave up halfway through making the game! Nothing is explained, in fact, everything just becomes 10 times more confusing, and not in a good makes you want to know more confusing way, just in a well that **** sucks confusing way.
DA2 is an insult to DAs legacy, a less that mediocre game that was evidently rushed beyond belief due to corporate greed. It has no fire or soul to it and has not even one aspect to compare it to DA:O. I can see why the original producer left, I'd die of shame if that empty souless piece of crap was associated with me in any way.
For those of you considering buying it, here's a tip. Don't. Especially if you're a fan of the series. You will be heartbroken. There are plenty of great games out at the moment; Crysys 2, Rift, The Sims Medieval etc.
I have two words for you Bioware: EPIC FAIL.… Expand

Epic fail. So disappointed as Dragon Age was the game that got me interested in Bioware. Bought Mass Effect 1 and 2, also Bioshock as a direct result of DAO. There is enormous re-use of maps that makes the game feel very repetitive (they just seal and open different parts of the same map for many quests).
The killer though is the game breaking Isabela friendship bug. This corrupts the character file and makes the game literally completely unplayable on PC after a few hours if you switch Isabela in and out often. No solution by Bioware so unless you are happy to edit your savegame, you are stuck with a PC copy that doesn't work. A game always has known bugs upon release, but the developer can choose if the bugs are major enough to warrant a release delay. Bioware felt that they could still release a game that literally does not work on PC after a few hours. This either shows a complete disregard for their customers or far too little beta testing. This is the first time I pre-purchased a game. It will certainly be the last time I pre-purchase (and possibly pay for at all) a Bioware game.… Expand