Dragon Age II

 PC
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 5052 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,397 out of 5052
  2. Mixed: 1,198 out of 5052
  3. Negative: 2,457 out of 5052
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  1. PHDIKOULAS
    Jan 23, 2020
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. review for DA 2 ultimate edition , one major spoiler so be warned

    This second part gets a 3,

    Its obvious this game was done alongside mass effect 3 and the devs where probably juggling games,The sloppiness or laziness or whatevernes permeates this game through and through.

    One minor example is act 1 80? quests act 2 30? act 3 10 tops :D

    The plot is one of the worse i ve ever seen in a triple A title,even a blind mad stroking randomly a keyboard would have made a better story ffs

    I imported my dragon age 1 save and it had 0 effects.The effects were so minimal its laughable. Honestly from bioware i didnt expect this but hey, now in 2020 its the norm. Ill just say this and do what you will so you know what amount of laziness we re talking about. SPOILER FOLLOWS

    At one point your mother dies.Its scripted so you cant save her no matter what you do. The devs want to up their drama game. The scene is sad emotional all that stuff. After the cutscene i talked to my houses butler(you were living with your mother in same house) i talk to the butler and he had this to say

    "lovely estate you have here mesere................................................................................................"

    They didnt even bother to change the line of the first person you meet who was your family's manservant ffs , i loled so hard my sides are in andromedan orbit if you catch ma drift. So yeah,should you get this game?if you find it for 10 bucks yeah sure.Otherwise move along

    TLDR the game dosent feel anything like dragon age origins. Almost like a different game with dragon age vibes, Feels like good passionate devs started making it and some 0 fantasy no clue devs finished it as a drudgery. also critics giving 90-95% to this game? Woah they got some good money it seems to write the reviews    … Expand
  2. Sego
    Jan 23, 2022
    3
    After cool DA:Oriring it's just a trash, I just want Origins Remake, and EA can die after this
  3. Dom007
    Mar 28, 2021
    3
    This is literally inferior in every way to dragon age origins. Thankfully I didn't get to experience the hype around release, otherwise I would have had to endure the disappointment of the game as well.
  4. Goekhan
    Mar 8, 2011
    2
    After playing the demo, hoped that the full game would worth something. But, simply no. Basically, a hack&slash game with conversations, companions, etc... And those alone doesn't make a game one RPG. Just an insult. I'll no longer buy any Bioware games, they don't exist for me anymore.
  5. Fr0s7y
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    Unlike some who appear outraged over Dragon Age 2, all this game has really managed to do to me is make me somewhat sad. Sad that I have to see such an amazing developer fall so far in releasing an obviously rushed, horribly over-simplified game in order to target what appears to be their new demographic, the "console crowd". Where to start.. The game has been "streamlined" and simplifiedUnlike some who appear outraged over Dragon Age 2, all this game has really managed to do to me is make me somewhat sad. Sad that I have to see such an amazing developer fall so far in releasing an obviously rushed, horribly over-simplified game in order to target what appears to be their new demographic, the "console crowd". Where to start.. The game has been "streamlined" and simplified in areas where it just wasn't necessary.. The combat is laughable, simply wave after wave of enemies that not only die in a single hit, they somehow explode. Tactics are nonexistent.. Sure, on Nightmare you'll micromanage through waves of enemies that somehow follows the same formula regardless of what you're fighting.. Sorry, but I don't really consider that "tactical" play.

    The UI is absolutely hideous, clearly having been designed with a console in mind. Yet another change that was absolutely unnecessary, all to appeal to the crowd that hasn't given a damn about BioWare while those of us that have supported them for years are casually tossed to the side.

    The graphics are about the only reason this game is receiving a 2 from me.. While I noticed others are complaining about them as well, I have to give credit where credit is due and say that on DX11 with the high resolution textures the game is quite beautiful (if you can ignore the fact that every area you're in is nothing but a simple corridor). It's sad, but this game has brought me to a point where I can say that I will never, ever again pre-order a BioWare title, despite having supported almost every major release of theirs since KotOR. If you're thinking of purchasing this game, I can assure you that you really aren't missing out on much, especially if you're expecting anything even remotely resembling what made the original Dragon Age popular.

    Thanks for all the great times, BioWare.. You've just really messed up on this one.    … Expand
  6. poloman
    Mar 20, 2011
    2
    First, you should know that this review comes from a fan of Dragon Age Origins.
    As far as I am concerned DAO was the best single player RPG of the past 10 years.
    With that said, DA2 is quite simply an epic fail. 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    First, you should know that this review comes from a fan of Dragon Age Origins.
    As far as I am concerned DAO was the best single player RPG of the past 10 years.
    With that said, DA2 is quite simply an epic fail.

    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.

    Exploration is a desired component for me in RPG's and there is no exploration here.

    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. It is obvious they tried to take a middle road in combat design to please console and PC players alike. They failed in both.
    Combat is boring, boring, boring and boring, no strategy, and did I mention boring.

    Story / Characters

    Ah what else. How about the story? Weak, beyond weak. I didn't have a single moment in the game that I found the story to be enaging, in fact most of the time it was flat out confusing and vague.
    In addition to the weak story that you don't care about the companion's histories are very undeveloped and interactions with them are dismal compared to its predcesor. The new dialog options of simply 'Peaceful' 'Funny' and 'Angry' is partially to blame. The old dialog system was much better.
    Unlike DA-O I felt no attachment to any of them because I was barely given any information about them or opportunity to learn about them.
    By the way, the main character being voiced was actually a huge detraction from the game, not a benefit.

    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?! Why is there no life in it? I am surprised that it took them this long to release the game.

    I truly miss the days where developers put their heart and soul into their games. There is always some ?????? bag that realizes they can get people to pay 60 bucks for the game on its reputation alone, and can cut costs by simply making it a pile of trash. I doubt I will ever buy another BioWare title. I am disgusted. I just wish the gaming media websites would actually rate games truthfully. They could possibly save this game by making it a Facebook only web app.

    Final words: What happened?    … Expand
  7. Ashin
    Mar 14, 2011
    2
    A step back in every respect from Origins, if you enjoyed Origins, don't expect to enjoy this, it caters for a low tier of gamers, one day DLC is another slap in the face from a money grabbing company.
  8. Sirkiko
    Mar 15, 2011
    2
    This is for sure the disappointment of the year and the reason why BioWare should've never been sold to Electronic Arts. This "sequel" is worse than the original in almost everything, except textures and skill effects. The main plot is boring and has no sense, the combat is dumb and the Hawke has no charisma at all.
  9. Sh0dan
    Sep 18, 2011
    2
    With DA: Origins BioWare captured a tiny bit of the magic they used to have in their heyday with the likes of Baldurs Gate 2 and KOTOR, and in my opinion that strategic, tactical "thinking" gameplay felt like a step in the right direction, particularly the PC version with its overhead distant perspective allowing us to get a good view of the battlefield. However this game just feels soWith DA: Origins BioWare captured a tiny bit of the magic they used to have in their heyday with the likes of Baldurs Gate 2 and KOTOR, and in my opinion that strategic, tactical "thinking" gameplay felt like a step in the right direction, particularly the PC version with its overhead distant perspective allowing us to get a good view of the battlefield. However this game just feels so watered down and casualised its just lost all of that past BioWare magic. I felt the same about Mass Effect 2 also, which seemed dumbed down and more about mindless action. So if anyone else out there reading this felt the same about that game, then trust me, DA2 will disappoint you too.… Expand
  10. Cicatrix
    Nov 13, 2013
    2
    While it is nice to have fully voiced responses, this game is annoying and boring. You basically run the same dungeons over and over again, except sometimes its "1 year later" which doesn't mean anything in the great scheme of things. The city you start in, while impressive at first, is the only place you ever really go, you will spend your entire gaming experience in this city, meaningWhile it is nice to have fully voiced responses, this game is annoying and boring. You basically run the same dungeons over and over again, except sometimes its "1 year later" which doesn't mean anything in the great scheme of things. The city you start in, while impressive at first, is the only place you ever really go, you will spend your entire gaming experience in this city, meaning about 40 hours in the exact same crappy place. Gone is the wonder of going new places and meeting new people from Dragon Age Origins, now your basically restricted to 2 dungeons and a city over and over and over again...… Expand
  11. batosai33
    Apr 12, 2011
    2
    Dragon Age II is another sequel that would have been better as a new IP. Looking at it as a new IP, it has a flowing combat system, decent customization, good story, and interesting characters. This, however, is not a new IP. This is the sequel to one of the best RPGs i have ever played. Compared to DA:O the customization is laughable, the leveling is limited, combat animation is moreDragon Age II is another sequel that would have been better as a new IP. Looking at it as a new IP, it has a flowing combat system, decent customization, good story, and interesting characters. This, however, is not a new IP. This is the sequel to one of the best RPGs i have ever played. Compared to DA:O the customization is laughable, the leveling is limited, combat animation is more interesting and flowing, but is very limited, and the characters are too stuck in their roles. Essentially the only thing that they improved was making the combat more flowing, especially for the mages. Everything else was cut by 1/3. you have only one race instead of 3, cutting your character options by 1/3, any non mage class is stuck in archery, 2handed swordsmanship, etc instead of being able to choose between 3, and you are stuck in one city and the mountain out back instead of being able to travel around a huge map. Will I buy it? Yes, once the price drops to 1/3 that of DA:O.… Expand
  12. Paulie_C
    Mar 13, 2011
    2
    I would have given this game 7 or 8/10 if it wasn't called DA2. This is not the sequel the first game deserved and is a traversty to the RPG genre set forth from its predcessor. Having said that, if you ignore the title and assume this game isn't within the DA lineage then it is actually quite entertaining, even though it is a hack & slash 'RPG'.
  13. WMD
    Mar 8, 2011
    2
    I am extremely disappointed in Dragon Age II. I should have done the research, I should have waited a few days and read the reviews. Instead at 10 AM today I was at Gamestop picking up my copy not knowing just how disappointed I was about to be. I expected a lot of this game, what I did not expect to receive was a dumbed-down almost direct console port of a video game. The graphics lookI am extremely disappointed in Dragon Age II. I should have done the research, I should have waited a few days and read the reviews. Instead at 10 AM today I was at Gamestop picking up my copy not knowing just how disappointed I was about to be. I expected a lot of this game, what I did not expect to receive was a dumbed-down almost direct console port of a video game. The graphics look terrible even with the "high-res" pack installed and running. The vegetation is so sparse it is comical. The inventory system is deplorable. For every character other than your main character you can only change their weapon, rings, and amulet and belt. No boots, no gloves, no helmet, no grieves. The battles amount to nothing more than, "Here fight these 8 enemies you can one shot. You killed them? Here is another 8. You killed them!? Bet you didn't see this come, here is another wave. Good job, you won." There is no strategy involved, indeed, there CANT be strategy when just about every one of your abilities one-shots your enemies. There just isn't time. I am writing this review in the hopes of saving someone else the disappointment I am feeling. I just played 13 hours of Dragon Age 2. All 13 hours of the same thing was going through my head, "This game is nowhere near as epic as its predecessor because it is FIRST a console RPG, and then a pc RPG, not the other way around like DA:O was". Save your money if you own a pc, rent it if you on a ps3 or 360. Don't make the mistake I did.… Expand
  14. dinges
    Mar 8, 2011
    2
    A slap in the face for fans of DA:O, seriously where did they get the idea to main the masterpiece that DA:O was into this piece of filth. Everything's dumbed down and simplified, what on earth were they thinking. Don't buy this game, buy DA:O instead.
  15. Galeon22
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    Here goes...reserved the game months ago because I loved DA:O and even Awakening. Bought a couple of DLC even. Thought the game was a bone to the old-ish veteran gamers who enjoyed Baldur's gate, NWN, etc. Here's my opinion on the game:

    Pros: -Characters are pretty interesting so far (played about 8 hours) -Voice acting is great. Cons: -Action oriented, which is a matter of    Here goes...reserved the game months ago because I loved DA:O and even Awakening. Bought a couple of DLC even. Thought the game was a bone to the old-ish veteran gamers who enjoyed Baldur's gate, NWN, etc. Here's my opinion on the game:

    Pros:
    -Characters are pretty interesting so far (played about 8 hours)
    -Voice acting is great.

    Cons:
    -Action oriented, which is a matter of opinion. But considering this is the sequel to the 2009 GotY that used a completely different combat system more based on strategy, this just sounds like Bioware left its old fans behind and tried to reach for a new market. On that note, ''Strategic pause'' isn't very strategic. Button mashing feast.
    -Graphics are unpolished. Unexcusable, especially the NPC's look horrible up close.
    -Dungeons rehashed only 5 hours in the game...really Bioware?
    -No isometric view. Makes me believe the PC game was more an afterthought than anything else.
    -Story is unfocused. Jumping from point to point in time and following the story through someone else's viewpoints isnt a bad idea (Diablo 2 everyone?) but it's poorly done this time, at least in my humble opinion.
    -Dialogue wheel was fine for Mass Effect, but it breaks the mood for this game. Having a choice between being overboard angelic, a complete **** or a wisecracker doesnt sound like a lot of choice to me.
    -So little choice on how to customize the main character...human male or female. Poor immersion, I never believed for a second I was Hawke the way I identified to my warden in DA2.    … Expand
  16. Kuudou
    Mar 8, 2011
    2
    While I was somewhat optimistic even after playing the demo most of that optimism faded when I actually played the game.

    Revamped combat does not work too well, stiff character animations are also very off putting. And is it me or did Dragon Age Origins have better character textures? Also what's with the Critic's score, my god. Those are NOT honest reviews, because metascore's user    While I was somewhat optimistic even after playing the demo most of that optimism faded when I actually played the game.

    Revamped combat does not work too well, stiff character animations are also very off putting. And is it me or did Dragon Age Origins have better character textures? Also what's with the Critic's score, my god. Those are NOT honest reviews, because metascore's user ratings clearly does not reflect that.    … Expand
  17. Shadow04
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    This is not Dragon Age, despite the game's title, the game itself has precious little to do with Dragon Age. It's almost an insult naming this game Dragon Age 2. Very saddening to see a once great rpg turned into something like that. Almost every aspect of a rpg is dumbed down beyond words to better appeal to the console users, seriously. What the hell is the Mass Effect conversation styleThis is not Dragon Age, despite the game's title, the game itself has precious little to do with Dragon Age. It's almost an insult naming this game Dragon Age 2. Very saddening to see a once great rpg turned into something like that. Almost every aspect of a rpg is dumbed down beyond words to better appeal to the console users, seriously. What the hell is the Mass Effect conversation style doing in Dragon Age, it basically give u 3 words and a face beside you to hand hold you telling you that the choice is an evil/good/neutral one. Only one default race, seriously? Much of the appeal, and re-playability, of the previous Dragon Age is that one can choose a different race on each play through and the NPC will react accordingly to your race. Now you are better off deleting the game after your first run through, no re-playability whatsoever. There is so many things fundamentally wrong with this game I dun even know where to end.

    Bioware better off naming it Mass Effect: Origins which tells the story of how Shepherd's ancestor save the world. If we wanted something like Mass Effect we would have waited for the next Mass Effect. In a nutshell, this is NOT Dragon Age, anyone looking forward to reliving the hundreds of hours spent on the original Dragon Age will be sorely disappointed. Better off grabbing Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition and play any dlcs that you missed out previously, even replaying Dragon Age: Origins for the 1000th gives you a better experience. Give us back our original Dragon Age!    … Expand
  18. ArtHouseMouse
    Mar 8, 2011
    2
    I don't understand how IT was born?"OK, let's make some fighting system for kids, dialogs which can't change storyline, AND SEX with woman, than man, man, man, woman".So, is it a boylover simulator or it was made for a schoolboys? I can't understand why enemies are crashing into pieces from one knife slash?It's hilarious game from fathers of RPG. And some words about graphics - it sucks.
  19. tobi963
    Mar 8, 2011
    2
    Never good when you make a game worse than it's prequel. So many problems with the game. So much hype over it by DA fans. The "professional" reviewers are giving it a high score for some reason I do not know.
  20. Pancakes
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    Dragon Age 2 is an abomination. The gameplay is boring and primitive, the story is linear and cliched, the writing is godawful fanfiction.net Naruto fanfics-level crap and the characters are ranging from mediocre to awful (especially Merrill, who is a disgusting moeblob without any personality). Oh, and it's ugly, and i'm not only talking about graphics - the artstyle is... bad. Very, veryDragon Age 2 is an abomination. The gameplay is boring and primitive, the story is linear and cliched, the writing is godawful fanfiction.net Naruto fanfics-level crap and the characters are ranging from mediocre to awful (especially Merrill, who is a disgusting moeblob without any personality). Oh, and it's ugly, and i'm not only talking about graphics - the artstyle is... bad. Very, very bad. DA2 looks like something that a 12 year old with ADHD could make.

    Oh, and the Nightmare difficulty that was hyped as being super great stuff for truly hardcore gamers? It's crap too. Instead of giving new abilities to the opponents and making them smarter Bioware just gave them really high stats and called it a day.    … Expand
  21. jackofallfades
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    I waited to buy the game because I was tentative and, after having played it at my friend's house (and seeing the reviews), I'm glad I didn't.

    My short playthrough of the demo and my long play at my friend's house has shown me that Bioware has given us a throwaway in DA2. -The locations are bland. Flat, color-less, empty (and I mean devoid of life... ME2 felt like a bustling galaxy, even    I waited to buy the game because I was tentative and, after having played it at my friend's house (and seeing the reviews), I'm glad I didn't.

    My short playthrough of the demo and my long play at my friend's house has shown me that Bioware has given us a throwaway in DA2.

    -The locations are bland. Flat, color-less, empty (and I mean devoid of life... ME2 felt like a bustling galaxy, even in empty places. Here... everything just seems disjointed and static). The beginning area of the game, which would have been an amazing opportunity to kick off the game the right way by showing the full range of the Darkspawn destruction, was instead limited to a couple brown ditches, a small, crumbling structure, and a battle on a flat, brown field. The "bustling, and over-populated" city of Kirkwall, which is the ONLY CITY YOU WILL SEE ALL GAME, is full of bland, repeated textures, and claustrophobic, bite-sized map chunks.

    -The story is almost non-existent (we're several hours in and have yet to encounter anything that resembles a coherent plotline, save "go here, do this."). I wish I was joking, but this game jams side quests down your throat like you wouldn't believe. And, unlike DA:O or ME2, every single one of these side quests is boring beyond belief.

    -The combat is clunky. Between targeting issues and camera fowl-ups, I've easily MISSED enemies with attacks and had to repeat entire battles because my Defender is too stupid to defend my mage (who goes down in three seconds from EVERYTHING attacking her) when I tell her to. Babysitting the Defender through the pause menu makes no difference whatsoever, because fights are too fast, flurried, and often too spaced out for abilities like (AoE) Taunt or (cone) Shield Bash to prove effective.

    -Shepherd in ME1 *and* ME2 felt special, because she was uncompromising, strong-willed, and experienced, which showed in every playthrough on either Renegade or Paragon. However,in DA2, everyone keeps saying Hawke is a "Champion"... but I can see no clear reason why Hawke is special, other than she's the PC and Bioware said so.

    -The poorly-written dialogue reinforces this, as Hawke is bland and uninteresting. Her compatriots are similar in this regard, as they sign on to her party without question, offer help for no reason, and become fast friends for no reason other than it's convenient to expedite the pace of the game. Much of the dialog (lore, expository, AND romantic) is downright abysmal and actually forced me on numerous occasions to stop playing so I could find someone to point out how stupid they were. No joke... there is actually a portion of the game where one character admits their love for Hawke... and an available response is "I'm hungry." *facepalm*

    -The first two hours of the game emphasize combat only by making you play through the beginning... the play through it AGAIN, just in case you didn't enjoy the SAME EXACT BATTLE the FIRST time. It barely touches on specialization (which is confusing unless you spend 20 minutes reading all the different branches and even then, some of them are locked to your characters), and are filled with endless waves of cookie-cutter enemies. Hell... even the writers seemed to get bored with it, because I was allowed into the city with two short walks on the same, small map, before I was consigned to a ONE YEAR fast forward and then introduced to a bunch of NPCs (lacking any discernible personality besides being gruff and shrewd) that knew my character as a slave, but had yet to be introduced to me. This actually ends up being the tone of the game, where you complete numerous side quests before completing a few big ones and fast-forwarding the story a year into the future. This ended up making me frustrated to the point that I lost all interest in character progression, because I was missing large gaps of time. Oh, and my first big quest is "make mom happy." Fantastic.

    -Inventory system is broken and clunky. Companions are almost stuck with the gear they've got.

    -Game is unoptimized for beta drivers, comes without the HD textures pack (God knows why, but you have to download it from Bioware separately), and has some of the ugliest, blandest... and creepiest... character models, textures, and weapon models. Google "Dragon Age 2 looks" to see what I mean.

    This game reeks of crappy console port and is a slap in the face to the PC community that has become Bioware's fanbase of the years. The game has been dumbed-down (repetition, repetition) significantly to appeal to the console gaming crowd and it's painfully obvious. No game should make you feel like you have to struggle to enjoy it and DA2 made me miserably bored and angry for hours before my friend and I uninstalled it.

    This game is God-awful pitiful at the on-set and several hours through does not appear to be getting any better. Do NOT buy.    … Expand
  22. Koalab
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    I have no way to relay my complete an utter disappointment in this game. All i can say is that the combat is ruined by making it look like a bad action movie. And the game is overly simplified.

    Shame on you bioware for ruining what was to be the best series of games
  23. McGlomp
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    This game is so disappointing to me. I can live with the unintuitive new UI, the new fast-paced (hack and slash) combat, and the uninspired art design. I really can. What I can't live with are the forgettable characters you encounter and the abysmal "story". There really is no "arc" to speak of; just a bunch of loose ends. Your companions have no personality. I can't even remember theirThis game is so disappointing to me. I can live with the unintuitive new UI, the new fast-paced (hack and slash) combat, and the uninspired art design. I really can. What I can't live with are the forgettable characters you encounter and the abysmal "story". There really is no "arc" to speak of; just a bunch of loose ends. Your companions have no personality. I can't even remember their names most of the time. If they had numbers instead of names it would not make one bit of difference. They are forgettable and so is this game. I do not have the feeling of becoming "attached" to anything or anyone, including the main character (Hawke). There is no reason for me to care. Terrible, terrible writing. There really are no redeeming qualities. If Dragon age 2 wasn't made by Bioware, the professional critic scores would be much, much lower. This game is a generic, uninspired, rushed piece of trash. I am incredibly disappointed. Please do not waste your money like I did.… Expand
  24. Deltaleader
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    Utter disappointment. They say Dragon Age II hasn't been dumbed down, it's just more welcoming. The truth is somewhere in-between. The new art direction doesn't really cut it (Dragon Age is a gritty fantasy epic, not some cartoon-ish gorefest), the combat is terrible, lacking any kind of tactical capabilities, it is just mindless button-mashing (even on Nightmare, there is simply notUtter disappointment. They say Dragon Age II hasn't been dumbed down, it's just more welcoming. The truth is somewhere in-between. The new art direction doesn't really cut it (Dragon Age is a gritty fantasy epic, not some cartoon-ish gorefest), the combat is terrible, lacking any kind of tactical capabilities, it is just mindless button-mashing (even on Nightmare, there is simply not enough challenge), rendering the pause and play system completely useless. The environments are uninspired and the gameplay is restricted to a single corridor (most of the time). Mr. Gaider did his best to support the poor combat experience, by some mature storytelling and the framed narrative, but He fails to live up to the example of Alpha Protocol. The plotline is dramatic enough, but the undeveloped C&C, along with the cliched dialogues are well below the standards. The main protagonist is voiced, which would be good thing, had it not been for the removal of the Origin stories. The only redeeming factor of Dragon Age II is the immense work put into the soundtrack and acting. Inon Zur is brilliant as always, even though the score is not as memorable as Prince of Persia or Icewind Dale II. And whoever designed the new UI, should start again from scratch; it reminded me of Morrowind, and that masterpiece came out a decade ago.

    All summarized in one sentence: Dragon Age II is an insult to the first game and the RPG genre.    … Expand
  25. TheTopazWombat
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    When Dragon Age 2 was announced, I like many hardcore RPG gamers looked forward to it. While in the past several years Bioware hasn't been producing awe-inspiring games as they once did, they've remained a very solid developer who's RPG's are interesting, characters are varied and get you involved, and build worlds which have depth and are enjoyable. Dragon Age 2 is a complete betrayal ofWhen Dragon Age 2 was announced, I like many hardcore RPG gamers looked forward to it. While in the past several years Bioware hasn't been producing awe-inspiring games as they once did, they've remained a very solid developer who's RPG's are interesting, characters are varied and get you involved, and build worlds which have depth and are enjoyable. Dragon Age 2 is a complete betrayal of this standard. The combat feels jolty and unrealistic. The characters wield a 2 handed sword that would make Braveheart sweat like it was made from tissue paper. The weapons were equally large in Dragon Age: Origins, but at least they felt like they were actually that big. Instead, what we have here is a combat system that resembles crappy anime more than anything else. As if the combat wasn't bad enough, the dialogue has been dumbed down into the wheel-of-fail style that was implemented with Mass Effect. Not only that, but every single piece of dialogue feels like it was written by an 8 year old who just read his first fantasy novel. There is no character depth, I'd as soon stab my party members as look at them, and to glue all this together the voice acting feels more like a group of Live Action Roleplayers than paid voice actors. To top all this off, the game not only doesn't look and present itself better than Origins, it actually looks worse. I can't recall another time when a sequel to a game looked worse than its predecessor. It feels as though Bioware did everything in their power to make this a worse RPG in an effort to alienate their hard-earned fan base and sell to the mass media'd console market. The only thing that kept this game from getting a 0 from me is the fact that maybe Bioware didn't intend for this to be an RPG at all, and simply another generic, boring, railroaded action game. As a lifelong Bioware fan, I truly hope they don't stay on this road. They've proven time and again their ability to make a solid RPG, but this game was an utter betrayal of everything I as an RPG fan have come to love and expect from them.… Expand
  26. LastRite
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    What have they done to my beloved Dragon Age? Shoddy performance on Nvidia and the game feels very rushed and simplified. I won't be pre-ordering the next one!
  27. Tizlor
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    I'll preface this mini-review with: I actually like the game. I do, it's mindless. After working long days at my terrible menial job that saps my mental capacities; it's nice to sit down with a mindless game that takes absolutely no thought what-so-ever to get through. But that's a problem. This is a Bioware game. It's set to a higher standard than other games, it's supposed to draw you inI'll preface this mini-review with: I actually like the game. I do, it's mindless. After working long days at my terrible menial job that saps my mental capacities; it's nice to sit down with a mindless game that takes absolutely no thought what-so-ever to get through. But that's a problem. This is a Bioware game. It's set to a higher standard than other games, it's supposed to draw you in with it's story and setting; the characters are supposed to be memorable, witty, devious, intelligent. But none of that really applies here. What we got was a game so vapid, so unintelligent, so... test grouped, that it's now not much more than a mindless Facebook game. Re-used maps everywhere. Lack of personality in it's setting and characters. Plenty of loot, but only one character to equip it on. (Oh that's nice, a 'mage only' item that has stats that my rogue will never be able to equip. Maybe I'll equip it on to one of my mages on my team, oh wait..) Poorly written characters that are voice acted quite well. And what happened to the Qunari? I mean, what? I honestly thought they were Darkspawn. Who even thought that was a good idea? I'm starting to go off the rails, the game itself is not worthy of calling itself a sequel. The people who spent the passed year or two working on this game should not be proud of their work. They were forced to make a game that they I'm sure knew would be a big disappointment for the people who actually enjoyed the first game. Sorry fellas, people aren't trolling, they're genuinely disappointed that you (Bioware) made a subpar game. Borrow this from your friends if you really really want to play it, please do not spend your (or your parents') hard earned money on this.… Expand
  28. w1res
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    This is just your average run of the mill hack n' slash game now. Also combat moves are just so over the top that they are very corny. Not so great...
  29. TheLastOne
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    Sadly, yet another developer has abandoned their PC core game base for the mass appeal of the console. Bioware games have historically been extremely deep, really customizable games, with a strong focus on tactics and strategy. The industry as a whole has been moving away from these kind of games because of the increased profitability games have on console, and the simplistic consoleSadly, yet another developer has abandoned their PC core game base for the mass appeal of the console. Bioware games have historically been extremely deep, really customizable games, with a strong focus on tactics and strategy. The industry as a whole has been moving away from these kind of games because of the increased profitability games have on console, and the simplistic console controls limit what developers can do. Dragon Age seemed to be one of the last remaining franchises truly designed to be a hardcore RPG gamer's type of game. However, the console has struck again, and we are left with Dragon Age 2, a game that does nothing but let down Bioware's long standing fanbase and fans of the genre. Let me preface this by saying that if you aren't familiar with Bioware games (aside from Mass Effect), like hack and slash type games, and are a console gamer, chances are you will enjoy this game. However, to the rest of us, this game signifies everything that is wrong with the market and the way gaming is headed. The depth of PC games of old is dead, and Bioware is no longer doing anything to prevent it.… Expand
  30. MichaelSteve
    Mar 9, 2011
    2
    Having been a long time wrpg fan, Dragons Age: Origins established what looked to be a great new IP breaking away from frankly tired D&D conventions. I have just finished DA2 which took a little under 16 hours, and I fear for the future of this brand. Graphically DA2 looks almost identical to DA:O origins which isn't unexpected given the very quick development time. Main characters lookHaving been a long time wrpg fan, Dragons Age: Origins established what looked to be a great new IP breaking away from frankly tired D&D conventions. I have just finished DA2 which took a little under 16 hours, and I fear for the future of this brand. Graphically DA2 looks almost identical to DA:O origins which isn't unexpected given the very quick development time. Main characters look great but scenery, NPCs and unfortunately some armor and weapons suffer from hideously low resolution textures and low polygon counts. DA2 has also developed some sort of gore fixation with every kill resulting in an exploding enemy flinging litres of blood around and staining the screen with modern warfare-esque decals over the hud. Performance with the PC version was schizophrenic - FPS changing drastically in areas containing little detail, I would guess some internal face culling was skipped in the development process.

    The voice acting suffers compared to DA:O, unfortunately I would probably link this to the quick development time as well. The male Hawke delivers the majority of his lines with a lack of expression or enthusiasm which is often unintentionally hilarious when coupled with dramatic player animations. The mass-effect conversational wheel could have been a worthy addition if it was made clear what the player was going to actually say. I found the conversations similar to alpha protocol in this respect, the main character often saying things you did not intend for them to say.

    Most disappointing to me is the lack of player choice and provisions for role playing. Many quests are initiated with the typical "Get this item/person from here and bring it back/kill them" line from an npc with your responses limited to 2 or 3 ways to say "yes" with limited occasions where you can refuse quests or hold out for more rewards etc etc...

    Combat is more or less similar to DA:O with the need to flank targets strangely removed, with characters flipping in to backstab then flipping back out again. Quite unusual given the mechanics established in the original. I can't help but think the simplification of some elements of combat removes some of what made DA:O great in the first place.

    There are other issues regarding some cringe worthy pop culture references, the bland story, repeated dungeons and your two dimensional companions, but to be honest, I'd rather forget about this experience and hope that this misstep by bioware doesn't kill off the future of this franchise.    … Expand
  31. Lemonbud
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    Dragon Age: Origins was awesome. I like hack and slash games like Diablo and Dungeon Siege. DAO really sucked me into the fantasy world and combat. There was something in it that really was fun, addicting, and truly unique when I played it. The game kept me wanting more. Awakening was just more of what I needed. When I heard DA2 was coming out I couldn't be more excited. Finally theDragon Age: Origins was awesome. I like hack and slash games like Diablo and Dungeon Siege. DAO really sucked me into the fantasy world and combat. There was something in it that really was fun, addicting, and truly unique when I played it. The game kept me wanting more. Awakening was just more of what I needed. When I heard DA2 was coming out I couldn't be more excited. Finally the demo was released. OMG what the hell is this crap! Ok so I know I should expect a new look and updated combat and so forth unlike Fallout 3 to Fallout: New Vegas (should have been an expansion because it was the same damn game). At first it was kinda cool but then it really started to feel very cheap very quick. It felt like a fast action paced console button masher rather than a tactical team based RPG as the original. I think they tried to appeal to the mass of xbox and ps3 console gamers and completely undermined the loyal PC gamer and/or RPG fan. Based off the demo I will definitely skip this title. You know when your favorite band sells out? Seems like DA sold out unfortunately… Expand
  32. iand
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    This game is outright terrible. The combat has no depth whatsoever. The dialogues are infantile. As far as the graphics go, DA2 looks as if it was made in 2005.
  33. Truesteel
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    Let me just start this by saying that Bioware games are usually pure gold. USUALLY. Dragon Age Origins was a well crafted RPG with great elements that far outweighed its many flaws. I cannot say the same for Dragon Age 2. I started the game thinking that I would be able to play it entirely maxed out graphically, after all, I more than exceed the recommended secs. When ramping up theLet me just start this by saying that Bioware games are usually pure gold. USUALLY. Dragon Age Origins was a well crafted RPG with great elements that far outweighed its many flaws. I cannot say the same for Dragon Age 2. I started the game thinking that I would be able to play it entirely maxed out graphically, after all, I more than exceed the recommended secs. When ramping up the graphics to very high with anti aliasing on, the game slows to a meager 11 frams per second with artifacts being rendered during combat. I can run Bad Company 2 on full specs, why can I not run this game that looks like it came from the PS2 era? Poor optimization because the game is rushed.

    AND IT SHOWS. Not only in the graphics but in the discontinuity within the story, the poor writing, and the shallow combat system. Sure, everyone TOTALLY jumps around and does SUPER COOL things now to appeal to all the edgy teenagers out there, but most of the combat is horribly overdone. This can vary from the main character doing leaping lunges that you had nothing to do with, to enemies EXPLODING when I stab them with a basic ability. All in all, this game has been a huge disappointment. Between the rushed look and style of the game, the poor combat, the sub par writing and story, the awful optimization for PC, and the constant nickel and diming of day one DLC, this is one title you NEED to stay away from.    … Expand
  34. iCharlie17
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    Big disappointment BioWare...we get a console port far inferior than DAO...huge mistake. We have a DX9 based game with less cameras, options and so on. I though you love gaming BioWare, and gaming on PC is by far the best for real gamers.
  35. ZieGentleman
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    So terribly dissapointed. Don't we have enough watered down mainstream games out there? That might even have been okay if this game was a good mainstream game. But its not. It tries to be a hybrid between an action game like God of war and a classical rpg, and it ends up failing at both. The story is also the worst I have seen from Bioware. The story never picks up a main goal and all youSo terribly dissapointed. Don't we have enough watered down mainstream games out there? That might even have been okay if this game was a good mainstream game. But its not. It tries to be a hybrid between an action game like God of war and a classical rpg, and it ends up failing at both. The story is also the worst I have seen from Bioware. The story never picks up a main goal and all you do ALL game is run around in one city and do quests that all feel like side missions. Suddenly the game ends with a bam and a cliffhanger... Not only that but they reuse every dungeon like 15 times, and there are only like 6-7 small dungeons. Any real rpg elements are taken out, you never even get the opportunity to talk your way out of a fight everyone just charge you. If I want an action rpg I will rather play diablo or titan quest.... this is a bad action rpg and it shames the dragon age franchise. I might be a little harsh, its an okay game, but nothing more... don't expect anything.… Expand
  36. firthh
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    As a sequel to DA:O this is a total let down. It is sad that i pre-ordered it at all. I would have never expected this from BioWare.The game itself is a total console port and I couldn't say anything good about it. Everything is just dumbed down, except maybe dialogues. Totally linear story. You could compare it's graphics to Gothic II. I guess I was expecting just too much. It has noAs a sequel to DA:O this is a total let down. It is sad that i pre-ordered it at all. I would have never expected this from BioWare.The game itself is a total console port and I couldn't say anything good about it. Everything is just dumbed down, except maybe dialogues. Totally linear story. You could compare it's graphics to Gothic II. I guess I was expecting just too much. It has no similarity to DA:O but if you like action rpg's you might like it and if you loved DA:O, just don't bother. RIP BioWare and old-school rpg's.… Expand
  37. DAOFan11
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    As a side note before I start this, NO, this game did not live up to my expectations, but I am trying to judge this game as a standalone, and not as a successor to DAO. We should look at "What is" instead of "What could have been" or "What's not".

    Anyways, first and foremost, i'm not a fan of the gameplay change in the slightest. Too point-and-click-esque for me. Some people like that    As a side note before I start this, NO, this game did not live up to my expectations, but I am trying to judge this game as a standalone, and not as a successor to DAO. We should look at "What is" instead of "What could have been" or "What's not".

    Anyways, first and foremost, i'm not a fan of the gameplay change in the slightest. Too point-and-click-esque for me. Some people like that play style, but I certainly don't. The combat is fun but simple. Not complicated, not intricate, not detailed, just simple.

    The graphics are fine. They could be a little bit better, but I'm not letdown or anything by them.

    The dialogue is just morbidly terrible. It seems like they spent about 2 seconds writing each of the lines without even brainstorming or giving them any thought (AT ALL!). They are really shallow; you can tell almost no thought was put into it.

    The CGI is cool I guess. A little much of it, but when i'm high it gives me something to look at.

    All-in-all, not a game I connect with at all, but fun for a short amount of fun before I move into something more enthralling.    … Expand
  38. Tig
    Mar 19, 2011
    2
    In short, waste of time and money. This game has no strong points whatsoever. Graphics is bland, environment is the same everywhere, at first interior of some houses looks nice but it becomes tedious cos you run through the same looking rooms over and over again (~20 or so times, not kidding). Dialogues are dumb and options you chose rarely change outcome. Quests are the worst I have everIn short, waste of time and money. This game has no strong points whatsoever. Graphics is bland, environment is the same everywhere, at first interior of some houses looks nice but it becomes tedious cos you run through the same looking rooms over and over again (~20 or so times, not kidding). Dialogues are dumb and options you chose rarely change outcome. Quests are the worst I have ever seen in a RPG. Even free to play MMORPGs have better quests than DA2. Battles are nice till you notice that mobs spawn like in some arcade game... You won't have to control your companions so tactics is pretty much gone. They had to stick with Hawke and ditch other 3 party members from the game entirely. Action game fans would have loved that even more! So yeah very bad game, Sadly It has way more weak points than I've mentioned in this review...… Expand
  39. Oper
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    It`s not RPG. Primitive 2004 graphics, primitive linear locations, primitive dialogues, primitive slasher, uninteresting gameworld, uninteresting story, primitive 2-button gameplay for idiots... BioWare is now very fond of money, but do not like their gamers. This game is a clear example on how a company maximizes profits and minimizes costs using a brand name. Money, money, money... TheIt`s not RPG. Primitive 2004 graphics, primitive linear locations, primitive dialogues, primitive slasher, uninteresting gameworld, uninteresting story, primitive 2-button gameplay for idiots... BioWare is now very fond of money, but do not like their gamers. This game is a clear example on how a company maximizes profits and minimizes costs using a brand name. Money, money, money... The love of money has killed real RPG.… Expand
  40. Sailon107
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    Dragon Age 2 just parody on Japanese-style slasher with elements RPG.
    Roleplaying completely absent, the dialogues are boring, dull one type lokatsii.Eto just soulless piece of code on which I wasted attention and spent their hard-earned money.
  41. MathewRD
    May 27, 2011
    2
    With Bioware rigging the user reviews, you can't help but think they're rigging the critic reviews as well. Bioware was already caught rigging DA II's user scores on Metacritic by having employees give it good scores. Bioware's response was that it was the same thing as Barrack Obama voting for himself.

    Anyways, about the game. It targets a larger audience by dumbing things down but loses    With Bioware rigging the user reviews, you can't help but think they're rigging the critic reviews as well. Bioware was already caught rigging DA II's user scores on Metacritic by having employees give it good scores. Bioware's response was that it was the same thing as Barrack Obama voting for himself.

    Anyways, about the game. It targets a larger audience by dumbing things down but loses its original audience it once had. You stay in the same area for most of the game, the dialogue wheel is incredibly limited, and the voice acting isn't very good. Dragon Age II went from being a strategic form of game to more of a Devil May Cry clone without the fun that DmC had.

    You'll be better of with the Witcher 2.    … Expand
  42. JesusHKriest
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    This is ridiculous. The scores metacritic has listed for this game are nowhere near accurate, as evidenced by user reviews. The story is ridiculous... I don't even understand why people are traveling with me. The main quest is short, devoid of story and back-story, and to make matters worse I suddenly am having intercourse with two females at the same time. I don't even know them; I don'tThis is ridiculous. The scores metacritic has listed for this game are nowhere near accurate, as evidenced by user reviews. The story is ridiculous... I don't even understand why people are traveling with me. The main quest is short, devoid of story and back-story, and to make matters worse I suddenly am having intercourse with two females at the same time. I don't even know them; I don't even remember hitting on them.
    The combat is ridiculously easy, even on Nightmare difficulty. Bosses can be kited (as in, you can run around in circles over and over again and they will never catch you) as your friends continually shoot them, essentially making every boss nonexistent. For combat, all you have to do is rack up as much damage output as physically possible and nuke EVERYTHING. And by everything, I mean waves and waves of random people who are attacking me for reason unknown. I'll just be running a little errand for some guy in exchange for money, and SUDDENLY 50 people will charge out of nowhere to prevent me from delivering an old man his medicine (I made up that scenario as to prevent spoilers).
    I am not usually one to care about graphics (especially considering I still play 8-bit games), but in all seriousness this game makes me feel like I am playing on a Nintendo 64. And that's not saying the N64 was bad, it's just very old. Every character seems to be colored in a poorly textured splash of blood at all times, and it's just not realistic. Speaking of realism, every character seems to have 100 pound swords that they swing around like baseball bats, which seems a little lame. I'm going to stop here; as I write I am continually lowering the score I am giving this game, and so I should stop before it gets down to 1 for the sake of Bioware.    … Expand
  43. Fante
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    I can't begin to explain my disappointment in this game. I thought DA:O was one of the best RPG en newer times, and i was hoping they would just fix the few problems the first game had and just continue with excellent story. This is what i think of the new "enhanced game-play"

    - They made combat look like a bad hack and slash game, with no real need for tactics. And yes i did play on    I can't begin to explain my disappointment in this game. I thought DA:O was one of the best RPG en newer times, and i was hoping they would just fix the few problems the first game had and just continue with excellent story. This is what i think of the new "enhanced game-play"

    - They made combat look like a bad hack and slash game, with no real need for tactics. And yes i did play on nightmare
    - The graphics are even worse than the first game. And yes i did use the high res texture pack
    - The characters mean nothing to me and has no real background story
    - The menus and inventory look like crap (no graphics what so ever)
    - You are unable to use half the gear you find be course you cant equip you team mates
    - They removed skills from the game (not feats)

    This is the worst that they could do to this game. I just don't know what to say. DISAPPOINTED!!!!!    … Expand
  44. Pitt90
    Mar 10, 2011
    2
    It's ... difficult ... to express how utterly disappointed I am with this game. Since any reaction is just an opinion, and we must agree that our opinions are no more or less valid than any other, I will simply say this was a serious disappointment from the joy and love I felt for the first Dragon Age. It's ... wow ... it's just nothing like its predecessor in any of the good ways.
  45. Ukengor
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    It's not a game. It's a disaster. The biggest disappointment of the year. Boring combat, boring dialogs, version 1.0 is completely raw (as example: impossibility to save a game - cool, ain't it?)...
  46. Isolfr
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    This game to me was a waste of money, it lacked everything good from DA:O, the plot wanders to much and the way they tie it all together is terrible. It seemed like they took an almost unimportant thing that you can forget for a time and used it to tie the whole thing up. The game would have been better served starting in the last act and going into something epic from there.
  47. Praesi
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    DA2 is a disaster for all who loved DA:O , NWN (one of the bests ever) or other traditional RPG´s. Its a casual arcade game without any of the old BioWare strengths. If this is the new BioWare Style, the times were i bought BW Games blind on release Day, are over.
    The most Magazine Reviews are bad Jokes.
    Bioware...remember your roots!!

    2.0
  48. carsiffon
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    Just horrible. Arcade fighting system with japanese style animation, plain unlikeable characters, primitive dialog system and gray-tone obsolete graphics. While DAO was spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, this is suckccessor to a crappy clone of Final Fantasy.
  49. Fulminatrix
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    This game is awful parody of the first game. The depth of my dissapointment is very big. I feel like I was robbed. Seriously the wrote "Dragon Age" on the box which contains absolutely different game. Not RPG even. And Metacritic score is now compromised for me. It doesn't correlate to reality.
  50. Berk_Berkly
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    I laughed when I noticed the 84 metacritic score. Not from amusement but from a sense of irony. I don't know the going rate or method of review credibility for so called game critics, but anything outside of Rock-Paper-Shotgun is probably going to be heavily "persuaded" by more than just the game features if you know what I mean. As for the game itself, it simply did not impress or evenI laughed when I noticed the 84 metacritic score. Not from amusement but from a sense of irony. I don't know the going rate or method of review credibility for so called game critics, but anything outside of Rock-Paper-Shotgun is probably going to be heavily "persuaded" by more than just the game features if you know what I mean. As for the game itself, it simply did not impress or even live up to the mediocre flavor of the original I'm afraid. Bioware is really losing the touch, and this game is a victim of EAs policy toward game development more than anything… Expand
  51. kevinverdammt
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    WTF BioWare? What happened between Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age? This is no longer an RPG in any sense, but a hack-n-slash action clone. Close up shop, BioWare you are dead to me.
  52. Rendercat
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. epic fail. game is really stupid and knee-made. The recipe is simple: copy-past and nothing more. No more story, no more characters. Just simle lots of neverendin' respoun… Expand
  53. artanis
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    This game is extremely disappointing. They have removed so much of what made Dragon Age great. There is no longer a branching storyline. It doesn't even matter what dialogue options you select anymore. The characters act as if they're living a giant joke.

    The graphics are mediocre in most areas of the game, and absolutely horrible in others. I haven't seen such blocky character    This game is extremely disappointing. They have removed so much of what made Dragon Age great. There is no longer a branching storyline. It doesn't even matter what dialogue options you select anymore. The characters act as if they're living a giant joke.

    The graphics are mediocre in most areas of the game, and absolutely horrible in others. I haven't seen such blocky character models since the playstation 1. It feels extremely rushed and I am sad to have paid for it.    … Expand
  54. DungnCurmudgeon
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    DA2 has value as a game. That value, however, is heartbreakingly destroyed when viewed in light of it being a sequel to DAO. Others have listed its faults, but I would like to point out that the game makes the most rookie DM mistake there is; it *tells* you instead of *showing* you.
    EA may have ruined Bioware. I hope not, but I will not buy another Bioware product without first checking    DA2 has value as a game. That value, however, is heartbreakingly destroyed when viewed in light of it being a sequel to DAO. Others have listed its faults, but I would like to point out that the game makes the most rookie DM mistake there is; it *tells* you instead of *showing* you.
    EA may have ruined Bioware. I hope not, but I will not buy another Bioware product without first checking the reviews.    … Expand
  55. WauOatmeal
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    BioWare seems to be trying to go green with Dragon Age 2. Most of DA2's art assets, character design, item design are reused from Dragon Age: Origins. The game's level design is reused to the point that repetitious doesn't even begin to describe it. The combat is maybe the single saving grace this game has but even it starts to get tedious after an hour. Rushed, unfinished, released with DLC, $60.
  56. Jobawa
    Mar 11, 2011
    2
    Where to begin?

    Dragon Age 2 is a rushed game. That's not an opinion, the game released in a ridiculously short amount of time, and Bioware staff have commented on the rush (look for articles on Kotaku and elsewhere about this). To put this in perspective though, a little bit about the first game: Dragon Age: Origins was Bioware's atttempt to create a new fantasy IP which they could    Where to begin?

    Dragon Age 2 is a rushed game. That's not an opinion, the game released in a ridiculously short amount of time, and Bioware staff have commented on the rush (look for articles on Kotaku and elsewhere about this). To put this in perspective though, a little bit about the first game:

    Dragon Age: Origins was Bioware's atttempt to create a new fantasy IP which they could control. Meant to be a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate (a Forgotten Realms property, Dungeons and Dragons/alignments/classes/etc.), they stated upfront their desire to have a grittier, darker, and less fantastical fantasy. They spoke influence by George R.R. Martin's series (A Song of Ice and Fire), and said they didn't want it to be the sort of the world where things can be explained away in a "a wizard did it" sort of fashion (avoid death not being permanent, have magic grounded as far as what it makes possible.. and relatively more rare).

    The game they released was solid, and went on to be very popular. Bioware has typically been known for strong stories, and the tale in DA:O succeeded greatly on a few levels. The titular origins allowed players to start their PC among any of three races, with a possible three different classes. The origins stories were all different, and served to personalize the world for the player - tell what being a "city elf" or a "dwarven noble" is about. The story itself was reasonably flexible about where and what order you did things, with every area having at least one major choice that would have "some" impact on later events. The characters were both well-voiced and written.

    The game was iffy in some aspects too. The origin stories, while fantastic, often were poorly followed-up on in the remaining story. For instance, a betrayal of your family might amount to little when you return home later, making being "blase" your only "choice" about something like... murder, when the game regularly lets you kill people for very petty reasons. In the end, they just weren't as integrated as they could've been. The combat attempted to replicate the feel of commanding multiple units in a similar fashion to Baldur's Gate on the PC, however this wasn't practical for non PC players. So, the combat on consoles wound up more bastardized with awkward bits like repeated pathing errors and a seemingly slow pace for something that had an "action-type" camera. It was a still a good game, the dark atmosphere was well-done, and the world was realized.

    DA:2 would ideally have fixed and expanded on the first game (isn't that what we all hope for in a sequel?). Indeed, there seems to have been attempt to rectify the combat, but the result was not to make it more tactical or responsive - rather, they attempted to speed things up and make it more Action RPG, more "extreme". Difficulty in the 2nd title seems to be more about throwing massive numbers of troops at you, rather than better scripted encounters (ergo: rushed in both planning and balancing). The pathing frustration is removed, but the resulting combat is mindless and dull.

    The earlier complexity of the origins has been dropped altogether, the player is given exactly one "origin": you will always be a human member of a specific family; with your class playing little role in your background. To be clear, they went from 6 possible starting stories to 1. You can change your gender and class.

    Aside from the origins, the world and story are just generally more shallow and less-developed. The darker more detailed graphics of the first title have been traded for a more cartoonish style this time around, which gels poorly with the gritty world they attempt to convey. The Darkspawn (a series bogeyman) manage to look LESS menacing, dropping pointed teeth for flat ones, and getting a more even skintone. The story-telling is more trite and less-engaging. The magic and abilities have been made more ridiculous and over the top; a far cry from the "realism" that was seemingly championed in the first title. The ability to customize your companions has been dramatically restricted. You no longer outfit them. They removed the ability to talk to your companions at any time, inquiring about their past.. it only happens at set points now. You revisit the same areas over and over again, with the same map even. The maps wind up being pointless as what is currently the "visitable" area in the "new" area is never marked off.. you always see the same map. Your character simply lacks the agency they seemed to in previous game. In opting for a voiced Main Character, they seemed to have restricted your conversation options, relatively.

    This game isn't the worst game ever, but it's horribly shoddy for a huge budget studio known for great RPGs. It's a slap in the face to the lore and world created the first time as well.    … Expand
  57. Irenvelle
    Mar 13, 2011
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I even make an acc for this, but need to tell that.This is game got really got critics reviews from biggest websites and game critics, they are blind or something like that?
    Everyone who play this game more than 10h must see a 2 dungeon in whole game with changed entrance/doors/mobs and to be honest, the story is not that epic how a developers think.
    But game have good side too, good actors game and voices.Some nice fights with WoW-like boss.That's all Sorry for my eng.Don't buy this game, its waste of your money.    … Expand
  58. Nenene
    Mar 13, 2011
    2
    Very disappointing. A complete step backwards from DA:O in every respect-- graphics, gameplay, characters and storytelling. This was a rush job, and it shows. WoW has better graphics, and better storytelling too. For me to say that about the company that gave me the original -and- Mass Effect is....well, I would say I was angry if I wasn't so depressed. Is -this- the future of BioWareVery disappointing. A complete step backwards from DA:O in every respect-- graphics, gameplay, characters and storytelling. This was a rush job, and it shows. WoW has better graphics, and better storytelling too. For me to say that about the company that gave me the original -and- Mass Effect is....well, I would say I was angry if I wasn't so depressed. Is -this- the future of BioWare games?

    I'm afraid for ME3.    … Expand
  59. king_smeagol
    Mar 13, 2011
    2
    users - 3.67/10
    payed critics - 8.40/10
    TRUE SCORE 6.03/10 As you can see the pro's overate games. Pros 84% but we the gamers give it a real score of 38%. AVERAGE META SCORE 60%. Who do you trust? Based on the 'user reviews' the average score is 3.67 out of 10. This is based on 79 votes given 5 or 6, 427 given 7,8,9 or 10 and 822 votes given 0, 1 or 2. The meta critic meta score based    users - 3.67/10
    payed critics - 8.40/10
    TRUE SCORE 6.03/10

    As you can see the pro's overate games. Pros 84% but we the gamers give it a real score of 38%. AVERAGE META SCORE 60%. Who do you trust?

    Based on the 'user reviews' the average score is 3.67 out of 10. This is based on 79 votes given 5 or 6, 427 given 7,8,9 or 10 and 822 votes given 0, 1 or 2.

    The meta critic meta score based on 16 'critics' is 84 out of 100 out 8.4 out of 10.

    I have found over the years the so-called professional reviewers over rate games
    An average game should get 50% not 75% or 85%. We vary rarely see games getting below mid 80's these days even if they are bad.
    So I thought i'd find the average of the true gamers - us the buyer - and combine that score the the payed reviewers to see what the TRUE META SCORE is.    … Expand
  60. Torako
    Mar 14, 2011
    2
    2
    Bioware is asking Russian players to raid Metacritic and raise DA user score .
    Here's the link: http://www.bioware.ru/2011/03/10/dragon_age_2_vote_on_metacritic.html
    You can use Google translate, if anything.

    Sorry, Bioware, but your Bio-bots with green scores doesn't make this "game" good.
  61. CaptainPerhaps
    Mar 16, 2011
    2
    I absolutely loved Dragon Age origins so I preordered DA2 as soon as I could. There is a fine line between streamlining and dumbing down, and unfortunately this feels very much like it's been dumbed down for a more casual console audience. Much of the geeky tweaking and customisation of most RPGs has gone - you can't even change your companions' armour, so effectively any armour you findI absolutely loved Dragon Age origins so I preordered DA2 as soon as I could. There is a fine line between streamlining and dumbing down, and unfortunately this feels very much like it's been dumbed down for a more casual console audience. Much of the geeky tweaking and customisation of most RPGs has gone - you can't even change your companions' armour, so effectively any armour you find in the game is either for your main character or for the scrap heap.

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

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

    I'm not a ranting troll by the way, but rather a genuinely disappointed fan, who really wanted DA2 to at least be as good as its predecessor. Fingers crossed, if they do a third game then they'll revert some of these core changes back, but I doubt Bioware/EA would want to be seen as backtracking, as that would be an admission that they've made a blunder on this one.    … Expand
  62. Icee
    Mar 14, 2011
    2
    Dragon Age: Origins its a great game. Dragon Age 2 just **** sorry but its true. Don't buy this game Don't buy this game Don't buy this game Don't buy this game Don't buy this game Don't buy this game Don't buy this game Don't buy this game Don't buy this game Don't buy this game Don't buy this game Don't buy this game
  63. tuttifrutas
    Mar 14, 2011
    2
    the game is very disappointing. The graphics seem dated, the music is ok, the game-play is simplified and poses no challenge at all for experienced rpg gamers. LOTS of the recycled content. it is the same layout for all caverns, almost all houses, and almost everything has the same type of texture applied.
    But the City Hub system is the worse, i never seen so many loading screen in my    the game is very disappointing. The graphics seem dated, the music is ok, the game-play is simplified and poses no challenge at all for experienced rpg gamers. LOTS of the recycled content. it is the same layout for all caverns, almost all houses, and almost everything has the same type of texture applied.
    But the City Hub system is the worse, i never seen so many loading screen in my life. initiate quest in district A , goto hub, Loading, do quest in district B, goto hub, Loading, finish quest in district A. This system makes the game a chore. just go play DAO this one is just plain boring.    … Expand
  64. Worm
    Mar 15, 2011
    2
    Biggest disappointment since Spore. This is what happens when you take a complex genre and try to dumb it down so that everybody can enjoy it -- the result is a mess that bores the longtime DnD fans while still being too inaccessible for today's wave of newcomers. Take Dynasty Warriors, but remove the cool and interesting characters, varied settings, and adrenaline-pumping music, and thisBiggest disappointment since Spore. This is what happens when you take a complex genre and try to dumb it down so that everybody can enjoy it -- the result is a mess that bores the longtime DnD fans while still being too inaccessible for today's wave of newcomers. Take Dynasty Warriors, but remove the cool and interesting characters, varied settings, and adrenaline-pumping music, and this is what you are left with.

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

    Hopefully Bioware will learn from their mistakes, and their next game will have a more decided focus -- either a silly waggle adventure game for the Wii that mom and dad can play, or a REAL sequel to Baldur's Gate II. Trying to smush the two together is a recipe for failure.    … Expand
  65. ruxi
    Mar 15, 2011
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Compared to DA1, the sequel is trash in my honest opinion. The game lacks depth in storytelling, lore and quests. Storytelling was even lower quality than DA1. What I mean is that if I am playing a "movie RPG" like DA2, I expect to see some scripted custom animations, high quality dialogue or even nice prerendered cut scenes but when I completed the game I felt empty handed. I was also expecting to see some advancement in the Dragon Age core lore but after the brief introduction of Flemeth and her reappearance mid-game, the game just kept centering on the Champion of Kirkwall. Lore-wise speaking the game should have been an expansion or DLC to original DA, very much like DA:O. The quests themselves are mindless, which might be enough for some people but I feel that there should be something new to these "go to the point X, kill Y and bring me the Z". Recycling maps is usually acceptable in this kind of games but if we are just running around one city lik in DA2, I get the expression the game was pushed out too early. Every mansion looks the same, every house has the same rooms and even all the close by caves, five or six of them, look completely the same. I felt like playing one of those low grade Asian role-playing game made for kids which would not see the similarity of the maps.

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

    All-in-all, I feel like I've brought an overpriced and hurried expansion pack to Dragon Age. Makes me a sad panda.    … Expand
  66. Gladio77
    Mar 16, 2011
    2
    First of all, amazing that the consumers en masse see this game for the filth it is, while the professionals give it 9 and 10's. Must be losing touch with the people they write reviews for.

    I was waiting with the utmost expectations for this game. I mean just polish dragon age give it new maps improve graphics and you have a hell of a game. Instead they decided to do things all over    First of all, amazing that the consumers en masse see this game for the filth it is, while the professionals give it 9 and 10's. Must be losing touch with the people they write reviews for.

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

    Instead they decided to do things all over and focus not on the customers who made dragon age a sales succes but to potential new customers. I.e. action console players. In all , voice acting is bad, Reuse of maps is a disgrace, ( the same cave over and over) gameplay boring. I have decided never to buy games again without downloading and testing them first. 50 euro's for this piece of garbage is ridiculous,    … Expand
  67. achilaem
    Mar 15, 2011
    2
    Gosh, Bioware, why did you destroyed such a great game? Mass Effect 2 can never be Dragon Age 2. I hope youll learn and make a better DA3 with same complexity and good graphics that Origins has.
  68. guinevere2
    Mar 15, 2011
    2
    Expect an oversimplified hack and slash with quite dull and linear storyline and pseudo choices that does not matter for a thing for you character or storyline. Camera works terribly in this game and the overuse of generic dungeons is an absurd....This is kind of "Prince of Persia" or "Tomb Raider" game more than it is a Dragon Age" Origins successor, not mentioning Baldur"s Gate. I amExpect an oversimplified hack and slash with quite dull and linear storyline and pseudo choices that does not matter for a thing for you character or storyline. Camera works terribly in this game and the overuse of generic dungeons is an absurd....This is kind of "Prince of Persia" or "Tomb Raider" game more than it is a Dragon Age" Origins successor, not mentioning Baldur"s Gate. I am very disappointed with this title, although if you like arcade games you may like actually it.… Expand
  69. Basques
    Mar 15, 2011
    2
    Firstly, I was always a huge bioware fan. I played all the rpg/frp games created by them (hell I finished Baldur's gate 5 times). I preordered Dragon Age 2 and I was so disappointed that I am not even sure if I'll finish the game. Beatiful voice acting, gorgeous graphics and sadly zero game play satisfaction. Sometimes you don't even know what's going on in the screen. It's just a hack andFirstly, I was always a huge bioware fan. I played all the rpg/frp games created by them (hell I finished Baldur's gate 5 times). I preordered Dragon Age 2 and I was so disappointed that I am not even sure if I'll finish the game. Beatiful voice acting, gorgeous graphics and sadly zero game play satisfaction. Sometimes you don't even know what's going on in the screen. It's just a hack and slash game with zero burden on your brain. Combats just play themselves automatically, dialogues are non existing, good evil choices are too plain with no real content in it. And on top of that, most of the dungeon maps are repetitive, copy paste, including the hidden doors and their entrances. Literally, two dungeons I visited on after the other had the exact same cave room. Do yourself a favour, go and buy Baldur's gate 2 and start playing it again.… Expand
  70. droppedmyhand
    Mar 15, 2011
    2
    This is not a game. Bioware is selling you a $60 EXPANSION PACK.

    The major problem with this game is REUSED ASSETS that are of a very small number to begin with. I hope you like fighting bandits, zombies, revanents, quanari, and the occasional dragon because that's literally all that there are in this game. Not just that, but the faces, armor, and weapons are almost completely reused from    This is not a game. Bioware is selling you a $60 EXPANSION PACK.

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

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

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

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

    All in all, I cannot in good conscience recommend buying this game. Everything about it seems like it was just put together as quickly as possible to make money.    … Expand
  71. Misstotally
    Mar 16, 2011
    2
    I personally play rpg mostly for the story and not so much for the combat, so i cant say much about the combat part. It does feel a bit repetitive, but overall it is not my biggest complaint.
    Problem is they have tried to make Dragon Age 2 into a cross between Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins. Problem is its not close to being as good as either of these games. Its stuck in the murky    I personally play rpg mostly for the story and not so much for the combat, so i cant say much about the combat part. It does feel a bit repetitive, but overall it is not my biggest complaint.
    Problem is they have tried to make Dragon Age 2 into a cross between Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins. Problem is its not close to being as good as either of these games. Its stuck in the murky middle somewhere. There is little to no immersion, and you are stuck in one city with a few variations the whole game through. Apart from more side quests, which i think is good, the whole game feels like your just doing errands around the city, and not much variation in environment. I felt i had no control over (Shepard)Hawk at all. His companions are not boring per se, but the little you actually talk to them makes them feel disjointed from you and each other. The ME dialog wheel can make you frustrated, because it seems you can never convey the right emotions at the right time. Also the romance side of this game seems meaningless as you cant really talk much to them, and you get little heart icons on the wheel to indicate when its flirting time...DA:O was not perfect but it was far from this silly.
    The disappointment for many is probably due to this being called a sequel. It just a completely sub-par and different game ( in a bad way). Its DA:O and ME light. They could have done better with this story. The writing seems good, but they did not have time it seems to implement it the right way. They had to get it out the door quickly , and it shows.    … Expand
  72. frimmy
    Mar 16, 2011
    2
    This game has been a serious disappointment. I was a big fan of DA:O, it had its faults, but all in all it was an excellent game. DA2 looks to me to be a rushed job, the story is...decent. Some parts are interesting and makes you want to see what happens, but its only a few. - The conversations the user have with the npcs are sometimes good, most times really really bad. The conversationThis game has been a serious disappointment. I was a big fan of DA:O, it had its faults, but all in all it was an excellent game. DA2 looks to me to be a rushed job, the story is...decent. Some parts are interesting and makes you want to see what happens, but its only a few. - The conversations the user have with the npcs are sometimes good, most times really really bad. The conversation wheel and its options does not reflect what Hawk says at all, and mostly this was annoying since the reaction i wanted to give during the game wasnt reflected by my character. This also helped to distance me from my character, and helped ruin my experience. The characters that was so good in DA:O, is by my opinion in DA2 just there to help you in the game and to progress the story. They are uninteresting and dull. Their stories of how they came to be doesnt grasp me at all. - Combat isnt all that bad. I like the fast pace, and the fact that mages actually do more than just stand still and point their stick looking angry at whatever needs to die. Rogues are superheroes, able to jump distances that would make spiderman impressed. They can also teleport, wich could be handy for a thief, but not viable at all in my opinion. This and the fact that warriors swing their swords as easy as a twig ruined the combat "feel" for me. But what they did with the mages was a plus. Tactics wise its idotic. The camera ruins it by making it a challenge just seeing where ppl are, not to mention trying to make a character attack a mob. The game was played in hard to mode to have any challenge at all. - Graphics is ok, alot don't like em but i found em decent, but the fact that i had to manually download high res graphics was for me personally a setback, and a sign that PC users was not their main target at all. Menu systems reflects this aswell as i see them made for consoles and not a mouse. The game developers decision to reuse areas got to the point of annoying, tedious and just showed a lack of imagination. My conclusion is that bioware and EA just simply failed this time. They tried and failed miserably. This kind of game might have been good enough in the 80s, but nowadays most users are expecting more than this. I can't even call it a good attempt since i personally spent more time wanting the game to be over than i wanted it to continue. Its for me definatly not worth a 2 playthroug, it was barely worth 1. i will not recommend this game to anyone. Simply because they had so much going for them with DA:O, but instead of improving the things that made that such a great game, they decided to remove everything and make a game of inferior quality.… Expand
  73. Redria
    Mar 16, 2011
    2
    The PC gaming market is disappearing and we are becoming more and more of a console based world. The PC had its prime but is is diminishing faster and faster with each passing year. When I bought this game, I did it with the trust that Bioware would not disappoint, but instead a worthy successor to the first game in the series. What I got for my $60.00 is a rushed game that has beenThe PC gaming market is disappearing and we are becoming more and more of a console based world. The PC had its prime but is is diminishing faster and faster with each passing year. When I bought this game, I did it with the trust that Bioware would not disappoint, but instead a worthy successor to the first game in the series. What I got for my $60.00 is a rushed game that has been stripped of immersible storyline, graphically simplified for idiots, a combat system that is cool for about 10 minutes, and in short a
    game that I am having trouble finding the motivation to even finish. The game lacks an interesting story, interesting characters, interesting quests, interesting tech trees, interesting equipment. This game at best should have been an expansion on the first game simply following a certain character, much like Awakenings, but instead they have already tarnished this series with this deplorable piece of garbage. I had a lot of respect for Bioware until now and the only thing I have to look forward to on the horizon is Mass Effect 3, which I am now worried may have the same fate of Dragon Age 2 in being a rush job. Pasta save Shepherd.    … Expand
  74. kktrian
    Mar 16, 2011
    2
    Nothing I can really say except without a doubt the production company bought and paid for any decent critic reviews. There is no way a professional game critic could endorse this pile of crap. It's story is for a 5 year old, the gameplay is boring, and you can't even choose the equipment for your party (dead serious)
  75. MonstaJ
    Mar 16, 2011
    2
    Do not expect DA:O here!. After reading some of the critic reviews shortly after DA2 was released I was excited and decided to buy DA2 and boy was I disapointed. Do not believe everything you read! I am not sure why there is such disparity between the critic reviews and the user reviews but I wish I would have waited. They really dumbed this game down. There are some things that IDo not expect DA:O here!. After reading some of the critic reviews shortly after DA2 was released I was excited and decided to buy DA2 and boy was I disapointed. Do not believe everything you read! I am not sure why there is such disparity between the critic reviews and the user reviews but I wish I would have waited. They really dumbed this game down. There are some things that I consider improvements such as giving Hawke a voice, the lip sync is good and it fits the characters but the complete lack of dialog options kills it. This really is a watered down version of DA:O.

    Don't expect to be able to equip more than a couple items on your party members or change how your party members look, don't expect to have any meaningful tactical combat it's just a hack and slash that requires little to no thought in that regard. Don't expect to spend as much time playing this as you did on Origins if you played it. Don't expect to get your money's worth. This really lacks the depth I felt in the original. I wasn't drawn into the game like I was in the original I was very disappointed, especially how critics claimed they made several "upgrades" fight like a spartan bull crap. Fight like your a god more like it. I wouldn't check this out until it hits the bargain bins or buy it used. Definitely save your 60$    … Expand
  76. dirtyfinger
    Mar 17, 2011
    2
    Combat is ridiculous. Animation speed increased to the point that no strike animations are visible. Intended to speed up combat ... which it doesn't, since the increased speed is offset by higher monster hitpoints and swarms of enemies.
    also, combat has been "coolified", meaning that every standard attack is the 'Fallout 3' equivalent of 'Bloody Mess', meaning that a killing stab with a    Combat is ridiculous. Animation speed increased to the point that no strike animations are visible. Intended to speed up combat ... which it doesn't, since the increased speed is offset by higher monster hitpoints and swarms of enemies.
    also, combat has been "coolified", meaning that every standard attack is the 'Fallout 3' equivalent of 'Bloody Mess', meaning that a killing stab with a dagger causes humans to explode.

    unconvincing encounters with different factions ... you somehow are constantly forced to kill potential allies. also swarms of enemies, even if you're just on a evening stroll to the nearest tavern.

    also, maps get recycled over and over and over. sure, you're revisiting old locations very very often, but you'll see the exact same dungeon map on up to five DIFFERENT locations!
    Lazy!

    No, this game is a complete fail in the categories Bioware tried to improve.    … Expand
  77. Keplar
    Mar 17, 2011
    2
    I love DA:O very much, it's one of the most impressive games I've ever played,. I'm not at all impressed with DA2, however. In DA:O, I could log in, and immerse myself for 12 hours without realizing it - here, I have to fight to want to play an hour at a time. The graphics are pretty, but otherwise, this is a step backward from DA:O in almost every way. It feels like a fairly primitiveI love DA:O very much, it's one of the most impressive games I've ever played,. I'm not at all impressed with DA2, however. In DA:O, I could log in, and immerse myself for 12 hours without realizing it - here, I have to fight to want to play an hour at a time. The graphics are pretty, but otherwise, this is a step backward from DA:O in almost every way. It feels like a fairly primitive console game thus far, and the inability to swap nearly any armor on your party members is beyond stupid. The questing is vapid (One never even knows what you're actually doing half the time, or why) with many quests being things like "Go talk to X group member at the tavern" when that group member is, in fact, in your travelling party and standing right next to you. The storyline, while potentially intriguing, is so broken up that it isn't particularly enjoyable. Everything feels like an excuse to go from one cut-scene to the next. In DA:O, it felt like you, the player, actually controlled the flow of the plot, and could make a difference in what would happen. In DA2, everything is preordained, and you're just along for the ride, being pushed from one step to the next, whether you will or no. Also, you felt an attachment to your character - you understood and helped shape the back-story that would be with your throughout the game. In DA2, you're some random nameless person, back-story already established, and everybody already knows everything about you... except you the player. They forget the part where they tell you about yourself.

    The voicing of the main character is unnecessarily lengthy, and appallingly inaccurate - you almost never say anything resembling the option you selected, and conversations take twice as long as they used to, because you have to wait for (or ESC through) constant banter that you apparently have no control over anyway. The whole chat-wheel thing is a damnable console derivative that needs to die in a fire, and makes it unclear what number keys to use for keyboard chat control. To top it all off, there is no non-combat skill-tree! This isnâ    … Expand
  78. Seleste
    Mar 19, 2011
    2
    I am really disappointed of the way Bioware is going with one of its major brands. The action parts are ok, but there is little to nothing left of the Dragon Age feeling. Story Failures, Decisions from DA:O are not correct imported. People alive that died... and such things. Boring Hack&Slay Action. DA2 isn't really a PC RPG Game anymore, it is a Console Hack and Slay RPG Action game. WithI am really disappointed of the way Bioware is going with one of its major brands. The action parts are ok, but there is little to nothing left of the Dragon Age feeling. Story Failures, Decisions from DA:O are not correct imported. People alive that died... and such things. Boring Hack&Slay Action. DA2 isn't really a PC RPG Game anymore, it is a Console Hack and Slay RPG Action game. With bad Interface and technical Problems. Also the level design repeats constantly, i only counted 2 or 3 different maps for caves and buildings. Monsters and Models of DA:O/A and DLCs get reused, partially as Boss Monsters. Altogether they used what they had, made some little additions and sold it for the full prize.… Expand
  79. Eroes
    Mar 20, 2011
    2
    What is this ****
    Give me a real successor to the original Dragon Age. Bioware, you've lost all of my trust.

    No freedom of movement, ALWAYS the same old dungeon repeated again and again, no environment diversity, stupid and semplicistic fighting system .... never seen something like this.
    Shame on you.
  80. athreus
    Mar 19, 2011
    2
    This game is the biggest disappointment of 2011. I don't understand how it is possible that DA2 has so many positive reviews in the press. Horrible boring game, uninspiring graphics, nightmarish dialogue and stupid, mindless fights...
  81. florestan123
    Mar 20, 2011
    2
    Along with several other people here, I have never written a review or commented on a game before, but I felt the strong need to voice my opinion about DA2. It just isn't a good game at all. How is it possible that the gaming industry critics have given the game such a favorable review?? Surely they are getting paid by EA in some form or another - we already know that at least one biowareAlong with several other people here, I have never written a review or commented on a game before, but I felt the strong need to voice my opinion about DA2. It just isn't a good game at all. How is it possible that the gaming industry critics have given the game such a favorable review?? Surely they are getting paid by EA in some form or another - we already know that at least one bioware employee (name of Avalone I think?) has posted here with a perfect score. That isn't really bad, and I don't mind that so much, but it sure makes me wonder what else EA/bioware is up to. Here's a message to all RPG fans out there wondering whether to buy this game or not... you will be hugely dissapointed if you enjoyed DAO - because all of the things that made DAO great are missing in this game. Trust me when I say this (because I have no hidden agenda), the general consensus of the user reviews is a lot more accurate than the critics reviews. All of the things that you've read about the game from the user reviews (repeatiing dungeons, hack and slash style play, poor dialogue choices, non-immersion, no caring for characters, no sense of being part of a bigger world), it's all true. Stay away from this one - you can find a much better way to spend $60!… Expand
  82. Hun73rdk
    Mar 20, 2011
    2
    The copy paste RPB of the decade everything in the game is the same copy paste the mines a all the same the caves a all the same and the areas around the city a all the same, armor only have diffrent colors.

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

    Im having trouble playing for more than 10 min at the time before getting bored
    This game is dumbed down to console players with no brains at all

    You can sit and watch a movie just pressing R and still win a battle    … Expand
  83. Scrotar
    Mar 21, 2011
    2
    Just finished playing the demo! It was fantastic!!! NOT!!! IT WAS A STEAMING PILE OF **** How could they do this to Dragon Age Origins!?

    â
  84. Amstaad
    Mar 22, 2011
    2
    Don't believe the hype. This game is so riddled with lazy design choices that it's insulting. The designers thought it would be a good idea to copy-paste the same dungeons over and over again? Not to mention most of the fights play out EXACTLY the same way: kill initial wave and then kill one or two more which swarm in from all directions. There is no variety. For 60$ bucks I wasDon't believe the hype. This game is so riddled with lazy design choices that it's insulting. The designers thought it would be a good idea to copy-paste the same dungeons over and over again? Not to mention most of the fights play out EXACTLY the same way: kill initial wave and then kill one or two more which swarm in from all directions. There is no variety. For 60$ bucks I was expecting a triple A release and what I got was tepid shovel-ware. I have learnt that you should always base your purchase off user reviews and not the "critic's" reviews as they're all under the publishers control. I'd give it a pass or at the very least wait until the "platinum" edition comes out which will also be cheaper and have all the DLC.… Expand
  85. Lord_Mephisto
    Mar 22, 2011
    2
    FIRST IMPRESSIONS (5/10):
    Installation and configuration of the game went well. Once starting the game, there was a mediocre amount of character visual choices on character creation looking adequate. The amount of character types, however, were somewhat limited. This was true for Dragon Age 1 as well, but was even more streamlined/simplified in this game.
    In the middle of character    FIRST IMPRESSIONS (5/10):
    Installation and configuration of the game went well. Once starting the game, there was a mediocre amount of character visual choices on character creation looking adequate. The amount of character types, however, were somewhat limited. This was true for Dragon Age 1 as well, but was even more streamlined/simplified in this game.

    In the middle of character creation, you were thrown more or less into the game in a fairly creative manner. But really, isn't "starting off with a bang" getting a little old? And what is wrong with a little cinematic to put the player into the right mood? And for some reason, the feeling was a little "rushed" into completion.

    All in all: Not bad, not good. The classic 5/10, industry standard.


    GRAPHICS (5/10):
    In my personal opinion, not the most important aspect of the game. At least not in pure technical respects.

    With that said, Dragon Age 2 appears to be a little dated compared to other action games. And compared to Dragon Age 1, it did not show any particular improvements. Even though the graphics are nothing special and lacks new features, they seem to have polished the look of what was there fairly well.

    All in all: Somewhat dated, well polished. 5/10, industry standard.


    VISUAL APPEAL (3/10):
    Different from the more technical quality of the graphics is the visual appeal of the game. More or less an artistic viewpoint of the graphics.

    The landscape, city and indoor environments look everything from ok to good. But it lacks a soul. Non player characters do not respond well to what happens around them, they stand around stiff and bland. Too many locations were recycled throughout the game making it appear artificial, a dead thing. No improvement in weather or wind furthers nails the lid on this coffin.

    There are also vastly too few types of enemies which contribute to making the game appear without variation.

    All in all: 3/10. Somewhat lifeless, fairly bad.


    SOUND (3/10):
    What happened to the music in this game?

    The sound effects and general environment is overall ok. Some taunts and tidbits is played too often and is too repetative for non player characters in many areas. But it's not bad, just not anything special.

    The music, however, is near being described as horrible. There are only a few tunes I want to bother listening to. I am usually into listening closely to ingame music for the atmosphere, but the music in Dragon Age 2 did nothing for me.

    All in all: 3/10. Sound effects are ok, the music is pretty bad and boring.


    STORY (6/10):
    Heard it before, nothing special. However, creative narration and overall well done. There is simply nothing remarkable about the story in the game.

    In many places, it is easy to see that the player really has no choice. And even though there are some different choices to make that counts in the game, there isn't truly many "world-spinning" actions.

    The voice acting is pretty good, but sometimes a little bland.

    It is a little hard to care about the characters in the game. This might be because there are few choices, especially in the start. Personally, most of them annoy me and I would send them somewhere to die if I could.

    What breaks an otherwise decent story, is that the quests related to the main story is pretty far from entertaining or interesting. Personally, I simply want to wander off into the wilderness.

    Overall: 6/10. Even with some major flaws, the story is above average. Keep in mind industry standard is bad.


    COMBAT AND CAMERA CONTROL (2/10): Is this an RPG? No. It's an action game. But I say: Rate it as an RPG because it says so on the "box". *CACKLES NERVOUSLY* Where to begin... Let's keep it simple: Every fight is the same. Boom! A bunch of enemies drop down on your head. Your mage spams the same spells as last time and your fighters/rogues mop up, you need to push a few buttons. Boom! Group nr. 2 drops on your head. Repeat. Where is the development? What new strategic or tactical challenges are there? Since when was spawning encounters in your face good game design? Why is everything solved by doing the exact same thing over and over? Even bosses are mostly fairly simple - both in regard to defeating them and to how they behave. WHY THE **** DID THEY MAKE THIS SO CRUDE AND REPETATIVE? AND FOR GODS SAKE, WHY MUST EVERYTHING SCALE? Another annoying lack of feature is the strategic view of Dragon Age 1. With enemies dropping on/in from all directions, some would say it would be nice to have a strategic view camera. This further underlines the action game transformation of Dragon Age 2. On the positive side, combat is responsive and dynamic. The characters do what you tell them to do, and they mostly do it without any delay. There are a good amount of fun animations and moves whi    … Expand
  86. velgolrad
    Mar 28, 2011
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It is much worse than the first part, talents are bad, story is too short and quests are so simple so i didnt have to think to finish them, the game was made for stupid people who dont want do anything just watch the grafics.… Expand
  87. noff
    Mar 23, 2011
    2
    Rubbish- recycled areas, no variation limited game-play real estate. No character development, No decent game length for an RPG. Boring over redundant game-play mechanics. The game felt aborted, unfinished, terrible "modern" graphics hardly warmed my gpu up and to have to repeatedly see the same scenery recycled poorly quest after quest, dungeon after dungeon was very detrimental to theRubbish- recycled areas, no variation limited game-play real estate. No character development, No decent game length for an RPG. Boring over redundant game-play mechanics. The game felt aborted, unfinished, terrible "modern" graphics hardly warmed my gpu up and to have to repeatedly see the same scenery recycled poorly quest after quest, dungeon after dungeon was very detrimental to the experience!
    HUGE disappointment. In trying to please a wider market manages to please practically no one. Some people like apples some people like pears....NO ONE likes a pearpple
    Bioware - for shame !    … Expand
  88. Varyahen
    Mar 24, 2011
    2
    Dear Bioware...talking about origins.... you have forgotten your origins. I wont say anything more about technical or in-game qualities. All is said. Bioware has betrayed his own style, creating a stupid commercial game. This is not rpg, this is a &"$·%"·. Bioware is loosing his rank of "King of RPGs" creating this kind of games. Please, innovate the rpg genreDear Bioware...talking about origins.... you have forgotten your origins. I wont say anything more about technical or in-game qualities. All is said. Bioware has betrayed his own style, creating a stupid commercial game. This is not rpg, this is a &"$·%"·. Bioware is loosing his rank of "King of RPGs" creating this kind of games. Please, innovate the rpg genre as, for example, Bethesda is doing. I miss baldurs gate, I miss neverwinter nights and his PW.… Expand
  89. Raskolnikoff
    Mar 24, 2011
    2
    Don't know what Bioware hoped to achieve with this game, or why they thought they could get away with such a rushed job...
    I loved the immersion in DA:O, the little details, the variety of the different settings.... They made combat faster... FFS why? Seeing a warrior wielding his two-handed sword looked real in DA:O... Now the guys do somersaults, and struck down enemies blow up as if    Don't know what Bioware hoped to achieve with this game, or why they thought they could get away with such a rushed job...
    I loved the immersion in DA:O, the little details, the variety of the different settings.... They made combat faster... FFS why? Seeing a warrior wielding his two-handed sword looked real in DA:O... Now the guys do somersaults, and struck down enemies blow up as if you'd forced a grenade in their mouth...
    There are a hundred things that are wrong with this game; characters, combat, lack of variety in settings, bland environments, uninteresting dialogue choices and so on...
    I'm terribly disappointed, and really hope they're gonna polish Mass Effect 3 as they should... Never pre-ordering a Bioware game again...    … Expand
  90. BLAHEMOTH
    Mar 25, 2011
    2
    I don't even know where to begin...Pathetic,repetitive gameplay,reused(and reused,and reused)locations,2004 graphics,confined experience(spending an entire game in one city is NOT my idea of epic gameplay)Absolutely inexcusable PC performance-i get twice the framerate of this game on metro 2033 maxed out..which is hilarious when you consider that metro 2033 is probably the mostI don't even know where to begin...Pathetic,repetitive gameplay,reused(and reused,and reused)locations,2004 graphics,confined experience(spending an entire game in one city is NOT my idea of epic gameplay)Absolutely inexcusable PC performance-i get twice the framerate of this game on metro 2033 maxed out..which is hilarious when you consider that metro 2033 is probably the most gpu-intensive game to date-and incredible-looking to boot,and this game looks well,awful.hey,bioware,it's called OPTIMIZATION..maybe you should try it sometime..A terrible,dumbed-down,boring,massive disappointment and in my top 3 worst sequels of all time..fire up knights of the old republic and shed a tear for the good old days of bioware,because judging from this game,those days are long gone....… Expand
  91. Surenkin
    Mar 26, 2011
    2
    I have enjoyed almost all the games Bioware has produced in the past. Hardly anyone can deny that games like Baldurs Gate II, Dragon Age Origins and Kotor provide tons of entertainment. They received high ratings from professional reviewers and the community was pleased.

    What happened? How is it possible for a gaming company to take such a nosedive in one year? It would have been    I have enjoyed almost all the games Bioware has produced in the past. Hardly anyone can deny that games like Baldurs Gate II, Dragon Age Origins and Kotor provide tons of entertainment. They received high ratings from professional reviewers and the community was pleased.

    What happened? How is it possible for a gaming company to take such a nosedive in one year?

    It would have been UNFATHOMABLE to even consider that the average community score for a Dragon Age sequel would be less than 60/100 but here we are.

    How is it that in almost every single installment before Dragon Age 2 we had the ability to impact the world around us and the ending of the game would change depending on our choices? But now it doesn't matter who you support, not one bit. One tragedy after another isn't the core problem here but that you can't do anything about it.

    What's the replay value people? Really, what is it? What can I do differently? Have sex with Merrill instead of Isabela and change my tone of voice while speaking during pre-determined events?

    And how is it that romances have devolved into *press heart symbol to have h0t s3x*

    What happened to gameplay? What happened to stealing, creating potions, collecting resources and having a connection with the world around us?

    Where is the possibility to lie, intimidate and charm during conversations? Isn't that what roleplaying has been all about in your previous releases? You dont even need to read your own lines in DA2 (nor can you). Just choose one option from *calm*, *joke* or *angry*. Talking yourself out from a bad spot isn't really an option if the game has already decided what is going to happen.

    What happened to being able to choose your own race. What's the point of having racism towards elves if you cant even play one anymore?

    Customizing the armor of your companions might not seem like a big deal to many people since we are forced to use the best armor sets anyway and sell all the junk. But it does look completely stupid to have some pirate woman in a prostitute uniform fighting against a high-dragon. This is something I expect to see from square and Final Fantasy, not Bioware.

    And the worst thing is that after investing over 40 hours of gameplay, there is no real ending or closure. So what's the idea behind this? Rip us off with DLC's?

    And people really need to stop being naive. I hardly doubt this is going to be a prequel to some epic tale. Why should I believe that a savegame import would matter now when it has never had a major impact in the past? It's just going to be another set of cameos, letters from the people you saved and a couple of mentions about what happened in the past.

    This game does its job as a linear adventure hack'n'slasher but that's it.

    Just one year ago Bioware put square on blast by stating that "Final Fantasy XIII is not an RPG yadayada". And here we are now....I hope CD Projekt stays silent and walks the walk with Witcher 2, because you guys need a reality check.

    On a scale from 1 to pretzel, I'm mad salty lol. I guess it's time to go back to hyping the upcoming Mass Effect 2 DLC, because atleast you still have dev-teams that know what the hell they are doing.    … Expand
  92. jhonnyLokuras
    Mar 26, 2011
    2
    -Reusing the same four maps 500 times.
    -The whole game takes place in one city.
    -Enemies have tons of HP and come in waves so the game feels longer. -Frame narrative to avoid being too descriptive about what happens between large periods of time. -Half as much dialogue, more passive interaction. -Millions of stupid side quests that have nothing to do with anything. -Dull environment bereft    -Reusing the same four maps 500 times.
    -The whole game takes place in one city.
    -Enemies have tons of HP and come in waves so the game feels longer.
    -Frame narrative to avoid being too descriptive about what happens between large periods of time.
    -Half as much dialogue, more passive interaction.
    -Millions of stupid side quests that have nothing to do with anything.
    -Dull environment bereft of life and matter.
    -Inability to customize companions allows you to skip designing different armor models.
    -Collecting hundreds of-- literally, junk items-- to create the illusion of immersion and depth.
    -Poor character development, so you hardly care about your companions by the end of the game. -Lack of any substantial choices that have lasting effects.
    -Contrived ending, that tells you nothing, and leaves a huge gap for sub-par DLC    … Expand
  93. FaceTheSlayer
    Mar 28, 2011
    2
    Obviously rushed game. Insults your intelligence at every step. Map recycling, characters saying wrong things, can't use half items, bad graphics, dumbed down gameplay... Did I said map recycling? Oh yes. This is one of the smallest games I've ever played if you consider map size. All negative reviews are true, this is one of the worst games ever.
  94. MamaMidnight
    Mar 27, 2011
    2
    This game is a HUGE disappointment for fans of DA:O. It's pretty much pointless considering how goal orientated the last game was. It really does not feel like you have a purpose in this game at all. It's a such a rude difference and it's hard to get into this game has an RPG player. Again... waste of time, disappointment, SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!!!
  95. Vombatidae
    Mar 28, 2011
    2
    So very sad... a great PC game (DA:O) that had the potential to become epic is dumbed down to the button-mashing show-me-the-next-cut-scene console-centric cliché that is DA2. It isn't just that DA2 is a horrible game - but every single aspect of it is worse than DA:O and suffers horribly by comparison. And BTW something is obviously very, very wrong with the "critics" whenSo very sad... a great PC game (DA:O) that had the potential to become epic is dumbed down to the button-mashing show-me-the-next-cut-scene console-centric cliché that is DA2. It isn't just that DA2 is a horrible game - but every single aspect of it is worse than DA:O and suffers horribly by comparison. And BTW something is obviously very, very wrong with the "critics" when there is this much of a gap between them and the user rating. If you must buy the game, at least get a console version so that you can pretend there is some justification for the frontal lobotomy Bioware & EA gave it.… Expand
  96. Slay247
    Mar 28, 2011
    2
    I've been prompted to create this account specifically to create a review for this game, only because of how terribly, terribly wrong all the 'official' reviews seem to have got it. I still cannot believe this slipshod piece of garbage is a Bioware game. I don't know where to begin listing it's faults. The combat is probably a good place to start as it is in my opinion the most obviouslyI've been prompted to create this account specifically to create a review for this game, only because of how terribly, terribly wrong all the 'official' reviews seem to have got it. I still cannot believe this slipshod piece of garbage is a Bioware game. I don't know where to begin listing it's faults. The combat is probably a good place to start as it is in my opinion the most obviously abysmal aspect of the entire game. Enemies spawning out of nowhere in waves? Final Fantasy style attack animations? People exploding into fountains of gore when you hit them? This just looks every bit the action adventure, button masher that it is, putting Dragon Age on the box was an insult to the majesty of Origins. Friendly fire now only functions on nightmare, which is has been rendered un-fun and generally terrible by the previously mentioned enemy wave spawning, so basically, lose each fight once so you'll know what's coming and what to save your abilities for next time. Everything about the inventory has been simplified and dumbed down, you can't even equip your party members fully now, there is only one kind of healing/mana potion and injury, everything is just less and worse than the original.

    Locations, particularly dungeons are used over and over and over again, hardly any of the mainstream reviews mention this though it is an OBVIOUS and MASSIVE flaw with the game, adding immensely to the general feeling of shoddiness about the game. It was obviously rushed, not surprising given the barely 18 month development cycle. Also, some of the quests are just SO unbelievably dull and meaningless, I cannot imagine what was going through the heads of the developers as they created them. Find a random book in a chest, give it to a random person in Kirkwall who until now has been mere scenery, get some xp and gold and one line of dialogue, what purpose could that possibly have solved?

    The dialogue I would say is a mixed bag, though more bad than good. Firstly, for a change I actually used all of the different options, instead of just sticking with the good/funny/evil thing the entire way through the game, so that was good. However, a lot of control over what your character says is gone, almost all interactions boil down to the 3 options i listed above and it usually has no real effect upon anything, also, your character now frequently speaks with no input from you, something which never happened in Origins, and really makes you feel more like a spectator than a player. When combined with the generally uninteresting story (you'll be constantly asking yourself 'why am i doing this again?' throughout the game) with no central objective or goal and no personal investment, this makes a lot of the dialogue a sad chore to be suffered through.

    I didn't play the demo or read any reviews before buying this game, when I saw it in the shops I took one look at the title and happily parted with my 35 pounds while fondly remembering the original. This is one of the worst disappointments I have ever suffered as a gamer. A terrible, TERRIBLE game.    … Expand
  97. Kenter
    Mar 29, 2011
    2
    i would not count this as a sequel but rather a standalone game. the combat system that was good in the origins was turned to garbage no doubt due to ea's habbit of killing any game they touch. the story could have been better as well as the choice of the diffrent races not been removed. removeing the other races is one of the things that made origins great. unfortunatly the "professionali would not count this as a sequel but rather a standalone game. the combat system that was good in the origins was turned to garbage no doubt due to ea's habbit of killing any game they touch. the story could have been better as well as the choice of the diffrent races not been removed. removeing the other races is one of the things that made origins great. unfortunatly the "professional critics" seem to be a bunch of worthless suckups.. what are you going to do. anyway ea screwed up on this one im one of the people that loved the first one and i was severly disapointed in this. the replayability of this game is zero… Expand
  98. msblue
    Apr 5, 2011
    2
    What a shallow, only vaguely entertaining, repetitive and ugly game with a terrible plot. On the plus side, the voice acting was ok. Definitely no Mass Effect...
  99. Jardenon
    Apr 10, 2011
    2
    What did you do bioware?! What in gods name did you do?!?! The first game was one of the most Epic, and Amazing games I have played by this company. The cutscenes, The music, the lore, The stylization of the characters, Specifically Morrigan. Her actor was terrific. (this is a biased statement about Morrigan) but her aside, I felt for the characters, and felt for the story! Even though theWhat did you do bioware?! What in gods name did you do?!?! The first game was one of the most Epic, and Amazing games I have played by this company. The cutscenes, The music, the lore, The stylization of the characters, Specifically Morrigan. Her actor was terrific. (this is a biased statement about Morrigan) but her aside, I felt for the characters, and felt for the story! Even though the enemies were a little repetitive without much variance as well as seeing the same clothing on characters multiple times in the same cutscenes, the game still got the point across. But the second game?! The music was terrible. In the first game right away you hear this blood pumping epic theme with a woman chanting strange words beautifully...what was wrong that you decided to take such a thing out of the second game?! The voice acting was horrible, It didn't make me laugh or entertain me in the slightest. And most importantly, didn't make me feel for the characters. The gameplay was completely changed, simplified, and made boring! and don't get me started about the poor choice of party members as well. All in all I felt nothing for these people...the Hero of Ferelden was only mentioned in passing. It's like what you did barely mattered especially since the whole damn game was a story being told by a Dwarf while the story was being played....I admit they had balls trying something different but it ruined the suspense for me. I couldn't even make it through the whole entire game cause of how sorry it all was...shame on you Bioware, shame on you. I will not be playing Dragon Age 3...you had something beautiful, and you ruined it! You better not have ruined Mass effect 3 like this! Or mark my words I will never purchase another Bioware game as long as I live!… Expand
  100. Adur
    Apr 12, 2011
    2
    All the negative critique that needs to be made about this game has been, it's rubbish and an insult. For everyone who is a long time Bioware fan, this game was a slap in the face. As a lover of RPG games who has bought almost every Bioware game since Baldur's gate, I know I for one want game that are more intricate and more detailed as time goes on, not games that are dumbed down forAll the negative critique that needs to be made about this game has been, it's rubbish and an insult. For everyone who is a long time Bioware fan, this game was a slap in the face. As a lover of RPG games who has bought almost every Bioware game since Baldur's gate, I know I for one want game that are more intricate and more detailed as time goes on, not games that are dumbed down for "bros" to enjoy. There is a very specific type of gamer, like me, who enjoyed the types of games Bioware used to make, and we are the ones who pumped up their company up in the first place, who made them a success. Yet they didn't hesitate to cast us aside in the hope of getting in on the "bro" market. Stay classy Bioware, I'm done with you.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

36
#36 Best PC Game of 2011
5
#5 Most Discussed PC Game of 2011
19
#19 Most Shared PC Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 45 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 38 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 45
  3. Negative: 0 out of 45
  1. PC PowerPlay
    Apr 18, 2011
    90
    Moving even further from the classic RPG, strong story and clever combat are nonetheless still found within Dragon Age II. [May 2011, p.52]
  2. Gaming Nexus
    Apr 12, 2011
    58
    Despite some advancement in storytelling approach and liberal borrowing from Bioware's Mass Effect approach to gameplay, Dragon Age 2 on the PC has a lot of bugs and is populated with re-used settings that make this feel like a play performed on a stage with two sets.
    Read full review
  3. CPUGamer
    Apr 11, 2011
    85
    For a rushed product that is still battling bugs, the currently offered product still provides 40 hours of challenging and engaging gameplay. This combines to provide a good, but not great gaming experience.
    Read full review
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