Dragon Age II

 Xbox 360
User Score
4.6

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 2466 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 795 out of 2466
  2. Mixed: 431 out of 2466
  3. Negative: 1,240 out of 2466
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  1. acedeck
    Mar 15, 2011
    0
    This game oversimplifies everything! What happened to the "RPG" of DA? While I'm at it, what happened to the story? This game is pure crap. I'm so disappointed in Bioware with this game. I could get by with a terrible story if the characters were interesting, but they simply aren't. Inventory management and items in this game seem so half-assed. Honestly, DA:O was dumbed downThis game oversimplifies everything! What happened to the "RPG" of DA? While I'm at it, what happened to the story? This game is pure crap. I'm so disappointed in Bioware with this game. I could get by with a terrible story if the characters were interesting, but they simply aren't. Inventory management and items in this game seem so half-assed. Honestly, DA:O was dumbed down enough. The amount this game has been dumbed down for universal appeal is beyond ridiculous. I can't recommend this game to anyone, not even as a rental. Save your time for a game that deserves your attention.… Expand
  2. Thylkerisis
    Mar 15, 2011
    2
    The worst RPG game, Bioware had ever done.... I am very disappointed with thic "game", lots of bug, graphics are bad. the hero is dumb and fight like a "ninja"
  3. sonofyoda
    Mar 15, 2011
    8
    Don't know what lots of these reviewers are talking about. Sure, the game isn't as good as the first, but 0s, 2s, and 3s? The game really is dumbed down, but its still super fun and the last time that I checked, that is what games should do. Provide fun.
  4. BakedPotato
    Mar 15, 2011
    2
    Well, the combat was better than the first, but that was about it. I tried to play all the way through but couldn't bear to keep playing. I am now scared for Mass Effect 3. For me it was like when something not very funny happens and someone makes a joke about it and laughs nervously while everyone else just stares at them. I was extremely disappointed, that is probably why I couldn'tWell, the combat was better than the first, but that was about it. I tried to play all the way through but couldn't bear to keep playing. I am now scared for Mass Effect 3. For me it was like when something not very funny happens and someone makes a joke about it and laughs nervously while everyone else just stares at them. I was extremely disappointed, that is probably why I couldn't enjoy it.… Expand
  5. kungfutse
    Mar 15, 2011
    9
    Excellent game that holds up to it's predecessor quite well. Sure, it has it's share of flaws with the recycling of dungeons as the biggest one, but I'm on my second play through and having a blast with different dialog options and outcomes. Just ignore the zeros from old school RPG elitists still hung up on Baldur's Gate.
  6. Speck
    Mar 15, 2011
    0
    The worst 60 dollar pile of junk I've ever purchased. Cannot believe how bad the role playing is, and how meaningless the dialogue. Voice overs are pathetic, with no inspiration what so ever. This is a sequel? Hack and slash only, what a waste!
  7. JamieP
    Mar 15, 2011
    10
    The best thing to remember when reading a review of dragon age 2 is that the majority of professional reviewers will never make it even half way through a game before having to write their review. My review however is compiled by some one who has not only finished the game but played through parts of it multiple ways. While Dragon Age 2 isn't necessarily a bad game it is hard to compareThe best thing to remember when reading a review of dragon age 2 is that the majority of professional reviewers will never make it even half way through a game before having to write their review. My review however is compiled by some one who has not only finished the game but played through parts of it multiple ways. While Dragon Age 2 isn't necessarily a bad game it is hard to compare it to its predecessor because EA imposed time restrictions which I am hoping are the reasons for DA2' flaws. -What I enjoyed...

    Like most Bioware games you will find the story over all to be vary diverse interesting at times, you will find yourself wanting to adventure into some of side quests just to see what happens to some of the generic characters and for the most part you will be rewarded (even if at points it seems like Bioware probably didn't intend for it to happen, "The remains of sister Plinth" quest comes to mind). One thing that DA2 shares with its predecessor are the quirky character interactions, listening to your party talk between battles will often get a laugh out of you (Varric and Fenris conversations are made of win), I truly feel bad for any one who misses out on "The Black Emporium" Dlc that is bundled with the game as the interactions your hound has with the party members (and furniture in your house) are priceless and just add to the sense that these people aren't just set pieces but maybe if you closed out the world around you they could be considered life like. -What I didn't like...

    The game is very linear in just about every area, without spending too much time on this it is worth noting that not only does the game not have nearly the scope of DA1, this is probably due to EA imposing massive time restraints on Bioware in order to get Dragon Age 2 to ride on the momentum of the first game (google "Inon Zur dragon age 2 rush job" for more information). One of the biggest disappointments for me however was not the story but visually, the entire game just gives off this feeling of being slapped together. From having to download HD texture packs, to game assets constantly being reused (IE dwarven themed maps being used for general dungeons and the city looking like it was put together with a "tile" based map maker), to the developers being to slack to put certain assets in game (Example: "Oh thank you" says Aveline as you pass her an invisible shield), it is worth noting that at the end of the day I couldn't even turn the game up to higher settings because the game couldn't understand that my computer is ridiculously better than its recommended requirements, which in turn resulted in me playing the game through in DX9 mode on a Windows7 computer. While I said that I enjoyed the character conversation I am going to have to point out that when it comes to actual combat you will grow very tired of your team mates never ending grunts and routinely repeated comments (Yeah Varric we knew it was suicide to fight us the tenth time you said it). When playing you will get the feeling that there probably was not much effort put into beta testing as you will find yourself getting caught on random set pieces, to your character trying to attack enemies that are just not withing reasonable reach (If a character is on a ledge above or on stairs next to you your character will try to attack through the wall, but more often than not hit nothing but fresh air). -The quick and easy?

    Dragon Age 2 isn't necessarily a bad game, it is just hard to compare it to Dragon Age: Origins as it just doesn't show the same level of content or quality. However I think if you played DA2 first you could almost forgive it for its flaws as it is essentially a B grade hack and slash more than RPG with some really good character interaction that is really rare in this genre.    … Expand
  8. rmorgan779
    Mar 15, 2011
    5
    bioware should be ashamed as a gaming company and being for realesing this u cant go from da to this what has happened i completed game in 38 hours as warrior bearing in mind ive owned every bioware game ever made i was so dissapionted i sold game refusing to keep in my collection i will now buy mass effect 3 to finish the trilogy and thats it i think bioware has down themselves a lot ofbioware should be ashamed as a gaming company and being for realesing this u cant go from da to this what has happened i completed game in 38 hours as warrior bearing in mind ive owned every bioware game ever made i was so dissapionted i sold game refusing to keep in my collection i will now buy mass effect 3 to finish the trilogy and thats it i think bioware has down themselves a lot of untold damage by realesing this trash i rate the game a five this in my opinion is generous i dont know what game the reviewers have been playing on its a ugly world when so reviews are honest edge.… Expand
  9. tomhardcore
    Mar 14, 2011
    10
    Dragon Age 2 has its ups and downs. Has better gameplay then Origins, better character customization imo, and the game actually runs better then Origins and only crashed once through the whole game unlike Origins with at least a dozen crashes. This game also has cons, the story is a downgrade, nowhere near as epic as Origins was until the end of the game, lack of darkspawn is a let downDragon Age 2 has its ups and downs. Has better gameplay then Origins, better character customization imo, and the game actually runs better then Origins and only crashed once through the whole game unlike Origins with at least a dozen crashes. This game also has cons, the story is a downgrade, nowhere near as epic as Origins was until the end of the game, lack of darkspawn is a let down even though it takes place after the blight, and other things. Overall its a fun game, don't play it expecting it to be Origins.… Expand
  10. clawbytes
    Mar 14, 2011
    3
    An insult to anyone who enjoyed the first game. How the hell can you screw up a good game? The formula to making a decent sequel isn't hard to figure out. Just simply BUILD ON TOP OF WHAT YOU HAVE. Instead, Bioware took out everything great about the first game. Players aren't given the choice to choose their own races this time around. This would be bearable, except your companions aren'tAn insult to anyone who enjoyed the first game. How the hell can you screw up a good game? The formula to making a decent sequel isn't hard to figure out. Just simply BUILD ON TOP OF WHAT YOU HAVE. Instead, Bioware took out everything great about the first game. Players aren't given the choice to choose their own races this time around. This would be bearable, except your companions aren't exactly diverse either. Aside from a shaved Dwarf that looks exactly human (save the height), an emo Elf and another popsicle stick she-elf, the rest of your team comprises of boring human characters. Let's say you wouldn't mind that either, but would you care if you spend the MAJORITY of your time doing quests in a town? I won't even go into the half-baked direction in story line. The developers clearly took a page from the 2004 Chinese movie Hero, except from the exaggerated tale in the beginning, the rest of the story becomes linear as hell. Your role in the story doesn't fare too well either. You don't become anywhere as great as humanity's savior, instead you run around town settling a petty political dispute. If that's also not so bad? You rarely fight Darkspawn this time around. All you fight are rouge mages and bandits. For the fans who insists on playing the game, don't buy it. Rent it or wait for the price to drop, which I'm sure won't take long since the game is so crappy anyways. Or if you've never played any game in the series, just get the first one. At least then you'll understand why I'm so mad.… Expand
  11. Essense
    Mar 14, 2011
    2
    Don't support this putrid crap. Bioware sold out any soul it had left when it incubated this turd for what appears to have been a few weeks.

    Bioware and EA are out there drugding up false reviews (Fake 10 out of 10) to try and milk as much money money as possible from a game that deserves anything but any of your hard earned cash.

    Stay away.
  12. Poisonthemonkey
    Mar 14, 2011
    9
    I think all the insanely low scores are just that--a little bit crazy. There's some room for difference in tastes, but DA2 was far better than DAO, hands down. There was a great deal of room for choices and roleplay which aren't usually seen in "roleplaying" games, the combat was stellar, the story even more so.
  13. wockerdaw
    Mar 14, 2011
    9
    They have overly streamlined some aspects of the game, such as their being less room for companion customization, and tactics lists, but so far, the game has been phenomenal in other aspects. The storytelling, while not on the scale of DAO is very well done, the companions are an interesting bunch, and the combat is faster paced, but still seeming a bit familiar to the first. There haveThey have overly streamlined some aspects of the game, such as their being less room for companion customization, and tactics lists, but so far, the game has been phenomenal in other aspects. The storytelling, while not on the scale of DAO is very well done, the companions are an interesting bunch, and the combat is faster paced, but still seeming a bit familiar to the first. There have been loads of spam reviews, most of which spawn from players who have not even played this game, mostly due to the games bad marketing. But hear me out. The game may not be the improvement over DAO that some hoped for. It excels in some areas and falters in a few others. But it is still Bioware, and so this game is still something special.… Expand
  14. Crysis
    Mar 14, 2011
    10
    Enchantment? Enchantment! Sandal lyrium addled dwarf and his protective father are back. Act 1 is incredibly boring doing side quests in the same locations with pretty much the same enemies. When you venture the deep roads the game starts to pick up.
  15. Vegakvd
    Mar 14, 2011
    2
    Okay, so first off Dragon Age Origins is my favorite game of all time. I'm 31 years old and have been playing RPGs for years but Dragon Age really was the most fun I have ever had playing one. That being said, I waited months and months, checking Bioware forums every day for little bits of info and screenshots, for Dragon Age 2. I pre ordered the Signature Edition and everything, I wasOkay, so first off Dragon Age Origins is my favorite game of all time. I'm 31 years old and have been playing RPGs for years but Dragon Age really was the most fun I have ever had playing one. That being said, I waited months and months, checking Bioware forums every day for little bits of info and screenshots, for Dragon Age 2. I pre ordered the Signature Edition and everything, I was ready for it and even went to the midnight release. I am about 80% into the game now and I know all I need to know. The game is a shadow of the previous. They stripped out so much stuff it is ridicilous. Specializations like Shapeshifter, and my favorite, Ranger, and gone. Everything is less. Combat IS better, in my opinion, and graphics are improved. that's where it stops. The story is extremely boring, the romances are shallow, and despite a few intresting twists and turns, everything is just...bland...Definitly not worth the 60 bucks I forked over and the hype surrounding it. Oh, and my biggest complant..the voiced character. I never once felt like I was "role playing".… Expand
  16. godofallu
    Mar 14, 2011
    2
    Bioware generally makes good games, this however, is not a good game. The gameplay is generally boring and slow. Character development is also extremely slow, and the dialogue system is as dumbed down as possible. They also thought it would be smart to remove customizing your companion characters, through removal of skill resetting and giving them armor. From any other developer this gameBioware generally makes good games, this however, is not a good game. The gameplay is generally boring and slow. Character development is also extremely slow, and the dialogue system is as dumbed down as possible. They also thought it would be smart to remove customizing your companion characters, through removal of skill resetting and giving them armor. From any other developer this game would have flopped.… Expand
  17. slyck
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    This is not an RPG. Linear, uninspiring garbage is what it is. If you want to know why the game has gotten so many poor reviews try it and see how long you can handle the boredom. If you want to know why it is getting so many 10's it is because paid company shills are posting fake reviews. EA sucks. Bioware now also sucks. P.S. if you say anything negative about bioware on their forumsThis is not an RPG. Linear, uninspiring garbage is what it is. If you want to know why the game has gotten so many poor reviews try it and see how long you can handle the boredom. If you want to know why it is getting so many 10's it is because paid company shills are posting fake reviews. EA sucks. Bioware now also sucks. P.S. if you say anything negative about bioware on their forums they can ban you claiming it's EA's rules and now you can't play the game you paid for. Don't ever give your money to EA or Bioware.… Expand
  18. milkymoor
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    This is easily Bioware's worst game to date. Extremely repetitive and grueling combat. A lackluster progression system where you never feel any more powerful. A storyline with no internal consistency to itself or its predecessor and there's zero choices except for choosing whether Hawke is nice, angry or sarcastic. Companions are average at best and terrible at worst. And it's incrediblyThis is easily Bioware's worst game to date. Extremely repetitive and grueling combat. A lackluster progression system where you never feel any more powerful. A storyline with no internal consistency to itself or its predecessor and there's zero choices except for choosing whether Hawke is nice, angry or sarcastic. Companions are average at best and terrible at worst. And it's incredibly buggy with cutscenes firing out of order and other strange glitches.

    And I say this as someone who has loved Bioware since the days of Baldur's Gate. This is the game that will shake Bioware's reputation amongst fans and consumers, which is more harmful than any number of bad reviews.    … Expand
  19. Cobrawar
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    Lolz on you, if you buy this game. First off if you want the full content on release its going to cost you over 70 dollars. Story takes place mostly in one area, kirkwall. reuse of many areas in the game. graphics aren't that much better then DAO. Combat consist of nothing but spamming abilities. enemies spawn on top of you. Many bugs. This is not a Bioware quality product we all knowLolz on you, if you buy this game. First off if you want the full content on release its going to cost you over 70 dollars. Story takes place mostly in one area, kirkwall. reuse of many areas in the game. graphics aren't that much better then DAO. Combat consist of nothing but spamming abilities. enemies spawn on top of you. Many bugs. This is not a Bioware quality product we all know and love. This is a rushed ,greed game used to maximize profits for EA.… Expand
  20. tuttifrutas
    Mar 14, 2011
    3
    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
  21. Alistairs_Rose
    Mar 14, 2011
    6
    The story/RPG elements & mechanisms of DA:O were near perfect and the combat was in need of updating. In DA2, the opposite has occurred. The combat is good and the story/RPG elements & mechanisms are in need of updating. The Game Informer review was actually SPOT ON in regards to my views of DA2. I was glad it mentioned that the story felt like a bunch of side quests wrangled together andThe story/RPG elements & mechanisms of DA:O were near perfect and the combat was in need of updating. In DA2, the opposite has occurred. The combat is good and the story/RPG elements & mechanisms are in need of updating. The Game Informer review was actually SPOT ON in regards to my views of DA2. I was glad it mentioned that the story felt like a bunch of side quests wrangled together and was not up to Bioware's usual high standards.

    It feels nothing like an RPG and more like an interactive movie where you are watching this character Hawke achieve his destiny. There is a huge uproar over the poor quality of this game, and rightfully so.    … Expand
  22. GooGooguru
    Mar 14, 2011
    5
    in Short, if you enjoyed dragon age origins you may not enjoy this at all... if your new to the franchise and haven't been exposed to the rich cannon or experience the sweeping grand scale of the original then you may very well enjoy this game... New combat system is good, Narattive is good, Environments are excessively overused. if your going to set a game in a city it would be a goodin Short, if you enjoyed dragon age origins you may not enjoy this at all... if your new to the franchise and haven't been exposed to the rich cannon or experience the sweeping grand scale of the original then you may very well enjoy this game... New combat system is good, Narattive is good, Environments are excessively overused. if your going to set a game in a city it would be a good idea to create a large and engaging environment that feels alive and dynamic.. not a sterile shoebox with no soul… Expand
  23. lordofshalot
    Mar 14, 2011
    10
    Anyone calling this game a hack and slash must have started the game on hard, died a few times and put the game on easy mode. That way, yes, you can run through the game with by mashing a and casting whatever spell you think looks coolest at the time. However, if you actually take the time to struggle through the game as it's intended to be played, you'll discover that there's actually aAnyone calling this game a hack and slash must have started the game on hard, died a few times and put the game on easy mode. That way, yes, you can run through the game with by mashing a and casting whatever spell you think looks coolest at the time. However, if you actually take the time to struggle through the game as it's intended to be played, you'll discover that there's actually a lot going on. Most battles, especially boss battles require careful planning, not just during the battle, but your entire character development throughout the game plays a huge part in how well you'll be able to succeed. A main focus in the game is cross class combos, where one character will put an effect on a character, such as staggered, and another can take advantage of this with a spell or ability that does 4 or 6x damage. In most high level encounters, this is the only way to get through the battle without depleting your potions and having someone get knocked out.

    So yes, I can see how gamers unfamiliar with this cool new play style will die repeatedly and turn on "hack and slash" mode, but their inability to play the game right is in no way a testament to the awesomeness that is Dragon Age 2.

    The only negatives I would say are the use of repeat dungeon layouts and a few art changes that I didn't like (Qunari all of a sudden have horns), but none of this detracts from the overall greatness of the game.    … Expand
  24. gheed123
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Bioware for me stood for quality RPG. Dragon age Origins was a quality RPG. The quality steadily went down with each DLC and the absolute low of this decline now seems to have been reached with DA2. They tried to make an RPG that appeals to the bro's that play CoD, Halo and Gears of war and the like and ended up with this **** The story is nonexistant, enemies are lame, they raped the lore that they built up with DAO, combat is fun for an hour or 1000 exploding bodies, copypasted terrain, fetch quests.. To me yet another huge disappointment for a triple A title.… Expand
  25. durgenage2
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Bioware used to be such a good developer too it really is sad to see them create something this god-awful. I would not recommend this game as a frisbee, much less as entertainment.
  26. adamryen
    Mar 14, 2011
    8
    My 2 cents, for those of you maybe on the fence about this game. Dragon Age 2 has improved on what worked in the original and yet managed to keep the same spirit as the first, which is what we all loved.

    The combat is fast-paced and more action-oriented. When your axe-wielding warrior smashes into a horde of darkspawn, it feels like he...'s doing damage. In Origins, it felt like you    My 2 cents, for those of you maybe on the fence about this game. Dragon Age 2 has improved on what worked in the original and yet managed to keep the same spirit as the first, which is what we all loved.

    The combat is fast-paced and more action-oriented. When your axe-wielding warrior smashes into a horde of darkspawn, it feels like he...'s doing damage. In Origins, it felt like you fought the enemies one at a time until they were all dead. The combat effects are also much better. When fire comes raining down from the skies, it is epic. Yes, sometimes the enemies spontaneously explode, but whatever. I'll roll with it.

    The storyline may not be "epic" as the first, but it does truly envelop you into the city of Kirkwall. This is a story about politics and alliances and making choices. The first game had a villain from the very beginning and you could trave...l all over the world, but I didn't care about Redcliffe once I left. This game spends it's time in one city but you learn the love it.

    The companions are hit and miss. My favorites are Fenris and Anders, personally, but I haven't spent much time with the others. I do want to say however that the time devoted to the companions is much more. In Origins, each companion had ONE mini quest and it was often very disappointing. Since this story takes place over time, you get multiple quests with each companion and their stories are much more intriguing.

    People have complained that maps are re-used. I do also sigh when I keep entering the same dungeon, but you don't spend THAT much time there. I'm in, I kill some dudes, I'm out. I think we were spoiled in Origins that they would create uniq...ue maps for a 45-second battle.

    Some things I really like:
    * Less dependence on locked chests. In Origins, it was almost required to have Leliana in your party to open all those chests. In DA2, you have more options for rogues AND these chests show up less often.
    * I appreciate that the game learns from my reactions. I was a jerk the whole time and then it shows a cinematic where I am a complete monster to someone. Nice touch.
    * Each companion has a unique skill tree, which makes them much more unique in battle. Merrill plays a very different role as a mage as opposed to Anders. Gives me a reason to switch them out at various times.

    Sidenote: People complain about day-one DLC, but Origins had the same thing. If you don't like the game, don't buy anything, but if you finish the game and you still want more... Bioware, bring on some more DLC. I'll be buying it.

    This is tr...uly a fantastic game. As other reviewers have said, this would have been a better game if not compared to Origins, which set the bar so high. But if you love the world of Thedas, there's no reason you shouldn't love this game.    … Expand
  27. Dracowyr
    Mar 14, 2011
    3
    A company that once saved the RPG genre, is now destroying it. Poor production value, and dumbed-down gameplay aims this game at a more 'casual' console market. I was a fan of Bioware for over 13 years - they were one of the few companies that I would buy a game from without having tried it out first. They were shining examples in the game industry. No longer.

    A terrible disappointment, I    A company that once saved the RPG genre, is now destroying it. Poor production value, and dumbed-down gameplay aims this game at a more 'casual' console market. I was a fan of Bioware for over 13 years - they were one of the few companies that I would buy a game from without having tried it out first. They were shining examples in the game industry. No longer.

    A terrible disappointment, I feel this game would have been better received as a DLC rather than a full game.

    Is this EA's hand at work?    … Expand
  28. Eikinskjaldi
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    The worst sequel i ever played. Perhaps developers planned this game for dumb heads? 3 variants of answers in dialogs, poor armor and weapons arsenal, stupid, oh sorry, idiotic combat system, absolutely predictable story and a lot of other "great" innovations...
    Am i sleep or this guys really developed the greatest rpg games in past?
    Also, about magazines score - Are U F Kidding? 9/10 -    The worst sequel i ever played. Perhaps developers planned this game for dumb heads? 3 variants of answers in dialogs, poor armor and weapons arsenal, stupid, oh sorry, idiotic combat system, absolutely predictable story and a lot of other "great" innovations...
    Am i sleep or this guys really developed the greatest rpg games in past?
    Also, about magazines score - Are U F Kidding? 9/10 - for what? O_o
    2.0/10.0 - enough for this "masterpiece"    … Expand
  29. EvelWouldGo
    Mar 14, 2011
    8
    Extremely disappointing to see so many spam reviews. Not hard to work out which ones!
    DA1 was great fun - i played through it three times, start to finish. DA2 is actually a really good game, the same great Dragon Age world, given an upgrade and polish. Graphics aren't as brilliant as, say, Red Dead Redemption, but hey, Rockstar can't make every game in the world. That said, the character    Extremely disappointing to see so many spam reviews. Not hard to work out which ones!
    DA1 was great fun - i played through it three times, start to finish. DA2 is actually a really good game, the same great Dragon Age world, given an upgrade and polish. Graphics aren't as brilliant as, say, Red Dead Redemption, but hey, Rockstar can't make every game in the world. That said, the character rendering is much improved, the world richer. Characters themselves are more interesting, distinct personalities that aren't so 'ripped straight out of Lord of the Rings' generalizations.
    Controls are much better than DA1, with the new wheel for choosing responses during conversations, and it's so nice to actually be able to hear your character speak!
    Only downside compared to the original is the reduced amount of customization that you can give to your companions. A bit of a shame that there doesn't seem to be any way to upgrade armor and so on - a little feature that I love about RPGs.
    Overall this sits up there nicely for mine in terms of RPGs. I'm a big Baldur's Gate fan on PC, and this is light years beyond the XBox versions of that franchise, and maybe just a step behind the PC version.    … Expand
  30. BKotick
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    This game is so bad. Call of Duty: Black Ops, by Treyarch is 100x better than this! In Black Ops, there is a variety of different maps to play on (unlike this game), plus additional maps that you can buy! I don't see Dragon Age 2 offering free* additional maps!

    *After purchase, the maps become free to download again if you accidentally delete them.
  31. Soulfighter
    Mar 14, 2011
    8
    Don't trust the spam-reviews, this game is solid.Bioware really improved DA:O to make one of the best RPG with a story that builds well and good character development if you get past the first 5 hours. Contrary to the apparent bulk of reviewers, you cannot beat the game in 10 hours even if you rush the main quest. I took the day off of work yesterday and played for 21 hours and haven'tDon't trust the spam-reviews, this game is solid.Bioware really improved DA:O to make one of the best RPG with a story that builds well and good character development if you get past the first 5 hours. Contrary to the apparent bulk of reviewers, you cannot beat the game in 10 hours even if you rush the main quest. I took the day off of work yesterday and played for 21 hours and haven't even gotten past the initial town. Dragon age 2 is definitly one of the best rpg of this year and a must have. i recommend this game to anyone and v can't do anything about it.… Expand
  32. darkendless
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    The developers claim that they have "streamlined" the game, but in actuality all they have done is ripped out the characteristics that made DA:O fun and unique. Catering to the mainstream user was a huge failure.
  33. Lawlimnator
    Mar 14, 2011
    3
    Visual: 3/10. Too much junk that bugs me.
    Pros-
    1. They're in hi-def (that's to be expected nowadays, though). Cons- 1. Ground mapping re-used over and over and over. I know this can be real-to-life as far as buildings go, but why are all the caves and mountains the same? 2. Certain people from past games physically changed way too much. 3. Hair. I keep seeing hair do things it    Visual: 3/10. Too much junk that bugs me.
    Pros-
    1. They're in hi-def (that's to be expected nowadays, though).
    Cons-
    1. Ground mapping re-used over and over and over. I know this can be real-to-life as far as buildings go, but why are all the caves and mountains the same?
    2. Certain people from past games physically changed way too much.
    3. Hair. I keep seeing hair do things it shouldn't. While I forgive hair falling through bodies and the like, I can't honestly say I'm pleased about the hair on the back of the elven leader's neck overlapping her collar. Or in other parts, not being connected to her neck at all. It's little wonder half the characters have short or pulled up hair in this game.
    4. Rarely, but sometimes, I can see the audio not having great lip sync. 5. Most non-important characters are replicas (or close to it) of someone else. I don't just mean the horde of enemies you're cutting through, I mean anyone that doesn't have much screen time. Like character A from side quest B looks too much like character B from side quest A.
    Audio: 6/10
    Pros-
    1. Voice acting on main characters is always good, and overall, I only had one character that really bugged me, voice-acting wise.
    2. The main character (i.e. YOU) actually talks. Thank God we're out of the silent savior age of games.
    Cons-
    1. A lot of times, I felt like I'd heard "this music" somewhere before. Obviously they wrote the music for the game, I'm not saying they ripped off some major motion picture, but it's just generic. Being that music is important, this one hits worse than the usual cons.
    2. Not enough background noise. We're in the mountains, is the wildlife dead? Where's the wind and splashing water on the coast?
    Game Play: 2/10
    Pros-
    1. Combat flows better than the original.
    2. Warriors actually do stuff to have top dps, not just dual wield and eat all their stamina with sustained buffs.
    Cons- 1. It's hard to justify more than one mage. Their cooldowns are just too long, all you want is the brittle for your warriors/rogues.
    2. Gearing sucks. I agree with locking us based on the primary stat (Strength, dexterity, or magic), but not so much the secondary one (constitution, cunning, or willpower). Not all my warriors are tanks, some of my mages might be blood. I guess the rogue one doesn't really matter, cunning is useful.
    3. Interaction sucks. I liked in Dragon Age when I couldn't tell how they might like my reaction based on a pretty picture in the middle. For the most part, this isn't too bad, but it seriously tosses you insta-romance. There's no struggle there, and I hate it.
    4. I can't think of many games that require me to constantly pause in combat to beat a boss. The tactics menu is still a joke.
    5. Depending too much on user addons, which are hard to put out without an updated addon creator.
    6. Can't change my allies actual armor, just upgrade it. Even then, I can't honestly see a difference. Maybe I need all four upgrades, but there should be intermediate steps at least.
    7. I know this doesn't bother everyone, but I hate not having everyone in my active party. I guess they'd better fix 4 first, otherwise I'd be pausing every half-second.
    8. Why can't everyone have a specialized talent tree? It sucks that I have to choose from four characters to be on my team because the other four don't get a character-specific talent tree.
    9. Combat is way too repetitive. 10. Story is too linear. When I think successful RPG, I think of things like Morrowind with a much more open-world environment.    … Expand
  34. Golem25
    Mar 14, 2011
    1
    To already give a conclusion before I even arrive at the meat of this review, Dragon Age II feels incredibly rushed, and is a definite step down from the original, which already was quite mediocre. This unfortunate turn in quality leaves us with a sloppy, uninspired, dumbed down, and generally unlikeable game, which pales in comparison to some of Bioware`s gems.

    Gameplay; 1.0/10 The    To already give a conclusion before I even arrive at the meat of this review, Dragon Age II feels incredibly rushed, and is a definite step down from the original, which already was quite mediocre. This unfortunate turn in quality leaves us with a sloppy, uninspired, dumbed down, and generally unlikeable game, which pales in comparison to some of Bioware`s gems.

    Gameplay; 1.0/10

    The combat in DA2 is a huge step back from Dragon Age Origins. The underlying system is the same, but by upping the pace and letting the player control normal attacks directly, combat feels incredibly dumbed down, which becomes rather boring, rather quickly. Successful attacks are met with a slashing sound. The fighting styles between the three classes (warrior, mage, rogue) feel as almost the same, as do different specializations within a class. Difficulty levels are incredibly unstatic, enough to accomodate neither gamers looking for hack `n` slash action, nor for gamers who want full control over their party, and utilizing the pause menu to issue tactical commands for setting up combos.

    STORY: 1/10

    The tale within a tale narrative structure is kinda interesting at first, but any curiosity you might have quickly dies down, however, as poor storytelling makes you lose any connection to Hawke you may have had at the beginning. There are two issues with the plot devices used in DA2. The first is the timeskip. Between each act of the game, there is a gap in which you do not participate. This makes you feel less engaged at the start of the next act, because whatever new predicament Hawke finds himself in, you were not there to experience it. Moreover, Hawke occasionally meets people that he supposedly met during a timeskip, but you as a player have never met. This really wrenches you out of Hawke's shoes, as you realize that despite controlling Hawke's actions and choices for certain parts of his life, you are ultimately just a spectator.

    The second plot device that I have trouble with is something that is common in RPGs. Basically, you have a main objective, but have to do a bunch of other stuff before you can achieve that objective. DA2's side quests are incredibly boring (more on this later), thus making this common RPG plot device much more obvious. After literally spending hours doing side quest after side quest that have no relation to the main plot whatsoever, it's easy to get sidetracked and forget what Hawke's main goal was in the first place.

    Finally, conversations in DA2 are a step down from the ones in DAO. The fully written dialogue choices from DAO are done away with. Instead, DA2 uses a dialogue wheel similar to Mass Effect. What this means is that Hawke talks exclusively in one-liners, and that conversations are all short and to the point, presumably so they wouldn`t get in the way of the mind-numbingly boring action. Moreover, all conversation choices are marked with an emotion icon (heart, halo, you get the idea). While potentially useful, what these icons really do is making sure gamers don`t have to think about how to phrase a response. Instead, conversation quickly boils down to choosing the stance you want to take, like in the much better, but also quite rushed, Alpha Protocol. Conversations with random NPCs are gone too. Now, every conversation is with a quest-giver. This makes Kirkwall a horribly lifeless place, as everyone you talk to just wants you to help solve their problems. It also means that no one talks to you about Dragon Age lore in the game. Instead, all lore is obtained through the Codex, and not conversations. This means that people who hate reading on a screen like me aren't able to learn much about the lore of the DA universe. Then again, it wasn`t interesting in the first place, but still.

    Conclusion;

    Dragon Age II is an incredibly messy game, which smothered any potential it had with bugs, missed opportunities, and general laziness. Kirkwall is a lifeless place, á la the settlements in Borderlands, while dungeons are reused and reused and reused untill you can literally traverse them with your eyes closed. This, of course fits with the dumbing down of the other elements of DA2. The developers spoke of trying to capture the audience of the Call of Duty series, which is, in my eyes, a grave mistake; firstly because this`ll leave RPG-fans and more serious gamers in the cold, and secondly because COD-fans rather occupy themselves with things like Bulletstorm and sports games, outside of COD.

    DA2 could have redeemed itself with other features, like the score, but fails with that too.

    My final verdict;

    GAMEPLAY; 2/10
    STORY; 2/10
    SCORE; 4/10
    REPLAY VALUE; 1/10
    GENERAL FEEL; 1/10

    This adds up to around a 1.5, but seeing as things like gameplay are much more important than the score, I have to give this game a 2. Bioware dropped the ball big time with this game, and I look forward to Mass Effect 3 with fear, anticipating a failure of a game, much like Dragon Age 2. (1.0)    … Expand
  35. Silverdawn
    Mar 14, 2011
    6
    Going to try my best to be constructive here. Dragon Age II is a merely decent game, which had the potential to be quite memorable. It squandered this potential by lukewarm storytelling, an inconsistently entertaining cast of NPCs and--most importantly--repetitive and exhausting level design.

    The narrative quality is difficult to justify, relatively unoriginal and draws from the    Going to try my best to be constructive here. Dragon Age II is a merely decent game, which had the potential to be quite memorable. It squandered this potential by lukewarm storytelling, an inconsistently entertaining cast of NPCs and--most importantly--repetitive and exhausting level design.

    The narrative quality is difficult to justify, relatively unoriginal and draws from the stereotypes of RPGs: Joining caravan expeditions or running around town performing quests for whoever seems in need of aid. The side quests are endless and of varying quality, requiring you to return over and over again to the same locations, effectively robbing the game of a sense of discovery and novelty. Eventually, Kirkwall and its surrounding environment becomes so familiar as to be ignored, blending into the background as you run from questgiver to questgiver. While the idea of a game that takes place in one vicinity over the span of several years is an interesting one, it's also nothing new. Assassin's Creed 2 had Venice and Florence--large, sprawling and beautiful. Dragon Age 2 has Kirkwall: Cramped, small, lacking character and very angular.

    I'm also ambivalent toward the quality of NPCs/Party Members. Bioware has built a reputation of writing increasingly convincing and interesting characters, a reputation which was justified in Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, both of which provided a robust and well-developed cast of interesting characters. Dragon Age 2 does have its share of nuanced and compelling characters--Varric and Merril come to mind, but other characters seem either totally devoid of purpose (Fenris, who broods stereotypically and seems to have no real reason to be with Hawke at all) or function as walking plot devices (Anders.)

    Some critics have pointed out that Dragon Age 2 is a short game. This is largely true, but brevity sometimes suits a game. Mass Effect 2 lasted just shy of thirty hours for me, but they were thirty hours in which no time was wasted; the pacing and storytelling were brisk and consistently exciting. This is not the case with Dragon Age 2.

    Dragon Age 2 lasted just about 25 hours for me. I played the game on Normal and finished very nearly every quest I found. The game suffers from a boring first act which establishes nearly nothing about your characters or your situation, and then begins to improve in the second act. Seemingly disparate events come together in a cohesive storyline. The narrative begins to make sense. This is the second act, or the "Rising Action."

    But just as this second act begins to envelop me in its increasingly thickening plot, and just as I begin to feel engrossed--it ends. There is no "climax" and no "denouement." Just as the plot begins to get interesting, the story takes a sudden, abrupt and very artificial turn, hurries along toward its conclusion with thirty minutes of gameplay and two relatively dull boss fights. And then it ends. There is no conclusion, no denouement, no catharsis. No news of what happens to Hawke or her companions. Overall, it feels as if I've been sold 25 hours from a 50 hour game.

    I've been trying to provide an honest critique of the game so far, but it is not without its strengths. Admittedly, combat is much more polished now, with every class and build interesting and engaging. The dialogue system has become much more organic, focusing less on morality (there is no Paragon/Renegade spectrum) and more on personality (Hawke can respond with a number of different attitudes--peacefully, aggressively, flippantly, flirtatiously, etc.) The game seems to keep track of these choices to form an aggregate personality for Hawke, and this is something I found rather enjoyable.

    Nonetheless, this is a game for which I had to make excuses. I was having fun despite--not because--of the game. Kirkwall is a far cry from the breathtaking vistas of Ostagar or the crowded metropolis of Denerim or the panoply of alien worlds in Mass Effect. The narrative is abrupt, unsatisfying and leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction owing to a lack of closure. This is a perfectly average RPG which accomplishes nothing truly special in terms of character design, level design or plot. Bioware has shown itself capable of doing so much better.    … Expand
  36. Erenthorn
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    This an extremely sad attempt for an rpg, before continuing i will point out the first obvious flaws in the game. -Reusing the same four maps 500 times.
    -Setting the whole game in one city.
    -Enemies have a ton 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    This an extremely sad attempt for an rpg, before continuing i will point out the first obvious flaws in the game. -Reusing the same four maps 500 times.
    -Setting the whole game in one city.
    -Enemies have a ton 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 allowed 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
    -Generic UI showing a lack of creativity and effort.

    Thank You to Sharkey1337 from the Bioware forums for pointing this out. This "game" is a sad excuse for a rushed rpg that lacked any standards of innovation and i ask anyone who thinks about playing this game to not do so. At most, rent and DO NOT BUY, YOU WILL HAVE WASTED 60$ IF YOU DO. Dragon Age Origins compared to this is an absolute masterpiece and anyone who was not played it should do so over buying this short pathetic game.    … Expand
  37. Ravepirate
    Mar 14, 2011
    1
    Such a dissappointment from Dragon Age 1, everything that made the Origins fun and interesting has been stripped out and replaced with "EPIC" violence and a failed attempt at trying to gain access to the young violence fanatic. Oh, and it would've been high, BUTTT, this stuff about Bioware padding Metacritic with employee's writing reviews, i feel a -5 is in order
  38. City17
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    Never hated a game so much ever. It's so badly designed and the fact that someone who made this game is reviewing it as a user is absolutely appalling. https://twitter.com/lewiep/status/47399904137584640
  39. Zeegermintz
    Mar 14, 2011
    5
    I see a lot of 10's here from BioWare employees that are trying to increase the metascore. I've played this game and it's middle-of-the-road. Not amazing, not terrible. I'm sick of reviews done by developers to try inflating their ratings. The graphics and game play were good but I really liked DA:O much more.
  40. DisgruntledGame
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    I see a lot of people giving it perfect scores who have only played a few hours of the game. Well guess what? After a few hours you have actually seen the whole game. The landscape is repetitive, you never leave the starting city, and the story is dull and uninspiring. I am thoroughly disappointed in Bioware, and this release does not bode well for Mass Effect 3. There is no replayI see a lot of people giving it perfect scores who have only played a few hours of the game. Well guess what? After a few hours you have actually seen the whole game. The landscape is repetitive, you never leave the starting city, and the story is dull and uninspiring. I am thoroughly disappointed in Bioware, and this release does not bode well for Mass Effect 3. There is no replay value, and the dialogue choices are beyond basic. I can only think that EA rushed this game out the door, and after witnessing how Bioware has handled the PR disaster of rushing out an unreleased game I can no longer say I am a fan of Dragonage, or the company Bioware.

    Do yourself a favor and rent this game, it is absolutely NOT worth 60$. I'm amazed that somehow gaming companies can STILL make the mistake of releasing an unfinished product, and this is the result. As all mature gamers probably know, the review industry is entirely bought and paid for, and if you read through the user reviews I'm sure the trends will become noticeable and you well get a realistic picture of DA2.    … Expand
  41. iTimmeh
    Mar 14, 2011
    5
    I didn't think Dragon Age II would be this bad. But if you look back on DA:O. It's nothing like it's predecessor. They tried to make it too much like ME2 and it didn't work. You have many conversation options that lead to 1 outcome. This is not an RPG. It's a conversation simulator with the majority of battles being auto attacks. The maps are dull, and boring, not to mentioned there's onlyI didn't think Dragon Age II would be this bad. But if you look back on DA:O. It's nothing like it's predecessor. They tried to make it too much like ME2 and it didn't work. You have many conversation options that lead to 1 outcome. This is not an RPG. It's a conversation simulator with the majority of battles being auto attacks. The maps are dull, and boring, not to mentioned there's only about 5 different maps used OVER and OVER.

    It's getting a 5 due to the half assing of Bioware.

    Their current attitude towards reviews doesn't help this review at all either.    … Expand
  42. Noctem_Aeternam
    Mar 14, 2011
    8
    One thing most every negative review has in common? They all either mention this game being a poor Bioware game, or a poor sequel compared to the original. This game is not Dragon Age: Origins in case the title fooled you. I can see how II and Origins look so much alike. There also seems to be confusion about the critics score being so much higher than the gamers, and that is in factOne thing most every negative review has in common? They all either mention this game being a poor Bioware game, or a poor sequel compared to the original. This game is not Dragon Age: Origins in case the title fooled you. I can see how II and Origins look so much alike. There also seems to be confusion about the critics score being so much higher than the gamers, and that is in fact simple to explain. Looking at the game not as a sequel or Bioware game as everyone seems to be doing, but on its own you can see this game is, minus a few issues that could have been cleaned up, quite brilliant. The maps tend to be overused quite a bit, to the point that it is nigh impossible not to notice, but given a choice between this, and five sidequests with original and beautiful maps, I choose the abundance this game offers. I beat the game at just over thirty hours which is a modest amount of time for a game of this type, and while the main plot seemed a bit arbitrary, it does in the end set up a DA III quite nicely. The game is slow to start, with the first third being an arbitrary task to collect a sum of gold, but after this the game really starts to pick up ending with a bang. The combat is much faster than DA:O and for some that is a problem, but for me it was a relief. I enjoy DnD style gameplay as much as the next guy but nobody can argue combat in such a system is slow to progress. On Normal the game comes down to an enjoyable hack and slash experience with some RPG elements thrown in for good measure, but crank up the difficulty and you'll find strategy is a necessity. On Nightmare this game requires every bit of strategy as the original, with a much cleaner interface through which to deliver it. Crafting has been simplified greatly as well, no longer requiring you to have the ingredients on hand. Instead, the hero simply must find the ingredients in the wild once, and they are forever available to you. Conversation has been changed as well, not only giving the hero a voice, but giving you dialogue options akin to Mass Effect, with a series of general points to choose from and the hero actually saying something similar, but not identical, to what you chose. To help determine what the hero will say are icons on the wheel telling the player the type of response it will be, whether thats polite, witty, hostile, or one of the dozen or so other types of responses. In the end, I feel this game deserves an 8 on it's own merit. Whether you like it or not will depend entirely on what you did or did not like about DA:O. Hated the combat? You'd love this game! Loved the DnD aspects of Origins? Not so much...… Expand
  43. GatoFiasco
    Mar 14, 2011
    10
    This is the best game I have ever played! It's so good i went out and bought 10 more copies just to support Bioware! All the bad reviews for this game are by people who are mad because they can't afford this masterpiece!
  44. johnnypopular
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    Congratulations EA and Bioware! Dragon Age 2 is truly a marvel of modern gaming; no story to get in the way of all that action, no tactics to get in the way of all that hacking... you even reused locations and enemies so we wouldn't get lost or confused. How dear of you! Oh and I promised myself that I wouldn't gush, but I just can't help myself... I love what you've done with theCongratulations EA and Bioware! Dragon Age 2 is truly a marvel of modern gaming; no story to get in the way of all that action, no tactics to get in the way of all that hacking... you even reused locations and enemies so we wouldn't get lost or confused. How dear of you! Oh and I promised myself that I wouldn't gush, but I just can't help myself... I love what you've done with the armor/robes- they are still color coded! Some naysayers think that they are all the same and just palette swapped, but I don't believe it, not one word! You also got rid of all those messy RPG bits like speech challenges and an overarching quest, how silly, who would want either of those? Fat nerds, that's who! But don't you worry Bioware, you are on the side of the angels, or in this case the side of ADD afflicted pre-teens, but they are kinda angelic when they are not snorting Ritalin.
    So Once again, congratulations are due to EA and Bioware! You've made Dragon Age 2 more accessible for action oriented/casual gamers! Of course in the process you forgot who your real fans were, you know those crazy RPG kids who actually bought DA1 and all those pitiful DLC snippets, but who cares, right? You got our money too! You guys should be proud, seriously...    … Expand
  45. HiDef-Jules
    Mar 14, 2011
    10
    The misguided backlash against this game is utterly ridiculous. If you liked Dragon Age Origins, you will love this game. Things have been streamlined A LITTLE (doesnt detract from the game), the graphics are significantly better (people saying the graphics are worse are stupid or havent played the game), characters and story telling are great and the combat is better IMO. Reading theThe misguided backlash against this game is utterly ridiculous. If you liked Dragon Age Origins, you will love this game. Things have been streamlined A LITTLE (doesnt detract from the game), the graphics are significantly better (people saying the graphics are worse are stupid or havent played the game), characters and story telling are great and the combat is better IMO. Reading the comments here, it honestly sounds like most of them havent even played the game and are all just jumping on a band wagon. Dont let their nonsense stop you from checking this game out!!!… Expand
  46. 27raven
    Mar 14, 2011
    4
    Why the lack of interesting and diverse locations? Why one repeating cave and houses over and over again? Why waves of enemies spawning from the ceiling? Why the brutal requirements in DX11 in 5 year old looking game? Why no interesting and surprising puzzles? Why many other things i don't want to even remember? If it wasn't for DA:O and if it wasn't Bioware I would give 7 points but likeWhy the lack of interesting and diverse locations? Why one repeating cave and houses over and over again? Why waves of enemies spawning from the ceiling? Why the brutal requirements in DX11 in 5 year old looking game? Why no interesting and surprising puzzles? Why many other things i don't want to even remember? If it wasn't for DA:O and if it wasn't Bioware I would give 7 points but like this i fell it deserves 5 points max.
    Btw. I didn't like many things in DA:O (skill system, class imbalances) but it was still a pearl in comparison to this game.

    PS: Why so high scores from magazines? Does EA pay that well? It was the same with NFS:Shift and I completely understand people who give 0 points as a defense against so exaggerated ratings.    … Expand
  47. Nerresand
    Mar 14, 2011
    3
    Story - 5/10
    While I appreciate the divergence from the stereotypical "save the universe from an unspeakable evil" in favor of a more down-to-earth story, they spoiled an opportunity here. Not being grandiose doesn't mean the story can't be good and interesting, and this one wasn't particularly either one.
    Graphics/Audio - 4/10 I actually liked Origins' graphics and sound much more.    Story - 5/10
    While I appreciate the divergence from the stereotypical "save the universe from an unspeakable evil" in favor of a more down-to-earth story, they spoiled an opportunity here. Not being grandiose doesn't mean the story can't be good and interesting, and this one wasn't particularly either one.

    Graphics/Audio - 4/10
    I actually liked Origins' graphics and sound much more. It's just personal preference, but I feel that DA2 looks and sounds more like a comic book than a good RPG.

    Speaking of RPG... 2/10
    The positive spin is that this game was made "more accessible". Unfortunately, I feel that this spoiled part of what made Origins so good - it was a game that focused on RP elements more than most, and they sold out. Interacting with the characters is a shallow experience, inexplicably made more difficult than it needs to be and offering very little satisfaction from a roleplaying perspective. This is a roleplaying game, and while personal character customization and choice are part of that, the RP elements that Dragon Age already had were very good, and just needed a little work; I was surprised and disappointed to discover the gigantic step backwards. Almost everything having to do with your party members is worse than it was in Origins, from customizing their gear, to having conversations with them, to affecting their personalities, to making sweet love with them in a campsite. Overall - 3/10
    Bioware seems to have taken the approach that simplicity is good, delivering a mindless comic book of absurd gore (one fatal sword slash causes an enemy to explode in a cloud of blood and its armor to, for some reason, pop into a dozen pieces?) and lackluster story. Simplicity is a very bad approach for an RPG, however, and a great many things that only needed minor improvement (or didn't need fixing) were completely destroyed in this sequel. Your opinion of DA2 will very likely depend on what you liked or didn't like about DAO. If you were disappointed with the action and thought the overall game was too complex, you'll probably like it. If you liked the core RP elements, you probably won't.    … Expand
  48. Smartacus
    Mar 14, 2011
    8
    I went into the accounts of many of the "0" posters on this site and surprisingly there are literally hundreds of new accounts that have never rated a game on MC before. (Yes at work I had the time to go into hundreds of them) Most of these accounts gave the game a "0" on the Xbox, PC and PS3. It is glaringly obvious that the trolls are alive and well and just want to torpedo what isI went into the accounts of many of the "0" posters on this site and surprisingly there are literally hundreds of new accounts that have never rated a game on MC before. (Yes at work I had the time to go into hundreds of them) Most of these accounts gave the game a "0" on the Xbox, PC and PS3. It is glaringly obvious that the trolls are alive and well and just want to torpedo what is actually a good game.

    All nerd rage aside, this is a pretty good game, and I find myself losing hours playing it.

    Compared to DA, it has been more streamlined and some RP purists take exception to that and cry that the game sold out. Me, I prefer actually playing the game and not micro managing every little detail, some, but not all.

    It is not perfect. I for one hated seeing all that great loot that was soul bound to my character and could not be shared with my group. The combat is simpler as well, and does seem to be easier than in DA. I don't miss getting ganked by a high level Revenant in a low level area, and then have to trek all the way back when I became powerful enough.

    All in all, I would give it an 8.5. DA was a better game as far as story, but this game is much more polished and you do not seem to waste as much time as you did in DA.

    I always took user scores of games with a grain of salt. Now I definitely know the scores cannot be trusted. It is really too bad, the obvious manipulation of the scores on here really hurt the reputation of Metacritic. I am not one for censorship, but Metacritic should really do something to save itsâ    … Expand
  49. VermillionHaze
    Mar 14, 2011
    9
    Overall Dragon Age 2 is an improvement over the first. Combat is less repetitive and much more exciting to play. The storyline is much less epic then DA1 but makes you care of the characters in a special way especially the protagonist. The game follows a huge chunk of the main characters life and every decision you make effects your companions opinion of you and future quests. GraphicallyOverall Dragon Age 2 is an improvement over the first. Combat is less repetitive and much more exciting to play. The storyline is much less epic then DA1 but makes you care of the characters in a special way especially the protagonist. The game follows a huge chunk of the main characters life and every decision you make effects your companions opinion of you and future quests. Graphically it 's far superior however improvements still need to be made. I don't understand DA fans who clamour for auto attacking and less character differences.… Expand
  50. sparrow667
    Mar 14, 2011
    9
    DA2 took me 36 hours of gameplay (skipped 10+ quests). Good:
    Bioware games are always about the story - and it is the best story written by David Gaider so far. Connections between DAO/DAA and DA2 are far more complex than in Mass Effect 2. Crafting system was nicely improved. Combat changes may seen controversial, but itâ
  51. Animus
    Mar 14, 2011
    8
    Having played DA:O on the 360, I was expecting the sequel to be just an enjoyable experience. I was mostly right. DA2 is a bit more linear than Origins, but the combat is improved. I like the dialogue wheel. I found the story compelling, and that's what I play these games for. Not as good as Origins, but a solid game overall.
  52. Hammerholm
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    Absolute rubbish Bioware, I hope you learn something from the USER experience & score of this game, no matter the platform. I can't believe you'd give in to the temptation of easy made money.
  53. BiefstukFriet
    Mar 14, 2011
    5
    As a stand alone game, Dragon Age 2 is a passable and entertaining game. Nothing fancy or groundbreaking, but entertaining non the less. It's when compared to Dragon Age: Origins that things start to go south.

    First, the stand alone review: The caves, houses and locations in the City of Kirkwall - the location of the majority of the game - are constantly recycled. Does that location look    As a stand alone game, Dragon Age 2 is a passable and entertaining game. Nothing fancy or groundbreaking, but entertaining non the less. It's when compared to Dragon Age: Origins that things start to go south.

    First, the stand alone review:

    The caves, houses and locations in the City of Kirkwall - the location of the majority of the game - are constantly recycled. Does that location look familiar? It probably is, because even though the missions change, the locations quite often don't. You'll find yourself slogging through a location you visited half an hour ago. Sometimes, the game spices things up and you start of where you left the location during your previous visit.

    The combat is pretty smooth and visualy appealing but also rather simple. Positioning your party to best use the lay of the land is not needed and also not usefull because enemies spawn pretty much out of nowhere and from all sides of the map in a neverending tide. Your well placed mage, screened by your warrior and rogue just got jumped on by a group of enemies that just were not there before.

    As for the storyline, following Hawke's rise from refugee to champion is a novel idea and has merrit, but the story's lack of a clear goal and sense of urgency makes it lack a soul. As a result side-quests feel like filler and of no import.


    DA 2 is ntertaining, but with flaws and would've scored a 7. DA 2 only becomes a '4' (see my user score) when you compare it to Dragon Age: Origins. Origins had a compelling storyline, fleshed out locations, entertaining characters you could bond to, a clear goal to work towards and tactical combat. Now there is one thing that truly vexes me, the impact of my Warder from Origins in DAII. There is none, merely comments on his past actions which is a far cry from Mass Effect 2, where the choices made in ME 1 had strong consequences.

    Why Bioware took such a radical approach to a very much acclaimed game as Dragon Age Origin is beyond me.    … Expand
  54. markb1166
    Mar 14, 2011
    10
    Can't understand the negativity aimed at the gam from some people. As a fan of RPGs for many years games and any other medium, I have still found Dragon ge 2 to be an excellent game. It is a lot more enjoyable then Origins and the Mass Effect style of play works brilliantly. Doubt I would normally give a ten but to bring the score were it should be I am.
  55. Nikkol
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    the game is abysmal. I don't care about graphics, but story and presentation is terrible. Camera, with tactical view gone, is something horrible, especially with targeting bosses in a cluster of weak enemies. Dialogues give you virtually no alternative, you are shoved into pre-made decisions. Where Origina and Awakening reacted to your char, DA2 simply ignores it completely. You canthe game is abysmal. I don't care about graphics, but story and presentation is terrible. Camera, with tactical view gone, is something horrible, especially with targeting bosses in a cluster of weak enemies. Dialogues give you virtually no alternative, you are shoved into pre-made decisions. Where Origina and Awakening reacted to your char, DA2 simply ignores it completely. You can perform Blood Magic and second later speak that Blood Magic is a sin, and all who practice it should die. Dialogue wheel is another step to console idiocy. Combat...I don't wanna even start. that's jRpg, simply.… Expand
  56. Jussi
    Mar 14, 2011
    0
    "Darker, sexier, prettier" were the advertising words for this sequel. Unfortunately the ONLY thing that actually has got better (in some parts of the game) is combat dynamics. Story line itself is very narrow comparing to original DAO, darkness has been replaced with fierce button smashing combating and then sex... well that's completely REMOVED. Okay, you actually can get to kiss someone"Darker, sexier, prettier" were the advertising words for this sequel. Unfortunately the ONLY thing that actually has got better (in some parts of the game) is combat dynamics. Story line itself is very narrow comparing to original DAO, darkness has been replaced with fierce button smashing combating and then sex... well that's completely REMOVED. Okay, you actually can get to kiss someone and invoke some dirty dialogue, but anyone who has actually played DAO will be very disappointed. There's no passion, no mature decisions to be made and absolutely nothing to see in terms of mature gaming. It looks like this sequel is more targeted to 13 years old console gamers than to people who actually played and enjoyed the original Dragon Age.

    The only thing that could save the game amongst DAO players would be fast introduction of expansions and toolset, that would make possible to enchange game in mentioned areas. Without that, I think the game is doomed and will only result financial loss and more sadly, ruin the name of Dragon Age.    … Expand
  57. RavenZD
    Mar 14, 2011
    1
    This games claims to be mature RPG from one of best RPG developers in the world, It simply is not true.
    Before i start with pros and cons, let me just say a thing or two about mature rpg:
    1. It is not mature (yes there is sex and some quests are rather interesting), but flashy combat, quests that are so dumb (discover a item on floor and bring it to someone for reward is insult of    This games claims to be mature RPG from one of best RPG developers in the world, It simply is not true.
    Before i start with pros and cons, let me just say a thing or two about mature rpg:

    1. It is not mature (yes there is sex and some quests are rather interesting), but flashy combat, quests that are so dumb (discover a item on floor and bring it to someone for reward is insult of intelligence). There is no real group dynamics, story so far is refreshment from usual rpg epic default, but i don't mention this as a necessary good thing - you are driven solely by making a name for your self in one rather small town. It is ok to have this, but you expect more at the end. This is just: ok, and that is it, what now?

    2. RPG - where to start....it just doesn't feel like one. Inventory is a big part of rpg for me - i like to play around with items, have meaningful icons, distribute with my members, combine what is best and generally play around with crafting etc. Here they take most of it away. There are no icons, party customization is awful, if you get DLC armor & weapons, you will be using it alot because it is very powerful...crafting is just basically purchasing from a stand...no open world, feels very limited with location recycle... i just can't get into the character and into setting.


    To be clear, haven't played game through...i started by single session of 8 hours, than 6, than 4, than 2.. yesterday i just chilled on couch, had absolutely no wish to turn it on (in DA:o it was quite opposite, my desire to play got bigger with progression). Not really sure if i will be able to finish it (difficultly is not an issue).. it just doesn't captivate and mesmerize like RPG should.


    PRO: no bugs, some very interesting quests, combat can be fun sometimes, top notch voice acting
    CONS: inventory, party chars not very interesting, fight is not tactical at all, no open space, narrow corridors or walls most of game (don't mind dungeon crawl now and then, but this is nowhere near so far), dialog wheel (absolute rpg abomination) and yes for me - no epic struggle as culmination of all the efforts...


    For me a big letdown, if you liked origins and enjoy classic RPG experience do not buy this game until it is not on some discount or used...don't think I'll ever play this more than once if i manage to get interested enough to complete.

    P.S. If this is what RPG is going to be from now on - i must be getting too old and this simply is not for me.    … Expand
  58. keep
    Mar 14, 2011
    3
    The worst BW game. There is nothing to comments here. do not even think about buying it. Linear plot, miserable battle system, it is not even an RPG, it's more like a bad action...
  59. jamesbme
    Mar 13, 2011
    9
    There is something wrong with everyone that is saying that this is a bad game. It's not perfect but it is very fun, has great controls, a good story and characters, and the graphics are better then the first one. This game is very fun and most people giving it a bad score just either liked the first one too much or are just very extreme PC gamers that think the game is broken or something.There is something wrong with everyone that is saying that this is a bad game. It's not perfect but it is very fun, has great controls, a good story and characters, and the graphics are better then the first one. This game is very fun and most people giving it a bad score just either liked the first one too much or are just very extreme PC gamers that think the game is broken or something. So if your looking for a fun, sometimes addictive RPG then you should definitely pick up Dragon Age 2.… Expand
  60. ThingsThatGoBoo
    Mar 13, 2011
    8
    The problem that BioWare faces is now its fanbase. The classic RPG-ers that grew with games like Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment. They can't seem to accept change, which is what BioWare's doing with Dragon Age II. This shows through the combat, which is not prefect by any means, but is a commendable effort. In my personal opinion, the characters, story, and choices make up for theThe problem that BioWare faces is now its fanbase. The classic RPG-ers that grew with games like Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment. They can't seem to accept change, which is what BioWare's doing with Dragon Age II. This shows through the combat, which is not prefect by any means, but is a commendable effort. In my personal opinion, the characters, story, and choices make up for the meh combat. The story has interesting twists, the characters have great histories to explore, and the choices actually feel like they have consequences. Rather then read text in DAO you see lots of choices in-game. To have fun in DA 2 you have to be able to lose yourself in the universe and characters, rather then play to kill things. This definitely is not an instant classic like BG and DAO, but it is still a cool and interesting epic to play through.… Expand
  61. TeamRyan
    Mar 13, 2011
    10
    I believe that this games shining points are its story and well crafted world. it manages to pull out some of the most sincere dramatic story telling I've seen in the last few years. The battle system has changed since origins, i would like to say it has improved but I'm still just learning, i know the team said they were trying to make the skill tree's more simple but i don't think theirI believe that this games shining points are its story and well crafted world. it manages to pull out some of the most sincere dramatic story telling I've seen in the last few years. The battle system has changed since origins, i would like to say it has improved but I'm still just learning, i know the team said they were trying to make the skill tree's more simple but i don't think their description of abilities and their effects were effective. secondly the game could have been polished and tested for bugs a little bit more. while no bugs are game breaking some can be used to circumvent difficulty.

    Overall I enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the story a lot, the end of chapter's 2 and 3 were great closers for those particular story arc's. I truly loved how side quests and secondary quests would tie into the storyline, and would often times give you background on what is happening currently and also foreshadow what will happen in the future. There are few if any plot twists and points that aren't founded in or logical in the game.

    Boss fights were much improved over the first game many of them seemed unique in approach, and challenging if a plan isn't devised or your squad isn't adequately set up. The game seemed to miss the sweet spot for length, took me about 45 hours play time to beat on my first run-through, it will probably drop down to around 30 on any subsequent play-through. Ideally it would have been 60 hours. But i can't knock them for leaving me wanting more.

    Gripes are that I don't have nearly as much control over my party roster as I would like because all the companions are glued to one weapon type, or have a unique specialisation without the ability to learn another specialisation.

    Inventory has been simplified with a new star system telling you how good an item is compared to your level. The old system from origins seemed to make more sense to me due to the fact that in this game most equipment only has one name, so you will be stuck with numerous items that say belt, or sword, and they all would have different effects stats and bonuses. This becomes a problem when you start trashing loot and finding the ones you do want to keep against the ones you don't becomes a hassle.

    The most important thing though is that I thoroughly enjoyed this game and I am about to start up my second play-through.    … Expand
  62. Anastasia
    Mar 13, 2011
    9
    Fantastic Game.. I love all Bioware games.The immersion and combat of this game are unmatched! A truly moving and fun epic. Anything negative you'll see about this game is an overreaction of personal preference. For what it is, it is flawlessly executed and endlessly entertaining
  63. ImUnavailable
    Mar 13, 2011
    7
    Not nearly as bad as these reviews would have you believe but disappointing none the less. Combat is much more fluid than DA:O, and the graphics are marginally better. But that's about it as far as improvements go. The story isn't really about Hawke. It's about Kirkwall and its people, making for a more personal story. However, it lacks the scope of its predecessor and what I do in theNot nearly as bad as these reviews would have you believe but disappointing none the less. Combat is much more fluid than DA:O, and the graphics are marginally better. But that's about it as far as improvements go. The story isn't really about Hawke. It's about Kirkwall and its people, making for a more personal story. However, it lacks the scope of its predecessor and what I do in the game doesn't feel as significant as in DA:O. The writing is still of a high standard overall but the dialog wheel makes conversations much more confined and clunky. Kirkwall feels empty and fails to construct its own identity, something Rockstar games do very well. The lack of customization for teammates also hurts the game. In spite of all this, I enjoyed myself and I will replay it. It just wasn't the game it could have been.… Expand
  64. DarthPreamp
    Mar 13, 2011
    10
    I can say with confidence, having played most of the RPG that has come out in the last ten years, this is one of the best. The characters are extremely well developed, more like you would find in a fine fantasy novel, than what usually passes for character development in video games. The story is fascinating, and huge. There are MANY things to do , stories to discover, and interestingI can say with confidence, having played most of the RPG that has come out in the last ten years, this is one of the best. The characters are extremely well developed, more like you would find in a fine fantasy novel, than what usually passes for character development in video games. The story is fascinating, and huge. There are MANY things to do , stories to discover, and interesting ideas. There is also a lot to read. There is more depth to this game than the previous, in terms of the ideas that are presented and developed. It is also , a MUCH more original story than its predecessor. Kudos to Bioware for actually doing something original, at the apparently very real risk of alienating some core players, by doing something interesting,original, and VERY compelling. The truth about this game is the EXACT opposite of what those who are disparaging it would have you believe. Bioware did not sell out, the exact opposite is true. They are doing what they have always done, pushing the boundaries of the genre in new and very fascinating ways. Think about it, they could have really cashed in by making the game a direct sequel to the original in every way, but they didn't, they chose to do something worthwhile, they chose to create something original. This game is actually a giant step forward for digital story telling as well as for RPG's. Oh yeah, its also a hell of a lot of fun!!!! Go out and get it!… Expand
  65. KcSmiff
    Mar 13, 2011
    3
    Vast amount of visual bugs which give horrible performance with a Geforce 580. Even when the game is running smoothly, I can't help but notice the obvious copy-pasting of dungeons/caves. The feeling that the quests are all going to the same places as other quests all the time. God knows what the popular game review sites are on, this is no where near on par with Dragon Age: Origins, letVast amount of visual bugs which give horrible performance with a Geforce 580. Even when the game is running smoothly, I can't help but notice the obvious copy-pasting of dungeons/caves. The feeling that the quests are all going to the same places as other quests all the time. God knows what the popular game review sites are on, this is no where near on par with Dragon Age: Origins, let alone an improvement. I liked the combat more on this one, but everything else brings it down and nullifies it. Very mediocre and most likely rushed game; unexpected lackluster installment to the acclaimed Dragon Age: Origins.… Expand
  66. Drissit
    Mar 13, 2011
    6
    Heres a Realistic review from someone who played the game on mostly nightmare/hard difficulty so didn't suffer from the 'button mashing' hack and slash crap people claim it to be, but it simply isn't .

    The Dialog is somewhat drastically dumbed down from the first, you can only be a goodie goodie, a clown who doesn't take **** anything serious, or an ass, there is no in between like the    Heres a Realistic review from someone who played the game on mostly nightmare/hard difficulty so didn't suffer from the 'button mashing' hack and slash crap people claim it to be, but it simply isn't .

    The Dialog is somewhat drastically dumbed down from the first, you can only be a goodie goodie, a clown who doesn't take **** anything serious, or an ass, there is no in between like the first, i.e. it adopted mass effects slightly less than interesting dialog system bioware seem to love so much.

    The combat on hard and nightmare is NOT a hack and slash, on nightmare EVERY single encounter has to be micro managed or you will die, on hard all minor encounters can be done with minor micro management but all bosses require full micro management again, the combat is much improved to DAO, its far less sluggish and much more fluid so its a definite plus, DAO itself was just a tedious slow hack and slash on normal/easy anyways so to claim different is stupid.

    The plot is quite a bit weaker than the previous one, there doesn't seem to be much of an overall plot to the story and it seems second rate from what I would compare to most Bioware games and this looses it major points in my book, for the most part it was very generic and sometimes boring and predictable.

    The inventory system is dumbed down as in its mostly only about your character now, but honestly thats personal preference, I liked it much more than I disliked it, as it removed a lot of the tediousness from DAO.

    Graphically, in some cases its improved upon over the original, in others its just bad, the constant reuse of the same bland generic 'block' city really made it get tedious at some points and they reuse the same 20 or so areas over and over and over and over and over, until your eyes feel like they are bleeding.

    Its not a horrible game, I did however enjoy origins more, but the combat in this was definatly an improvement, just it is a total hack and slash on normal/easy no other way to put it, if you want a true tactical RPG experiance you have to play Nightmare/Hard.

    I give it a 6/10, some improvement, a lot of dis improvement from the original in other area's of gameplay.    … Expand
  67. Erxar
    Mar 13, 2011
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is in a word a disaster. Every aspect of the game is simplified. There is no story whatsoever. You don't get the feeling that you're playing to achieve any goal at all. It's only side stories loosely connected to each other. BioWare SOLD OUT. I'm so furious about it. I can't understand critics high scores. My only explanation is that they ware payed to write good reviews. This is the biggest scam of all time.… Expand
  68. wordy_actions
    Mar 13, 2011
    6
    Do not believe all the negative hype around this game, and don't believe all the 0 scores on Metacritic. I find it hard to believe that some of the negative reviewers have even played the game. DA:2 is not as good as DA:O, but it is still an engrossing RPG with dozens of hours of gameplay. There was a huge negative hype machine in the RPG community before this game was released, and thisDo not believe all the negative hype around this game, and don't believe all the 0 scores on Metacritic. I find it hard to believe that some of the negative reviewers have even played the game. DA:2 is not as good as DA:O, but it is still an engrossing RPG with dozens of hours of gameplay. There was a huge negative hype machine in the RPG community before this game was released, and this is painting all of their reviews in a hugely biased way. A classic example of nerd rage. If this wasn't such a high profile game the reviews would be much more positive, instead the RPG community is using this game as an excuse to rip EA and Bioware apart. And in the process, they are trashing a game that is mediocre at worst.… Expand
  69. vankwisha
    Mar 13, 2011
    0
    Worst game iv ever played, I think ill go play barbie playhouse instead. They've rushed this game so bad, Copy and paste copy and paste copy and paste copy and paste.
  70. Ratjar
    Mar 13, 2011
    10
    Dragon Age II is even better than I expected it to be. Ok, there are things that were better in the first title like the possibility to give any equipment to our non-main characters or the many different Origins Story and race you could choose your character from. But! The combat system is way better than it was before. Actually, a two-handed warrior is now pretty fun to play with (IDragon Age II is even better than I expected it to be. Ok, there are things that were better in the first title like the possibility to give any equipment to our non-main characters or the many different Origins Story and race you could choose your character from. But! The combat system is way better than it was before. Actually, a two-handed warrior is now pretty fun to play with (I thought these guys were too slow in the first game). The combats are a lot more dynamic and that's a very good change.

    The new Mass Effect-like conversation wheel works very well (Even better than in ME). I prefer it over the dialogue choices in DA:O. Being able to know if my answer will be humoristic, bad, good or charming is a very good thing.

    Every character in the game is enjoyable. They are all pretty badass, actually.
    At the announcement of the game, I was skeptic about the graphic style. But I grew used to it and now I can say it is a good change.

    I'm not done with the game yet, but I'm pretty close to the end. I don't see why people hate it so much. It's not that much different from the first game. There is always too much hype. The key to appreciate a game is to play it without reading about it first or even watching too much videos. Then, you like the game as it is, not as you thought/hoped it would be.

    Finally, Dragon Age II is a really good game and sequel to Dragon Age: Origins. Bioware did a great work tying both stories together (I LOVE it when they talk about DA:O Warden or Awakening's Warden Commander).    … Expand
  71. Orak
    Mar 13, 2011
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I find it annoying to see all the lowscore reviews from people that clearly never even finished the first chapter of the game, or in fact never played anything else than the demo. The game is not without a few minor flaws, but is all in all absolutely brilliant. The story isnt as focused as stories usualy are in rpgs but that actualy have a rather posetive effect on the game. Its much more personal and more than anyhting else I praise the choise to finaly abandon the "chosen one" or "save the world approach". The world is brilliant in its complexity, the normal boring "go here and fetch this" sidequests are almost nonexistent. Graphics is a huge improvment over origins and I cant understand anyone that claime the game looks bad or even worse than origins. I have some minor issues with inventory and the dialogue wheel but all in all an excellent game.… Expand
  72. 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. I'm saddened that BioWare doesn't think very much of their playerbase to not callously use them as an apparent cash grab by charging inflated prices for a substandard product.
  73. Barman1942
    Mar 13, 2011
    2
    An unfortunate, utter disappointment. I started into this game hoping it would be as every bit enjoyable as Dragon Age: Origins, which was a pretty good RPG in its own right, if not what I would consider classic. The game is marred by shoddy writing, some rather terrible voice acting, bad facial animations (though BIoware has never been known for *good* facial animation), and copy andAn unfortunate, utter disappointment. I started into this game hoping it would be as every bit enjoyable as Dragon Age: Origins, which was a pretty good RPG in its own right, if not what I would consider classic. The game is marred by shoddy writing, some rather terrible voice acting, bad facial animations (though BIoware has never been known for *good* facial animation), and copy and paste levels, where you will often find yourself fighting through the same dungeon several times. It's also rather linear for an RPG, you feel like you're merely along for the ride with a choice here and there, than an actual driving force in the story. The only upside is the combat is sometimes fun, but even that is tarnished by the endless "waves" of enemies, which soon render it boring.

    2/10, stay away from this one, or at the most rent it.    … Expand
  74. Xycolian
    Mar 13, 2011
    0
    Dragon Age II is very disappointing, If you were an avid fan of the first game and it's expansion and decided to make a perfect run-through of it with the intention of importing it into dragon age II like I did, you will be sorely disappointed.

    Nothing that comes from imports has any real affect on anything in Dragon Age II's already dismal storyline. The only thing you can expect to see    Dragon Age II is very disappointing, If you were an avid fan of the first game and it's expansion and decided to make a perfect run-through of it with the intention of importing it into dragon age II like I did, you will be sorely disappointed.

    Nothing that comes from imports has any real affect on anything in Dragon Age II's already dismal storyline. The only thing you can expect to see are cameo appearances from previous acquaintances and tiny references to your exploits no doubt intended to make you feel nostalgic and happy. These feelings quickly fade when you realize you paid $60 however.

    The gameplay is very tedious and boring. The only noticeable difference on a casual playthrough between combat in DAII and DA:O is that you now have to mash the Attack button repeatedly instead of pressing it once per target.
    There is a new aspect to combat with the advent of cross-class combos, in a casual or normal playthrough you can go the entire game without using one, but in higher difficulty playthroughs the game is practically balanced around taking advantage of these combos, it really feels like they added this feature in an attempt to make the combat seem fresh. What I mean by that is that enemies seem to have a higher amount of health just because they want to make people use cross class combos in the first place and because of that, it feels like just another complication.

    If you do not own a 60" HD Flatscreen TV, expect to squint to read the minute font and the minimalistic Interface they decided to use in this game even if you have 20/20 vision. The only aspect of the game that is an exception to this is the chat wheel that pops up when you interact with NPCs at least you know what decisions you are making...

    The environments are great until you notice that there are only about 20 in the game,Deep Roads, Cave, and Dungeon environments have about 2 variants and that's it. Those 6 different environments are the same ones they use for every dungeon and cave in the game. The only difference between these environments is that certain passages are either closed or open and loot containers are shuffled around.
    Named unique locations feel bland and unchanging. Environments such as the town of Kirkwall (where the games events are centered) don't even change over the course of the 10 years in which this game takes place, aside from superficial things like rearranging loot containers that are placed around said environment. That isn't to say that the people inside Krikwall don't change however, because they do...well the important people do, there are no events that take place in the game that impact the entire city in a noticeable way (until the end anyway, and seeing as it's THE END, you don't get to see how the city changes anyway).

    Cutscenes have a tendency to warp the character models causing them to stretch and shrink very rapidly, I can't fathom how something as obvious and disruptive to immersion as this got past bug testing.

    The new talent trees aren't really as big an improvement over DA:O's talent trees as they were portrayed to be. They are a small improvement however if only for the fact that it is harder to decide where to spend the point you just earned.

    The stories and intimate relationships of your comrades that you can experience are as good as ever, but this one good quality is not enough to raise the average score that quantifies the rest of the game.

    The music never really caught my ear but it didn't sound bad either, I don't know whether it is the hallmark of a good or a bad soundtrack if you can listen to it without realizing that you are in fact listening to it in the first place.

    I only hope that they take full advantage of all the plots and storylines that they have left open in this game and set themselves up to explain in DA:III when the time comes. DA:II is only a stepping stone in terms of plot, only serving as a build up in events with no real feel of accomplishment or advancement. The story feels stagnant and unimportant to be honest.
    We learn next to nothing of Flemeth (aside from the fact that she's still alive despite anything you might have done to her in DAO) and there is no new information or plot points that concern the darkspawn at all. Yeah that's right, nothing new about darkspawn or Flemeth. The problems that Bioware introduces in this title seem trite and unimportant when compared to the first games events.

    I feel really sad when I say this, but to me it seems that Bioware has finally decided that it loves money more than the stories that they craft, especially when DLC is available to purchase off the shelf from day one... I mean what the hell is that about? Just include it with the game you sellouts....

    My advice? This game is good enough to rent but definitely not worth 60 bucks.    … Expand
  75. Gordon
    Mar 13, 2011
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. After two playthroughs, I finally pinpointed what it is that ruins DA2. There is just no choice; a bit of a dealbreaker for an RPG! Whatever you do, you'll lose a sibling, your mother will die horribly, the chantry will go boom, the Qunari will attack. You don't roleplay, you simply watch as a character stumbles into various plotpoints. Even on a replay, the very limited dialogue options (angelic, sarcastic, angry) make it hard to change much. You're more of a watcher, not really a participant.

    Given that the rest of the game outside of the main plot is spent acting as the world's errand boy, and the world itself is so dull to look at, it's just not much fun overall. There is nothing wrong with the new fighting system, though the enemy-spamming gets very tedious very quickly (as did Origins). There's nothing wrong with the companions or the overall story. It's just... boring, compared to the sense of magnitude Origins invoked. There is no getting away from this.

    I truly believe all of its problems lie in the lack of creation time. One year is nowhere near enough to time for a polished product, and lot of the things which made Origins great have been removed. There is an obvious lack of thought in the way locations are reused over and over and, worst of all... across 10 years, people are still standing in the same places and the city doesn't change even slightly. Go to Fenris' mansion, for example, and the same corpse is still lying by the door 7 years on! The bright spark in this game is the way romances are handled. They don't have as much depth as in Origins, since there is not much interaction beforehand, but the developers are to be applauded for making the romances open regardless of gender. I hope more games follow their lead, at least on that score.

    But overall, Dragon Age 2 is a disappointment for the genre. I realised this when Isabella kept commenting "I'm bored of this", and I found myself thinking "yeah, me too".    … Expand
  76. manowar09
    Mar 13, 2011
    10
    Good game. Dont listen to all the haters on this website. Rating a game a zero or a 1 is rubbish. The game is truely somewhere between a 7 or 8, just like the first game. IT has its flaws. People on this website have an agenda and are voting 1 and 0 because of that.
  77. alkatrazz
    Mar 13, 2011
    1
    Utter garbage inasmuch as it actually inspired me to signup in order to post my views. This is truly a shame, given the expectations built up with DA:O -- What is hilarious to note is all the major review companies noting `once you get past the..' OR `compare to DA:O this is much worse BUT' and awarding ~80, tbh these look like paid for reviews in order to drive sales. DA2 is awful c.f.Utter garbage inasmuch as it actually inspired me to signup in order to post my views. This is truly a shame, given the expectations built up with DA:O -- What is hilarious to note is all the major review companies noting `once you get past the..' OR `compare to DA:O this is much worse BUT' and awarding ~80, tbh these look like paid for reviews in order to drive sales. DA2 is awful c.f. DA:O.
    END OF LINE.    … Expand
  78. TheDeadHeart
    Mar 13, 2011
    3
    The Dragon Age franchise has been tossed into the corporate machinery and spat out as a bruised and crippled shell of its former self. The game manages to deliver a thoroughly mediocre and disappointing experience to both RPG and casual gaming fans alike.

    The combat could possibly be the largest flaw with the game, however it is but one of many large flaws. Many skills and abilities    The Dragon Age franchise has been tossed into the corporate machinery and spat out as a bruised and crippled shell of its former self. The game manages to deliver a thoroughly mediocre and disappointing experience to both RPG and casual gaming fans alike.

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

    The visuals have undergone an upheaval, yet surprisingly manages to look worse than its predecessor.
    The combat now resembles something out of a Devil May Cry game, rather than the style set in DA:O. The visceral and realistic style of Origins now replaced with an over sensationalized gratuitous flood of warrior aerobatics and bloody explosions. Many Caves, mountains, roads used again and again presumably due to constraints imposed by the soulless suits over in EA pushing for a speedy release and a fast cash-in. Dragon Age: Origins was a modern day throwback to classic RPG games: It incorporated engaging Tactical gameplay , interesting characters and appropriate use of dialog selection and an immersive fantasy setting imbued with a touch of gritty realism to provide a satisfying fantasy experience. Because of this the game was critically acclaimed and sold very well.
    Now letâ    … Expand
  79. freo14
    Mar 13, 2011
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Game very disappointed .. .. do not even believe that *it* makes developers NWN. Cool RPG turned into a dull meat grinder. I really, really sorry for the fans DE. Although children from 10 to 14, this game is really like .. Although there since age limit 18 ))… Expand
  80. Digitalkid
    Mar 13, 2011
    6
    Payed 60$ on steam just because of a review, and got what?! DAO was weak enough, but this ...! Simplifying everything to nothing.

    Dialogs reduced to 2-3 phrases, and thats great! Cause world and chars are totally empty. Their acts are so nonlogic and unpredictible, that in a half an hour i was just clicking icons. "Be nice", "be rude". Why DA2 is so gay?! Seriosly, in a few hours 3 f..    Payed 60$ on steam just because of a review, and got what?! DAO was weak enough, but this ...! Simplifying everything to nothing.

    Dialogs reduced to 2-3 phrases, and thats great! Cause world and chars are totally empty. Their acts are so nonlogic and unpredictible, that in a half an hour i was just clicking icons. "Be nice", "be rude". Why DA2 is so gay?! Seriosly, in a few hours 3 f.. proposing "their services" and not even one girl blinking.

    Enemies are just fallin at you from nowhere like in some DMC. Do you need any tactics in chess when opponent can put any figure anywhere he wants?..

    Plot reminded ME2. Just get 50 sovereins (10 companions) to get to the new chapter. And you call that a scenario? Written in 15 minutes?! I dont even know what i'm doing when takin quest in 2 clicks, killing some more enemies, done in 2 clicks. What was is?!

    Locations look like Orzamar entrance. Sooooo lowpoly. No more to say.

    3-4 hours of DA2 was enough. Looks like nothin left of Bioware i ones knew. Bye guys.

    WHATS UP WITH REWIERS?!    … Expand
  81. Hawgh
    Mar 12, 2011
    9
    First review, excuse the rambling nature:

    Very enjoyable game. Gameplay more fluid than predecessor. Graphics better. Graphical style much less generic. Story comparable, if not better. Storytelling of the highest caliber. Characterisation and NPCs top notch. Sadly, character customisation options reduced compared to predecessor, and Bioware games in general. However, player actions seem    First review, excuse the rambling nature:

    Very enjoyable game. Gameplay more fluid than predecessor. Graphics better. Graphical style much less generic. Story comparable, if not better. Storytelling of the highest caliber. Characterisation and NPCs top notch. Sadly, character customisation options reduced compared to predecessor, and Bioware games in general. However, player actions seem to be create a greater response in the world, and makes for a more involved experience. Good game length; I finished my first playthrough in 32 hours, and there are things that I missed. Cannot make qualified review of replayability, but I can see myself doing at least two more playthroughs. Excellent pacing of story. Main complaint is the rather lacklustre content of the game's journal/quest log. Great RPG, I recommend buying it. But if ambivalent, wait until price drop and DLC-packages appear.    … Expand
  82. Tanis
    Mar 12, 2011
    0
    All good in Orgins is gone, this is an insult to rpg players from EA/bioware, where is the spirit from Baldurs gate?. Simply, it is dead.
    - Dialog wheel breaks any rpg experience. Good/Bad/Stupid decisions insults human intelligence.
    - No tactical view, wtf! Baldurs legacy!? ( for me the best of the battles in Origins) - UI terrible, consolized, ugly and ridiculously small for 1920x1200    All good in Orgins is gone, this is an insult to rpg players from EA/bioware, where is the spirit from Baldurs gate?. Simply, it is dead.
    - Dialog wheel breaks any rpg experience. Good/Bad/Stupid decisions insults human intelligence.
    - No tactical view, wtf! Baldurs legacy!? ( for me the best of the battles in Origins)
    - UI terrible, consolized, ugly and ridiculously small for 1920x1200 ( subtitles hurts my eyes)
    - Corridors maps once and once again, repeat maps once and once again.
    - Companions/history/inmersion far far far from Origins. ( for me the best in Origins)
    - Graphics/Art Design and Music/Effects far worst than Origins.
    - a lot of bugs/side effects in pc because is a very very bad port. (DAO was designed for PC, ME was a bad port, ME2 was a very bad port, and this is extremely bad port, whats the next bioware?)
    - very poor performance for main characters (i like me/me2 character performance but this not)
    - uninspired side quests and typical main quest, always in the same place, only the storytelling is good.
    - etc..., all good in Origins is dumped down extremely or removed.
    - this is not a rpg game, is a kick in the face from bioware for all loyalty customers who support them since their beginning.
    - From more than 900 hours in Origins and still playing to 18 hours in DA2 and uninstalled, this is the evolution for me. The worst game in Bioware history so far.    … Expand
  83. sugam
    Mar 12, 2011
    0
    Hay guys, I just thought I would say that DA2 is the greatest game of all time......lol, just kidding, its fail. Bioware rushed the game to milk us idiots, that's the story behind it. Repeated zones, nearly no customization, no rpg elements. Look at the combat, no CC? look at the choices to make in dialog, it MAKES NO DIFFERENCE WHAT YOU CHOSE. Are you gay? well tough, everybody wants yourHay guys, I just thought I would say that DA2 is the greatest game of all time......lol, just kidding, its fail. Bioware rushed the game to milk us idiots, that's the story behind it. Repeated zones, nearly no customization, no rpg elements. Look at the combat, no CC? look at the choices to make in dialog, it MAKES NO DIFFERENCE WHAT YOU CHOSE. Are you gay? well tough, everybody wants your bod and often tried to jump your bones.

    I would give the game a 3.0 but all the "greatest game ever" fan boy crap is all lies, so SOME ONE has to balance the games score, imiright?    … Expand
  84. Aedorei
    Mar 12, 2011
    5
    Dragon Age 2 is praiseworthy in many areas but fails utterly at what should have been its core strength. Compared to DA:O the game falls far short of what it should have been. Rather than being an integral part of the story and a catalyst, the hero is swept along by events totally beyond their control and has little impact on these events. There are bright spots. Some of the storiesDragon Age 2 is praiseworthy in many areas but fails utterly at what should have been its core strength. Compared to DA:O the game falls far short of what it should have been. Rather than being an integral part of the story and a catalyst, the hero is swept along by events totally beyond their control and has little impact on these events. There are bright spots. Some of the stories are well written and well portrayed, but for the most part your choices are all bad. Inter-party relationships are superficial and both the companions and villains are one dimensionally fanatical. For the most part, all the companions are either unlikable or uninspired. More than half of them would stab you in the back if necessary. Even our beloved Alistair in a brief cameo sounds trite and shallow, as if he is a well paid actor in a equal he wants to get over quickly. If you are looking for an action RPG, this is a title you will enjoy. If you are looking for more of DA:O, you will be sorely disappointed.… Expand
  85. usernam322
    Mar 12, 2011
    4
    From DA:O to DA 2 seems like a pretty big fall for Bioware. It almost seems like they didn't even try this time around. One of the biggest grips I have is with where the game takes place.
    DA:O had you traveling all over the place and DA 2 has you running around one city and a few other locations near the city. The main character is supposed to be this great champion but one would wonder    From DA:O to DA 2 seems like a pretty big fall for Bioware. It almost seems like they didn't even try this time around. One of the biggest grips I have is with where the game takes place.
    DA:O had you traveling all over the place and DA 2 has you running around one city and a few other locations near the city. The main character is supposed to be this great champion but one would wonder how he would pull that off running around just one city. Even then the city doesn't seem all that big as dungeons seem to be copy and pasted over and over again. The only real break is the Deep Roads but that doesn't last too long.

    Combat from DA:O to DA 2 is much like from ME 1 to ME 2 where its more of an action RPG than anything else. Ultimately it just seems like they stripped down DA:O for some reason and ended up with this. Not worth your money in a time when games cost $60 new. Wait for it to hit the bargain bin if you really need to play it.    … Expand
  86. wildnight
    Mar 12, 2011
    10
    I have been a Bioware fan since the good old days. This game is a severe disappointment. I don't think I will be investing much more time beyond the ten hours I have played so far. It is NOT an RPG. It is an action-arcade game with role-playing decorations.

    Graphics and Gameplay. The backgrounds. which as other reviewers have pointed out are recycled over and over again, are static: they    I have been a Bioware fan since the good old days. This game is a severe disappointment. I don't think I will be investing much more time beyond the ten hours I have played so far. It is NOT an RPG. It is an action-arcade game with role-playing decorations.

    Graphics and Gameplay. The backgrounds. which as other reviewers have pointed out are recycled over and over again, are static: they don't move or change. It seems like your characters are moving against a painted landscape. The game is bedeviled with interminable load times between sequences. The voice acting is credible, but bugs in the synch often cause the speech to be delayed until after a character's mouth stops moving. It is much worse than a bad japanese lip-synch job.

    The World. There is no open world to explore. Worse yet, it *feels* small. Whenever you leave a small area, you get a menu of other locations to visit. There is no sense of travel or exploration. You just instantly move from place to place. Within any particular location, there is really just one pathway to travel. You really don't have to *find* anything. So, there are no secret locations to discover for yourself. The world itself seems like a set piece and not a living environment. For the most part, the NPCs do not move around. They just stand, sit, or lie in their places. And while the cutscenes are for the most part interesting, there are way too many of them. After a couple hours, you begin to dread passing by a new NPC (who wasn't there the last time you were in the same place), because another long cutscene is sure to interrupt what action there is. This makes it difficult to get any sense of momentum going.

    Combat. Combat is *terrible*. While there are lots of interesting graphical effects, there is no need for strategy or figuring out what spells or abilities to use. I'm not kidding about this. What usually happens is that a bunch of monsters appear (as if from nowhere) when you cross a certain point in your path. Then, you just mash the "A" button as fast as you can. You character more or less auto-targets, and when one monster falls, keep mashing "A" and your character moves automatically to attack the next monster. As to abilities, you just watch the timers and mash "X" "Y" or "Z" whenever a particular ability is ready again. Combat is fast paced, TOO fast paced. Really, the combat reminds me of Diablo more than a Bioware RPG. Questing. There are plenty of quests. The problem is, they don't seem to make much sense. The quest log fills up as you experience the endless cutscenes. Sometimes all it takes is for some NPC to mention a place, and a quest related to that place will appear in your quest log the next time you open it. You don't have to agree to take the quest, or even realize that a quest was in the offing. Whenever I opened the log I would be surprised to see a bunch more quests and have no recollection of who assigned them. Fortunately, you don't even have to think about the quests because huge arrows point you to exactly where to go. There is no sense of mystery or discovery, merely working off a long to-do list that somebody else wrote up for you.

    The Story. Yawn. Dragon Age: Origins began with a bang: your entire civilization was teetering on the brink of destruction and being overrun with hellish monsters. The story just picked up from there. On the other hand, in Dragon Age 2, the story starts off with you fleeing (cowardly, no?) across the ocean to a new city where you are penniless and friendless. You then start from the bottom and work your way up. It takes too long for the story to get interesting. And what story there is in the first dozen hours of play is uninteresting, overly complicated and confusing. Why do we care about these characters? Why do we even care about the main character? These questions are unanswered for far too long.

    Summary. Ugh. I was totally taken by this game, which I preordered as soon as it was available on Amazon. I wish I had two days and $60 back. I think it is not coincidental that as of this writing the major review sites have not published their reviews yet. My guess is they are holding the negative reviews to give Bioware a chance to sell the game for a few days before the bad reviews appear. At the very least, you should save your money until a consensus appears. I'm betting that this game is going to be listed as one of the (if not *the*) biggest disappointments of 2011.    … Expand
  87. Voland
    Mar 12, 2011
    1
    This game is not terrible but it is so wrong it threatens the future for pc RPGs.
    It's cheap and dumbed down.
    The game mainly consist in following yellow marks on the map, to complete or to take quests, there is no real need to be able to read to play this game. Combat is not so bad, but the difficulty is. Hard is mainly easy as pie and sometimes it gets stupidly luck based or imbalanced.    This game is not terrible but it is so wrong it threatens the future for pc RPGs.
    It's cheap and dumbed down.
    The game mainly consist in following yellow marks on the map, to complete or to take quests, there is no real need to be able to read to play this game.
    Combat is not so bad, but the difficulty is. Hard is mainly easy as pie and sometimes it gets stupidly luck based or imbalanced. I've not played much of nightmare because the friendly fire thing is not well thought out and causes rage-quit.
    Ambients are copy-pasted so much you actally feel frauded when playing.
    Character lack any depth and are not even remotely interesting.

    The plot is (spoiler alert) "You are a champion, or you are going to be one, and haters gonna hate you."

    Thisgameisbad.    … Expand
  88. Antianonymous
    Mar 12, 2011
    8
    I am registering and writing this review primarily to inform the owners and any readers of this site that you have been a victim of an attack by the internet group based off the Random board on the **** website desiring to "bring BioWare down", as I believe the thread said.

    This is the SOLE reasoning behind the plethora of negative user reviews. I'm certain a few are legitimate, but the    I am registering and writing this review primarily to inform the owners and any readers of this site that you have been a victim of an attack by the internet group based off the Random board on the **** website desiring to "bring BioWare down", as I believe the thread said.

    This is the SOLE reasoning behind the plethora of negative user reviews. I'm certain a few are legitimate, but the vast majority are brought on by internet "trolls" from said website, most of whom likely haven't even a clue what they're reviewing and/or are just copying what others have said. I don't know how the Metacritic owners can rectify this, but a purging of the negative reviews and encouraging active users to resubmit their reviews might be the only way to ensure a fair and balanced representation of what people actually think.

    Why do I bother registering just to tell this? Because the game is great (though perhaps not entirely up to par with its predecessor), and deserves much better - any fair review will be more in lieu with those of the professional critics.

    Now, for an actual review; It's a different game than Dragon Age Origins, mostly for better and sometimes for worse. First of all, there's a new art style; veterans of the series will find that darkspawn, qunari and elves in particular look very different than their previous incarnations. These changes take some getting used to, and whether they're a positive thing will be up to personal preference.

    As for the combat, it has changed quite a bit; it's certainly more dynamic and engaging now than in the first game. Admittingly I haven't tried rogue gameplay much, but both warriors and mages have seen turns for the better; mages have much more appealing attack animations, warrior blows feel more sweeping, and tactics require a more practical and on-the-fly approach (your Whirlwind's gonna bring the hurt either way, but would you rather use it on the big baddie or wait until you might get swarmed by "normal" enemies?). Contrary to the first game, which relied a lot on auto-attacking and leaning back, each ability feels as though it contributes more to the battle.

    Two major changes are the conversation wheel and the fully voiced main character. As with the art style changes, both take some getting used to. Naturally it's nice to have a fully voiced character; however, in a way, I feel this limits the conversational options. Despite their improvements to the conversational wheel to properly indicate how you're going to respond, you never feel fully in charge of what's being said, which is an unwelcome change from the to-the-letter speech of DA1. Additionally, I can't help but feel that the "intent indicators" in the conversation wheel - most conversations will have a "pleasant", "witty" or "violent" response option - remove some of the moral ambiguity we had in the first game, where responses weren't explicitly labeled as "good guy" or "bad guy" and you actually had to think about and consider the moral implications of your choices. Though DA2 isn't as bad as the ME series in that regard (ie no Paragon/Renegade extremes), it's still possible to brainfart your way through 90% of the game's dialogue by clicking on the same place on the screen and hitting the same "intent" throughout. Another change I feel worth noting is the friendship/rivalry system, which has replaced the approval system. While Dragon Age featured a flat approval/disapproval system, in DA2, your companions will grow a friendship/rivalry with you depending on your actions. While the benefits of this are obvious (you don't outright alienate party members through disagreement, as it could happen it DA1), I still feel it could add more depth if it existed alongside an approval/disapproval system instead of outright replacing it. Your companions' reactions to your actions can feel a bit lackluster/strange at times because of the lack of flat approval/disapproval.

    In summary, the above "issues" are what dragged the game down from 9/10 or maybe even 10/10 for me. I'd probably rate DA:O 9/10 in comparison. That said, however, DA2 ia a great game in its own right. It contributes many great things and renovations to the series (loot-everything hotkey, anyone?!) and is overall a step forward. Everything else aside, it features BioWare's characteristic immersive storytelling and genius dialogue and expands the Dragon Age universe. Worth a playthrough for anyone, and twice so for fans of the first game in the series.    … Expand
  89. Diogenes4evr
    Mar 12, 2011
    4
    In a world where there already exists a Mass Effect 1 and 2 why would you buy a third; smaller, shorter, more repetitive and poorer version of it? Dragon Age is a great IP as demonstrated by Origins and DA2 could have been great. Longer and more in-depth quests with greater exploration could have made a mediocre game good; as it is the constant recycling of areas makes the story andIn a world where there already exists a Mass Effect 1 and 2 why would you buy a third; smaller, shorter, more repetitive and poorer version of it? Dragon Age is a great IP as demonstrated by Origins and DA2 could have been great. Longer and more in-depth quests with greater exploration could have made a mediocre game good; as it is the constant recycling of areas makes the story and characters carry the entire weight of this game and it's them that you will play through it for. Combat is repetitive and needs to either be more strategic or require better talent useage (the cool down times are far to long). Still very well written with solid characters and better than the majority of games out there but if you are looking for a BioWare masterpiece or a worthy successor to Origins; this is not it.… Expand
  90. vandro
    Mar 12, 2011
    0
    Less races, less skills, less hours of gaming, but more jumping, more killing, more speed. Meant to be a casual game for casual gamers. But looks like a game for people who like tu run amok.
  91. xLeTudex
    Mar 12, 2011
    10
    I really don't understand why this game has been rated low from so many people. Its a brilliant game! it has everything, great gameplay, an interesting story which is not predictable and doesnt feel linear, and the graphics are superb. Yes, the majority of the game is set in one town/city, but the variety of quests to be undertaken more than makes up for this. It may be different thanI really don't understand why this game has been rated low from so many people. Its a brilliant game! it has everything, great gameplay, an interesting story which is not predictable and doesnt feel linear, and the graphics are superb. Yes, the majority of the game is set in one town/city, but the variety of quests to be undertaken more than makes up for this. It may be different than Dragon Age Origins, but in my opinion, when taking everything into consideration, it is a much better game. It is the fantasy version of Mass Effect 2, and that got game of the year. Enough said, GET THIS GAME!… Expand
  92. Madval
    Mar 12, 2011
    1
    Simply a damn console game for inept inapt. The 1 was so much better. Fail bioware. As someone say : Boring, boring and boring ... Can't even compare it to DA:O not to mention BioWare's older RPG games. Incredible disappointment. No much more to say. Simply a damn console game for inept inapt. The 1 was so much better. Fail bioware. As someone say : Boring, boring and boring ... Can't evenSimply a damn console game for inept inapt. The 1 was so much better. Fail bioware. As someone say : Boring, boring and boring ... Can't even compare it to DA:O not to mention BioWare's older RPG games. Incredible disappointment. No much more to say. Simply a damn console game for inept inapt. The 1 was so much better. Fail bioware. As someone say : Boring, boring and boring ... Can't even compare it to DA:O not to mention BioWare's older RPG games. Incredible disappointment. No much more to say.… Expand
  93. FapFapFap
    Mar 12, 2011
    1
    EA rushed the game to capitalize on the success of the first one. This game sucks. They should call this Dragon Age 2: Errand Boy. Everything about this game is dumb down to appeal to a larger audience and to the console gamers. The interface looks like it was taken from Mass Effect. The characters are boring; where's Allistor when you need him. All the fine details of the original areEA rushed the game to capitalize on the success of the first one. This game sucks. They should call this Dragon Age 2: Errand Boy. Everything about this game is dumb down to appeal to a larger audience and to the console gamers. The interface looks like it was taken from Mass Effect. The characters are boring; where's Allistor when you need him. All the fine details of the original are gone, and what is left is a streamlined, dull, and repetitive sequel. If I wanted to play a japanese RPG, I'll play a freakin' japanese RPG. SCREW YOU EA!!!… Expand
  94. MattyIce82
    Mar 12, 2011
    10
    Truly a classic and can never be topped. Dragon Age II has got it all. Epic drama. Epic graphics. Epic situations. This game surpassed all my greatest expectations to become the best game I've played this gen.
  95. NetherWitch
    Mar 12, 2011
    9
    Probably one of the best narrative experiences out there, the story being dynamic and original. While there is great improvement over DA:Origins there are also great changes, but most of them improve the overall experience. The game isn't perfect but its a very enjoyable product. I recommend you consider the critics ratings over the users for this one, since it seem lots of trolls haveProbably one of the best narrative experiences out there, the story being dynamic and original. While there is great improvement over DA:Origins there are also great changes, but most of them improve the overall experience. The game isn't perfect but its a very enjoyable product. I recommend you consider the critics ratings over the users for this one, since it seem lots of trolls have flooded the ratings with 0-4 on pure principle...just because they didn't get what they wanted...
    DA2 is a little different but it doesn't make it a horrible game...if given a chance this DA2 is probably the game of 2011...    … Expand
  96. sgtStones
    Mar 12, 2011
    7
    Expectations are a b*tch. They have to be filtered out when trying to give some sort of a review...well at least to a point. A sentiment, not many users ( on metacritic anyway ) seem to share. I finished DA:O 6 times ( 4x on hard and twice on nightmare )... needless to say I love that game and I'm already thinking about the approach I'll take in the next playthrough.

    But now DA2 was    Expectations are a b*tch. They have to be filtered out when trying to give some sort of a review...well at least to a point. A sentiment, not many users ( on metacritic anyway ) seem to share. I finished DA:O 6 times ( 4x on hard and twice on nightmare )... needless to say I love that game and I'm already thinking about the approach I'll take in the next playthrough.

    But now DA2 was released and yes...the first 2hours of playing this long-awaited game, really disappointed me. I think that's when some people alt-tabbed to their browser, went on this site and had to let off some steam. The strange thing is, although things don't really get better as the game goes on, I still had fun with the game ( and I'm still having fun with it now ). But the moment my destined-to-be spirit healer pulls off moves like "the last airbender" I new that this won't live up to my expectations. Here are my cons: - Menu/Icon-Design really doesnt hold a candle to the beautiful art we saw in Dragon Age:origins....it looks like its been designed for a tron-movie-tie-in game
    - although Combat now looks much fancier, it's also much quicker, hence too chaotic at times and with top view removed it can be hard to keep track of everything thats happening
    - Enemies spawn into the battlefield, so you cant really tell how long a fight will go
    - Looting has lost a lot of its charm and restrictions concerning the equipment of your party members really takes away from the fun
    - the crafting system doesn't deserve the name
    - the skill trees and the associated restrictions are not to my taste - the gift mechanic has been changed dramatically, to the point of no recognition
    - it would also have been nice to see what the scale is on the friendship/rivalry bar, so that I know wtf 10 points in either direct are worth ( but I'm nitpicking, and I shall be the cop who stops it...erm me )
    - and yes: Carver is a douche ;)

    pros:
    - everything that reminds me of DA:O


    I was also a fan of Mass Effect. And in the beginning, I was disappointed in ME2 aswell. Mainly due to the ( severe ) dumbing down of the skill-system ( which wasnt the most complex to begin with ). But ME2 provided some new gameplay features, great graphics, much improved action and once more a great epic story with diverse characters, making it, in the end a superior successor. DA2 fails to deliver anything new to justify the "dumbing-down" ( or streamlining, as the industry would like to brand it ) making it inferior to its predecessor.

    But even DA 0.5 is still good game, and certainly better ( if not by much ) then most recent rpgs ( fable 4, Ego Draconis, TwoWorlds II ). It's DEFINATELY NOT A 4    … Expand
  97. Qwik
    Mar 12, 2011
    4
    Corrupt save files just like the last one. Game over Dragon Age. The game is OK story wise but so many corrupt game saves and just bad everything. It's a big miss on their part. I wish they would have taken 6 more months and actually came out with a quality experience.
  98. assmaster69
    Mar 12, 2011
    0
    I wrote a detailed review about all the things wrong with the game earlier, and gave it a score of three. This is a revision to balance out the bioware employees and shills giving it 10s.
  99. Hardlydan
    Mar 12, 2011
    10
    Don't listen to all the circle jerking Origins fanboys, Dragon Age 2 is a fantastic game. Ok so there is some recycling of environments but that isn't much of a problem when you consider the great story, music, characters and playability. As for the people saying that the game looks terrible, well they obviously need to go to the opticians or stop reviewing the demo. As for the peopleDon't listen to all the circle jerking Origins fanboys, Dragon Age 2 is a fantastic game. Ok so there is some recycling of environments but that isn't much of a problem when you consider the great story, music, characters and playability. As for the people saying that the game looks terrible, well they obviously need to go to the opticians or stop reviewing the demo. As for the people complaining about the lack of choice If you actually play the game you will find that the choices you make are in the dialogue, choices here effect the outcome of the game. Bioware chose to take this path in developing the game because it drives the narrative in a far better way than it would if you just chose in which direction to wander.

    All in all, in my opinion Dragon Age 2 is a fantastic game and quite possibly the best game I have played in the past few years.    … Expand
  100. peroxxi
    Mar 12, 2011
    4
    This game in crap. No exploration, tons of bugs, tons of more bugs, awful difficulty calibration, crappy graphics. They made this game in few months just because EA command it!
    It's turned to a great rpg to a casual action rpg.
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Awards & Rankings

67
#67 Best Xbox 360 Game of 2011
3
#3 Most Discussed Xbox 360 Game of 2011
19
#19 Most Shared Xbox 360 Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 75 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 55 out of 75
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 75
  3. Negative: 1 out of 75
  1. GamingExcellence
    Aug 3, 2011
    85
    I'll give Bioware points for trying to do something different in their world, but they really did have it right the first time in terms of character building and the scope of the story.
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  2. Gaming Nexus
    May 1, 2011
    75
    Faulty game mechanics and disappointing maps, combat scenarios and storyline direction aside, Dragon Age II still has a surprising amount of intrigue hidden beneath the blemishes. The depth of character relationships, as well as the complex nature of the world of the Dragon Age franchise are a savior to a game that would otherwise forever be remembered by its mistakes.
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  3. Game Chronicles
    Apr 22, 2011
    90
    Above all, it seems like Dragon Age II is an experiment. If you're a fan of the first game and expect a direct continuation, either in story or mechanics, you'll be disappointed. If you're not willing to put up with some rough edges and some mechanics that don't quite work as intended, you'll end up having a hard time. But if you're going for a game that has some of the best storytelling in RPGs in a while, or you're looking for a BioWare RPG to tide yourself over until Mass Effect 3, you won't do much better right now than Dragon Age II.
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