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. Hendriksen
    Jun 6, 2013
    0
    Have you ever played Dragon age Origins and felt you liked it? well dont g here, its the direct opposition of Origins.

    Nothing Works: Bad story, bland or boring characters and nothing to care about.

    Every thing is a mess.
  2. Aidana2010
    Jul 19, 2013
    0
    This is the most disgusting and miserable game that I played. I did not expect this from Bioware!
    A terrible battle animation, faceless companions, horrible redesign of the elves. I have no words that would express how disappointed me this trash!
  3. brips
    Aug 7, 2013
    0
    It's unfortunate that this game was such a supreme disappointment, especially since the first Dragon Age was hailed as the glorious revival of the old-school fantasy RPG genre. The visuals and character designs are all a giant step back, as they are somehow markedly worse than it's predecessor and everyone looks like they're fresh off the pages of an independent comic book from the 90s.It's unfortunate that this game was such a supreme disappointment, especially since the first Dragon Age was hailed as the glorious revival of the old-school fantasy RPG genre. The visuals and character designs are all a giant step back, as they are somehow markedly worse than it's predecessor and everyone looks like they're fresh off the pages of an independent comic book from the 90s. The combat feels more like a dumbed down Dynasty Warriors knockoff than anything that belongs in an RPG, and the strategic aspect has been left to the wayside as the solution to most encounters is to mash buttons against constantly respawning hordes.

    All of this would be forgivable, however, if the most important parts of any RPG were handled well: plot and characters. Unfortunately these aspects are once again nothing but a disappointment. The story is centered around one single, lifeless city that you aren't given a reason to care about and most, if not all characters seem like they were intended to only appeal to the one who created them. Nobody in your party is sympathetic or relatable in any way as they seem like gross caricatures who constantly act in extremes.

    I'm not sure who this game was made for. Fans of the first game will be put off because of the myriad changes that make the experience radically different in ways no one wanted. Fans of the RPG genre itself will be put off because game plays like an uninspired hack and slash title from a decade ago and the story is a jumbled mess that constantly trips over itself in attempts to be edgy and extreme. That, coupled with the fact that development was clearly handled by Bioware's B-team make the entire affair come across as a soulless cash grab.    … Expand
  4. siamoinballo
    Jan 19, 2014
    0
    Do not buy it. It's a s**t without any sense... It's not an RPG it's a poor arcade game unable to give you anything just leave it on the shop shelf. I don't understand: is there a connection between the creation of the origin platform and the sharp deterioration of the games produced by electronic arts? The witcher 2 it's thousand times better
  5. cidgrad01
    Dec 31, 2013
    0
    This game is not only one of the most disappointing sequels ever made but a terrible RPG overall, to boot. It feels like a rush job EA ordered Bioware to put on the market to fill the void in their schedule before Mass Effect 3 came out. If you did not play the first Dragon Age game, you might think this is okay, at best. If you loved the first game, however, you’ll most likely find DragonThis game is not only one of the most disappointing sequels ever made but a terrible RPG overall, to boot. It feels like a rush job EA ordered Bioware to put on the market to fill the void in their schedule before Mass Effect 3 came out. If you did not play the first Dragon Age game, you might think this is okay, at best. If you loved the first game, however, you’ll most likely find Dragon Age 2 an abomination worthy of being hunted down by Templars.

    There is no continuation of any loose threads from the DA: Origins story other than a few characters making lame cameo appearances. This despite a cliffhanger ending where Morrigan (and possibly your Warden character, with her) disappear through a mirror portal to an unknown location. Instead of bothering with any of that stuff, Bioware thought you might enjoy playing the life of Hawke, a refugee who ends up in the city of Kirkwall and stays as far away from the plot of DAO as possible. So what does he do? Well…nothing, really. Just wanders around Kirkwall & its environs.

    To give you something to compare this to, imagine that the second Lord of the Rings movie decided to take a break from all that heavy stuff about Frodo, the One Ring, Sauron, etc and instead followed the life of a guard in the village of Bree. That’s what Dragon Age 2 is like.

    This is doubly disappointing since the story & characters in DA2 are completely uninteresting and silly. It’s like reading fan fiction. There are a few returning, minor characters from the first game who were pretty cool there but are ruined by Dragon Age 2’s dull-witted dialogue & stupid plot choices that cannot be changed no matter what. Oh and pretty much everybody but Hawke’s sister and the dwarf guy are bisexual, which again, is silly and seems designed by a 10-year old boy: “I want male or female Hawke to be able to have sex with everybody!”

    The game tries to pretend like your choices make a difference but they ultimately don’t. The first game explored a very complex relationship between Templars & mages. DA2 turns everything DAO spent telling you about this relationship on its head. DA2 wants to paint a portrait of Templars just being jerks while mages are poor victims who should be set free. Except that every time you side with a mage over a Templar, the mage decides to turn into an evil demon to gain more power. This includes the head enchanter during the final part of the game. To me, that seems pretty conclusive proof that maybe the Templars are right. There isn’t anyone to root for and you end up killing pretty much everybody.

    The atrocity doesn’t stop at the story & characters, unfortunately. Gameplay is broken as all you need to do is talent up the dwarf’s crossbow damage. I literally ended up running around & spamming the attack button in every fight, including bosses. I barely even needed to heal myself except during a few fights. A huge letdown from DAO’s combat system that was very strategic and required you to pay attention to what you were doing to beat many groups of enemies.

    The most unforgivable sin this game makes, though, is that of its reused environments. It’s bad enough the story takes place over several decades, giving Bioware an excuse to drudge up the same old environment maps after a “10 year later” subtitle. However, they also reuse the exact same maps for supposedly different areas. One, in particular, is the “cave map” that appears whenever you go inside a cave dungeon. It’s not supposed to be the same cave every time, but IT IS the same cave. They don’t even do palette swaps or rearrange any items. The most they do will be to block off section of the map or start you from the opposite end to try and make it feel fresh. Ditto for the “mansion map” and “underground map”. It’s the laziest thing I’ve ever seen in a game, especially for a AAA budget game.

    To recap: uninteresting gameplay, terrible story, stupid characters, and walking again & again through literally the same maps for 30+ hours. If that sounds like fun, have at it. As far as I’m concerned, though, the Dragon Age franchise is dead well before its time.    … Expand
  6. DAOuser
    Sep 24, 2013
    0
    Patético. Como juego es pésimo: la historia no es mala, pero está muy mal llevada, repetición de áreas ad infinitum (y más allá), detalles muy poco cuidados. Aburrido y repetitivo hasta la saciedad, con un combate simplificado a más no poder y un inventario de risa. Llamarlo rpg es insultar al género del rol. Ignoro cómo pudo alguien pensar que después de empezar una saga con algo tanPatético. Como juego es pésimo: la historia no es mala, pero está muy mal llevada, repetición de áreas ad infinitum (y más allá), detalles muy poco cuidados. Aburrido y repetitivo hasta la saciedad, con un combate simplificado a más no poder y un inventario de risa. Llamarlo rpg es insultar al género del rol. Ignoro cómo pudo alguien pensar que después de empezar una saga con algo tan bueno como DA:O y luego cambiar el formato hasta convertirlo en algo como ésto, iba a ser una buena idea.… Expand
  7. mikhailmaldonag
    Jul 7, 2014
    0
    I love DA: Origins and win the game in nightmare 10 times, with full Achievement.

    Este juego es por mucho uno de los peores RPG que me tocó jugar. Ni siquiera es un RPG, no tiene el menor sentido, usaron algunos elementos del Origins (que si es un buen juego) sin siquiera usar la atmósfera del primer juego. Nada de lo que uno espera. Agregar variantes y cambios en la mecánica puede    I love DA: Origins and win the game in nightmare 10 times, with full Achievement.

    Este juego es por mucho uno de los peores RPG que me tocó jugar. Ni siquiera es un RPG, no tiene el menor sentido, usaron algunos elementos del Origins (que si es un buen juego) sin siquiera usar la atmósfera del primer juego.

    Nada de lo que uno espera. Agregar variantes y cambios en la mecánica puede ser "Excelente" (Biohazard 3 - Biohazard 4) pero en este caso fue patético. El juego es extremadamente fácil en "Pesadilla", el 90% del tiempo tengo a mi equipo atrás, lejos de la pelea y a mi personaje pegando y curandose cuando necesita.

    La dificultad y la inteligencia artificial es patética. Hay 2 formas de jugar: pegar, pegar y pegar o pegar, pegar, usar habilidad, pegar, pegar. Si por algún misterioso motivo llegas a perder suficiente vida como para morir, solo tenes que correr en circulos, en solo 2 horas de juego ( las 2 más aburridas) tenes todo el dinero necesario para comprarte los primeros items, que sorprendentemente dado lo facil del juego, sirven hasta la mitad sin problemas.

    MALISIMO. Es tan malo que tuve que loguearme luego de años a metacritic a criticarlo y salvar a cualquier latino que llegue a tirar dinero en esta basura. :D    … Expand
  8. silverwolf42
    Oct 21, 2017
    0
    Worst sequel ever. A game done without any passion, shallow characters, boring story, recycled levels and music, no connection to Origins at all... it's sad, the first one was so good and they just screwed it up.
  9. Kriss_A
    Jul 4, 2014
    0
    A terrible game overall. I could take the time to talk about all it's terrible flaws, but I don't think metacritic.com can afford enough bandwidth to support all that text.
    - terrible reused, low quality level design
    - atrocious agenda driven writing - shoehorned romances with 0 plot relevance + Nice combat animations - terrible character and item design - overly linear for a RPG -    A terrible game overall. I could take the time to talk about all it's terrible flaws, but I don't think metacritic.com can afford enough bandwidth to support all that text.
    - terrible reused, low quality level design
    - atrocious agenda driven writing
    - shoehorned romances with 0 plot relevance
    + Nice combat animations
    - terrible character and item design
    - overly linear for a RPG
    - childish sense of morality
    - terrible DLC policy    … Expand
  10. Winterspark
    Dec 28, 2014
    0
    Boring, repetitive, pointless. The point of this game seems to be trotting around with a bunch of dull characters pressing the same button, over and over and over and over and over... Meanwhile little numbers float out of peoples heads and then you die and rinse and repeat.
  11. tazz29
    Jun 15, 2015
    0
    This is one of the worst games I've played. Repeated dungeons/landscapes that made me question whether I'd already played the quest before, cliche characters, a story arc containing you to a predetermined outcome, weak, Twlight-ish dialogue that sounds like it's straight from Creative writing Beginners class, and you can't even customize characters' armour, other than for Hawke. I stoppedThis is one of the worst games I've played. Repeated dungeons/landscapes that made me question whether I'd already played the quest before, cliche characters, a story arc containing you to a predetermined outcome, weak, Twlight-ish dialogue that sounds like it's straight from Creative writing Beginners class, and you can't even customize characters' armour, other than for Hawke. I stopped half way and uninstalled it. Dragon Age Origins is superior in every way.… Expand
  12. Luizzrz
    Jun 20, 2015
    0
    Think about everything that's sh!tty and insert it here, that's Dragon Age 2 folks.
    OBS: Even though that, the graphics are okay and the world is very stylish.
  13. akamrboone
    Nov 15, 2015
    0
    Pros: the skill trees were much more interesting and intuitive, a great improvement over the first game imo.

    Cons: Literally everything else. The characters are mildly entertaining at best and the plot line / sub-plot lines all seem like they were developed by 4 different story-boarding teams and then thrown together last minute. the dlcs weren't too amazing either. Also, as if    Pros: the skill trees were much more interesting and intuitive, a great improvement over the first game imo.

    Cons: Literally everything else. The characters are mildly entertaining at best and the plot line / sub-plot lines all seem like they were developed by 4 different story-boarding teams and then thrown together last minute. the dlcs weren't too amazing either.

    Also, as if anyone who has played the game needs me to point it out, holy repetitive environments! I am aware that every developer is guilty of copy/pasting set pieces, but Bioware doesn't even do that in DA2. They legit send you back to the same places, just with different invisible walls, or a fancy 90 degree turn.    … Expand
  14. Reed618
    Mar 15, 2017
    0
    This game really stuck with me as an example of reviewer bias. In the years since i've become suspicious of ign, gamespot and any other reviewer that would lie to avoid angering bioware. This game reused environments again and again, there was no sense of consequence for your actions and sidequests undertaken for your party had no payoff. The story didn't make sense either, it was a realThis game really stuck with me as an example of reviewer bias. In the years since i've become suspicious of ign, gamespot and any other reviewer that would lie to avoid angering bioware. This game reused environments again and again, there was no sense of consequence for your actions and sidequests undertaken for your party had no payoff. The story didn't make sense either, it was a real struggle to finish this game. It was just so repetitive and joyless. Like most people I love mass effect 1 and 2 but bioware have made some questionable choices with their other titles.… Expand
  15. Swimming4Ten
    Jul 15, 2022
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The fact that this game claims that it's a Dragon Age game, but it doesn't have the option of changing your race. Your forced to be a human. The storyboard writer that said this game was a good idea probably shouldn't be a writer for anything. I didn't care about my companions, in fact I made it a goal to kill them all by the end of the game. Except Varrik.… Expand
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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

All reviews »
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.
    Read full review
  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.
    Read full review
  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.
    Read full review
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