Dragon Age 2, 6/10
Dragon Age 2 might have fared better being labeled as a spin-off. It plays around with a lot of experimentals and limits you tremendously. When I play a traditional RPG, very much like DA:O was, I decide within the first 4 or 5 hours of the game exactly who my character is, where he comes from and what he thinks of the world. That is, simply put, not possible here.
First of all I’d like to comment on the story. I felt something in this game that I’ve never felt before in any other RPG and that’s feeling completely unmotivated to think about my decision. Besides one or two minor influences, you basically have no control over your game, and sadly the decision making of an RPG game is almost non-existent here. I know it’s already been explained before, but what bothered me is that I don’t even have to worry about what decisions I make really because my party members seldom have responses to them, and the worst thing that can happen when making a bad decision is that one of my party members can hate me and subsequently gains a buff, which is fucking queer. This is by far the worst story there has been in any BioWare game that I’ve played.
Speaking of characters, at times they feel like stiff cardboard figures who only speak because devs forced them to. You can’t initiate massive conversations about lore/otherwise with your party members, except for when they decide to speak to you when you visit their homes. Even in this, your options are very limited as to where you can lead a conversation even though there will probably always be an option that angers and one that delights your party member.
The conversation wheel is an improvement but for two small details. Each convo option has a symbol next to it that shows what response/emotion your dialogue will evoke in the adressed person. The second thing is that the phrase representing a much longer dialogue in the wheel sometimes doesn’t really convey what you will say when you select it.
Gameplay, like a lot of other things in DA2, is very opinion driven. BioWare decided that they want DA2 to be played as either a traditional RPG or a more modern action RPG. Unfortunately this made them fall short on both accounts. Fighting is much more fast paced and ridiculous. Fighting with a rogue means doing sort of ballet/Jackie Chan midair spins which reminds me of Bayonetta. I really didn’t like this system. What made DA:O so great for me was the level of realism it managed to maintain in a fantastical medieval setting. I just cannot have that in DA2 when my tank fight with a massive greatsword but does twirlies midfight and hits the enemy 3 times in 2 seconds, while wearing armour heavy enough to pin down a horse. Armour doesn’t slow your character down?
The interface looks a lot better than DA:O, however you cannot customize your party members as much as you’d like. It is truly ridiculous in my opinion that you can’t choose your party’s attire. It’s incredibly boring and numbing to see a member of your team dressed the same way for 38 hours.
The environment is once more superbly boring. There are basically 5 templates that just repeat and repeat and repeat. These 5 templates also actually look alike in a way as well. How can you expect a player to fully enjoy a long game (25 hours minimum) if every setting looks alike?
It also blatantly rides on inspiring characters from DA:O, and you really feel like these were forced into the latter stages of DA2 just to acknowledge the player who also played DA:O and to tell him that the story from DA:O will probably be continued in the next instalment. They try so hard to distance the game from Ferelden but at the same time they implement elements from that area.
The only way I could make myself enjoy this game was through the side quests. They are really much better than Origins side quests from a story and continuation POV, even though they seem rather irrelevant to the main plot.
All in all, when compared to other BioWare titles and specifically DA:O, DA2 simply doesn’t quite cut it. It’s shit, in that respect, and will most likely find its fandom to be much different than the one DA:O has. It just really feels like a completely different game, which is bad.
Although, look at DA2 as a standalone title without comparing it to other BioWare games and you will actually find it’s a pretty decent game. One which I will probably play again in the near future, but not before I replayed DA:O. Twice.
! It was more EPIC than the ending to ME2 
!
