Dragon Age 2 delivers on its promises, even if it can't outdo its predecessor.
The story in Dragon Age: Origins follows Bioware's typical setup, three main quests that make up the bulk of the game and then a finale. In Dragon Age 2 takes a different approach. The story is told by the way of framed narrative. The Seeker of the chantry is interrogating your main dwarven party member Varric about the events up to the Champion quelling the strife in Kirkwall. It is rather interesting to see how he embellishes on certain things in his retelling only to find out how they really happen when you play though the game. On the other hand it seems a bit of a letdown because you aren't playing towards a goal. You can import your save from Dragon Age: Origins but don't expect anything drastic. You will see some references to your actions but not much beyond that. There really isn't much of an epic conclusion either, just a setup for speculation. You do get to see familiar faces throughout. You meet Flemeth (aka the Witch of the Wilds) for example. Problem is that you are left scratching your head as to why you completed her task in the first place, only to see her fly away into the horizon. Not always the case but Bioware could have done a better job tying up loose ends. While the narrative and voice acting do a great job, the story to which they are tied only seems like a stepping stone for the series instead of a full fledged sequel.
Gameplay has also changed for the sequel as well. Gone are the days of slow paced, deliberately planned pause and play tactics. For the sequel they changed it to directly controlled fast paced visceral combat. While this is a welcome addition for console gamers, it alienates the PC crowd. While the PC version of the game does support the pause and play, its pointless because you no longer have a isometric view of the battlefield. It seems as though the combat, and speech systems were set up for a gamepad. Since PC version does not support gamepad functionality, it leaves you playing with clunky mouse and keyboard controls. Personally I prefer the change in combat because I don't own a powerful gaming PC, only a Playstation 3 and an Xbox 360. However I feel that Bioware should have made some accommodations for players on the PC.
Playing the game has changed some but most of the core mechanics remain intact. The choices you make still affect the way the story turns out. The speech system has been overhauled to resemble something along the lines of Mass Effect. A very welcome edition is a fully voiced character with facial emotion, instead of a list of responses of which no matter what you pick, your character stares stupidly into space. The choices are relatively easy to figure out by the symbol in the center of the wheel. Problem is that sometimes there are multiple symbols for the same expression so you may be confused in the beginning of the game but if you consult your game manual, they have the descriptions of the symbols listed there. You can still set up and customize tactics for your party members, but sometimes they fail to do the actions you set out to do and can lead to some frustrating moments. Overall they are pretty good about doing what they are supposed to do. Controlling your characters remains largely untouched. Combat still plays out the same as it did in Origins on the consoles, but is more precise and fast paced. The action wheel still works well if playing as a mage with a ton of spells, and the warrior/rogue classes still work to great effect as well.
Graphics wise the game has improved. Characters have a higher amount of detail overall, with more detailed armor, textures, and even the blood spatter is sharper. Environments look good but suffer from some low res textures, but still trump the visuals of Origins. My biggest problem though is how much the environments are recycled which is too bad. I spent the entirety of the game playing through the same environments with certain paths blocked off and certain ones opened up to accommodate my current quest. Not really a big gripe, but I was really looking forward to seeing how Bioware was going to utilize their new art style and direction. Some of the characters have been redesigned such as the darkspawn, elves, and the familiar faces. The elves actually have a more distinguishable difference between the humans other than pointy ears. The darkspawn have been redesigned as well giving them a more "Army of Darkness" look to them.
Sound is as you'd expect. An epic score and excellent voice acting and sound effects really sell the experience. Some of the dialogue does get repetitive during battle, but no more so in comparison to Origins. Like I said earlier it really is a welcome addition that the main character Hawke has a voice. All of it is expertly acted and pulls you in to the experience which allows for more believable character interaction throughout the game. A wide range of sound effects during combat keep the action fresh.
Overall between platforms each version plays pretty much the same. The Xbox and PS3 versions play better than Origin's did on the consoles. The PS3 still has some stuttering issues but not nearly as bad as its predecessor did. The Xbox's visuals improved as it was the ugliest version of it's predecessors. The PC still reigns at the top as far as technical specs go as it does have support for Direct X 11 which gives smoother visuals and less texture pop in. Gameplay goes to the consoles in this round for reasons I stated above however.
Overall Dragon Age 2 delivers. It gives a great action RPG feel with a decent story, and great narrative/lore. While some of its new elements make it more playable for console gamers, it alienates fans of the original on the PC. But this isn't the review for the PC version is it?