A strong game overall that is, nevertheless, several gigantic steps backward from it's predecessor.
The Good:
Allows you to explore a new area of the incredible setting that Dragon Age: Origins created. Entertaining dialog between your companion characters. Interesting political dynamics of the setting make for a fun departure from the usual "go kill the baddie and save the world" goals of most games in the genre. It is enjoyable to see your prestige and recognition within the main city grow over the course of the game. The new look to the Qunari is very impressive. Great voice acting and music.
The Bad:
No significant impact of any of the player choices throughout the game, including end-game choices. Almost an utter and complete lack of tie-ins to Dragon Age: Origins. Second major release by Bioware since Origins where you don't find out what happened to Morrigan. An incredible and unforgiveable amount of environment recycling. Overly simplified and dumbed down combat. Poor pacing to the main story. Tons of features taken out needlessly.
Dragon Age 2, despite what the name suggests, is not in any way a direct sequel to Dragon Age: Origins. If you were coming into this game hoping for more of the same type of experience that you got from Origins, then prepare to be disappointed. For better or for worse, Bioware has taken this franchise in a nearly complete 180 from the original title in this IP. This is a spinoff title rather than a continuation of the Origins storyline.
The first place to start when explaining that is by focusing on the enemy that you have faced thus far in both Origins and Awakenings. The Darkspawn are barely present at all in this sequel. While it might have been reasonable to expect Bioware to build upon the success of your Hero of Ferelden Warden from Origins, perhaps seeing him or her go after Morrigan or into the Deep Roads to take the fight directly to the Darkspawn (or at least find out more about them), that is not the direction that this game takes you in.
Instead, Dragon Age 2 casts you in the role of Hawke. Similar to how Bioware has handled the Mass Effect series, your hero is now fully voiced and your background is pretty much fully defined for you. Unlike in Origins where you are given six different background stories to choose from across three different playable races, your background as Hawke is entirely predetermined here. You are the eldest son of a minor noble from Lothering fleeing the destruction of that city by the invading Darkspawn hordes with your mother and two siblings. Without going into too much detail, you will eventually escape to the city of Kirkwall where you will spend the next 10 years of game time slowly rising to prominence as the city's "Champion".
This story is told via a series of flashbacks as one of your future companions, the dwarf Varric, tells the tale to an enraged Chantry Seeker who is desperate to find you for some unknown reason that will not be revealed until much later.
One thing that will immediately stand-out as a negative based on your first encounter with the Darkspawn during your escape from Lothering is the new visual style. Whereas before Darkspawn looked very scary and intimidating, perhaps somewhat akin to the Uruk Hai orcs from the Lord of the Ring movies, their look has changed to be far more cartoonish than evil now. Perhaps the closest description is that they look a bit like Skeletor from the old "He-Man" cartoon.
The very next thing you will notice about the game is the change in combat. Combat is both much easier, and much faster paced than in Origins. Similar to the Darkspawn, this too has something of a surreal and cartoonish feel to it. While Origins had more than its fair share of blood, gore and some very brutal finishing move animations, enemies in Dragon Age 2 very frequently quite literally explode when you kill them. This is very immersion killing if you are playing, say, a rogue and hit an enemy with your dagger only to watch them explode like they swallowed a live grenade.
Beyond that, the game's combat has been very obviously adjusted to appeal to a different breed of gamer that was targeted in its predecessor. Large scale encounters were certainly present in Origins, but much greater thought was put into them. In the sequel, you can expect the following formula for just about every battle in the game (of which there is an astonishing amount).
1. Kill first wave of (weak) enemies.
2. Second wave appears in many cases literally out of nowhere. They'll ninja down by parachute, just pop into place, or take any other conceivable method of literally appearing out of nowhere. Forget about positioning your mage or archer at the rear because chances are after you annihilate the first wave of enemies, the second will appear directly at your rear and begin assaulting your weakest party members.
3. Turn around, rush back and slaughter the group that materialized behind you and sometimes…
4. Watch more enemies ninja in and kill them too.
This isn't to say that combat doesn't have its strong points. Despite lacking the sophistication and much of the tactical thrill of the first game, it does have a very visceral feel to it that some of the sound effects really draw out well. Hit an enemy with a large two-handed maul and you can almost feel the thudding impact.
But it is in your very first combat that you start noticing missing elements. In Origins, different weapons had different advantages and disadvantages. For example, maces and axes did less damage overall than swords, but had much better armor penetration capabilities that made them very handy in situations against heavily armored opponents like Revenants. I kept my Warden character equipped with two sets of weapon combinations, whether it was sword and mace or perhaps sword and bow, switching to a different weapon set for different situations was a lot of fun.
In Dragon Age 2, this is simplified down to a single "Damage" number. Armor penetration is completely gone and you no longer have the ability to switch to your other equipment set with a click of a button. In fact, your ability to wield certain weapons PERIOD is completely removed. Did you enjoy playing a dual wielding warrior in Dragon Age: Origins? Or perhaps you liked playing an Archer type warrior? Well, neither of those options is available to you in Dragon Age 2. Weapons like daggers and bows are apparently beneath warrior standards and only the territory of rogues.
It is one in a long line of examples of things that were "streamlined" to keep folks "in the action" in Dragon Age 2.
Also gone is the ability to change your companions' armor beyond rings, belts and amulets. Each companion you obtain during the course of your journey will have one single set of armor that they will continue to wear without fail for the next ten years of their lives. You can find and purchase various upgrades to their armor, but you will never be able to equip them with any of the many sets of boots, helmets, gauntlets or armors that you find.
In theory, this change is intended both to streamline the experience and have you spending less time in menu screens and shops and also to lend a distinctive feel for each character as described by lead designer Mike Laidlaw.
"The key driver behind it was the idea of unique visuals, being able to have Isabela stay Isabela instead of generic rogue put into the same leather armor your character is wearing. It lets us create a visual space between Hawke and the companions. And it gives the companions their own personalities [in the form of] unique body models and animations that are tied to how they idle--simple stuff like Aveline and the way she stands with more of a straightforward stance as opposed to the cocked hip Isabela has and so on. The overall goal there was to keep the companions in a place where they had more personality, but still provide customization in terms of amulets and rings, because having things like fire resistance is important."
In practice, this came across as stifling to this reviewer. It was like a parent dictating what their kid would wear to school because "you'd make the wrong choices" if the parent let you choose for yourself. Often times, part of the fun of an RPG is finding that right balance between pleasing aesthetics and functionality as you outfit your party.
Still, Dragon Age 2 is not at all without its own charms. Upon your arrival in Kirkwall, you are presented with a very grandiose city with a beautiful art style different from anything that was seen in Origins, and you are thrust into a political dynamic that is far more complex than simply raising an army to fight off the invading hordes of Darkspawn from the first game.
Kirkwall is a city in the "Free Marches" of Thedas, a loosely allied collection of city-states somewhat analogous to the city-states of ancient Greece. Kirkwalls history and background are explored at great length through various books and conversations that you have throughout the course of the game, but it is the modern situation that drives so much of the game's narrative. The modern situation is a dangerous political minefield composed of the ruling Viscount, the Templars under the Knight-Commander, the Circle of Mages and the dangerous presence of a Qunari force under their Arishok.
You, as Hawke, are in many ways quite similar to pouring gasoline on an open flame. In particular as you rise to prominence, each group actively starts seeking your favor and support. It is here that the game really shines at times as the political dynamics are much more intricate than anything that Origins had to offer. The companions that accompany you on this journey are entertaining and amusing bunch, particularly when talking with each other. While the dialog trees for Hawke's interaction with the characters aren't particularly deep, especially when you consider the game-time of 10 full years to get to know them, their interactions with each other as you run back and forth across the city are lively and entertaining.
It is a good thing that this is the case, because you will spend nearly all of your time within Kirkwall. This is a big departure from the traditional Bioware model where you have four or five unique "hubs" to visit that are extremely differentiated from each other. On the rare occasions that you do leave, you should expect to revisit the same dungeon over and over and over again. Of all the criticisms that could be applied to this game, nothing stands out more than the recycled maps and environments.
Whether it was the short development time or an intentional cost-cutting measure, the amount of times you revisit the same dungeon from a slightly different angle is outright unforgiveable, particularly from a company with Bioware's reputation. It very clearly and distinctly felt like a decision to cash-in on Bioware's brand name to bring in the sales by pushing the game out fast rather than taking extra time to develop a more expansive setting.
In perhaps a related development, Bioware disappoints on the exciting promise of political thrills and intrigue that they have set the stage for in their city by a singular and unfortunate lack of anything resembling a branching storyline arc. While at times some of the choices SEEM significant, in practice you will not make a single critical choice that leads to a differentiated outcome in the entire game. No matter whom you choose to side with over the course of the game, you will ultimately end up with the exact same end result.
This dynamic extends beyond the big-picture choices as well. At one point in the game, you have the option of allowing a mage to use blood magic to help find and rescue an important character that has gone missing. If you forego the option to use blood magic, then the search will take more time and, presumably, the character will be unable to be rescued. However, if you do allow the use of blood magic to aid you, presumably it will lead to some dire consequences
Unfortunately, like nearly every single other choice in the game, this is entirely illusionary. In practice, it makes zero difference whether you use it or not. The end result of this subquest, just like the ending of the game, proceeds in exactly the same fashion regardless of what you choose.
Compare this to one example from Dragon Age: Origins. Let's look at the situation with Redcliffe. You go there to secure the aid of Arl Eamon against Loghain and the Darkspawn only to find that contact with the city is cut off and undead are besieging the village.
Choice#1 – Help the village or don't.
If you help the village, you can save lives and even be rewarded with the presence of some knights at the castle later on helping you get through a difficult fight. If you abandon them and come back later, the villagers all die and you get no help from the knights.
Branching of Choice#1 – How you help the village.
You can try and convince the blacksmith to make weapons and armor, or just kill him and loot his shop. You can lie to the Knights and say that the Maker is behind them, and raise their morale but tick off some religious folks in the process, etc.
Either way you choose, you eventually can get access to the castle. In the castle you encounter the blood mage who caused this. He openly admits to tutoring the Arl's mage son in secret in defiance of turning him over to the Circle and poisoning the Arl. He also happens to be your friend from the Mage Origin if you're playing a mage character.
Choice#2 – Free the mage or don't.
If you free the mage, he'll be available to help you with the possessed son later. If you don't, he won't.
Choice#3 – Kill the possessed boy or try and rescue him?
Branching of Choice#3 If you freed the mage, he can send you into the fade using blood magic if someone else die's to fuel his powers. The mother volunteers. Alternatively, if you've already done the Circle of Magi hub they owe you and can send you into the fade with lyrium. Either way, this leads you to…
Choice#4 – Do you cure the Arl or not? This leads you to another choice.
Choice#5 – Side with the Cult of Andraste or not?
Choice#6 – Allow the location of the Ashes of Andraste to be known to Brother Genitivi or not?
And so on and so forth.
You get the idea. The game has real choices and real consequences. These do not exist in Dragon Age 2. Your decisions, and how the story proceeds, are completely unrelated. Even the simple matter of your choice of character class, which should have major impacts if you choose a mage considering the political situation in Kirkwall, go unnoticed for the most part.
And at the end of the game, your choices have no impact upon the cliffhanger that the game ends upon either. Presumably, there will be DLC or an expansion that will tie off a few of the loose ends that dangle as you roll to the credits of Dragon Age 2. Even more hopefully, this DLC or Expansion will be free, because if it is to be bought and paid for it will certainly feel like content that should have been an Act 4 of this title.
Closing Remarks
Dragon Age 2 is a good game overall if you can ignore the blemishes, but it suffers considerably when compared to its formidable predecessor. Many of the design decisions and the implementation upon those decisions are troubling and stripped down. The setting feels cramped and the game rushed. This results in a vastly disappointing game to carry the revered Bioware name. It is this reviewer's ardent hope that this game represents an aberration rather than the norm for future Bioware releases.