Hollow, no substance and much different than its predecessor...sequel fail no question!
To be completely honest the game surprised me..and not in a good way, I thought it would be at least a 7 or the 8 critics claim it to be type game, but it failed to even score that in my book!
There's much to be said about DA2, and you've probably heard a lot already. But in the end, the fact is that many of the players who loved the mature and detailed nature of Origins, were disappointed with this game. Yet, the game found many new fans; and many old ones were just unimpressed, I belong to the latter group
With that being said, let me just highlight the main observation that made this game a disappointment of a sequel to its predecessor:
-Story line: game starts very slow after intro segment, the main character is merely a cleaner of street full of thug, babysit of your companions and assist anyone in the city.
DA2 not nearly as engaging as DA:O The moral choices presented in DA2 are much less thought provoking than in Origins. And they really have very little impact. At least much less than they had in Origins. No longer it's an "oh I wonder what the consequences to that decision going to be or, I'm really having a hard time picking between to equally tough choices but with very different outcomes" , it is unchallenging and the story is so un-epic, long winded and uninteresting that you'll start wondering why you are playing half way into the game, in comparison DA:O had riveting and epic story from beginning to end, it may have been a unoriginal but it was brilliant to say the least.
The story isn't as rich and immersive as Origins' quest to stop the Blight of Ferelden. Since DA2 takes place over 10 years the story is broken into chapters that highlight important moments. Unfortunately it just makes the game feel like a series of short episodes instead of one long journey.
-Game play: if you're good with a more direct approach towards hack and slash, first-person shooter actiony game-play, and don't care for the more "slow" elements of Origins (which I as many others love to death), then you just might be the right audience for this one, and the game is almost entirely made up of side quests, there's No more customizing armor, combat choices are very limited and the blood is overdone in my opinion, not to mention the Nauseating, repetitive level design, 1 cave, 1 city..etc, you also no longer have the combat versatility you had in origins you just control your main character and the others take care of themselves no skill, no fun it's just very boring to say the least.
-Characters: character are shallow and unoriginal, and you feel no emotional connection to them, they're stereotypes that are given little to no depth or just poorly written in general, There simply isn't a character as interesting as Alistair or Morrigan in DA2, and the dialogue is robotic at best, some reviewer suggested that it was written by "the writers on the Jersey Shore!!" and I can see why...you have 3 options of what to say, something good, something threatening or something "funny". If you want to feel seriously awkward , choose the "funny" option...but overall you're often finding yourself thinking: WHAT?..DID Hawke just say that?!!...you get the picture.
In summary, I give this game a 4 and I'm being really generous here.. Now, had it been named something other than Dragon Age I may have given it a 6 or 7..I mean the graphics are decent and it's not the worse story out there after all, but, because it is a sequel to DA:O not a whole new game.. I honestly think it's was Sequel fail.