Overwhelming storyline, retarded combat system, pulling chars from DA:O to bring the former glory to the sequel, a soundtrack just as uninteresting as in DA:O, graphics not even close to that of the previous game, I'd say DA2 isn't worth much of anything.
It seems like every nug-humping dust-eater from the Undercity to the Viscount's Keep wants to screw me over just so I'd have to make a tough decision. More than 80% of the storyline left me in disdain, shouting: "Oh, come on!" While there were some very interesting aspects, the execution is ridiculous. Seriously, Bioware? Talking to companions is now a quest? And I can only do it in their homes, even though they're already in my actual party at the same moment? Applause for the idiot who thought of that. The companions' reactions (most of the time) can't be "fortold" like in DA:O, so the scale of friend/rival (lol) is somewhat unpredictable. In DA:O companions had actual reaction to what you do; here they just comment on something you said and most of the time it doesn't even affect the conversation at all (Merill's comments are so funny and innocent, but nobody payed any attention to it, not even the main character, where I wanted to start a romance between him and Merill).
Combat system is designed to make the most important part of the game easy. Seriously, it was "press X to win". With the habits I picked up in DA:O there was no boss that could kill anyone of my companions, not even the High Dragon in the Bone Pit, or even Meredith herself. Special move here=instant kill, special move there= instant kill, this spell=instant kill, that spell=instant kill... No wonder the game constantly throws new gangs at me, I keep clearing their bases one by one easily between other missions, lol. Me forcing strategies and habits from DA:O upon the sequel makes this game utterly uninteresting, since I really didn't want to play it out as a hack&slash game. Nevertheless, there are some sweet animations when it comes to rogues (even though half the time I couldn't see anything because of the stupid camera in tight spaces acting on its own, not to mention the fact that characters get stuck into what little environment we do have in DA2, go through walls and fall down cliffs and stairs...
Anders, Zevran, Alistair, Flemeth, Leliana, that bold guy from Lothering with his poison traps... Seriously? I suspected Leliana whould come up as soon as I heard the accent of the Seeker at the very beginning, but her appearance was intriguing indeed. Alistair appearing for five minutes reminded me of how much the graphics pale in comparison to the first game, not to mention that there seriously is no humor in DA2 (yes, Bioware, we know that swooping is bad, and Alistair dislikes it). Anders acts like a girl, not to mention that he doesn't look like himself at all; and if I'm not mistaken, even the voicework wasn't the original one form Awakening. I haven't met Zevran during the first playthrough, but I know I read somewhere that he appears too. Flemeth has no part in this game beside her first appearance, which, again, doesn't make sense, as I already mentioned in another thread. If the champion's family was fleeing darkspawn from Lothering, this should have been in the timeline between the destruction of the village and the point where Morrigan asks you to kill Flemeth, where she kept her appearance in DA:O but was changed in DA2. lol
For music enthusiasts, the DA2 soundtrack is not much of an improvement over DA:O, that's all I can say. It can still be somewhat interesting to listen to outside of the game, but after a few plays it just ended up in a box with the rest I have ripped to my PC and never listen to unless I'm in a good mood.
To be continued? bleh, do I have to?
LOL - Did we miss the quest in the Main Plot - A New Home?
