You are much kinder to Dragon Age II than I am.
I completely recognize its flaws (maybe not totally so in my review, but certainly in my own mind), but I can forgive many of them because I wasn't looking for much. DA2 was a very basic package, but when I was busy with school, it provided a simple escape that allowed me to clear my mind.
Had I gone into the game wanting much more than what it was, then yeah, I would have fucking destroyed it.
Feel free to rant away on the game though. What else was bad about it?
I think by and large, you nailed the main issues. I had played Dragon Age: Origins previously to playing Dragon Age 2, in order to get a different end save-data to play with, and I think that may have really ruined the sequel to me.
I went in expecting a finished, polished product that provided an epic fantasy feel. What I got was a terribly rushed, half-assed game that did a few things right, but left everything else fall to the side.
While the combat is certainly much more fun and more interesting in the sequel (even if it's a little button-mashy if you're a TWF Rogue, on consoles at least where they, for some stupid-ass reason disabled the 'auto-attack' feature PC gamers get), and is probably the most improved aspect of the game, it isn't without some jarring flaws.
Difficulty is jerky at best of times - you can utterly breeze through many areas and then suddenly there'll be a near-random encounter that will just annihilate you, and it comes completely out of nowhere. Further, positioning and tactics are by and large laughable in the sequel, as enemies
rain from the sky usually in the exact positions where it would be smart to put your mages to blast baddies.
You already mentioned how ruins all share the same two maps (one of them being the Deep Roads!) same with caves and towns and warehouses and what not, but are only separated by throwing a lazy-ass stone block in a doorway.
The characters which aren't Aveline, Varric, and perhaps Isabella are laughably one-dimensional (Anders can all but be summed up as 'WAHHH THE MAGES' while Varric summarizes Fenris handily: 'I hate you all! I was a slave! Grr!' and I can tell you the exact reason why they come off so poorly - you can't actually talk to them, save at a few canned junctures. Because of this, characters whose dialogue is almost entirely taken up in their Great Cause™ (mages for Anders, being a slave for Fenris, restoring that dumb-ass mirror for Merril, being an insufferable douchebag for Carver) just never get time to say things not related to it, and so suffer for it.
Then there's the story, which kind of also comes out of nowhere. Yeah, there's a bit of foreshadowing here and there, but it just doesn't feel like it ever manages to really develop itself, you know? Like, you think 'Hey, this bit about the Qunari could be really cool, maybe we'll learn more about their cult- KILL THE ARISHOK PLOT THREAD OVER" and then that's it. No more.
Further, the architectural styles are all the same (barring the Deep Roads) and terribly bland. This is a very minor thing, but it grates on me after a while - The first 2 hours of Dragon Age: Origins has more visual variety than in 40 hours of Dragon Age 2.
What really grates on me is that the game just feels woefully incomplete, from the poorly developed characters, the 4 whole maps being shared in every dungeon, the plot never really going anywhere per se, and most of all? MOST OF ALL, the number one thing that drives me up a wall about the game?
They cut out the flavor text on 98% of weapons and equipment. The DLC/Bioware reward items have it. Three or four other items have them. But everything else? Not so much as a word. Just numbers. While Dragon Age had a special description for an
enchanted cheese knife, Dragon Age II will give you a huge-ass red sword called Blade of Red Birth. . .and it's just some numbers. Bodice Ripper. Just some more numbers. A shield called the Bulwark of Great Defense. Just numbers.
When you tear the flavor text out of equipment, it removes a great deal of immersion, and makes the game feel hollow.
All in all, it's a very average follow-up to a great game, and I think it could have used another 6 months in development.
/rant
