It's not a bad game by any means. I played through it again quite recently and enjoyed it quite a lot. It wasn't what most passionate fans of DA:O wanted, hence the fanrage, but if you take it on its own merits it's an enjoyable, fun game with a couple of really interesting features. (I love the way your character's personality, banter, battle cries etc. change depending on what conversation options you pick.)

DA3 is rumored to still be in the works, although they have recently put the kibosh on a planned expansion pack for DA2.

My advice is to get the demo, and read this thread on Something Awful, continuing on this blog. You get the Dragon Age 2 experience without having to pay money or subject yourself to the combat system.

Get it.

It's got plenty of major flaws, but it's an interesting game in it's own right, and not "the worst game ever" like some portray it to be.

Though, if ME3's ending was enough to damage your mental state, you'll probably throw a tizzy fit for DA2 as well. If you lower your expectations and just roll with it it can be enjoyable.

It isn't nearly as bad as everyone says. I say give it a whirl. You may enjoy it.

That's funny, I just started playing it again yesterday after not touching it since the week after I picked up the preorder.
If you decide to play, I sincerely recommend playing a female as female Hawke's voice acting is vastly superior. DA2 is a pretty good stand alone game, its fault was just having to be in DA:O's shadow, and I still think it did a lot of cool things. For instance, the attitude Hawke carries changes depending on the type of conversations options you pick (i.e. aggressive choices will make Hawke sound angrier and more hostile in general)

I put off getting it until just a month ago due to all the bashing it got on this site. Wasn't a huge fan of the first game anyway, so it didn't matter much to me.
Turned out to be a more than decent game. Story wise it's pretty damn bad, but I had a lot more fun with it than I did with DA:O.

I liked it. It felt a bit more railroaded than DA:O, but the characters were all around likeable and thos who weren't were fun to hate. Also, I liked the new affection system in which you could piss of your companions to no end and while they then wouldn't like you a lot, they would at least respect you and give their backstory/quests anyway.

Also, the different attitude thing was really great. Had a good time with FunnyHawke Rogue, The Whore of Kirkwall.

I personally had little to no problems with it. I understand where people come from with some of the more "sane" complaints though. The wave system kind of kills any statagy(or at least makes you change your current one ever 10 seconds), and I have no idea why they decided to reuse so many environments, but for the most part, thats about all the problems I had with the game. It is very playable, although a somewhat different experience from the first game. Just play it with the mindset of judging it on its own merits and I think you will enjoy it.

Edit: Although...I was quite annoyed by anders' personality change...and the fact that he basically heralded me as mage jesus by the end...

Just buy The Witcher 2 instead. It's much better.

It's not the worst game of 2011, it's just a generally crappy game. If you want to play it, why not? There's other crappy games to play, though.

How about Elf Bowling for the DS, for example?

Vault101:
hey guys...

you remember that certain Bioware game..you know...the one that..well

anyway...

its been like a year since it came out, and unfortunatly all my hopes for that game were dashed by...well YOU (yes YOU! shame on you all) now that i think about it..its almost the aniversay of "the great DA2 freakout of '11"

since my fragile emotinal state has since recovered, (yet to be torn to peices agin by that OTHER Bioware game..Im sure youve heard of it)

Im actually curious..there is a dragon age 3 coming out at some point and I dont like to leave thease things unfinished...(I admit I never managed to kill the archdeamon in DA1...still gotta get round to that)

so...I think what Im essentially asking is...should I play it?is it still as bad in retrospect? or is DA3 going to be an eaqual waste of time

I dont know.. last year I would have said it was perfectly fine to play, just dont get your expectations too high. (also if you do play, play on PC and add a Avaline mod.

However now, with the recent suggestion that Bioware will be scrapping the Hawke story line for DA3 in light of fan pressure, it seems like a rather moot point to waste ones time on playing the backstory on things that likely will not get used, even though the story was not actually the biggest problem of the game.

Play it, go in with low expectations, mod aveline and if you have to, enable console cheats to work through the content quicker if you find yourself getting bored or unsatisfied with it.

I think DA2 is a good enough play. I had fun at least, mind you it's not likely to send tremors up your spine anytime soon but I finished it in only a few sittings so it managed to reel me in well enough I suppose.

Actually going in expecting it to be the worst game ever might even heighten the experience, I've noticed a lot of my friends that just now start to finish ME3 seem to appreciate the ending much more than the early birds because they've been told that it's the worst piece to grace our screens in decades whereas in fact there's been tons worse stuff out there.

I still want the white picket fence and quarian babies as promised though. Just saying.

Play it and create your own opinion, you may be pleasantly surprised

Vault101:
I admit I never managed to kill the archdeamon in DA1...still gotta get round to that

I'd get around to that instead, DA:O is a much better game. Better characters, gameplay, story. If you're still keen for DA II after, go on, by all means (but don't pay more than a couple quid, it's just not worth it...)

Vault101:

endtherapture:
Just buy The Witcher 2 instead. It's much better.

blaaaaagghhhhh.,.I tried the first withcer but....eh....and no I wouldnt do the second one without doing the first...just not how I roll

Second one is nmuch better, it's completely different from the first one, and all the background you need is given in the codex. If you pass up on it you're missing out on the best RPG since Dragon Age Origins.

And CDProjekt is a much better company to give your money to than EA Bioware.

Go in with low expectations, there are good points to the game but those don't hide the rush job that Bioware did.

And don't play it like it's a tactical RPG, play it more like Dynasty Warriors instead. It will become a whole lot more enjoyable.

Vault101:

endtherapture:

Vault101:

blaaaaagghhhhh.,.I tried the first withcer but....eh....and no I wouldnt do the second one without doing the first...just not how I roll

Second one is nmuch better, it's completely different from the first one, and all the background you need is given in the codex. If you pass up on it you're missing out on the best RPG since Dragon Age Origins.

And CDProjekt is a much better company to give your money to than EA Bioware.

I guess....

but it just wouldnt feel right not playing the first (Im weird that way)

one day I might...also I fidn the fact that Im "stuck" with Geralidt a little off-putting (jsut a minor nit-pick)

Why play DA2 then? You're "stuck" with Hawke.

Vault101:

awww...theyre gonna scrap hawke? having a fully voiced protagonist was somthing I was actually pretty psyched about...still I did like the DA1 aproach just fine

Well I dont know it to be true, but I have about as much circumstantial evidence = that can be interpreted as scrapping Hawke and crew as protagonists for DA3

http://biowarefans.com/2011/08/dragon-age-3-will-feature-a-new-protagonist/

Which if any of the ME3 threads are representative, thats all you really need to condemn any action, just interpretations and half info extrapolated from ages past on the forums. ./eyeroll ... Anywaaaay.

However, it does not mean that they are abandoning the fully voiced protagonist motif that Hawke had, Just if they do full voiced it will likely be someone else. (though I would love to see Hawke and the Warden as two of your companions in DA3, specifically a female hawke, because after playing it and seeing everything that goes on with Anders I REALLY think the canon Hawke was a female.

Edit:
Other thought: Actually in retrospect that seems like a good idea for bioware to change the DA protagonist every installment. Helps to prevent people from getting entirely too emotionally invested in a char.

Honestly, I think people overdid how bad the game was. It wasn't terrible. I wouldn't replay it, but it's a fine 20ish hours spent gaming if you like the Bioware experience of RPGs. I'd say give it a shot.

Go for it. I have no idea why this site hated it so much. All the people I know who played it loved it.

I thought DA2 was pretty good. Not as good as Origins but still a good game in its own right.