I thought it was brilliant, way more entertaining and visceral than Dragon Age Origins. Then again, I'm from the camp of people that thought Mass Effect 1 sucked and loved Mass Effect 2. I can't understand though why people are saying Dragon Age 2 is Bioware's weakest game. Not that it's a bad game at all, but I'd throw that title to Jade Empire.
 
Btw, voiced protagonist = yes pl0x. Hated Dragon Age: Origin's silent protagonist, just felt awkward.

"

                    Not that it's a bad game at all, but I'd throw that title to Jade Empire.
                    

                "

I haven't beaten it yet, but I agree with you. I've been having a lot of fun with it and while I don't think it's perfect, I don't really understand the hate. I wasn't a huge fan of Mass Effect 1 either, though I loved (still love) ME2. 
 
I feel like the voiced protagonist isn't always the best route, but it works for me in DAII. I don't always have the right answer, but I do like having an actual conversation with my party members instead of just staring at them vacantly while they react.

" @jmrwacko said:

"

                    Not that it's a bad game at all, but I'd throw that title to Jade Empire.
                    

                "

What...Jade Empire was decent. Are you forgetting about the Sonic game that Bioware made? "

Most of them are just PC fanboys who are angry about the current trend of consolizing games, especially since Origins was hailed as a beacon to the RPG's of old. 
 
With that said I do feel like the overall story was weaker and the world was just smaller. Usually you expect the sequels to be bigger and better, and I just didn't get that feeling in DA2 (when referring to the in-game world and levels - the combat is a different story).

I thought there was more synergy in regards to how the characters interacted, tbh. Commander Meredith, Enchanter Orsino, and the Grand Cleric were introduced relatively late into the game, but I really liked the character interactions between the three big honchos of Kirkwall and the grand champion. Also, almost every character besides maybe Merrill and Aveline play an important part in the main plot of the game, which you couldn't really say about Dragon Age: Origins. Sure, Alistair and Morrigan played big roles in the stories, but the other characters were sort of subsidiary. I went through the entire first game without even interacting with Sten and Zevran.

honestly, by the 10th time i revisited each of the 5 different locations, i was like fuck this and lets get this over with. Until then, the combat was the only redeeming factor, and even then, the consequences of using the same locations over and over apparently didn't bring up some red flags @ bioware QC, as large bosses that I would have to fight in the sameass caves would get stuck when I took advantage of the surrounds (large spider cant follow me along stairs so he freezes and I spam ranged, and so on). And I got tired of the same spawn locations used. Oh hey, I'm getting close to a pocket-area, I guess 20 people are going to magically spawn here any time now right? 
 
The design of the game eradicates any sense of adventure and discovery, finding new things, or coming up/adapting with new strategies, since the exact same tactics you used in the first hours of the game still apply @ the 60th hour. The level design and workflow is a complete 180 from what Mass Effect2 offered. At least in ME2, every quest felt unique in all aspects (location, design, and thus tactics used).  
 
@Enigma777 said:

" Most of them are just PC fanboys who are angry about the current trend of consolizing games, especially since Origins was hailed as a beacon to the RPG's of old. "  

"Commander Meredith, Enchanter Orsino, and the Grand Cleric were introduced relatively late into the game, but I really liked the character interactions between the three big honchos of Kirkwall and the grand champion.  "

I'm confused as to why people like this game.  It's just one of those polarizing games.  Just be happy that you enjoy it, I wish I could've =)

It's a flawed game, for sure, but it still offered me 30 hours of RPG-fun, and I'll probably play through it again sometime soon.  
While on the subject, I'm a little confused as to why people hate Jade Empire. I love Jade Empire.

BECAUSE ANDERS IS AN EMO BITCH!!! Other than that and the shitty ending I loved it. Played it twice already. But God, when Anders costume turned black i was so upset. Also the Sonic game Bioware made was excellent!

"It's a flawed game, for sure, but it still offered me 30 hours of RPG-fun, and I'll probably play through it again sometime soon.  While on the subject, I'm a little confused as to why people hate Jade Empire. I love Jade Empire. "

I'm pretty glad people are hating on this game - when I finally get round to playing it I'll probably be expecting it to be shit and end up really enjoying it! >_>

I love it so much so far.  I'm ~7 hours in. 

I really didn't like it. I didn't really like any of the characters or story, and going thru the same cave/building was kinda dumb. But I played Origins for the story and characters, which is what lacked for me in 2.

'Tis a good game, but the voiced protagonist tends to sound quite cocky. Instead of acknowledging that s/he holds the life and death and the fate of hundreds in their hands, the protagonist sounds like its all a joke. I guess that's the problem with voiced characters, its a hard ballance to hit.   
 
But weakest game? Not even close. And Jade Empire is, I agree, an unsung great. 

Haters gonna hate.

I personally liked the art style. Although it makes elves looked more puny, the qunari are awesome looking.

Jade Empire 2 would be nice. 
 
OT: I think it was how they tried to streamline the combat w/ the "hack n slash"  is what turned some people off.  It's different.  But strategy is still involved.

Not enough boob in this game ....  I want bigger boobs. That's why it fails, small boobs.

The simple answer is that I hate to see action elements in RPGs as the genres come from different sides of the spectrum: action games test reflexes, whereas RPGs are a subset of strategy games. Although good hybrids between the two genres exist I didn't find DA2 to be one of them as the roleplaying felt trivial: character builds were lacking in variety and the story couldn't be meaningfully changed. I wasn't impressed with the condensed story, the characters, the graphics, the PC control scheme, the style change and the reused environments. The game felt cheap and rushed, athough it's probably just as much EA's fault as Bioware's.
 

It's fantasy by the numbers. The generic part is only part of the problem, it's as if Bioware didn't even try. They must have gone through the motions whilst making it. Repetitive characters, locations and a complete lack of diversity. Bioware also managed to strip away the depth in combat from DA1 as well. 

Generic, cliched, by the numbers, lack of variety and depth in the game world.... one thumb down from me.

I'm going to have to use the demo to voice my opinion on the game, as I have not played the full title. Considering the praise Origins got, I was curious to see how good the sequel would be. Unfortunately the demo left me incredibly disappointed, as the combat was just button-mashing and I felt no real connection to the characters in it. I know you need to build up a connection to the characters with a large amount of story, but with Mass Effect 2's demo I felt immediately that there was some sort of connection between the characters. Combat proved to be the major turn-off for me, however.

For the record,i don't hate it because its a bad game, i hate it because its a bad Dragon Age game, imho Origins was much better.

If you can look past the reuse content and horrible ending, Dragon age 2 is pretty good.
The combat is much better, people who say it lacks the depth of DA1 is kidding themselves. DA1's combat was as deep as a pond.

I was convinced that ME1 was going to suck. Ended up loving the shit out of it. And loved ME2 even more. I also love DA2 as much as DA:O so it does not correlate:3

" I feel like the voiced protagonist isn't always the best route, but it works for me in DAII. I don't always have the right answer, but I do like having an actual conversation with my party members instead of just staring at them vacantly while they react. "

" 'Tis a good game, but the voiced protagonist tends to sound quite cocky. Instead of acknowledging that s/he holds the life and death and the fate of hundreds in their hands, the protagonist sounds like its all a joke. I guess that's the problem with voiced characters, its a hard ballance to hit.    But weakest game? Not even close. And Jade Empire is, I agree, an unsung great.  "

It's because Bioware took almost every shortcut possible when making this game. Instead of having a really interesting world, they set you down in this lifeless, static city in which NOTHING changes over the course of 10 years. You keep revisiting the same areas over and over, it's one massive backtrack. The story choices you can make are almost irrelevant and they force you into these corners in ridiculous situations.  
 

" It's because Bioware took almost every shortcut possible when making this game. Instead of having a really interesting world, they set you down in this lifeless, static city in which NOTHING changes over the course of 10 years. You keep revisiting the same areas over and over, it's one massive backtrack. The story choices you can make are almost irrelevant and they force you into these corners in ridiculous situations.  
 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Like with Isabela. If you don't have max Friendship with her she fucks off with a story item and doesn't come back. Ummm ok. Or Anders, why can't you convince him to not become a damn terrorsist? And then there's the shitty ending where you're basically forced to either choose between killing all the mages under orders of a delusional leader, or side with them and watch their leader use Blood Magic (the very thing they're being oppressed for).

  These things are unnecessary and just stupid. More development  time was definitely needed to smooth out this rushed game. "

I'm ignoring the existence of this thread due to OP calling Jade Empire a bad game.

Haven't played it, but it seems to be what the crazy people say when they say Mass Effect 1 is better than Mass Effect 2. Typical "they dumbed it down" bullshit. 

I don't think DAII is a bad game, it just feels incredibly rushed and with an 18 month dev cycle, games composer saying as much  and the amount of issues that it does have, I'm pretty sure it was. 
 
There's a lot of changes I like about it but there's a lot of thing I prefer in Origins. I think it could have been a great game instead of just a good game if it had more time in the oven. 

" Then again, I'm from the camp of people that thought Mass Effect 1 sucked and loved Mass Effect 2. "

" @CL60: She didn't for me. Last I seen her was when she took that item. I was nearing full friendship with her too, although her skill wasn't unlocked. "

" It's because Bioware took almost every shortcut possible when making this game. Instead of having a really interesting world, they set you down in this lifeless, static city in which NOTHING changes over the course of 10 years. You keep revisiting the same areas over and over, it's one massive backtrack. The story choices you can make are almost irrelevant and they force you into these corners in ridiculous situations.  
 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Like with Isabela. If you don't have max Friendship with her she fucks off with a story item and doesn't come back. Ummm ok. Or Anders, why can't you convince him to not become a damn terrorsist? And then there's the shitty ending where you're basically forced to either choose between killing all the mages under orders of a delusional leader, or side with them and watch their leader use Blood Magic (the very thing they're being oppressed for).

  These things are unnecessary and just stupid. More development  time was definitely needed to smooth out this rushed game. "

I just finished it for the third time. I think I liked DA:Origins more (hard to say at this point since it has been a while), but DA2 is certainly not a bad game. I think it's a case of what I like to call FF8 syndrome. Like FF7 was loved and FF8 changed so much that people didn't give it the chance it deserved DA2 is a lot different from Origins. People don't like sequels to be different. That said there certainly are a number of things everyone can agree is bad like the recycling of dungeons etc. 
 
I'd say it improved on many things, but also made some things worse compared to DA:O.

" I just finished it for the third time. I think I liked DA:Origins more (hard to say at this point since it has been a while), but DA2 is certainly not a bad game. I think it's a case of what I like to call FF8 syndrome. Like FF7 was loved and FF8 changed so much that people didn't give it the chance it deserved DA2 is a lot different from Origins. People don't like sequels to be different. That said there certainly are a number of things everyone can agree is bad like the recycling of dungeons etc.  I'd say it improved on many things, but also made some things worse compared to DA:O. "

Yay, another DA 2 thread! 
 
I too also liked Mass Effect 2 more than ME 1 but Dragon Age 2 was just a fucking disappointment. I loved the combat enough that it kept me engaged in playing the game from start to finish but mostly everything else kept stabbing at my love for the game. Lack of variety in environments, no sense of time passing, disjointed story, bullshit endgame. It piles on.  
 

@Enigma777

" Most of them are just PC fanboys who are angry about the current trend of consolizing games, especially since Origins was hailed as a beacon to the RPG's of old.  

oo....jade empire, that game gives me the chills, easily the worst game bioware has made.What i don't understand is why people who gave their #1 spot on best of 2010 to mass effect 2 but somehow dragon age 2 is the worst thing ever.

" @xyzygy said:

" It's because Bioware took almost every shortcut possible when making this game. Instead of having a really interesting world, they set you down in this lifeless, static city in which NOTHING changes over the course of 10 years. You keep revisiting the same areas over and over, it's one massive backtrack. The story choices you can make are almost irrelevant and they force you into these corners in ridiculous situations.  
 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Like with Isabela. If you don't have max Friendship with her she fucks off with a story item and doesn't come back. Ummm ok. Or Anders, why can't you convince him to not become a damn terrorsist? And then there's the shitty ending where you're basically forced to either choose between killing all the mages under orders of a delusional leader, or side with them and watch their leader use Blood Magic (the very thing they're being oppressed for).

  These things are unnecessary and just stupid. More development  time was definitely needed to smooth out this rushed game. "

Maybe they didn't WANT you to be able to make everything all better. Maybe they wanted to show that sometimes bad things happen and you have to react to them. One of the things that pissed me off about Origins was that almost every "difficult" decision (Circle of Magi, Redcliffe, Brecian Forest) that the game presented to you had a way to make everyone happy. Therefore, it wasn't a difficult decision at all. 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

If you could stop Anders from becoming a terrorist, you wouldn't have to deal with what to do with him after he'd gone through with it. It wouldn't have had the same impact.

"

" @Undeadpool said:

" @xyzygy said:

" It's because Bioware took almost every shortcut possible when making this game. Instead of having a really interesting world, they set you down in this lifeless, static city in which NOTHING changes over the course of 10 years. You keep revisiting the same areas over and over, it's one massive backtrack. The story choices you can make are almost irrelevant and they force you into these corners in ridiculous situations.  
 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Like with Isabela. If you don't have max Friendship with her she fucks off with a story item and doesn't come back. Ummm ok. Or Anders, why can't you convince him to not become a damn terrorsist? And then there's the shitty ending where you're basically forced to either choose between killing all the mages under orders of a delusional leader, or side with them and watch their leader use Blood Magic (the very thing they're being oppressed for).

  These things are unnecessary and just stupid. More development  time was definitely needed to smooth out this rushed game. "

Maybe they didn't WANT you to be able to make everything all better. Maybe they wanted to show that sometimes bad things happen and you have to react to them. One of the things that pissed me off about Origins was that almost every "difficult" decision (Circle of Magi, Redcliffe, Brecian Forest) that the game presented to you had a way to make everyone happy. Therefore, it wasn't a difficult decision at all. 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

If you could stop Anders from becoming a terrorist, you wouldn't have to deal with what to do with him after he'd gone through with it. It wouldn't have had the same impact.

"

Then why even have a choice at all? If Bioware wants the story and choices to be a certain way.... that ruins the whole concept of choice. Which is why I said the "choices" are almost irrelevant. "

No idea. I just finished it and loved it. Sure it has some problems but I can overlook that because it was just a really enjoyable game. I think some of the problems stem from not having enough time so maybe that's what irks people or maybe they don't like change.