While mediocre to decent in its own right, Dragon Age 2 can't escape the shadow of its big brother.
Oddly enough, there's a perfect character to describe Dragon Age 2's unfortunate position: Carver, the main character's brother. A man who's not a bad warrior at all, but who can't escape the shadow of his elder brother, and can't live up to his twin sibling, either.
But on to the review itself.
Gameplay is more reminiscent of a hack and slash affair in overall feel--a hack and slash where the enemies are apparently made of explodium, because they often blow into bloody chunks if hit hard enough upon death. While this is amusing at first, it gradually becomes monotonous. Much superior were the various deathblow animations of Origins. While the combat in Origins was sometimes decried as too slow (which opinion I shared), Dragon Age 2 has moved too far in the other direction. The faster combat moves frenetically, and that, along with the lack of an overhead camera, at times makes it difficult to figure out what's happening. Fortunately enough, there's still a variety of abilities to use and enough happening that it's not totally boring--except when enemies start appearing out of thin air, which is one of the most tedious features of the game. The only saving grace for gameplay are the conversations, which surprised me. I'm not a fan of the Mass Effect style dialogue wheel and voiced protagonist, but it's actually executed quite well here, perhaps even better than in Mass Effect itself. Probably the most fun aspect of the game is being a sarcastic smartass to everybody around you, and the voice acting is quite good. Every now and then the responses don't line up with the short description, but almost always is it clear what the intention of the line is. The quests are usually pretty good, though all the sidequests are lame fetch and deliver types (there is a distinction between main plot, secondary plot, companion, and side quests).
Gameplay: 6.5/10
Mediocre combat, good character interaction, some tedious mechanics.
Graphically, this game is technically superior to Origins. It's main flaw, however, is that it has a different style from the first game, which means some things look like they're from something else entirely. The environments and various visual effects look quite a bit better than their first iteration, and the detail level has improved, though anything higher than medium detail has been locked out for us poor slobs still clutching desperately to Windows XP. However, the environments feel a little too static, especially seeing as the game is supposed to take place over several years. Also, Bioware committed the horrific sin of totally recycling about 4 or so dungeons for every quest area beyond the main city streets and outdoors. They're not even clever about it this time, as they were in Origins.
Graphics: 7.5/10
Better looking, better effects, too static, recycled dungeons.
The sound in this game is pretty good, about on par with Origins. I've heard some people say that there were recycled tracks, but I couldn't recall any. The music is a little more subtle in this iteration, though the sound effects are a bit more in your face. The voice acting in this game is up to par with Origins, thank goodness, and the party members' personalities come through quite well, though at times I thought the Male Hawke voice was a bit too bombastic.
Sound: 9/10
Good ambient music, good sound effects, good voice acting
Now for the story... Hoo boy. This is either going to be the biggest instance of fridge brilliance ever pulled off... Or it's going to be only decent, with some parts being horribly boring. You are Hawke, a refugee trying to gain a new life in a new city, and you will struggle with forces beyond your control as you... Do something. The character's overall goal is up to the player to figure out, and in a narrative that's trying to be somewhat tighter than in Origins, that's not a good idea. It leaves the impression at times that you're just hanging out, killing time. The ironic part of this is that this may well be what Bioware was going for, as your character is swept up in events that they might rather avoid. If they're going for the 'you became a hero by being in the right place at the right time' angle, they did it masterfully. The problem, as I said, is that this can make the story feel like it's dragging, despite the well-executed secondary quests, most of which have something to do, at least peripherally, with the eventual core issue within the story. There's a decent job done of connecting the separate acts to each other, though with the time jumps between, sometimes they still feel a bit disjointed when each new act begins, as only vague synopses are given for what happened during those time jumps. Despite that, there's a pretty good buildup to the climax... At which point, it tries its hardest to fall on its face. The end result is that you feel like your character was just a cog in a big machine. If this is what Bioware intended, then bravo. If not, then there is a problem. The difficulty of evaluating this issue is that within the framed narrative, it's implied that this is the case and the legend behind your character got it all wrong... On the other hand, that's not really what you want to feel like as the erstwhile hero of the story. Beyond that, the characters are generally well written, and as I mentioned before, the conversations are usually pretty good. However since the overall story is a series of valleys and peaks, and it's not clear what the central plot is until pretty late, it ends up being only okay to decent.
Story: 8/10
Good dialogue, good secondary plot connection, only decent set-up, overall either brilliant or mediocre.
As far as value... Without the separate origin stories, and along with the fact that the game takes place in a much smaller area, there's not nearly as much to do on repeat playthroughs. The game is also somewhat shorter in total length than Origins. Still, it's not a one and done.
Replay value: 7.5/10
Smaller areas, shorter game, okay amount of variety within quest choices and conversations.
Overall, Dragon Age 2 is decent. Not bad, not great, but a fun enough experience. Unfortunately, it can't live up to its antecedent. If you want more Origins, this isn't it. If you want a decent action RPG, or are a junkie for the world of Dragon Age, you could do worse than Dragon Age 2.
Overall: 7.5
Disappointing compared to Origins, decent on its own.