How does someone who has played Dragon Age: Origins give Dragon Age 2 a score any higher than a 6?
The combat is faster and more fluid - Who cares? I'll take that clunky DAO system any day of the week, it was fun and more challenging. What were they thinking reusing dungeons over and over?
Why get rid of Fatigue? (dumb countless things down)
We can't arm our party members with armor other than than the few preconceived constructs? Finding and upgrading armor was one of the most rewarding parts of DAO. I can handle my party looking similar to one another way more than I can handle finding a few crappy armor upgrades throughout the game.
The same city and surroundings over and over (and over)? With minor and tedious quests? It's just so blatantly obvious that corners were constantly being cut in this game, and in the name of being a better experience too. I didn't feel that once in DAO. And these characters, they're acceptable at best. Alistair, Morrigan, hell even Liliana and Wynne... now these were characters I could care about. Blah blah, if nothing else, only being able to talk to party members in their special areas was a bad idea.
Yes I'm writing this months later, but I couldn't believe all these people scoring DA 2 an 8 an 8.5 even a 9. Don't give Bioware the impression that this game was acceptable, though not as great as DAO. It's not acceptable, it's embarrassing. I'll wait the 4 or 5 years it takes to put out legitimate sequels (Elder Scrolls) if this is what it will look like after only 2 years. DAO was one of the best games I've ever played, I couldn't even force myself to finish the second act of DA 2. Lastly, I've been coming to Gamespot for years now, at least 6 or 7, and I finally signed up just so I could announce my disappointment with this game.