No. Sorry, but no. Dragon Age 2 was a catastrophic fail on all accounts, and the only reason I completed it twice was because I like having Platinum Trophies on my PS3 profile.
To begin with, let's consider the overall plot. The tutorial consists of a clumsy effort to build a party, a piss-poor attempt to 'build character' by killing off a family member we didn't have time to care about (and in the case of the brother, never will) and pulling a Deus Ex Machina as a way to get us to Kirkwall. Wow. What a terrible start to a game. Do you remember Origins, and how good that was? Remember how there were references to every Origin story, so you could play through and be all "so that is what happened to my Elf Commoner when Duncan wasn't around to save him!"? Remember? Dragon Age 2 doesn't.
We then begin with Act One - the search for more money. No, seriously, that's the plot of Act One; get rich. If you can't get rich on your own, or you blow all the money on equipment, you have to turn to the criminal gangs to help you out. That's a plot point, right? Surely that will come back to bite us in the ass later? Of course not! This is Dragon Age 2, not Origins, we can't have any consequences for player actions in this game!
Long story short, you get rich by pissing about doing things that don't link with the overall plot. Hell, I doubt any of you could even tell me what the plot is at this point if you hadn't already had it spoiled for you a dozen times.
Then along comes Act 2. The biggest issue here is not so much the overarching plot of the Act (which really should have been the plot of the whole game), but how clunkily it's put together. By this point, Hawke is rich and living the dream. He/she doesn't have a job or anything, they just live off the untold thousands of gold pieces that are no doubt stored in mother's bank account. From the get-go, Hawke's involvement in this Act feels forced. Why does Hawke care about these things? Last time I checked Hawke had no interest in politics and was just looking for fame, glory and a mountain of cash. We've got those things now, so why are we - oh forget it! Dragon Age 2 doesn't give a shit about motivation, so let's just put up with it.
A lot of pointless crap happens, and eventually the plot of the story ends with Hawke becoming Hero of Kirkwall via being shoehorned into a scripted plot event. The game is now over, but it's going to carry on thrashing for one more act...
Act 3 - Because Fuck You!
Out of nowhere, Chief Templar Crazybitch spends this entire act going super-Nazi on the city, changing her alignment to Chaotic Evil and taking ten ranks in Paladin of Slaughter. If you look really closely when you first enter her office, I'm pretty sure you can see where she's been nailing babies to a dartboard.
This entire Act is just shit. Anders needs your help to commit genocide, but if you outright refuse to help him he somehow manages to do it anyway. Best of all, the Railroading storms home at the climax to ensure that you get the same ending no matter what choices you make along the way!
If you side with the mages, then they resort to Blood Magic right at the end (for no reason, I might add) and you have to slaughter them all before putting Crazybitch out of her misery. If you side with Crazybitch then she was right all along and the mages were all Chaotic Evil daemon worshippers after all and you have to kill them. Oh, and then Crazybitch turns on you.
Two identical boss fights, in the exact same order, achieved via two conflicting paths of allegiance. What. The. Fuck. Hell, until I had it explained to me I even thought the ending was the same for both paths - I honestly couldn't tell the difference!
Now look at Origins again. Everything about that game focuses on one of two objectives: stop the Blight, and kill Loghain. Every major decision links in with that goal.
Why are we at Ostagar? Because this is where we're going to stop the Blight.
Why do we need the Elves, or Dwarfs, or Mages? Because the Blight cannot be stopped by one nation alone.
Why should we help Alistair's uncle? Because he has an army, and he'll help us fight the Blight and bitchslap Loghain.
Why do we need to fight Loghain anyway? Err... he tried to kill you? Oh, and he's also going to plunge the nation into civil war right before the Blight hits, thus dooming the entire nation.
Everything comes back to the Blight. Moreover, the game does not need to hold your hand about it. You can be a Paladin or a Blackguard and the game is happy either way; as a Grey Warden, you are allowed to do whatever is necessary to stop the Blight.
Moreover, Loghain himself is an awesome villain. I hated that man with a passion during my first playthrough, yet at the end they humanise him so much that I actually forgave him. I wasn't doing it to be meta, or for a Trophy; I did it because it honestly felt like the right thing to do, and the game both rewarded and punished me for it in equal measure.
In the end, Dragon Age's ending is the ending I chose for myself. The consequences of my actions are either explained via an epilogue, or obvious to behold come the end. It was my story, and though not every outcome is necessarily what I would have wanted, they are all clearly a result of the choices I made.
Dragon Age 2 is not born of player choice. It is a story that wants to be told whether you wish to play ball or not. There was no central motive, no overarching plot, no compelling drive to push on with the parties quest. Origins was a tale about one man (or woman) who found themselves a Grey Warden, perhaps by choice, perhaps not, and ultimately saved the kingdom. Dragon Age 2 is a story about a man (or woman) who spends years at a time pissing about doing nothing until the Maker decides its time to force them into making an arbitrary and nonsensical moral choice, which invariably has no consequence either way.
To begin with, let's consider the overall plot. The tutorial consists of a clumsy effort to build a party, a piss-poor attempt to 'build character' by killing off a family member we didn't have time to care about (and in the case of the brother, never will) and pulling a Deus Ex Machina as a way to get us to Kirkwall. Wow. What a terrible start to a game. Do you remember Origins, and how good that was? Remember how there were references to every Origin story, so you could play through and be all "so that is what happened to my Elf Commoner when Duncan wasn't around to save him!"? Remember? Dragon Age 2 doesn't.
We then begin with Act One - the search for more money. No, seriously, that's the plot of Act One; get rich. If you can't get rich on your own, or you blow all the money on equipment, you have to turn to the criminal gangs to help you out. That's a plot point, right? Surely that will come back to bite us in the ass later? Of course not! This is Dragon Age 2, not Origins, we can't have any consequences for player actions in this game!
Long story short, you get rich by pissing about doing things that don't link with the overall plot. Hell, I doubt any of you could even tell me what the plot is at this point if you hadn't already had it spoiled for you a dozen times.
Then along comes Act 2. The biggest issue here is not so much the overarching plot of the Act (which really should have been the plot of the whole game), but how clunkily it's put together. By this point, Hawke is rich and living the dream. He/she doesn't have a job or anything, they just live off the untold thousands of gold pieces that are no doubt stored in mother's bank account. From the get-go, Hawke's involvement in this Act feels forced. Why does Hawke care about these things? Last time I checked Hawke had no interest in politics and was just looking for fame, glory and a mountain of cash. We've got those things now, so why are we - oh forget it! Dragon Age 2 doesn't give a shit about motivation, so let's just put up with it.
A lot of pointless crap happens, and eventually the plot of the story ends with Hawke becoming Hero of Kirkwall via being shoehorned into a scripted plot event. The game is now over, but it's going to carry on thrashing for one more act...
Act 3 - Because Fuck You!
Out of nowhere, Chief Templar Crazybitch spends this entire act going super-Nazi on the city, changing her alignment to Chaotic Evil and taking ten ranks in Paladin of Slaughter. If you look really closely when you first enter her office, I'm pretty sure you can see where she's been nailing babies to a dartboard.
This entire Act is just shit. Anders needs your help to commit genocide, but if you outright refuse to help him he somehow manages to do it anyway. Best of all, the Railroading storms home at the climax to ensure that you get the same ending no matter what choices you make along the way!
If you side with the mages, then they resort to Blood Magic right at the end (for no reason, I might add) and you have to slaughter them all before putting Crazybitch out of her misery. If you side with Crazybitch then she was right all along and the mages were all Chaotic Evil daemon worshippers after all and you have to kill them. Oh, and then Crazybitch turns on you.
Two identical boss fights, in the exact same order, achieved via two conflicting paths of allegiance. What. The. Fuck. Hell, until I had it explained to me I even thought the ending was the same for both paths - I honestly couldn't tell the difference!
Now look at Origins again. Everything about that game focuses on one of two objectives: stop the Blight, and kill Loghain. Every major decision links in with that goal.
Why are we at Ostagar? Because this is where we're going to stop the Blight.
Why do we need the Elves, or Dwarfs, or Mages? Because the Blight cannot be stopped by one nation alone.
Why should we help Alistair's uncle? Because he has an army, and he'll help us fight the Blight and bitchslap Loghain.
Why do we need to fight Loghain anyway? Err... he tried to kill you? Oh, and he's also going to plunge the nation into civil war right before the Blight hits, thus dooming the entire nation.
Everything comes back to the Blight. Moreover, the game does not need to hold your hand about it. You can be a Paladin or a Blackguard and the game is happy either way; as a Grey Warden, you are allowed to do whatever is necessary to stop the Blight.
Moreover, Loghain himself is an awesome villain. I hated that man with a passion during my first playthrough, yet at the end they humanise him so much that I actually forgave him. I wasn't doing it to be meta, or for a Trophy; I did it because it honestly felt like the right thing to do, and the game both rewarded and punished me for it in equal measure.
In the end, Dragon Age's ending is the ending I chose for myself. The consequences of my actions are either explained via an epilogue, or obvious to behold come the end. It was my story, and though not every outcome is necessarily what I would have wanted, they are all clearly a result of the choices I made.
Dragon Age 2 is not born of player choice. It is a story that wants to be told whether you wish to play ball or not. There was no central motive, no overarching plot, no compelling drive to push on with the parties quest. Origins was a tale about one man (or woman) who found themselves a Grey Warden, perhaps by choice, perhaps not, and ultimately saved the kingdom. Dragon Age 2 is a story about a man (or woman) who spends years at a time pissing about doing nothing until the Maker decides its time to force them into making an arbitrary and nonsensical moral choice, which invariably has no consequence either way.