overall...7/10
gameplay:
dumbed down of course, but not by too much, and it does flow better. combat looks atrocious though; animations are clunky and straight up ridiculous; they removed deathblows because the paralyzed you, but i cant tell you how many combos i missed because my mage was doing that damn spinny staff slam animation that happens all the time. the extreme gore demeans its own purpose; fucking everything explodes into blood at the slightest touch, so it very quickly becomes routine and boring.
the trend of spawning waves of enemies from nowhere for every fight is incredibly annoying though; origins could wear on you, but this is ridiculous. no fight is ever over when it should be, after every dozen you kill, you have to wait for another, and another, and another, and FINALLY the fight is over. unnecessary and obnoxious padding; i would much rather fight more small groups of tougher foes than seas of peons.
more of a personal annoyance, i hate that your mates are railroaded into certain builds, but for a specific reason; i was a mage, but i like doing damage, and in rpgs i always plan to build one of your teammate mages into a healer/support role. but...merill straight up doesnt even have the healing tree, and her spec is blood mage. which means im left with...anders. i bloody hate anders, yet the game has conspired to make him integral to basic strategy. the railroading is bad in its own right; only aveline or the PC can tank...but making me use anders in absolutely unacceptable.
story: (ill avoid spoilers, just reference things only those that have played through it should know...)
same problem as ME2, though being a different main character alot more can be forgiven. starts out well enough, the refugee thing is a good enough excuse to be doing whatever antics you get caught up in, but after that the game loses any sort of central narrative to tie the characters and stories together. you dont need a demonic dragon and his army of souless monsters to defeat, but without some excuse to be getting involved in the sidequests and your mates personal drama, your eventually feeling that everything your doing is pointless and there isnt a reason hawke cant just live his life ignoring all the bullshit around him. varric is one of the strongest characters because his quests for the most part tie into the deep roads plot, everyone else is unconnected drama.
that said, it was a bit of an experiment giving you and your companions roots in kirkwall for the plot, and while its far from perfect, it has serious potential i think. your companions arent just people who join up on your quest to....live in kirkwall, but your neighbors; they feel like actual friends and actual people, you dont just befriend them on some a path to glory, your involved with their actual day to day lives, and they yours. you get to see who they really are, instead of just pestering them for information on how they normally live, which makes them all the more endearing; i found myself caring about party members i would usualy ignore in any other game, knowing that they werent just along for the ride, but lifetime allies. the time progression of the game is completely arbitrary, but simply knowing that youve been around these people for years strengthens their ties to hawke and by extension their character overall, and id like to see more of it.
but the ending...what the fuck was that bullshit?!
individually....
varric is awesome; theres really nothing else to say. there is no way you cant like him, hes just too adorable.
isabella has gained my eternal ire for a certain note; but i didnt really pay much attention to her, so i cant really say much until i befriend/rival her more on another playthrough.
merrill is almost too blatant the naive socially awkward girl archetype to be believable, but still adorable. her choice of mirrors keeps you worrying about her, though she just comes across as plain too dumb to live sometimes, especially knowing the dalish origin from, well, origins.
fenris is as someone else said, an emo doughebag. however, he makes for quite a fun rivalry with my mage.
aveline was surprsingly interesting, and though i was determined to hate the lawful good character, she kept making me want to play nice. i guess shes just written very well, i cant really explain why i dont hate her when i really should...
anders will always be the sad and pathetic shadow of alistair, who is in fact already one of my least liked characters, so that should tell you how little i think of anders. all the justice and rebelling in the world cant change that.
i cannot impartially judge the dlc teammate on account of his ridiculously sexy accent.
my biggest problem is, as i thought, with the new artistic changes. combat animations aside, flemeth looks ridiculous, the cameo characters are hideous, and the elves look like na'vi from avatar, which wouldnt be so bad if it werent for the freakish alien eyes. qunari all look the same (like, all the exact same model) and never wear shirts....like, none of them. at all. from outcast to grunt to arishok. generally, the environments are more appealing, and long hair actually animates which is a nice touch, but the animations and silly gore are real letdowns.
ill just wrap up now. the good:
fluid combat, engaging characters, a few mage robes that arent hideous, and natural dialogue.
the bad:
silly combat animations (convo animations are top-notch though), sillier gore, limited customization, dialogue has the same mass effect problem of never representing what you actually say, some serious bugs (merril got into a conversation about things that didnt happen until the next 2 acts...really weird on your first playthrough, and broke the romance), disjointed plot deus ex machina'd up the ass, and anders.
da2 was an interesting experiment; a failed one, but far more successful than ME2 and with alot of potential. if anything, i really want to see what can be done with such hub-focused stories and characters who you actually live alongside.
