[updated old topic] Finished Dragon Age 2, here is what can confirmed.

[darth.pixie]

Combat has not been dumbed down in anyway. Also, DA2 is HARDER than DAO (I've been playing on Hard and Normal, the REAL difficulties that you should be playing on).

It wasn't for me....I killed the Arishok easily, in single combat with a very weak mage even though he charged like an ogre. By all indications, my mage should have been turned into squished meat before even managing to cast anything. Also, the combat just wasn't very fun for me. It was a chore. Opinions differ so I won't press this but I was tempted to give myself 100 in all stats just so I could end the game faster. Many friends did.

There is inventory management in this game as well as being able to customize the appearance of Hawke.

Actually I think it was the appearence of the companions. As in picking armour for them. Which I wouldn't have had a problem with if the developers would have kept their word and changed the armour from year to year. But they didn't. A red sash and small shield was the most different an armour has been in the whole game. Most hadn't changed at all. Those armours must reak.

Also, would it have killed Fenris to look for some pants? He looked like Peter Pan.

Companions weren't quite as dynamic or memorable as Origins's companions were. Also you can't converse with them as often.

I don't know. To me the characters you get in Dragon Age 2 have the potential to be very compelling and interesting but they just haven't stuck to me yet. I think they could have gotten the player more attached to these companions if they would let you converse with them more often.

It bothered me that you could only talk to them about once or twice per year and almost all had bad personal quests. And they had no real personality, just each showed a different side to the conflict. Varric and Isabella were the most interesting because they had no part in it.

In short TLDR, Dragon Age 2 is a fairly decent RPG that is, in most aspects, just as good as Dragon Age Origins. Also that most of the hatred that DA2 gets is completely irrational. Seriously, 2/10? Only a completely broken game with absolutely no redeeming qualities would be worthy of a score that low. 7-8/10 would be more fair in my opinion.

Don't think it deserved 2/10 but a 5 or 6/10 which some reviews gave it. It was a meh, and one of the worst RPGs I played but it was playable. They spread themselves too much and hurried out the game. The repeat areas were just painful though.

 

[Wayneguard]

The real gear grinder for me is the continual reuse of maps. It's lazy and I feel like using more than three or four maps isn't too much to ask. Why is Fenris' mansion the same as every other mansion? Why is every cave the same? If the game wasn't so immersive and interesting the map thing probably would have ruined it more for me, but as it happens I'm pretty engrossed. The quests are imaginative and fun, sometimes disturbing, sometimes shocking, but always entertaining. I'm only about half way though, so things could change!

welcome to bioware games lol

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

snip

I know how spoiler concealing works; since it was one word in the middle of a sentence I thought dedicating a whole "new line, 2 line thick white box, new line" to it was excessive, and would have broken up the sentence.

 

[Baneat]

the reason you are dying is because you are not running away from the spawn area, once you are gone from where the waves spawn then the fights become VERY easy and everything is served in sizeable chunks. The only difficulty change from hard to nightmare is in the numbers departement (damage // adds). Bosses are easy as pie (other than rock wraith).
I state that there is LESS inventory management in this game.

God I'm trying everything on it, all the old WoW tactics, corner pulling etc, nothing works. a 20 second cd taunt with a pathetic threat gen and a 20 second cooldown heal is a fucking travesty, gettin raped erryday

 

[Sephychu]

Easier? Yes.
Different combat? Not that I noticed. Just faster with some different balancing.
I love this game. I think it's a great sequel and I look forward to a conclusion.

Also, this is an important point.
Can everybody PLEASE stop pointing out that the hatred seems to be coming from the 'PC users who feel betrayed/are elitists/are butthurt. It's so irritating. Everybody who mentions it seems to think nobody else has noticed it, and it makes the PC demographic all sound like whiney fools. To be honest, as a member of said demographic, it annoys me.

 

[Warachia]

snip

I know how spoiler concealing works; since it was one word in the middle of a sentence I thought dedicating a whole "new line, 2 line thick white box, new line" to it was excessive, and would have broken up the sentence.

That would be excessive, but posting that type of WARNING SPOILER is a bad idea, because it is impossible for almost everyone to read the second line without reading what is spoiled in the first line. Try phrasing it so you don't need to spoil anything.

 

[lucky_sharm]

Just finished the game. So I'll just make a few edits to the OP.