Dragon Age II

Pros
+Nearly all the art direction and design, such as characters and armor are much improved.
+Abilities and spells feel much more powerful and rewarding.
+Likable allies with different personalities.
+Dialogue is improved and no longer playing a seemingly mute character makes the dialogue a lot more engaging. In addition, the options in dialogue feel like they make more of a difference.
+Though the dungeons are much shorter they also know when to stop instead of getting tedious after a while like some of the Dragon Age: Origins environments such as the Deeproads. This also greatly reduces the chance of running out of supplies midway through.
+Though it is still a tactical squad-based RPG and you can play it exactly like the first, it feels much more action packed.
+A large variety of ability trees that make even the same class types play completely differently and requires thought to decide without locking you into just one. All the classes are also more balanced now than in the first game.

Cons
-The removal of the tactical view is incredibly detrimental if you like the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale-esc way of playing. It may make the game feel more in the action and force you to see the powers and spells up close, but it makes the game feel less tactical and makes managing the squad a bit harder.
-You remain in Kirkwall throughout the entire game.
-You will constantly find yourself running around the same areas of the city to either to find quests or return fetched items. At first it makes sense but eventually feels 'beneath' your character.
-Having you go through the same dungeons and environments many times for different quests just feels lazy and gets old very quickly.

The Summary
At first the game will feel much less tactical than the previous installment. Your team mates will need little-to-no manual control in order to be effective early on. But, gradually, you will need to manually command them individually more and more to stay alive, especially during boss fights. The removal of the tactical zoom makes this a bit more difficult, but not nearly unmanageable. If you want this to be necessary from the off-set, you should probably start out at a higher difficulty setting.

Personally, I found Dragon Age to be very overrated on the Xbox 360. The graphics were very dull, and the combat seemed a bit fiddly and frustrating and is most likely far better on the PC version.

The changes made to this sequel have a mixed effect. Combat wise, the game plays more of a hack and slash, rather than the real-time strategy approach of the previous game. It is less cumbersome and more accessible, but as a result it becomes less challenging.

Graphically, the game looks good and much more vibrant. The game mainly takes place in the city of Kirkwall and there are only a few small areas outside; so the world is much smaller and contains less variety which results in visiting the same places over and over. Even when you do come to buildings and caves, they are usually recycled from the same couple of locations which seems very lazy from the developers and make the game feel unfinished.

The equipment system has changed and now you can only equip armour to Hawke, companions can only be upgraded by buying at certain shops then applying runes to them. Other changes bring the game more in-line with the Mass Effect series.

You can inspect items and encounter new enemies to add entries in your codex, which gives extra background information on the games world. The social system is also like Mass Effect. Your character engages in many conversations and you can decide between good, neutral and evil responses which sometimes have a large consequence and others lead to the same result.

Also like Mass Effect, you are given the fixed surname; Hawke and are forced to play as a human, but are provided with the choice of gender. The class options are as numerous as Mass Effect and the choice is between Rogue, Mage or Warrior. Personally, I prefer the move to be similar to Mass Effect because it gives the main character a high degree of personality so you feel more immersed in the world. However, the story is very minor and doesn't really add to the Dragon Age world. This is good for newcomers because you don't need any prior knowledge to play, but is a disappointment for Dragon Age fans.

Initially set at the same time as Dragon Age 1, Dragon Age 2 tells the story of Hawke and his/her party, who flee from the darkspawn and seek refuge amongst Kirkwall. After settling there, Hawke then raises enough cash to go on an expedition into the Deep Roads with a group of Dwarves and they come across many riches which closes Act 1. In Act 2, the Viscount asks Hawke to try resolve the conflict with the Qunari who refuse to leave Kirkwall despite being discontent with the residents. An anti-Qunari group try to provoke war which does eventually break out and the resulting war sees Hawke being declared the Champion. Act 3 tells the story of the Templar Meredith ruling with oppression, and unfair treatment with the mages which results in another war and Hawke must choose a side to support which concludes the game.

There are many sidequests to complement the main story which takes the play time to at least 18 hours. A problem worth noting is that the game performs extremely sluggish but can be resolved by installing to the hard drive. Overall, Dragon Age 2 is a decent game but in places feels a bit unfinished. The foundations of a great RPG are here, with plenty of side quests and brilliant dialog and voice acting, but the story and locations mean that the game doesn't reach its full potential.

Contrary to popular opinion, i actually enjoyed my time with Dragon Age 2. I think people bash on it too much because it doesnt really offer one tenth of the complexity of dialogue and characters DA:O does. There are also way too many repeated dungeons, which really shows that Bioware was given too little time to put this one out. Even then, it has an entertaining story, the combat is miles away better than in the first game and its still a really satisfying progress through it.

It really boils down about what you enjoyed about the first game. Dragon Age 2 is much more concise, and the more action focus of the combat is a welcomed step forward for the series. The first game tried to awkwardly satisfy both the tactical fans and the action fans and the combat of that game ended up feeling weaker because of that.

Im not a big fan of this franchise, its way too generic fantasy to really leave a mark on me, but i enjoyed this one more than the first entry.