After playing and enjoying DAO, I heard from basically everyone online that DA2 is the black sheep of the series (at least that was before veilguard came out, but that's a story for a different time). I heard how the developers didn't have a lot of time to work on this game and how incomplete it is. Because of this, I came into this with low expectations. I was planning on finishing it as fast as I can so I can move on to DAI, but honestly, I was really surprised.

From the first few hours of the game, I could see the main problems. This game is small. Actually the first indication of that is the size of the game. DA2's size is around 5 to 6 GiB, while DAO is closer to 16 GiB without DLCs, and that's despite the fact that this game has better graphics.

In practice, this lower size probably comes from the reused locations. You basically have the city of Kirkwall that you can explore both during the day and during the night for two different but mostly similar experiences. And you have some locations outside the city that are small and are reused for multiple different quests. And then you have the caves, houses, and other dungeons that are reused to an absurd degree. The reuse of the locations will become tiring during the first quarter of the game, especially since this issue can lead to genuine gameplay problems. One notable problem is that the minimaps are not updated for the different instances of the same dungeon. That means that during a specific quest, you could see that there is a passage on the minimap, but in the game the passage is blocked.

I also disliked the design of a lot of these locations, seeing that they are just some connecting corridors with no room for free exploration. Basically, you can only walk on the road with no way to climb even a simple cliff to take a visually accessible shorter route.

Other players seem to also dislike the fact that this game cut down on the number of skills and specializations and the removal of the trap system, as well as other simplifications that make the game feel like a downgrade from DAO.

But to me, this is where the bad things end. At its core, this game is still everything that made me love DAO in the first place. The wonderful companions, their fancy interactions, the amount of choice that you have in how to handle interactions with NPCs, the great writing, etc...

Story-wise, the game is a great sequel. It expands well on the world of Dragon Age by providing further insight into the Qunari and the Tevinter Imperium while also providing follow-ups to the previous game. Worth noting that the story structure is a bit different from DAO in the sense that you don't have a greater objective to accomplish, like in the previous game. Instead, you have 3 acts with a different but connecting main story throughout it. It's not bad by any means. Each story is interesting in its own way, and I fully enjoyed them.

Gameplay-wise, despite the previous flaws, it was fine. I actually even enjoyed the rogue gameplay better than I did in DAO.

Graphically, it is definitely a step up. A big criticism everyone rightfully has for DAO is the ugly graphics, even for its time. This game just gets it right.

Before wrapping, I also want to mention that I could not install the DLCs despite this being the ultimate edition. My understanding is that the blame goes to the EA launcher. Way to go, EA.

In summary, this game might not be at the level of DAO in most things, but don't let what people say about it turn you off it. It still is a really good experience to go through.