Dragon Age II is a game heavily damaged by the expectations placed on it by the success of its predecessors. Comparative to Origins, DAII feels incredibly streamlined, and not for the better, the combat feels far more action oriented rather than reminiscent of classic CRPGs.

The loot system is far more dumbed down, instead of being able to customize your companions and put any piece of gear on them, allowing a various amount of builds, in II, the companions only have their default armor, while you can find upgrades littered throughout the environments, it's incredibly limiting, meaning all the armor you find is largely useless.

The story itself is a breath of fresh air, where Origins and Inquisition had world-end stakes, DA II takes place within a single city; Kirkwall, and takes place over the course of several years, and the political drama that ensues. The Templar v Mage storyline is fascinating, and both sides are both right and wrong.

My main issue with the narrative is the companions don't feel like people, but rather slices of the world simply placed in your party to introduce conflict, while this makes sense within the context of the mage/templar conflict, it feels a little irritating when you catch onto it.

Overall, the game has a good narrative, with repetitive combat that had me reaching for console commands to just finish the game.