Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins was exactly what you want in a brand new RPG. It introduced us to the world of Ferelden through unique origin stories that were based around which race we'd selected for our hero character, and with a variety of choices to be made in each story there was a fair bit of originality to each players' game. The world and the lore created by Bioware was pretty in-depth; almost on par with the Mass Effect universe. So how do you follow up a game like that? You create a sequel which is set in a completely different part of the world, has almost nothing to do with the previous storyline and allows you precious little exploration of course. To be fair, at first, you'll push yourself through Dragon Age 2 quite quickly, though your main motivation will be to find the good part of the game, yet sadly it never comes. Following Mass Effect's customisable hero example, you play as Hawke who flees to the city of Kirkwall during the events of Origins. Pretty much any link between the two games ends here, though you'll spend a good couple of hours from this point raising money to go on an adventure into some tunnels. We're being facetious but the game's storyline is so insufferably dull that it deserves to be ridiculed. You may think that your adventure into the Deep Roads will lead you away from Kirkwall, but after about an hour you'll be dropped straight back into the city to spend the rest of the game there. You'll see the same areas constantly and it'll drive you absolutely mad; there's no sense of exploration whatsoever. The combat is okay (largely because it's unchanged from Origins) and the supporting cast are reasonably memorable (some more than others) but Dragon Age 2's main crime is simply being tediously boring. Origins had a great storyline with plenty of replay value to boot; Dragon Age 2 had neither. Introducing Hawke as a main character was supposed to set the game up to follow a Mass Effect style storyline; a trilogy of games based around one hero character, but the fact that Hawke's story is apparently over - according to pre-release materials for the next game Inquisition - shows how well that whole idea worked out in the end.
I have an addiction to achievements, a craving for new bands and a dream to become Captain America. I once finished second in a Mario Kart 7 tournament so I'm kind of a big deal.
