It's nowhere near perfect, but it's a step closer to what I was hoping Origins would be. It's more Mass Effect: With Swords, and less Baldur's Gate: 2011 Edition. I know there were a lot of folks out there hoping for the latter, and I'm sorry you've been left wanting. But. Well. I'm still pretty happy with it, myself. (Sorry.)
Just as in the transition from ME to ME2 a lot of the more number-heavy RPG elements have been pared away, though that isn't entirely a bad thing. I was initially disappointed that companion gear customization was gone--but reconsidered after recalling how ugly much of the equipment in DA:O was. It's probably for the best that they just picked strong character designs and stuck with 'em instead. And what's this; stealing, herbalism, and trap-making are gone? Good riddance to superfluous gameplay, says I.
I do prefer the new combat, though it's still a very stylized, detached affair; probably because having multi-combatant melee look and play realistically would be, like, hard to program and stuff. Still, it's manageable, and every bit as tactical as the fighting in Origins.
The graphics are better, basically. More importantly, the art direction is much stronger this time around. Although like pretty much every fantasy setting a good chunk of the landscape and populace are two parts generic to one part cliche. Ehh.
Characters are pretty compelling as always, but BioWare, please, it'd be nice if the men's romance options weren't limited to a choice between Ingenue or Shrew every single time.
Also, real quick, My feelings on voiced protagonists:
They're a good thing. The idea that giving an RPG protagonist a voice destroys their blank-slate potential never really made much sense to me, particularly in story-driven games where so many other elements of the character's lives are made explicitly clear. In the origins of DA:O we meet our characters' friends, parents, siblings, spouses.. We're given a place in life, a loose backstory, a rough age-range.. And though we make decisions regarding their lives, we're still locked into the overarching narrative defined by the game's creators.
You can customize a human noble to look like an old man--balding, grey hair and beard, rough complexion--but you will still be referred to as "pup", the youngest son of Bryce Cousland. For a story-heavy game like this, character customization can only go so far before it extends outside the narrative. Readily defining elements of the protagonist's past puts DA:O at fairly hefty odds with the concept of a completely blank-slate, utterly user-defined character.
I get why Origins didn't give us different vocal choices for use in cutscenes a la Saints Row 2--that would have been expensive and time-consuming to implement. But.. so.. we don't get any conversational voices at all? Instead we get a choice of mediocre mid-combat banter? Sorry, but I'll take the standard Mass Effect style 1 female 1 male voices over 6 different ways of my rogue telling me he can't unlock a chest, thanks.
My biggest complaint with the silent protagonists of DO:A was the feeling that I was being talked over; when conversations audibly skipped over my character I often felt as though my dialogue choice hadn't made a difference. Mass Effect had its share of moments where NPC responses are the same regardless of what you choose to say, but hearing Shepard deliver the line regardless does give the sense that an actual conversation is taking place because we are actually hearing both sides of it. It's just better storytelling, to my mind. And, after spending time carefully customizing a protagonist's face, to have them standing by, mute, placid-faced throughout conversations aways seemed rather frustrating to me. At least Hawke emotes now and then, you know?
So. Uh, yeah. That's a pretty big reason I prefer Dragon Age 2 to its predecessor.
