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No wonder they finally elected the Champion as the leader...

Having just finished this game (?) I'm all revved up to talk at length about it. The problem is I have no idea what to say

It's definitely a console game rather than a PC game. Is it an RPG? Hmmm, not really sure if I want to go down THAT road, lol.

I think the game has two very strong points which have great mass appeal: The adrenaline pumping battles and the masses of social interaction which appears to genuinely change what encounters you face down the road and provides the ability to genuinely get to know members of your team.

I guess the fighting is for the boy players and the talking and stuff is for the girl players, in a very general sense.

Without playing a second time it's difficult for me to asses the depth of the options, but I don't really have any immediate desire to ever start it up again.

I think what the game lacks for seasoned RPG players is any sense of variety.

All the battles seem to be much of the same thing repeated over and over. And I do mean all the battles. The locations are all the same locations repeated over and over. The weapons and clothing element is the same process repeated over and over. The quests are the same kind of thing repeated over and over. The monsters/bad guys are the same type over and over again, not even varying in sub-type.

Having an RPG set entirely in one city is not a bad idea. Just having a small variety of villains is not a bad idea. Limited attire is not necessarily a bad idea. Even samey quests is not a bad idea, and the game almost pulls it off. But not for those who are used to a bit more. A bit more in every sense.

It really wouldn't have taken too much detail to convert Dragon Age 2 into something akin to Planescape Torment 2.

The biggest flaw has to be the repetitive locations. The flaw being that one just loses interest in exploring areas fully once one has felt like one has already explored it 10 times. The qunari sword quest, for example, would be so much more feasible/enjoyable if it wasn't for the fact that, by chapter 3, the whole concept of searching every nook and cranny of somewhere you've already explored every nook and cranny of 10 times just fills one with horror rather than a sense of fun.

I've got to be careful not to be too negative as I know I will regret it later as I did find lots of moments of pleasure in the game, but also I don't want to be too positive either because I certainly don't want to encourage this kind of tortuous method of RPGing.

Oh, and the plot options didn't really work out for me. Upon finishing the game I was awarded the 'conqueror' achievement but I felt more like a 'Slaughterer' even though I tended to go for every peaceful option.

DA2 is generally considered a huge flop and a ****ty game.

While I agree that the "flashy combat" might have more appeal than what DA:O had, there is two main problems with it. 1: It's nothing like DA:O combat, which turns of people who enjoyed said combat (which is hardly a good idea when those are among the largest target audience). 2: It's horribly executed, enemies drop from the sky, AI is horrible, few things are really dangerous, planning rarely makes a difference etc. Since DA:O had well balanced combat that actually rewarded strategy, the contrast is all the more painful.
That said, it did make some improvements. 1: potions are on a timer 2: the balance between classes is better, making rogues and warriors more fun and 3: big weapons can cause collateral damage.

As for the social interactions, they didn't really change much for the most part (see Witcher 2 and Alpha protocol if you want meaningful choices). Usually they just determined who'd end up paying you for a quest. Another problem I had was that I didn't really care much about any member of my party. Also: who on earth thought of the /;-P/:-( mechanic combined with voiced dialogue? Both reduce choice and hampers immersion .

I agree on the other stuff you mentioned, samey villains is not necessarily bad (see Alpha protocol), a single city can work out (see Planescape or the Witcher 1) and so on. Though I though Anders' twist and motivation was nice, the rest of the plot made little sense.