I recently replayed both Dragon Age: Origins/Awakening and Dragon Age 2:
Dragon Age: Origins/Awakening
Overall, I still think it's a fantastic game. The sheer scope of it is very impressive, especially considering the massive impact origins have. It really makes a huge difference, and I strongly recommend playing either Dwarf Noble or Human Noble, as their personal struggles work out much better than the usual world saving scenario that many RPGs use.
There are a few drawbacks tho:
- Darkspawn are boring compared to the political struggles of Ferelden. It reminds me of the white walkers of A Song of Ice and Fire - they start out interesting and threatening, but are easily forgotten most of the time.
- DLCs really are required. I don't know if there's a bargain bin price for them now, as I owned them all already, but I wouldn't play it without it. Many of the most interesting items, armors and locations are found in DLC specific areas.
- Mages have a vast majority of the useful and fun abilities. 3x Mage + Shale is probably the ultimate party on the highest difficulty. Either that or 3x Mage + Leliana if one of the Mages is an Arcane Warrior (tank), so you can unlock chests etc. It's improved in Awakening, but Awakening is rather short compared to Origins.
Dragon Age 2
Well, it's not a bad game. It just doesn't live up to the Dragon Age name, and it feels more like a prelude to DA: I than a stand alone game. However, I do like the concept: Seeing changes in an area over a longer period of time than a short adventure. That also leads to a more realistic rise to power, as it takes quite a few years instead of weeks.
Unfortunately, the development time was way, way too short and the supposed changes in Kirkwall are lacking to say the least. At any rate, it's still a fun game, but it does have quite a few drawbacks:
- The re-use of locations is famous, and there's really not a lot more to say about that.
- Combat is actually challenging on the higher difficulties, but often for the wrong reasons. It's very obvious that the game was designed for console, and that the highest difficulty was simply added to satisfy the PC audience, without being properly tested/adjusted to the PC. It's a mess. It really needs a proper tactical view, and the waves style combat doesn't exactly help. It's especially bad when an Arcane Horror or Sarebaas pops up and kills the whole party in about 1 second.
- The ending is terrible. I realize that it triggers DA: I and so on, but it's still extremely bad. Put it in a novel or a short intro movie in DA: I or something, don't use it as an ending for an RPG. The ME3 ending seems worse because the game is overall quite a bit better than DA2, but I honestly feel the DA2 ending is the worst of the two by quite a margin. In fact, it's probably the worst ending I've seen in any major RPG.
- They got the companion gearing all wrong. They simplified the wrong aspect. If they wanted to reduce the number of items/clutter, remove things like rings/belts and so on and convert to a Gothic style complete armor setup. Basically, keep the stuff that has an impact and remove the stuff that's basically number tweaking. Note: Overall I'd prefer if they just kept the complexity, but I'm simply pointing out that if something has to go in the name of simplification, let it be the stuff without a major impact.
- Mages are, yet again, mandatory to the point where they can fill every roll but tanking. In DA: O they could even tank, so it's not quite as bad as in DA: O. I'm guessing the removal of regular healing spells in DA: I is intended to be a remedy for this particular issue.
Finally, I have to point out that I enjoyed a lot of the more "casual" aspects of Kirkwall. Varric and Isabella are especially good in this regard, in that they give an impression of actually having lives of their own, going to the pub, having other friends and so on. I like this social aspect. They had something similar going on in the Citadel, which worked out great, except for the fact that it felt a bit awkward considering the human race was about to get wiped out. In DA2, time isn't of the essence in the same way, so it's fine to add such features.
All in all, my biggest drawback with both games, however, is the darkness of it all. There's too much depression going on, not enough happiness. I guess that's why I'm drawn to characters like Varric and Isabella. Why do RPGs always have to be so damn "dark and gritty"?