IT'S FRAKKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!
First of all, let me take a moment to talk about the graphics. Now, the graphics in Dragon Age: Origins were incredible, but the graphics for Dragon Age 2 were completely mind blowing! There was so much more detail in these graphics and they were much more realistic. The clothing, the hair, the facial expressions...it was all just so very incredible!
Secondly, there's the changes made to the dialog. The first of these features is the fact that your avatar actually speaks full sentences of dialog that don't involve simple trash-talking during a battle (which was the extent of actual speaking that your avatar did in Dragon Age: Origins). It's a small point, to be sure, but it's still a nice addition that only further adds to the awesomeness of this game. The second feature of the dialog aspect is that you have a clear depiction of what alignment your responses tie into. There's little images beside each response that depict whether the response is 'good/nice', 'neutral/sarcastic', or 'bad/evil'. I personally find this feature to be very handy because in Dragon Age: Origins, many was the time that I picked a response with the intent of being sarcastic and funny only to be rewarded with the loss of influence with the character to whom I was responding because the answer I gave was actually more aligned towards being bad. So again, this new feature is very handy.
Thirdly, I would like to talk about the mage class. In Dragon Age: Origins, well, I'm just going to come out and say it...the mage class kinda blew. Unless you trained your mage to be an Arcane Warrior (which allowed him or her to wield bladed weapons, bows or even maces), he or she was limited to only using their mage staff as a weapon, which as far as weapons go...was really horrible. Yes, it good for channeling spells through it, but that was about it. If the mage came under melee attack, all they could do was keep firing spells at their attacker through the staff (and depending on what sort of staff your mage was equipped with determined what sort of damage was caused when the mage was out of the mana required to cast actual spells). They could not use the staff in any other way, and that proved quite the hinderance. Now, in Dragon Age 2, this situation changes drastically (and in my opinion, for the better). In this game, mages are actually able to use their staff as a melee weapon. At first glance, the staff looks like any ordinary mage staff (albeit, prettier), but upon closer inspection, one can see that the staff in fact has a blade affixed to the bottom part--thereby allowing the mage to stab their attacker when performing a series of basic attacks (you're actually able to whack your attacker with the staff) in the event that they run out of mana. Yes, the mage is still the weakest party member because he or she is not designed to be a tank and take loads of damage, but he or she now has more of a fighting chance to survive instead just being a sitting duck.
Fourthly, I would like to talk about the rogue/ranger class. This class was my favorite in Dragon Age: Origins because of the class' versatility, and that favoritism only grows by leaps and bounds in Dragon Age 2. This is because in this game, you're able to fully take advantage of the speed, dexterity and precision that the ranger/rogue class is known for. You're actually able to perform back flips, which comes in handy when you find yourself overwhelmed by adversaries and need to quickly put distance between them and yourself. You're also able to use smoke pellets in order to get behind your adversary in the blink of an eye in order to actually perform a back-stab in its true glory instead of simply trying to maneuver around your adversary like you had to do in Dragon Age: Origins. Another handy feature is the ability to throw (or more to the point launch with a spinning kick) explosives that stun enemies upon impact.
You are restricted to only playing a human in this game as opposed to Dragon Age: Origins in which you could choose to play a human, and elf or a dwarf, but considering all of the positives of this game, I think it's a more than fair trade. You're still able to choose your character's gender and class, and you're also able to customize how he or she looks (just not during the course of the demo because it's only designed to give you a small taste of the awesomeness that is Dragon Age 2). My only real complaint about the game is that the fonts on the screen are really small, but other than that I am chomping at the bit for the release of the full game, and as far as I'm concerned, March 8th can't get here fast enough!
