I hope people aren't implying that DAO's plot or story was any decent here. Did anything meaningful happen plotwise for most of that game? Not until you arrived at the 'Landsmeet', and by then the game was almost over anyway. What it did have, apparently, was "scope" - or, in other words, a generic fantasy epicness that should bore the crap out of any self-professed gamer nerd/manchild.
But yeah, DA2 does feel restricted in comparison, and most of the quests early on do feel like side-quests. It feels like some weird quasi-GTA game where you run around doing errands for various city folk - I'm not defending any of that. But let's remember that DAO was no great shakes either. Did you guys forget the tedious Deep Roads, or the mind-numbing Fade section already? What about the numerous cave-like dungeons (were there any other kind?).
A big problem with DA2 is the abundant use of recycled environments. But there is a small solace in the fact that most of the quests that utilize these settings don't last very long, and that quest objectives are usually quick to arrive at. The quests themselves seem insignificant plotwise, but some of them are interesting in themselves, like self-contained stories. They add character to an otherwise bland city. Say what you will about the unambitious plot, but if you're gonna base a whole game around a single location you need these little insights so that the place can come alive.
I have a feeling they tried to do a Mass Effect 2 plotwise, but on a much smaller scale. Sort of like a stop-gap before things go crazy. Now this is no bad thing, but it requires nuance and time to craft, and with the nature of the recycled environments and bland locations, you can only conclude that they did not possess those requirements.
Yet I am only 10 hours in, and I am only getting more hooked the more I play - so what do I know?
