14 DAY TRIAL // Dragon Age 2 is, in many ways, most of them detailed better in the Softpedia review of the game, a more simplified experience than Dragon Age: Origins, the more traditional role-playing game that opened the series.
And, in my opinion, it makes Dragon Age 2 the sort of game which is better at introducing the series than its predecessor, and I would go as far as to recommend that players who are new to the fantasy universe that BioWare has created first pick up and finish Dragon Age 2 and only then forward in complexity and back in real time to play Origins.
Dragon Age 2 is very quick where Origins can be slow and cumbersome, the sequel takes care of its own of aspects, like armor for companions, that the player needs to focus on himself in the first game, DA2 is linear and has clear “big decision” points where the story in Origins unfolds in much more fragmented manner and choices are not as clear cut.
BioWare has not been very clear on the development process for Dragon Age 2, whether it was going on at the same time as that for Origins or it was done fully after the launch of the first game, but in some ways it feels like a game that is designed with wide appeal in mind where Origins expected players to have prior knowledge of the genre.
I have a couple of gaming friends that have not touched a role-playing game in years, if ever, and I plan to persuade them to play Dragon Age 2, see how far they get in it, and then introduce Origins into their game diet just to see what the reaction is.
Newcomers to the BioWare fantasy series might want to do the same in order to get a better feel of the franchise.