14 DAY TRIAL // Dragon Age 2 brought a lot of changes over its predecessor, Dragon Age: Origins, including overhauls of the mage class, a faster, more brutal gameplay and a new interface.
Another big change is the introduction of Kirkwall, the city where almost all of the action of the game takes place.
In Dragon Age: Origins, you traveled through Ferelden, a massive territory with unique locations scattered throughout, each home to epic quests that demanded your full attention.
In Dragon Age 2, things seem less epic, but this is all for the best.
While in Origins you had an expansive map that was mostly just empty space between towns, in the second game you have the city of Kirkwal, with different locations scattered in and around its walls.
This may seem like a step down in terms of adventures, but BioWare, its developer, filled up the city with lots of quests and missions that don't require losing extra time traveling from location to location.
In Origins, I abandoned lots of side missions because I simply couldn't muster up the patience to go through different zones of Ferelden because some merchant needed special items from the other side of the country.
In Dragon Age 2, almost all of the side quests were complete, because you can get around Kirkwall's different sections, like Darktown, Lowtown, Hightown, as well as its outside locations, like the Wounded Coast or Sundermount, quite easily.
The experience doesn't feel all that epic, but it's much more pleasant and keeps you on your toes.
Sometimes, you still need to walk around from different areas to others, but it's much less ground to cover and doesn't wear on your nerves like visiting Orzammar in Origins and having to go through its outside area, its inside hall and then reach the center where actual characters were found.