As someone who was in love with DAO (love, obsession, the lines are all a little blurry), I lost months of my life to fighting darkspawn, saving Ferelden, bedding everyone I could and falling in love time and again with the future King, so it was only fitting I snapped up a copy of DA 2 as soon as humanly possible. Determined to let the story and gameplay shape my opinion I avoided reviews, forums and most of my friends until I had played it though at least once.

Sure, I made mistakes, lost companions forever, and missed a lot of the details and extras, but I had an unhealthy amount of fun. And when it was all over I started again, a change of class and different dialogue choices and I was playing a whole new game.

Within the first few minutes of gameplay the first noticeable difference from DAO is the refining of the combat system. No longer does it feel like you’re merely going through the motions, you’re really there. Play as a rogue and I defy you not to feel like a ninja, ducking and weaving through the hoards of enemies, disappearing only to materialize behind their general to shank him in the back while kicking out at the minion attempting to flank you. Ten minutes as a mage and you’ll be standing on the edge of your seat screaming “I AM A GOLDEN GOD! FEAR MY THUNDERY WRATH!!”

Or, maybe that’s just me.

There are differences from the original, but in my humble opinion they are not for the worse. Change is not always a bad thing. The feel of the game is less intense than DAO, but that’s to be expected. In DAO you are one of only two Wardens left and you have ‘this’ much time to defeat the darkspawn, unite Ferelden, and save the world. DA 2 is set over ten years. Ten years of life, change, friendship, love and, of course, adventure and heroism. You still change the world, but there’s much less urgency, and for a reason: the Blight is over, you defeated it in the first one, remember?

One of my favourite features of DA 2 is the ability to import your save game from the original as the background events to your new story. Choices made in DAO continue to affect the world in a plethora of ways, from the availability of certain quests, and guest appearances from old companions to what you read in the history books scattered around Kirkwall and random NPC dialogue.

Conversations with companions are much less frequent: no longer can you engage in deep and meaningfuls while standing amongst the bloody remains of a brood mother, but as much as I’d like to be able to hear how much I’m loved whenever I need reassurance it does make the conversations you do have that much more meaningful. It makes sense that someone would be more likely to open up at their home rather than confirming their virginity is indeed intact while standing in a crowded Proving Arena. And if you really need to revisit the romance again you can always save before initiating certain dialogues.

No longer are there ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ dialogue choices with companions. You can vehemently disagree with someone and still have an, albeit volatile, relationship. And if you do choose to head down the rivalry path subsequent conversations and cut scenes with that companion will differ accordingly.

All in all it means the replayability of Dragon Age 2 is ridiculously high. I’ve finished it thrice and am yet to be bored or feel compelled to skip through all the cut-scenes. I’ve tried to play other games, but keep coming back simply because I have not found another RPG that’s consistently this much fun. Nothing even comes close. I’m already planning on starting again from the beginning of DAO simply so I can ensure to shape history the way I want it to start for my next play-through of DA 2. Surely no ordinary game should inspire this level of obsession, but I’m hooked. You can keep your guilty pleasures, this one is mine. And I can’t wait to see what comes next.

- Ellah Rose