"2. Retaining the improvements made in Dragon Age II
Although it would be tempting to "go back to the basics" of Dragon Age: Origins and pretend thatDragon Age II never happened, BioWare should also acknowledge the improvements that Dragon Age II brought to the franchise.
Dragon Age II offered a considerably improved user interface, better combat gameplay, a cleaner art style, and a more interesting story than its predecessor.
By comparison, Dragon Age: Origins' inventory system was cluttered with unnecessary items, the combat was occasionally clumsy, and the story was a cliche high fantasy tale of uniting multiple races against an ancient evil. Gamers, however, overlooked a lot of these problems thanks to the sub-quests and rich, branching story line possibilities that led to different outcomes at the end of the game."
I'm very happy this part is included. The honest truth is that, had Dragon Age 2 come before Dragon Age: Origins, DA:O would also have been slammed critically because the elements listed above are so much better in DA2. The many improvements from DA2 cannot be discarded. DA:O was a fantastic game but it was also extremely flawed.
DA2 had two glaring problems: the reuse of environments, which was a foolish shortcut, and that it took away the function of using found/bought armor for your companions. Personally, I found the first problem annoying, though it didn't really bother me all that much--for me, the combat is a lot more important than where it takes place. As for the second, I found it to be a slight improvement, as the task of outfiting all your characters in DA:O was an absolute pain in the ass, especially since the inventory management system was garbage. Still, it was a shallow effort and they clearly could have done better. The real mistake was putting it in DA:O, as you can never take something away without people complaining. I know it's back in DA:I but I can only hope management is much improved from DA:O.
As far as story goes, I thought DA2 was much more immersive and personal than DA:O. I've been reading fantasy novels since I was a child and I found the main story in DA:O to be so generic and derivative that I was a bit shocked at times. I was sure that it would be a major area of complaint. I thought that the underlining story with the Mages and the Church, and with Morigan, were much more interesting. As it turns out, that was on purpose, as BioWare wanted Origins to be kind of an introduction. The problem, unfortunately, is that a lot of people seem to want generic.
What I want, as someone who loved both games, is basically DA2 but with a varied overworld like DA:O, with lots of different places to go and things to do. I want the improvements to stay.
As for player choice, that needs to go, at least relative to important decisions. Developers cannot maintain branching storylines through an entire franchise. They'd end up developing multiple games within each title.
