As I have some free Gamepass time, I am just going through any games on the list that catch my eye. As it's now free for me, I decided to give Dragon Age II a whirl. I really loved Origins, Awakening and Inquisition, but given the negative feedback for II I gave it a miss when it came out.
After a couple of hours last night, I can definitely see why it got panned compared to the others. The environments are so sparse and repetitive, and there is no feeling of any serious world-building at all. It feels like everything was put together in the most basic way possible, and it really seems a shadow of the other games in the series so far. It is kind of interesting seeing some old characters pop up and seeing some more of the DA lore, so I will give it a bit longer to see if it gets more engaging but it's such an odd dip in an otherwise really strong series.