We are less than a week away from the release of Dragon Age II, and RPG fans are salivating at the thought of getting their hands on BioWare’s latest adventure. You’ll have to wait until the game’s March 8 release to play it for yourself, but having beaten the game, I can give you a heads-up on a few things you should know before you dive into the Dragon Age universe again.

1. Combat Feels Like An Action/RPG
Battles in Dragon Age II feel like they evolved more from the console version of Origins than the PC. Instead of a deliberate and tactical approach, fights take place in third person and focus more on fast-paced action. This is true even if you’re playing on PC, so don’t be surprised when you can’t find your zoomed-out isometric view. Yes, this is a significant change from the last game…but being different isn’t necessarily bad.

2. Classes Are More Specialized
In Origins, warriors and rogues had different roles in combat but shared similar abilities. For instance, both classes could dual-wield and put points into archery-related talents. In Dragon Age II, the warrior loses these capabilities, focusing instead on tanking and dealing melee damage. Rogues are more about precision and support, though their position in relation to enemies is less important. Mages still nuke foes, but they aren’t quite as helpless when faced with direct combat.

3. Inventory Management Is Better
Your allies in Dragon Age II each have a set of armor that they wear all the time. This means that you can’t equip them with the helmets, boots, and gauntlets that you find in your quest. This may sound disappointing at first, but it results in you spending much less time in the menus sizing up and optimizing equipment. If you pick up a new suit of armor that isn’t an improvement for Hawke, you can just sell it; no need to look at all of your active and inactive party members to see if it’s better for them. Plus, you can still outfit your companions with rings, amulets, and belts, so the customization isn’t gone completely. Your inventory will be less cramped, especially since you get a storage chest early on and you aren’t carrying around crafting reagents all the time.

4. Skills Are Gone
When you level up, you allocate ability points and talent points. You no longer get skill points, because skills as they existed in Origins are no longer present. Your character can still do many things that used to be skills, like crafting and lockpicking, but these have migrated to other parts of the game. For instance, the rogue’s ability to pick locks automatically increases for every 10 points in their Cunning ability (simple locks at 10, standard locks at 20, etc.).

5. Kirkwall Is The Main Setting
Don’t expect to travel to the four corners of the Free Marches like you did in Ferelden. Dragon Age II tells the story of Hawke’s rise to power in Kirkwall, and as such, almost all of the action takes place within the city. You’ll take a few trips to surrounding locations, but don’t be surprised when your adventures have you hopping between different parts of Kirkwall instead of different parts of the continent.