Rushed, dumb, and shallow, yet surprisingly enjoyable. Still, pretty disappointing compared to Origins.
Unfortunately, it doesn't really work out here.
However, what surprised me after reading all the reviews (understandably) panning the game was that I still enjoyed playing it. True, the first hour felt terrible, with one boring fight sequence in a barren land with ugly textures after another, with cut-scenes dispersed in between. Still, I pressed on, and soon began to feel interested in Kirkwall and my companions. Before I knew it, I had already been playing for 6 hours!
The complaints of the game couldn't be more true though, the graphics are really bad in some places (NPC's, environment textures, poor lightning, clipping issues), the voice acting doesn't feel as believable as in the first one, the dialogue feels clichéd and the combat is not tactical or challenging (not even on hard, nightmare can you give a run for your money).
Quests are so-so, there are a lot random "find this item, bring item here" and "kill these guys, then return". Others have a bit more story to them and are actually enjoyable. However, the environments are repetitive and often straight copy pastes of other caves/dungeons/houses etc. There is no urgency to keep doing your quests either, but that might be what I am actually liking about the game. Rather than having to save the world this time, I'm just a mercenary trying to get by, earning some cash, finding loot, and talking to my companions.
Speaking of companions, I find them more likeable than what I had originally expected, though they are not as good as the ones from Origins. Also, what's up with all these romance options after talking to someone one time!? Seriously, BioWare is taking that thing too far, it worked great in Mass Effect and Origins because you actually have to build up your relationship with your companions over the course of the game, whereas here I have Anders and Isabella hitting on me during the first 5 minutes! Sigh...
"Think like a carrot, fight like an anime character!"
That pretty much sums up the combat. It's more fast-paced than in the first game which is somewhat good. However, it's also so exaggerated and so devoid of any tactical thought that you will likely be bored with it pretty quick. Which is why I am thankful it's so fast-paced, you get out of it quicker. I wouldn't say it's a button masher, because all you do is click your character to attack an enemy (if even that) and then occasionally press a key to use a skill. I was honestly hoping that they would have re-wamped the combat to be more like an ordinary action RPG, where you would control your character attacking, blocking, dodging and so on. What you get here is neither tactical like in the first game or action-packed like in Mass Effect. The game practically plays it self. Honestly, I win fights on hard where I go around with my main character looting the battlefield while my other 3 party members kills everything themselves. The game is just that easy. But hey, if you are feeling lazy or just like watching showers of blood and fireballs on screen, the combat is great (no it's not)!
This game feels incredibly rushed and dumbed down for the console kids. If you consider yourself a hardcore RPG gamer (I don't, I'm more of a "hardcore casual gamer"... yes, it's a title!) you probably won't like this. However, if you are just looking for your next RPG fix, you could go worse. As a stand alone game, it's not really bad (just really overpriced and over-hyped). Coming from BioWare though, this is a huge disappointment and I can only hope they don't screw up Mass Effect 3, and can redeem themselves with Dragon Age 3.
My advice if you still feel like playing this: wait a couple of months for it to drop in price first.
Edit: actually, the best way to summarize the whole game is this: http://i.imgur.com/WX45j.jpg