Dragon Age II is not a horrible game but it does leave quite a bit to be desired.
The Good:
1. Combat is greatly improved. It is much faster and more responsive, I can no longer push the A button and just walk away from my television to go get a drink.
2. The story, while not as good as it's predecessors, is still intriguing enough to make you want to keep playing.
3. Your PC is no longer a stoic mute. Some were disappointed by the fact that you could not choose your characters race like in DA:O. I feel that having a fully voiced character with facial expressions makes up for that.
The Average:
1. Equipment. You can no longer mess with your party members equipment aside from upgrading certain characters weapons and an occasional armor upgrade. I did not actually mind this, what bothered me was that you are constantly having to update Hawke's equipment. Nothing ever felt like it was "mine" since at any given moment you could open up a crate or loot a fallen enemy and find a new staff/robe/sword etc. I would have preferred something closer to ME2 in which you have a set of armor/robes and weapons that you can buy new pieces for or chance the color of instead of constantly changing everything from the ground up all the time.
2. There are a few instances in this game where it gives you the illusion of choice. You will select dialogue options that indicate you do/do not want to do something and, regardless, the opposite of what you may have wanted will happen anyway despite the game giving you a "choice" in the matter.
3. I felt like I never really got to know any of my companions. In this way Bioware copied one of the ME franchise's lesser traits. You can no longer talk to party members while out and about, you may only talk with them during companion quests. Any other time you try they will just give you a short line about how they're ready to do whatever it is you need them to do or that you'll talk later.
The Bad:
1. Loading times. This was honestly one of the biggest problems I had with this game, the amount of time you spend looking at loading screens (I played this on the 360) is ridiculous. There is literally a part near the end of the game where you go from one location to your house to read a letter, back to that location for a brief cut scene and then off to another location. It really took me out of the game since practically nothing is connected. All the different areas of Kirkwall are separate and you must "Leave Area" in order to get anywhere else.
2. Some of the side quests in this game are abhorrent due to the developers reusing the same dungeons over and over again. I literally laughed out loud when I noticed that these places were supposed to be different and their solution to that was just to start you out at a different end of the cave/mansion/warehouse/ruin/sewer and block off certain areas.
3. Some plot's are left completely unfulfilled and unquestioned. For example there is a point in the game where someone from the original is introduced and you help them with something. Then they are not heard from again. Another example is that when you help a companion of yours with their personal quest, something very tragic occurs and then said companion never speaks to you about it. Lastly, in my game, after the Deep Roads expedition I never spoke to my sibling again save a few lines here and there at the very end.
4. Compared to the original this felt very short. I beat it in less than 10 days and if I was able to do that I can only imagine how many people beat it in even less time.
All in all it wasn't a horrible game, certainly worth playing but I'm hoping they take their time with the 3rd installment and really deliver instead of cutting corners and turning out something that's less than what so many of us, as Bioware fans, have come to expect.