While this isn't a bad game by its own right, the masterpiece that Origins was makes this one a bit of a disappointment.
I found that to be much harder than I thought. When I played through this game, much of what I thought of and compared Dragon Age II to was Origins. This game just doesn't meet the quality that the predecessor set up for its sequel.
Here's what I liked about the game:
I found the story line to be pretty interesting. It is very political, and in the midst of the political conflicts, a lot of hard questions arise. There are a lot of choices to make, and some of them cause different outcomes. This game also occurs over a ten-year time span. So, the choices of some of the quests that happen in the opening act can come back to haunt you in later ones. It is also fun to see not only your own characters, but your friends develop over this period of time.
Some of the character interactions can be interesting. Their own quests are neat insights into their personalities, and its fun to see how their ambitions change or progress over time.
Cons:
While the story was entertaining, it wasn't as engrossing as the story from Origins was. For most of the game, you stay in Kirkwall, and the place got pretty old really quick. When you do go somewhere else, you go to places that are recycled throughout the game. Do you remember the same metal building that was reused over and over in Mass Effect? That's exactly what happens here, but it happens more often. I missed going to the diverse environments that could be explored in Origins.
Sadly, a lot of the choices you can make in this game have no impact on the story line itself. Even the choices that seem to have humongous consequences change the game very little. This takes away a lot of the replayability of the game. There are also many plot holes. I played am apostate mage in the game, and people around me would talk all the time of how we needed to avoid templars for fear of being captured. Strangely, I talked with and dealt with templars all the time, and they never gave me any trouble. Plot holes like that one are all over the place.
The game also had a fairly disappointing ending. If you've played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, or Awakening, and remember how many loose ends they left, that's what the ending to this game is like. There is very little closure with what happens to your characters, and the ending is very ambiguous.
I also found several of the characters in this game to be very boring. Most of them were very cliche, and many of those were very annoying. Some of them were so stupid that I wanted to smack them around some to help them see reason, but of course, they wouldn't. They are sometimes unbelievable as well, and I felt that some of their actions just didn't match up with what I thought they were like.
The fact that the main character was voiced (think Shepard from Mass Effect) was frustrating, too, since it took the thought away from what I could say. I started simply picking the answers on the top nearly every single time I talked to someone since they were the most diplomatic.
The combat isn't as hard in this game, and it feels much more like it belongs on a console game. The humongous fights that I found actually having to form strategies for to finish from Origins were gone, and had turned into straightforward hack-n-slashing and aimless magic-flinging fests. Every single fight lasted longer than it had to as well. Once I thought that I was done with an encounter, a few more waves of baddies would come and swarm around my party, and this happened nearly every encounter. Needless to say, it got old quick.
Honestly, Dragon Age II is not a bad game. It was enjoyable, and the politically-driven story line was fun to watch. There is also some good writing in it, but the monotonous side quests and recycled environments makes it hard to dig to. I don't regret playing it, and had fun while I did.
However, like I mentioned before, this is not the masterpiece the first one was. So, if you are bored and need something amusing enough to kill time, have the patience to take the game for what it is and dig for the good stuff, and can find it in the bargain bin, then go for it.