I recently finished Dragon Age 2 and generally enjoyed it. While I didn’t find the story as compelling nor as epic as the original Dragon Age Origins, it is still well written and fairly interesting and entertaining. All the criticisms you read about Dragon Age 2 complain that the environments are used over and over with only minor changes. That is entirely true and could be annoying if you let it get to you. On the other hand, if your goal is to do missions and fight baddies, it is fine.
Dragon Age 2 is somewhat dumbed-down from the original Dragon Age or from most other RPGs. While the skill trees are there, they are a bit simpler and better grouped. Inventory management is good too. In general, you can only equip armor for yourself. Some of your companions have weapons that will stay with them for the entire game (Varric’s Biana, for example), while you can swap others out at will. My wife was so intrigued with the simplified aspects of the game, she may even want to give it a try sometime.
I did all the companion quests, so they all loved me at the end. Even when they disagreed with my endgame choices, I convinced them to fight for me. The companion missions are good and many of they tie closely into the main story line, while others are just fun distractions and ways to gain XP.
The endgame is a little disappointing (much like Mass Effect 3’s endgame apparently is). I only played one ending, but it turned ugly and we needed to kill the leaders of both opposing parties. My hunch is that by making the other choice to get a different endgame would have resulted in killing the same two bosses, just in different order. There was no pleasant finale in this game, much like there apparently isn’t one in ME3. Apparently the Bioware folks like cataclysmic, world-changing endings, perhaps because they want to develop new story lines rather than being stuck in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age universes.
If you like RPGs, Dragon Age 2 will not disappoint. It looks good, plays well, and is fun. It is well worth the price, particularly now that it can be had for a decent price. Check it out!