DA2 (or Dragon Age: Kirkwall) is in a akward position before it starts IMO since its story is essentially a tragedy and those tend not to translate well into the gaming space (more so in the RPG genre where the Epic is the expected form). Tragedy in the traditional sense hinges on the audience connecting to a struggling hero due to his or her diminished agency in the conflicts that play out around him or her, since however player agency is one of key features of games as a medium and player pay-off is key element that usually is a weird mess.
(and that due to the "über-powering" of the combat animations and pacicing, besides the poor balance, feeds a ludonarrative dissonance which makes it hard to take)
Another things is that it moves its story through time not through space but really doesn't back that premise up (which has IMO a good move for universe-building); you spend almost ten years in the city and hardly anything ever changes - the people stay always on-screen (e.g. Isabella is said to be adsent for some time but that's all off-screen), the envoirments are unchanged and your PC is ageless
But DA:K is not without mertit; though said mertits lie in what is alluded in the game not what is its main focus:
- that the history of Theads as we know it by now has a least glaring omissions, if not being outright fabrication to large extend
- that Sprits change while being Abominations, while they were immutable in the Fade (would have been nice if they had guts to do that with a "Demon" rather a "Spirit" since they didn't need to show is that Theads is not a nice place to live)
- that the Rite of Tranquility doesn't work
- Red Lyrium
- that the Qunari aren't just a military outside threat but have infilitrated the continent to large extend already (DLC 2)
- that there are other immoral Darkspawn which generate a call similar to the Archdemons (DLC 1)
But if you want the meat of what is going to be important for DA:I you should rather read "Asunder" as it treads some of the important points with more detail
Started playing DA2 about two-ish days ago, nearly finished.
- It has been simplified in many areas, some are welcome refinements though. Otherwise just remove any complexity from what was experienced in Origins
- Still plays well, but it is not the same as Origins. There are things missing, but still enjoyable once you get over the initial grind and shock of the first few quests. (adjusting to the changes really)
- Some artistic changes I don't find overly welcome, but again. You get used to it, but in some cases, only one or two examples from Origins to base it on.
- I don't like the changes made to the Darkspawn, huge appearance changes. They just are not.. scary or evil now. They look more like generic zombies that we've seen for the past x years.
- Combat is quicker, but less tactics are needed at times. Certainly not to the same depth Origins would let you to.
- I like Merrill
Just my two cents, I'm still finding it enjoyable however I doubt it has anywhere near the replay value, for myself at least.