I've been easing my way into the game - found I got overwhelmed with the number of quests and the suddenly strange interface. A bit irritated that I have to go digging into the codex/journal to get any semblance of context for most of the quests thrown at me,.
The voice acting/dialogue sequences are very well done for a video game, gotta give props for this.
The strength of Bioware games is in the story - and so far DA2 has delivered (haven't made it far though).
Very happy about the changes to the crafting system - I absolutely HATE farming in games, especially single player games. Who the hell wants to wander around trying to gather 10 random items to combine with another 10 random items to make random item? Anyone complaining about this change has too much time on their hands... (imo)
The only thing I'm disappointed in is that you can't customize your party member's armor pieces (as far as I can tell). The instruction manual (360) is also 100% useless at explaining anything of importance.
Playing as a
manly two handed warrior, the fighting is freaking awesome if not quite a bit on the easy side (normal difficulty). I tried starting on hard, but that damn ogre kept wiping the floor with me.
Slight spoiler:
Overall I'm feeling an atmosphere similar to Neverwinter Nights 2 - not sure why, but it's a good thing in my book.