What I like about DA2 is that it's the first game in the BioWare series that quite easily justifies Hawke running around and solving a whole bunch of stupid little problems. Hawke is just too damn poor and needs to do whatever he can to keep his head above water. It always felt a little out of place when the main character was helping some kid find their dolly when he was out trying to save the motherf***ing country/planet/galaxy/whatever. Even in the second act, you're just dealing with aristocratic politics.
See, games always think that in order to justify their existence, THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE WILL DIE if not for the intervention of the hero. Is there a problem with this? No, not really. But I applaud games that have a tendency to put value into individual stories. Mass Effect 2 comes to mind: the overarching storyline of the Collectors, despite BioWare's marketing department, is nowhere near as "epic" as Mass Effect 1's whole "if you don't succeed, a race of sentient machines is going to wipe out all the known galaxy." Instead, it was more about building relationships and learning about people and their struggles. It's why I still largely believe ME2 to be the best in the series (and not because of ME3's ending, either). It's mainly just a personal opinion, but I'm getting a bit tired of games that set the stakes so high. Assassin's Creed feels like a series that's gradually heading towards that and I find it a bit troubling. Rather than it being an on going conflict between the Templars and the Assassins and their influence on humanity, it's slowly showing signs of trying to prevent a doomsday scenario from wiping everyone out.
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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.
"You have issues." - MWC. Pot. Kettle.