Even putting aside the blatant awfulness of the level design, visual design, combat structure design and so on, the story of DA2 is still awful in itself. The narrative-gameplay integration is non-existent. Every character is an unsympathetic cardboard cut-outs. Companions are blatantly designed for the sake of shippers and fetishists. But most importantly: Nothing you do in the game matters. Not only is the game 100% on rails, you're not even the conductor. Your character drives not a single moment of the plot. Nothing important happens because you choose to do something. You're only ever responding two what the real players of the story do.
The game is a clear example of the computer-game-rpg equivalent of a GM who wants to write a book rather than play an rpg. The writers of DA2 wanted to tell a story and the player is a barely tolerated nuisance that they chose to write around rather than include in that story. They should have just made a straight-forward linear action game with one of their real protagonists as the main character rather than pretend that the player character has a place in story.
