I liked the storytelling techniques that Bioware were trying in DA2 and I enjoyed the cast of characters.
I enjoyed playing a character with a history and personality beyond just what I was deciding for him. It was always great picking a one or two word response in the dialogue wheel and getting a really great line from Hawke that I wasn't expecting and it was also fun seeing Hawke's overall personality and the way other characters saw him be moulded by the the dialogue responses that I had chosen.
I thought the time jumps were a great way to tell a story, I know that wasn't popular with everybody but I loved getting through a chapter doing something big and dramatic like the Deep Roads or the Quanari attack and then fast-forwarding, seeing how Hawke, the rest of the cast and the city in general had grown and what they were doing and how everyone had moved on after those events. I enjoyed the longer story arcs for characters like Anders and Cullen who's stories really took advantage of the five year timespan. I liked the little scenes and small touches that made the companions feel like they had their own lives as well. They had some really good storylines in DA2 both in the main and side quests, a lot of them felt underdeveloped though which is a pity.