I actually like it quite a lot better than the first. It gets a bit fetchquesty at points, but it's such a quickly play I didn't mind at all. Plus the environments are SO detailed and the characters are especially great (if you liked Alistair, you'll love Anders. You'll probably really like Merrill, too. My favorite ended up Varric, which surprised me a bit, but honestly, I don't dislike anybody in the cast.)