To me DA2 was a step down in about every regard compared to DA:O. Much smaller scale and scope of both the story and setting, constant re-use of art assests (especially for dungeons), combat that was dumbed down and made placement of your abilities and map control pointless because enemies just randomly spawned, it made it a real slog to get through. It felt like a game that had very little budget and a very short development time so they had to restrict it to this one city mainly. i tried to play through it twice and never could make it to the end, just the epitome of a "meh" game to me.
DA:O kept my attention all the way through, always excited to see where the story would take me and how it'd unfold.
DA:I I feel was a bit unfairly bashed post release, I understand some complaints, mainly the repetitive "fetch" quests that got old and the whole "Hinterlands" bit that got tiring to a lot of people (hence "Leave the hinterlands" became advice for new players), but otherwise I felt it was a good game when it came to the overall story, characters, and world design. It was a major step up from DA2 and though it didn't overtake DA:O for me I'd still place it up there near it, way above DA2.