While the game is shorter than Origins, that doesn't make it any worse by any stretch of the imagination. Most of Origins was going around the various factions and saying "Could you take your thumb out of your arse for five minutes and help me punch that dragon in the face?" Combat is far improved as far as I'm concerned, I actually feel like I'm doing something on the battlefield rather than sitting twenty yards away and screaming orders at the party. The party members actually feel as if they do something while they're not off galavanting in your wild adventures other than sit around, twiddling their thumbs and wondering when you'll come back to talk to them.
My only major gripes are the fact that everyone seems to have bought their caves from the same architect, with the buildings I can understand, but that just screamed, "Lazy design" at me. Coupled with the ending (Without spoiling anything, I'll just say I was a bit disappointed) makes for two complaints against the game for me. Two complaints, minor ones at that, hardly break the game for me, so I'm quite content with my purchase.
Now about this sheer and utter hatred that people seem to be spewing at the game. Lord almighty I have never seen a game receive so much fury before, you'd think that Bioware had gone around and personally knifed everyone's dog with the response some people gave it.
"Hey, I don't get to be an elf or a dwarf anymore, what gives? Why are you ruining my character? Why don't I get the choice of making my own avatar in the world of Thedas?!" Because that had such and impact on the plot of the first game, didn't it? In Origins all you could be was a Grey Warden, I fail to see any difference between that and only being able to play a human; and none of this "But now we're called Hawke!" BS, before you were called Cousland, Aeducan, Amell or the other two that escape me at present.
"What's up with this 'wheel' business! We don't like wheels, we like our lists, anything circular merely confuses and perplexes us!" Okay, I admit, that was a bit underhanded, but so far the only real complaints I've seen about the conversation wheel is that Mass Effect did it first (Heaven forbid taking a good idea and applying it elsewhere) or that the summary for each choice is misleading. Now, the latter argument I can't defend, I'll admit there were times when I wanted to say something and was surprised by what actually came out of my mouth; however the same problem arose in Origins- Or rather, not the same problem but a similar one: Tone. You can't read tone as well as you can hear it, it's the reason people frequently state that they're being sarcastic when typing over the interwebs, so there are no misunderstandings. The conversation wheel certainly isn't as much of a tool of the devil as people are claiming, it's more of a step to the side, rather than a step back or forward.
"My word, the main character has a voice! This is outrageous, it breaks my immersion" This is subjective, for some people it breaks immersion, for some; the fact that everyone seems to be able to read your mind without you saying anything breaks immersion. To each their own on that point.
"The talent trees are more streamlined and linear" I'm not joking, I've seen people claim this. How you get more linear than a straight line baffles me.
"It's more of a hack and slash now, not even an RPG, this is a disgrace" What? Honestly, what? You can turn the auto-attack back on for the PC (And I imagine consoles may get an update for it) and even without that, even with the combat having changed, how does that make it less of an RPG?
"The game plays nothing like how I imagined it, boo hoo" I don't understand people; first we complain that companies don't make demos anymore, then when Bioware release a demo everyone seems perplexed that the game is like that throughout. I can understand being upset at what is perceived as a wasted $60, but all of these people saying "I bought it, I have the right to ***** about it" there was a demo available, is it Bioware's fault that you didn't pay attention to it?
Wow that turned out a lot longer than I planned, so much for a quick paragraph response.