EA sale on Gamefly

Fair enough. I've only played 2 (just bought both, so I'll fix that soon enough). Those repeating dungeons were a pain in the ass.

Don't bother. Nothing of any real importance takes place in DA2 honestly. And everything about it is a complete let down. Saying "nowhere near as good" as DA:O is, honestly, an insult to DA:O still. That suggests the two games are actually somewhat comparable at all, when they aren't. DA2 has nothing of what made DA:O fantastic:
The characters are forgettable, the plot is utterly lackluster and pathetically small in scope and scale, the combat is basically a clunky and shitty attempt at a more actiony MMORPG button mash, the skill changes were terrible and took away any actual ability to make your character actually feel customized. The game is, at best, mediocre in parts. Most of it is outright sub-par. Which means it is orders of magnitude separate from DA:O, not just "nowhere near as good."

I wasted more money on that game than should have been spent on it, had it preordered, got all the DLC for it, etc. And I can tell you without any hesitation, that if I had it to do over again... I don't think I'd have even paid $1 for DA2 knowing what I know now. If you can get some kind of bundle or something where you end up with DA2 basically free because you're buying it for other, much better games, go for it.
Otherwise, skip the game. What few things in it that even matter at all to the plot of Inquisition will be something you can go over and make decisions about in the Keep anyway.

It's still decent and worth at least a shot. The combat system is faster and more intense, and you'll be introduced to new characters and environments (though many areas are straight up reused... x.x). The plot isn't that terrible, honesty.