Having completed my first play-through of the main story and a bunch of side content yesterday, I thought I'd share my thoughts on what I considered the highlights of the game. Feel free to share your own.
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Quests: In Hushed Whispers and What Pride Had Wrought.
These two main quests were the story highlights of the game for me, largely due to the amount of choice involved, as well as the writing and plot implications. In Hushed Whispers was the first quest that made the impact of the world's events feel real, and seeing the future in which Corypheus was successful, and seeing Leliana after she'd been tortured and disfigured, was an emotional high point of the story.
What Pride Had Wrought was similarly a highlight, but more for the story and lore implications; the existence of these ancient elves, as well as learning that Tevinter did not destroy Arlathan as we were lead to believe. I really liked the concept of the Well of Sorrows, too. To top it off, the amount of choice involved in this quest, as well as the incredibly fun puzzles, made it even better. The follow-up events to this quest and revelations were huge.
The vast amount of extra content and side quests is just the icing on the cake.
Characters: Straight-up, Vivienne stood out for me as a very well-written character. To have a mage that unapologetically supported and championed the idea of the Circle system was very interesting to me, as a mage player throughout the series myself. Her arguments and reasoning were convincing and my second playthrough is likely going to be a pro-Circle mage, I'm not doubting largely because of the influence of Vivienne's character. Having characters that oppose their stereotype makes for interesting interaction and perspective (Eg. Dorian, Cole, Bull, etc).
Solas was another standout, despite the fact that I almost never had him in my party. Purely from the conversations I had with him at Haven and Skyhold, he was easily one of the, if not the, most unique companions, and his existential and philosophical views on the Fade and spirits really intrigued me, and I plan a full playthrough with him in my party in the future. The revelation as to his true identity post-credits just makes him even more tempting.
Though, really, I thought all of the companions were incredibly well-written, as is BioWare's forté. Honorable mentions to Morrigan, who's remained my favorite NPC of the series, and Leliana, who I've grown completely invested in since her character development in this game, and how she's had a crisis of faith and taken a somewhat darker route, becoming a kind of hero of the people, supporting mage independence, for better or for worse.
Plot: Initially I was content with Corypheus as a primary antagonist, though I didn't expect him to blow me away. I knew I'd enjoy the game's story, but my expectations were exceeded, largely due to the characters and revelations we got involving Flemeth, Solas, and the Elven Pantheon. Corypehus alone was an interesting enough antagonist, though I was admittedly disappointed at first when I heard the spoilers that he was in fact the Elder One and not just an agent of the Elder One. But as the story opened up and began to include these other aspects of lore, as mentioned above, the story became immensely fulfilling. The post-credit plot twist I did not expect at all, and I liked the bold move on BioWare's part and can't wait for future DLC/installments.
Combat: DA:I's combat got a beautiful mix of DA:O's weightiness and DAII's fluidity.
The combat is great and the added difficulty and lack of level scaling just topped it off. The first dragon I fought was on Normal difficulty and I spent the entire fight in tactical cam with all of my party but my tank at less than 20% health, and when I finally won it made the battle that much more fulfilling. Nothing more to add, they simply got it right in terms of difficulty and the feel and flow of combat.
Voice Acting: The voice acting in this game was amazing and the best yet, IMO. Varric, Cassandra, Solas, Vivienne; all highlights for me. I even found Bull's voice growing on me, despite being hesitant from the trailers. But as always, Corinne Kempa and Claudia Black take this for me, for their voicing of Leliana and Morrigan, respectively. Phenomenal cast that did justice to each of their characters' unique personalities.
Maps: The openness of the game made it feel like I was finally exploring the DA world that I'd just wanted to go out and see since I got into the series.
The semi-open-world approach, with multiple sandbox-style maps, is the ideal half-way for me, and I'm glad BioWare took this approach. Not too restrictive or linear, but also not too open and vast a la Elder Scrolls games. A nice balance.
Graphics: Stunning, beautiful world. Enough said.
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