I just completed the game and while i find it to be excellent i want to point out some issues i experienced and to give my overall impression. I played the game on PC.
There may some minor spoilers so forum readers should tread carefully.
1.) Story
I found the story very interesting. The narrative was well constructed, i liked the branching storyline in the end of act 1. For the first time in a Bioware game i think the choices from previous game really had an impact. I disliked however the relationship between the hero and the antagonist. The game tries to establish them as rivals but in my opinions fails to do so. In DAO for exmaples after each act we saw cutscenes from Loghain perspective. It helped build his character. There are some hints about his motivations in codexes scattered through the game but first they are insufficient and second i didn't have the time to read them very carefully. Thus the antagonist is less developed than i think he was supposed to be. That is unfortunate because the game could have really explored the different kind of leaders the inqusitor and the antagonist are.
2.) World and lore
The Dragon age lore and setting are completely marvelous. Never in game have i seen so many tidbits of information about the world. They really help you to immerse yourself in the game. It is really fun to search those but sometimes they can overwhelm the player. The quest system and dynamic event system also are included in the game however to some extent they do not achieve balance. There was a zone where there weren't many quests but the exploration element was very cool. This zone was my favourite as i hunted for artifacts and raided tombs, saved slaves, wth no need to search in my quest log. On the other hand most of the other zones swarmed me with so many quests (many of which were extremely boring fetch, collect type) that i had no idea where to start. Also i hated the collectible shards. If i ever wanted to play super mario i would buy it.
I understand that the game tries to recreate some mmo elements but they are unnecessary. In future i think the olny quests that should remain are the story, compaions and few key character ones. Everything else should be dynamic events. There were many of those in the game but in my opinion not enough.
Those issues being said, the game zones were absolutely incredbile. I had so much fun exploring and i never felt that i was repeating the same thing again. The fact that the graphics are absolutely gorgeous. Also i encountered almost no bugs or glitches which is amazing considering the scale of the areas.
The mission design on the other hand was excellent. They were well paced, with amazing cuscenes.
3.) Characters
Most of the charaters are very well written. While some of them may be kind of cliched, each of them had a twist that made them interesting and they felt alive. I also really liked the return of some familiar faces. And which is more they were no mere cameos. While DAO was a story driven game and DA2 was character driven, i think DAI achived balance between the two. Also i kind of would have liked to control some of those character in some missions. There could have been more gameplay features implmented with those characters.
4.) Voice acting, sound, music
Voice acting in DAI is of the highest quality. I especially liked how British male inqustior, Cassandra, Varric, Sera and Joesephine were voiced. I am kind of partial because i liked those characters the most but i didn't find any badly voiced character. Also i urge the design team to send best regard to Freddie Prinze jr. because he just gets better and better.
Also i don't want to spoil any of the return characters but it was a welcome return to hear them again. They are as good as they were in previous games.
The sound and music are outstanding as always. However i have to point out the girl who sung the tavern songs. This girl has amazing voice and great talent and i have never seen something so little but at the same time so cool and exquisite.
5.) Combat and interface
Well i kind of think that the combat was a little of a mess. It is not gamebreaking but it takes a little time to adjust and feels as a step back from DAO or even DA2. I hated the tactcal view. It is uninutive. DAO had a much better tactcal camera and was far easier to command my characters. It appears that this was created mainly for consoles which is not a bad thing but i think the PC version should have received the old tactical camera mode.
Also i hate that i have to spam a mouse button to spam attack. DAI is first and foremost RPG, not an action game. I understand you attempt to blend the two in one but it has gone a little to far. And sometimes when i hit the target the hit doesn't connect while it should.
The spell bar is also limiting with a 8 spells being insufficient. That also comes from the fact there should have been more spells in the game. Again i think the adventure element has overshadowed the RPG one.
The looting system is also very unintuive as i am forced to press F to every single loot bag (i can't click them though because i attack), An auto loot or mass loot system would have been appreciated.
Also i liked how in all the trailers the hero wears the inqustior helm and yet in Skyhold or in the cutscenes there is no option to do so. I would ask you to patch it because the helm is really cool and badass and i would apreciate it when i replay the game in a year or two.
The crafting system is also very addicting and i appreciate its inclusion.
6.) Overall
I tried to emphasize on some of the design's mistakes because they are small and can leave some bad aftertaste. I thik some may be fixed and patched. If not, well i repect the design decisions but i think the game can be even better. That being said i think DAI is exceptional and is the best game in the franchize. Not only that but it's also one the best RPGs ever made. Congratulations on a job well done Bioware.
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