For what it's worth, I enjoy it a lot. I was an old-time fan dating back to the release of Baldur's Gate, but Bioware lost me with the Mass Effect series, DA:A and DA2. There was just little to nothing there that looked appealing to me, so I skipped them (aside from a brief stint into the original Mass Effect). Origins was good, and since the sacrifice ending is canon for me, I had since come to believe that it also turned out to be a bittersweet end point to my love of Bioware RPGs. I didn't even plan to buy Inquisition nor had followed its development in any way, but a friend's enthusiasm and my own hunger for a story-heavy RPG changed my mind.
The game DOES have undeniable issues. The combat is fiddly and unresponsive and so is the UI. Many skills lack meaningful tooltips and/or are bugged. The tactical camera in particular is a bad joke, and since I NEVER play in real-time, I am stuck with it. It's tolerable, mostly, but if tactical combat is a priority for you, you're better off (re)playing Baldur's Gate 2 because no Bioware game comes even close to that (and I say that as someone who loathes the AD&D ruleset). The more open world was a welcome change of pace at first since I never liked the post-BG2, small, lifeless "theater stage" areas in later Bioware games -- but even maybe halfway through the game, I find myself wishing they'd have scrapped some of the big zones for more "core" content like Skyhold customizations and events because the main story's unrelenting urgency just clashes very strongly with a completionist's urge to go everywhere and see everything. You can't name save files, which is mind-boggling in a game of this scope. The inventory is way too small by default and there is no external storage at all, which is even more mind-boggling. The Origin platform is mandatory, and yes it's crap. I grit my teeth and installed it for the first time, but I will not use it for anything else. And "of course" there are some bugs and crashes. Yesterday's patch had some good fixes, but will need a hotfix for newly-introduced graphics issues in turn.
Still, I'm very glad I got this game. For me, story and characters top everything in a Bioware game, and maybe halfway through I can say that Inquisition certainly delivers. It has some fantastic characters: Cassandra, Solas and Cole are all fascinating and among my favourites in any Bioware game ever, with Varric and Dorian as strong runners-up. The three advisors are interesting and competent, though Leliana worries the hell out of me this time around. Some of the supporting cast are very enjoyable too. (My only disappointment is Sera, who is just a huge screwup and missed opportunity and will never, ever have a spot on my away team.) If you like emotional moments and emotional rollercoasters, there's a semi-early long-ish sequences of scenes called In Your Heart Shall Burn, which many people have rightfully raved about as being awesome.
As for consequences from previous games, I am kind of satisfied with it because I reasonably kept my expectations low. Yes, I'd have liked to see more references to Origins, especially since the game partly takes place in the same country. So far, I only remember two NPCs and a codex entry or two even mentioning my (dead) Warden, but at least the game knows that she is dead, which was my biggest demand and worry because there's no way I'd ever have done the ritual, and no way I'd ever have played a game in which my own choice was handwaved away to force that ritual on me. In the end, Bioware had to make a new game and not a costly homage to an old one, so anyone expecting to stumble over references and big world-changes every five minutes was always bound to be disappointed.
All in all, I'd say it's well worth it.
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