There seems to be so much complaining and whining in these forums. Nothing seems to be ever good enough.
Try to take the great amount of positive things from this game.. The artwork is fantastics, armor models are great and detailed, the environments are varied and beautiful.. There is so much to do in this game (mandatory or not) that will keep you playing hour after hour. The game plays smooth, combat is fun, nice variety of skills to use and costomize. The sound effect, music and atmosphere are great. So much to explore and enjoy.
I've only owned DAI for little more than a week and racked in about 80 hours so far.. I've played a lot of DA origins and absolutely loved it. I skipped DA2 because apparently it wasn't the game everyone expected.
I also left DAI for what it was after it came out because again, lots of whining. Am I glad I finally picked it up. I'm having a blast and at this moment there are some concerns of course.. The major thing is the mediocre PC UI interface/inventory. But after playing for so many hours I hardly notice it anymore. Would I love to see a modable interface in the future: absolutely.
Sure there are other frustrations, smaller or bigger but none will keep me from playing the game more. Could crafting be a lot better? Sure, could the loot drops be a lot better: hell ya... Shouldn't there be this many gathering quests: uhm yes but there is no need to do them.. You will gain more than enough power without them or just do a few of them.
Is the lore good enough, the quest writing good enough, the voice acting good enough?.... heck ya... Is it perfect: of course not. Is it more than adequate to justify paying for this game... oh yes.
Just think about what kind of message you are sending to the people that worked hard creating a very nice game. All your whining doesn't help.. At least do it in a constructive way.
Focus more on what is here than what YOU think there should be. Not everyone agrees with the constant complaining.
01. Yes. The artwork and the areas looks fantastic. Nobody is complaining about that.
02. There is a lot you can do in the game, yes. But 90 percent of it is empty filler stuff. Hence the complaints. Also a reason why people stop playing the game. Picking flowers and fetching rings for 200 hours only goes so far.
03. Combat is dumbed down. Cast barrier and button mash. That is how you win every fight in the game. People have even beaten the game on Nightmare that way. When there is zero challenge involved, most people won't find it fun. Enemies dn't have access to the abilities and spells the players have access to either. So its basically like playing a shooter game where only you get to have a gun.
04. There isn't that many skills really, when you are only allowed to use 8 of them at any given time. Also a thing people complain about, and they go into detail about why this is a poor design choice. Constructive criticism isn't whining.
05. Never heard any music outside of cutscenes. It is due to a bug, and plenty are reporting the same thing.
06. Visually there is a lot to explore, for sure. But there is not much interesting to run into. Only the Crestwood area seems to have actual side quests (meaning the side quests have a story to them). The rest are just filled with "I lost this. Can you find it for me?". Followed by a "thank you" when you do it. Its as shallow as it can possibly get. Hence the complaints about the side quests. It doesn't help that the devs said, before release, that each areas would contain several story based quests and how we solved them would affect the area. Its ok to complain when you are lied to.
07. During the first playthrough the player has no idea about how much power he will need in the game, so skipping all the chores isn't an option at that point. In hindsight the player will realize it was all for nothing, of course.
08. No the lore is not good enough. The lore says that magical devices can never do anything a spell can't do. It also says that teleporting is impossible in the DA world. So when Varric has that teleporting device he can use to teleport the party to safety? Lore goes out the window. They also have Mage's Circles in the world of Thedas, because using magic can be extremely dangerous. You also have to be born with magical abilities in order to be a mage. And yet rogues and warriors can now use magic as well. Iron Bull summons rocks from the ground constantly. Rogues teleport + + +. That is not a solid lore. The lore tells us one thing, and shows us the opposite 2 minutes later.
09. The quest writing is not particulary good either. The fetch quest element even infuses the main quests. The Ball in Orlais, for example. Is one large fetch quest where you collect various rumors and scandals. The main quest is on its bare bones from the get go. The villain does absolutely nothing (after Haven) to try and stop the only threat to his plans (the inquisitior). He sits there passively and lets you pick apart everything he has put into motion, one by one. This castrates the villain as a threat, and it also removes the heroism from the main character. Fighting someone who doesn't fight back isn't heroic. It is being a bully. As a famous writer put it "The strength of the protagonist is meassured by the threat of the antagonist". Cory poses no threat at all, which means the Inquisitor is pretty much nothing.
10. People are saying what they feel about a product they paid for with their hard earned money. When the devs constantly lie about the product to get people to buy it, it is perfectly justified to speak up. Two days before the game got released, a dev told people about how you could customize the keeps you capture in the game, and how you chose to use them would affect the gameplay. He also spoke of that Crestwood attack that was supposed to take place, and how you solved that bit would affect the whole area. That sounded rather cool, didn't it? Wasn't in the game, and since the games had shipped and all that, he knew perfectly well it wasn't in the game at all.
11. I think you need to look up the difference between "whining" and "complaining".
12. Glad you love the game. Keep playing it.