This review contains spoilers
Bought it, started it, spent 10 hours in the Hinterlands, dropped it.
Then picked it up again and absolutely loved it! It's not perfect by any means, but (and this is a large but!!) if you stay on the main story path it makes for a great game.
+ Interesting and well-developed companions with grounded and individual perspectives that makes for interesting interactions.
+ Never got around to exploring the crafting system as well as I would've wanted to, but it looks pretty solid.
+ Solid character creation, where your background/class actually impacts the story.
+ Beautiful maps. Wow!
+ The soundtrack is fantastic.
+/- Overall plot and concept. The plot was pretty cookie-cutter stuff, but I liked the whole "organization management" part of it all and I wish they leaned further into that. I liked the main quests enough, but with the level/power requirement it became a little "grindy" at times.
+/- Very very strongly tied to the potential Dragon Age 4. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the "sequel potential" is so great that, if Dragon Age 4 never leaves development hell, it might feel a bit incomplete. If done well, however, it can probably make for a great sequel.
- Unnecessary large. The size of the open world sometimes made the entire thing feel unfocused. Too many side quests, areas and mechanics I felt were added just for the sake of adding things. Tablets, shards, treasure maps- it seemed a bit like an attempt to make the unnecessarily many/huge areas seem less empty. Most of it could be ignored without impacting much of the experience however.
- The combat system didn't do it for me personally. Most of the encounters were meeeh and the scaling didn't feel well done.
- Relies on Trespasser (DLC) for a narratively satisfactory ending.
Despite all my complaining, it's a lovely game that I enjoyed to the point of not being able to put it down.
Then picked it up again and absolutely loved it! It's not perfect by any means, but (and this is a large but!!) if you stay on the main story path it makes for a great game.
+ Interesting and well-developed companions with grounded and individual perspectives that makes for interesting interactions.
+ Never got around to exploring the crafting system as well as I would've wanted to, but it looks pretty solid.
+ Solid character creation, where your background/class actually impacts the story.
+ Beautiful maps. Wow!
+ The soundtrack is fantastic.
+/- Overall plot and concept. The plot was pretty cookie-cutter stuff, but I liked the whole "organization management" part of it all and I wish they leaned further into that. I liked the main quests enough, but with the level/power requirement it became a little "grindy" at times.
+/- Very very strongly tied to the potential Dragon Age 4. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the "sequel potential" is so great that, if Dragon Age 4 never leaves development hell, it might feel a bit incomplete. If done well, however, it can probably make for a great sequel.
- Unnecessary large. The size of the open world sometimes made the entire thing feel unfocused. Too many side quests, areas and mechanics I felt were added just for the sake of adding things. Tablets, shards, treasure maps- it seemed a bit like an attempt to make the unnecessarily many/huge areas seem less empty. Most of it could be ignored without impacting much of the experience however.
- The combat system didn't do it for me personally. Most of the encounters were meeeh and the scaling didn't feel well done.
- Relies on Trespasser (DLC) for a narratively satisfactory ending.
Despite all my complaining, it's a lovely game that I enjoyed to the point of not being able to put it down.