For a long-time Dragon Age fan like me who has been rather accepting of the many changes this series has gone through, this is a really difficult thumbs down to give.

There's amazingly well-written reviews here that perfectly illustrate the main issues I have with this game, that end up making it overall a decent RPG, but not a GOOD Dragon Age game, so I won't repeat too much. I'll just add a few things that jumped out to me as highlights and "lowlights":

Technical:
- Vastly improved fighting system from Inquisition. The Action game/ARPG fan in me was 90% happy with the changes. One thing I very much disliked at the start was the fact that in Underdog difficulty as a warrior focused on DPS (Lord of Fortune), trying to go through the game with 2H weapons only feels pretty much impossible. There's some situations and some attacks that pretty much will dictate that you NEED to switch to 1H weapon and shield to do well and survive the encounter, which sucks because it takes away player choice to fit a gameplay vision the developers have balanced around.

- The parry and dodging system is lacking. With how aggressively large enemy groups behave, I should really able to cancel pretty much any animation into a dodge or a parry as long as I don't get tagged and there's clearly moments when I'm not able to. It's like they looked at good character-based action games over the last 5-10 years, implemented a bunch of the good stuff and left out the defensive options that would make you feel like a badass on the battlefield.

- The game and cutscenes support the Ultrawide format: Good stuff for a game with beautiful visuals like this one, from elaborate characters (amazing hair tech, the best I've ever seen in a game) and customization details to amazing-looking landscapes and set pieces.

World-building, story, characters:
- *Big Sigh*.... Not trying to repeat what others have said but even with an open-minded approach, not having characters choices that I've built since Dragon Age: Origins factor in is a big downer. If we're being real, this is a huge downgrade of the experience it could have been. I understand the counter-arguments and agree with some of them even. I realise (or probably not to a certain extent) how much work goes into factoring these choices, and after Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem, I understand that Bioware sort of needed a quick, simple, no-fuss, no complexity "win" and to just put the game out and show that they can make "good to decent" games still after years of silence. It kinda feels that Dragon Age was the sacrificial lamb to achieve that in a way, which sucks. Recent interviews with the game designers show that they have not abandoned the idea of making use of our past choices in future Dragon Age games, so it seems we all sort of agree on the subject...

- Characters, oooh boy... There a review by user "moon" that says your Rook feels like a life coach at the lead of a support group and it's exactly that. Characters are not allowed to have real conflict, your Rook is not allowed to be a jerk if they want to. If I'm being honest, I'm not really the type to RP a jerk in these games, but even I am annoyed that I'm not allowed to be if I want to. I feel like some of the interactions with characters who go through very difficult issues that some could relate to (I'm obviously talking about Taash here, but this applies to other characters too) are presented to me as a player and to my cast of other characters, but the decision of how I'm going to handle it has already been taken for me and for others. The sentiment is certainly coming from a good place, but taking away the choice and any possible avenue of even measured debate or differing opinion (or even to make the choice that the devs would like to lead me to, but by myself!) from my character is just wrong in a role playing game based on player choices.
I hate to possibly feed silly trolls with my comments, but I feel like having a team dynamic for your main cast that would reflect real people's relationships in a fantasy game is massively important to help characterisation and help the player feel like they're a part of a breathing world. And in real-life, sometimes you have to work with people you disagree with to achieve something important.
If anything, having to work with people you might disagree with to achieve goals that are more important than your disagreements (like, I don't know, saving the world ?) sends a STRONGER message than working with only like minded people with no possibility of real conflict or disagreement between them. This is just my two cents, but I think they've missed the mark with that one and it's a rather important mark to miss in such a game.

- It feels like there's a whole personal chapter missing based on your choice of faction/origin story that you selected when you picked it at character creation. I'm a Lord of Fortune that had to go in hiding after a job gone bad.... and that never gets any play ? Where's the sidequest based on my past ? Why bother making me pick an origin story which should cause an enemy faction to seek personal retribution against me if you don't do anything with it ? All that does it make me feel disconnected from this world. It's so frustrating because this should be a no-brainer!

- A special mention for the ending: besides the final cutscenes (which are just a succession of moving pictures and voice overs), it was well executed. The revelation of what happened with Varric lessened my frustration of how he was so lacking throughout the game, so.. you get a pass for this particular one Bioware.


Conclusion:
- The ending was fine and it helped my general impression of the game... But feeling that "it was fine" after finishing a Dragon Age game is not how I should be feeling. I should be feeling that I didn't want to say goodbye to these characters, I should be feeling a bit emotional... but I don't. And I can't recommend this game to a Dragon Age fan at full price given that.

On a big discount and with lowered expectations, this is going to be a good-to-decent experience. It just isn't a good Dragon Age game.

For a long-time Dragon Age fan like me who has been rather accepting of the many changes this series has gone through, this is a really difficult thumbs down to give. There's amazingly well-written reviews here that perfectly illustrate the main issues I have with this game, that end up making it overall a decent RPG, but [b]not a GOOD[/b] Dragon Age game, so I won't repeat too much. I'll just add a few things that jumped out to me as highlights and "lowlights": Technical: - Vastly improved fighting system from Inquisition. The Action game/ARPG fan in me was 90% happy with the changes. One thing I very much disliked at the start was the fact that in Underdog difficulty as a warrior focused on DPS (Lord of Fortune), trying to go through the game with 2H weapons only feels pretty much impossible. There's some situations and some attacks that pretty much will dictate that you NEED to switch to 1H weapon and shield to do well and survive the encounter, which sucks because it takes away player choice to fit a gameplay vision the developers have balanced around. - The parry and dodging system is lacking. With how aggressively large enemy groups behave, I should really able to cancel pretty much any animation into a dodge or a parry as long as I don't get tagged and there's clearly moments when I'm not able to. It's like they looked at good character-based action games over the last 5-10 years, implemented a bunch of the good stuff and left out the defensive options that would make you feel like a badass on the battlefield. - The game and cutscenes support the Ultrawide format: Good stuff for a game with beautiful visuals like this one, from elaborate characters (amazing hair tech, the best I've ever seen in a game) and customization details to amazing-looking landscapes and set pieces. World-building, story, characters: - *Big Sigh*.... Not trying to repeat what others have said but even with an open-minded approach, not having characters choices that I've built since Dragon Age: Origins factor in is a big downer. If we're being real, this is a huge downgrade of the experience it could have been. I understand the counter-arguments and agree with some of them even. I realise (or probably not to a certain extent) how much work goes into factoring these choices, and after Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem, I understand that Bioware sort of needed a quick, simple, no-fuss, no complexity "win" and to just put the game out and show that they can make "good to decent" games still after years of silence. It kinda feels that Dragon Age was the sacrificial lamb to achieve that in a way, which sucks. Recent interviews with the game designers show that they have not abandoned the idea of making use of our past choices in future Dragon Age games, so it seems we all sort of agree on the subject... - Characters, oooh boy... There a review by user "moon" that says your Rook feels like a life coach at the lead of a support group and it's exactly that. Characters are not allowed to have real conflict, your Rook is not allowed to be a jerk if they want to. If I'm being honest, I'm not really the type to RP a jerk in these games, but even I am annoyed that I'm not allowed to be if I want to. I feel like some of the interactions with characters who go through very difficult issues that some could relate to (I'm obviously talking about Taash here, but this applies to other characters too) are presented to me as a player and to my cast of other characters, but the decision of how I'm going to handle it has already been taken for me and for others. The sentiment is certainly coming from a good place, but taking away the choice and any possible avenue of even measured debate or differing opinion (or even to make the choice that the devs would like to lead me to, but by myself!) from my character is just wrong in a role playing game based on player choices. I hate to possibly feed silly trolls with my comments, but I feel like having a team dynamic for your main cast that would reflect real people's relationships in a fantasy game is massively important to help characterisation and help the player feel like they're a part of a breathing world. And in real-life, sometimes you have to work with people you disagree with to achieve something important. If anything, having to work with people you might disagree with to achieve goals that are more important than your disagreements (like, I don't know, saving the world ?) sends a [b]STRONGER[/b] message than working with only like minded people with no possibility of real conflict or disagreement between them. This is just my two cents, but I think they've missed the mark with that one and it's a rather important mark to miss in such a game. - It feels like there's a whole personal chapter missing based on your choice of faction/origin story that you selected when you picked it at character creation. I'm a Lord of Fortune that had to go in hiding after a job gone bad.... and that never gets any play ? Where's the sidequest based on my past ? Why bother making me pick an origin story which should cause an enemy faction to seek personal retribution against me if you don't do anything with it ? All that does it make me feel disconnected from this world. It's so frustrating because this should be a no-brainer! - A special mention for the ending: besides the final cutscenes (which are just a succession of moving pictures and voice overs), it was well executed. The revelation of what happened with [spoiler]Varric[/spoiler] lessened my frustration of how he was so lacking throughout the game, so.. you get a pass for this particular one Bioware. Conclusion: - The ending was fine and it helped my general impression of the game... But feeling that "it was fine" after finishing a Dragon Age game is not how I should be feeling. [b]I should be feeling that I didn't want to say goodbye to these characters, I should be feeling a bit emotional... but I don't.[/b] And I can't recommend this game to a Dragon Age fan at full price given that. On a big discount and with lowered expectations, this is going to be a good-to-decent experience. It just isn't a good Dragon Age game.