I really wish I could leave a positive review with the things I found interesting and fun but just can't.

I loved previous dragon age games so much, in each of them there was something that kept the high immersion, urge to progress and to be the leader the worlds needs. This one feels painfully flat…

Story and character issues:

• Instead of being a leader it feels like you are a single mother that took the neighbour's kids to the playground and has to keep them happy and not hurt each other feelings. Not only that, but game is overly fixated to put your companions on the pedestal above you. There are moments that it feels like you are the additional npc in a party of a real hero. There is nothing to make you different than any random npc you meet.

• Both the npcs and main character have no personality at all. The world is ending with elven gods spreading blight, deadly corruption in major cities, using darkspawn and dragons to reach power, yet everyone shows zero dread and negative emotions. No fear. No strategic planning. They are just happy to be there all the time and ready to go with the flow.

• I was happy to see Harding come back, but now I just can’t stand her. She used to be down to earth, humble, good to talk to friend. Now, she is this overly arrogant, know it all, annoying companion that got even worse after this weird unnecessary magic upgrade she got that contradicts the lore. I will not even start on how they butchered my beloved Dorian.

• Lacking very important political issues that always were there in the background to make the world alive and unstable. No blood magic, no conflicts between fractions other than just being told “they are bad”. No deep lore to what is happening and why certain fractions would be against each other, everything is just given with “it is what it is” mentality. It takes away from the point to form your own opinions about the world and which side to choose. Instead, the game tells you how to act, how to feel, what is good and what is bad.

Gameplay issues:

• As much as skills might be fun at first, it just gets boring and repetitive when u have to fight a boss that is just a damage sponge.

• No strategic fun, all the fight are just auto-attack, use a combo,, auto-attack, takedown, repeat.

• U can’t control the companions, other than just ordering them to use a skill every now and then, so the enemies constantly target you and when u die, u can’t complete the fight with just your companions as it was possible before.

All that combat issues makes you want to just lower the difficulty so u can progress the story faster and don’t bother fighting some boss for 10 minutes just to get boring loot.

• Most choices don’t even matter or give any reaction/world effect. When talking with npcs you have 3 options where each one of them is just softer version of the other. U cannot strongly disagree with someone or tell someone to actually focus on the ongoing apocalypse rather than their little childish issues.

• Puzzles are more annoying than challenging. There is not even a chance to get stuck on any as companions will literally tell you what do to.

• Companion banter is WEAK, there is no interesting interactions that would imply them bonding outside of the time we see them, them talking during missions is most of the times just being tutorial voice like we are watching Dora the explorer. Makes going through missions feel like you are still in tutorial stage.

• Every mission is just the same tunnel like level masked with different colors and decorations of the environment. As beautiful it can be, it's absolutely boring to just constantly run forward, kill 3 enemies, run forward, kill bigger enemy, solve a “puzzle” aka put a crystal “hidden” 2 steps away on a pedestal, kill a boss, done.

• The fact that u cannot talk to your companions in lighthouse whenever you please is a mood killer. Cannot hear their personal stories, learn about the world from them, joke around or even create that romance like mood. It feels dead, no immersion whatsoever. You run around empty base with nothing happening in the background.

This game lacks the base qualities that made dragon age THE DRAGON AGE.
All in all, it is not the worst game u could play, but it's definitely the worst dragon age game.