I'm still a little, little bit cautious though.
Game looks fine, but all those previews that I watched/read now have been mostly positive and without substance. Where are flaws? What's with the bugs? C'mon, there are no perfect games, tell us something.
I guess that's the price for an early access to the game. I'm glad that the embargo for reviews ends a week before release.
Here we go:
http://www.gamecritics.com/brad-gal...sition-preview-an-errand-girl-for-the-kingdom
Preview of the first 5 hours. I wanted to quote certain lines and paragraphs from the article but found myself with a list that was a bit too long. So instead I just highly recommend reading it.
His main point is that there's an influence he attributes to Skyrim, in the form of a flood of uncompelling fetch quests that left him a bit overwhelmed with the length of his laundry list. He also mentions that from a story point of view the beginning was a bit hurried; that he felt the game was rushing him towards the exploration and that its establishment of your character as the leader of the Inquisition isn't convincing. He didn't have any "story hooks" to keep him motivated and the characters didn't interest him.
This made me think about Origins. The beginning, the way I see it - before you're truly given the reins - was pretty damn long, and I really liked its pace. You started with your origin story, then Ostagar (which had its own episodes), then Lothering. Only then they felt they had a solid enough foundation to give you control and keep you invested. It's a good build-up that draws you in. Inquisition, considering how the stakes are so much bigger, may have benefited from something similar, instead of sticking to the dogma of Open World freedom that's becoming a tad too prevalent.
I'm even a bit surprised. Since they're not going for a classic Open World but instead a multi-region formula, BioWare could have taken a bit more control in the story's pacing and directed you for the first few hours. I guess this is retrospect wisdom, though, because if the preview would have been positive I wouldn't have cared.
A shame. This preview mirrors many of the concerns I had. Also
@ReptilePZ he touches the matter of collectibles. In that there are - as gleaned from the videos - too many of them.