An expensive lesson - Read User Reviews before spending vast quantities of cash.
With Mass Effect 2, it was understandable. The reviews said it was a great game, and the user reviews backed that up. But THIS. Oh god. This is an abortion.
Why would you take a hugely successful game like DA:O and strip it back to RPG-Lite? There was nothing that needed fixing. All you needed was a half assed plot and some funky characters to play it out, and the sequel would have been in the bag.
But christ, why did you do this? The graphics are the same, instead of showing 2 years improvement, but the budget has been slashed on the voice acting, development and design teams, the questing and subplot teams, and for some reason the whole combat and interface system has been dumbed down as well.
No real inventory systems, no decent equipment or fun loot, no real interaction with the team members. It does not even seem that your decisions effect the outcome, the narrative system seems to pull you out of the game - destroying your immersion and attachment to the character. Of course, it is hard to develop an immersive character using nothing but repetitive maps and environments and fetch quests. Seriously? The same maps over and over again? Like 20 times!? In ONE game?
Oh well, its honestly my fault. I should have looked harder. I should have waited a few more days. I should have said NO, I will not give EA any more of my hard earned money. If you are thinking of buying this game with the hope that is really is a sequel to DA:O, give it a miss. If you like Mass Effect and are thinking it would be awesome to play it with Bows & Swords - give it a miss.
If you CRAVE disappointment, if you ENJOY the anguish of tarnished memories, if you want a good reason to hate yourself to for encouraging this soulless, committee produced bullpoopy then buy this. It will fulfill your wishes.
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Updated - 26.3.11
I have just finished reading the Mike Laidlaw interview regarding his impressions of the game design, and how the greater gaming community has reacted to it. Basically it boils down to this -
"We had to dumb it down to appeal to a broader market, or else it wouldn't achieve the financial success that EA demanded we hit. I think we did a pretty good job of keeping some basic Dragon Age stuff while still making it easier to play on the console. If you don't like it, that's cool, it's your opinion. But hey, don't expect sequels to be anything like the games they are based on, because that's unrealistic."
That's cool, Mike. I like getting paid as well, and I can understand the desire to keep your job, but really? If all you wanted to be as a grown up was a corporate whore, you should have gotten a job in HR instead of computer game design.