If you are looking for a review that is not biased or a review that is not coming from a rabid Bioware fan you came to the right place.
For all the good marks and awards, this game is not special, at best it is average.
I will segment this review in several parts.
Graphics
Nothing shiny here. Even when it came out many games rocked it out of its socks. Washed up textures and overall grayness. You won't find a vibrant and colorful world here. Some areas seem like they weren't finished in time (Redcliffe hills, Mage Tower surounding, inside of Mage Tower).
Sound
The only sound you will remember is the main theme of the game. Other things... no. Your main character is as mute as a fish. Most of the times there is no ambiental music. Although voice acting is somewhat well done overall sound variety and quality is weak.
Gameplay
Gameplay is repetitive. Some classes are way more powerful (mages), while some are slow (warrior) or near useless (archer). Combat tactics are hard to program the way you want it and it requires a lot of time and setting up. I myself finished the whole game without using it. I gave up on them after almost 30 minute setting that proved ineffective in the end.
There is a dozen of skills that are downright useless while some (Mana Clash) are almost balance breaking. Funny thing is, mages have most of them. Those are mostly AOE nukes that can end the fight in your favor every time.
Some segments of combat like traps and stealth are nearly useless. Traps need a lot of time to be set up and they don't deal much damage compared to mele weapons while stealth is clunky and unresponsive.
There are some parts of the game where you are forced to play in the spiritual world called "The Shade". Well there are mods on the internet that cut this part out completely, this tells about its quality.
There are also some DLC content that you need to buy in order to get features that are normally present in most games today (party store chest).
AI is dumb as a brick, no real challenge here. The greatest challenge here is the monstrous health bars of certain enemies. One boss (mage tower) took me about a solid thirty minutes of mindless buttonmashing.
Don't be to excited for quests, most of the times it is just a boring fetching quest but some can be quite good (Redcliffe quest line).
At the start of the game an invasion will be there and it will patiently wait for you to rally an entire continent against them. There is no set time limit, you can play it for months and invasion won't happen. Although you would run out of content to do only after three weeks.
Miscelanious
Game is ridden with gamebreaking bugs. even after so many patches the game won't work at its best. Some quests are bugged and can only be debugged via command console (PC only, sorry console players it sucks to be you).
After certain level fights become more of a chore than interesting game element. Enemies won't be able to kill you because a mage can keep you safe and sound at all times, even without mage health potions can be made for a very low price.
Inside the game you will find childish sex scenes which are supposed to be erotic but are instead idiotic. Also, there is this gay agenda that only makes things worse, if you are gay it might be okay with you, but if you hare straight you will be annoyed by the propaganda of homosexuality that game employs on you.
Some items are useless to use (traps, bows and resistance stone) because they are either broken, not balanced or you precisely need to know when and where you are going to need them.
Overall
This game is not that bad but it is way, way far from 9.5 that gamespot gave it. From me a solid 6. Nothing more. At the last hours of the game I struggled to finish it because of numerous bugs and non optimized areas.
PS
I want to burn Alistar and Morrigan on a stake