Praise and complaints...

I'm only a few hours into the game. And there are things I like and things that really irk me...

Praise:

• Character models are very nice
• The vast environments are just begging to be explored
• I think the armor and clothing designs are really intricate and stylish
• I'm a fan of the male british voice
• Cassandra and Varric are great together
• At level 4 I had an epic battle with a bear that was a few level higher than me.... It was pretty tense.

Complaints:

• I hate how restrictive the class system has become. After Skyrim, Dark Souls, and Divinity: OS, I'm done with rigid classes. I should be able to make a sword and shield warrior who uses a bow if I want. Origins let you do exactly that. Anyone who really want to play within the confines of a class will do so willingly. The number of "pure cleric" builds in Dark Souls is proof of that.
• Dragon Age: Origins allowed you to set up to weapons sets and switch between them on the fly at the tap of a button. This was particularly useful if you played a rogue that swapped between daggers and a bow. The fact that you can't do that here is kind of annoying.
• The exploration and enemy encounters feel very MMO-like. I'm not a big fan of MMO world design so that bugs me a little bit.
• The hairstyle options are pretty lacking. 8 of them are just a variation of a buzz cut.
  
  
  

What do you like and dislike so far about DA:I?

Although I am intensely enjoying the game right now, I'll add a few minor things onto your complaints list:

1. The control scheme sucks, at least on the PS4. I hate that I need to navigate menus and the codex with the analog buttons rather than the d-pad. That there isn't even an option to re-bind buttons really sucks. The touchpad should also go directly to the map when out of combat. Needing to press a tiny Option button and then select something else from the menu is way too roundabout for something you use so often.

2. You mentioned the lack of hair styling, but really what gets me is the eye color options. Essentially an unlimited color-scheme. Except for brown. I went through every option in character selection about 15 times and couldn't find a good brown. This means my character can't look like me. That makes me sad.

3. I don't like some of the lock-on mechanics in combat. If you "lock" an enemy, the camera zooms in too far and goes nuts when everyone starts turning around. If you don't lock on, you'll constantly whiff attacks at thin air. At least, that's the way it's working on my rogue right now.

4. The item pulse mechanic was one of the worst parts the Witcher. It's still terrible here, particularly being bound to L3. It doesn't last nearly long enough, and many of the items are hard to see with the color highlight they have selected. What would have been wrong with a Diablo-style "Hold this button to highlight items" concept?

5. The dialogue wheel is fine for what it is, but I don't like the icons they have selected as many of them are confusing as to what emotion/idea they are supposed to convey. Some are easy to understand, like the heart, but what about the seven pointed sheriff's star-thing? The warrior icon? It's hard to role-play a character if I don't know what my response is going to be when I pick one of those options.

because ima prick im just going to make fun of yours:

agree with all your pros

agree with all your cons minus the mmo thing

I will also say if they let you make a more diverse classes they would either have to redo the whole level thing or else you would have very shit characters

oh and skyrim might not be restrictive but who cares its combat is pure shit on a stick!

@the_ruiner: I echo almost everything you said, good and bad. The MMO quest design and combat really turned me off, even though I loved Origins and its combat is similar. Maybe change of tastes? It is a shame because the story is really great and intriguing to me, but I just don't like the actual gameplay. The more I play, the less I want to play.

@lawgamer: The map is left on the d pad

@pyrodactyl: Really? Thank heavens, that's a relief. Probably something they should have made abundantly clear in the actual map tooltip.

Holy shit that makes my life easier. THANK YOU. I was super annoyed having to pause and select Map all the time!

My biggest complaints are

1. Hairstyles - damn fugly. Your options are basically Mullet, buzz cut, or pony tail.

2. @lawgamer the D-pad navigation thing gets me too. I assume eventually I'll adjust, but its really frutrating to constantly be switching characters when I want to scroll down. I also haven't got the hang of Tac Cam controls

Other than that, game is awesome. Really enjoying

1. Dialogue and characters. Knew I'd like Varric, but Cassandra is surprising me with her likability.

2. Visuals are great, other than the hair. Environments are especially gorgeous, and anything metal also looks reallly NICE

3. Exploration is fun. Even basic quests are nicely contextualized, and many have the potential to surprise you. The one where you go looking for the missing scout was a nice twist. I also like freeform exploration moments, like stumbling onto a bandit cave with lots of metal deposits and decent loot, plus a map pointing me to another treasure cave.

4. Quite excited by the potential of the crafting system...can't wait to get deeper in and find some higher quality materials!

There's already an 'impressions thread'.

Origins's characters worked just fine.

Totally agree on the lack of d-pad control in menus.. This is 2014 this should not be an issue.

You can definitely get a good brown. It's not obvious but working with the Photoshop color picker you learn where to look. There is a sweet spot in the yellow-through-orange range that's in the darker shades. Mess around with it. It's there.

I'm 25 hours in and not happy with the character I've made, both in terms of gender and looks. It's really bumming me out that the only way to get around this involves starting from the beginning.

I've started 4 characters and I haven't been super happy with any yet. Next I'll try a mage.