Perhaps the dialogue wheel\'s better than other installments, but I find it a far cry from the dialogue tree system. In most games with that, you have options besides being a Nice Guy, Deadpan Snarker, Jerk Ass or other personality choices, but you can have more meaningful choices, such as various questions to ask (beyond a general \"ask about\" option), lines of argument to use, or even a chance to use skills in the course of dialogue to unlock new options.
I personally prefer the more strategic combat of the first game, even if some fights can get annoying (particularly the Archdemon, albeit partly because my game sometimes crashes).
The review was decent, covering a fair amount of ground and nicely explaining some of your (legitimate) complaints about the game, although most of the positives didn\'t get much elaboration (except for the dialogue wheel, which, my opinion aside, may not have been the best choice for you to focus on).
@Valiona Well I would have gone into what I liked about the game more but there are only so many characters I can post before I run out of room and to be honest its more important to go into what didn't work in the hopes of those flaws not being repeated. As for the Dialogue Wheel one thing that I love about it is that it often goes beyond the usual three options, not counting the tone options, and will give players other options that do not fit into the three usual options in a number of conversations.
A good example is this scene with Vivienne after recruiting the Mages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjdaQKuKGzs
Notice how many options you are given, ranging from three, four and even five and in some conversations it can go up to six or even ten, (depending on your class/race and perks). Take this in contrast with Mass Effect: Andromeda's dialogue wheel which is, in my honest opinion, the Worst Dialogue Wheel in the entire Bio Ware canon. You are given only two options in most conversations and the few times you are given four, they all direct you into being a good guy with four tone options that so Bloody Bland. And the game uses way to much auto-dialogue which, coupled with the overly simplified DW makes it feel as though Ryder isn't my character. ME 3 had the same problem but there it was understandable as it was being rushed and simplifying the DW and using more DW made it less of a problem for the writers who already had the rather nightmarish task of trying to write a game that was trying to take several choices into account when it came to writing ME 3. But with MEA it feels more like an excuse to be lazy and not take risks.
The reason I praise DAI's DW is because how much freedom it offers you. I have played DAI as a Knight In Shining Armor, The Snark Knight and A Jerk With A Heart Of Jerk but because of how it was set up I was also able to play as a Manipulative Bastard and a Jerkwitha Heartof Gold. I cannot think of any other RPG where I was able to do this, even games like Dragon Age: Origins and The Witcher 3 felt like it had limits as I couldn't really play as these two options. I'm sure there out there and I've only played DAO 2 times so far and The Witcher 3 I've only played once so if the game allows you to play like the latter two I do apologize for getting that wrong. But for me, DAI DW makes player choices feel just as meaningful as DAO and The Witcher 3, at least it does for me.
I have to admit that I am a bit worried about the state of Bio Ware given just how disappointing MEA was and the fact that the lead writer for DAI has left Bio Ware which makes me a bit concerned for DA 4. My greatest fear is that Bio Ware will begin making their games more action oriented and less story driven with DW's as simplified as the ones in ME 3 and MEA with a greater emphasis on auto-dialogue.
Hopefully Bio Ware is really taking the criticism that MEA is getting to heart and begin moving Mass Effect more towards what it use to be and that Dragon Age stays its course and that DA 4 is as good as DAI is if not better.
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A Great Game with two Major Flaws
Let me get this out of the way real quick, as I've said elsewhere I LOVE Dragon Age: Inquisition, even more so then the whole Mass Effect Trilogy. I love the characters, I love the story, I love the level design, the combat is fun and it kept me guessing as I legitimately didn't know what was going to come next but doing so in such a way that didn't feel like a cheat as the game does foreshadow its twist but does so very subtly with a number of clues hidden in dialogue, journals and background events that you are likely to miss on your first play through.
DAI also has may absolute favorite Dialogue Wheel in any RPG which gives players the usual three options during conversations, Paragon, Humorous and Renegade but also introduced the tone options which gives players up to Seven options that help make your character a bit more fleshed out then other BioWare protagonists. And finally, the game does, in my opinion, a great job of standing on its own as I had never played the first two games until three years after I played DAI and I had no problem following the story as the few things I didn't understand the characters would help fill in the gap if I asked them to.
With all that said the game does have two major flaws, the first being that the areas such as the Hinterlands, Storm Coast and so on, while being fun to play through, IMO, didn't have a whole lot to offer in the way of story. There is a lot of plot but the game doesn't tie it altogether in a satisfying way which can make the areas feel like padding which hurts the game as a result. A good example of how these areas could have been improved would be to look at the DLC the Jaws of Hakkon which focused on giving a area, Frostback Basin, its own unique story independent of the main plot that made players want to explore with a intriguing main plot that had interesting and colorful characters and memorable set pieces.
The other major flaw is that the game's thread act was solid as DLC and while DAI does, for me at least, feel like a complete story, with a beginning, middle and end, the original ending is rushed and lacks the epicness of DAO and ME 2's endings. And while Trespasser is a great ending and some better elements, such as Vivienne and Sera's character development and being able to marry Cullen and Sera are likely a result of this being a DLC it still does bother me that BioWare sold fans a game that was largely incomplete.
I still love this game to bits but these are some rather huge flaws and ones I hope BioWare will avoid making in DA 4.