As I write this post, I finished my first playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition. I’m actually kind of pleased that there’s plenty of content I missed (because the game tricked me, but whatever). I’ve uninstalled it for now, but this is less a function of the game being bad (which it wasn’t) but my SSD being somewhat small. There are choices to be made, alas. I can definitely anticipate a second playthrough; I might even go back and play DA 2 again.
Overall, the game wasn’t overly challenging. That’s not a bad thing; every game doesn’t need to be impossibly hard. Some fights were extremely tough, but most of them were, if not “easy”, then at least very manageable. Of course, I played on the default settings, so your mileage may vary. It did have plenty of meat to it, of course — I ended up with 70 hours or so for my first playthrough, and I can easily see where people could rack up hundreds.
As far as a pure open world, there is something lacking, as the game is a series of set pieces, like Dragon Age 2, but far larger and far more varied. Some of the individual areas are somewhat small, but others offer quite a bit to do. There are plenty of fun call backs to DA: Origins and DA 2; some characters will reappear, one of them playable (Varric, from DA 2). The Dragon Age Keep has you keep track of everything you did in DA Origins and DA 2, and even if you haven’t played them, that’s okay, because you’ll set up things your own way or use a default state.
I can’t reveal too much without spoiling the game, of course. A lot of the characters are terrific and very well done; only one actively irritates me (Vivienne). The banter is very good, but could be more frequent. Plenty of romance options, if that’s your thing. People have written on the ending (well, the post-credits ending), which makes it clear that there is either a) a major story DLC coming (and Jaws of Haakon isn’t it) or b) another Dragon Age game in the future. I liked it, didn’t see it coming at all.
Overall, I enjoyed the game; it’s maybe 90% as good as Origins and 110% as good as DA 2. I recommend it, highly; it’s more fun if you’ve played the first two, but it’s also a pretty fair entry point even if you haven’t.
36 Chambers - The Legendary Journeys: Execution to the max! 
I really want to like this series but the first 2 really didn’t assimilate me into the world as well as I’d hope. I realise that I am in the minority with that statement.
Is it that the lore is portrayed or disseminated poorly, or did you just find it difficult to care about the larger issues/ideas?
I think it’s a culmination of different variants really. The lack of exploratory freedom, the generic character’s, with the exception of Morrigan (I think that was her name. The combat felt more suited to PC than console. And narrative I felt was wholly uninteresting. But I think this is where I’m at fault for depicting something different in my head that wasn’t imitated by the Dev. And that’s a logic that should never be applied.
It’s not Skyrim, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t call the characters generic, of course, but your mileage may vary. DA: O was and is very much a PC game; if you’re playing it on console, you’re cheating yourself. DA 2 and Inquisition you’re on firmer ground, but they really are PC RPGs.
Of course, everybody has their own opinions. 🙂