A little stream of consciousness but here’s my answer.

I have been an outspoken critic of Inquisition since shortly after its release.  I think it is the weakest of the Dragon Age games by far and Bioware’s poorest showing in a long long time, maybe their worst.  I think the game lacks the warmth and emotion of Mass Effect, and somehow manages to divorce itself of any recognizable atmosphere native to the series (either the Dark Ages feel of Origins or the compact personal adventure of Dragon Age 2).  I think the fingerprints of EA profit motive are all over a game that lacks any real soul to it and feels as though, despite its size (which is deceptive due to all the bloated filler), that it was rushed.  From the endless stream of collectible to the mindless sidequests, to the non-existent third act, the game simply feels as though a checklist was gone through without any regard to how it all fit together: mounts have no business in the game and are rarely used by most players; the judgment system plays like a mini-game; your companions themselves are not present at judgments nor do they offer any insight to the judgments nor do they ever remark on them again; the game world has no sense of time to it with the main character traveling across continents seemingly instantaneously; the series insists on introducing character after character rather than capitalizing on the relationships we’ve already built (where were Fenris, Aveline, and Isabela?  No Anders? Sten? Zevran? Not even cameos? For that matter where were the Qunari and why do they (Iron Bull is the only one we see) look different, again!?); the real time war map operations are a waste of time and add nothing but apparently should be enough simply because they reference old characters; they offer rewards totally unconnected from the task and the player is incapable of knowing which advisor will end an operation tree; look at the crafting system, something I kind of liked, advanced players are reduced to schematic farming as there is no reliable way to get the rarest schematics; a game that makes me save scum has flaws; look at the romances, there are more of them to be sure but they lack depth; your other companions rarely, if ever, comment on your relationships (something that makes them feel real) and there’s no climactic resolution to them;  call it trite, but Mass Effect 1 and 2 and Jade Empire all had really meaningful final moments with your love interest.  There are other examples too numerous to list but none of it feels connected.  

Even the combat is worse than DA2.  The tactics system is totally missing in most cases, and broken in others (try getting your companions to stand still). The weapons do feel weightier which is nice (rather than swinging a massive two handed axe with the speed of a razor as in DA2) but every single thing is tied to weapon damage which is tied to crafting which is tied to schematic farming.  This is all to say nothing of the absolute litany of bugs. Whether it’s items that do nothing, quests that can’t be completed, status effects that are meaningless the game is, even after 5 patches, still littered with bugs. Look at the character creator and character customization?  It’s cliché but 50 shades of bald? Only one outfit for Skyhold? A total paucity of race specific armor? Somehow Mass Effect and DA2 and DA:O let me create a vast number of characters and looks I really liked and this game just misses that mark.  Unlike Origins which anchored you to your character by letting you live their every day life before being called a hero, Inquisition just says, nope read this paragraph, this is who you are.  

Most of all the game’s plot is just awful.  It’s spread way way way too thin.  The game lacks a third act, completely.  It accelerates from the Well of Sorrows mission to the final boss fight in around 20 minutes and after that just sort of throws up its hands, gives you two sentences with each final character and that’s it.  Heck KOTOR2 had a more satisfying ending.  The game had an incredibly promising first act and the antagonists first major monologue was outstanding.  Then he disappears Saren style and is reduced to this sort of minor threat people talk about.  Think about DA2’s lead in, the mage Templar war.  It just sort of…ends.  It peters out without any satisfying resolution.  Moreover, the one judgment you’d expect to be in the game (if he survived DA2), Anders, is nowhere to be found.  The game is just an endless string of bloated MMO sidequests, set pieces and collectibles.  It’s a grinder with no satisfying conclusion.  It learned all its lessons from The Old Republic.  It just stops and says, put a bookmark here for the paid DLC.  The game just lacks any warmth, so terrified of offending its user base, none of the characters are ever in any mortal peril. The most emotional moments come from Varric, who is typically excellent, but even he feels totally out of place ranging around in the Wilderness.

Look I love Bioware games and compared to most of the crap out there Inquisition is still a cut above the rest.  But compared to the Mass Effect series, or DA:O or DA2, or even as far back as KOTOR or Jade Empire the game just is plain worse.  If Mass Effect 4 uses 3 as its template I’m more confident.  If it uses Inquisition I’m worried.