The writing for this game can be very juvenile, half of the things that Rook says in this game, I dont even use in my day to day conversations. Skill-Up's review on this were very spot on. It's even worse for the romance options, they are so unrealistic its bloody weird. Last night Rook complimented Harding's hair, and then asked her if she was blushing....who says these things out loud??!!
Combat wise I can see how folks can get bored of it. While the enemies do vary in design, what they do is mostly the same. Its either a melee or ranged enemy. You avoid their attacks and kill them, there is no nuance to it. Should you sunder them first, or weaken them? There isn't any strong reason to when you can dispatch them with your attacks, the only difference is how long it takes. Maybe it matters on higher difficulty but at Normal this is how I felt.
Story wise its your normal world ending plot. Its not bad, its just there. Companion stories feel much better though. I'm at the point where I just got to free roam some areas now, so its pretty early on.
For the DEI agendas, its not like the game hammer this into your face all the bloody time, in fact I havent seen any of it ( apart from romancing Lucanis for now) I suspect it gets worse when I meet Taash (?) but this isnt a DEI simulator.
Having a pretty good time so far, I'm not hard to please. To also note I've very much enjoyed my time with games like ME Andromeda, Gotham Knights and Concord that many here deem dumpster fire so take my opinions as you will.