Just killed my first Architect and it really feels like the game is finally clicking for me- I went into this game basically hoping for DAI in space, and for the most part it hasn't been DAI good but the Architect fight was probably better than any single gameplay moment in DAI - exhilarating, nerve-wracking, challenging. Combat overall is so much better - yes it's less tactical because you can't control teammates, but the combos are far more intuitive and satisfying and winning encounters feels far more the result of effort/skill than just holding R2 (and honestly even on Nightmare you rarely ever needed to directly control companions in Inquisition because so few encounters were actually challenging). I've been impressed by the sheer amount of companions + major NPCs whose arcs and agendas I have to juggle against each other (and my own). Whereas in Inquisition I had my party companions and my Skyhold council - here I have party companions, Tempest crew, and Initiative leaders on the Nexus, and as usual character writing remains a strength for Bioware.
On the other hand, I have to say I'm super disappointed by the worlds compared to DAI so far. It just doesn't feel like exploration is at all interesting/rewarding - yes the areas are larger but they are even more one note and just filled with literally copy-pasted encounters rather than the hand-crafted nooks and crannies I enjoyed finding in DAI. I understand narratively why all these worlds are so barren, but I'm not sure it was such a good idea to build the narrative around an idea that was going to severely impoverish the major gameplay environments.
