the only thing this game does better than its predecessors is the combat; the combat is generally more fun and smoother then the original trilogy. it falls flat in literally every other aspect, most heavily felt in the characters and relationships. i did not care about any of these people. i think its biggest sin for me is that it is not simply bad, but boring. if it were outright awful, at least it would be eliciting SOME emotion in me. instead it is so boring that i started playing on release in 2017 and i did not finish it until 2023. so there’s that.

this is far from a perfect game. the combat is tedious and generally unfun and the story leaves some to be desired. that being said, having logged over 600 hours since its release, it’s safe to say it was a pivotal part of my brain development. the characters and soundtrack are among my favorite in gaming to this day. i would also argue that the game is still pretty visually stunning, almost 10 years since its release. definitely the most recent bioware release that i have enjoyed and probably the last 💔