I was going to start a new thread for this because i hadn't realized anyone was updating this thread. I'm probably about 2/3 through the game and just picked it up on my birthday (just less than a week ago). Here are my thoughts...
1. Story - Pretty much what you'd expect from a ME game. Some have knocked it, but I honestly don't see a huge problem.
2. Graphics/Animation - Honestly, they're beautiful...if we're talking about environment. You'd think there'd be more uniqueness when it comes to characters that have an actual role. Nope. I'll give one example. There is a female that you encounter that you can either turn into an ally or an enemy. Later on, there's an enemy boss who looks EXACTLY like her - right down to the tats, scars, and hair - the only difference is skin and hair color. I guess it's not a huge deal, but there you go.
The rumors of wonky faces and movements are true. From what I've seen, the new patch has fixed most of them, but you still run into the issue every now and then. Unless you really really care about these things, don't worry. It's not as bad as you've read/watched.
Dialogue - Some of it is shit. A famous meme right now is a female saying that her face is tired. Yep. That's real. And it is horrible. Again, even with a few really bad lines, it doesn't bother me.
Voice acting - Fuck me, it sucks. Female krogans sound like straight men doing a terrible gay man impression. Female and Male Salarians are much the same as well as a Turian or two. The main characters are fine with their acting and I'd say they are about on par with ME1-ME3.
Gameplay - If you enjoy ME gameplay, you'll enjoy this. There are minor differences and subtle changes, but they're good. I'm also enjoying the skill system and wide variety of armor upgrades.
Multiplayer - haven't tried it. Don't care to. ME should be campaign only, IMO.
What really annoys me - Why the fuck are there so many female Turians and Krogan? I think we saw one female between the first three games and there are a lot of them in this game. I usually don't care about this sort of thing, but it seems like they went out of their way to push them on us. They just seem out of place considering the ME world made it seem like the females of those races weren't active in politics, exploration, and war. Again, not a huge deal, but when a female krogan with a gay man's lisp is getting in an awkward fist fight with a male krogan, it just seems forced.
Note: There is one mission early on in the game where you can't interact with someone to continue progress. Not everyone has this problem, but I did. If it happens to you, go back to the tempest, then to another planet or the Nexus, save it, power down/close application, go back to the game, load your file, go back to the planet and continue your mission. Should be fine after that.
Final Verdict. I love this game. There are definite issues, but I'll probably play through male Ryder then start female Ryder and then use the male Ryder to start over again.