Dragon Age: Inquisition

[anubite]

****. Can someone tell them that there exist people who play with a mouse? Look at how he manages that AOE reticle with the 360 controller - that's exactly how DA2 handled. You cannot aim an AOE reticle straight on with a mouse. They better let us have control of the bloody camera this time.

[Halaster]

 

 

Just saw some combat. Looks pretty good.

 

https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/08/16/combat-of-dragon-age-inquisition.aspx

 

 

They've got a grapple hook in there, always a good thing. I see some Demon Souls and Witcher bits as well.

Yay!  Gameplay footage!  That does look and sound pretty good.  Hopefully they're able to fully realize all the things they talk about.

 

Gameplay does indeed look solid. I do hope the damage was so low for showing purposes only(two handed vs shield battle). 

 

Maybe I'm seeing what I fear, but the gameplay looks distinctly actioney. There was no overhead view where the player as a commander would issue orders to party members and see it resolve based on those commands plus e-dice rolls. It was all "up close and personal", swing your sword and roll with the controller. There are millions of games like that, including Skyrim, Two Worlds II and WItcher 2. What made BioWare and Obsidian games special in the past was that they had an RPG combat system. Besides those two principally (not counting indies and kickstarters) every damn game ever is action based, especially in recent times.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Halaster

[entrerix]

yeah but now with project eternity, i guess we dont need biowares half assed rpg games, now they can make action games all they want

 

(post is only semi-serious)

[Orogun01]

DA2 stands as a shining example of rushed and/or lazy game design. Take your pick.

There are so many things that could go wrong in game development that just pinning down to 2 reasons seems... rushed and lazy

Basically it can be one of those chaos theory scenarios where a small problem at the beginning stages of planning completely screws over the whole game.

[Maria Caliban]

****. Can someone tell them that there exist people who play with a mouse? Look at how he manages that AOE reticle with the 360 controller - that's exactly how DA2 handled. You cannot aim an AOE reticle straight on with a mouse. They better let us have control of the bloody camera this time.

I was able to aim my AOE spellsa with my mouse.

[anubite]

 

****. Can someone tell them that there exist people who play with a mouse? Look at how he manages that AOE reticle with the 360 controller - that's exactly how DA2 handled. You cannot aim an AOE reticle straight on with a mouse. They better let us have control of the bloody camera this time.

I was able to aim my AOE spellsa with my mouse.

 

There are scenarios where I can literally not get my AOE reticle to hit more than one enemy because it "sticks" to them. Imagine you have a very small circle AOE - in order to hit 3 units with it, it needs to intersect 3 targets. DA2 is built so your cursor "snaps" to the nearest target. If you are looking "dead on" at enemies (for instance, in the fight against the Arishok), you cannot zoom out your camera or even ****ing tilt it slightly - the end result is your AOEs are too small to hit anything but one unit, but they are big enough that they COULD hit more than one unit, if you have explicit control over them - if you had an isometric/top-down view. I realize now that a 360 controller would not have this issue at all.

 

It's hard to describe, but it happened a lot in my playthrough. I have a clip of it in my overly long poorly structured video on why DA2 sucks (in my signature), if you really don't believe me. It does happen - it's related to how the camera is positionined in most shoebox levels, for instance, if you sit on a stairwell, AOEs are easy to use, but on flat terrain where the camera sits (looking at an almost 2-dimensional perspective on your foes), it's often impossible to get precise aim. Shows you how little effort they spent to make the game a PC title.

 

I hope they don't repeat this stuff. The game looks okay right now as a purely action game, and maybe it will be fun, but it doesn't look a thing like a strategy RPG, ne'er mind Baldur's Gate. It's safe to call DA3, at least for now, a pure to form ARPG, like Tales of the Abyss.

Edited August 17, 2013 by anubite

[Volourn]

"It certainly lacked the depth from tabletop systems."

 

That describes every single CRPG ever.

[Orogun01]

"It certainly lacked the depth from tabletop systems."

 

That describes every single CRPG ever.

Yep

[Gorth]

Meh, too "actiony" for my tastes (too similar to Witcher 2). Interest just took a nose dive

[NOK222]

There are no tactics without an isometric camera. Period. 

 

All that pointless marketing blabla of Bioware. If they wanted to make a strategical and tactical game they would implement a real ruleset based on rounds (turn-based or RTwP). The combat sytem sounds exactly the same as in DA 2 (with "slightly" reduced game speed....) but with enhanced enemy AI (which is again restricted by current-gen consoles....). Without active pause (to the extend that you are almost forced to pause in combat) the combat system is doomed again, yeah, hack'n'slay.... 

 

You most likely ****ed it up again, Bioware. I have a very bad feeling here... 

 

Oh, and tactical party combat with a controller......lmfao....

Ok which one of you guys was this? Edited August 18, 2013 by NKKKK

[Oerwinde]

I liked Witcher 2, but its gameplay fit a single character. That gameplay doesn't fit party-based at all. Hopefully the PC experience is closer to DA:O.

[Tale]

I still like action games. But we're kind of saturated there. I even have my action based party RPG games in Dragon's Dogma. I'm hoping we see more tactical footage in the future.

[Oerwinde]

What gets me in the comments is everyone saying it looks like a combo of DA:O and DA2. Did we play different versions of DA:O? Because I was never zoomed in so my character took up 75% of the screen hitting a roll button so I can come up behind. Hell, I didn't do that in DA2 either.

[Osvir]

Just saw some combat. Looks pretty good.

 

https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/08/16/combat-of-dragon-age-inquisition.aspx

 

 

They've got a grapple hook in there, always a good thing. I see some Demon Souls and Witcher bits as well.

It definitely looks graphically impressing. I am excited but something about the camera control (3rd person view... *sigh*) just doesn't sit right with me when it comes to a party managing game.

 

To be honest, DA:I would probably benefit much more from just going to Mass Effect route. Control Shepard and order your party members around from that point of view. Controlling a party of characters from a 3rd person perspective just feels weird in my opinion. In this sense, Mass Effect does the "Control 1 Character and order 2 characters around" management both fun and mechanically functional.

 

I hope they will consider & implement a top-down camera control like DA:O still. I am certain it will get more people on-board to buy and play the game. Why? Because it allows the individual Player to play by their own preference, and seeing the comments section of that gameinformer link...

 

- [New Fans] seem to enjoy the close-combat action responsiveness of DA2. 3rd Person perspective and Casual/Normal Difficulty (Which in turn means that New Fans likes more of a Mass Effect approach. Little "down-time" in actual gameplay, God of War-ish/Dark Souls-ish).

 

- [Old Fans] seem to enjoy the more tactical, slower paced DAO. Top-down perspective and Hard/Nightmare Difficulty (Which in turn means that Old Fans likes the more Baldur's Gate/Chess-like approach. More time to think, calculate, positioning and preparation in actual gameplay).

 

So, by simply adding a good enough "Hard/Nightmare" difficulty to DA:I and adding a Mobile Top-Down RTS-like Camera (Map Scrolling; Not being locked to a fixed position), Bioware could cater to both groups.

 

A, Those who like to play the 3rd Person Action Game

B, Those who like to play the Top-Down Chess-like Game

 

However and again, this can only be achieved if BioWare includes the possibility for a Top-Down Camera (like DA:O) and a good hard difficulty.

 

If Bioware would successfully do this I believe DA:I would gain more success and be a way more fun experience. Looking at the demonstration video as it is though, it looks to be mostly a polished DA2-system combined with some elements from Dark Souls/Mass Effect.

Edited August 18, 2013 by Osvir

[alanschu]

We need a popcorn emoticon!

[licketysplit]

I do think they need an isometric camera for combat. when that mage was aiming her fire spell, you had no idea of the range of the AOE. If they can somehow make it both player skill based and strategic party combat that'd be ideal. 

[Bos_hybrid]

Finally some combat footage. Seems like they've droped DA:O combat altogether and gone for a TW2/Two worlds type gameplay. They need to stop drumming on about tactical combat, this game will be about reflexes more than tactics(judging by that video). Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, just different.

[Spider]

What gets me in the comments is everyone saying it looks like a combo of DA:O and DA2. Did we play different versions of DA:O? Because I was never zoomed in so my character took up 75% of the screen hitting a roll button so I can come up behind. Hell, I didn't do that in DA2 either.

 

Console versions couldn't zoom out that far, so I'm guessing most posting those comments played DA:O on a console.

[lobotomy42]

I played both Dragon Age games on an Xbox 360.  While I'm sure I would be raving about the PC controls if I had played it on the PC, the pause-and-play worked well enough on the Xbox for it not to be a problem for me - basically similar to KotOR or Mass Effect with a much deeper set of options on the "menu" ring.  Although it's certainly not advantageous, it really is possible to play tactically with the camera zoomed in.

[Orogun01]

I still like action games. But we're kind of saturated there. I even have my action based party RPG games in Dragon's Dogma. I'm hoping we see more tactical footage in the future.

But that's just it, DA2 is not an action game or if it is then its a very bad one. Action games require a certain amount of skill and in the cases of action/rpg a bit of strategy, with DA2 it was just the same combat design from an isometric game but even more simplified, animated at a high speed and with more particle effects.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Perhaps they should make different combat systems for PC and consoles? Console players can have an action game, PC can have tactical. Attempting to have Witcheresque action combat and BGish tactical combat at the same time seems to be impossible.

[Maria Caliban]

We need a popcorn emoticon!

You can always google img search.

[ShadySands]

This is my favorite

and yes, I know it's not an emoticon

 

but seriously can an anonymous forum dweller get an isometric view? I'd give the game a pass on pretty much everything else I've seen

[Orogun01]

Perhaps they should make different combat systems for PC and consoles? Console players can have an action game, PC can have tactical. Attempting to have Witcheresque action combat and BGish tactical combat at the same time seems to be impossible.

Whenever you think of a solution that involves optimizing or developing a different mechanic for PC remember that publishers don't care about PC ports and they are not likely to waste money on it. Probably, the reasons why they still do is because its inexpensive and can get them a few more bucks, and so the game gets pirated and they have something to blame low sales.

[WorstUsernameEver]

There's actually been a number of good PC ports coming out recently, like Dishonored, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3 (and its cousin Blood Dragon) just to name a few. We're definitely not in 2006 anymore in terms of PC ports.