Dragon Age: Inquisition

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

A friend described it as Dragon Age + Witcher 2 + Assassins Creed 2 + an MMO = DA:I.. in essence trying to appeal to too many. Independently they've done all the elements well, but the mix is not as great as they hope. (Something I feel is true for all too many AAA titles these days.)

 

Is that the consensus?

 

Pretty much. It has potential, but too many elements don't work together very well and it would've been better off using either action gameplay or tactical party-based instead of trying for both. Not a bad game IMO, just not an excellent one.

[Qistina]

 

Games like DA:I will not have large market here, Skyrim is popular here because it can be played with PC, and is tolerated even though it's not designed for PC

 

There are several excellent mods that fix that awful X-Box look and interface and make Skyrim much more PC friendly. I don't think I'd ever play a vanilla (unmodded) Elder Scrolls game.

 

 

I know, but i rather liked the vanilla UI despite it's not PC friendly, i rarely open up the menu anyway because of my play style, others maybe using the mods, especially those who use potions much

 

 

A friend described it as Dragon Age + Witcher 2 + Assassins Creed 2 + an MMO = DA:I.. in essence trying to appeal to too many. Independently they've done all the elements well, but the mix is not as great as they hope. (Something I feel is true for all too many AAA titles these days.)

 

Is that the consensus? 

 

RPG for me is playing a character, if the game is rely too much on my reflex, then it's not RPG anymore, it just a game that have RPG element, such as Skyrim, Halo, and any FPS games.

 

Let say, if i am bad in reflex, doesn't why would my Dalish Elf who is a Master Archer is bad in her archery? So it's not RPG any longer, if my reflex is bad why my character reflex also bad?

 

Some people defend such thing, they say when we are playing a role then it is RPG, i totally disagree. Another example, an actor who play a role as a Sword Master, surely his acting must be look like he's excellent with sword, even in real life he's suck with sword, because he's playing a role, he cannot be suck with sword in the movie. That's "role playing"

 

So the age of role playing games is over, replaced by button mashing games...it's about attitude actiually, peoples nowadays are impatient, they feel like want to smash someone skull, so they want to do it in the game by pushing the button, not watching the character smahing skull buy itself

[Tale]

Got my copy today.

 

I can't play it yet, but I own a copy.

[prodigydancer]

I don't know the last time I saw an MMO that had a low limit on the number of abilities.

I think the closest match would be Guild Wars 2. You can put five class abilities on your action bar (no matter how many you have unlocked) and you have five per-weapon abilities (you can't choose them at all - they depend on the equipped weapon type). Plus active dodge and maybe (depending on class and build) some special cooldowns. And that's it. The game is boring as hell (or at least it used to be).

 

But what really comes to mind is Diablo 3. And, massively flawed as it was, it was still a better game than DA:I.

Edited November 24, 2014 by prodigydancer

[Volourn]

"RPG for me is playing a character, if the game is rely too much on my reflex, then it's not RPG anymore, it just a game that have RPG element, such as Skyrim, Halo, and any FPS games."
 

But, you do play a character. You also make choices. With C&C. It's an action rpg.  I loathe Skyrim but it's still a rpg. Quality is irrelevant when determining what genre a game is in/

[Woldan]

The lack of a walk toggle is totally bumming me out, I love to take my time in RPG's which is kinda hard if your PC is always running around like he/she is desperately looking for a toilet.

I hope they have patched the PC exclusive problems by the time I buy the game, but I'm not holding my breath. 

 

Oh, and I'm wondering, the pause option is only available when using tac cam? 

Edited November 24, 2014 by Woldan

[HoonDing]

BioWare to be tried for crimes against humanity.

They made Leliana sing again.

[Volourn]

As  to singing goes, the singing in the taverns are pretty good.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Got my Wasteland 2 fix, now I'm playing this. So far I like it. Finally a Bioware game that is open world.

[Darkpriest]

 

It's a silly MMO bull.

I don't know the last time I saw an MMO that had a low limit on the number of abilities. They tend, at least currently, to give you a ton of bars and let you go to town.

 

Sometimes I think people just like to throw random words at things to be an insult. I thought you were above that. For shame.

 

For shame.

 

 

TES:O anyone?

[Humanoid]

Hard pressed to find anyone who remembers (T)ESO was even a thing now.

[Darkpriest]

"RPG for me is playing a character, if the game is rely too much on my reflex, then it's not RPG anymore, it just a game that have RPG element, such as Skyrim, Halo, and any FPS games."

 

But, you do play a character. You also make choices. With C&C. It's an action rpg.  I loathe Skyrim but it's still a rpg. Quality is irrelevant when determining what genre a game is in/

the same as Diablo is an RPG. i is just a sugenre called action RPG or aRPG for short. They did market it that way though, so I have no problems with that part. The problem is, that you have very low number of good classic RPGs where you have no impact on the combat aside of general skill usage and strategy, like for example wasteland 2 with TBC or PoE with RTwP, but those games are playable basically only on PCs and huge titles cannot limit themselves to one platform only.

 

The problem with Bioware games is that they can't go full action mode, because they need to somehow put in romancable companions and allow control over their actions in combat. They put themselves in that spot however. They should have just leave the controlable party in the past when they decided to move to action combat.

 

In ME that kind of weird combat worked, becuse the comat distances were generally larger and there was that modern shooter cover mechanic and passive full heal whenever not hit. Close combats with melee weapons are another breed though and if you want good action combat you need to take from games like Dark Souls (hard) or paradoxaly Skyrim (fairly easy).

[Darkpriest]

Hard pressed to find anyone who remembers (T)ESO was even a thing now.

 

I played it for some time, but the only thing that it was fun was multiplayer, which after a long time of really poor balance just made me leave the game... It was my first and probably last MMO ever, and only because I was really pleased by the multiplayer combat during the beta tests... but unfortunately things like end levels and certain templates were not available at the time of the open beta, and those things were actually major **** ups in the balance part.

[ManifestedISO]

 

Cassandra walks like a centaur.  I don't know what it is about her walking animations, but her ass sticks out so much and she walks with a bent over/knees bent appearance.  

 

I love it, the lanky, bowlish gait, no-nonsense short raven crop, impenetrable gaze, voice like a true-believer ... I could go on but she's not real and that would be misplaced affection for digital art. Wait, this is Dragon Age ... I can get behind any character I want.  

[ShadySands]

The lack of a walk toggle is totally bumming me out, I love to take my time in RPG's which is kinda hard if your PC is always running around like he/she is desperately looking for a toilet.

I hope they have patched the PC exclusive problems by the time I buy the game, but I'm not holding my breath. 

 

Oh, and I'm wondering, the pause option is only available when using tac cam? 

 

You can pause outside of tactical view, I think. I haven't played since last week but I'm pretty sure it's the ctrl key or something

 

 

A friend described it as Dragon Age + Witcher 2 + Assassins Creed 2 + an MMO = DA:I.. in essence trying to appeal to too many. Independently they've done all the elements well, but the mix is not as great as they hope. (Something I feel is true for all too many AAA titles these days.)

 

Is that the consensus? 

 

I haven't played any AssCreed games but replace that with The Elder Scrolls and I guess I would agree with that.

[Bryy]

Yeah, you can pause.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Indeed pause is in, as is tactical view. Imagine a game, where you can...

-roam around rather freely, if not to the extent in the Elder Scrolls games

-where the size of the maps and their great number is overwhelming, and just as varied as in Kingdoms of Amalur (you'll need steeds, goddamn it!)

-where the tempo and balance between combat and RPG-ing, if you will, is cleverly varied. You can have 1h just exploring and talking, and then 1h fighting

-where the music, the sound FX, and the graphics are top notch (and the character creation is extremely detailed)

-where the colours are vibrant, but not all the way cartoonish, like in D3 or D:OS, but rather more Bioshock, with some spooky elements and bloody gore to it all

-where you have great writing and loads of varied and interesting VOed NPCs (like the Mystery Box ware), involving companions, and gazillion of choices

-where hidden stuff, places and items abound (a reminder - you can jump! Use those frog-legs! And how about some astro-mini-puzzles?)

-where you very soon get a strategic mission perspective on both Ferelden and Orlais in the War Room, using your influence and your agents IAoVH2-style

-where you get a stronghold that put all other strongholds to shame, including that in NWN2

-where any need for manic collection of ingredients will get madly stimulated, and you'll have an easy and fun crafting system to beat (I usually hate crafting)

-where itemization and item comparisons are bordering on ARPGs like D3 (the amount of stuff, though, is not that crazy)

-where Hard and Nightmare actually is pretty strategic as far as combat goes

-where you don't have any awful QTE combat, like in Amalur

-where scouting ahead and sneaking is in, but not always overpowered, like in Skyrim

-where you easily can run into enemies that will pulverize you

-where you actually care about your character and those companions in your party (all fully VOed)

-and, where you have romances for those so inclined!

 

I'm not exactly an EA fan, as previous posts of mine can prove, but having installed Origin and bought DA:I is nothing I regret in the slightest. It's entertaining, addictive and a darn good CRPG!    

 

I haven't played MMOs (well, I tried LotR Online just for Ziets' sake), so I can't tell if it is similar to any of them. But who cares? Obviously, there is some handholding, the controls and camera in the PC version take a bit of time to get used to (nothing my gaming mouse can't handle) and some stuff is simplified and not very intricate. It's still a great game.

 

In my opinion, it's already the best DA game so far. I really liked DA:O in many ways, but combat was pretty awful, and I got sick of Darkspawns, Darkspawns, Darkspawns everywhere and its faction quest predictability.

Edited November 25, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[BruceVC]

Indeed pause is in, as is tactical view. Imagine a game, where you can...

-roam around rather freely, if not to the extent in the Elder Scrolls games

-where the size of the maps and their great number is overwhelming, and just as varied as in Kingdoms of Amalur (you'll need steeds, goddamn it!)

-where the tempo and balance between combat and RPG-ing, if you will, is cleverly varied. You can have 1h just exploring and talking, and then 1h fighting

-where the music, the sound FX, and the graphics are top notch (and the character creation is extremely detailed)

-where the colours are vibrant, but not all the way cartoonish, like in D3 or D:OS, but rather more Bioshock, with some spooky elements and bloody gore to it all

-where you have great writing and loads of varied and interesting VOed NPCs (like the Mystery Box ware), involving companions, and gazillion of choices

-where hidden stuff, places and items abound (a reminder - you can jump! Use those frog-legs!)

-where you very soon get a strategic mission perspective on both Ferelden and Orlais in the War Room, using your influence and your agents IAoVH2-style

-where you get a stronghold that put all other strongholds to shame, including that in NWN2

-where any need for manic collection of ingredients will get madly stimulated, and you'll have an easy and fun crafting system to beat (I usually hate crafting)

-where itemization and item comparisons are bordering on ARPGs like D3 (the amount of stuff, though, is not that crazy)

-where Hard and Nightmare actually is pretty strategic as far as combat goes

-where you don't have any awful QTE combat, like in Amalur

-where scouting ahead and sneaking is in, but not always overpowered, like in Skyrim

-where you easily can run into enemies that will pulverize you

-where you actually care about your character and those companions in your party (all fully VOed)

-and, where you have romances for those so inclined!

 

I'm not exactly an EA fan, as previous posts of mine can prove, but having installed Origin and bought DA:I is nothing I regret in the slightest. It's entertaining, addictive and a darn good CRPG!    

 

I haven't played MMOs (well, I tried LotR Online just for Ziets' sake), so I can't tell if it is similar to any of them. But who cares? Obviously, there is some handholding, the controls and camera in the PC version takes a bit of time to get used to (nothing my gaming mouse can't handle) and some stuff is simplified and not very intricate. It's still a great game.

 

In my opinion, it's already the best DA game so far. I really liked DA:O in many ways, but combat was pretty awful, and I got sick of Darkspawns, Darkspawns, Darkspawns everywhere and its faction quest predictability.

 

 

This is the type of feedback I appreciate, its made by someone who has actually played the game and is done in way that is reasonable and objective

 

 

By the way Indira have you experienced any Romance arcs? I know this is relatively unchartered RPG territory for you so I'm keen to see what you think?

[IndiraLightfoot]

BruceVC: I haven't gotten that far into the game, yet. Any consummation will surely happen quite a bit into Skyhold and such. I have my eyes set on a person that I just picked up in my party. I ditched Solas just to make room for some closer socializing with her. So far, my companions behave themselves in a more natural manner (compared to Alistair and others) in DA:O, where they got too hot to handle very fast. I have slowly made Cassandra more positively attuned to my way of thinking. Also, Varric seems to warm up to me. He's the one I know most about at this point. However, I have my sights set on the slightly mad and annoying hothead Sera. We'll see how it goes. She's pretty unpredictable and seems to be hard to please. 

 

I have this weird goal of all Rogue characters on Nightmare level, if it's at all viable, and right now I have three in my party + Cassandra.

Edited November 25, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[ShadySands]

PC rogue, Sera, Varric, and Cole. Should be doable to have an all rogue party but I'm not sure how well that will play without a tank as I'm not sure how durable they are or how well their avoidance passives work in practice. It seems like with the right specs you can just ping pong the enemy between them but I haven't played anything other than mage.

[IndiraLightfoot]

I haven't encountered Cole yet, but I was under the impression he was some wild mage/Veil phantom. I'll definitely let you guys know how it goes with an all-Rogue party.

So far, it's actually Cassandra that dies the most, but that is indeed because she stands in the midst of everything painful, while the others dart in and out of the wasp nests. Combat is quite fun, though - heh, it's even fun to watch!

 

Funny thing is: A few weeks ago, I swore I wouldn't pick Varric simply because he did those back flips, and now I even had him pick those abilities on purpose. My mind is still malleable. That's nice to know when you get a little bit older.

[ShadySands]

I won't spoil any details about Cole other than that he is indeed a rogue.

 

Agreed, for the most part, on the animations. They are still over the top at times but I don't mind them as much.

[Qistina]

 

"RPG for me is playing a character, if the game is rely too much on my reflex, then it's not RPG anymore, it just a game that have RPG element, such as Skyrim, Halo, and any FPS games."

 

But, you do play a character. You also make choices. With C&C. It's an action rpg.  I loathe Skyrim but it's still a rpg. Quality is irrelevant when determining what genre a game is in/

the same as Diablo is an RPG. i is just a sugenre called action RPG or aRPG for short. They did market it that way though, so I have no problems with that part. The problem is, that you have very low number of good classic RPGs where you have no impact on the combat aside of general skill usage and strategy, like for example wasteland 2 with TBC or PoE with RTwP, but those games are playable basically only on PCs and huge titles cannot limit themselves to one platform only.

 

The problem with Bioware games is that they can't go full action mode, because they need to somehow put in romancable companions and allow control over their actions in combat. They put themselves in that spot however. They should have just leave the controlable party in the past when they decided to move to action combat.

 

In ME that kind of weird combat worked, becuse the comat distances were generally larger and there was that modern shooter cover mechanic and passive full heal whenever not hit. Close combats with melee weapons are another breed though and if you want good action combat you need to take from games like Dark Souls (hard) or paradoxaly Skyrim (fairly easy).

 

 

Like i said, any games that requires my own reflex are games with RPG elements, not a real RPG, Diablo is such. The character survival is depend on my own effort, meaning how fast i click or pushing the button, not the character own attributes.

 

Lets make comparison with disability people, or healthy people who suddenly become sick, surely they cannot play the character in the game, so what is "role-playing" there? None. A real RPG is a game where even a person with one hand can role play a character of a master swordmen, because the person is playing a role of a swordmen in his/her game. Button mashing game is only for healty players with no disability.

 

You must use two hands in using a controller, you only need one hand using a mouse...that is why PC version of DA:I suck, it's not build for PC. In DA:O and even DA2, you can just use your mouse for everything...to move, to attack, to open menus, to level up, to use items, to loot items, to engage in dialogues, to select party members, to issue command, ect...you don't even really need keyboard.

 

It is because DA:O and DA2 is still an RPG, you role play a character, assign his/her attribute, if the character suck is not because of your reflex suck, but your build and tactic suck. But now DA:I is not like that.

 

Talk about Diablo, i will not surprise if Dragon Age 4 end boss is The Warden...lol

Edited November 25, 2014 by Qistina

[MrBrown]

I have this weird goal of all Rogue characters on Nightmare level, if it's at all viable, and right now I have three in my party + Cassandra.

 

I wanted to play a party with three rogues and a warrior tanking, which is how I did DA2 Nightmare, but there's just too much little stuff to do with Mages in various areas. For instance, I've found two runes that I wouldn't have gotten without a Mage.

 

It's kinda neat that's there little special stuff to do for all classes, but also makes me feel forced to have all of them in the party, leaving me with only the 4th to vary.

[IndiraLightfoot]

MrBrown: Yeah. I've already noticed mage-only stuff like that. It's a bit of a bummer, but I'll press on without a mage anyways, since I intend to replay this game with a mage of my own, perhaps in my next playthrough. Hopefully, I don't miss out on too much essenti-good stuff.