Dragon Age: Inquisition

[redneckdevil]

Havent been able to play yet because its gonna be a christmas gift BUT no matter how good the game is, if Sandal isnt in it then it aint getting a perfect score.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Havent been able to play yet because its gonna be a christmas gift BUT no matter how good the game is, if Sandal isnt in it then it aint getting a perfect score.

Sandal is the final boss. He turns into a dragon and shoots beams of lyrium at the party. At the end, he disintegrates and falls into the fade, creating a small crack in it that a mysterious figure pops out of.

 

Not intended to be a factual statement.

[ManifestedISO]

En ... chant ... ment? 

[Bokishi]

So Dragon Age appears to be using Frostbite engine, I see that same grass they used in Battlefield 4

[CoM_Solaufein]

Yes

[AGX-17]

As expected, most of the people who spent the last year or two deriding the game before its release like it now that it's out.

 

But what they did with combat was just inexcusable. No real tactics, no if-then conditions for AI, etc. Aside from that, it's shaping up to be a solid 8-9/10.

 

What do these dragons have, 20,000 hit points? Went after my second dragon, Storm Coast island one, and didn't seem to be getting any where with it. Just a slight dent in its hot point bar before i said screw it and let my last person die. Went back to Skyhold and crafted some better weapons and armor, see how this goes.

Are you playing on Casual modo? That Storm Coast's Based Dragon (since when were there giants? Why do they matter when your first encounter with them is watching one get rectally-ravaged by a dragon?) had 46,000 HP when I went in at level 6-ish. And then I fought a human rogue boss in Orlais, circa level 14, with more HP than that High Dragon.

 

Makes perfect sense.

[GhostofAnakin]

Hmm.  I probably should have changed the world state before starting my second play through.  Would have been interesting to see just how much of the peripheral stuff changes depending on vastly different choices from the previous two games.

 

I sided with the templars this time.  Just finished that part, so I haven't seen the repercussions yet.  But just solely talking about that section, I think I preferred the mage "story" better.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Got quite a bit further. At level 20 now and most encounters are easy to complete. I wish the leveling curve was a bit more gradual. Off to the Hissing Wastes to get the schematic for high level armor.

 

Running into a bug where I'm unable to take control of party members. So far it's happened at Adamant Fortress and Cassandra's side quest, pretty damn annoying even though I managed to easily beat the encounters.

[Volourn]

Early Review (after 30ish hours):

 

Not as good as either earlier DA. The game play is subpar, there's a huge lacking of real C&C (with only the mage vs templar one seemingly to be the only mean ingful one, combat for the most part  boring with even worse hit point bloat than before,the character creation/level up system (outside of multiple races|) is plain crap and dumbed down.

\

Exploring can be fun but the unlimited number of fetch quests is pure stupid. The graphics are good and the music is as well. The characetrs for the most part are done reasonably well. The story including the main villain is lacklustre. So far he is one of BIO's worst.

 

\The war table is a good idea and mostly works but it is majorly hurt by the **** quest 'system'.

 

Playable  game but nowhere near a BIO classic so far. This is at KOTOR and NWN OC levels of average.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Volourn

[MrBrown]

Apparently some of the romances don't have happy endings. There are some sad, sad people over on the Bio boards right now.

[Hurlshort]

The only romancing I've done was some old lady in Val Royeauoueax, and that was only because I didn't want to give her a commitment of troops.  

[BruceVC]

The only romancing I've done was some old lady in Val Royeauoueax, and that was only because I didn't want to give her a commitment of troops.  

 

Oh Hurlshot you little  Romance lover you...don't be embarrassed..celebrate it  

 

Did you feel guilty about your characters actions because it sounds like you were using her?

[GhostofAnakin]

Early Review (after 30ish hours):

 

Not as good as either earlier DA. The game play is subpar, there's a huge lacking of real C&C (with only the mage vs templar one seemingly to be the only mean ingful one, combat for the most part  boring with even worse hit point bloat than before,the character creation/level up system (outside of multiple races|) is plain crap and dumbed down.

 

The level up system was a big disappointment.  You can only level up the character's "special abilities" now, but not their stats.  Stat leveling up was one of the best things about RPGs; being able to put points into whatever stat you felt was best.

 

The main villain could have been cool, but I don't think they fleshed him out enough.  And the final boss fight was a joke (easier than fighting many of the mob bosses you face at various points in the game).

[Qistina]

After hours of exciting and often challenging combat on Nightmare difficulty, I stumbled over these words, written by Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku:

"There's no healing spell in the game, which is a bold move and in my experience so far, a successful one. The only way to heal mid-combat is by using potions, and you're initially limited to eight among your entire party. That means that buffs, barriers, and guards become extremely important, and you'll no longer have to dedicate one of your four party members to act as healer to the other three. The game encourages a satisfying blend of caution and aggression, and it really works."

 

I couldn't agree more.

It's streamlined and rather ARPG-y, but it certainly is great fun and challenging in quite a lot of ways depending on your party composition.

 

So instead on 'relying" on healing, players now really relying on barriers now? What's the difference?

 

Players are not relying on healing spells actually in previous games, they remove it just to make a fake challenge. In previous games you can craft potions, don't really need to bring healers with you and you don't really need to become a healer yourself. Healing is an option should you want to, party members are optional too, you may end the game solo if want (or just with a dog if you are Human Noble)

 

They take away one of the option in RPG for everyone, for every players to satisfy certain type of players (or even to satisfy own fetish*)

 

*One thing i learn about making a game is NEVER make a game i want to play

Edited December 7, 2014 by Qistina

[MrBrown]

 

Early Review (after 30ish hours):

 

Not as good as either earlier DA. The game play is subpar, there's a huge lacking of real C&C (with only the mage vs templar one seemingly to be the only mean ingful one, combat for the most part  boring with even worse hit point bloat than before,the character creation/level up system (outside of multiple races|) is plain crap and dumbed down.

 

The main villain could have been cool, but I don't think they fleshed him out enough.  And the final boss fight was a joke (easier than fighting many of the mob bosses you face at various points in the game).

 

Endings seem to have become Bioware's weakpoint in recent games. Though I think DA:I's was just underwhelming, rather than annoying like DA2 or ME3 (IMO anyway).

 

Difficulty of final boss fights is hard to do right in open-ended games. I guess they just went with fixed difficulty, instead of level-scaling?

[Qistina]

Combat is totally ridiculous, it's like manga anime cartoon, worse than DA2, maybe some of you think it's good and great, so "engaging", for me it's childish

 

What with vanish in the thin air then zap!zap!zap!zap!zap!boom!boom!boom! 3000 damage each, wtf is that?

 

 

That would impress 12 years old no doubt...those who love Naruto and such

Edited December 7, 2014 by Qistina

[CoM_Solaufein]

Screw the cheating dragons for now. Moving on with the main quest.

[GhostofAnakin]

 

 

Early Review (after 30ish hours):

 

Not as good as either earlier DA. The game play is subpar, there's a huge lacking of real C&C (with only the mage vs templar one seemingly to be the only mean ingful one, combat for the most part  boring with even worse hit point bloat than before,the character creation/level up system (outside of multiple races|) is plain crap and dumbed down.

 

The main villain could have been cool, but I don't think they fleshed him out enough.  And the final boss fight was a joke (easier than fighting many of the mob bosses you face at various points in the game).

 

Endings seem to have become Bioware's weakpoint in recent games. Though I think DA:I's was just underwhelming, rather than annoying like DA2 or ME3 (IMO anyway).

 

Difficulty of final boss fights is hard to do right in open-ended games. I guess they just went with fixed difficulty, instead of level-scaling?

 

 

Yeah, they've been really weak with the endings recently.  But I agree with you about DA:I's being simply underwhelming, as opposed to smash-head-against-table annoying like ME3's.  So I guess it's a step in the right direction?

 

The problem was the final boss just didn't have much power to him.  He could have remained whatever level he was, but utilize different immunities or shields.  One of the things that makes some of the high level dragons difficult is because not only their immunities and hit points, but because they have those guards/shields that you have to whittle away first before you can even damage them.  The final boss should have had something similar like that, maybe a magical barrier/shield that he erected once every little while that you had to destroy first before you could damage him.  Instead, he didn't seem to have much going for him other than hit points and whatever magical attacks he threw at you.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Any one know what is with the cheese fetish? I've been finding a lot of cheese wheels throughout the game.

[ManifestedISO]

The Nords trade in cheese wheels from Tamriel to Ferelden. 

[Bokishi]

This game needs Dark Souls combat, it would be epic!

[hollowcrown]

Finished the game. Got sort of bored by the open world by the end. Bioware is no Bethesda for sure.

 

Overall the games probably a solid 8/10 for me. It's a step in the right direction but the whole formula isn't perfected yet, it needs a lot of improvement.

 

The sequel hook is awesome, can't wait for more story. The pantheon and lore Bioware have created is truly special, I can only hope PoE has a lore this good and utterly mysterious.

[GhostofAnakin]

 

The sequel hook is awesome, can't wait for more story.

 

I'd only agree with that if there's an expansion that builds upon those hints.  If it's going to be addressed in a future game 3 or 4 years down the road, I'm not a fan of these unresolved plot points.  Largely because as we've seen from previous Bio games where there are "cliff hangers" or unexplained events to come, they always end up falling short.  Either the plot gets forgotten or marginalized (Morrigan with the Old God Baby).  The only time these cliff hangers get acceptably fleshed out is through an immediate expansion/DLC.

 

I'd actually prefer if they just wrap up all loose ends by the end of a given game.  That way they're not tying their hands when the next game comes around, and don't have to include stuff that may not fit the new story, just so that the old story no longer has any unresolved storylines.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Pushed through quite a bit. There is a problem with staggering:

Picking the new Divine. Two options are given right away and the third doesn't happen until near endgame. IMO all should be available at the same time.

 

 

In addition, I find combat gets fairly repetitive at higher levels. It may be due to the reduced number of abilities or the lack of enemy variety, but I find myself using the same strategies for most encounters.

 

As it is, I feel the game could do with a few patches and I don't see myself replaying it anytime soon, if I even finish this play through. I'd also say having access to the character sheet at creation and getting attribute points would be an improvement.

[qonceine]

Yes, I think so. Bon courage.