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The Dragon Age: Inquisition Thread

oldmanpaco

Master of Siestas
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
13,624
Location
Fall
That's true. After NWN they decided to cater to the console crowd and everyone know what that means: lots of money but declining/limited games.
 

pippin

Guest
It doesn't help that the console division (in charge of Mass Effect) actually managed to get their job done. Mass Effect 1 was in development for a relatively short period of time, especially in comparison with the PC division, in charge of Dragon Age.
 

Theldaran

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
1,772
NWN was the last Bioware game I dug. I played on some friends' server, of course. Later I got ME and DA:O but for 10 euros each (and with EA's devilish DRM with limited installations before the game was dead) and found them very meh-worthy. Finally I couldn't be bothered to finish DA2; I got DA:I for testing purposes and it has clear gameplay issues and I just can't forgive that no matter how "wonderful" the writing and dialogues are (they aren't). And they are still filling their games with stupid fetch quests. Jesus.
 

Donk

Novice
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Messages
20
That's true. After NWN they decided to cater to the console crowd and everyone know what that means: lots of money but declining/limited games.

I don't know about that. Having played Origins on both pc and console it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Origins belongs on pc.

No, I blame the trend of the time -- people want flashy visuals and voice acting so they can sit there and swoon and squee, "OMG his/her voice is lyk sthoo hawt!"

They also enjoyed the soap opera-esque antics of the companions and the romances, and of course BioWare complied to the desires and whims of their precious, precious fanbase.

In terms of role-playing I don't think voice acting works. Its too restrictive. I mean sure, it worked for Mass Effect but for the depths that Origins delved into? No.

And that's where the problem lies. They came out with Origins which was (probably the most it will ever be) perfect balance between voice acting while maintaining role play freedom, and then to DA2 which is a medieval sandbox/arcade slasher at best. Now, I actually liked DA2. Its my favourite in the series. But for those who are strictly rpgers or were expecting DAO 2, it was a let down. Particularly for pc players, having played on both platforms it is shit on pc and definitely geared towards the console.

At least DA2 stayed true to the tone, because Inquisition dropped it. Suddenly it went from bloody, depressing, dark and somewhat comedic setting to.. Flashy, colourful and dull setting.

If people think "I want to be a dragon" is lame as fuck, it triumphs over any supposedly funny or clever line the Inquisitor has.

I dunno, it just seems to me that the devs if Inquisition didn't know what they were doing. The villain was a joke, the combat a complete repetitive, pain in the arse bore, the mmo like content equally boring and annoying and everything just manages to be dull and bland, despite the over the top combat visuals. The main story made no sense and had major holes in it.. I.e the prologue, what circumstance or reason does the Inquisitor have for being there in that exact moment, and why do they act as if they walk in on a bingo comp in an old folks home?

I was one of the fools who thought it was an alright game on the first run, but when you play it the second time and discover that it has zero replay value, that's when you discover its a piece of shit and could have been so much better.

And they delayed development so they could.. What, add options of romancing Cully Wully and Solas for all of the Justin Bieberish fangirls and elf wannabes?

Hey, how about addressing the holes in the story? But nooo, lets have 50,000 romance options instead. Who cares about story anyway? Its all about dat sweet 5 minute pixel sex.
 

Coma White

Educated
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
375
Location
Malachor Depths
At least DA2 stayed true to the tone, because Inquisition dropped it. Suddenly it went from bloody, depressing, dark and somewhat comedic setting to.. Flashy, colourful and dull setting.

If people think "I want to be a dragon" is lame as fuck, it triumphs over any supposedly funny or clever line the Inquisitor has.

This is part of what I mean when I describe Inquisition as a "dead game". For all its technology and vast spaces, it's creatively bankrupt.
 

Donk

Novice
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Messages
20
^ Exactly. First impressions give off the illusion that's its a "huuuuuuge wow" game (especially in that first map, the Hinterlands) but as you progress through you find that it isn't the case.

Hell, Elder Scrolls Oblivion did it better. I could even go back all the way to the release of GTA 3 on the Playstation 2. Even THAT was better in terms of open world and the "life" within it.
 

Delterius

Arcane
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
15,956
Location
Entre a serra e o mar.
Yeah, the presentation was terrible. But that's a cosmetic issue and it shouldn't lead us to "worst game ever" conclusion.
This is not just a narrative or technical issue. On top of being completely unjustifiable. And on top of being fucking lazy. DA2's constant respawning happened in most every single encounter. Not even the Rift Battles from Dragon Age: Inquisition reach the level of a single run in with random bandits in Kirkwall's market.
 

Delterius

Arcane
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
15,956
Location
Entre a serra e o mar.
It is important to distinguish diseases in order to treat them. Both Dragon Ages are pretty bad. However, Dragon Age: Inquisition is a terrible game by its design paradigm. The whole experience is mindless. Dragon Age 2, for all its choices, is also a terribly made game. If one bothers defending the latter, they are to be considered beyond hope. The former is treated as you would any type-4 Theme Park MMO syndrome. Please refer to the below instruction video for support:

 

Mastermind

Cognito Elite Material
Patron
Bethestard
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
21,144
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yeah, the presentation was terrible. But that's a cosmetic issue and it shouldn't lead us to "worst game ever" conclusion.
This is not just a narrative or technical issue. On top of being completely unjustifiable. And on top of being fucking lazy. DA2's constant respawning happened in most every single encounter. Not even the Rift Battles from Dragon Age: Inquisition reach the level of a single run in with random bandits in Kirkwall's market.

The purpose of the reinforcements during encounters is to force some resource management. The problem with DA2 wasn't the reinforcements, which are a good idea, but the fact that most enemies are simply indistinguishable from each other. All but a handful of encounters are complete cookie cutter reskinned versions of the same shitty enemies you chopped to pieces 2 minutes ago using the same 2-3 gimmicks that didn't work the first time (like the odd rogue going invisible and backstabbing you). Having reinforcements show up after a tough battle against distinct enemies would be an entirely different experience.
 

Mastermind

Cognito Elite Material
Patron
Bethestard
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
21,144
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yeah, the presentation was terrible. But that's a cosmetic issue and it shouldn't lead us to "worst game ever" conclusion.
This is not just a narrative or technical issue. On top of being completely unjustifiable. And on top of being fucking lazy. DA2's constant respawning happened in most every single encounter. Not even the Rift Battles from Dragon Age: Inquisition reach the level of a single run in with random bandits in Kirkwall's market.

The purpose of the reinforcements during encounters is to force some resource management. The problem with DA2 wasn't the reinforcements, which are a good idea, but the fact that most enemies are simply indistinguishable from each other. All but a handful of encounters are complete cookie cutter reskinned versions of the same shitty enemies you chopped to pieces 2 minutes ago using the same 2-3 gimmicks that didn't work the first time (like the odd rogue going invisible and backstabbing you). Having reinforcements show up after a tough battle against distinct enemies would be an entirely different experience.

also having reinforcements teleport in right into the middle of the group ruins the tactical angle.

Not really. It looks silly, but it doesn't ruin the tactical angle in the slightest, especially once you learn about how the combat works and should be expecting them.
 

Mastermind

Cognito Elite Material
Patron
Bethestard
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
21,144
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
It ruins your party formation... same as every forced cut scene to be honest so its not as huge :decline: as compared to Origins.

Your formation doesn't really matter to begin with, the primary way to manage who gets attacked by what is by managing threat. If anything the game is designed to make formations worthless on purpose in most cases, just to get you to use threat management skills.
 

Makabb

Arcane
Shitposter Bethestard
Joined
Sep 19, 2014
Messages
11,753
I almost bought origins which is on sale for 5$ but then i came to codex and it reminded me how shit it is, thanks codex, saved 5$
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
29,896
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I almost bought origins which is on sale for 5$ but then i came to codex and it reminded me how shit it is, thanks codex, saved 5$
Drops origins, play faggout 4 and nu males sky. Truly the shill is an incomprehensible creature.
 

Makabb

Arcane
Shitposter Bethestard
Joined
Sep 19, 2014
Messages
11,753
Everytime i try origins it reminds me of BG 2 but neutered, it's a sour taste and i just go to replay BG 2 in the end.
 

imweasel

Guest
It isn't anywhere near as good as BG2, but Origins is good and definitely worth five dollars. The Ultimate Edition is still on sale on Steam for $5.
 
Self-Ejected

IncendiaryDevice

Self-Ejected
Village Idiot
Joined
Nov 3, 2014
Messages
7,407
I still consider DA2 the nadir of RPG gaming. The point at which no further decline was actually possible, a physical impossibility. From there, the only way was up. Even DA:I could be considered an incline because at least with DA:I there was no excuse to even buy it after DA2, the people who bought it have no excuse for being disappointed, DA:I was unashamedly crap as an RPG but delivered what anyone still interested in the series wanted, quirky characters, awesome buttons and bizarre sexual encounters. But DA2 was on a whole different level of crap and disappointment, I would argue worse even than BG2 fans expecting NWN to be BG in 3D.

DA2 is just a complete mess from every angle you care to look at it from:

Combat - hideous waves of same old-same old completely unimaginative pixel masses that don't even begin to tickle your sense of wonder, dropping from the ceiling and dying like flies above a rookery. Any encounter which offered any kind of tactical interest was destroyed by the incomprehensible camera which zapped across the screen as if a drunkard was trying to follow a horse race with a go-pro on max zoom-in from row Z of the stands, your brain going into melt down as you do everything in your power to turn off all the suicidal AI settings so that you can actually try to control a team of characters to fight properly. A tiny little city which somehow manages to have more resident nightly street-raiding psychotic bandits than regular inhabitants, all of which die at such a vast rate of numbers that one can only assume the local women are pumping out new male kin at the rate of one per year, all of whom are locked in some basement somewhere like dairy herds. And as if that wasn't enough every other house appears to be plagued by demons, which must be a real bugger for the non-existent real-estate agents and landlords. And as if that wasn't enough the town/city/glorified village (?) seemed to have more rival factions and races than the middle east in chaos, only each faction appeared to have a fully stable pecking order and virtually equal quantity of similarly statused hierarchies. It's no wonder the 'Champion of Kirkwall' ended up running the town, the fucker has managed to kill practically every citizen in the city by the end of the game, like some kind of medieval Rambo angel of death.

Holy shit, that was just a couple of details about the combat and it's already a wall of text, Jeezusfuckmotherofsaltybiscuits, the game's not even worth writing out all its flaws. It really is quicker to just list its good points. The problem is the game is so utterly shit that you don't want to list any good points. Even listing one good point feels like a disservice to the credibility of your sanity, permitting just one thing to be praised would be like trying to find the positives of dying from a particularly painful strain of the plague. It's like the Black Death of RPGs.

It's one solitary claim to fame being that whenever it's mentioned people can't help but want to start writing about how crap it is. We've all played crap games, and they can come in many shapes and forms, but none, not even Oblivion, not even Lionheart, not even Beyond Divinity makes one just so eager to waste so much time continually taking morbid pleasure in forever ranting about just how shit DA2 was.
 

Frozen

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
8,743
I almost bought origins which is on sale for 5$ but then i came to codex and it reminded me how shit it is, thanks codex, saved 5$

and its still 10000000000000000000x better then TES:6 =7 also known as Fallout 3 and 4
that shit isn't worth even 5$
 

Morgoth

Ph.D. in World Saving
Patron
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
36,041
Location
Clogging the Multiverse with a Crowbar
Guise! I did it! I finally catched up with all you other cool kids and bought DA:I (currently available on Origin for 9.99€ with voucher).

It's probably gonna be shit tho, but at least I'm not some D1P tool that spent full-price on it haha.
 

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