The Dragon Age: Inquisition Thread

[Bumvelcrow]

You still spent too much.

I keep wondering whether to buy it. Is there some level of discount where you'd say you'd got your money's worth?

 

[Wayward Son]

You still spent too much.

I keep wondering whether to buy it. Is there some level of discount where you'd say you'd got your money's worth?

Well... If you like MMOs, maybe 5-10 USD. If you're really that curious. Be forewarned, I, someone who likes Skyrim and even modded Oblivion, couldn't play it for more than two to three hours.

 

[Wayward Son]

It does have 80-100 hrs of content. Most of it is boring as all hell though.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

So I'm just finishing up my first playthrough. It's a way better game than Codex consensus says, but whether you enjoy it will depend on how much you enjoy things like map clearing and doing repetitive tasks. I definitely don't want every game I play to be that, but I personally found DA:I to be the perfect "drop in and drop out to do a few missions while listening to music" type experience. I'd give it a B.

Combat: This isn't as bad as everyone says, but I can understand how the game gives a bad impression as at the start when your characters have very few abilities it's completely abysmal. Once you start unlocking enough abilities for your party to play off eachother, though, I think it gets much better. That said, I personally can't imagine playing as anything other than a Rogue Assassin. Assassins can insta-kill huge enemies all on their own, stealth, rinse and repeat, so it's really fun playing as them. I'd have fallen asleep if I'd played as a ranged character or a warrior. The lack of (a workable) tactical mode sucks, especially at the start of the game when things are really hard (at least on nightmare). But by midgame, you don't miss it much. That said, without a bunch of abilities to keep things interesting, its bare bones action combat does kind of suck. It's stuck between an action game and RTWP and doesn't do either well. More than once I found myself thinking, "This would be the most awesome game ever if it had Dragon Dogma's bosses and combat."

Crafting and Character Building: Character building is done really well, with different specializations actually feeling different. I group crafting with this too because the use of masterworks to grant different abilities to weapons and armor can make gameplay change drastically. I can't think of many modern RPGs that had a better crafting system. Alot of the crafting boils down to tedius "13% fire protect or 13% electricity protection?" meaninglessness, but if you dig deep you can make very specialized builds. Or make an uber tank mage warrior with +15 guard who can basically solo the game on Nightmare.

Missions: Main missions are fine for a Bioware game. I thought the one where you influence who would be the Empress of Orlais was probably the best main mission of the game. Side missions are much more mindless, so, as I said, your mileage may vary depending on how much you like lawn mowing maps and clearing 80 rifts. My OCD took over fairly quickly, so I didn't mind after a while. I did like Skyhold, though. That location change half way through the game was pretty effective.

Plot: Pretty generic, honestly. I couldn't bring myself to care, save for very brief missions and some character specific stuff. Gets the job done, I guess, but I was never as involved in it as I was with DA:O or ME. I haven't finished the Tresspaser DLC yet, but the main plot was kind of dull and anti-climactic.

Companions: Pretty mediocre. None where terrible, but none really stood out either. Cassandra and Blackwall are the best (even though Blackwall's storyline is more or less ripped off wholesale from Don Draper in Mad Men). No one else really stood out, though. Varric seems to be Bioware's favorite for some reason, but I don't see the fuss with him.

All in all it is a repetitive, grindy, and somewhat fiddly game in that there are tons of, probably inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, stats and other stuff to collect, acquire, and mess with. But it does what it does fairly well, for the most part. And it's a really pretty game with fuckloads of landscapes and ruins to see (which can't be discounted after how Bioware dropped the ball on scope in DA2). So if you don't mind that sort of experience, you can do way worse.

 

[Siveon]

For a neutral-positive review, you made the game sound terrible.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Well, I should mention that I tend to like modern Bioware most than most here. So saying the plot, missions, and characters are generic is probably less of a criticism coming from me than it might be from someone else.

 

[Theldaran]

So saying the plot, missions, and characters are generic is probably less of a criticism coming from me than it might be from someone else.

They are still generic, right? Can they be still generic and good?

 

[Delterius]

So saying the plot, missions, and characters are generic is probably less of a criticism coming from me than it might be from someone else.

They are still generic, right? Can they be still generic and good?

To be honest, while some of the characters can be entertaining most of the plot can be considered a step back from Dragon Age 2 on a conceptual level. DA2 was a shittily made game but it still attempted to tell a singular story throught the game's content. DA:I is another random adventure through the plains of Fantasyland with nothing really managing to stand out. In theory, any one of the major plots that DA:I employs could be a game unto themselves but there's simply no time for that. To say nothing of the leagues of generic sandboxy content that pales in comparison even to the levelling experience of some Theme Park MMOs out there.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Can they be still generic and good?

Yes, if you like Bioware's formula there is comfort in consistency. All the companions, for example, aren't terribly interesting, but most are well written. So you don't feel bad if you pursue their storylines. The "save the world" plot has been done a million times before, but it adequately stitches the game together and provides an excuse for some interesting missions and vignettes.

Generic can be quite fun sometimes.

 

[Theldaran]

I just guess making something special that stands out isn't within the ability of most companies.

 

[kris]

Companions: Pretty mediocre. None where terrible, but none really stood out either. Cassandra and Blackwall are the best (even though Blackwall's storyline is more or less ripped off wholesale from Don Draper in Mad Men). No one else really stood out, though. Varric seems to be Bioware's favorite for some reason, but I don't see the fuss with him.

None terrible? Not even the two... terrible ones?

Solas were the good one IMO.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Companions: Pretty mediocre. None where terrible, but none really stood out either. Cassandra and Blackwall are the best (even though Blackwall's storyline is more or less ripped off wholesale from Don Draper in Mad Men). No one else really stood out, though. Varric seems to be Bioware's favorite for some reason, but I don't see the fuss with him.

None terrible? Not even the two... terrible ones?

Solas were the good one IMO.

Which ones were terrible? I didn't bang Iron Bull, so I never saw any of his silly scenes.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I'm guessing you were supposed to find the female thief/rogue character and the soft featured/spoken ghost dude the auto-terribles because they tick all the wrong codex boxes or something while finding that latino bird with the fine ass and tits acceptable etc etc etc who gives a shit they're all pretty shite and just make you dream of games that allow you to create your own party.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Eh, you can respec any member of your party any time you want in DA:I, and all the main classes are plentiful (3 mages, 3 rogues, 3 Warriors). Which is the game's best feature. So it's more or less like creating your own party as there are only 3 slots, so you could technically roll with all rogues/mages/warriors if you wanted.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I don't think respecing skills is really the issue here...

 

[kris]

I'm guessing you were supposed to find the female thief/rogue character and the soft featured/spoken ghost dude the auto-terribles because they tick all the wrong codex boxes or something while finding that latino bird with the fine ass and tits acceptable etc etc etc who gives a shit they're all pretty shite and just make you dream of games that allow you to create your own party.

Indeed. I'd question anyone that dont find the Elf chav terrible and out of place. The silly fanfication character was just halfbad

 

[Jick Magger]

The funniest thing about the elf thief chick is that she's the only companion in the game whom you can refuse to take in the party in your first conversation with her.

Even the writers realized how fucking annoying she was.

 

[Theldaran]

I understand the concept of making a character you'll love to hate (I always automatically think of Shashka in The Lord of Time books by Louise Cooper), but making it a companion is downright stupid and also laughing off at the players' expense.

 

[Frozen]

Women wouldn't be so irritating if at least they where pleasant to look at ( read: not tranny).
The only good looking one is not available party member (Leliana) because...reasons.
Blackwall is like the most stereotypical NPC ever....he would easily fit in 1 of billion trash mobs you kill in game.

 

[Roguey]

Blackwall is like the most stereotypical NPC ever....he would easily fit in 1 of billion trash mobs you kill in game.

Did you complete it?

 

[Frozen]

Yes I know "the twist" and he is still the same boring paper cut character.
With it he is even more part of trash mob then your party lol

 

[Mei Scarlet]

God damn. I'm trying to play this game since I love the lore and stuff of the previous games but MMO aspects are killing me. I played for hours at first but now I just can't return to it. On the one hand I want to finish the story (and I've heard it actually is quite nice), on the other hand all those fetch and collect quests make me vomit. It's long past since I've enjoyed MMO gameplay and modern MMO don't even do this shit on such magnitude, GW2, SWTOR, Secret World had far more interesting quests and even WoW moved away from those in the latest expansions.
Combat is retarded too, it's not fun or challenging in the slightest. In compariosn DA:O was the great game and even the second one that I disliked looks solid enough. I have no idea how they could fuck up so badly.
Honestly I'm tempted to lower the diffuculty to the minimum, skip 90% of retarded quests and just do the main story. Is this the correct way to play DA:I?

 

[Delterius]

Honestly I'm tempted to lower the diffuculty to the minimum, skip 90% of retarded quests and just do the main story. Is this the correct way to play DA:I?

You probably should. There's no enjoyment to be had from killing bosses on Nightmare.

 

[Wayward Son]

The right way to play DAI is to pop the disc out of the tray, grab a shotgun and shoot skeet with it.

 

[Tom Selleck]

And then turn the gun on yourself for not learning twice before.