Just as Jesus of Nazareth was asked to answer to claims of his divinity, so too does Dragon Age: Inquisition ask you to respond to rumors of your own godhood. As the game opens, you tumble from a rift in the sky, from which onlookers also see a glimpse of a woman. Many believe that the woman must be Andraste, the prophet whose doctrine inspired the rise of the Chantry, yet you have no memory of the event. Perhaps you are a chosen one; perhaps you are merely fortunate. The Maker may know, but His voice continues to go unheard, at least directly; it is up to you, and those you influence, to decide whether you have been marked by a deity. And just as with real-life matters of faith, there is not always a clear resolution.
Dragon Age: Inquisition does not draw subtle parallels between the Chantry and modern-day Christianity. Its references are obvious and sometimes heavy-handed, but clear allegory aside, this vast and engrossing role-playing game effectively explores matters of faith and devotion on an intimate level, surrounding you with a multitude of people, each of whom navigates evolving religious turmoil in his or her own way. The chaos of the world you are thrust into explores the usual Dragon Age themes--the struggle between mages and templars, the role of the Grey Wardens in holding off demonic blights, and the political machinations of the Orlesian elite among them. But the Chantry takes a central role, and the ways in which the dialogue and gameplay decisions allow you to express your own views of faith make Inquisition the most personal game in the series, which is a wonderful revelation given how much real estate it depicts.
It is from tragedy and chaos that the Inquisition is reborn, and it is only appropriate that a fledgling movement appoint a fledgling leader--you--as its head. You tailor your Inquisitor in all sorts of wonderful ways using the game's intricate character creation system; you may even choose from a couple of different voices, even though the character is fully acted. You can also create a Qunari protagonist for the first time in the series, though you needn't mourn the options you didn't choose should you prefer a Dalish elf: your available party members, three of whom can join you at any given time, are a diverse group, and include Iron Bull, a no-nonsense, laid-back Qunari warrior who avoids becoming the gruff, gravelly-voiced stereotype he could so easily have been.
In fact, Dragon Age: Inquisition's characters typically avoid the cliches we've come to know in video games (and in fiction in general), which is much of what makes getting to know them, even returning ones, such a pleasure. Cassandra is primarily known for her interrogation of Varric, that dwarven teller of tall of tall tales, in Dragon Age II; in Inquisition, her stubbornness takes a beautifully human shape. She is driven not by power, but by law, and as she examines her faith during a time of upheaval, her questioning is poignant. That she believes is her most admirable trait, though it's this same trait that has her frequently confronting Varric with such aggression. Hearing the two bicker as they follow you across verdant meadows and through dim caverns is one of Inquisition's highlights.
The ways in which the dialogue and gameplay decisions allow you to express your own views of faith make Inquisition the most personal game in the series.
Of course, keeping these two in your party means leaving others behind, and it's hard not to miss Varric's hairy chest, which is almost a character unto itself. I grew to appreciate a mysterious spirit named Cole most of all, not just because of his talent with dual daggers, but for his overwhelming compassion for others. He reads minds, often communicating the thoughts and emotions he uncovers in a stream-of-consciousness poetry, fragmented and alliterative. Cole comforts people in need, but wipes memories of him from their minds, in a touching show of selflessness.
Dragon Age: Inquisition treats its characters with great respect; Iron Bull's description of sex among the Qunari is as honest as his admiration of a transgender mercenary is honorable. Your choices when speaking to your cohorts, as well as when adventuring, meet with their disapproval or approval, sometimes even when the character in question isn't there to witness the event. (It's odd to be immediately notified that Varric appreciates how you have destroyed a deposit of the dangerous mineral red lyrium even when he isn't at your side when it occurs.) Romance might ensue, presuming you earn the favor of the character you most fancy, though there is always the chance of a broken heart. As is the case with most BioWare games, many previous choices are inescapable; encouraging my lover to make the world a better place ultimately led to our split. In that moment, I recalled losing Alastair to a greater cause in Dragon Age: Origins; how appropriate that the best experiences in the series thus far would be similarly tinged with sorrow.
It is through dialogue choices and forking gameplay options that you become the Inquisitor you wish to be. You even sit upon your throne and cast judgment on those that wronged you--and then deal with the repercussions when certain people and factions don't like your choices. You might sentence a renegade mage to tranquility, only to face negativity from magical forces that fear your wrath--or, if you are a mage, see you as a hypocrite. Some of these choices play out on the war table, which you view along with your Inquisition allies from overhead. Here, you select missions that might reward you with influence and power, or earn you metals and herbs to use for crafting new armor and weapons, or for outfitting your base of operations with new decor. Once a mission is selected, you select an approach--usually diplomatic, surreptitious, or forceful--and then wait for word to come back and rewards to flow in. This is Dragon Age's answer to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: you assign tasks to your allies, and they return, hopefully, with news of good fortune.
Your choices from previous games are reflected as well, though if you've decided to move to a new platform, you can visit the game's official website and tailor the world in advance. Some references to those choices are entirely too conspicuous, as if to scream "Hey, remember that thing you did? Do you?" Fortunately, not every contextual detour is so blatant. Your race and class are frequently noted in passing, and they are reflected in how people speak to you and react to your presence. As a Dalish elf, the idea that I could truly be The Herald of Andraste (the Christlike title I was granted) was blasphemy among many; as a mage, the Templars did not greet me with enthusiasm. At one stage, I was invited to hobnob with the Orlesian elite, a suspicious crowd that grew even more suspicious in my elven presence.
The mission that puts you face to face with the nobility of Orlais, as well as with the disturbing masks they donned, is somewhat of a slog--a lot of walking and talking and listening, but rather little in the way of epiphany. It's also an important one, in that it portrays the diplomatic aspect of the Inquisitor's role in this world. You are a spy, an ambassador, and a combatant, and this thematic diversity is reflected in the gameplay. You are also an explorer, spending most of your time traversing Dragon Age: Inquisition's expansive spaces. You move through the meadows, deserts, and stormy coasts from a third-person perspective, uncovering new areas, unlocking new camps for resting, and, of course, crushing the apostates, great bears, and wyverns that dare taunt you.
It is through dialogue choices and forking gameplay options that you become the Inquisitor you wish to be.
Combat is likely to be Dragon Age: Inquisition's most divisive feature. It is fun and colorful, and if you bemoaned the loss of the tactical camera in Dragon Age II, you'll be glad to know it is back, and available even on consoles, allowing you to direct the action from above. The tactical camera can be awkward, getting caught up on objects and sticking a bit too close to the action. On the other, the ability on consoles to use a single button to forward time instead of constantly pausing and unpausing is an intuitive tweak. But unless you're fighting roaring dragons or imposing bosses, you probably won't need the tactical camera very often, should you play on medium difficulty. Instead, you perform your standard attack, which costs no stamina, while throwing in more powerful abilities for dealing additional damage and controlling crowds.
In the meanwhile, your companions perform adequately enough; you can somewhat customize their AI routines as you could in previous games, but there's little need for micromanagement in this way. Most healing magic is gone, so you rely on health potions that replenish in camps and towns, and most tactical considerations, like throwing bombs and drinking draughts, can be dealt with from the default point of view. Ultimately, it's a good system that works well in both wide open spaces and cramped caves, and Inquisition is certainly the most fluid of the Dragon Age games. There are challenges out there, but nail-biting battles aren't common, though hard mode is always there if you want one, and dragon battles demand your concentration regardless.
Certain key boss battles aren't a comfortable fit; boss attack patterns sometimes require immediate reactions, but party members in the midst of combat don't respond until the current action is complete, at which point it might be too late to avoid damage. These occasions are the exception, however, and not the rule, and easy or not, there's no doubting the action's diversity. Because you can directly control the Inquisitor as well as any party member, there's never a need to stick with magic, or a two-handed blade, if you prefer to inhabit Varric's shoes and shoot his prized bow Bianca for a while.
Journeying is an absolute delight. You discover astralariums that hone in on constellations, requiring you to perform a connect-the-stars minigame to reveal the myth behind them. You peer through contraptions that allow you to survey the landscape and identify shimmering shards, which you then may collect. Such activities initially come across as busywork, only to be revealed as keys to new dungeons and temples. Meanwhile, your work at the war table often results in new areas being revealed, and previously accessible areas opening to you. And so you blindly venture into a new cavern, which might hold spiders, phantasms seeking respite, or puzzles that lead to even greater mysteries. There are decisions to make in the field, as well. I chose to betray my legacy and pursue untold magical knowledge, only to offer that knowledge to another when I feared the potential negative repercussions. There are paths I look back on with wonder and regret. What if I had gained the ancient ally I had forsaken? What if I had abandoned my selfish quest for wisdom and instead paid no mind to the power-hungry mage bending my ear?
And so a world builds around you. You blow a horn that sounds out across the land, signaling to your comrades that a fortification is cleared of enemies and theirs to inhabit. You find notes and read books, and they build a narrative picture remarkably consistent with the game's sights and sounds. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, gameplay and story are not separate objects, but inextricable entities. The story you create in your mind by the very act of adventuring, and the one BioWare tells by way of its events and characters, have equal footing. Dragon Age: Inquisition separates its expansive regions and makes them accessible on its world map; it is not one massive space, as an Elder Scrolls game would be. But it feels no less impressive for it, nor does the storytelling suffer from the sheer size of the world and the sheer amount of content. These elements form a large, coherent, self-consistent picture.
This enormous and attractive picture reveals blemishes should you look closely enough. Rare sound bugs, awkward jumping puzzles, characters that pop into view, awkward cutscene transitions, and weird clipping might briefly distract you, but their sum total amounts to little. 85 hours after I started Dragon Age: Inquisition, the story reached a conclusion, and yet I still stare at all the areas still dark on the map. You can customize the keep that serves as your base of operations, and I look at the list of related unlockables, most of which still remain inaccessible. I wonder about Vivienne, the haughty mage that joined my cause, yet whom I barely know. I look at the small list of potions I have unlocked, and get anxious, wanting to rush into the Hinterlands or the Storm Coast, hoping to find plans for more. I ponder these schools of combat I have been told of, and the quests that (I think) will add them to my party's repertoire upon completion. I long to see and do all that I missed, not because it's there--but because I am confident it's worth seeing and doing.
You spend several of those hours at the crafting tables, creating and enhancing armor and weapons using the metals and herbs you collect along the way. If there's anything that slows down exploration, it's the frequent searching and collection of elfroot and serpentstone. You don't actively spend skill points in core attributes like constitution and ability, but you can still affect them when constructing gear for you and your cohorts. I miss Dragon Age: Origins' Sandal, the lovable lug all too eager to enhance your armor with a simple call of "Enchantment?" But the system he services didn't go as deep as Inquisition's, which had me carefully hoarding the rarest resources so that I might use them wisely. That spark-spewing dragon wasn't going to die a natural death, after all.
You might also spend a few hours in Dragon Age: Inquisition's cooperative multiplayer mode, which recalls that of Mass Effect 3, in that you have access only to a few different archetypes, and gradually earn more characters, more skills, and more items to boost you and your teammates in battle. (Of course, you can also purchase loot caches if you wish to hurry the process. It wouldn't be a modern big-budget game without a raft of microtransactions.) Matches are straightforward sojourns through three different maps focused exclusively on eliminating enemies, and while the enemies may differ, the pace is straightforward. Mass Effect 3 garnered a dedicated online following; Dragon Age: Inquisition's moment-to-moment gameplay doesn't have the same immediacy and spark, making it a fine bit of light entertainment, but unlikely to inspire the same devotion.
Inquisition's characters and world, on the other hand, recall the grand gestures of the original Dragon Age, even though the game as a whole is so structurally different to its predecessors. It offers the thrill of discovery and the passion of camaraderie. It features a glee club called The Sing-Quisition, and a dwarf with writer's block. It establishes connections with its world in big ways and small, with the sight of a titanous temple and the smirk of an Orlesian commander in love. Dragon Age: Inquisition is a wonderful game and a lengthy pilgrimage to a magical world with vital thematic ties to one we already know.
Discussion
Denuvo cracked! Muhahaha. I hope it won't be a waste of time to download it since many people said it plays like crap on PC.
Got a dumb question but I cant seem to find a straight answer anywhere is there anything I need to do before doing the "in your heart shall burn" quest right after you choose a side (mages or templars) does completing this quest lock me out of companions, sidequests, agents, etc. any assistance is appreciated
I've been trying to enjoy this game but the combat feels so bad I cant stand it, aiming at targets and attempting to attack the enemy you are actually aiming for almost never works for me it always goes to the nearest target.
While I don't REGRET buying this game, I wouldn't do it again. Check out my review if you really want to know what's going on with the game (not spoilers). If you've already bought it or you're going to buy it anyway, don't read my review. It will make you sad.
http://www.gamespot.com/dragon-age-inquisition/user-reviews/2200-12624551/
The game is seriously big. Every time I think I'm concluding something I get more to do, and more missions, of which most are very good. I struggle to understand why so many users (as in people, not professional) reviewers on metacritic give it such low scores.
The game is fun and addicting, it also happens to look great on a good PC.
stop reading these comments and just buy it.
its that good. dont waste another minute.
One gripe I have with this game playing on consoles.. Who thought it was a good idea to map the Interact and Jump actions to the same button? It just looks ridiculous, trying to pick up some loot or speak to somebody, and you jump around like a maniac.
best game i play in awhile. worth every penny, i woud gladly pay over $60 bucks for it. Finally beat it completely. What a great game and stories. BTW game look amazing on my beast PC. No bugs at all.
So they didn't give it a 9 just because of the homoerotic scenes?
Game obviously isn't perfect, I've run into a few annoying bugs... But nothing game-breaking by any means. You can definitely tell just how much care they put into this game. As a huge fantasy nerd, and a Dragon Age fan, I would say I agree with the 9/10 given by Gamespot.
Well picked this up cheap on a cdkeys website yesterday for PC and I must say I was not expecting much as I had read all the people moaning about the control system and so on. but to my surprise the game plays really well with a mouse and keyboard and I have not really had any issues at all so I am not sure where people are coming from when they say the control setup sucks for PC.
I dont really care the the inventory UI as it reminds me a lot of Skyrim and that was one of the things people hated most about Skyrim so I dont really understand why someone would want to copy that.
The character stats and skills seem to be very limited compared to the older games as well. There seems to be limited tactics for the other charcters and thats a shame but the combat is pretty easy so far.
Anyway I have only played for a few hours but its been enjoyable so far. I dont think its a 9/10 enjoyable but still a decent game.
So how bout you spend your time with all the versions before releasing a review. Whats the rush?? It should be clear by now that people don't read the fine print, your misleading them to believe it is a great game on all platforms. From what I have heard it is great on PS4, but terrible on PC. So while I may buy it later on PS4 at a discounted price, it doesn't look like it will fill my craving for a great PC RPG.
Well by now we know about the bad things... mmo style quests , bad pc port etc... but now that i played the game for a decent amount of time i got calmed down and would like to give the game some credit.
It surely takes more time to get into the game because of the many repetable quests and the console controles can be annoying but once you get into it you can feel the love that been put into this game. I guess you need to get used to the fact that well its not built like skyrim with tons of different quests all arond the map. Here you got your home where u got alot of talking and lore and more , and while on adventure its more about exploration and combat and less about talking. Also after a while you do get used to the controls (mostly) , and they are working on making those even better for pc which is good.
Now about the difficulty of the game, well honestly hard to tell , i am playing on hard atm and dont find much need for tactical view and i surely miss the extra AI commands from dragon age 1 but overall i think the game is not bad at all and the combat pretty fun specialy because you can choose to play as anything any time ( having 4 char's and swaping helps with that alot ^^ ).
I wrote few harsh post and those are probebly justified but i wanted to write something less negative as well , so for conclusion its not on the scale of what DA1 was back then but its pretty close and will probebly get better and fixed with future patches and dlc's.
P.S You got a free multiplayer addon!!
Ok so i am going back to the game... had to say something positive since i am still playing it : )
Great game. Now 50 hours into it, two main complaints that really make me reconsider that 9 score given by GS.
1. Still buggy. On the PS4 version, there are still more than a few visual bugs with NPCs merging with the scenery, blinking, and awful jumping function. Sometimes you can no longer switch between characters during fights, drink potions. A few crashes with dalogue on the grey warden mission in the desert. Small things that accumulate to leave an unfinished feeling about the game
2. Horrible, terrible party AI. Biggest frustration has been the very stupid combat behavior of party members. Casters and rogues rush into combat to get diced, they separate from designated targets, etc. Walking around they regularly stand in your way and get lost following you. You can fix that by switching to the overhead tactical freeze mode during fights, but that's a pain to use and really is just an admission that the party AI is busted. The command menu should have more options to direct fights without resorting to tactical freeze mode.
For bugs and those moronic party members AI, suggest downgrading the score from 9 to 7.5. The game was not quite finished for release. Close EA and Bioware, but still not a perfect launch.
I'm curious why do people think Dragon Age's religion parallels Christianity? It most certainly does not. I can see how the Chantry can mimic the medieval Catholic Church in terms of political power and influence but that is about all. I am a Christian and I follow the face if the religion in Dragon Age is suppose to parallel Christianity then it is very offensive because the writers obviously did not take the time out to truly understand what Christianity is and are misrepresenting it. I hope this is not the case and that the made up religion is just that made up, drawn from multiple religions here and there, but if not than this is flat out wrong
FYI this game is kinect enabled for X1 and it actually helps a lot.
Some good ones to know are:
summon mount
inventory
character record
journal
quest map
switch to <party member name>
<name or everyone> attack my target
<name> defend <me or name>
<name or everyone> come to me
<name> heal
<name> move freely
Finally getting into the meat of the game. Just some things I wish were better:
targeting - would be nice if the autotarget didnt just flip to the next guy when your current target dies
mob levels - would be nice if it was easier to indentify mob and quest lvls
inventory - it would be nice it it was easier to sort thru equipped and non equipped items when at a vendor
war room - needs a better explanation of the map and perk points
Question: when you highlight a quest marker, how come sometimes the area around the quest icon on the map turns purple with the inquisition icon in the background?
As a game in general, it's quite a good game; well done and easily score 8/10. But as a PC RPG, it's mediocre at best. As a long time fan of PC RPG, I would give this a 6/10 at BEST.
Its really nice to see BioWare nailed it with this one. I recently played Origins and II for the first time, being pleasantly surprised with just how amazing, epic and well made DA:O was led me to infinite sadness playing DAII and, in turn, particularly wary of Inquisition.
Origins was just a little slice of gaming heaven, though. And, DAII felt like the exact opposite of what Origins was, at its core. Origins made me not only care about what others had to say, in the game, but it made me take a moment to think about my response. BioWare didn't have 3 color coded responses (something found in DAII, long before ME3, hehe).
But Inquisition looks to pull the strengths of Origins - its epic setting, deep plot, great character development/dialogue, and more - while pulling from Dragon Age II's one strength - its gameplay - and building upon it.
Good job talking about the horrible PC controls and poor optimization Kevin. I always hate when people mention the important bits. Like if the game is actually playable with mouse and keyboard. Trust me. If you are a PC gamer DO NOT buy this game. You can see the extent of the butchery we got on PC here:
http://forum.bioware.com/topic/520902-the-controls-for-this-game-on-the-pc-need-attention/page-16
Was anyone else seriously let down by the fact that almost all of the non-story content is just repetitive MMO filler content? I mean seriously. It's all just "Kill x of this item" or "collect x of this item". Not too sure how they can claim this game is over 100 hours long when half of that time is just full of playing the game like its a single player MMORPG.
I know their excuses, but if they made this mod-friendly on the PC it would be truly amazing.
This game is a huge improvement on Dragon Age 2, they put back many of the things that they took out. However I still have issues with this game. The armors are different but it's mostly just that higher level armors had slightly more to their design, there's hardly any variety in the armor. You're also stuck with one kind of armor depending on your class, warrior gets heavy armor rogue gets medium and mage gets light armor. I like options in my equipment and the equipment is better than Dragon Age 2 but still fairly limited. They also try and impress you with "200 hours worth of content." There are so many pointless quests in this game I gave up on doing side quests. I can't tell you how many times I gave one npc some token from another npc that died. Gets dull pretty fast. I also don't like how the main story progresses, you have to unlock each new part of the story through power points earned from various side quests and such. This wouldn't be so bad if there were more to the main plot in each area. One example was an area I unlocked for one brief cutscene and a short battle, and immediately after I had to unlock a new area to continue the story. There is still however a lot of good in this game: Much better companions, a new more interesting story, and a lot more companion customization. You can talk to your companions and ask them questions anytime you want again. Overall I like this game but I find the main story difficult to enjoy with so many interruptions what with having to unlock each new part of it.
this is a good entry game into the dragon age franchise.
So far I'm loving this game. It's huge! I have about 10 hours in and I don't think I'm even 15% thru. But there are some weird glitches in it. Two I noticed so far:
-in the Hinterlands I stumbled across a group of people by a camp fire. Only problem is the camp fire was in the middle of a stream (water) burning with every sitting waist deep.
-again in the Hinterlands, I saw a group of outlaws walking underneath a rift. I watched and waited for demons to spawn so they could fight it out. Nope. Wasn't till I got close enough did the rift open. But the demons and outlaws didn't fight. They just bumped shoulders and paced around. I had to fight all of them. Lame.
This game is pretty freaking amazing. More so than I was expecting by far. I don't think i've played enough yet to leave a review yet. This is a super great article if you are just getting into the game and could really help your enjoyment of the game. http://kotaku.com/psa-if-youre-playing-dragon-age-leave-the-hinterlands-1661855879
I am loving this game, but I do have a serious gripe; can someone PLEASE patch the AI so your followers stop running around like hyperactive children? Its so annoying when one of them rams you off a cliff, or gets stuck trying to run into a wall...
Gamespot gave 9/10, user score is 7.4/10; Metacritic gave 8.9/10, user score is 7.2/10. This game is worth buying or not? Is it really good? I feel like I can't trust the pro reviewers anymore...
@gornlord88 It doesn't lock anything, you can go back to your business after doing it and finding Skyhold.
@Raditz5 No, the combat is quite bland. That's why!
@Caldrin You probebly didnt play enough to notice , its not that horrible but its surely not good either .
Tactical camera could be alot better . Auto loot , mouse click for loot , as melee it can be very annoying directing your attacks on foes... hmm probebly missing out some more the inventory UI is not the reason people got annoyed ^^ no auto attack...
It's the review for PS4and X1...what more do you need? PC? Lol pbft!
@darkelf83 Seriously?
@darkelf83 I have it on PC. It looks/plays great; no problems whatsoever. It's absolutely filling my craving for a great PC RPG.
I've heard there are issues with mouse/keyboard controls, but I use a gamepad (PS3 controller) which works fine. My only complaint is the stripped-down Tactics (DA:O did it so well, why fix what isn't broken?) but I'm hoping they can address this with a patch down the road.
Playing on x1 agree that the party AI is terrible. Unless you change the ai on all the abilities to preferred sometimes your party will never even cast certain spells. I specced my iron bull 2handed spec and he wouldn't even use the earth shatter ability or whatever it's called until I changed this setting.
Makes me really wish they had stuck to the original idea of making this an mp game. Would be nice to run the campaign with friends.
It is a direct representation of Christianity in the years of Jesus Christ's birth on Earth and ensuing life. Christianity hasn't come far since then as religion does not, and should not, change... Meaning the beliefs are the same nowadays (with small tweaks here and there to fit the times). You have good Christians, bad Christians, and everything in between. You have the blind followers, and the ones rooted in reality; as well as those who are progressive, opposed to the close-minded bigotry of many a Christian. If you cannot see the parallels you are willfully blind, which is typical. I grew up Christian, Pentecostal to be exact, and religion is an interest of mine... Anybody with a brain and some common sense can see the similarities. Way to be prematurely defensive though, great job kiddo.
@oflow Answer to the question: It turns purple to let you know the quest is around that area. It doesn't want to give you the exact location, just the general area.
@esett or you can get Xbox controller
@Sajius Yes, I completely agree. It's just a bunch of lame MMO type quests.
Lol and then a bear jumped on your back for good measure
@bloodybonesbr It's a decent game....but I agree with the user score of 7/10. It's not a great game like Dragon Age: Origin. Beside the main story....which is not even that great...you're just playing a lame single player MMORPG. Go here, kill that, bring me the fur and I'll pay you this much....No real RPG elements such as, "Oh you need the fur the cure your sick child? How about I exploit that because I'm a jerk." or "I feel bad so you can have the fur for free."
@bloodybonesbr The game is good enough to buy,if you want to focus on the story aspects of it. Personally, after 15-20 hours i find the negative aspects of the game to be a horribly bad combat system, & poor design of looting/searching , you run around spamming your search key to highlight things 100% of the time.
Overall, its basically a cut down MMO class/skill system mated to an action RPG system, and it fails as bad as DA2 did. Playing on nightmare the combat is not a challenge, its just tedious. The lack of strategy and tactics is pretty obvious. Class skill selections is just as generic, which does not help the combat any.
The game is solid, well done, bug free, and has improved vastly over the mess that was DA2. If you want a good RPG though, your better off looking elsewhere, as this is really just an interactive movie game, with some serious flaws. i would still rate it at 7.5-8.0 out of 10 because there is enough entertainment in the stories and character interactions to make it worthwhile.
@bloodybonesbr Definitely worth buying. Metacritic is broken... I only read user reviews for a laugh. I'm at 50 hours right now, and just killed my first dragon. I tend to spend a lot of time exploring rather than fighting. This game is HUGE.
@bloodybonesbr Compared to the other Dragon age games its a huge improvement on the graphics, I am playing it at the moment and there is so much to do and see, your social life will go down the drain - This game is what it is! another dragon age game with better graphics and the combat looks very cool and pretty to watch ! I have played both DA games and this one is the best in the series ! its a great game but you will always get the odd few people moaning over games even if they get high scores ,you just cant please everyone :)
@bloodybonesbr No one ever gives 0 to a perfect game... every time you see a game with lots of 0's for its score , you can take a quick glance and find a very simple repeating pattern of the stuff ppl didnt like in the game. For example in this game it was mostly focused on having a bad port to PC.
If you are a console player then its np.. if you are a pc player then you should think if having a console game on your pc will ruin it for you or not...
For me it was a big deal breaker, since i wanted more of DA origins and not another console game... there are so many of those allready why make another... oh well.
@cgobeil @gornlord88 Thanks
@kresa3333 @Caldrin put about 20 odd hours into it so far and still no real issue for me..
Yes some things could ahve been done a bit better when it comes to the controls and so on but nothing is game breaking..
Combat is quite easy to master and only comes to be a bit of a challenge when going up against mobs a good few levels higher than you.. but then again I am playing on normal.
Dumbing down gameplay elements is less about fixing unbroken things and more about making the game easy and accessible so that it can be sold to a larger, less-sharp, player base.
Many people will buy this game simply because it was advertised to them. Because these people are so easily persuaded by ads, they are not very intelligent and get frustrated when forced to comprehend complex strategies and tactics. When these kinds of people get frustrated, they lash out and throw tantrums on the Internet, which creates negative publicity.
By dumbing the game down and spending lots of money on advertising, EA knows they can gain higher profits because they're catering to a global majority that is, for lack of a better word, dumber than the kind of minority that genuinely enjoys thoughtful and challenging games.
EA has been dumbing things down for decades. Everyone should have known that EA would do this to Bioware. They let them make the game they actually wanted to make with Origins and gave them very little advertising budget. When the game was praised, sold well, and reviewed well, they saw an opportunity to monitize the franchise to a greater degree, to expand that reputation. Thus: DA2, which was about as dumbed-down and "accessible" as they could get it.
People who never played the original and don't generally like challenging games loved it, but a lot of core fans were upset. So they have backtracked a little. Though it's just a ruse. The re-addition of the tactical mode is nothing more than a façade; it's there, but the game is still too easy.
Just skip normal and go for hard. Languish that some strategies have been lost and at least enjoy the artificially tougher difficulty.
@Nikore @darkelf83 Well controls with keyboard+mouse aren't that bad, compared to many other console ports. There were two problems for me: silent crashes and region lock. First one I fixed by trying many things, one of which worked... I think it was a combination of disabling in-game origin and disabling real-time protection in antivirus. The latter, however... I was able to get a English voice-over DLC, but all text (menus, item names, subtitles, everything) remains in rather awkward dry translation.
Otherwise a great game, totally worth it. Now if only it was published by someone else...
@too_handsome @Sajius You want to hear something funny? I started up Dragon Age: Origins just to get the bad taste out of my mouth, and the first merchant at Ostagar mentions that they are looking for an elven girl that should have been repairing armor. Well, when you ask him "Do you need me to find this girl for you?" The merchant replies "No, you have much more important things to do than running around doing errands." I literally laughed out loud and showed my girlfriend who also loves DA:O and she thought it was absolutely hilarious. Going from Inquisition back to Origins is such an entirely different experience. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
@jay108 @bloodybonesbr And for someone who never played a DA before, is it possible to enjoy the game and understand what's going on?
@kresa3333 @bloodybonesbr It took me a little while to get used to the controls but after you push on though that. It more than makes up for it's initial discomfort. It totally becomes mindblowing. Tactical is still not as good as previous Dragon Age games, but it becomes almost as good as you get used to the game after 4 hours or so. I actually like the "overall" combat experience much better than Dragon Age Origins now because it's much more challenging but also exciting. You have to think but also to need some reflexes and when you pull off a perfect combo strike, it really feels rewarding!
@kresa3333 @bloodybonesbr If I end up buying the game, it's going to be for the PS4...so I guess it would not be the problem to me. But thanks for the answer, man. One of my concerns is if I'm going to understand the game and the plot, 'cause I never played a DA before.
@Sajius @too_handsome And the same guy sends you to take roots or something from the swamp... you forgot to mention that...
@Sajius @too_handsome The side quests were definitely a case of "quantity over quality" The side quests and the way the main story progresses through unlocking parts of it it with "power points" are what keep me from loving this game. Also the lack of diverse armor. God am I sick of picking up 100 different "defender armor" with slight differences.
@bloodybonesbr @jay108 Yeah ofc if your a fan of the RPG genre! its not a follow on to DA2 so you don't need to play the first 2 games to understand what`s going on, even though its set in the dragon age universe it has a new story with a new main char ,its a great game - its a huge open world with so much to do, and the story is great !! I am enjoying it :)
@bloodybonesbr @kresa3333 it's a great game and i've only played the multiplayer so far.
@bloodybonesbr @kresa3333 The plot from the prequels probably won't matter one bit, just like it didn't in the 2nd game. Different hero, different story, different world. And unlike mass effect carrying your game save over only has little effects like people from the prequels appearing for a shot scene or something like that.
@raikiry @Sajius @too_handsome Hm, no I didn't forget to mention that because I just played through Ostagar from Origins and the merchant never sent me on that quest. Do you mean the side quest chain that stems from Rigby's journal you find that involves finding roots? The one that leads into it's own quest line with cut-scenes and dialogue later on in the game once you leave Ostagar?
If you craft it it will change