As a general guideline, I loved DA:O, played it 20 times, loved the Origins and the background to your character, liked the class diversity (dual-wielding warrior, sword-wielding mage, etc.), liked the mostly political story, loved the complex and believable characters, etc.
I played DA2 about 3 times, and I really don't like it.
The quests all last 5 minutes max, characters are stereotyped and dumb/naive/emo, story is very disjointed and awkward, re-used ares, tiny world, less diversity in classes, etc.
Now then, onto Inquisition.
I liked it overall, but it's got some serious issues.
Start from the beginning…
Character creation and UI:
- it's detailed, very much so, but…
- it's 2014, and how your character looks MATTERS… 14 bad hair cuts, 9 of which are bob cuts, that's pretty much unacceptable in an AAA game. Also, why no black hair, seriously?
On male characters, stubbles are good, but beards are hit and miss. Short beards are non-existant (hence they go into bad), but the long bears are good.
Point is, no matter what I do with the face, it's nearly irrelevant because I'm forced to play with silly hair (combined with silly looking head gear it's very annoying)
Even if Bioware were limited to shoulder-long hair, it just feels like very little effort was put into this.
The Qunari have like 3 hair options.
And with no mods possible, unless BW themselves add in more hair styles, we're stuck on this.
- UI felt very console-y… I got a mouse and keyboard and a giant screen for my gaming rig… Why do I have to switch 5 menus and look at 3 items in HUGE letters when I can see 10-30 at a time in other RPGs?
It feels very much like the game was optimized for consoles and the big screen while sitting on a couch 3 meters away.
I can switch to a controller, but it doesn't fix the awfulness of the UI IMO.
- why no tooltips with ability descriptions? Especially since you can't access the persona window in combat?
Rating: 6/10
Classes and combat:
- manually attacking is an awful concept in „tactical combat“. Spamming one button takes no skill, it's just tedious and boring and frustrating. This isn't Dark Souls where your every single hit matters and feels different and weapons have a different move set. It's just a horrible idea IMO
- Tactics were destroyed for no reason, I haven't seen a single positive post about this, I have no idea what they were thinking
- Tactical camera does not work… Points covered across numerous threads on the forums, no need to delve into them again here
(Tactics and tac-cam are also my biggest beefs with the game, it makes the combat a chore on higher difficulties, and gets very frustrating, losing and/or dying because of hilariously stupid AI)
- I didn't like being forced into being limited to a single weapon… why not dual-wield warrior, etc?
- why no weapon swapping? I get on low health on my rogue, I'd prefer to switch to a bow… Can't. Why? Whose idea was that?
- inventory and Persona screen aren't accessible in combat…. Why? Seriously…
- I wish they didn't remove leveling up stats.. It allowed for more versatility and you could adapt according to which stat you need…
- combat is a bit too flashy for my tastes, but i can live with it
- it can get very satisfying, and my DD rogue was fun to play (my 2H Warrior is a bit boring though)
- Knight Enchanter is interesting on surface, but spamming your melee attack is just... tedious...
Rating: 5/10
Questing, itemization and exploration:
- I realize there are some BW fans who don't like the quasi-open world, but I loved it
- every zone post-Hinterlands was well-done and some were amazing
- focusing on the „zone story“ meant no trivial, menial tasks and combined with exploring a huge zone I had loads and loads of fun (Hissing Wastes and E. du Lion were my favorite)
- what it could benefit from was an outline which zone was meant for which level (I ended up basically skipping two whole zones, came back later at level 20 just to kill me some dragons)
- this was done properly and is the best part of the game IMO
- itemization felt very MMO-like, I'd prefer not to be level restricted with gear, but I can live with it
Rating: 9.5/10
Role playing and immersion:
- some stuff was taken out in DA2 and I hated it then, I hate it now… no pickpocketing, no lockpicking, no persuasion…
- why no item descriptions? Taken out in DA2, but it doesn't make it better
- companion banter was great and it made for some great moments while travelling and exploring
- I loved some of the touches while judging people (goat guy, dead woman in a crate etc.)
- overall, it was decent, but not great (exploring helped with immersion though)
Rating: 7/10
Story and companions:
- in short, most of the companions were interesting and not as stereotyped as in DA2…
- on the other hand, the story was mediocre, but worse, it was badly presented
(also, minor beef, but as an atheist, having to play bascially Jesus didn't really push the right buttons for me)
What I mean by badly presented?
Well first of all, you got no backstory to your character. Who he is, how he got there, what was he doing to even get into that situation, etc.
And then comes the story – which like I said, felt lazily presented.
Cassandra and Leliana: „You killed the Divine !“ (being the only one left alive, I figure I'm in deep…at best, a long imprisonment and questioning)
Me: „No, I didn't.“
Cass and Lel: „Lol, okay.“
Me: „That's it? I'm free?“
Cass: „No. But, we go and like, do stuff?“
Me: „Uhm… Why?“
Cass: „You got the green stuff glowing on your hand!“
Me: „Yeah so? We live in a world with dragons and archmages… It's nothing, just like illusion magic, you haven't seen me do anything with it?“
Cass: „Whatever dude, just come.“
5 minutes later:
Cass:“We're forming the Inquisition, dude. You're leading it. You're Jesus.“
Me: „Wait. Who are you fighting against?“
Cass: „Dunno yet.“
Me: „So why are you …?“
Cass: „Dude. Stop asking questions. You're leading us! You're Jesus.“
Me: „Like. Wow.“
Also, assume for a second that someone is playing a Dragon age game for the first time.
All of the characters, Cass, Leliana, Cullen were presented so sloppily it's borderline ridiculous.
However, the one character who saves the story from being utter rubbish (IMO) is Morrigan.
In half the game, she completely takes the show away from the Inquisition.
Like I said, I felt the companions were much better than in DA2 but as good as in DA:O.
I also think Bioware might be feeling it too, seeing as how Morrigan and Leliana play major roles 5 years after DA:O was released.
I also felt the romances didn't have the right feel to them. With Morrigan and Leliana and Alistair you got the slowly developing thing, etc.
Here it's just talk, press the heart icon here and there and suddenly ROMANCE options pops up.
If felt forced and unrealistic. IMO.
Rating: 6.5/10 (shoddy story, decent companions, mediocre romances)
Overall: 7.5/10
I feel some stuff was done brilliantly and certain aspect of the game were great, SOO much fun.
At the same time, they dropped the ball in some rather basic areas, and what's worse, half of which were FINE in previous games.
It made a potentially great game turn into an „okay“ one.
For reference point, I'd rate 9-9.5/10 games like Dark Souls and Skyrim and DA:O….
7.5/10 would be games like Kingdoms of Amalur.
A good enough romp for a night or two, but you can't help but think it could've been so much more.
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