20 réponses à ce sujet

[SpiritSharD93]

This is hard for me to explain, it's just the feeling I get when playing this game.

 

 

The opening is simple. Stuff happens, you briefly get introduced to characters, current situation etc and you do a few things as part of what is essentially a tutorial. Unless you've been following the game or played the previous two, it's all a bit upfront for people new to the franchise (I think, anyway). You wake up, have a chat, the Inquisition is formed. There's practically no build-up to this moment, as it just comes out of no where, and whilst you could argue it's in favour of story-telling and getting things going, to me personally it just feels out of place. One minute I'm nobody, next minute I'm in charge. It's a minor gripe I have which I'm sure some people will agree with and some won't.

 

Anyway, so now I'm given a mission to go to the Hinterlands. Won't say any-more due to spoilers. Once I've done that, a mission which is pretty much a five minute quest, you're asked to travel somewhere else. More dialogue, you're told to go somewhere else. It feels out of place to me, as if the design surrounding this is to introduce me to as many locations as possible within the first few hours of the game. For me, personally, having a few main quests in the Hinterlands to start off would feel a helluva lot more consistent, rather than zig-zagging all over the place.

 

Speaking of introducing new locations, it seems character interactions are forced on us as well. At one point I walked up to a character whom was having a chat about something. Next minute I'm expecting to pipe up with my input, with practically no context to the situation. Three choices; delectably good, bad, and neural ones. Just now, I've done a mission which introduces me to a new companion, except the whole thing doesn't really make sense and it's only briefly explained why it was I got to meet them in the first place.

 

By design the game actively encourages us to explore, do side-missions etc. Except people are already discovering that it's best to do one or two bits and pieces within the first area before continuing on with the story "because it gets better".

 

An example of consistency? Dragon Age Origins. You start as a Human Noble, do your opening storyline (tutorial), do Ostagar which is essentially an area to introduce important characters and the on-going plot, one more "aftermath" location to further establish story, characters etc, and then you're given the option to progress through the story in a not-so-linear fashion by choosing where you wish to start first. It feels progressive, it feels consistent. It's a mostly linear game, I know, but one could argue in a game such as this that's exactly what you want.

 

 

Everything so far just feels rushed, and it's beginning to irk me. Guess I'll just have to keep playing and see what happens.

[Linkenski]

I think that the actual opening mission in the game is excellent in terms of story and a decent enough "learn the ropes" in regards to combat, although I do prefer intros that don't force you into a heavy-handed tutorial but instead give you basic controls and no difficulty and then let you learn from the ground up after the intro.

 

Where it didn't impress me was with the Hinterlands first part like you said. But if you pay attention you'll know when to return to the main plot and it really isn't a big deal.

[lastpawn]

I am not a big fan, but it may just be a personal thing.

 

Basically I dislike intros that combine heavy-handed play guidance with setting an important story.

 

I can only focus on the story or the tutorial, dammit. ME3 and DA2 had a similar problem. To me, the introduction has less of an impact when I have to go "oh ok I press this button now." ME2 did this much better, in my opinion.

[ashwind]

I do not feel that way really, it is different.

 

Dragon Age Origins is plot driven. The story/plot will take over the pace and set the mood, it takes over the game. The strength of this is that it gives you a very strong sense of purpose and what to do.

 

Dragon Age Inquisition on the other hand leaves more to the players. Yes, you are asked to go to the Hinterlands to meet someone. Unlike Dragon Age Origins, this only gives you a reason to go somewhere. Once you are in Hinterlands, you see a vast world and are exposed to current events. Your purpose there is only to meet someone -but- you are free to do things that RP-wise your character would do if s/he were in that situation and saw those things.

 

DAI does not hold your hand as tightly as previous title, it is designed to be different and not as linear. The player must find his/her own motivation and intention to deal with or to ignore the many events in the Hinterlands.

[Maverick827]

I think that the last two Dragon Age games suffered from a bad case of in medias res.  I much prefer my RPGs to start out calm and quiet, letting my character get a sense of what life is like in the world as it exists normally, before the inciting incident occurs.

 

Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age Inquisition begin with "epic" scenarios, but they honestly feel cheap compared to the homely beginnings of Origins.  The problem with stories that are dire is that...they are dire.  They call into question the very nature of RPG mechanics.  Farming materials to craft a slightly fancier sword is almost laughable when you have "- Save the world whenever you can get around to it" in your quest log.

 

Origins did press you with the Blight, but it also gave you an out in that you and Alistair had no idea what you were doing.  Sometimes it made sense that you two durdled around a bit.  In some of these later BioWare games, you know exactly what you need to do, how to do it, where to do it, and you know that if you don't do it, the world is going to end.  But you need some Elfroot to upgrade your potions, so that can wait.  The same exact thing happened to Skyrim and Mass Effect.  Coincidentally, Mass Effect 2 was perfect in this regard.  You were uncovering a mystery, so you were afforded time to do whatever you wanted.  That was great.

 

I really hope this trend of "epicly epic" stories dies down a bit.  Sometimes I just want my character to be a guy who's pretty good with a sword and nothing more, trying to find a lost sibling or an ancient treasure, taking odd jobs as he can.  I don't want to be the leader of all of the things all of the time.

[Disco Overlord]

No, people are encouraging you to go forward into the main story because that's when you get the opportunity to meet all other 6 companions.  If you stay at the Hinterlands you can do that too because the environment is gorgeous and there are a lot of unique areas to see, but you will find monsters outlevel you by a great deal as you travel more: that's your sign you might want to stop exploring.

 

As for the beginning 1 hour (tutorial portion), the story hinges on not presenting clearly what you experienced in the fade when the building blew up.  You are supposed to be wondering what exactly happened.  You are supposed to be wondering who that glowing person is.

 

Additionally if you get to the quest when you get Skyhold you will see an relative difference in the amount of power and respect you gain as leader of the Inquisition.  You are kind of thrust into power in the beginning yes, but that's the point.  It's explained pretty clearly you're the only person with the glowy hand of power and no one else knows what happened or what to do because everyone who was there died.  But you are not totally in control; the advisors and Cassandra still give a lot of input at that stage.

 

As for Maverick's suggestion about toning down the 'epicness':

 

I really hope this trend of "epicly epic" stories dies down a bit.  Sometimes I just want my character to be a guy who's pretty good with a sword and nothing more, trying to find a lost sibling or an ancient treasure, taking odd jobs as he can.  I don't want to be the leader of all of the things all of the time.

We already got that in Dragon Age 2.  The entire act 1 of that game was a snoozefest of doing boring odd jobs to get by.

[Sidney]

I think the Hinterlands is the biggest problem. I went there and kept waiting for something to happen and it just dragged and dragged and dragged. You can select the Orlais missions but perhaps polite nudge in that direction would have helped because I was getting bored roaming about the hinterlands saving buffalo, horse racing and killing random Templars/Mages thinking I would eventually cause something to happen.

[ZipZap2000]

No.

[Keithian]

When I first turned on this game on a 70" TV I was very disappointed. The graphics looked sub par, the landscape wasn't attractive, and the opening tutorial and first city where the war table is to me was confusing for a new player. In fact the whole war table concept was very confusing. I had no idea if the war table was telling me to travel somewhere on the war table itself or go back outside and run to those locations lol. Anyway, once I finally figured out to just go to the first camp in the Hinterlands and then start exploring like I would in Skyrim, then I fell in love with the game. I definitely think they need to rethink the structure of the beginning and not put you in such an ugly area lol. I also figured out when I got it off my 70" TV and onto a computer monitor as well as progressing to the Hinterlands, then the game graphically really started growing on me and now I love the graphics too. Lesson learned.....don't play on such a big TV until 4K becomes mainstream in 5 or so years lol. 

 

I've been reading that a lot of people find the Hinterlands boring and that when you explore outside of it its amazing. Thats good to hear because I disagree. I love the areas Ive been exploring in the HInterlands :-).

[Moondoggie]

I think the start did enough to set the scene. I think in Origins it was too much and DA2 too little. With Origins it was play through your origin story which is esstentially the tutorial then you go to Ostagar for a whole load more exposition with the wilds and the battle at Ostagar then you get into the game. DA2 was like okay stuff happened but we won't show you just run around and practice combat then we'll go to Kirkwall do one thing then game. No real background or anything. DA:I you get a background in text to explain who you are and what you were doing there then you can start where you are being captured and what they discovered about your hand since which leads to what happens in the opening tutorial thing. You get enough to set the scene without making you trudge through ten tons of back story before you get to play the game and that should be the point. It's your story to tell so they don't want to make you sit through their story telling too much right from the get go. But at least it doesn't feel shallow like how DA2 started.

[bazzag]

I was apprehensive about the beginning. I wanted a build up to the explosion, so that you could see your char in their respective roles ie human noble helping templars, qunari doing some security etc, so you could live, if only for a short time, as your background suggests: As a circle mage, as a dalish, as tal-vashoth. But it actually works well. It only makes sense to have the player not really know whats going on if the inquisitor doesnt know as well. I think it flows quite nicely, and youre introduced to people at the right times. Again, you may be thrust into this seat of power and youre thinking 'wth? where did that come from?' But so is the pc. I haven't entered the hinterlands just yet, and i'm loving running around haven again ('its always been thus in Haven' has become one of my most quoted lines in DAO') and can't wait to go back and maybe stumble across places/people that i've seen before

[teh DRUMPf!!]

 The Conclave negotiations and attack should have been something we got to witness, not just to be the subject of some silly amnesia.

[Julia Luna]

I do not feel that way really, it is different.

 

Dragon Age Origins is plot driven. The story/plot will take over the pace and set the mood, it takes over the game. The strength of this is that it gives you a very strong sense of purpose and what to do.

 

Dragon Age Inquisition on the other hand leaves more to the players. Yes, you are asked to go to the Hinterlands to meet someone. Unlike Dragon Age Origins, this only gives you a reason to go somewhere. Once you are in Hinterlands, you see a vast world and are exposed to current events. Your purpose there is only to meet someone -but- you are free to do things that RP-wise your character would do if s/he were in that situation and saw those things.

 

DAI does not hold your hand as tightly as previous title, it is designed to be different and not as linear. The player must find his/her own motivation and intention to deal with or to ignore the many events in the Hinterlands.

RPwise my character would never be High Class Delivery Guy, and she would never go looking for expanding forces or influence, but it doesn't really matter, does it? My character would focus on learning about the anchor, doing experiments, studying, spending time in the Fade with Solas (for both romance and understanding) and so on...  There are so few, almost none, of these things to do in contrast to hundreds of silly quests my character would never do even if the whole world would perish so RPwise I should not play the game.
It is not story driven and it is not free, if I MUST get power than I'm just a loser doing what others told me to. Freedom would be chosing what to do. DO I want to combat? Do I want to deal with Orlesian court? Do I want to expand our arcane research? Do I want to hide and plot a revolution? THIS IS FREEDOM. But no matter how much freedom I have to do all these things it is not freedom if I MUST do some of them.

[Natureguy85]

As for Maverick's suggestion about toning down the 'epicness':

We already got that in Dragon Age 2.  The entire act 1 of that game was a snoozefest of doing boring odd jobs to get by.

 

That wasn't the problem. The problem was that it stayed that way and you never really grew in terms of power and influence except that Meredith and Orsino both wanted your support at the end.

[Natureguy85]

I think that the last two Dragon Age games suffered from a bad case of in medias res.  I much prefer my RPGs to start out calm and quiet, letting my character get a sense of what life is like in the world as it exists normally, before the inciting incident occurs.

 

Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age Inquisition begin with "epic" scenarios, but they honestly feel cheap compared to the homely beginnings of Origins.  The problem with stories that are dire is that...they are dire.  They call into question the very nature of RPG mechanics.  Farming materials to craft a slightly fancier sword is almost laughable when you have "- Save the world whenever you can get around to it" in your quest log.

 

You're talking about this: http://tvtropes.org/...in/TakeYourTime

 

I didn't play Omega or Citadel for ME3 so I'm not criticizing the content, but this is why their premises were so stupid. With the Reapers in the galaxy, you don't care about Omega and you don't have time for shore leave.

[mupp3tz]

At first, I did get the sense that's it was kind of just dropping me into the open world too quick. I was expecting something more grand in scope.. but, to be honest, I don't mind. My main reason being it will be much easier to delve back in for a second play. Epic and long introductions usually feel tedious after a first play through.

[bazzag]

You're talking about this: http://tvtropes.org/...in/TakeYourTime

 

I didn't play Omega or Citadel for ME3 so I'm not criticizing the content, but this is why their premises were so stupid. With the Reapers in the galaxy, you don't care about Omega and you don't have time for shore leave.

 

I think thats down to opinion. Without straying too far into Mass Effect on a Dragon age thread You needed Omega. a) to help cripple cerberus who are hindering your efforts against the Reapers and to get more forces for the fight. As for the Citadel dlc, it wasnt just shore leave. The Normandy was receiving repairs as well. No good fighting Reapers in a broken vessel. Besides, theres always time for shore leave. It doesnt matter how tough it gets, you always need a break. Its happened in the past in wars so why not in the future?

[Natureguy85]

I think thats down to opinion. Without straying too far into Mass Effect on a Dragon age thread You needed Omega. a) to help cripple cerberus who are hindering your efforts against the Reapers and to get more forces for the fight. As for the Citadel dlc, it wasnt just shore leave. The Normandy was receiving repairs as well. No good fighting Reapers in a broken vessel. Besides, theres always time for shore leave. It doesnt matter how tough it gets, you always need a break. Its happened in the past in wars so why not in the future?

 

Well they can't be that important if I beat the game without them. So the repairs the Normandy needed were contrived for Citadel. That's ok, I suppose. As for shore leave in real life, there is no comparison to the Reapers who are all over the galaxy and winning everywhere. Shepard and crew are the best hope to stop them, not regular Joes.

[ashwind]

RPwise my character would never be High Class Delivery Guy, and she would never go looking for expanding forces or influence, but it doesn't really matter, does it? My character would focus on learning about the anchor, doing experiments, studying, spending time in the Fade with Solas (for both romance and understanding) and so on...  There are so few, almost none, of these things to do in contrast to hundreds of silly quests my character would never do even if the whole world would perish so RPwise I should not play the game.
It is not story driven and it is not free, if I MUST get power than I'm just a loser doing what others told me to. Freedom would be chosing what to do. DO I want to combat? Do I want to deal with Orlesian court? Do I want to expand our arcane research? Do I want to hide and plot a revolution? THIS IS FREEDOM. But no matter how much freedom I have to do all these things it is not freedom if I MUST do some of them.

 

You have the freedom to not do any of them really You arent forced to play remember?

[Spaceweed10]

Nope.  Good start, imo.

[team56th]

It certainly is not the kindest intro ever made, I would say worse than Mass Effect 2. But compared to previous Dragon Age games it's not bad. DAO started a little too slow, same with DA2, so the way DAI throws players right into the action was a step up from previous games. And the moment you finish the first section, when you first move into Havens, the game opens up and the magic kicks in.