Guest_simfamUP_*
Disclaimer: To avoid having to put 'in my opinion' ever single sentence I want to calrify that this is all in my opinion. It should be pretty obvious to all, but it's just in case for the few nutters out there who feel that I'm forcing facts into their heads. Anyway. With that out the way, here I go.
Oh, and this will also be TL;DR. I suspect most of you won't read it. Hell, I wouldn't. But this is more for BioWare than for anybody else.
First of all, I think this is the best damn BioWare game you guys have produced since DRAGON AGE 2. Yes. Since early 2011 we've had nothing but crap from you guys. And sure, though in those years there have been glimmers of what was (i,e DA2's DLC, Arishock, Tuchanka arc etc) the games you've been producing since then have been very very poor.
So what was it like to finally have a good BioWare game in my hands? Fracking fantastic. I thank you guys at the top for giving BioWare the TIME they NEEDED in order to make as complete a game as they could. If Inquistion is a success I hope you will continue giving BIoWare the support they need to produce good games.
Now that I've said I loved it.
I'm going to be throwing chimp **** all over this game from now on. Keep in mind, I love this game. To me, it's almost on par with Origins. But for BioWare to dig out of their graves even further, they need to see what's wrong with this game too.
Anyway.
Narrative
Overall, I saw no gaping plot holes and nothing that couldn't be explained rationally. But there are some moments of weak writing which I want to point out.
1. The politics are a vast improvement from DA2 and ME3. However, I still dislike BioWare's trend of 'who has the biggest dick' contest. The ball in Orlais was a very and clever fun quest with lots of factions going at eachother and such, but the subtlety of intrigue is destroyed when people are literally exploding **** outside in the courtyard.
Also, why do you keep on focusing on the murder side of intrigue. I think you guys could take lessons from The Witcher 2 and how it handled politics in a game (which is far different to how you could handle things in books/movies/series etc.) Politicians outplayed each other with a single pawn instead of 'I killed you guys first.'
But I am glad that the whole event could be resolved without a Red Wedding. Which is could have.
Seriously, Duchess be dumb. But it's perfectly reasonable as she was under Cory's spell. So yay BioWare!
2. The game focused on leading rather than building the Inquisition and I'm glad of that. It's different, it's cool, and it's fun (especially when your advisers are actually competent.) BioWare pays attention to itself and gives the rise of the Inquisition hurdles it should have, but it's not apparent enough.
"The chantry opposes" ... yes, I get that, so why not leverage your influence to stop it? It also confuses me how Anora (given that she is in any position to do so) would not send ambassadors and such to keep an eye on it. The Inquisition is a very powerful military force in the end, it would be no good to anybody if it couldn't be controlled.
Sure, it proves its purpose time and time again, but it doesn't take away the fact that once this threat is over that it could potentially shift the power balance in both Orlais and Ferelden.
In other words. Its expansion goes unopposed for far too long.
4. The ending felt rushed. Just a tad. It was all so sudden. Bam wham thank you ma'am sort of thing. But I suppose from the ending we will have more Inquisition, a lot more. Perhaps an episodic epilogue? I imagine many would be unhappy but I don't see any other way you'd solve this with DLC unless you give us an expansion.
Consequences.
As a franchise I'm not going to be too bothered about what was imported and what was not. Since I haven't gone back to play under different files I'll just say for what my World State is I was very satisfied in the continuation of the choices I've made.
But inside choices? Not so much.
It appears that the world-changing choices we could make are cut down significantly. Which is clever, in a way, because no way can BioWare always keep up with continuation that's flawless. Hell, even CDPR didn't do as well with the Witcher 2, nor TaleTell with The Walking Dead.
But decisions with impact micro or macro, seem to be lacking in this game.
I'll choose to be positive and see it as a sign that BioWare is thinking ahead.
After all. I've only done ONE playthrough, I've yet to see how things change or don't change in Inquisition.
P.S I am very happy with how the OGB was handled. I suspect that many will be disappointed that his role was... err... less significant than they thought it would be, but it did a lot for Morrigain's character and I was very pleased to see another dimension to her.
Gameplay
1.I'll be honest. I never played BioWare games (hell, even most games) for their gameplay. But this game suffers a lot and might have ended up better if you had been consistent.
The problem with the entire franchise is that unlike Mass Effect, it has no consistency with its game-play. ME1 to ME3 is a 'shooter' is the broadest of terms. But Dragon Age is trying to come to this 'tactical-action' hybrid that makes it very messy.
Let me say this. DA2's combat was better than DAI's. People will go 'whaaa?' But understand that what was wrong with DA2's combat wasn't the combat itself (as in, the system used to initiate combat) but what we engaged. And if you're still not convinced, you have to admit that it was a hell of a lot closer to Origins than DAI.
The removal of auto-attack was a big mistake. Whilst I'm aware that you don't 'button mash' but essentially just hold a button that mimics auto attack, it is very damaging to the image of Dragon Age as a successor to Baldur's Gate.
Tactical camera is wonky and weird. All we need is DA2 with a zoom out. That was all it needed. Nothing fancy, nothing new. Just that. Holding the right mouse button to navigate the camera whilst pressing keys to move was all very awkward and weird.
Tactics NEED to make a return. I cannot stress this enough. Not this new 'Behaviours' crap but our old Tactics. Micro management is very hard to do (in a bad way) within Inquisition. Tactics would have been essential to at least balance the bad out but that's what we got in the end.
A very clunky combat system, which, albeit provides us with great action, but not enough 'tactics.' The hybrid needs rework, but not as much as you guys might think.
In layman's terms (because I'm not a programmer so I'll just sound stupid trying to act like one) what we need to the 'action' in DAI and the 'tactics' of DA:O.
2. Skills
Where were they? DA2 had so much more in variety, this was a huge let down. Though I'm glad you stuck to DA2's trees, there were so few skills it could never make up for what was lost.
I'm well aware that levelling up is made slow because of this. But damn... what a shame. It's all I can say.
3. UI
This needs to be "fixed." And by that I mean there needs to be a lot more. It was laughable, seriously. No, not laughable, painful. I couldn't equip all the skills I could have and it was very limiting. We could even put weapons in the UI or at least have a 'switch' like we had in DA:O.
4. Not allowing us to put points into our attributes is the wrong move. Again, I understand you want to create a hybrid but this is NOT the way to go.
Characters
The cast of Inquisition was stellar. I could say more and more but this was such a vast improvement to DA2's and in some areas, an improvement on DA:O's.
But there's one character I want to pick my bone at (is that the right term?) And that's Cory.
Cory, Cory, Cory, Cory.
As an antagonist he's very proactive. Which is good. Like the Reapers in ME3, you can't step a foot outside your door without Red Templar operations being everywhere.
Which is good.
But then you him in writing. And it's plain.
In some ways, he reminds me of Irencius. A single baddy being bad but bad's sake. Which is fine and all. But unlike Irenicus, we never get to explore him as a character. What makes his tick? What's his motives aside from God-hood? Why should I fear him other than his big-ass Dragon?
The dude hardly comes up. It's almost a joke considering how awesome his entrance was. Everytime he pops up he does some cool things but is hardly a antagonist that was memorable.
So in the end, all I got was a one-dimensional villain who was good at being a villain but nothing else.
Shame on you BioWare. You're usually excellent with villains/antagonists. DA2's Arishock remains one of the best you've written.
2. This is short.
Flemeth's role as a compelling character was cut way too short. Unless she isn't really dead. It was very disappointing.
Dialogue Wheel.
I understand that this is the way you want to go. And I'm fine with it. But you guys still need to improve. What I don't get is why not just do what Human Revolution did?
I suppose it would be defeating the point.
But then again, there are alot of times where I pressed an option and he'd say something completely different.
It needs work. Lots of it. Especially your 'neutral options' (which came up very often) that sometimes diverged away from 'neutral' and was something else.
Animation
I feel very very bad saying these things. Seriously, I do. I know these devs break their balls to do all this and here I am throwing chimp **** at them.
But god.
These animations.
Not during combat or a 'special cutscene' (as I like to call them) but those normal cutscenes have some terrible issues.
Clipping, lots and lots of clipping as well as weird-as-hell, almost comical, gestures. Then you have the KISSING. God, no! NO! Don't do a Heavy Rain on me.
I understand it's a new engine and all, but ME3 pulled of kissing Liara perfectly. But DAI? I thought cringed so bad when Cassandra started to kiss my protagonist.
lolwtf.
They need polishing, that's all. But yeah. They were bad.
P.S
Did anybody laugh at Loghain sacrifice? I mean, it was tragic for me seeing my favourite NPC from Origins die. But jesus christ, the way he swung his sword like a wannabe ninja at nothing made the tragedy into comedy.
Nitpicks
Romances evolve too quickly. During the 'process' they were great. But I'm disturbed when after a romantic night a romance option will say 'I love you.' I'm pretty sure love is harder to 'get' (unless this is just Cassandra.) Mass Effect handled this a lot better by stretching the 'love you' until the third game. Though I'm aware Inquisition is a stand-alone it should still be considered.
Due to Inquisition's nature (being the closest thing in terms of maps to Baldur's Gate) the narrative lacks focus. And by that I mean that you could literally spend 10 hours in one map alone doing anything other than the main quest whilst Origins/ME2/ME3 was story after story after story. All the 'extra stuff' is optional of course, but the main quests require you to be certain levels, no? Then a lot of this 'extra stuff' is needed.
Harding couldn't be romanced, this game is awful -6/10
Varric talking about Loghain's sacrifice needs different music; not the Hawke Family theme.
I need more of a reason to do some side quests. A lot of them are simple fetch quests which I guess is due to the nature of the game itself. It's a trap BioWare fell into but shouldn't again.
Cole's reveal felt a little undramatic for how important it was to us fans.
NPCs do not interact with environment as much as I would like them to. They just stand still and do their thing. Therefore, sometimes hubs don't feel alive.
Physical presence of the Inquisition is poor. Unless I've missed out on it, I wish patrols and such would butt heads with the Templars. Sometimes it feels that it's just me doing everything.
War-Room quests could have used a little more impact. Meaning, if I recruit x or y from such and such we should have seen them in Skyhold.
Morrigain was wonderful. Especially her role as a mother. You really did well with her. Would have preferred to see more of her and Kieran interacting, though.
Requisitions do nothing other than add power points. I would have liked to seen a physical impact on some of them. Like those Giant dummies.
Power points are acheived way too easily.
What happened to customising Keeps? Unless I missed that part out.
That formal attire was good on males but on every single damn member of the Inquisition? Naaahhh.
Grey Pijamas... yeah, wtf. Could have done with more options there like ME2/ME3 had.
Praises
Since I've basically smeared **** all over a game that I love, and if anyone at BioWare takes this into account as feedback then I guess they feel pretty low right now. So let me just say a few good things.
1. Your companions were stellar. Again, you perfected them I think. None of them shoved **** down my throat, they were all very grey and very well fleshed out. I was especially impressed with Iron Bull and Cassandra. I loved how Cassandra was both a warrior and a woman.
2. These are the best maps I've had from BioWare since BALDUR'S GATE TWO. I **** you not. It's not just because 'oh look how pretty that tree is' it's the amount of detail you poured into these maps, they are beautiful both visually and aesthetically. I've never been that impressed with lots of BioWare's maps. But you totally hit the nail on the head here.
3. Wicked Grace scene is Citadel DLC quality of awesome.
4. You pulled of Krem marvellously. Kudos.
5. I felt as all my advisers were competent and capable. I loved that they were also fleshed out and active in our campaign against Cory. This cast was truly the best we've had so far in Dragon Age.
6. SOLAS OMG SOLAS OMG SOLAS! I loved the dude, from the start I loved him. And ffs THAT'S WHAT YOU DO? No, it's not a complaint, rather than a holy **** that was awesome. Furthermore, you made such an interesting character from such a plain appearance. He was great.
Anyway, I'm tired and that's about it. I might have some more to add... well, that's pretty much a given. I hope BioWare will take all (not just my) feedback into account.
I look forward to future DLCs.
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