just wanted to share a review of the game which encapsulates my pet peeves and wish-list for fixes. i know some of these issues have been raised before but this is of course purely my opinion and point of view.
"This is a good game which is unfortunately marred from being a great/fantastic game due to a few persistent issues which really detract from the game-play. Don't get me wrong, DA: I offers a lot including a really beautiful graphical experience and a huge amount of content and lore. For new comers to the franchise, this may come across still as a pretty decent experience but older players and fans of the series might be put off slight by: -
a. The total loss of being able to customize how companion fight AI works without having to minutely mico-manage a battle: For me, this was a huge feature of previous DA's. Being able to set parameters that tell your companions how to fight (eg. aggressive, defensive, passive), which type of enemies to engage (i.e. caster/ rogue first), what type of skills to use in which circumstances - eg. use skill X when enemy is at Y health). The dumbed-down 'tactics' and 'behaviour' doesn't quite cut it.
b. Really silly companion AI: The above wouldn't be so bad if companion AI were smarter or more adaptable. Unfortunately, the companion AI is pretty bad and without customizations sometimes cause you to lose more fights trying to bail out your companions out of terrible spots they put themselves into. There are also some skills you really cannot equip for companions (eg. situational skills/escape skills especially - having a skill which is intended to slow/stun enemies in close proximity when they close up with your caster/rogue is essential but rendered less so when the AI makes your companion close up with the enemy from the distance just to use that skill). Also the way companions deal with AOE ground damage is abysmal - they just stand right in the damage area without moving away. I've lost an entire party after taking out a dragonlin just because they stood there in the fire - switching from main character to try to move the character standing in the fire caused the entire party to just run to him and join him in his fiery death).
c. Tactical commands aren't as effective: Whoever thought that the pause Tactical Camera angle should be from directly overhead top-of-helmet-looking-right-into-ground view should be flogged with a trout. Tactical commands are also really too basic and 'hold your position' really doesn't work very well - the party holds its position up to a certain distance and then 'rubber-bands' to your position. This is disastrous as a rogue who is trying to set up the encounter. So many times, have I stealthed ahead as a rogue telling the party to hold its position nearby so that I could take out a pesky mage/archer before having them come in - and lo and behold as I am creeping into position to take out the target, the party rubber-bands right into the enemy.
d. Only 8 hot-keys! This one is actually the worst of the lot. It's a small thing but takes away completely from the gaming/combat experience especially when you cannot even change skills/hotkeys during combat (why should that be so?!). For a game that offers so many skills and options its a little baffling that they should only want you to limit it 8 during a fight. Once you get your Mark of Rift skill and the Focus skill (two pretty much haves) you are then limited to essentially 6 other skills. Any MMORPG/RPG player will know that you'd pretty much usually need at least 12 hot-keys (or two hot-bars). Perhaps this arbitrary limitation to 8 skills is a result of port/compatibility issues between PC/console (which may give PC players another solid reason to hate consoles), but regardless of platform, forcing players to play with less options/choice purely due to technical/implementation reasons is really not on.
e. No weapon swapping in combat! This is also one of my pet peeves. I really like swapping weapons in combat to deal with situational encounters. For eg. as a rogue, I might want to open combat from distance with my bow and take out tactical targets before switching to daggers for closer encounters - now I can't. As a warrior, I want to go in with a large weapon to deal as much damage /draw as much aggro as I can first before switching to a shield and one-hander when I get the heat/low of health - now I can'. As a mage, I might have a fire staff equipped but one of the enemies is immune/resistant to fire, I usually keep a back up cold/electric staff to swap in for such situations - now I can't! Then again, a weapon swap feature might also be rendered redundant given that (i) only 8 hotkeys, (ii) you can't swap skills during a fight.
f. No auto basic attack - This one is so fundamental and so simple I wonder why on earth they didn't get it right. There is a reason why almost a lot RPGs with a dynamic combat system have some sort of auto-attack. Holding on to a single button just to basic attack becomes really tedious after a while. It's not so bad as a ranged character, but it's hell for the melee characters.
In short, a good game that might have been a fantastic game."
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