*CONTAINS SPOILERS*
Here are my thoughts on DA:I. I have 90 hours logged so far and haven't finished it, but wanted to share my thoughts on the game. These are just my subjective opinions on the game and what I thought on it and suggestions I have for the future.
Full disclosure: I LOVE Dragon Age: Origins and it is my favorite game. DA2 was just ok.
The things I really liked about it:
1. Story
The story was really amazing and I loved every bit of it. I have done all but the last main quest. Of the ones I did there were choices that would have lasting impacts going forward and I learned more about the world of Thedas and was super excited to see loose ends (Corypheus) brought back.
2. Music
"The Dawn Will Come" brought me to tears. Enough said.
3. Romances
I like the distribution of romance options and the race/gender restrictions make sense. It is more similar to DA:O where the characters preferences dictate their romanceability rather than trying to expand options to the player (which is good, but not if it compromises believability). Not everyone is Inquisitor-sexual. This encourages multiple playthroughs which I intend to do to see different romances. In my current and only playthrough so far I'm romancing Cullen and I LOVE it. Really good.
4. References to old games and books
I think they did all the references to past characters really well. They weren't just shoved up in there because they could be, but it made sense within the context of the story and it was nice to see them popping up and doing their thing. I have read The Stolen Throne, The Calling, and most of Asunder before I started playing. I really appreciated the nods to the books in certain areas of the game. Certain characters are familiar to those who read the books (Fiona, Lord Seeker Lambert, Cole, Pharamond) that are all at least mentioned. Having read the books added to the experience and I appreciate that. Also it was awesome going to the Western Approach after reading about it.
5. The Environments
The landscapes are amazing. The graphics are great. I don't think graphics are the most important part of a game but I definitely like and appreciate the great work done on this.
6. Crafting
I like that we can collect herbs again instead of what DA2 did. The crafting in this is really good. We can craft armor and weapons and runes unlike in previous games so it is really awesome. Well, we *could* craft via Wade but this takes it to a whole new level. Great work Bioware. I love how choosing the materials gives different stats as well as colors to the gear. And the masterwork crafting is awesome as well. I actually want to go do sideline material (kill dragons) to be able to craft some awesome armor. This is good.
Things I disliked and suggestions:
1. Separation of Story and 'Other' Content
There were an immense amount of side quests and things. I finished entire zones (or nearly) and leveled so much. I was level 16 and had like four or five complete areas I had barely done anything in. The last main quest recommends level 16-19 so I could have basically skipped like half the content of the side stuff. There is a very distinctive difference from side quests and plot quests. In plot quests, awesome stuff happens, you make choices, there are cinematics, it is amazing. There are huge indicators saying "MAIN QUEST ALERT" so you know it's the main quest. Everything else is like second-class status and I can tell. No cinematics, no choices, no awesome stuff, just grind grind grind until you have enough power or calmed your inner completionist enough to go do a main quest which you've been waiting for the whole time. It is just an aimless series of boring quests with no consequences in order to get to more main quests (which there are very few of it felt like).
In Inquisition there are specific areas only accessible when you do the main quest. Then you have to leave and can't come back. It makes sense in some cases and that was the case in Origins at some points (in both games, the fade). It isn't necessarily a problem but that's almost every main quest. They are sectioned off from the rest of the game; the distinction between the two is clear. In Origins, you had to go everywhere to do the main quest. You had to go to Orzammar and go see the Dalish, and go to Denerim and Redcliffe and Lothering and the Circle. Everywhere you went things happened. And all the 'other' content in those games were right next to the main quest and you could do them simultaneously most often. They weren't overbearing or obvious. In this game there seem to be so many of them and it's basically every zone in the game. They are filled with boring quests with no choices and no consequences. Why should I care about them? Which brings me to my next point..
2. Dialog
I liked the dialog in Origins because there were many dialog options available. They could be saying the same thing or lead to the same result but have different tones. There were persuasion options and intimidate options which were nice to add even more RP elements. I do like and usually opt for the extra dialog options I unlocked via inquisition perks. But other than those there are very limited options for dialog I felt. Or at least, unsatisfying dialog options. I suppose you could say there were a good amount of options because you could click investigate and ask a few questions, but then usually had 2 options that would end or advance the dialog. In Origins, talking to almost any npc I had options of what I wanted to say and even if the character was inconsequential or had no name at all (ex: "Cook" in human noble origin), I cared about every dialog choice I made because I was roleplaying my character. As an example:
"Your bloody mongrel keeps getting into my larder! That beast should be put down!"
The response options are:
"1. I'm sorry he's bothering you, Nan.
2. He's not a mongrel! He's a pureblood mabari!
3. Perhaps you should lock your larder tighter.
4. Maybe you should be put down."
Each of these gives your character personality and it matters to me which one I choose. I might for example want to be a nice character and I'd choose option 1. If I were RPing a mean character, I might go for 4. But each of these adds different RP options and really fleshes out the warden to who you want him/her to be. Each one has flavor. In DA2 it was reduced to sarcastic, aggressive or diplomatic. Just 3 choices every time of the same flavor..really takes away all the depth that Origins had. Inquisition is not much better than DA2 at dialog.
To solve this, they have to get rid of the dialog wheel. No more paraphrased dialog. There's no reason they can't write out an entire phrase and give us that phrase so we know what we are saying. Why does it have to be paraphrased? This way there can be no misinterpretation and it can add that depth. Choice 1 in the above example would probably be reduced to "I'm sorry." And then the Inquisitor says something longer. Even if the Inquisitor said that full line though, it removes the player from the dialog. We aren't directly choosing what we want to say. We are giving a summary of what should be said and the inquisitor goes off and says it on her own. It is another way to detach the players and it becomes harder to connect and not being able to see the entire line really takes away the flavor and the feeling of choice and nuance and uniqueness for each choice. I don't feel like my dialog choices matter as much in DA:I.
I thought Bioware promised to bring back player-initiated conversations. Well...they did...sort of. They haven't fixed the problem people complained about and which I hate of having to run around to separate areas of the game to go speak to all your companions. In Origins they were all right there in the camp and you could just talk to them. In Inquisition you can't talk to them UNLESS you are your base. For a supposedly exploration game this makes no sense. It is very limiting and what I thought was a basic function to be able to talk to your own companions when you want. And if you are the base, you have to run around to all its corners to see if there's any new dialog for any of the characters. It is tedious and time consuming. But it makes sense that they would be doing their own things I guess..not a huge issue the main one is not being able to talk to them outside of the base.
Another important thing that I saw someone else mention on the forums is the camera during dialog. In Origins, the camera would focus on the two characters speaking when you were engaged in dialog. In Inquisition, the camera just stays zoomed out. You can't zoom in to see either of your faces very well even if you try. This takes away the intimacy of having a conversation with someone because you are zoomed out. You are detached from the conversation. And when you are zoomed out you know there's no special dialog and it's just inconsequential repetitive stuff you've already asked them. When there IS something, it will have a cutscene and you get a quest. In Origins there wasn't any cutscene, you got the quest by talking to them, getting to know them, and they'd share info with you if they liked you and ask for help with something and that'd be the quest. There was no flashy indicator (cutscene) saying you are about to get a quest. I do like the cutscenes, though I'd find myself running around hoping someone would have a cutscene and being happy if they did, disappointed if they didn't. It seems like another way to differentiate the important things with the inconsequential.
3. Consequences
In the main plot, there are choices and consequences. Choices and consequences are one of the biggest things about DA for me and that's why I bought Origins. In Origins, there were great consequences. Things happened to the people you did quests with, and the epilogue covers some of them and it feels like the choices really matter. Anywhere you go there are choices in how you deal with people and situations and there are many important decisions to make throughout the game and they do have impacts later on. In Inquisition you can potentially just skip like half the areas in the game like I could have and as far as I know there is no difference in the plot (according to other posts). In Origins, I felt every dialog choice mattered. That is huge. Also the dialog had more of an impact.
There are two exceptions in DA:I: I think the companions do care about what you say and do, and killing dragons is amazing and worth it. I made some options Blackwell didn't like and he didn't like me. And then I talked to him and he said he misjudged me. I'm guessing that's because he disapproved initially and then we made up, and not something he does by default (though idk). The companions definitely felt responsive to me. And when I killed a dragon, I got a LOT of experience and influence and dragon loot. I went to look at crafting and yep! the dragon materials are tier 4. Actually killing them is both fun and has a consequence - you can make awesome gear! Other than these two exceptions, though..
None of the side quests really had any choices. I imagine in the dragon age keep the choices will be whether you did something or not, like whether you helped secure the farmland, whether you ventured into some cave or dungeon, but I don't really see those as decisions. In a way yes, not doing something is a choice, but when it comes down to skipping content because there's too much boring side stuff, I don't feel like I'm role playing at all, just bored with the game. I've been putting off the last main quest because I want to go explore and craft gear and I feel bad for skipping so many areas. I don't look forward to playing at the moment because I know it will be boring quests. I might just give in and finish the game.
Granted, there were boring fetch quests in DA:O as well.. Like the mage group that said go do these things, or where you go send a few men off to war, or find deserters. They weren't very important, but I did some of those to get gold to get awesome items. They were also side quests that you could easily skip and not feel guilty over. And very importantly, they were like along the way to the main quests. The deserter guy was in Lake Calenhad which you had to pass to get to the Tower of Magi. So doing it was only a minor inconvenience. And even though it may have been boring or inconsequential (other than gold/xp), it added some depth to the game. However, when in DA:I the "side quests" are literally entire landscapes or basically the entirety of Orlais which I could have skipped save for the main plot quests.. I mean, I guess that's depth, but I don't think it is well integrated into the game.
The main quests could have us going around to meet people in those areas or talk to key nobles in their homes or something and convince them to lend support, and on the way we run into people who we can help or not. Instead, all those nobles just support us because leliana did all the work in the war table while we slept, and really the "support" is nothing other than +60 influence. In DA:O the "support" was you can summon a friggin army at your command during the last fight. I should mention I DID feel rewarded in some instances for exploring. Yesterday I found an awesome cave and uncovered lore relevant to the dalish. THAT felt meaningful to me, and I wish there was more of that. I really liked that even if it was a small bit of lore. It was really enjoyable and it gave a lot of depth and provoked thought about the lore and dalish and so on. However that was a minor instance and the vast majority of it feels like those boring quests from DA:O. But instead of complementing the story and adding depth it is like replacing the story because it's just too much.
Some consequences even within the main story I didn't feel very connected to. I saw this mentioned somewhere else I think. I really liked all of the main story, but deciding what happens with Empress Celene and Gaspard didn't feel that meaningful. Maybe if I read the last two books it would be more meaningful but I think books should add to the experience not be required to have a good one. To get the point across, compare this with the landsmeet at the end of Origins. There, we had major investment in the outcome by that point and we had a lot of knowledge about everything and we made our choice. In this, maybe it was just me, but I felt I didn't know enough or have a reason to care about what happened really. Other than that lack of connection the entire sequence was amazing. I'm not sure what they could have done to fix this, though.
As a side note.. at Pax Bioware showed us templars attacking a keep and we had to make a choice to defend it or go rescue some soldiers. This seemed like just another conversation with a person and as there was no cutscene, it probably was. It wasn't a main plot. And we had to make a choice. This is a reason I bought the game..they marketed it as having choices and yet they completely removed the part they showed off at pax and there are no such choices in the game outside of the main story and who to romance.
4. Combat/Gear/Stats
I loved Origins combat. I also didn't mind DA2 combat that much. I did hate the spawn-out-of-thin-air thing and that made me not even want to beat Nightmare. In Origins I loved the challenge of nightmare because it was tactical. I will just make bullet points since combat has a few flaws. I will say that I don't mind the pace of combat and I do like the new abilities. Also despair demons look AWESOME.
-Removal of tactics. Why?
-Bad AI. Solas keeps running into melee range for no reason. Iron Bull hit me with his charge move and almost killed me..if there were tactics, I doubt this would be a problem. The combination of bad AI and no tactics made me turn off friendly fire. I also doubt I could tolerate nightmare mode. I'm currently on hard.
-"tactical view" can actually end up being zoomed in more than regular mode because it is blocked by the environment. In DA:O, going into tactical view zoomed you out a lot, enough to see the whole battle. In DA:I, I can't even see rifts if I go into tactical view because they are too high up...and I'm basically zoomed in on the battle and have to navigate via wasd to look around which is pretty awful.
-No click to move. What? I have to manually walk up like right next to every piece of loot individually to loot it. Took a while to get used to. I got used to it but like..is it really necessary? Also as a melee in DA:O and DA2 you would go up and attack the enemy. In DA:I you just swing and hit air. I don't know if it works or not as I haven't played a melee class as a playthrough, only by swapping to Blackwell occasionally and briefly, but this seems odd. Not enough time to make auto-pathing I presume?
-Less variety of spells. All the schools of magic that were touted from the previous games have magically disappeared and now we are limited to 8 abilities slotted. There are very few abilities in general compared to DA:O and DA2. There are no sustainable buffs anymore.
-No more stats. Adding stats was a way to have character diversity and to flesh out my character and also try unconventional builds. I could be a dual wielding warrior or a warrior with a bow. I could be a rogue with two swords or two daggers. I could be a mage with a shield and a sword. I could be a mage with heavy armor. A rogue with heavy armor. It depended on how I added stats. This was very important and affected many aspects of the game, all of which were taken out. Gear was based on stats. As a warrior in DA:O I would pump strength ASAP so I could equip that blood dragon armor at level 7 or so. I would get a huge power spike and it was awesome. In DA:I I can get an awesome piece of gear..oh but I have to level up to even wear it. No power spikes allowed. There are no stats. No persuasion/lock picking/intimidation. No choosing between damage (magic) or mana (willpower) or health(constitution). I could have stacked willpower to get enough mana to use a bunch of buffs all at once, or stacked magic to hit really hard while I chug potions, or stack constitution to be an offtank. Or more tanky because its nightmare mode. All that choice is gone...why?
Thank you anyone who managed to read it all.
TL:DR: I liked the story, music, romance, references to old games/books, environments, and crafting. Story quests and side quests should be integrated together and not completely separated with one awesome and one boring. Conversations should be more meaningful and dialog have more choices for RP. Game should have more choices/consequences. Bring back click to move, tactics, tactical view and stats.
Edit: I think overall this is a great game but I do see potential for more
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