Hello,
Is there no general review thread anywhere? Couldn't find one, so I guess I am posting this here.
So, I've been playing DAI for a while now (about 30 hours) and am a fair bit int the story. So I thought the time was ripe to start on a review on the game from my current perspective. I may update this, if things change as I move further along with the story and the game. I am not binding this review to a particular structure but will just discuss things that come to mind as they do.
First a little bit of background: I didn't plan on buying DAI anytime soon but I got it for Christmas (very unexpectedly) and so I gave it a shot. I absolutely adored DA:O and was pretty disappointed by DA2. In the end, I went into DA:I rather unbiased. I heard a couple of good things about the game before but my expectations were not too high. So here is my impression of a few aspects:
The gameplay: I was never a fan of the DA combat. I even played DA:O mainly for the story and the characters, not for the tactical stuff (played on easy or normal most of the time). I feel that with DA:I, things got even worse. The controls are pretty clunky and there are just way too many fights for me to bother with detailed tactical setup for my party all the time. So I am not afraid to admit, that I turned friendly fire off, set the game to casual and play it as a hack & slay game, which I find surprisingly fun, although it is of course utterly mindless and there are of course way better H&S games.
So yea, combat gameplay is not exactly a strength of the game IMO but I didn't expect too much there so I am not bothered.
EDIT: Ok, I did just try to take out a high dragon by using more advanced tactics with the tactical camera and a lot of pause and micromanagement and I have t agree that it is horrible - not to sa unusable. The tactics menu is a joke, as soon as I control one guys, the rest of the party acts like a bunch of startled hens and the camera simply will not show me what I need to see in order to be effective. After about 45 minutes of frustration, I quit. Going to level up enough to be able to just beat that dragon to death in real time. This needs some serious work BW.
The world: Visually, the game is simply gorgeous. I am very glad that after the comic look disaster of DA2, they went back to a more "realistic" look, similar to DA:O. The environments are beautiful and varied and great fun to explore just for the vistas. Only thing I am missing there is a day/night cycle and weather changes but hey, it shows that BW left this feature out on purpose in order to get their environments just right.
One major exception to this so far is Val Royeaux. Why oh why can't BioWare create decent cities? I mean, the architecture is beautiful and grandiose but where are all the people? I feel like back in Kirkwall where all the citizens seem to stay at home and barricade themselves. Please BW, hire some guys off Ubisoft's Assassins Creed team and have them show you how to make a lively city. It can be done.
The characters and dialogue: I am fairly happy with the companions. Something for everyone and yet again, all of them are interesting in some respect. There is even one character I outright wanted to slap already so so far so good. What I am not happy about are some of the dialogues. The main story dialogues are fine, with beautiful and very dynamic cutscenes but the "ambiance dialogues" where you can just rotate the camera seem like a step back from previous games. Please, if you are going to make a dialogue, give me proper camera angles for it and some nice animations, otherwise, things are just too static. As for dialogue options, most of the time I did find what I wanted to reply but there were a couple of instances already, where I was missing an option. I keep wondering if a mute inquisitor would not have been preferable. This way BW could have had a few more options and more varied responses from some NPCs. While I don't dislike the Inquisitor's VO, it's also nothing to write home about, so I keep wondering if a DA:O approach to dialogue would not have been the better option.
The war room: I think the concept of the war room was a good one for this game. While the mechanics themselves are not that interesting, it really goes to show that you are the head of a large and powerful organization and that is an important aspect of the story, so I am glad it got implemented in some form of gameplay as well. However, it is rather tedious to return to skyhold ever 20 minutes just to send your guys on the next mission. Fortunately, I am playing the game from an SSD, so laoding times are not a big deal but I'd imagine they can get a problem really fast on a normal HDD or on consoles. I usually hate companion apps for games but the war table would really profit from one. In fact, it seems to be designed for a companion app and I was very surprised to learn that there wasn't one apparently.
Quests: Yes, there are many fetch quests, but so far, I don't mind them because I do enjoy thoroughly exploring the beautiful landscapes anyway, so I do come across all this stuff one way or another. Maybe that will change in future playthroughs but for the first one, I am ok with it. I do like most of the quests that actually involve NPCs (main story and side missions) so far. The fact that you can recruit new agents for your inquisition every now and so often is a pretty cool bonus.
Ok, that's all the major aspects worth commenting, that come to mind right now. As I said, I may update this if I can think of anything else.
UPDATE: Ok, just thought of another point worth mentioning: The GUI: When do fantasy RPGs finally go back to nice and immersive GUIs (not to mention useful ones). Why do menues since DA2 have to look like a mixture of an excel sheet and the app selection page of my iPhone? DA:O had such a nice GUI, looking like a tome of sorts. So may older games have great art in there menus. Inquisition is beautiful to look at on so many levels, environments, architecture, characters, why not the inventory/crafting/codex screens? Plese BW, give us immersive and good looking interfaces again.
All in all, I think BioWare did an excellent job with inquisition. I can see how people who really want to play this game tactically may not think though and I will admit that botching the main gameplay controls like that is a crime but in all other aspects, be it graphics, story, exploration, world design, etc., I think it's really good. If a simple hack and slash mechanic can keep me going for 30+ hours, that is a rather huge compliment to the rest of the content.
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