@Elhanan
Potions now have more worth and impact. Instead of spamming healing elixirs like before or like Skyrim, one now has to consider when to return to a camp for a re-supply. Immersion is even improved knowing that only a limited number of potions can be accessed at a time, instead of the scores and hundreds seen in prior games.
I can understand that was the intent of the game's developers. But it didn't turn out that way for me. The new system of combat meant that there was no gradation in the difficulty of enemies -- we either had hordes of faceless goons who did no damage, and served only to waste more time; or we had enemies that could take off health like you'd peel a banana, so whenever I ran across a challenging opponent, my whole party inevitably ended up battered. If I was in an area where I ran into multiple groups of challenging opponents, I'd use up all my potions in two battles (eight health potions divided among four characters). So rather than battering my way through a challenging area and feeling like a hero, like in the Deep Roads in DAO, I ended up having to stop my epic quest every ten minutes to go get a new box of Band-Aids from camp. I really don't understand how that's "immersive".
The Qunari Inquisitor is a mercenary; not an unknown like Sten or the silent, brooding Arishock. They are from a group known by reputation. And as one that played as a Dwarf, I can assure you that there are plenty of racial references, both positive and negative in their story.
That's all well and good, but it doesn't seem germane to my criticism. It matters very little that my Inquisitor was the member of a mercenary group. She was seen by the people as both a Qunari and a mage. Those two factors are, respectively, heretical and "satanic" to faithful Andrasteans. If most of my Inquisition is made up of people who came from the Chantry, why would they be so willing to abandon ingrained dogmas to follow a Qunari mage that they've known for less than a week?
As for your second point, I can't really speak to that. Maybe as a dwarf, you have some kind of radically divergent story that emphasizes your distinction from a human-dominated organization. But I didn't notice anything like that in my Qunari playthrough.
Varric is on hand because of what occurred following Kirkwall and the events of DA2; Solas because of his own agenda as unveiled in the course of the game itself. The others approach, or can be approached by the Inquisition for varied reasons, but can be dismissed if desired. Personally, I accept their aid, but only take those on excursions that please me. And Sten was in a cage; Zevran in a couple of cut-scenes. At least we see the Iron Bull in action with his men before one enlists them.
Again, that wasn't my point. It's fine that Varric and Solas, Blackwall, Iron Bull, and everyone else was in the game. I mean, I liked ME2 for giving us such a diverse lineup of companions. My point was that with the exception of Cassandra, I didn't care about any of DAI's companions. Not even Varric. I was honestly surprised by that, and it took some time to realize that I didn't care about them because I didn't know who any of these people were. In DAI, companions just seem to come out of the ether, and join the party for completely inorganic reasons. I know with Blackwall and Iron Bull, their introduction was little more than Leliana telling you where they were and to go get them. They might have had the best stories in the world, but I didn't care because their introduction failed to catch my interest at all.
I don't think invoking Sten and Zevran helps your case. With Zevran, when we first see him in the Denerim cutscene, he's a cold assassin sent to kill us. He traps us in a clearing and tries with methodical precision to assassinate us. We fully expect him to be a callous, unlikeable person. So when Zevran starts cracking jokes and flirting, shrugging at the idea of giving up his employer's secrets, we're intrigued -- we want to know more about this strange elf, and that opens the door to his exceptional characterization. It's similar with Sten: When we arrive in Lothering, we hear whispers and rumors about the monstrous Qunari that murdered a whole family; a wild beast of a man barely tamed by his imprisonment. When we finally meet Sten, he's sitting and meditating calmly. He responds to us with an almost aristocratic condescension and seems more disturbed by his murder than his impending death. That apparent contradiction between what we've heard and what we see opens the door of our curiosity, and ultimately Sten's storyline.
The sidequests are subjective, as far as worth is concerened. I appreciate the ones that fit the character, and skip the ones that do not. I still have yet to see what happens if one restores someone's Grandfather spirit in the Hinterlands, as this one seems to be for a bit more brash character than my previous choices. The only trivial quest that bothers me is for bottles, and that is because it is seen as impractical. And while placing flowers on a grave may not be an ordeal, the people that receive the aid speak well of the Inquisition and word of mouth aids the overall work. What is seen by some as busy work, I often see as the grass roots version of Twitter. And many of these minor quests can be filled simply as a side effect of exploration; another reason to be out there. Sorry, but I cannot complain of having too much content, especially when it is up to me what to select.
That's fine. You liked the side quests. I didn't. But whether you liked them or not, you have to realize that when half the player base finds the quests tedious, there's a serious problem in design. It feels like they intentionally left out the people who get bored by the MMO grind style of questing. And while I'm not a video game designer, it's pretty obvious that simple changes, could have kept the quests you like, and appealed to gamers like me at the same time. Side quests could have had legitimate decision-making attached to them. Side quests could have been tied together to create small side narratives for the Inquisitor to explore. Side quests could have been given out more frequently by memorable, likeable characters. Instead, we got Assassin's Creed-style collection quests. If I had meant to play Assassin's Creed, Elhanan, I would have bought Assassin's Creed.
Retour en haut
I tried the beta original sin, but it was very very tedious for me.. I never understood what the hell am I supposed to do.
