20 réponses à ce sujet

[Mr. Homebody]

I swear it supposed to be short but something went wrong. And sorry for bad english (not my native language). I was playing on PS 4. 

 

 

Pros:

 

Graphic - huge improvement compared to previous DA games. Except hairs. Hairs are awfull.

 

Main plot - simple "how to kill ultimate bad guy in three steps" but engaging.

 

Companions - interesting group of individuals. Maker knows that nice looking they are not but at least they have engaging background and personalities.

 

Voice acting - perfect as always, especially Dorian's voice (masterpiece).

 

Keep - very good and well designed solution for someone who lost save files or changed gaming platform.

 

Details - enviroments, bard's songs, armor's details, npc characters talking with each other. I see a lot of efforts here.

 

Protagonist with feelings - it is nice that companions want to know something about  the Inquisitor too and not only the opposite. It make me feel that the protagonist is someone with personality and history, not just some kind of local psychologist.

 

No more traps - in DA:O and DA 2 undetected traps basically "steal" XP points (very annoying especially in the middle of the fight).

 

Dragons - majestic and impressive design. Although there are too many of them. It reduces the uniqueness of every battle.

 

Patches - not sure if that is actually advantage or the opposite. But it is good to know that someone is repairing at least some of problems in this game.

 

 

Cons:

 

Fetch quests - "I'm hungry, bring me the Snickers", "I don't like this guy, kill him", "by the way kill twelve bunnies", "move from point A to point B because of reasons". Boring fillers were always part of Bioware games but it has gone too far. Main plot is like drop of the water in the ocean of boredom.

 

Weeds & pebbles - obviously no one is more suitable for this task than the Inqusitor himself. And you have to gather all these weeds if you want to develop improvements. After some time it's becoming torture.

 

Shards - For the Maker....Jumping while playing Mario is pleasant. Jumping as the Inquisitor is NOT pleasant.

 

Hairs - did I mention that hairs in DA are awfull? Because they are. It's like "Fifty shades of Baldness". Seriously, I've seen better hairs in Dragon's Dogma couple of years ago. Everything in the world is evolving, except Dragon Age hairs.

 

Inquisitor's pyjamas - Maker knows that way of the Inquisitor is full of sacrifices. Dignity is one of them. At least my Inqisitor felt this way.

 

Mounts - useless, lazy, devour my companions. I've used them sporadically. Yet for some reason (Maker only knows why) Bioware decided to make dozens models of these creatures. And yet there is no single choice where it comes to outfit for the Inquisitor. 

 

Lack of iconic appearance - many players are not skilled enough to create acceptable face design and/or prefer to use iconic appearance (not these miserable presets from DA:I). It is iconic appearance that makes the character memorable. It works with commander Shepard and even Hawke (without sacrificing the option to make your own model). Inquititor however is more like gender neutral formless forgettable random guy.

 

Gender neutral - from hairs to outfits and armors. Vivienne is the only female character allowed to be feminine (but of course it is "balanced" by her "hairdo"). My Inquisitor (first and probably the only one) was male but I've seen The Orlesian Ball video clip with female protagonist and her pure gender neutral uniform. Ugh...

 

Race selection - why I perceive this as drawback? Because when you go into quantity, quality always suffers. Something is telling me that bland, gender neutral Inquisitor with lack of solid personal background is byproduct of it.

 

Lack of cinematic camera - it hurts immersion severely. Very bad direction and cheap way to bring more boring fillers into play.

 

Love Interests appearance - call me shallow if you want. It is just more engaging when romantic storyline in fantasy universe includes characters with both interesting personality and good looking appearance. Yes yes I know, "the beauty is in the eye of the beholder". I'm sure there are some fans of Cassandra's masculinity or Iron Bull's "classic handsomeness".

 

Party banters - rarely even occur. When they do for some reasons companions reuse the same dialogues over and over again. By the way, this mechanic is very outdated. Most of companions practically doesn't interact with each other with the exception of banters, standing far away from each other not even face to face. Some kind of telepathic bond? Squad members in ME3 were definitely more "mobile" on Normandy than Inquisitor's stoic buddies in Skyhold.

 

Eight skills limitation - basically it means that some ocasionally usefull abilities (like ice wall) will never be used. It also means that I am forced to waste skill points on abilities which I will never ever use just to get the access to the "right ones".

 

Multiplayer - boring, forced, bugged, probably responsible for skills limitation in singleplayer. Seems that Bioware tried to create gameplay mechanic suitable for both single and multiplayer. In the end it doesn't work anywhere. I must admit that I have a little fun with ME3 mp but DA:I reminds me why I don't like forcing multiplayer into story based games.

 

Tactical camera - enemy archer can reach me yet I can't order anyone to attack him because for some reason camera can't reach him, also for some reason camera has the same limits as my team members and can't move through pebble, moreover for some reason in dungeons camera shows me only feets of enemies.

 

Companions AI - Maker knows that cleverness is not strong point of them. Lack of tactics hurts. Will Varric run away from melee combat? Nope, he prefers just stand there and wait for glorious death. On the other hand, will he listen my direct order to actually stand still and wait? Nope. Or my order to revive fallen friend? Nope.

 

Lack of unique equipment - is there anyone here who remember how it was to find magic item in Baldur's Gate?. Every one of them was unique both when it comes to history and special atributes. In DA magic items are more like byproducts of some random generator in the worst Diablo style.

 

Crafting - idea to allow us to personalise protagonist's outfit is good itself. Implementation however is not. After some times it turns out to be overcomplicated and exhausting. Dozens of schematics, tiers, even more schematics fo separate armor/weapon's components with boring and purely arithmetic atributes. It is even worse when I can't find "the right one" schematic because of random loot gnerator.

 

Buying schematics - I have to buy them blindly since I can't see how will particular armor look in the shop...

 

Mage's staves- will they always be so exaggerated? All these giant comic globes and other funny shapes. Loot generator wasn't generous enough to give me any good looking staff schematic. And sorry guys but you have crossed the line this time with Morrigan's "croissant staff". Do you hate this poor woman?

 

Extreme flashiness - magical colorful rays everywere. I felt like in some kind of "rainbow fantasy". "What the hell is going on" syndrome occurs too often especially while fighting demons near rifts. Mages in DA are probably trained by John Rambo himself.

 

Font size - on 32'' TV screen it is barely readable. One of the patches reduced this problem in dialogues. However it remains where it comes to menu, codex, equipment...basically everything.

 

Loading screens - nice codex entry appears during loading time for couple of seconds and then it is turning into black screen before I am able to read anything...the point of this intriguing design?

 

"Hunt" for animals - massacre is a better word. "Hey Solas, look! One of the rams known from their toughness. Let's hunt him ! Combination of fire storm, rain of arrows and couple of mighty blows will do the job. Repeat if necessary!"...

 

Screen freezing - I have noticed this problem in Haven. Screen sometimes freezes for couple of seconds. Not sure if it still occurs.

 

 

Conclusion:

 

DA:I won a lot of GotY awards. I'm not suprised. I gave my own vote on this game. It's because it makes extremely good first impression. However the more I've played the more I've seen how badly designed it is. I could live with most of its drawbacks (even with pyjamas). What I cannot accept is "the more filler the better" syndrome. I have finished DA:I after over 150 exhausting  hours and after sudden quick last battle I felt...nothing, not excitement, not sorrow, just nothing. 

 

All the things that I love in Bioware games are there...somewhere. It is however very small portion of this game. I want to be able to play this game again, create another Inquisitor, make different choices, use different skills,  romance Ms. Montilyet. But I can't. For the first time my first playthrough in Bioware game may be my last. I cannot take any more meaningless fetch quests, shards, weeds together with other junk and shooting rams with fireballs. 

 

Da:I is the worst possible combination of MMO and Elder Scrolls games. I could play on easy mode and just skip every filler but it would be blasphemy for me. You cannot replace quality with quantity. I can happily play 150 hours if that means 150 hours of engaging storytelling. If not then it would be better to just cut the crap and expose what matters. DA:I can be described in two words actually: beautifull, boring.

[Archerwarden]

 
Conclusion:
I have finished DA:I after over 150 exhausting  hours and after sudden quick last battle I felt...nothing, not excitement, not sorrow, just nothing. 
 
DA:I can be described in two words actually: beautifull, boring.
[/quote]

Good post Mr. Homebody. Yep that's my feeling also. With so much potential just wasted.

[Darkly Tranquil]

I agree with you on almost all points. From where I sit, DAI is a game that is a mile wide and an inch deep; it looks great, and it's huge size is superficially appealing, but when you really drill down into it and take a hard look at it's design elements and systems, you start to realise that there's actually very little depth, either in terms of mechanics, or in terms of meaningful roleplaying opportunities. It's a bit clichéd, but DAI really feels dumbed down compared to Origins, or to other CRPGs like Pillars or Divinity:OS.

[Mr. Homebody]

I agree with you on almost all points. From where I sit, DAI is a game that is a mile wide and an inch deep; it looks great, and it's huge size is superficially appealing, but when you really drill down into it and take a hard look at it's design elements and systems, you start to realise that there's actually very little depth, either in terms of mechanics, or in terms of meaningful roleplaying opportunities. It's a bit clichéd, but DAI really feels dumbed down compared to Origins, or to other CRPGs like Pillars or Divinity:OS.

 

DA:I has its strong points. Clearly a lot of work and heart were put into this game. There is paradox here. It is possible that my opinion on DA:I would be far more positive if all these meaningless fillers were removed from the game. Sometimes less content means more "juicy and concentrated" experience.

 

For me DA:I turned out to be the biggest dissapointment of years (despite misleading first impressions). What is done is done. My only hope for now is that next Mass Effect will not go this route. Because I swear, I'm done with weeds, both elf roots and space roots.

 

PS. I would love to play Pillars of Eternity. Reminds me of Baldur's Gate. Sadly I didn't play anything on PC for many years. I wonder if this game is really as good as reviews claim.

[rak72]

I'm playing POE and really enjoying it at the moment, I'm about 41hrs in. 

 

Sadly, I think Dragon Age lost it's way so much, there is no hope left for the franchise.

[Gyrotron]

Well I must disagree with you in part on the defects of this Dragon Age installment.

 

I find that there is enough depth to the story to keep us entertained for quite a while. If you read the codex entries, you realize how much thought went into the game itself and the background story.

 

However, for some reason I find the protagonists much less appealing than with previous games - I know this has been covered in other topics but for me it was more enjoyable to interact with the various females of other Bioware productions, Mass Effect included.

 

Something is missing here. Graphics? Design? Lack of sex appeal? Difficult to pinpoint. If anything, Bioware should have known what works and what does not. Even the recurring characters barely resemble their former selves; weird design and artistic choices here. It is as if Bioware as deliberately sabotaged this portion of the game play to shift the player's attention elsewhere. 

 

The game wants to do a lot: exploring, fighting, resource gathering, strategic and tactical planning, manage interpersonnal relationships, name it. Not everything works perfectly.

 

The visuals are absolutely beautiful and it is a pleasure to roam this environment, but stopping to pick up stray elfroot or other resources after a while becomes counter productive and tiresome.

 

Since I have not finished the solo campaign and have not touched the multiplayer portion, I will withold further comments until I have had the total experience.

[Mr. Homebody]

Sadly, I think Dragon Age lost it's way so much, there is no hope left for the franchise.

 

There is always hope. The biggest problem with DA:I is that it has very low potential of replayability. To get access to all the "good things" you have to go through all the boring fillers. However I am fan of Bioware games since Baldur's Gate and one big disappointment won't change that immediately. I hope that it will become clear for developers how badly designed is overall structure of DA:I and their next game will not repeat the same mistakes.

 

Well I must disagree with you in part on the defects of this Dragon Age installment.

 

I find that there is enough depth to the story to keep us entertained for quite a while. If you read the codex entries, you realize how much thought went into the game itself and the background story.

 

The main story is engaging indeed. There is just not very much of the story compared to all the "other stuff". I don't know how far you are in the campaign but after my over 150 hours I see clearly that proportions here are badly designed. Moreover I'm not big fan of codex entries. Small amount of them are enjoyable but I prefer reading "extensive books" on paper.

 

However, for some reason I find the protagonists much less appealing than with previous games - I know this has been covered in other topics but for me it was more enjoyable to interact with the various females of other Bioware productions, Mass Effect included.

 

Something is missing here. Graphics? Design? Lack of sex appeal? Difficult to pinpoint. If anything, Bioware should have known what works and what does not. Even the recurring characters barely resemble their former selves; weird design and artistic choices here. It is as if Bioware as deliberately sabotaged this portion of the game play to shift the player's attention elsewhere. 

 

Well, the Maker definitely wasn't generous when it comes to companions physical appearance. But otherwise romance plot is still engaging (although barely noticeable between all these fillers).

 

The visuals are absolutely beautiful and it is a pleasure to roam this environment, but stopping to pick up stray elfroot or other resources after a while becomes counter productive and tiresome.

 

I feel similarly. In my opinion "resources system" works far better in DA 2. Hawke has to find only the sources of particular ingredients, not every single plant. Visuals are impressive, yes. However amount of fetch quests leads to the situation, where player is more busy tracking and following marking points on the map than admiring views.

[Dubya75]

 
Conclusion:
I have finished DA:I after over 150 exhausting  hours and after sudden quick last battle I felt...nothing, not excitement, not sorrow, just nothing. 
 
DA:I can be described in two words actually: beautifull, boring.
[/quote]

Good post Mr. Homebody. Yep that's my feeling also. With so much potential just wasted.

 

Yep, this is it! The most beautiful Dragon Age game, but also the most boring.

[Dubya75]

I'm playing POE and really enjoying it at the moment, I'm about 41hrs in. 

 

Sadly, I think Dragon Age lost it's way so much, there is no hope left for the franchise.

 

Yes, this is unfortunately very true.

 

Take franchises like the Elder Scrolls and The Witcher series. Each successive game in the series retain the original identity and build on it. And they flourish as a result.

Bioware's approach of trying to re-invent things with every game was a HUGE misstep that is, like you say, probably going to cost them the franchise, or at best, reduce it to yet another generic fantasy MMO.

 

Unless they are blind and ignorant, the Dragon Age team must be pooping their pants right now...

[Koneko Koji]

Well I must disagree with you in part on the defects of this Dragon Age installment.

 

I find that there is enough depth to the story to keep us entertained for quite a while. If you read the codex entries, you realize how much thought went into the game itself and the background story.

 

 

I think this is one of the big problems I have with the game - far, far too many codex entries - when you combine them with War Table reports, almost all of the big action in the game is told and not shown.

[Dubya75]

I think this is one of the big problems I have with the game - far, far too many codex entries - when you combine them with War Table reports, almost all of the big action in the game is told and not shown.

 

Agreed. 

If I wanted to read a book, I would have picked up a book. The staggering amount of codex in this game is ridiculous, and having to rely on it to get any story depth is even more ridiculous.

[Mr. Homebody]

Bioware's approach of trying to re-invent things with every game was a HUGE misstep that is, like you say, probably going to cost them the franchise, or at best, reduce it to yet another generic fantasy MMO.

 

Unless they are blind and ignorant, the Dragon Age team must be pooping their pants right now...

 

There is nothing wrong with trying new things. However it is unbelievable for me that someone could perceive pile of fetch quests in the worst MMO style as "improvement". I hope it is the last time when I see MMO bad influence in single player game. Otherwise I don't see my future with the franchise despite my love for previous Bioware games.

 

I think this is one of the big problems I have with the game - far, far too many codex entries - when you combine them with War Table reports, almost all of the big action in the game is told and not shown.

 

There are definitely too many war table missions and codex entries in DA:I. I forgot about that in my already too lengthy review. Reading books is unique and pleasant experience, as well as playing games and being part of events "directly". However reading "books" on TV while playing game is extremely unpleasant. Combine that with absurdly tiny font size and we have recipe for essence of exhaustion.

[Rolhir]

There is nothing wrong with trying new things. However it is unbelievable for me that someone could perceive pile of fetch quests in the worst MMO style as "improvement". I hope it is the last time when I see MMO bad influence in single player game. Otherwise I don't see my future with the franchise despite my love for previous Bioware games.

The thing that blows my mind is that DA2 was pretty full of boring fetch quests.....but they had a little bit of story attached to them. DAI completely lost that. DA2 and DAI both said "Go here, slay dragons," but DA2 said "Why? Because that business that you might own and helped get going was attacked by the dragon." There are numerious small sidequests in DA2 that were honestly just "go here, kill this;" however, they also had an opening dialogue and closing dialogue that was more than "Help me!" and "Thanks!" I can't remember a single sidequest in DAI while from DA2 I remember distinctly the miners, the random dude's lost wife, helping Athenril just cuz, helping patrol the roads with the city guard. I didn't dwell that much on the fetch nature of the quests since there were actual minor characters (they even had names! Unlike too many DAI quests) and the combat was fun. DAI is still fun, but there's no story outside the main plot (which is, albeit, utterly fantastic).

[SACanuckin Oz]

Just to add my 2c.

 

Badly done:

- music - just seems to come and go random, frequently just drops out halfway through a load screen (and don't get me started on endless load screens). DA:O had a haunting theme that I still enjoy listening to; here some of the dragon encounter music is good, but basically it's a very quiet game, because

- party chatter - I remember the catty chats between Morrigan and Leliana about the Hero, Zevran trying to smooch in on the action, Sten being grumpy. Now it's all stale, and nobody actually seems to want to talk, as it is spaced far apart.

- initiation of side quests - honestly, many times I have no idea how I got the quest in the first place. Just kinda pops up. And those mouth bubbles - now that was a great design idea. And everyone else just ignores you, even when you run smack into them...

- staff design has been mentioned. How I miss the Parthalan staff, with it's red orb, or a few unique staves. And why do they have to be the size of a broom? Makes my arm ache to see them swinging those massive staves around in battle. Why not a nice quarterstaff size thing? Should be such an easy fix!

- area ambience -> I found it weird that I would be in the Western Outreach in the day, and the Hissing Wastes at night. Why? Give me a reason for this. Is it safer at night? Etc.

- Armour design - just recycling the same three outfits over and over smacks of a very lazy design team. The armour variety in DA:O was 10 times this! And why can't the actual armour enemies wear be looted (some npc enemies wear very cool outfits). Instead you get the same boring stuff you craft/buy. Really lazy.

 

Well done:

- Hawke's return - fit in well with the story, and was good to have him around for a while

- the main storyline

[Mr. Homebody]

The thing that blows my mind is that DA2 was pretty full of boring fetch quests.....but they had a little bit of story attached to them. DAI completely lost that. 

 

There were always boring fetch quests in Dragon Age series unfortunately. However Bioware simply crossed the line this time with DA:I.

 

- initiation of side quests - honestly, many times I have no idea how I got the quest in the first place. Just kinda pops up. 

 

Quantity at the expense of quality unfortunately. Personally I would gladly exchange all these meaningless fetch quests for one properly done side quest.

[PoisonSmog]

I think I'd like to add another thing: Skill Trees and Abilities. People complain about only having 8 skill slots but for me, I only had like 4 actual skills that I could activate in combat until I got a specialization and the Fade Mark ability; waaaaay to many passives to make up taking away attribute distribution. There's also the Skill Trees of Magic, I'm not quite sure why they decided it was such a good idea to get rid of previously existing branches of magic (Entropy, Creation, Etc.) and make mages elementalists as well as barrier providers. I was really excited about getting Necromancy and Rift Mage but was dissapointed to find no new innovation to it, most are just made up of spells that they took out from previously existing trees. 

 

I really want to find out how you can just retcon and get rid of entire branches of magic without it conflicting with established lore; too much simplification to appeal to the mainstream of gamers.

[Domiel Angelus]

I'm playing POE and really enjoying it at the moment, I'm about 41hrs in. 

 

Sadly, I think Dragon Age lost it's way so much, there is no hope left for the franchise.

 

I disagree about having no hope at all. I felt that way after DA II, and people seem to love that iteration in the series. I keep telling people that this game is a side step in progression. It may have been bland compared to other 'sandbox' style games but it was their first attempt at it. Hopefully they learn from it and progress further. 

 

They did quite a few things wrong, but as the OP did in his list they did do several things well. They need to make races more unique as they were in the first game, give us back the macro-controls, grant more specializations and bring back the use of more than one specialization at least for the hero. In DA:O you could have three at a given time, four if you leveled during Witch Hunt.

[Mr. Homebody]

I disagree about having no hope at all. I felt that way after DA II, and people seem to love that iteration in the series. I keep telling people that this game is a side step in progression. It may have been bland compared to other 'sandbox' style games but it was their first attempt at it. Hopefully they learn from it and progress further. 

 

They did quite a few things wrong, but as the OP did in his list they did do several things well. They need to make races more unique as they were in the first game, give us back the macro-controls, grant more specializations and bring back the use of more than one specialization at least for the hero. In DA:O you could have three at a given time, four if you leveled during Witch Hunt.

 

It was their first attempt at sandbox style and I hope it was the last. Sandbox style doesn't work well with engaging storytelling. Therefore I perceive DA:I as regress rather than progress.

 

Bioware did several things well indeed. Actually they did pretty well most of the things, which they did well in previous DA games. And there are some other improvements. The problem is that somewhere along the way they lost focus on things that matter. It seems that DA series is morphing into some kind of single player MMO. For me it would be the same as the end of franchise.

 

I disagree with you about specialisations. I prefer quality over quantity. Therefore less options but more unique and meaningful, not only in gameplay mechanics but also in the case of storytelling. Also I prefer for protagonist to have only one specialisation which somehow define him as individual.

[SACanuckin Oz]

The more I play the game, the more the open world aspects remind me (not in a good way), of RIFT, which is/was a typical time-sink MMORPG.

 

In completely agree with the OP - where this game falls down for me is in the (poorly thought through) attempt to blend a open world exploration MMO style RPG, with the story telling character oriented fantasy stories Bioware usually does.

 

The end result is bland on both ends - the story, and main character - feels very bland compared to previous games (how can the Warden, with no spoken dialogue at all, be so much more??), and at the same time the endless (mindless) fetch quests without purpose only succeed in frustrating a player looking for the classic Bioware content.

 

BTW, why does Bioware feel we need a main character that has spoken dialogue? IMO it actually detracts from the immersion, especially when a few typed words (to choose from), end in a long spoken dialogue (which sometimes is quite different than what you thought it might be). I preferred the ability to imagine my Warden's voice,a nd it also works very well in Skyrim.... Why not save on that voice actor (admittedly a great voice), and spend it on more quality content?

[Rolhir]

Now that I'm playing through the game again for the second time, I'm reading a lot more of the codex entries, random bits of stuff to examine, and all the war table missions. Now it makes a lot more sense. Nearly all the side content that would normally be done in dialogues with minor npcs is now text in reports and things you find out in the world. There's still a lot of side story, it's just not even remotely cinematic like we've come to expect. Though, I did find that random hole in the ground in the Western Approach and that tried to be more than just enemies in a ruin; it wasn't really, but they tried.

 

If instead of doing 2 protagonist voices (don't get me wrong, I LOVE having the option!), if they'd used their time/resources/budget to voice all these reports and codex entries and gave faces to those characters, suddenly the game would feel very much like DAII in terms of sidequests I think. So for all you people who miss the voiceless protagonists (which i will never understand), think of this as your opportunity to imagine the voices of the side npcs.

[Mr. Homebody]

BTW, why does Bioware feel we need a main character that has spoken dialogue? IMO it actually detracts from the immersion, especially when a few typed words (to choose from), end in a long spoken dialogue (which sometimes is quite different than what you thought it might be). I preferred the ability to imagine my Warden's voice,a nd it also works very well in Skyrim.... Why not save on that voice actor (admittedly a great voice), and spend it on more quality content?

 

Well, I must disagree with this. Silent protagonist worked well many years ago but now it is rather relict of past times. It would feel bad especially compared to so much "alive" companions. It still may be good option in retro games like Pillars of Eternity but not very much in cinematic experience.

 

Of course it is subjective. Personally I like using my imagination while reading books. However while playing games I prefer to experience things directly, including "roleplaying" of the protagonist. I am fan of DA:Origins however I would perceive back to voiceless protagonist as step backwards.