Dragon Age: Inquisition

[MrPopo]

I'll be starting it tonight when I get home from work. So far the most damning thing I've seen written about it is "the helmets don't look 100% awesome".

[dsheinem]

I'll be starting it tonight when I get home from work. So far the most damning thing I've seen written about it is "the helmets don't look 100% awesome".

I got the artbook today, and flipped through a few pages. Unfortunately I missed out on the sweet LE printing with a litho and slipcase, but I can probably pick that up in a few years if I am so inclined...

[Stark]

I find the series something I'd be interested in, but having not played the others, not sure if Inquisition is a good place to dive in... (?)

Probably not, at least according to Kotaku's "things to know" article today.

Kotaku's article not thorough enough? I really need to play 2.

[dsheinem]

DA2 gets absolutely unfairly dismissed. The biggest (fair) knock on the game was the limited amount of environments to explore, but I feel that the extensive DLC content really nullifies that complaint - the full thing is sprawling and complex, with much more compelling characters and non-cliche scenarios (on the whole) than those in the first DA. That said, I still prefer DA:O (especially with the excellent Awakenings expansion), but only by a smidgen.

[Stark]

DA2 gets absolutely unfairly dismissed. The biggest (fair) knock on the game was the limited amount of environments to explore, but I feel that the extensive DLC content really nullifies that complaint - the full thing is sprawling and complex, with much more compelling characters and non-cliche scenarios (on the whole) than those in the first DA. That said, I still prefer DA:O (especially with the excellent Awakenings expansion), but only by a smidgen.

I played through a good chunk of Origins before losing my save file. I enjoyed it a lot, just not enough to re-play through it again to see the ending.

[isiolia]

DA2 gets absolutely unfairly dismissed. The biggest (fair) knock on the game was the limited amount of environments to explore, but I feel that the extensive DLC content really nullifies that complaint - the full thing is sprawling and complex, with much more compelling characters and non-cliche scenarios (on the whole) than those in the first DA. That said, I still prefer DA:O (especially with the excellent Awakenings expansion), but only by a smidgen.

I think DA:2 had more problems than that. Platform may have been a factor for some of them though. Beyond the limited environments, the thing that really got to me about it was the waves of combat. In DA:O, you'd have a full field of enemies, and (on PC) a zoomed out view, allowing a more tactical approach.
DA:2 traded that for small environments that, generally, would spawn in waves of enemies, which didn't really allow planning unless you'd already played the encounter.

Presumably, it was done to make it better suited for consoles, given than DA:O was already running with reduced enemy count on them. I think they patched in the ability to auto-attack on consoles as well, but the design was more for a button mashing type experience.

I do agree that DA:2 is a better game than often credited for though. Had it come from a different developer, without established expectations, I think it would have had a much better reception.


I think Kotaku's article is probably a good enough primer to jump into Inquisition.

[MrPopo]

I agree that the waves of enemies was very frustrating, mostly because it meant that your squishy casters would end up getting flanked even though you were originally moving around to prevent that. But I did like the more actionized combat from the perspective of a melee combatant; it was much more satisfying to use your melee skills in DA2 vs DA:O.

I did like how DA2 didn't have the massive "omg must save da world", since that ends up feeling cheap if you have to do a serial escalation after every game.

[MrPopo]

So the combat system is pretty much the same as DA2 but with a more robust pause and zoom out feature akin to DA:O. They've actually reduced the ability to go all-out on the tactics; now you get to choose what skills they're allowed to use, and then some parameters on "stop using mana at this percentage, heal at this percentage". I think in the backend they've buffed the AI to understand when to use AOE vs. single target stuff and such, so you don't have to set up the various tedious "if several mobs use fireball, if one mob use lightning" rules if you just want things to autopilot, and if you want real control you need to use the tactical system.

The game itself is very Skyrimy in a very good way. The area is rather large and you have a lot of that Skyrim-style "ooo, something shiny to distract me from my quest objective" that leads to other minor quests. I've found a few dead bodies with minor "return the item" quests on them and those have also led me to minor strongholds that have more quests in them. I haven't even touched the main quest for this region yet because I've been too busy sidequesting. The game also doesn't force as much combat on you as DA2 does; since the areas are open rather than the narrow paths of DA2 you can dodge around the patrolling mobs if you want, which is great when you're running back and forth between quest areas.

You get full customization of your party members again, though armor doesn't show up on them. So they get to maintain a visual style but you still get the stat customization and smoother upgrade curve of not having the fixed armor that buffs as you find the pieces across the entire game.

Also, everyone starts off with four skill trees. I think they're putting specializations back in DA:O style and you'll be able to choose a specialization for your party members as well, though that isn't confirmed by me yet as I'm still only level 4. Another nice thing is they don't have point requirements like DA2, just having a skill that connects to it from prior in the tree (which also means you don't need every node linking to a skill, just a single node).

Cassandra disapproves. But I haven't seen an approval meter yet.

[MrPopo]

So I was wrong; party members have full armor changes like the PC, but there are unique models. I equip a particular piece of armor on my female Qunari and then give it to my male elf party member and it looks completely different. And since the armor on me doesn't really have anything that isn't unisex it looks like they've created custom models for every party member.

The only complaint I have is I'm starting to suspect there's no easter egg where your party reenacts The Inquisition from History of the World Part 1.

[Stark]

Contemplating buying 2 for the PS3, it's only $6.