Dragon Age: Inquisition

[Unkindled]

@Princess_Ciri, it's likely because I liked it that I'm critical of it, if that makes sense. On it's own, it's a good game and I did have fun, as I said. But as a dragon age game, compared to Origins, not so much. My main complaints of the game pretty much came after my first and second playthroughs.

Sometimes you can't really decide if you liked or disliked something until you've played it thoroughly, and Dragon Age 2 was like that for me, compared to those who just decided they hated it right off the bat. Which is fine.

I'm gonna compare it to call of duty. Your average call of duty game seems like great fun when you first play it. But after a week or so of playing it, you don't even want to look at Call of Duty, much less play it.

edit: Eh, make that a day or two.

 

[PrincessCiri]

Uh, forgot about narrative mode, that was one of the reasons that pissed me off not to play it yet.

IIRC Origins easiest mode was also called casual.

No I think Origins was just the neutral 'easy' because otherwise i'm sure i would have remembered it...

"Grins" Honestly though people are casuals if they play it on the lowest difficulty. It's like narrative mode in ME3.

Honestly on a combat level I found DA2 more enjoyable then DA:O which was a boring, slow, slog fest.

I don't really consider myself a casual gamer... I just like playing games on the easiest setting the first time around. That way, if a game feels too easy on my next playthrough I can make it harder, or I can leave it as it is if the game feels challenging enough. I mean I have beaten the witcher 2 on dark mode, so it's not like I can't beat challenging games if I want to... but I just get fed up if I die a lot in games, so I tend to go for the setting that means I don't die so much. But w/e, y'all can judge away and call me a casual if you like :'(

the combat for DA2 is very nice. DA:O was fun for mages but when I did a rogue playthrough I got slightly bored of how repetitive it was. And I love the pretty animations and speed of the combat in DA2.

If you have a nvidia card, don't use the dx10 renderer. It's bugged.

Lol I only had a choice for 9 or 11 and 11 was making my game die slowly so I switched to 9 and everything seems to be fine now.

Quite a lot of people did enjoy it, who knows maybe even more than didn't, it's always hard to know since we tend to complain more than praise in general. I remember it's fast paced & exciting combat, but maybe that will drain on you as it did me, once I realised how repetitive and ultimately uninteresting it was. As a stand alone game it probably would've received less flak, I think most disappointment arose from considering it in the whole picture of Bioware & Dragon Age. Beyond how it plays, there are some very serious technical & quality complaints that can be asserted, and no doubt have been in this thread, but I'm happy to leave you happy with the game... I hope you enjoy it to the end, I really do !

I suppose we'll see, but there are parts of DA2 that I prefer to Origins, which is good. I'm not such a fan of the friend/rivalry thing though because I feel like my quest choices make everyone my rival, but my speech choices make everyone my friend so I've ended up with everyone stuck in the boring neutral position...

@Princess_Ciri, it's likely because I liked it that I'm critical of it, if that makes sense. On it's own, it's a good game and I did have fun, as I said. But as a dragon age game, compared to Origins, not so much. My main complaints of the game pretty much came after my first and second playthroughs.

Sometimes you can't really decide if you liked or disliked something until you've played it thoroughly, and Dragon Age 2 was like that for me, compared to those who just decided they hated it right off the bat. Which is fine.

I'm gonna compare it to call of duty. Your average call of duty game seems like great fun when you first play it. But after a week or so of playing it, you don't even want to look at Call of Duty, much less play it.

edit: Eh, make that a day or two.

Yeah I'm not sure DA2 has much replay-ability compared to Origins, but I still consider it an upgraded game in many ways. Some parts are not good, and some parts are impressing me so I guess we'll see how I feel by the end.
The major thing that is bugging me a lot is that Fenris has the same voice actor as ALL the generic templars in Origins. It is really jarring to me but also weirdly funny idk. At first I spent ages trying to think who his voice actor had voiced in Origins but he is basically the voice of the generic guard/templar.
It's like the next Elder Scrolls game having a main character with the voice of the Whiterun guards........

 

[Veleda.980]

On its own, DA2 would still be a steaming pile. Shit ugly graphics, repetitive environments, companions who are basically walking stereotypes (not that Bioware has ever been too imaginative here) and a protagonist who's completely ineffectual. Hawke being so irritating and useless is what really soured me on the game. The only good thing to come out of that game is Varric.

As for Leliana, little girl in a woman's body is a trope that sets off my berserk buttons. It didn't help that her romance was bugged so that as a female Warden, if you even talked to her at all she'd practically hump your leg and then stick to you like toilet paper on your shoe.

 

[Unkindled]

On its own, DA2 would still be a steaming pile. Shit ugly graphics, repetitive environments, companions who are basically walking stereotypes (not that Bioware has ever been too imaginative here) and a protagonist who's completely ineffectual. Hawke being so irritating and useless is what really soured me on the game. The only good thing to come out of that game is Varric.

On the graphics, how is that even a thing for you if you liked Origins? I'll never understand that. Also, Hawke stopped a lot of issues in the storyline, so him being ineffectual I'm not at all buying either. Yea he failed sometimes, like protecting his mother and keeping his sister from being infected by the dark spawn, but if you didn't take her, she gets taken by the circle. I see a theme, especially with Anders and what he did, that sometimes no matter who you are, things are out of your hands. And while DA 2 had tons of issues, this certainly wasn't one of them, and actually was a pleasant change. Better than their usual save the world shtick.

The supporting characters and lack of focus in story is where this went wrong, and is pretty much the only points here I agree with, as well as the repetitive environments.

 

[PrincessCiri]

On its own, DA2 would still be a steaming pile. Shit ugly graphics, repetitive environments, companions who are basically walking stereotypes (not that Bioware has ever been too imaginative here) and a protagonist who's completely ineffectual. Hawke being so irritating and useless is what really soured me on the game. The only good thing to come out of that game is Varric.

As for Leliana, little girl in a woman's body is a trope that sets off my berserk buttons. It didn't help that her romance was bugged so that as a female Warden, if you even talked to her at all she'd practically hump your leg and then stick to you like toilet paper on your shoe.

I could not disagree more! But suit yourself. If you're determined to not like the game I don't feel any need to persuade you otherwise, lol.

 

[Blothulfur]

On its own, DA2 would still be a steaming pile. Shit ugly graphics, repetitive environments, companions who are basically walking stereotypes (not that Bioware has ever been too imaginative here) and a protagonist who's completely ineffectual. Hawke being so irritating and useless is what really soured me on the game. The only good thing to come out of that game is Varric.

As for Leliana, little girl in a woman's body is a trope that sets off my berserk buttons. It didn't help that her romance was bugged so that as a female Warden, if you even talked to her at all she'd practically hump your leg and then stick to you like toilet paper on your shoe.

Aye that was my problem with Hawke, fucking errand boy doing as he's told never getting off his own arse, no option other than more waves of shitty combat, stopped investigating his supposed mothers killer because he couldn't be arsed, was constantly told that he was important by all and sundry but did fuck all, never showed any inclination to do anything or forge his own path, just a fucking idiot follower. Incapable of anything but killing and then spouting some squeeing bioware cutesy shit lines, never even tried to advance himself or grasp any power or use his resources in an intelligent manner.

Felt fucking insulting to play such an idle, unmotivated, idiot character. Be allright if he'd tried and failed, like Geralt cannot fully control his own destiny, but Hawke just sat around for years at a time doing fuck all in a boring grey city full of other idiots, never even moving unless told to.

 

[Unkindled]

@Princess_Ciri
People either love or hate it from what I've seen. For me, it takes a good deal for me to hate a game. Two worlds I hated. Dragon age 2 just annoyed me in certain aspects and pissed me off in others, but I got fun out of it. For instance, even though I didn't like the characters mostly, the banter was more times than not actually funny.

 

[stribritypes]

Really like the soundtrack. It could be best in series.

 

[PrincessCiri]

@Princess_Ciri
People either love or hate it from what I've seen. For me, it takes a good deal for me to hate a game. Two worlds I hated. Dragon age 2 just annoyed me in certain aspects and pissed me off in others, but I got fun out of it. For instance, even though I didn't like the characters mostly, the banter was more times than not actually funny.

Yeah I'm the same way. Unless a game is truly awful I will normally enjoy playing it, and DA2 isn't even remotely close to being awful. The conversations between Varric, Fenris and Anders always make me laugh and I prefer the plotline in DA2 to Origins. Origins felt a little cliché, and being told essentially what was going to happen/where you were going to go before you'd even got very far into the game was not something I was particularly impressed with. At least with DA2 I feel like I don't already know what's eventually going to happen. (ignoring the videos I've watched on youtube that may have been slightly spoilery....)

Also I love the Qunari in DA2. In DA:O I found them boring (Sten was such a eh character to me) but in DA2 they are far more interesting.

 

[Unkindled]

As for the rest about hawke being unmotivated... Honestly, I think people need to refreshen their memories, because the motivation was making a home for your family, which you do. You stopped investigating the guy that kills your mom because there was nothing to investigate, and you either accuse the wrong man or kill him yourself or let him go.

Honestly, if anyone felt like hawke wasn't motivated or whatever, they either weren't paying attention, or forgot. Or that's just how they played him. Nothing was wrong with hawke. Things were taken out of his hands.

Including who bioware casted him with.

 

[Veleda.980]

On the graphics, how is that even a thing for you if you liked Origins?

Origins wasn't great, but take that unimaginativeness and multiply it on the second game? That's a disgrace.

I'll never understand that. Also, Hawke stopped a lot of issues in the storyline, so him being ineffectual I'm not at all buying either. Yea he failed sometimes, like protecting his mother and keeping his sister from being infected by the dark spawn, but if you didn't take her, she gets taken by the circle. I see a theme, especially with Anders and what he did, that sometimes no matter who you are, things are out of your hands. And while DA 2 had tons of issues, this certainly wasn't one of them, and actually was a pleasant change. Better than their usual save the world shtick.
.

I'm not going to revisit the story- it's not worth it- but the issue isn't things being out of Hawke's hands. It's Hawke standing there with her thumb up her ass while things happen right in front of her that she does nothing about. Example being Anders. We're never given an opportunity to try to kill him the first time he turns blue. Why? Even if he escaped, Hawke at least would have shown agency. Instead she's just a slackjawed loser. It doesn't help that the only dialogue choices you have are Boring, Smartass, and Bitch.

I could not disagree more! But suit yourself. If you're determined to not like the game I don't feel any need to persuade you otherwise, lol.

Actually, I tried really hard to like the game, for the sake of Origins nostalgia. It was the 2nd playthrough where I saw that nothing changed no matter what you did, that cemented my dislike of the game.

 

[Unkindled]

Origins wasn't great, but take that unimaginativeness and multiply it on the second game? That's a disgrace.

I'm not going to revisit the story- it's not worth it- but the issue isn't things being out of Hawke's hands. It's Hawke standing there with her thumb up her ass while things happen right in front of her that she does nothing about. Example being Anders. We're never given an opportunity to try to kill him the first time he turns blue. Why? Even if he escaped, Hawke at least would have shown agency. Instead she's just a slackjawed loser. It doesn't help that the only dialogue choices you have are Boring, Smartass,

You really need to, because that wasn't how it was at all. The first time anders went blue for instance, was to kill some douchebag Templars. So why would you kill him then?

I think I'm going to have to agree with @Princess_Ciri here, and say too many here are just determined to dislike a game. If someone told me they disliked the game, I would agree. I had fun and I think overall it was a good ok game, but you can dislike an ok game.

But I think too many people here let that dislike color their perception and memory of the game to be honest.

And origins graphics were dull as hell, let's not even try that one. Let's be real here.

edit:
Anyway, you don't like it, I don't like it. So there's not much reason to go further into it. I'm just not gonna completely trash a game I know has fun in it, especially when that's what people want to know when asking about if a game is worth getting for like, fifteen bucks.

 

[goopit]

It wasn't an "ok game" considering it looks like it runs on the PSP @Unkindled Origins graphics were better than DA2's even the art direction was better they took a step backwards.

Although I liked how it broke the infamous Bioware formula and that whole thing with the Arishok.

 

[Unkindled]

Lol seriously, origins could have been a psp game as well. It was bad enough that it almost kept me from getting it till my friends said it was really good.

Rose tinted glasses are what makes people remember otherwise.

 

[Blothulfur]

I'm not going to revisit the story- it's not worth it- but the issue isn't things being out of Hawke's hands. It's Hawke standing there with her thumb up her ass while things happen right in front of her that she does nothing about.

Now come on that's not true, Hawke couldn't find his or her own arse, without a glowing golden moron mark and twelve waves of combat trash being lodged up there.

 

[Unkindled]

That or it just goes to show variation goes a long way. @ myself

 

[Cheylus]

snip<!-- BEGIN TEMPLATE: dbtech_usertag_mention -->
@<a href="http://forums.cdprojektred.com/member.php?u=3757715" target="_blank">Princess_Ciri</a>
<!-- END TEMPLATE: dbtech_usertag_mention -->And origins graphics were dull as hell, let's not even try that one. Let's be real here.

If you want a gigantic slap in the face just re-watch an interview with David Silverman. He was in charge of Bioware's marketing for DA2 and ME3, and I couldn't bear any interview with him.
I know everyone think of the infamous "awesome button" but there was so much more. Nobody ever talked about him but for me he incarnates what was wrong with DA2. Really, if you want more reasons to dislike DA2 just listen to this guy.

"(3'05) You know, there is like, something like you know 13,000 books in the Circle Tower. So when you go to the Circle Tower of Origins, there're always books all around the floor. Did you pay any attention to that? Did you even know that before I tell you? NO! (INTERVIEWER: I couldn't care less!) They did all that details for no reason and as a result you had to sacrifice all the other aspect of graphics for everything. The other thing was you know do I go fully top down and that ability (???) it ruined the fidelity of the game so we FIXED some things instead of going all the way top down on PC you can now zoom out and getting rid of the random books lying all over the place which you don't even need [...]"
Also having strategy and tactics equals "geekiness" (which is not totally false in my opinion, but the way he keeps saying that...).
"You just want to play this game on casual or normal difficulty and just hit A all day, GO FOR IT, right?"

Now he works on Battlefield 3 and 4 and Hardline... He was a "EA guy" and had nothing to do with BioWare in the first place. Glad they don't have him on their back this time.
They made him an optional boss in a DA2 DLC by the way. His codex entry?

We called it Malvernis. The Pestilent One. It devoured thaigs, turning our fairest work into a noxious waste. It consumed living warriors, turning their bodies to slime, and when its hunger was not abated, it consumed the bones of our ancestors.

Foulness came from its touch, poison and filth and desecration.
If the Pestilent One awakens, you will know it by these signs: The air will fill with the scent of putrefaction. You will hear a sound like the cadence of drums. Malvernis the Defiler will try to weaken your will and compel you to bear the orb out of Amgeforn, but you must hold fast.

(I'm sure Amgeforn is an anagram for something, like "Malvernis", but I can't find it)

Considering this vid, I still think they reversed a lot of this shit back to "normal", "acceptable" and "good" with DA:I. Final verdict when the game's out.
Finally, I'm okay with the game being "casual" and made for a wide audience. Where are the entry points for party-based RPG? Well, there is none; BioWare are the only one who still even bother.

 

[Unkindled]

Ha, I really don't need more reasons to dislike DA 2, but that sure does it. I've basically got a conflict of interest, because I find it hard to completely trash a game that I know is bad in certain aspects, but still I had fun with. And I'm not really that uptight to let certain aspects of the game make me not have fun if there's fun to be had. And there is some. Which is why I would say it's an okay game. Not nearly as horrible as people like to make it out to be.

Though as a bioware game, that's a different story.

 

[Cheylus]

I added some interesting things about him being an optional boss in DA2 in my previous post.

edit: they're streaming here now http://www.twitch.tv/bioware

 

[Unkindled]

Also when it comes to DA I, as much as I trash it and likely will continue to do so, lol, I'm sure I'll find something to have some fun with in there as well. The game honestly doesn't look crap, doesn't look shit. The story does, lol, and the characters look meh, but just going off what I'm seeing now, I'd probably guess I'd give DA: I a seven, 6.5 at the lowest.

Problem is, I'm too bored with sevens and 6.5s to waste my time with them anymore, but because there's like, nothing else new coming out that I might even get until Witcher in the ways of RPGs, I might slink down to gamespot and snag it to occupy me. Might.

But really, just talking about story here, if the characters weren't so stupid or annoying, I don't think DA 2 would have been as bad. Origins, while I personally liked its combat more, was no Fighting marvel of gaming, the graphics were not pushing its limits, and the environments, while varied, were certainly not great. The most creative was the fade, and Orzammar, though I dreaded going there because it got dull there fast, especially with trodding through the fucking deep goddamn roads for hours, which put me to sleep. It was better with Awakening though, but overall there's not much there to talk about.

The story, lol, the story as a whole is the same shit regurgitated to us in fantasy over and over again. What makes Origins good. Is. The characters. Also, the origins stories added to it as well, and made things more interesting. Choice basically is what I missed from Origins, and something they never should have taken away, which I suspect is largely why Hawke gets so much heat. Because the other reasons presented are half baked honestly. Lack of choice is never a good thing.

Without Origin's awesome cast, that game would have been mediocre as well.