You will be disappointed, unfortunately, of that I can assure you.
You will be disappointed, unfortunately, of that I can assure you.
Well the DLC policy is an utter disaster for players of the first hour. Like always players who waited a year or so get to buy the GOTY edition with everything included for half the price of what I paid when it first released because I used to love the franchise.
The story is utter rubbish, the antagonist is revealed far to early and isn't that threatening. The gameplay itself is basically like and MMORPG. Collect this, collect this, collect this and if you have enough collected you can go there and use them to open this.
The map doesn't really change even though you might have rescued a village or what not. You get to collect ridiculous landmarks which don't do anything, you have stupid wartable missions that are, again, like MMORP where you wait 3,5 hours to get the result in text form.
Fighting with a ranged fighter is utterly riduclous because you basically click like crazy for him or her to shoot instead of holding the mouse button down.
Then they have those stupid star observation things that you have to combine into a shape and then magically if you have done a gazillon on one map somewhere a passage opens up that wasn't there before and you find a treasure chest.
Instead of highlighting usable items when you click CTRL you now get sort of an echolot like submarines use so it pings when something usable is near. But even more ridiculous you get crudely handdrawn map and have to remember of the top your head where on a stupidly massive map a certain place is and then go there and ping with this fucking echo thing 10 times until you are near a spot and then, I shit you not, there is glimmer and fog and out of nowhere something appears right in front of your eyes. So even if you had searched that place before, without a map you woudln't have found anything. Utterly idiotic. You also can collect bottles of wine... I shit you not, through the same process... so you don't even have a clue where they are and they also magically appear so you basically run around the map pinging every 2 seconds to not miss anything.
The most pointless thing though is choosing your specialization... you seriously have to collect stupid shit off the map, some stuff extremely hard to find, to actually learn your specialization... some of that stuff is on one of the harder maps so you might well have to run around the game for another 20 hours until you are leveled up enough to actually pick you specialization because you and your party will get murdered on those maps if you go there before.
Then there is the stupidity of, if you are using areas, not making them level consistent but actually include several hot spots for characters who are 10 levels higher than you are when you first go there so you have the "joy" of coming back later, seeing it still looks the same even though you are supposedly the lord there now and cleared everything up and still have bandits and monsters roaming around, to conclude 1 or 2 quests. The best thing is though that several maps actually open into other areas that you can only access later in the game for "story" reasons so you get the joy of not going there directly but first loading one of the massive maps and then going to that place, entering and loading another massive map. How stupid can game design get? On top of that apart from 2 or 3 characters they are all whitewashed into oblivion and even Varric who was the coolest thing alive in DA2 is now boring and tame.
Honestly DA2 sucked badly when it came to maps, but story wise it was a blast. It had a great consistently cool story, alot of twists, a lot of charismatic protagonists and antagonists and a blast as finale. Now instead of properly doing something with the setup they had they absolutely piss on it with this rubbish of a story and those opera looking uniforms. I'm not one to blast games for including homosexual and bisexual characters. I think it's great and there should be more of it BUT I do feel the design is starting to get really queer. We are moving faaaaaaaaaaar away from DA:O in terms of the dirty medieval look and getting into Batman and Robin territory.
Personally... I feel they should have stuck with the Warden. They should have brought the warden back and for those who killed him off have some silly plotdevice that shows Morrigan saved him afterwards and rescued him somehow unknowingly or whatever. Have the warden lead the inquisition and leave off this stupid stuff with the main antagonist this time and simply focus on the mage rebellion and how the chantry is breaking apart. That would have been ace. They also took the easy road out by limiting nearly all cameos to written messages so they wouldn't have to code and animate a character that might be dead for some players. They didn't include Shale because some people might not have had the DLC and what not. It's really rather sad what has become of this franchise.
The most disappointing fact is if you go to Val Royeux... you have never seen a more lifeless and a smaller capital city in your life. How can the capital city of the empire be smaller than the palace of the empress? That palace was the most annoying thing either way... you honestly needed to collect statues to open doors and there weren't enough for all the doors... you needed to collect coins to throw in a well to improve attributes. Which is nothing to say when you consider that in the DLC taking place there you actually had to shoot fireworks off and put paintings straight to increase your attributes... does it get more silly than that? Wow.
Honestly? Skip it. You won't forgive yourself for ever having paid for it. I know I haven't.
The story is utter rubbish, the antagonist is revealed far to early and isn't that threatening. The gameplay itself is basically like and MMORPG. Collect this, collect this, collect this and if you have enough collected you can go there and use them to open this.
The map doesn't really change even though you might have rescued a village or what not. You get to collect ridiculous landmarks which don't do anything, you have stupid wartable missions that are, again, like MMORP where you wait 3,5 hours to get the result in text form.
Fighting with a ranged fighter is utterly riduclous because you basically click like crazy for him or her to shoot instead of holding the mouse button down.
Then they have those stupid star observation things that you have to combine into a shape and then magically if you have done a gazillon on one map somewhere a passage opens up that wasn't there before and you find a treasure chest.
Instead of highlighting usable items when you click CTRL you now get sort of an echolot like submarines use so it pings when something usable is near. But even more ridiculous you get crudely handdrawn map and have to remember of the top your head where on a stupidly massive map a certain place is and then go there and ping with this fucking echo thing 10 times until you are near a spot and then, I shit you not, there is glimmer and fog and out of nowhere something appears right in front of your eyes. So even if you had searched that place before, without a map you woudln't have found anything. Utterly idiotic. You also can collect bottles of wine... I shit you not, through the same process... so you don't even have a clue where they are and they also magically appear so you basically run around the map pinging every 2 seconds to not miss anything.
The most pointless thing though is choosing your specialization... you seriously have to collect stupid shit off the map, some stuff extremely hard to find, to actually learn your specialization... some of that stuff is on one of the harder maps so you might well have to run around the game for another 20 hours until you are leveled up enough to actually pick you specialization because you and your party will get murdered on those maps if you go there before.
Then there is the stupidity of, if you are using areas, not making them level consistent but actually include several hot spots for characters who are 10 levels higher than you are when you first go there so you have the "joy" of coming back later, seeing it still looks the same even though you are supposedly the lord there now and cleared everything up and still have bandits and monsters roaming around, to conclude 1 or 2 quests. The best thing is though that several maps actually open into other areas that you can only access later in the game for "story" reasons so you get the joy of not going there directly but first loading one of the massive maps and then going to that place, entering and loading another massive map. How stupid can game design get? On top of that apart from 2 or 3 characters they are all whitewashed into oblivion and even Varric who was the coolest thing alive in DA2 is now boring and tame.
Honestly DA2 sucked badly when it came to maps, but story wise it was a blast. It had a great consistently cool story, alot of twists, a lot of charismatic protagonists and antagonists and a blast as finale. Now instead of properly doing something with the setup they had they absolutely piss on it with this rubbish of a story and those opera looking uniforms. I'm not one to blast games for including homosexual and bisexual characters. I think it's great and there should be more of it BUT I do feel the design is starting to get really queer. We are moving faaaaaaaaaaar away from DA:O in terms of the dirty medieval look and getting into Batman and Robin territory.
Personally... I feel they should have stuck with the Warden. They should have brought the warden back and for those who killed him off have some silly plotdevice that shows Morrigan saved him afterwards and rescued him somehow unknowingly or whatever. Have the warden lead the inquisition and leave off this stupid stuff with the main antagonist this time and simply focus on the mage rebellion and how the chantry is breaking apart. That would have been ace. They also took the easy road out by limiting nearly all cameos to written messages so they wouldn't have to code and animate a character that might be dead for some players. They didn't include Shale because some people might not have had the DLC and what not. It's really rather sad what has become of this franchise.
The most disappointing fact is if you go to Val Royeux... you have never seen a more lifeless and a smaller capital city in your life. How can the capital city of the empire be smaller than the palace of the empress? That palace was the most annoying thing either way... you honestly needed to collect statues to open doors and there weren't enough for all the doors... you needed to collect coins to throw in a well to improve attributes. Which is nothing to say when you consider that in the DLC taking place there you actually had to shoot fireworks off and put paintings straight to increase your attributes... does it get more silly than that? Wow.
Honestly? Skip it. You won't forgive yourself for ever having paid for it. I know I haven't.
OK thanks for warning. I'll save money for sth better. The question is for what? I really enjoyed Pillars of eternity, I don't have nerves to finish Dark souls...Heard that shadow of mordor is a good game - what do you think?
Sounds more like you prefer more old school and more grittish stuff with a good story to it. Shadow of Mordor has some interesting mechanics but overall it's just an action slasher. If you haven't play Baldurs Gate 1 or 2 (not the enhanced edition), KOTOR 1 and 2 (2 with the restoration patch), Vampire Bloodlines (with the Community Patch) and Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 (2 with DLC they are really great fun). Other than that... well Dragon Age Awakening. I can't really think of any other really good and solid RPG's maybe Mass Effect 1 and 2, 3 is good as well but was less of an RPG but still great fun. But great RPG's are rare these days. Party RPG's especially and ones with solid quests and solid story and good gameplay mechanics even less so.
Thanks for the answer. ...ehh unfortunately I played all classics like Baldurs or KOTOR. DA:A, Mass effect also (god, my love to first mass effect is just...unspeakable). I haven't play first neverwinter (I played second one - it was great) and Bloodlines, so maybe
but it's not easy to get into game that has more than decade. I mean I heard from many people that Plancescape Torment is a masterpiece but something makes me reluctant to play 17 years old game now (is there even a chance that it is compatibile with Windows 10? - I remember when I wanted to replay one of my fav games - Silent Hill2 after few years the biggest horror was to run it on XP). Yes, and that's why Bioware downhill that we can observe in last years is painful
@toudis815 It's compatible if you get it on GOG And I'd recommend it in a heartbeat. Best writing/story in an RPG, ever, for me. Bloodlines is also an amazing game. And you have the community patch and some cool retextures/reshades to make it look modern enough. You'd love how different the gameplay becomes based on what vampire clan you choose. As a person who loves all the other games you and @hedop talked about, I'd definitely recommend P:T and VtM:B in an instant.
And I'd recommend it in a heartbeat. Best writing/story in an RPG, ever, for me. Bloodlines is also an amazing game. And you have the community patch and some cool retextures/reshades to make it look modern enough. You'd love how different the gameplay becomes based on what vampire clan you choose. As a person who loves all the other games you and @hedop talked about, I'd definitely recommend P:T and VtM:B in an instant.@toudis815 like arkhenon said compatibility isn't really an issue anymore these days. Get the game on GOG. The thing you do have to obviously be acceptive of is the look. Those games are old so they look old. Planescape: Torment is great if you can get past it. So are Fallout 1 and 2 and Vampires with the Community Patch. Personally I would probably even include the original Deus Ex from a gameplay perspective. There is a lot of good old stuff out there if you can get past the look and certain comfortable gameplay features we nowadays expect.
Torment Tides of Numenera (http://store.steampowered.com/app/272270/) is out on early access. You might want to give that a go, @toudis815, especially since you liked Pillars of Eternity.
Did anyone say classic RPGs? You know there's a whole thread for that.
Recent indieish cRPG's worth checking out would also include Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns (especially the second and third campaigns), Divinity Original Sin, coming up soon is Torment Tides of Numenera, and sometime in the near future Underworld Ascendant and The Bard's Tale IV. The genre is not dead, it's just EA/Bioware aren't interested in it anymore.
Recent indieish cRPG's worth checking out would also include Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns (especially the second and third campaigns), Divinity Original Sin, coming up soon is Torment Tides of Numenera, and sometime in the near future Underworld Ascendant and The Bard's Tale IV. The genre is not dead, it's just EA/Bioware aren't interested in it anymore.
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Well yes but those are in no way universally great RPG's following basically a proven formula. They are niche games that have their fans. Wasteland 2 is pretty good but might be unappealing to someone who doesn't like a post nuclear setting, a modern setting, a Party RPG or relatively shitty graphics. I thought the game was great.
Shadowrun returns in the directors cut version plus Shadowrun returns Hong Kong are great games, really fun to play, good RPG mechanics and two great campaigns but again might not appeal to people who do not like party based games, turn based combat, a post featuristic setting etc. Also... both campaigns are fairly short and compared to even Fallout 1 and 2 the areas you get to explore are absolutely miniscule and obviously you have to read pages and pages of dialogue and what not.
Divinity Original Sin is a great game as well. Looks good, plays good. The only thing is that it's actually meant for the co-op mode. Yeah it's fun to play alone as well but takes sort of the fun out of the mechanic of which character's decision will be the overruling decision because you can basically have both characters behave exactly the same. It's also fun combat wise since you get dozens of opportunities to use the surroundings. What might put a lot of people off is the lack of comfort. You have no quest markers or even any trackers of quest givers. Basically you have to make your own map marks and play like in the olden time when you jotted down details for quests and what not. It gets a bit sluggish after a while because you think: yeah it's cool that they went old school but hell, can't you just give me an option to customize the extent a bit?
The other three you mentioned... well we will have to see how they turn out won't we? No promises or predictions yet. They might be shit.
I will however add a couple of fun RPG's:
The Banner Saga 1
The Banner Saga 2
The Age of Decadence
Shadowrun returns in the directors cut version plus Shadowrun returns Hong Kong are great games, really fun to play, good RPG mechanics and two great campaigns but again might not appeal to people who do not like party based games, turn based combat, a post featuristic setting etc. Also... both campaigns are fairly short and compared to even Fallout 1 and 2 the areas you get to explore are absolutely miniscule and obviously you have to read pages and pages of dialogue and what not.
Divinity Original Sin is a great game as well. Looks good, plays good. The only thing is that it's actually meant for the co-op mode. Yeah it's fun to play alone as well but takes sort of the fun out of the mechanic of which character's decision will be the overruling decision because you can basically have both characters behave exactly the same. It's also fun combat wise since you get dozens of opportunities to use the surroundings. What might put a lot of people off is the lack of comfort. You have no quest markers or even any trackers of quest givers. Basically you have to make your own map marks and play like in the olden time when you jotted down details for quests and what not. It gets a bit sluggish after a while because you think: yeah it's cool that they went old school but hell, can't you just give me an option to customize the extent a bit?
The other three you mentioned... well we will have to see how they turn out won't we? No promises or predictions yet. They might be shit.
I will however add a couple of fun RPG's:
The Banner Saga 1
The Banner Saga 2
The Age of Decadence
Well if you're gonna nitpick, then The Banner Saga is barely an RPG. More of a strategy game, similar to but not quite as complex as King of Dragon Pass. Still fun though.
Aren't most cRPG's somewhat niche anyway? What is a "proven formula"? And what is "universally great"? If you want popular acclaim and large fan bases, cRPG is the wrong genre.
Anyway, feel free to check out the Classic RPGs thread. We've been discussing these things there for years.
PS: In the strategy/RPG department (like The Banner Saga) I really enjoyed Expeditions: Conquistador. It has good writing and serious consequences, as well as decent combat.
Point being, for the "classic" feel of games like Pillars of Eternity, you definitely have to look elsewhere. Major companies (except Obsidian apparently) don't give a shit anymore.
Aren't most cRPG's somewhat niche anyway? What is a "proven formula"? And what is "universally great"? If you want popular acclaim and large fan bases, cRPG is the wrong genre.
Anyway, feel free to check out the Classic RPGs thread. We've been discussing these things there for years.
PS: In the strategy/RPG department (like The Banner Saga) I really enjoyed Expeditions: Conquistador. It has good writing and serious consequences, as well as decent combat.
Point being, for the "classic" feel of games like Pillars of Eternity, you definitely have to look elsewhere. Major companies (except Obsidian apparently) don't give a shit anymore.
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I wasn't saying that one or two or more of those games aren't RPG's. But none of them is as big as most of the classic stuff was in terms of cultural impact and sales numbers and status. Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, Planescape: Torment, Fallout 1 and 2, Wasteland, KOTOR, DA:O, NWN, NWN 2, TES Morrowwind those were big games when the market was fairly small, when most RPG's weren't ported for consoles. Those are basically like Wordsworth and Shakesspeare are for poetry or what Goethe and Daniel Defore were for prose. Those are games that basically were the pinnacle of what an RPG could be, should be for that time. Trendsetters.
The games you mentioned are great little games each in their own way but they are niche games. Each of them serves up a helping of throwback stuff to a certain type of player. They do not have the goal nor the creativity to become an industry standard. Pillars of Eternity is basically Baldurs Gate 3, Shadowrun returns is... well Shadowrun, Wasteland 2 is the Fallout 3 we never got or the Wasteland 2 we never got, Original Sin brings back a lot of stuff from back in the day. In the end though they all lack one major thing which is something really new. They are well received and liked because they are fundamentally sound games that are well crafted and do the stuff they know how to do well, probably better than others, but still stuff anybody else does or did.
Basically if you want to compare them to something they are like a washing machine made by Bosch or Miele. They are classics in the way that you know they won't break in two weeks, that you know what you get but that they won't do anything new. Or let's say they are French wine. Classic, good, even great but predictable and basically because of that it also means that you know what you will order. So in that way they are a bit uninspired to me and limited because like I said.. I like them all in their own way but none of those games speaks to me in the way that those classics or even the Witcher 3 did because they all have a major thing wrong with them, which back in the day didn't annoy me because that is how it was done, but nowadays pisses me off to no end because just because it was okay 20 years ago, doesn't mean it's okay now and saying you want to go back to classical RPG gaming doesn't mean that you can throw all the stuff that has come along and made gaming better out of the window.
Still they are great games and enjoyable, but like I said, not universally but for people who look for exactly that.
Well the Banner Saga might not have a sophisticated skill system but it does have an ass full of meaningful decisions to be taken during the game. It has a bunch of characters who can die, you can die in several ways, it has great story telling. It doesn't have traditional quests but this is why it sticks out to me, because they actually did something that is different. You have new elements and a new way to tell a story and a game. The combat system is great fun and in the Banner Saga two they actually improved the Skill System by introducing skills that you can choose on top of your attributes which is pretty cool. The story is still really great and so is the gameplay. So it is an RPG. Just not a classical one. But to me that is actually a good thing because that means there is something new which might catch on and we might not be stuck between a rock and a hard place for much longer in either choosing to go back to classical times with all it's negatives or going forward and playing mostly dumbed down so called RPG's that are basically just moronic sandboxes like Skyrim and Fallout 4 or have to wait for a gem like the Witcher to finally take advantage of an open world setting. There might be finally some new ways emerging.
The games you mentioned are great little games each in their own way but they are niche games. Each of them serves up a helping of throwback stuff to a certain type of player. They do not have the goal nor the creativity to become an industry standard. Pillars of Eternity is basically Baldurs Gate 3, Shadowrun returns is... well Shadowrun, Wasteland 2 is the Fallout 3 we never got or the Wasteland 2 we never got, Original Sin brings back a lot of stuff from back in the day. In the end though they all lack one major thing which is something really new. They are well received and liked because they are fundamentally sound games that are well crafted and do the stuff they know how to do well, probably better than others, but still stuff anybody else does or did.
Basically if you want to compare them to something they are like a washing machine made by Bosch or Miele. They are classics in the way that you know they won't break in two weeks, that you know what you get but that they won't do anything new. Or let's say they are French wine. Classic, good, even great but predictable and basically because of that it also means that you know what you will order. So in that way they are a bit uninspired to me and limited because like I said.. I like them all in their own way but none of those games speaks to me in the way that those classics or even the Witcher 3 did because they all have a major thing wrong with them, which back in the day didn't annoy me because that is how it was done, but nowadays pisses me off to no end because just because it was okay 20 years ago, doesn't mean it's okay now and saying you want to go back to classical RPG gaming doesn't mean that you can throw all the stuff that has come along and made gaming better out of the window.
Still they are great games and enjoyable, but like I said, not universally but for people who look for exactly that.
Well the Banner Saga might not have a sophisticated skill system but it does have an ass full of meaningful decisions to be taken during the game. It has a bunch of characters who can die, you can die in several ways, it has great story telling. It doesn't have traditional quests but this is why it sticks out to me, because they actually did something that is different. You have new elements and a new way to tell a story and a game. The combat system is great fun and in the Banner Saga two they actually improved the Skill System by introducing skills that you can choose on top of your attributes which is pretty cool. The story is still really great and so is the gameplay. So it is an RPG. Just not a classical one. But to me that is actually a good thing because that means there is something new which might catch on and we might not be stuck between a rock and a hard place for much longer in either choosing to go back to classical times with all it's negatives or going forward and playing mostly dumbed down so called RPG's that are basically just moronic sandboxes like Skyrim and Fallout 4 or have to wait for a gem like the Witcher to finally take advantage of an open world setting. There might be finally some new ways emerging.
I will avoid the "what is an RPG" subtopic entirely but you do mention a few things that I'd like to address.
While all Infinity Engine games had a huge impact in computer games, I wouldn't say they qualify as prime examples of commercial success. Planescape: Torment, was sort of a commercial failure in its time. Then again, Dragon Age: Origins probably did sell well but I don't see how it can be in the same list as Fallout 1/2, BG 1/2 or PS:T. DA:O provides no new relevant gameplay elements whatsoever (an approach to MMO,, yes), and while it was good for 2009 it would have been barely OK only a decade earlier. I get what you mean, you are trying to define some abstract category for "Trend Setters". Games like Fallout 1/2, BG 1/2 and even Morrowind DID define their own subgenre, (maybe like what Half-Life did for the FPS genre) and for the most part continue to be the measuring stick for games past and future. This is why you measure Pillars of Eternity in "BGs".
And yes, games like the Banner Saga and Expeditions: Conquistador and others have some actual RP-elements, but in my opinion their other elements and limitations make them more consistent with Strategy game design. Again, let's leave it as an opinion, the "what is" debate is stale and pointless.
If you care about more innovative RPG's or games with RP-elements, I think Sui Generis is trying to do precisely that. Then there's Torment: Tides of Numenera, which like you said is not out yet but features a complete reimagination of what cRPG combat should be. In their defense, I'd say Pillars of Eternity did contribute by rebalancing the functional roles of different classes, so that they are all more or less meaningful both in and outside of combat (which sadly is a huge and defining part of many cRPG's).
While all Infinity Engine games had a huge impact in computer games, I wouldn't say they qualify as prime examples of commercial success. Planescape: Torment, was sort of a commercial failure in its time. Then again, Dragon Age: Origins probably did sell well but I don't see how it can be in the same list as Fallout 1/2, BG 1/2 or PS:T. DA:O provides no new relevant gameplay elements whatsoever (an approach to MMO,, yes), and while it was good for 2009 it would have been barely OK only a decade earlier. I get what you mean, you are trying to define some abstract category for "Trend Setters". Games like Fallout 1/2, BG 1/2 and even Morrowind DID define their own subgenre, (maybe like what Half-Life did for the FPS genre) and for the most part continue to be the measuring stick for games past and future. This is why you measure Pillars of Eternity in "BGs".
And yes, games like the Banner Saga and Expeditions: Conquistador and others have some actual RP-elements, but in my opinion their other elements and limitations make them more consistent with Strategy game design. Again, let's leave it as an opinion, the "what is" debate is stale and pointless.
If you care about more innovative RPG's or games with RP-elements, I think Sui Generis is trying to do precisely that. Then there's Torment: Tides of Numenera, which like you said is not out yet but features a complete reimagination of what cRPG combat should be. In their defense, I'd say Pillars of Eternity did contribute by rebalancing the functional roles of different classes, so that they are all more or less meaningful both in and outside of combat (which sadly is a huge and defining part of many cRPG's).
From what I've heard, Witcher 3 isn't really innovative either when it comes to RPG aspects. So what exactly speaks to you in it that makes it a better RPG than other recent examples?
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From something innovative, I'd add Underworld Ascendant. While it's inspired by original Ultima Underworld games, they have a lot of fresh ideas there.
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Anyway, this discussion really belongs in this thread: http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/16789-Playing-Classic-RPGs
or this one if you want to focus on TW3: http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/53592-Roleplaying-elements-in-the-Witcher-3
What makes the Witcher innovative? No fetch quests, the amount of quests to fill the world, the amount of writing and storytelling in even the small quests, finally an open world that actually feels alive, first game with a modern engine and in an open world setting that managed to really capture the look and feel of a large city. Basically the writing, the details, the art of story telling. That is pretty innovative because nobody had tried to go for such a dense approach in an open world before and succeeded.
It's funny you say that because I've had a conversation with someone on the Assassin's Creed subreddit who told me he didn't like the Witcher 3 because it was full of fetch quests.
But... I think this conversation is going a bit off topic, aren't we meant to be discussing Dragon Age Inquisition?
It's leaps & bounds better than other AAA RPGs. The quests aren't good as most cRPGs, however.
I finally bought this. It has a lackluster beginning that doesn't come close to the ME series or DA:O for impact. The environments feel a bit sterile compared to other worlds we see in games, but they're a step up from anything else in DA in terms of exploration. Most everything is soundly designed though, and easy to pick up. I'm not gonna have the same connection to the characters compared to DA:O, they already irritate me. But I got this on the cheap just to see where Bioware was headed with the series and in some key elements I agree with what they've done. I still feel they need to go back to square one and quit trying to reinvent the series. Being a classic, high fantasy CRPG was original's appeal.
