Dragon Age IV

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The most essential difference is in the tactis. With 25 sloths of commands, you can customize how each member of the party will act, who they should defende, attack, what type of enemy they will attack, when they should use each single of their abilities, etc. It's a very extensive list of what you can do, and if you do right, you don't have to micro-manage the combat.
The tactics system in DA2 is better than in DAO. It's more polished.
I want very much this system to combe back, but I lost hope already.

Then there's the healing system. In DAO, not only mages have healing abilities, but you can carry an infinity number of healing potions and mana/stamina, your health also is restored automatically after battle. While in DAI, mages use only barriers and you can have only 8~12 healing potions, you won't find them to loot, but you can replenish them in the camp without any costs.

There's also the matter of items like traps, bombs, types of arrows, talents, skills. Much more variety in DAO.
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Although there's certainly a lack in DA2, I prefer the combat there over DAO because of what they did with rogues. I feel like I owned the battlefield.
Thanks. I never really used the tactics in DAI. Far too intellectual when I could just charge in, though it's possible that from the lack of specific commands, tactics seemed more effort than they were worth, whereas DAO allowed the player to make valuable decisions regarding party combat.

I suppose there being no cost for restocking healing potions in DAI is balanced by the palaver of having to travel back to camp and then out again and by their limited inventory number, as well as the partial (complete?) removal of healing abilities.
 

Sild

Ex-moderator
If this is going to be another DA:I or ME:A type of game i'll pass. They took those games and superficially expanded them until they became as thin as a paper sheet, making the gameplay a glorified walking simulator from question mark to question mark with close to zero worthwhile content.. only fluff, bad one even. There's only so much pretty graphics and an arguably fun combat system can do for a game. And for the love of god stop giving the player a choice about every-single-damn-thing, it was like i was surrounded by naive idiots.
 
That's my opinion, obviously, but the combat system DAO had was pretty good at that time (2009). In fact, both DA2 and DA: Inquisition had way worse combat systems by the time of their releases.
Well I did like that I could use all my spells and abilities...and have to agree that for 2009 it wasn't terrible...but never really cared for the pause/tactical display approach to combat. I really prefer action-oriented strategic combat in real time where my own gaming ability accounts for something. I don't want it to merely be press a button something awesome happens. Obviously just stating my own opinion and preferences.
 
As someone who loved DA: Inquisition, I'm really looking forward to the next one. The best part about Inquisition was getting comfy on your couch with a blanket in the evening, putting on your favorite music and just exploring the different areas, gathering materials to upgrade your weapons, closing dozens of rifts, leveling up, gathering shards - I could do that for hours, it was so relaxing.
 

Guest 3847602

Guest
Still have a soft spot for Bioware, so I'm most likely not skipping this one, way too many fond memories to start avoiding their games. There's also the fact that my second playthrough of DAI was vastly more enjoyable than the first one (whether it was due to some irritating bugs getting fixed, voice acting of Alix Wilton Regan, or simply because I knew exactly what to expect from the game, I'm not sure...)
My biggest worry is EA, how much faith they still have in BW and how much are they willing to invest in what's primarily singleplayer experience. Delegating Andromeda to their B team with very modest budget while saving the best for that looter shooter is ominous sign.
 
Yeah I really liked all the Dragon Age games. I feel like inquisition gets too much hate sometimes. It's wasn't one the best games ever, but it was a solid B+ IMO.
 
I loved Inquisition, minus the grindy running all over the maps to get various items and points and bla bla bla. I also didn't enjoy some of the characters (the main antagonist being one of the key offenders).

But when the devs actually put in their heart, the game shined - I found the quest design for the
Orlesian ball
absolutely mesemerising. It really left a mark on me, the two times I played it.
 
I liked Inquisition more than most people did (even though it's nowhere near DAO's level), but the fact is that they sold the actual ending of the game as a 15€ dlc. F them. The best they can hope to get for me is about 10€ at most for a complete edition.
 

Sild

Ex-moderator
It's been mediocrity with them since DA2 and that's the problem. They were at the forefront of AAA rpgs at one time.

Exactly, so many awesome games by them like NwN, KotOR, Mass Effect trilogy, DA:O.

Not sure what happened.. maybe it was EA, maybe the people that made those games moved on, but it's just not the same studio anymore and it seems to be getting worse. No matter how flawed DA:I was it was still miles above ME:A.
 
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Guest 3847602

Guest
I feel like inquisition gets too much hate sometimes. It's wasn't one the best games ever, but it was a solid B+ IMO.
Well, it had the unfortune of arriving too closely to TW3 and being compared to it all the time afterwards, but yeah, I like it now for what it is.
 
I'm not holding my breath on this one. DA: Inquisition was better for sure but still think Origins is the best to this day. As far as I'm concerned DA:2 doesn't exist. I played it through, but never played it again, it was that bad.
 
Exactly, so many awesome games by them like NwN, KotOR, Mass Effect trilogy, DA:O.

Not sure what happened.. maybe it was EA, maybe the people that made those games moved on, but it's just not the same studio anymore and it seems to be getting worse. No matter how flawed DA:I was it was still miles above ME:A.
Yep. I'm in the minority who even liked Jade Empire.

I'm pretty sure that EA is what happened to them. If you go back and look at their original plans for the Dragon Age IP, back when they were still an independent studio, you'll see that it was amazing -- in the unlikely event that you can still find any of it. The plan was to take what they learned from NWN and make a single player, PC-only game with rich RPG elements, battles with hundreds of individual characters, and an upgraded tool kit to tweak the game to your liking and/or create new adventures. The pre-alpha proof of concept they showed was, in my opinion, vastly better than what they eventually released. What we got was a significantly scaled back PC/console hybrid that was still the best in the series. With DA2 and DAI we got the full on EA treatment.
 


Dragon Age: Friendship is Magic!

So, dark fantasy exploitation video game franchise turns 180? Sure thing bud.
 
Well gaming studios don't go from strength to strength all the time. In fact games are very much a hit and miss affair.
And I find it a bit shaky to dismiss future games based on this or that failure.

Origins was the bomb. I didn't like DA2. But I felt they redeemed themselves with Inquisition. There are things they could have done better, but it was still a bomb-ass game.

If we compare it to Witcher 3, there are many things CDPR did better (the main characters, the villains, the atmosphere in many locations, an ACTUAL open world, some of the quest design), but there are also things in the Witcher 3 which suck (cloning of unimportant NPCs, where there was like 3 faces for all generic mainlanders; no changes in the world state after beating the game; etc. etc.)

But yeah, I think optimism is always the best course of action. After all, game studios know that if their game is bomb it's gonna increase the chances of having lots of sales and they'll make money, and that's what they want. If their game is crap, they won't make as much money, and we'll be unhappy, and everyone loses (and EA might shut down another Bioware studio lol).

I personally think CDPR totally dropped the ball with Homecoming. But that doesn't mean I suddenly am afraid that Cyberpunk 2077 is gonna be crap.

Everybody makes mistakes.
 
With the philosophy over at Bioware now, DAIV is going to be hot garbage. (not to mention that EA has raped Bioware of what it once was).

I'll be fair and wait to see more before I call it a raging dumpster-fire.
 
I will be honest. I would have still payed 60 dollars for Witcher 3 after 3 years. Dragon Age i don't care. Even 60 dollars is too low. Witcher 3 has so much content no other game has. Blood and Wine Addon was nominated for GOTY. I am sorry but what is Dragon Age? What is Skyrim? i can speak little bit polish and understand polish. Pay Geralts Voice Actor his money, seriously.

We need another Witcher Game. No Dragon Age. Vesemir Prequel or Eskel Game while Geralts is in Flotsam or Ciri Game in the Future. Maybe playing an unknown character in Nilfgaard with the Viper School. Visiting Francesca Findabair, Kovir, Cintra and Rivia!
 
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That's not a reassuring answer. "Don't bring politics pls" and we get "Oh, you gonna get politics, it's who I am." Not that I'm surprised at all, reading that kind of a response from a Bioware employee that is. Anyway, all the BioWare hopefuls, the optimists and the pragmatists in this thread, I have returned from my 3 hours of Closed Alpha testing of ANTHEM. There was an NDA so I can't tell you anything about the game. But I will tell you this - don't hold your breath. It will be interesting to see how Bungie reacts to ANTHEM, mirrors rarely reflect a flattering image... Things don't bode well for DAIV
 
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