641: Dragon Age: Inquisition

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Dragon Age: Inquisition for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[ashman86]

There aren't many games in my past that I have waited on more impatiently than I did for Dragon Age: Origins, which BioWare originally billed as a spiritual successor to their Baldur's Gate games. That game, for the most part, lived up to the promise they had set and felt like it trailed a path forward for cRPGs in a day and age that had largely set them aside.

I love Origins. It's one of my all-time favorite RPGs, but I never got fell in love with Thedas like I did with BioWare's other worlds (original or otherwise), and there's a strange shadow that hangs over the series for me like a bitter aftertaste that's hard to explain. DA2, in particular, really disappointed me, but I mostly came around to that game by the end of it due, in no small part, to its cast of characters.

Inquisition looked like it would be a return to form, and I remember being particularly excited about the tactical camera they were adding to the game, which I'd hoped would enable the same kind of tacitcal real-time with pause gameplay I'd loved in Origins and its spiritual predecessors. It looked like it would be bigger, better, and more cinematic in nearly every way but remain a true-to-heart RPG with tons of gear to find and/or craft, new class specializations, and a massive world to explore.

And Inquisition largely lives up to those promises. It's an incredible game in many ways, but it does a few things that I think mar the package overall. First and foremost: this game is too big for its own good. The influences of WOW and Skyrim are both apparent as soon as you're set free in the Hinterlands, and while those are great games in their own right, I think BioWare excels when they build their games around depth, not width.

On the other hand, Inquisition's streamlined in some bizarre ways that feel like steps backwards from its predecessors. Combat feels pretty punch at first, but encounters drag out for far too long as you whittle down damage sponge elites and bosses (at least on Nightmare). Playing as a mage, I should feel like I command all the power of the elements, but even my best spells are just little icons on cooldown. It can be satisfying in some ways, almost like playing a rhythm action game, but it's ultimately not fulfilling. And the tactical camera is all but useless in most encounters.

Atop that, they stripped companion AI customization to a bare minimum, whereas its predecessors had taken healthy inspiration from Final Fantasy XII's clever gambit system, and building your own character just feels a little, I dunno, blah.

I've put nearly 200 hours into Inquisition, and I still haven't finished it. I like the game a lot, and I intend to finally button it up before DA:D launches, but, man, do I wish this game weren't so bloated.

[MauricioMM]

Back when Dragon Age: Origins released, I was totally unfamiliar with BioWare’s catalog of games. That, I think, helped me feel pleasantly surprised with that first game in the series and, even though I wasn’t (and still am not) too interested in the second game due to several reasons, I was hugely interested in trying the third one, Inquisition, specifically because of its setting, its open-world approach, its improved combat, its art direction and, of course, its cast of characters.

Well, after having spent easily between 200-250 hours on the game and its DLCs a few years ago—a bit after the GOTY edition launched—I can say that, yes, the actually-not-so-improved combat (due in no small part to its mediocre tactical camera), the excessive filler content featured in pretty much all the larger regions and the meh-worthy main villain were my biggest disappointments but, besides that, the time I spent on it was wonderful Thanks hugely to the other aspects that hyped me about the game, notably:

• The regions and the art direction: I regret not having taken that many screencaps because most of the game’s regions had wondrous vistas, impressive architecture, really lovely artworks and interesting locations that deserved a few spots in a museum’s wall... or at least in the walls of my room My favorite ones were the Emerald Graves, the Western Approach, the Frostback Basin, Val Royeaux and, of course, the gorgeous Winter Palace.
• The characters: I missed playing a party-based game where its members actually interacted both with the main character and with each other in deep, intriguing and even funny ways. Thankfully this game filled that need back then, especially with characters as (mostly) well-written as Dorian, Solas, Varric, Cassandra (discovering her being

  Spoiler: show

  a fangirl of Varric’s romance books

  was a highlight of the whole game ), among others.

I so do not look forward to trudge through the filler quests again but I do plan to play the whole game again in the future

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My three word review:
Filler Yet Killer