Dragon Age Origins is a fantastic game, I played through it 4 times with different characters.

Dragon Age 2 felt like a much smaller game, perhaps rushed to the market, but it had an interesting story and characters that made the game enjoyable.

Dragon Age Inquisition feels like a game made solely to combat the negative criticism that the second game received. At the same time it feels like a game that was created by committee, shoehorning in all of the most popular elements of modern RPGs and losing its heart and soul.

The game is in no way a "bad game," just one without its own identity.

My first 8 hours with the game have consisted of me running around expansive maps towards icons, killing random templars/apostates whom I can barely distinguish from one another, and reading codex entries which are far more interesting than anything going on in the game.

None of the characters are interesting.

The combat is a poor approximation of a 5 year old MMO.

When you speak to a character it does not go into the sort of "conversation mode" that bioware games are known for. By this I mean the camera stays the same as if you were just roaming around the world, except now a conversation wheel has popped up.

The story seems rather aimless. Templars and Mages are at war because reasons, theres a green hole in the sky leaking demons because I don't know why, and my hand can close the hole but not until after I revive an ancient order and unite everyone.

I spent $60 on it, so I honestly do hope it improves. But I as I play it I can't shake the feeling that I am wasting my time.

The templars and mages are at war because of what happened at the conclave which allowed the mages to escape from the templar order. The fact that the equivalent of the pope died along with the rising tensions between the two probably didn't help. The hole in the sky and your ability to close the rifts seems like a part of a larger mystery so I'm not surprised they didn't divulge that information 8 hours into the game. I'm liking the characters at Haven so far as well as the ones in my party (Solas excluded). So far it's been a great experience (aside from that technical clustefuck where a few of my saves were corrupted).

Don't forget that Templars/Mages had lots of tension in DA:Origins as well. Alistair and Morrogin simply hated eachother, based on opposite "factions" and personalities. Also the story in Origins sucked.............but the characters were pretty good (Alistair and Morrogin were great characters)

I cannot lie pretty much all of your points are totally valid, but it's a fun time and quite addicting. I think how people will feel about this game greatly depends on there expectations going into playing it. Origins is a much better game to me since it has a huge story focus with lots of conversations and a atmosphere which this game sorely lacks which makes it feel pretty soul less. I have yet to see a choice here where i have felt that i have made a real impact in any sense. Regardless i am having a fun time with it and i will continue on before i make a final judgment, you never know my friend.

Story is aimless? The equivalent of a nuclear bomb just went off and blew their peace talks to shit and they are both blaming each other now and your first objective is to stop them, it was pretty straightforward. I enjoy all of the characters so far, just met blackwell and he has already proven to be a badass (Too bad I already decided my party makeup, maybe next play through he can come along). Although I already hate Serra, almost regret taking her with me now. Funnily I felt origins combat felt like a 5 year old MMO, the game feel depends a lot if your using a keyboard or controller. The keyboard controls are unfortunately pretty bad, if you have a gamepad I recommend using it if you can. All I can say is keep at it, but if you really don't enjoy it refund it though origin if you can.

Recomending a gamepad for a series that used to be horrible for gamepads? Whoh! Even DA2 had good keyboard support IIRC

@mcfart: Yeah I know, its the one part of the game that is a true shame. It's not totally unplayable but man you can tell the combat was not designed with a keyboard in mind. I play a rogue which is more positional dependent so something like a mage might work better. I'll hold onto some hope they will patch better keyboard controls in at some point.

To each their own. For me this is the first time in this series where there's not some major flaw holding it back. Even if not everything is perfect, there's nothing about it that I outright dislike, unlike the other DA games. I was almost going to skip Inquisition honestly, until I started paying closer attention over these last few months and I've pretty much gotten what I wanted/expected.

There are times where it feels a bit too much like they're trying to overcompensate for the negative feedback from 2, but ultimately it's still a better game for it. I'm glad they at least tried to make progress and didn't just make Origins 2.

I politely disagree with basically everything said in the OP. If you bought it for consoles, sell it back while it still holds its value, because clearly this game isn't for you. And that's fine. Not everything has to be for everyone. Just be the better person, accept you don't like the game and move on.

@asurastrike: Have you met Sera yet? I love that character and she is probably my favorite of the series. Butts Butts Butts!

To be fair, centuries of religious and political strife, imprisonment, and abuse, culminating in the mysterious mass-murder of everyone from both sides willing to seek peace, is technically "reasons".

Also I like the M&KB controls except I need to get used to Ctrl to pause. Whenever things start going bad I always end up jumping.

@starvinggamer: I swapped space and ctrl, so space is pause and ctrl is jump.

I don't see how not going into "cutscene mode" when in conversations is a bad thing and besides, not all of them do that. Most of the important conversations you will have are nicely presented and edited, while ones that flesh out the world or character's backstory will just have a simple dialogue wheel.

It's a shame, but if you've played for eight hours and still not enjoying it, I don't know what would make you like it.

Most of the things the OP said are things that very much could have been applied to Dragon Age: Origins in its first 8 hours. If they truly did make another great game like Origins, you literally wouldn't be able to tell, because 8 hours wouldn't be a large portion of the game.

What's more, DA2 was so god awful across the board in art, design, and writing, that I cannot imagine how anything could be disappointing compared to it. In fact, my biggest complaint about DAI so far is that it is a sequel to DA2. Everything DA2 did was stupid, so having them continue from all the stupid places that DA2 took us is the worst part of this new game.

For all of DA2's faults it was way better looking that DA: Origins which looked more like a Lord of the Rings ripoff.

I don't know about that. Each of the "origins" had something happen immediately before you got the "main story/problem". To say that it is the same seems kind of odd.

I believe the issue is that DAO was geared as the first and introduction to the world while this game is not. You can't have the first "quest" in the first game have some crazy detailed thing where the player needs to start making "big choices" immediately. My memory of all of the "origins" where straight forward "something bad has happened, fix this now" where later you are faced "oh crap! dark spawns!! make choices to fix this!!!" while DAI throw the player into a situation that involves psuedo-politics and psuedo-religion tensions where the player may not know which way is what.

Imagine if Massive Chalice had the budget of Dragon Age behind it? That would be cool.

i think most of those points could not only be applied to dragon age origins but rpgs in general and most of those problems you had arent even problems.characters are not going to blow you away in 8 hours,if you expected them too you already ruined every rpg game for you out of the gate because its not going to happen.im 17 hours in and i think these are some of the best characters in the series.if you think the combat feeling a little mmoish is a problem,then origins was way worse.on top of that if you liked origins then you should like the combat because its more like origins,which is what most people wanted.whats wrong with bioware fixing all the problems that dragon age origins people wanted fixing?considering you liked origins this should be a massive improvement over the previous two games.i could go and on but im not.honestly with what you are saying here i dont know how you ever liked origins to begin with,because all of the stuff you said was in origins and was worse in origins.im starting to see a pattern of a new game coming out in a loved series and getting crapped on saying its not as good as the previous games,when most of those games fix all the previous games problems and add new things.honestly i think people complain just to complain,and even if the best game of all time came to them they would find something to say "this game sucks,the other games in the series was better"gamers dont know what they want anymore.i already know its the GOTY and easily one of my fave games ever for me,i just need to play more to see how high up on that list it will be.

After my first 8 hours of DAO I thought it was pretty generic, had a lot of MMO stuff, and the characters weren't very interesting. The first 8 hours of DAO are not significantly better than those of DAI. I don't think any specific 8 hours of any RPG ever actually give you a good picture of the quality of the overall game. The end of DAO where you're saying goodbye to everybody would have been total crap without having spent the last 50 hours with them. RPGs are cumulative.

That isn't the point. It isn't that DAO started "exciting" or that "it feels like an MMO" or that it was even an okay game but to say it same confusing mess that DAI where you are running from here to there not sure what is going is what I object too. Each of the origins are a little self contained story that is pretty straightforward in the context where you didn't need to know much beyond the immediate situation. On the other hand, DAI does seem to require a bit more where I can see if you don't know or simply forgot about some of the details of the "Dragon Age World" then you'd get confused why you were doing somethings.

Funny part is that people complained that Origins was using MMO-like combat back when it came out.

this is what im saying people like to complain.people complained about lots of stuff when origins was out,then they complained dragon age 2 wasnt like origins enough,then they complain when inquisition is like origins again.people just wont be happy no matter what a dev does.if they listen to the fans they hate the game,if they dont listen to the fans they complain that they dont listen to the fans.youre damned if you do damned if you dont,its getting really annoying seeing this all the time.whatever ill just go play and enjoy games since no one else seems to want to,even if its exactly what they asked for.

@asurastrike: I'm not really sure how can can play through Origins 4 times and DA2 and be confused as to why the mages and Templars are at war.

8 hours in, and I'm hooked like a big mouth bass.

I'm not sure why anyone would ever say that because of the big fat space-bar/pause feature. You needed to pause and issue commands. If nothing else people complained it wasn't enough like Baulder's Gate without the "overhead view". In fact some lamented they won't make them like that any more.

Whew, as others have said, I'm going to have to disagree with the OP on pretty much all points. The game is not perfect, KB+M controls and removal of AI tactics are very legitimate grievances.

Uninteresting characters: Give it time. You're 8 hours into an 80 hour game. You haven't even met 75% of the characters, and the ones you have aren't going to spill all their darkest secrets or strongest emotions to someone they just met.

5 year old MMO combat: Not sure what MMO you are playing...but it must have awesome combat. The feel is so much better than an mmo...when I hit someone with my sword, I actually HIT them. I don't just wing in their general direction and watch their health tick down. There's a lot going on, especially once you're a bit higher level and have to balance things like guard or stealth with your damage output. Again, give it some time. Origins combat was pretty ass for more than 8 hours, IMO.

Conversation mode: important main quests or companion quests/conversations are still in the cinematic view, and they are better than ever in terms of people moving around and acting like real people while they talk. It's just some of the side stuff and less important "expositiory" companion dialogue that isn't. Which, honestly, is fine. It means I can walk away from Mother Giselle immediately if I get bored of her history lesson, instead of having to skip through all the rest of her lines and then say "I'll be going now"

Aimless story: ??? Your aims are pretty clear. You need to build an organization to restore order in the wake of so many important leaders being killed, and find out who is responsible, and stop the rifts. Also, most reviewers say it picks up significantly in the second act, where your Inquisition is a more established power and you have to start making some really important decisions.

@extomar: You can pause it, but it still has that pseudo real-time-but-not-quite combat that most MMO's have. Origins gave me the same kind of feeling of a lousy middle-ground between turn-based combat and real-time action-y combat that often turned me off of MMO combat.

Either give me complete turn-based control like an Xcom or Divinity or give me real control over my character. (ie, less dice-rolls, more direct input.)

I would say obviously if you don't like it that much don't play it, but the game really does shapes up when you get your second home base. Maybe 10-15 hrs in if you are doing lots of side stuff.

That sounds, painful.

The first Dragon Age had MMO combat as well, it's a series staple.

The whole "MMO" combat comparison is really fucking stupid, guys. Last I checked, MMO's don't have a pause feature and you don't play an entire customizable party in those games. Also there's more dudes in a typical battle in Dragon Age. So please stop. Call it a poor man's Baldur's Gate if you have to.

Haven't played Inquisition yet so I can't talk about it, but I'm pretty salty about these semantics.

Have Bioware just completely forgotten how to make games? I've tried playing through the prologue with both mouse and keyboard and with a controller, and both control schemes are utter dogshit. What the fuck were they actually thinking with the tac cam? It's like it was designed by somebody who has never played or even seen a game before, and merely had the vaguest concept of a tactical game described to them. I'd have felt embarrassed about turning this standard of work in for a homework assignment, let alone for a professionally made retail product.

If you want to play it like a third-rate action game and watch your party very inefficiently kill everybody then this game has you covered. If you want to actually play the thing like the tactical party-based RPG it's purported to be then it's a complete mess. The tac cam is unfit for purpose in its current state and pretty much wrecks the game from a 'play it tactically' perspective. It makes me long for the halcyon days of DA2's tactical combat, that's how fucked it is.

I'm hesitant to address this, as it kind of reads like one of those 0/10 metacritic reviews, but the last sentence got me. You honestly think DA2's combat was better?? Your main complaint is the tac cam, but DA2 didn't even have that. You want to play it like DA2, then do that, and ignore the tac cam!

Hey, so, in Origins there was a "Blight" thing that happened every few years, with a new dragon (archdemon) leading the charge. There were like 5 archdemons in total (3 archdemons were left after Origins). My question: what happened with that stuff?

Yes, it was better. DA2 may have been consolified and rushed to death but it had a somewhat functional UI at least.

I can't ignore the tac cam and play Inquisition like DA2, for two reasons: auto-attack bizarrely only works in tac cam, and they removed the gambit system, which was the lynchpin of DA2's tactical gameplay. The only way to currently play it is the 'Button, AWESOME!' way (except it's not awesome at all; it's a poor action game) or to fight the awful UI to try and play it the 'tactical' way. I have little interest in either of those options.

Blights are still a threat, but they're typically every 100+ years rather than every few years.

I have to point out there is another possibility: He may think both DA2 and DAI have "less than desirable combat engines".

I'm inclined to agree with the core complaint though: If it is an action game, then it should offer action game controls. If it is a tactics game, then it should offer tactics controls. DAI doesn't appear to do either well so it is fights don't feel great and are more frustrating than they feel they need to be.

I loved and completed DA:O, and like many skipped DA2 after the negative reviews. I dont look at preview stuff much, and waited for the reviews to come in to sway me on this game. The reviews were generally great, so i bought it....and so far, I dislike (hate is a bit much) the game. Granted only 7 hours in, and its still winding up but its not the story thats the problem, its the mechanics. The inventory system, the new tactical camera/system, the regular combat system, the pressing the fucking L3 button 5 million times to radar elfroot. These are all forgivable things for the first game in the series, but these are the 'refinements' BioWare came up with in the third game in the series! If this is the blueprint for future Mass Effects like people have been saying, I am now tepid on the prospects of playing a new mass Effect.

I will continue to play the game and may end up enjoying it. But if I do, it will be in spite of what I believe to be misguided and downright sloppy design decisions.

I wasn't a huge fan of DAO, I never even played DA2, but for some reason I felt compelled to get this game and I've really enjoyed it so far.

As far as controls go, the keyboard and mouse controls really are not good. I'll accept calling them "terrible", even, and there' no real reason why they should be. Why didn't they just do exactly what Origins did, exactly as Origins did it as far as keyboard and mouse controls go? That said, I have had zero issues playing this game with a controller. I don't feel like that's a bad option at all.

Otherwise? I really like it. An RPG with massive, open areas and tons of stuff to see and do in them? That's pretty much what I wanted and pretty much what I got. Maybe I'll have more complaints later.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, I do have a complaint. Sera. Sera is really, really annoying.

I'm at about the same play time, and nothing has also happened for me. But that's because I'm having a blast exploring and getting side tracked. And not worrying about the main quest yet, because I just like how the game plays. For as long as the game sounds like it lasts, I don't think 8 hours in is giving it a fair chance.

Oh my god you are crazy. Sera is the best character hands down. I love her puerile sense of humor and rogueish personality she brings to the party especially when juxtaposed against someone like Vivienne who couldn't be more opposite of Sera.

I just wanted her to shut up from the moment she started talking.

Well, they do pretty much give you the option to by letting you kick her out of the Inquisition at any time. Just go and talk to her in the town, select "special" and there's an option to kick her out. That said, I'm with @demoskinos in that I think she's one of the better characters.

Dude makes a thread. Other duders discuss with him. Original dude keeps defending his first post with zealot-like mentality, never considering the other duders' points.

It's one of those threads... Again.

I mean, I kinda want all the characters hanging around my camp, but I'm never going to actually use her.

I'm not saying anything against people who like her, I'm saying that I took an instant dislike to her.

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, the thread opener hasn't made another post.

Clearly you do not know what the hell you are talking about. Why Mages and Templars are at war is explained at great lengths throughout everywhere. Why rifts are appearing gets explained fairly early in the game.

Conversation cameras exist and in addition there are miscellaneous conversations where you can pan the camera as you see fit. "Bioware-conversation-camera" appears during the very first moments of the game. If you have played the game at all you should know this.

Battle gets interesting fairly early in the game there are controls that need to get used to, that's a fact, but the combat is by no means bad.

Either you are not telling the truth about your 9 hours or you are an idiot.

Hah, my bad. Just figured the dude commenting and discussing with everything and everyone was him.

Well what can I say. I'm a stupid cynic.

I'm the person who started the topic, I've been really busy teaching and haven't had any time to check back until just now. An article from Kotaku of all places helped me to better enjoy the game, I just needed to leave the Hinterlands and advance the story farther along. I still think I enjoyed Dragon Age Origins more, but the game is certainly better than I had originally thought.

@asurastrike said:

Having played about 20 more hours than you have, I would disagree with a majority of your points. The story has picked up quite a lot at where I'm at, and even before that, I wouldn't say it was aimless. The tension/problems between the mages and templars have been mounting since the series started.

I've recruited most (?, maybe all) of the characters and would say I find most of them to be interesting/fun.

I totally agree about the lack of a conversation zoom in... that's pretty disappointing, especially for a game that has such good looking face models.

I think the combat is one of the game's weakest spots as well, it definitely isn't as interesting or strategic as Origins' combat was. I'm playing on hard in order to get some sort of challenge from it. I also initially played with friendly fire on, but that was more trouble than it was worth.

So you have some decent, valid points to make against the game. I would keep at it! The story definitely develops in some cool ways and I was actually kind of blown away by how awesome the "mage recruiting" quest was in terms of story. Fun stuff.