My thoughts on Dragon Age: Inquisition

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ErkableGamer

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Edited By ErkableGamer

Okay, so I've put about 10 hours into Dragon Age: Inquisition, and I can't decide if I am enjoying the act of playing this game. As a fan of western style RPGs like The Elder Scrolls series, I enjoy the huge open nature of just living in the world. Dragon Age tries this in a different way. The older games in the series were more linear, focusing on the main narrative with a few side quests here and there. Inquisition swings in the other direction, filling the world with side quests, to a degree is actually needed to progress the main story. How they do this is by introducing a kind of currency in the form of "power". You need to collect power by doing these side quests to gain assets and allies to Inquisition, allowing you to spend the power you earn to progress in the story. It kind of makes since in the context of the game, but sadly the side quests that I have found myself doing are boring, MMO style in nature, such as "collect 10 meat" and so on.

The main quest is more interesting, filled with dialog choices, and cool characters. I want to see what is going on in the story, but I am forced to go collect herbs and close fade rifts to gain power. It's a weird set back that is making me wonder if it is actually worth playing the boring stuff to get to the cool character moments and learning what is actually going on in the world.

You control a party of four people, in standard Bio-ware fashion, each with there own class abilities and personalities. Depending on who you bring along and what you say and do in the game, the individual members of the party will react and think of your character you create differently. This has been seen in previous Bio-ware games and works here as well as before.

With the negative things I have expressed here, I still feel like there is enough to keep me interested in Dragon Age: Inquisition. I want to love this game and I want to see it to the end. If I feel like I need to write anymore I will; maybe even in the form of a review.

Thanks for reading!

Signed, Eric Groves

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Nasar7

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Some areas have more interesting side content than others. For example I really enjoyed kicking Venatori ass in the western approach. The exalted plains, on the other hand, was a total snooze. Try to find the side quests that are interesting to you and ignore the others. Power isn't really a big deal; at one point I had like 80 power saved up.

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FLStyle

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ErkableGamer

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@flstyle: My apologies, I am very new to writing blogs. But I thank you for letting me know.

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HotPie

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#4  Edited By HotPie

i dont feel like dragon age is open world at all.. the zones are pretty big.. but it still feels like the old bioware games.

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Marcsman

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A game this big needs more than 10 hours.

@jvice152 said:

i dont feel like dragon age is open world at all.. the zones are pretty big.. but it still feels like the old bioware games.

Oi vey. I don't even know where to start with this.

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HotPie

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#6  Edited By HotPie

@marcsman: when i play an open world i am thinking morrowind/skyrim/oblivion/GTA. my mind was blown the first time i loaded up oblivion.. The AI. People are walking around doing stuff, they have objectives, they go home and lock up at night... it feels like a living breathing world.

Dragon age inquisition. Most of the people in the the "towns" are standing still, they dont interact with you or even other people they are next to. They might as well be boxes with a jpeg face on them. I think this is the old Neverwinter nights/baulders gate/D&D type stuff.

I don't even need to bring up all the zones are all segmented.

Just because you widen the hallways and put in elf root doesnt make a game open world.

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FLStyle

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@flstyle: My apologies, I am very new to writing blogs. But I thank you for letting me know.

No worries, keep it up!

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cerberus3dog

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#8  Edited By cerberus3dog

I found the ending lackluster. I thought there was going to be a in depth look at Corypheus but they just wave it off. He comes and goes with no real buildup for tension. The really sad part to me was I thought Corypheus had just as much depth as some of your companions. You get 2-3 side missions with them, a line of dialogue after every mission, and little moments of dialogue interspersed while exploring the world. It lacked the intimate character relations we have experienced in the Mass Effect series and previous Dragon Age games. That was a real bummer for me. (Another bummer was the numerous bugs I encountered during my time with DA:I)

Other than story stuff, I thought I had mastered the combat after 10 hours playing which made the combat for the remaining 100 hours to be a drudge. I think the world looks great and there is some great variation to the environments. It was a blast taking on the High Dragons. That was the most fun I had with DA.

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Hunter5024

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@jvice152 said:

@marcsman: when i play an open world i am thinking morrowind/skyrim/oblivion/GTA. my mind was blown the first time i loaded up oblivion.. The AI. People are walking around doing stuff, they have objectives, they go home and lock up at night... it feels like a living breathing world.

Dragon age inquisition. Most of the people in the the "towns" are standing still, they dont interact with you or even other people they are next to. They might as well be boxes with a jpeg face on them. I think this is the old Neverwinter nights/baulders gate/D&D type stuff.

I don't even need to bring up all the zones are all segmented.

Just because you widen the hallways and put in elf root doesnt make a game open world.

I've never understood why people care about that stuff. My personal game experience is not made better by some AI dude doing stuff I don't care about. It's just technically impressive. Also I cannot get behind the complaints about the segmented zones because that allowed them to create environments that were far more varied than anything you see in Skyrim. Had they opted for one big contiguous world then that would've actually made it seem smaller. I still feel like there's a bunch of places in Orlais and Ferelden that have yet to be explored, and yet I feel like I've seen Skyrim.

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HotPie

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@hunter5024: it makes it more believeable... You put no importance on immersion?

most of the bioware games feel like i am playing with a D&D board... not something that i could mistake for a real world. Not that thats a bad thing... I think it works with mass effect, not so much as a faux open world DA:I. Also, the map definitely made the world feel smaller. I felt like i was playing with a dozen different boards.

Thats before i even go into all the terrible side content that game provides.

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veektarius

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#11  Edited By veektarius

@jvice152: I did not have an immersion problem with DA:I. In fact I do not believe a contiguous land mass would have worked for that game.

As to the OP; the problem with DA:I is that the story isn't worth working toward. It shares the formula of Elder Scrolls in which you either enjoy doing the little sidequests, the zone specific quests and your companion quests, or you don't enjoy the game. Anyone who wants to mainline the story is going to fucking hate it.