I have some criticisms for Dragon Age: Inquisition.
By Yummylee 65 Comments
Like many I'm sure, I've been spending an awful lot of my time in Dragon Age's land of Thedas. I was pretty pumped to return leading up to release; many of the gameplay videos, trailers, interviews and the like proved that BioWare had actually taken feedback and the many criticisms of Dragon Age II to heart.
I should preface this all by saying that I don't think Inquisition is a bad game, far from it in fact, and that I am enjoying myself... yet at the same time there are so many nagging issues in the back of my mind that I simply can't escape, no doubt akin to the very Calling that haunts the Grey Wardens............................. >_>
...Anywhoo I haven't actually even finished the game yet, which is partly because I'm not quite as engaged as I was hoping to be. Though there's also the fact that I've already got two simultaneous playthroughs going on... That's a thing with me I'm afraid. I just can't help myself when I'm greeted with character creators or multiple classes in games, and I invariably end up playing multiple characters at once. It took me forever to actually get a single completion out of Diablo III in particular as I was playing through with every single class. I would have ideally gotten at least one playthrough before I post this, but the game is of course so damn long that I want to at least express my current thoughts before I reach the end.
In any case, while there's a lot left to be seen, I've invested more than enough hours for my problems to stick out. So, to begin with:
Single Player MMO-itis
To put it bluntly, many of the side-quests in the game are pretty dull and wholly predictable. The majority play out as a bunch of piecemeal fetch quests that involve you talking to Quest Giver, heading over yonder to collect Item or kill Thing, and then returning for your Reward. What they notably lack is typically what I would assume most come to BioWare games for, and that's character interaction. There's very little actual discussion or diplomacy going on amidst these quests; you'll simply talk to person, ask what they want, then go and do it. Once you return you simply note that you've done what they asked and accept your reward. It's all rather straightforward and completely clashes with the way quests could pan out in games like the KOTOR series or, more importantly, Dragon Age: Origins.
Origins in particular often allowed you to steer many of the game's quests and character interactions in pretty drastic directions. This would typically mean you could potentially kill the quest giver, or demand more of a reward; you could blackmail, lie, persuade, or even turn away your reward for the more altruistic playthroughs. Inquisition seemingly has none of that, however. The only one example I can think of is the quest with Solas where you meet some Dalish mage; upon working with her in killing the demons in a dungeon, she collects a trinket to keep for herself. From there you're given the prompt to kill her, or could alternatively have Solas persuade her to give it to you, or... just end the quest then and there with her keeping the trinket.
This is particularly disappointing for the slightly more involved quests, such as one that had me invade this secret dwarven carta base. As a dwarf character myself, with a history in the carta at that, that should have spelled out excitement as I perhaps use my history to... I dunno, do something other than just slaughter my way through everything? Unfortunately, no, that's all the quest entailed, as do the rest of them. Sometimes a person of importance may instead be brought to you to be judged back at homebase, but that there's zero potential for diplomacy out in the field itself is still unfortunate regardless.
Another good example is with my alternate Qunari character after encountering some spirit in Old Crestwood. It's all pissy because it doesn't have the freedom of manipulation in our world as it does in The Fade. Now, I've been roleplaying my Qunari as someone that doesn't trust spirits/demons and as such even decided to cast Cole away -- I'd have killed him if it was possible. But for this specific quest, there's no actual option besides doing as the spirit says and heading to this dungeon and killing a Rage Demon. I could alternatively just decline the quest... but there should be a better method of being able to wrap the quest up without simply declining the quest; there should be a way to be ticked off and ostensibly 'completed' without bending to the quest giver's demands. With the way I've played my Qunari she would have reactively attempted to cut the spirit down if possible; even if the spirit flees or what have you or is invulnerable for whatever reason, at least give me the option. Part of what I love about Origins in particular is how you can define your character not only with the bigger decisions, but the smaller ones you're constantly having to make as well.
As I wander about the vast expanse of the game's many environments and uncover a new town and the like, I should be excited at the prospect of seeing what I could find! What stories I could uncover and take part in, but instead it's usually a sense of preempted exhaustion. When I unlock a new area I already know what's in store: collecting stuff and killing things. Attack first, ask questions maybe. And given the many other inspirations Dragon Age has taken from Mass Effect, how did they somehow miss to incorporate the Renegade mid-scene prompts??
Now don't get me wrong, killing things is a lot of fun in this game and I'm enjoying the combat a good deal. However when that's pretty much exclusively what you can expect from anything besides the major story beats... it can feel rather one-note. It brings to mind the Deep Roads segment of Origins, as it's one, long stretch of what is essentially pure combat, with some story stuff at the end. Now I actually liked this segment a fair bit to the contrary of most, as I enjoy the combat of these games and relished the chance to explore and fight my way through this huge dungeon. However with Inquisition the 'Deep Roads' is encompassing far more of the game than even I am happy with.
Which is a shame, because the areas themselves are beautiful and indeed expansive. The Hinterlands alone feels like it's larger than the entirety of Kirkwall. And to that I do still enjoy exploring around, but it's only for the simple pleasures of taking in the environments and not for picking up new quests.
Either do exactly what I say, or don't do anything at all...?
I'm no doubt preaching to the choir on this one, but it simply baffles me as to why they would completely nerf your party scripting and AI pattern setting potential. Playing on Hard mode, it has forced a significant amount of micromanagement as leaving your party to their own devices is usually a direct path to annihilation. I have turned off near all of my party's abilities as they rarely ever use them when they're the most appropriate and often left me waiting on cooldowns to use an ability when I wanted to use it.
It also results in situations like with Vivienne's melee slash spell ability. When turned on this will mean that Vivienne will actually sometimes charge into the fray and start slashing at people... which is not where you'd perhaps want your mage to be. But with it turned off, that means that I always have to pause and then switch to her myself and mash the appointed button to use it. Varrick's poison cloud ability is another good example.
Having to constantly tell my party where to go and/or telling them to hold position can be annoying at times, too. Especially when my Qunari rogue has low health yet continues to charge right towards the flaming Rage Demon. With so much to manage I will sometimes forget to tell a party member to do so-and-so, which may invariably lead to their demise. Like, why can't I assign formations and the like?
Basically I just want to be able to have my tank choose to taunt when he's surrounded by three enemies rather than doing it myself, or allowing him to use it himself, which will inevitably lead to him using it as soon as a fight erupts regardless of how many enemies he's near. I don't mind having to essentially play complete battles from the tactical camera and meticulously pausing and unpausing... but it can at times feel like there's more busy work involved than is necessary.
That even Dragon Age II allows more party customisation just leaves me scratching my head as to why they'd water it down to such a degree for an RPG of such a larger scope.
It's the little things
I will admit that the lack of decent side quests and party scripting are my primary complaints thus far and takes up the bulk of the blog, but there's still many more such little cuts spread throughout this thing. Each one on their own isn't anything much to be dismayed by, but when viewed altogether they start to form a pretty significant gash...
The character creator isn't their best
I quite liked the DAII character creator. It isn't as diverse as what you would find in Dragon's Dogma for example, but it allowed me to create characters I liked to look at with surprising ease. The lack of selectable races was pretty damning, but by and large it was a character creator I enjoyed tinkering with.
Inquisition I can't say the same. For starters, the hair and beard selection isn't nearly up to the standards set by DAII, and it also looks ugly as sin at that. There's like 6 different varieties of buzzcuts, and many of the beards look like the plastic novelty kind really; stubble also looks like little coloured specs that have been dotted on as well.
That there's no way (AFAIK) for you to be able to tweak your character mid-game is insane. Even DAII allowed you the option to edit your Hawke, albeit through a preorder bonus... Letting you choose from a number of races again, including the debut of Qunari, is mighty appreciative all the same. Still, much like in Mass Effect in particular, even if the character itself may look fine in the creator, actually seeing your character in-game may perhaps tell a different story.
I'm something of a perfectionist when it comes to character creators personally and I always enjoy making the odd tweak here and there, and that you're literally stuck with your character looking the exact same for a 100 or so hours seems like a massive oversight.
Lack of cosmetic armour variety
Still on the cosmetic side of things, the armour variety has been dreadfully slim from what I've seen. Despite putting in a good 30 or so hours into my main playthrough, I've only encountered like 3 or 4 different armour styles. The most common being that hideous coat. Furthermore, these armour types seemingly carry over across different classes! As my rogue has also often been restricted to the same few armour styles, including that same damn coat and the piece of armour that's just like 60% chainmail.
I do at least like how adding in new attachments will edit your armour's look at least, but still, the bulk of the armour pieces themselves have left me wanting for so long now. Part of why I enjoy playing as warriors in these games is due to the awesome armour you're likely to find and wear, yet with no such luck so far despite hitting around level 14.
Say what I want you to say when I say it.
One of my primary issues with how BioWare design their RPGs these days is the increase in having your character talk for themselves. It was particularly egregious in Mass Effect, as Shepard became more and more of a defined character across the series. Though with a series like Dragon Age it sticks out all the more. The whole idea behind Inquisition with the multiple races should be that you are creating your own character. Hawke was essentially Dragon Age's own Shepard, but with the different races--each with their own backstory you can tailor slightly during conversation--your character is supposed to be your character.
On some occasions the game will at least allow you to choose how to respond mid-travel by pressing R3 to bring up the dialogue wheel, but more often than not your character will simply talk for themselves. It's nowhere near as prevalent as in Mass Effect 3 for example--where Shepard quite literally seems to talk for him/herself for like 40% of the dialogue--but every time it occurs it's like adding another penny to the jar.
Furthermore, and this is a problem with the dialogue wheel in general, what I choose my character to say and what will actually come out of their mouths often isn't 1-1. And I don't mean because your dialogue wheel option is typically 3-4 words whereas the dialogue is of course whole sentences, but rather the direction it may go in and the way my character delivers the line isn't always what I intended.
No more Rivalries?
One of the genuine innovations Dragon Age II brought to the series was the concept of Rivalries. These existed alongside Friendships, so as to allow you to still 'unlock' a party members dialogue despite this character potentially disagreeing with the majority of your actions. It's especially important for how it defeated the possible pressure of having to pander to characters so they'll like you, as you'll now still establish a relationship with a character... just not one that isn't entirely friendly is all!
For Inquisition however, it doesn't look like that's still a thing? Hell, I have no idea how you're supposed to track your character relationships in general. Perhaps they wanted it to feel more organic overall by not giving each party member a bar to measure their like/dislike of you? If that's the case then why in the Hell do they still pamper the screen with Approval and Disapproval notices?
Oh! Conclusion!
It once again need be said that first: I am still mostly enjoying my time with Inquisition, and second: I've still got many hours to go before I hit the credit scroll. I again enjoy the combat, the game's environments look stunning, many of your party members are likeable, and the story is... a BioWare story, I guess. Least as of where I am now. There's a great sense of progression as you're just constantly benefiting and building up the inquisition throughout. Also, the soundtrack's pretty grand; the campfire scene (you know the one) legitimately gave me goosebumps!
The openness of the environments also allows for a little bit of emergent gameplay. Nothing that'll rival the kings of the open world genre, but witnessing bandits fighting off wildlife helps in establishing the world around you. The more busier environments are also just that -- busy! There's often more people on screen doing whatever, and when the game wants to look cluttered, it will do so.
All the same, Inquisition still hasn't quite matched what I'd want to see out of a successor to Origins -- which only continues to look all the more impressive and ballsy by each passing year. Inquisition has certainly at the very least aspired and succeeded in remedying many of the ails brought about from DAII... But similar such issues still persist, and the Mass Effect influence is as invasive as ever.
Unfortunately what the 50 or so hours in Inquisition has told me is that Dragon Age is likely never going to match the crazy amount of flexibility that Origins offered, and that's... unfortunate, to say the least. Still, I will assuredly complete this game -- twice even most likely! Even DAII managed to wrangle two playthroughs out of me. Whether I'll actually bother to partake in more of the game's outer activities and explore many more of the open areas that are available is a little more ambiguous, however. Perhaps the side quests get a little more interesting as the game continues? While I would at least appreciate it, that there are so many huge areas full of boring junk quests is still a criticism that can't be ignored.
The one bright spot amongst all this is that I now suddenly have a real hankering for giving Origins (and maybe even DAII) another run through one day. Never did finish a playthrough with the dwarven commoner Origin.
MUSIC TO OUTRO BLOG WITH
67 Comments