Oh man, I'm so glad someone else brought up the Iron Bull twist because it still drives me crazy even now. I honestly can't wrap my head around the notion of it. It's bizarre and completely out of left field, and just handled so poorly. Which is especially glaring considering how the whole Tresspasser DLC is specifically there to deal with a party member's betrayal.
The Solas twist was well-designed. It was cleverly foreshadowed and clearly seeded throughout the entire plot, and it changed the way you viewed the story on reflection. The Bull one is just... cheap, and lazy, and feels like an after thought for nothing but shock value.
I mean, the scene just happens. One minute you're fighting alongside him (if you brought him with you at least, he'll just show up if not) and the next he betrays you and you fight and then... that's it. There's no dialogue, no fallout, barely even a discussion. He dies and you move on. Bull was my Inquisitor's rock the entire game. He and Cass never left my party, and he was even in a serious, awesome relationship with Dorian that had naturally grown over the course of the story. And the game just completely ignores it. Where's the drama? The conflict?
I get it. Game development is hard, and there's budget and time constraints in place about what you can and can't do, but to just sweep vital context aside is a massive disservice to the rest of the game. Why can't I question Bull afterwards as he's dying? Why can't he tell me that he's secretly hated me all along, and that it was all a lie, or hear from the Vidasala that Bull was brainwashed and purged of his ties to us after he was reintroduced to the Qun (which is the current running theory online)? Why can't I try and talk him out of fighting us, or have him tell the Vidasala to piss off if my approval with him is high enough? The amount of nothing it actually amounts to is baffling. It's like the narrative equivalent of a kid shrugging his shoulders at the end of a bad anecdote.
(That's not to say cheap twists can't work at all though. Because they can. But they have to be properly paid off in the story. They need to have real narrative consequence and weight, and some kind of drive behind them to justify it, even if you introduce it after the fact. If you don't, it just feels like you're deciding you're smarter than your audience. And that's the worst thing any writer can do.)
Maybe the worst part of it all though is that fact that the whole thing just feels like the game's arbitarily punishing you for a decision you made long, LONG after the fact. I had my reasons for sacrificing the Charges (I actually put the controller down, walked away from the game, and agonised over it for two days before decising), and Bull and I even discussed them afterwards. I apologised to him, he said he understood, and we voewed to avenge them together so they're deaths would count for something. My reasoning? We're at war with a god... or at least an insane monster with the power of one. We're quite literally fighting for the fate of the entire world, and as much as I loved the Chargers--and I really did--a full Qunari army is just too valuable an ally to let slip by. (And let's be real here: if the Charges couldn't withstand a few measly Red Templars on a beach, what use would they have been in the final battle?) In the words of Spock: the needs of the many, and all that. (For the record, I also would have loved for this choice to actually factor into the original end game itself, where maybe the fight against Corypheus could've harder or easier depending on your actions. But hey, maybe one day.)
But by having Bull suddenly turn on you without explination a result of that choice, it's like the developers are giving you the middle finger and essentially telling you that, no, you fucked up, you made the wrong call. And then punishing you for it 60 hours later, even after you save the world together.
What was once a personal, often unspoken relationship between us, the players, and the Iron Bull suddenly gets ripped away and transformed. It becomes the creators telling us that despite everything we've done, and in many ways because of WHAT we've done, this is who Bull really is. Which is just insane to me. And it completely flies in the face of the whole role playing nature of the game, and undercuts the very notion presented throughout that there are no good and bad choices to be made; just choices.
Again, I realise game development is hard, and that maybe they even wanted to address these things but couldn't. But that's the point. If you can't do something the way it needs to be done, you shouldn't do it at all. The worst thing you can do is muddy a great character with laziness right at the end of your story, and violate your player's agency over the world in the process.
Ironically, that's the real trespass in the Trespasser.
(PS. I wrote way more than I intended and I am so, so sorry to any one who reads this.)
@cyclonus: Yeah, the QL definitely got a bit hard to watch for me at times with just how little attention they were paying to the mechanics (and the European jokes) (seriously guys, we're not that different). Drew seemed to at least want to give it a fair shake but it seemed all Dan was interested in was trying to make Danny laugh. But hey, each duder to their own.
The game is actually pretty damn fun though, especially multiplayer-wise and for a sim. It actually took me by surprise how competitive it can get when you've got a bunch of players all vying for last second catches to win. (I was screaming for Drew to notice the bubbles on the water all throughout this video, it was killing me)
Just a shame to see GB disregard it so quickly and without really digging into it, as it is really quite a neat little thing. But then I'm probably biased as I've been helping out the company (and playing hours with their community), so full disclosure and all that.
PS. I won't lie, I'm totally gutted they didn't end up in one of my matches though. I bet I was online at the same time too. Rubbish!
Whoa, this is strange. I've been working with the company behind this (Dovetail) for the past few days by streaming multiplayer matches on Twitch on their official channel. I was even invited down for the launch party event at their offices on Monday. Never thought I'd see the game end up on GB!
I've still got two weeks left of streaming it too, so hey, if you gents ever fancy a game...
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