As the title says. Discussion about how you feel about the game and your personal opinions. And before I begin, I would prefer this does not devolve into a bashing/ flame thread. Let's be civil.
I went into the game with some expectations due to the nice previews that we have been seeing. Regrettably my expectations were not met. What I thought was promised was a streamlined RPG that stayed true to Bioware's roots. However what we got, at least how I perceive it, is something much less.
To begin with, the combat. I was perhaps the fool, but I never realised the exact manner in which the combat would work from the previews. I never realised that the combat would be click-hit like Skyrim. Speaking of Skyrim, it's amazing how much Bioware tried to copy from it. That is not necessarily a bad thing. But Bioware games used to have their own identity. They are now trying to be something they are not. Whether this is a serious design decision or whether they're just being sellouts by catering to popular demand, I don't know. IMO, Skyrim combat does not work with activated abilities. Or maybe that too is just me because I cannot for the life of me get comfortable with the controls using a mouse and keyboard.
The controls were clearly designed for a gamepad. It could not have been clearer had Mike Laidlaw hit me in the face with the controller he's used in all the game previews. I would be lying if I say that I don't feel some of that post DA2 hate so many had felt for the man returning, at least for me. Darn, the 'tactical' view does not even have edge scrolling for the mouse. Would it have been that hard to give edge scrolling? I doubt it. It's almost as if they are deliberately trying to piss off the older generation of PC gamers who still use a keyboard and a mouse.
And what about the stats....I honestly feel that no one who plays DAI is too stupid to be able to alot attribute points to their character/ party members. Why do we only have the ability to unlock abilities? This isn't streamlining. This is dumbing down. IMO this is trying to fix something that's not broken.
That said the VA as always is pretty awesome and I do find the characters and the story slightly more engaging than the roster in DA2. Seeing old faces is always fun. The game is also beautiful. I'd be an idiot to deny that.
All that said I don't see BW going back to what it was. DA was supposed to be a spiritual successor to BG, but I guess that idea was thrown into the bin after DAO and expansion. Now after DA2 and DAI, I guess change has come to the world :P Diain (talk) 06:40, November 23, 2014 (UTC)
- I think they started throwing that notion in the bin with DA:A in all honesty, but that's a rant for somewhere where it won't rudely obstruct forum space. :p
I feel more or less the same way as you. The lack of auto attack and the looting with a mouse is really annoying. I liked being able to click once and have my character keep doing basic attacks until I told him otherwise. Now, I have to be centimetres away from a corpse to loot it. Honestly playing this game with a mouse and keyboard is almost as bad as Dark Souls. After plugging a controller, you can really see that they made this game to be played with one. The controls are so much better and attacking isn't as much of a nightmare. The ability to assign attribute points, where is it? I was quite surprised when I leveled up and bought my skills to find out I can't assign attribute points. I don't think it's dumbing down, but just plain stupid. I mean, they have a complex crafting system and they can't let us build our squad?
That being said, I do love the game to bits. It's just these things that bother me that make the game tedious to play sometimes. I'm enjoying all the companions, apart from Sera who's annoying the hell out of me. StagsKilledDragons (talk) 10:39, November 23, 2014 (UTC)
This is the best game in the series, in my opinion. The positives outweigh any negatives I have. Pretty much my main negative is the lack of a hotkey for "loot all". It took me about 10 hours to get comfortable with the combat, but now I can play with mouse and keyboard as good as controller. I'm over 20 hours in an only explored maybe half of the hinterlands. There is so much more to do in this game than Origins and DA2 combined. Oh, and I can jump. --Elshiro (talk) 16:34, November 23, 2014 (UTC)
I'm probably a third through it so I won't go into too much detail yet, but I will mention a few things. So far I generally like the game, but it does have some issues. Exploration is top notch, the majority of the characters are as well. The story is good, but far too often telegraphed and easy to see. Not Bioware's best, but by no means the worst. My advice to them would be to ditch Frostbite for future RPGs. The environments are great, the people look just godawful, and there are some bugs (nothing crippling though yet) that are starting to piss me off. Other engines would work much better for RPGs though. It's also clear they've copied a WHOLE LOT from both other games and their own games. That's not really bad, and it's good to have some familiarity, but this is a little too much overall I think. My biggest issues so far is with combat and the resource gathering. I am so freaking sick of picking elfroot and the like I'm seriously considering hiring someone to do these parts for me. It's maddening. The combat is basically DA2 all over again with a tactical camera added that frankly is pretty worthless. It's tedious mainly. Difficult at first, then way too easy later. They really didn't do that great of a job here with combat. Thankfully they vast majority of the rest of the game is well worth it and negates most of the negatives. Firmly in my mind. I'd have rated DAO a 9, DA2 a 7. This one is a firm 8.5 so far in my book. A very good game, albeit not quite as great as we'd hoped, and not quite as slurperific as some of the early reviews had it. I'll be wasting all sorts of time in it though, so overall well done. The Grey Unknown (talk) 21:15, November 23, 2014 (UTC)
For the most part, I really enjoyed the game, it just seemed...weirdly short. I recall tweets saying that a "Completionist" run would take upwards of 200 hours, and I'm finished in less than half that. Granted, I didn't do ALL the sidequests, but I did most! Just have a few dragons left to kill, some Shards to collect, and whatever else is past that damned torch-gate puzzle in the Exalted Plains. That's my only real big complaint, everything else is petty, like how inconvenient it is to try and move after attacking, particularly for melee-oriented characters, or how difficult it is to find Shards, especially when some of the areas are more three-dimensional than the maps can portray, so you work your way to the top of a hill only to find out that what you really want is actually in a cave far beneath your feet. Zeralith (talk) 21:53, November 23, 2014 (UTC)
I respect the OP's opinions, but the comparisons to Skyrim I keep seeing have me confused. If this game rips off another game, it rips off the Witcher 2. The combat is very similar, with the difference being the Inquisitor can jump, not roll. Inquisition and Witcher 2 have similar role playing elements too - the difference is in Dragon Age you can choose your party and design your own character. However, these three franchises are all 'inspired by' others, so I'm sure there was plenty of Skyrim in there, like all of the dragons you can slay. If this game is inspired by TES, it reminds me more of Oblivion, because you have to keep closing portals to another dimension but thankfully don't have to go inside them. Rookwood (talk) 22:21, November 23, 2014 (UTC)
In terms of stats, I don't know if you saw this, but they are unlocked and assigned based on abilities. Certain skills will give you +3 willpower and such (User talk:JoKr
Just posting here, not reading anything, so I won't read or respond to replies. Leave me a message on my talk page if you want a response. I am in the Hitherlands now. I'm at the farm. I will probably get a horse next. So far, the game is good. I paid about $64 for the game, and I would say I have got my money's worth already. So I think I will enjoy this game a lot. The only thing now is if the game royally pisses me off with storyline or by screwing up my Hero of Ferelden or not. My major complaints so far is that there are too many missions early on in the game. Most of these should be saved for later parts of the game. Right now, it's too distracting from the main story. Also, the controls suck on PC, but I have fixed most of this by reconfiguring the keys. Still, this should be more like Origins' style. But other than that, everything is good so far. Believe it! (talk) 20:10, November 24, 2014 (UTC)