Dragon Age: Inquisition in Close Critique [MAJOR SPOILERS]
Video Statistics and Information
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Channel: Noah Caldwell-Gervais
Views: 213,665
Rating: 4.8199782 out of 5
Keywords: Dragon Age: Inquisition (Video Game), Dragon Age (Video Game Series), Role-playing Video Game (Media Genre), Video Game (Industry), Review, Critique, Comparison, Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age 3
Id: UMFnSqfhdKw
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 46min 26sec (2786 seconds)
Published: Thu Jan 15 2015
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I would not recommend watching this if you have not completed the game or plan to play it in the near future, it has alot of background footage of scenes from all over the game.
That said this rather accurate to how I've felt about the game. Inquisition is good in some respects, but it has some pretty odd design choices that just seem to clash with why people love playing Dragon Age or even Mass Effect. If ME4 is 25-40 hours of real game and 40 hours of very disconnected unrelated shooting and node mining, would people like that?
The zones and environments are pretty, but what is the point? Why are they populated with such puff-ball content and no relation to the main-plot, why are there no real plot threads in these zones outside of "walk to this point for one conversation then go back to skyhold". (Note, 6 zones do not even have that)
Perhaps the better question is why does power even exist? It detracts from the game experience. A number represented by a guy holding a flag does not make me feel that the zones have a connected feeling to the plot.
A very well done video for those who have been left wanting after playing Inquisition.
Edit: I ask that people try and refrain from calling those that are critical of the game as "simply bitching".
while some of his criticisms are valid, I do not agree that Skyrim's engine is more powerful than Frostbite 3, maybe it's better prepared for rendering a streaming open world instead of the separate areas for DAI but in no ways it is as powerful as Frostbite
I enjoyed DAI. I loved being able to explore Thedas in more detail. I thought the game was beautiful. I loved all the characters as well as the main storyline (most of it anywya). I also agree with this critic about many of it's flaws.
DAI is a "minimum viable" PC port. I got so fed up with the awful inventory system that I lowered the difficulty all the way so I'd never have to care what gear my party was wearing. The tactical mode is awful. I entered it accidentally more often than deliberately. The few times I attempted to use it deliberately ended in frustration because the maximum camera height is so low that you're just stuck staring at your toes anyway.
The pacing issues are very real. I've played through DAO + Awakening and DA2 multiple times each. I can't even think of re-playing DAI because I don't want to wait for war table count downs or to grind power to unlock each plot section. Maybe Bioware believed they needed to deliberately stall progress so that it wouldn't feel like the player built the Inquisition from nothing and solved the worlds problems overnight. In the end it just feels like padding.
The majority of side quests were uninteresting and did little more than serve as breadcrumbs to lead you to different corners of each area you could explore. Some places were pretty cool when you got there. Other times I was like, "Yep, that's an art asset. Next!".
The war table was a neat idea, but the real world countdowns toward completion killed it for me. Some of the mission stories were interesting, but I often forgot what had happened previously or my agents had been tasked with sixteen real world hours later. Towards the end of the game I wished I could just send my minions to collect elfroot for 16 hours and stop picking it up myself.
Corypheus could have been a much better villain. Instead he shows up to monologue in a few choice cut-scenes between waves of Red Templars. Then in the climax he's little more than a punching bag who does typical game villain things like declare victory while you're clearly kicking his ass.
After I reached Skyhold and saw the requisition orders to upgrade the castle, rather than just trade resources for +1 power I thought for sure I was building up to some final confrontation where those upgrades would matter like ME2's suicide mission. If that had happened it probably would have been seen as formulaic, but I'd have preferred it over those upgrades not mattering. The setup and opportunity was there to play through the defense of Skyhold when Corypheus arrives before your final battle with him. My hunch is something like that was planned and then cut in favor of the "click to start boss battle" end sequence. (Or simply out of necessity.)
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I don't know what left there is to say about DA:I that hasn't been said a million times already, but since it is seemingly a pretty split among the community I figure I'd say that I really enjoyed it. The game is absolutely beautiful and exploring the areas is by far the best part of it. I didn't mind all of the scattered quests like a lot of players did, mostly because they were just things I did as I explored. Some things, like assaulting a keep, were awesome additions to a zone, and I rarely minded the tiny fetch quests like find this persons ring, because I was already in that area for another reason. I didn't feel the need to complete every little objective and I thought the game did a good job on letting pick the quests you choose to do, especially at later levels when other zones open up. Having said all of that, I can definitely see how it bothered so many players, especially those who are completionists. This game must have driven them mad.
I'm wondering if Bioware can ever make characters that are as iconic as Alistair, Leliana, and Morrigan, because when I was playing Inquisition, these NPC chars from Origins were still leaps and bounds more interesting than the companions in Inquisition.
I have come to the conclusion that DAI is the perfect 7/10 game. It doesn't have great combat, doesn't have a great plot, doesn't have great graphics compared to other current gen games, doesn't have a great setting, doesn't have great quest/level designs, doesn't have great characters........ yet it isn't bad in any of these either. It's really the quintessential mediocre game. Seems that whether or not you like it depends on your standards and how happy you are to wallow in average-ness.
Does anyone know if this game was to be a MMO? Because I thought exactly that, I think TB said the same and now this guy is saying it once again. I mean, can't be a coincidence at this point, right?
One point I found extremely "mmo-ish" was the hp pool enemies have. It's incredible counter intuitive to have enemies with thousands of HP in a tatical RPG (unless your attack also do a lot of dmg). More times than not I found myself fighting a monster for a very long amount of time without real reason. The fight wasn't hard, it was just tedious, I need to fire a 1000 arrows to kill an enemy, yay.
I wrote a really long critique when Origin asked me if I would recommend this game to a friend. I won't go into it much but I think the primary complaint I have is the overbearing nature of the UI and the quest log. There's...just too much text. My quest log has like 50 different things in it in almost 10 tabs. I just want to enjoy the game but I'm always micromanaging myself in my head ("ok, I can go to hinterlands to finish these 2 quests, stop off in oasis to turn in some shards then I'll have to go back to Skyhold to sell my crap") This is NOT the game I want to play. At all