Dragon Age: Inquisition

[Hisako]

Thought you would have liked Fenris

I love Aveline to bits. She likes the comfort of an immutable word of law but at the same time she's never afraid to call people (particularly Hawke) out on bullshit and runs on common sense most of the time. But she doesn't ever do it maliciously and she's loyal to her companions. She believes in ol' fashioned cheesy justice but at the same time she's not one-note about it like many of the others.

For me the fact that she's a woman in a significant position of authority (a married woman in a videogame, indeed) is like icing on the cake.

 

[Carlie]

"How about I shove a canary up your coal mine?" Aveline is just pure win. Just like her interactions with Isabela. "If you shove your thumb up his ass, I win."

 

[Joe]

Merrill is fucking adorable, I love her to bits.

 

[Kuja9001]

I plan to get into this series or im I too late?

 

[Lex]

Not even remotely. Although I'm struggling now to finish Awakening and the DLC for Origins and I was hoping to play and complete DAII before Inquisition happens :/

 

[Carlie]

You need patience with Awakening, it's buggy as fuck and Bioware didn't exactly fix all of them. Perfect example is Velanna, sometimes her personal quest will not activate altogether in a playthrough so if you wanna complete the properly you have to start the game over.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

So... how do you guys manage gameplay in Origins... because that's literally the hardest thing for me for some really weird reason... Seriously... there's no need to make the AI choices that diverse!

 

[Fangu]

I didn't use Tactics at all for my first run. I usually sent in my Tank ("me") to Shield Bash and Shield Wall and some other stuff, then swapped to healer if I needed AOE heal, rest of the time I was controlling Morrigan doing damage spells. (The fourth party member was usually Zevran (two handed) or Leliana (ranged) doing damage.) I found myself often going back to the same spells - unless the enemies didn't 'bite', of course. But I got the elemental spells for Morrigan as fast as possible. I love Ice, Cone of Cold and Fireball. (I remember using Fireball A LOT in the Fade, and when I saw Morrigan could get that spell, I worked to get it fast.)

That being said, I'm noooowhere near an expert in this game. I did enjoy the gameplay though - a lot.

 

[Lex]

The difference between PC and console gameplay is incredible actually - there's no top down camera in the console version and its rendition of tactical pause is quite different (hold in triggers for an input wheel) so it would help to know what version you're playing Obs.

The console version is more action focused, and you can pretty much get through the entire game without pausing at all. I would have preferred the PC version because I prefer tactical gameplay.

My experience with Origins was quite good, but marred by a lot of stuff. I've now looked up version differences so there are some things I understand about the gameplay that I didn't before. Also somehow the PS3 version is vastly superior in terms of graphics and load times to the 360 version.

My main problems were jittery buggyness to a very high degree. It's very jarring to take 5 steps to have the game "load" (and by "load" the game freezes completely for a couple of seconds) to then have that happen every single time a conversation is initiated with someone. This annoyed the fuck out of me. The number of bugs are ridiculous aswell, but I can understand quest bugs given the sheer size and scale of Origins, it's fucking huge.

Also a massive issue is the inventory and menu systems. I'm used to stat based systems (like those in FF) and I don't like having to press square to compare the stats of about 60 weapons and armour every time I need to change a character's equipment. Not only that, but it was very very clearly designed for PC users with a mouse, it's fucking horrible learning to navigate it, inventory management is a pain (there's no real way of knowing what is and isn't going to be useful and you very often have to throw stuff away). The only PC like inventory/ menu system I've seen done successfully on a console is that of XIV's, which is far more complex but more intuitively designed.

I don't like any of the menus, but I particularly dislike the weapon/ armour system and the quest/ codex menus. They're slow, active quests are unclear and there's a white shiny line that appears if you haven't read something that very often due to bugs doesn't go away even if you have read it. I'm a 100% completionist in general and I'm obsessive about those all not being shiny so that the game knows I'VE DONE IT ALL but it decides to piss me off and I'm left feeling annoyed that there's a white line somewhere in the menu.

Obviously these things are not absolute dealbreakers. I enjoyed Origins and I'm enjoying Awakening, but as Carly will be able to tell you all these things really impact my game experience. She often hears me getting frustrated while I'm playing it. The story is great and I love a lot of the characters and the world is so cool, but the gameplay pisses me the fuck off. There's something about every aspect of it that annoys me. It would be amazing if it was smooth and bug free, but as it stands sometimes it annoys me so much I have to turn it off even though I'm dying to know what's going to happen next.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

^^I have the PC verion of Origins (I don't do console gaming). My main "problem" is that I can't figure out when I should leave it up to the AI and when I should do it myself. And part of that is figuring out how to configure the AI. I've got so many options it my brain overload from epileptic trees.

 

[Hisako]

Tactics is not mandatory at all unless you're on, say, Nightmare difficulty. It's simply a matter of convenience. The only tactics I found myself using in my full playthrough of Origins was the triggers required to have healers heal tanks and for party members to use potions but apart from that everything tends to sort itself out most of the time.

I absolutely could not stand how slow the combat in Origins was, but I had the PC version so I could mod all that.

Also, the top-down camera simply isn't all that great in any case. They fixed the one big issue I had with it for Inquisition, and it's that in Origins the camera is locked onto a selected party member anyway so half the time you can't even direct them in doing the things you need them to do.

Its the same in II as well, but in 2 there aren't as many massive open spaces where the distances of engagement are long and usually the top-down camera is zoomed out far enough that one can reasonably see the entire field of battle most of the time

The other thing they've fixed for Inquisition, I believe, is that AoE spells no longer use a cursor that snaps-to enemies, which is possibly the most infuriating garbage that I'd encountered in the UI. Fireballs, Cone of Colds, Blizzards - the fact that someone thought it was fine having the targeting reticule gravitate towards specific targets when the purpose of an AoE spell is to hit several at once absolutely boggles the mind.

 

[Hisako]

Oh by the by, Origins is free on Origin (heh) for a while, so pick it up if you like~

 

[Lex]

I'm really impressed with Awakening at this point tbh. I've done Kal'Hirol and I'm just starting the Silverite Mine part of The Righteous Path with all possible sidequests so far done, so I'm getting there. But I really do feel like this is almost its own game? I mean I know it's an expansion pack but it's super impressive how detailed (and lengthy) it is.

I'm hoping to finish this today then get on with the rest of the DLC so I can finally play DA2.

 

[Hisako]

Yeah it's a very comprehensive module. I'd probably consider it a true "expansion" pack as opposed to a lot of DLC out these days, which are more like small side-stories.

One thing that bothers me about Inquisition is the fact that BioWare have apparently cut down the UI a bit and have shaved the hotbar down to 8 visible slots. I think it's a little unnecessary but people I've talked with about it are for some reason fine with it.

Also, hah! They just opened up Closed Beta testing to everyone who signed up (I applied a bajillion months ago >: )

 

[Hisako]

http://www.twitch.tv/bioware/b/577781873

PC Gameplay!

 

[Carlie]

I applied ages ago, where's my invite?

Also look at that pretty game.

 

[Fangu]

I don't think they've offered Beta to everyone thought because last time I checked they had 17,000 sign-ons

 

[Lex]

I also signed up and haven't heard anything XD

 

[Hisako]

https://twitter.com/DragonAgeKeep/status/521345101193564160

Check your spam maybe

 

[Lex]

Nope, I don't have one

 

[Joe]

With talk of DA: O and DA2 in here, shouldn't this thread be merged into the 'Dragon Age Series' thread. I don't wanna go two places to get my DA on.

 

[Fangu]

If anything, the DA and DA2 posts should be moved, IMO. Or - I guess we need a new Inquisition

Spoiler

thread soon anyway?

 

[Carlie]

I was planning on merging or changing the title to this one once the game comes out.

Guys if you haven't watched the PC gameplay stream satsu linked to, you need to do so imediately.

 

[Lex]

I'm trying to watch it now but the vid is being a bit of a dick and stuttering which is a pain in the hoop.

 

[Carlie]

That happened to me last night, just leave it paused for a bit while it's buffering.