bump. haha.
.=
I hadn't realized how old this game was. 2014. in the dreadwolf thread, I mentioned I noticed this on gamepass, and was going to give it a shot, after giving up on bioware games after ME2, and taking one look at DA2. was there a demo for DA2? I know I played about 5minutes of that, before noping out. but, pretty sure I didn't pay for it at all.
This thread, and in that thread there were a number of comments praising this game. IDK, after some time, I'm with tuco.
I tapped out in DA:I about 30 hours in. Felt too much like an MMO fetch quests and the main storyline wasn't interesting enough to be worth it. Can't recommend unless you really like the genre.
There's lots of insane game design choices. its VERY indicative of AAA gaming. it just REEKS of that bland, not fun, not interesting, weak everything gameplay of AAA gaming, that is riddled with collectathons, to make you THINK you are enjoying this shitty platforming to collect trophys, riddler clues, flags or whatever the fuck they add to waste your time, but add that tiny bit of accomplishment very 5minutes.
I think that might be why things like BG3, and darksouls blew up. the mainstream so used to shit like this, suddenly play a real game, and are just stunned.
I'm baffled who thought having no real itemization, no quest rewards, but instead this vague "inquistion power" mechanic for every quest reward was a good idea.
I'm very much a turn based combat guy. But, its so shit here, I never touch the "tactical" cam. Its all player character control, let my allies AI do its thing. the actual moment to moment combat is so dumbed down.
There does seem to be some decent synergy in the mage talent trees. like ice skills freezing, with lightning and spirit, being able to shatter ice, etc.
narrative is weak. it has a bad habit of introducing people, asking me to make choices about them without telling me a thing about them. "do you support the circle mages or templars?!" idk, maybe you should tell me what they are before asking me to decide.
At that same time, it does diegeticly add in your player backstory. which is fun.. but again has that problem. people will ask you about your history, and you can on the fly make up the truth. neat. but again, the problem is, until someone ASKS, you yourself don't know the answer. like, why was our character at the conclave? you can go hours and hours of the game, without knowing. its not till someone asks you, that you fill in that blank. play a mage character. did you sympathies with the rebellion, or were you a traditionalist. you can go a long time before you get asked this, and fill in the blank. but knowing this earlier should have informed other choices you made. but, what that meant, wasn't spelled out till later, for you to actually decide. this is why its useful to decide stuff like this in character creation, and NOT diegeticly. you spend way too much time and make too many choices in the game, without knowing who your character is.
the weird fast travel back to haven for crafting/war room/selling is baffling. haven itself is setup so weird, making you walk all over the damn place.
Dragon's dogma was 2012.
How THAT treated action party play would have been real interesting here. 2 years was probably not enough time to effect its game design?
dark souls was 2011, dark souls 2 was 2014.
witcher 2 was 2011, 3 was 2015.
Divinity: Original sin 1 was 2014.
Pillars of eternity was 2015.
(pathfinder: kingmaker wasnt until 2018)
so again, this was shorty after Original sin 1 and it lighting the fire on traditional RPGS.