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[RedAssedApe]

I had this place talked up to me, and I honestly think it's one of the worst minimal combat / narrative heavy chapter/location arcs I've seen in a major RPG. It has narrative arcs and choices locked off to literal random treasure hunting, for items that are aimlessly scattered around the map with zero sensibility, and is completely unconvincing as a social set piece.

I actually think I might be in a minority here, as most people I talk to seem to really like it. But man, fuck Orlesian palace. If anything that one arc to me highlighted BioWare's utter failure at making Inquisition an engrossing RPG (and I say this as someone who finished it, clearing out almost every map).

that quest was a total snoozer. worst of the main quests imo...no build up at all so i didn't care at all about the civil war and participating factions. the stuff with tevinter and the wardens was way more interesting and at least had some build-up and variety by having you go to different locations.

 

[Jenenser]

no, i bailed after 8 hours.
fights felt boring, story had a few cool parts but that was it.

felt like work more than me enjoying myself.

 

[Yabberwocky]

The Trespasser DLC is fantastic, but yeah, OP, if DAI isn't clicking for you now, it probably won't. In retrospect, I enjoyed my time at Haven the most, it feels like the game has the most direction there, and then has trouble focusing after that. I'll give Bioware some slack in that it's hard to make a game feel like you're realistically running an gigantic organisation, but... yep.

I actually think I might be in a minority here, as most people I talk to seem to really like it. But man, fuck Orlesian palace. If anything that one arc to me highlighted BioWare's utter failure at making Inquisition an engrossing RPG (and I say this as someone who finished it, clearing out almost every map).

It's such a shame, because I was so excited about going to Orlais after reading The Masked Empire. Briala, Gaspard, and Celene were all really intriguing characters, and it was a bit of a morally grey situation, with a great DA:O feel. The tie-in book was better than that subplot of the game. Well, even the plot of the game, really.

 

[Durante]

Says a lot about the year it released in.

It really doesn't. 2014 was on of the best years in RPG releases ever, with games like Divinity: Original Sin or Shadowrun: Dragonfall.

It only says something about the lack of familiarity with the genre of those handing out the rewards.

 

[Keasar]

At best it gets alright, but it sounds like you've already played The Witcher 3 so DA:I will remain a worse experience when you know how much better it could have been.

 

[Memory]

I love the game, but if you're not liking it at the point you're at you won't like it later.
Move on.

This, if you have to ask when a game gets fun then its really not for you.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Yes...after 17 playthroughs and 750 hrs I can say that the game is total shit

Not sure if serious.

 

[Zolo]

It really doesn't. 2014 was on of the best years in RPG releases ever, with games like Divinity: Original Sin or Shadowrun: Dragonfall.

It only says something about the lack of familiarity with the genre of those handing out the rewards.

It's not like it only won against other RPGs. It won out against all other games too. It'd be most accurate to say it was a slow year for mainstream releases. If I remember right, it also released around October/November, so people didn't really get more critical until a about 3/4 months later. It'd be interesting to see how it would have done if it was released in Summer or earlier.

 

[Mega Caprison]

Just try to fight at least 1 dragon, then you can decide if you wanna ditch it or stick it

 

[Wulfram]

I don't understand how this game was received so well... by the professionals.

Not just by the professionals. It did the best of any non-Nintendo game in the game of the year poll on Neogaf.

 

[Linkyn]

The main draws of the game are imo the companions and whatever tactical influence you can have in combat. If you don't care too much about things left undone, just do the bare minimum of stuff you need in order to advance the story. There is an unreal level of padding in DA:I, and if anything, it gets progressively worse. There are few story reasons to visit certain zones, so that entire 5-10 hour segments of the game become wholly optional (and tedious, depending on how you approach them).

 

[Zolo]

Not just by the professionals. It did the best of any non-Nintendo game in the game of the year poll on Neogaf.

I for one can't wait to love Mass Effect: Andromeda and then subsequently hate it a few months later.

 

[Rad-]

I can't believe how badly Bioware started falling ever since the EA ownership. That said I still have some hope for Andromeda.

 

[SkylineRKR]

This game has only like a handful of story missions. Those are always rated a few levels too high so that you have to grind side content in order to actually play them. You can succeed at a lower level but it'll be tedious.

Until you got certain roles and skills unlocked and you could destroy everything single handedly despite being underleveled. When I just wanted to beat the game, I decided to spec to a Knight Enchanter build and solo'd the dragons and most of the remaining missions.

I don't think DA:I was a bad game, but I quickly forgot about it and never had the desire to return to it. Witcher 3 is a different beast, but it did bury DA for me as well.

 

[Ludens]

This game has only like a handful of story missions. Those are always rated a few levels too high so that you have to grind side content in order to actually play them. You can succeed at a lower level but it'll be tedious.

Until you got certain roles and skills unlocked and you could destroy everything single handedly despite being underleveled. When I just wanted to beat the game, I decided to spec to a Knight Enchanter build and solo'd the dragons and most of the remaining missions.

I don't think DA:I was a bad game, but I quickly forgot about it and never had the desire to return to it. Witcher 3 is a different beast, but it did bury DA for me as well.

I'm using a two-handed weapons knight, is there some game-breaking skill I should learn to make the game dumb easy (but much important, damn fast to complete)?

I'm playing on Easy just to enjoy the "story", so the fast I can proceed, the better is.

 

[JeffG]

I'm using a two-handed weapons knight, is there some game-breaking skill I should learn to make the game dumb easy (but much important, damn fast to complete)?

I'm playing on Easy just to enjoy the "story", so the fast I can proceed, the better is.

2 handed warriors are the weakest class

There are 2 fade touch obsidians in the hinterlands that you can add use when constructing rogue/mage amours. Gives +3 guard on hit. Use those with two sword and shield warriors/tanks and you will chew up the enemies

 

[-tetsuo-]

Its not a shit game just because you don't like it. A lot of people did, and the GAF hiveminds retrospective hatedom for it doesn't change that.

A lot of people liking it doesn't exonerate it from being a shit game.

 

[inky]

Nope, it's dull and repetitive all the way.

 

[RespectThySole]

Buy Witcher 3 expansions instead OP. DAI is very mediocre and bland.

 

[JeffG]

A lot of people liking it doesn't exonerate it from being a shit game.

Yea...Even being voted Game of the Year doesn't exonerate it from being total shit

 

[Ducarmel]

I only found enjoyment in the game sticking to the main story quest and companion quest, plus Descent and Trespasser DLC. I think the game is worth playing for that if you find it interesting.

Everything else the game offers ranges from meh to crap imo.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

No, it's one of the worst wRPG out of here.

What. I loved the game.

 

[Davide]

Nope.

 

[Jimmydg]

It all depends from the point of view with which you look. As JRPG not worth much, but as the game itself is good for me.

For example, there is a mission in a party, where there are several subplots and where you can explore for clues of these subplots,
but if you take too exploring the mansion the rest of the people begin to suspect you, to finally end the mission with an election. And all of about an hour and a half.

Worth the game just for this mission.

 

[Steel]

It really doesn't. 2014 was on of the best years in RPG releases ever, with games like Divinity: Original Sin or Shadowrun: Dragonfall.

It only says something about the lack of familiarity with the genre of those handing out the rewards.

It was a pretty good year for 4x too, but you know that only big budget games get the attention of gaming outlets. And it was definitely a horrible year in that regard.

 

[Bearthgar]

I spent way too much time trying to find a way to make the game fun. I kept telling myself "I'll restart as a ________, maybe the gameplay was designed around their style of combat"... But the fun never came.

Each class was a different brand of boring. Melee combat had horribly unsatisfying hit responses and the ai was clueless. Magic combat was spamming whatever ability was off cooldown and had the added feature of causing framerate issues. The "tactical combat" mode was one of the most awkwardly controlled experiences I've ever had on ps4. The only thing it added was making the wretched combat last longer...


I was so happy when I bought Divinity Original Sin and cleansed my palate of the Inquisition.

 

[Ludens]

2 handed warriors are the weakest class

There are 2 fade touch obsidians in the hinterlands that you can add use when constructing rogue/mage amours. Gives +3 guard on hit. Use those with two sword and shield warriors/tanks and you will chew up the enemies

Is there a way to respec?

Anyway I reached Skyhold, and I need to say, the cutscenes from the previous mission is very well done, it really feels like LOTR. I also met

Spoiler

Hawke from DA2, that was a surprise honestly.

 

[JeffG]

Is there a way to respec?

Yes. You can buy a special amulet. Equip it and it resets everything. The first time the cost is 0. After that...IIRC 300

You can find it in the room with Dagna, just off the throne room in skyhold

 

[Ludens]

Yes. You can buy a special amulet. Equip it and it resets everything. The first time the cost is 0. After that...IIRC 300

You can find it in the room with Dagna, just off the throne room in skyhold

Ok, thanks, I will look for a good build later, even if, to be honest, I'm destroying everything right now too, since I'm playing on Easy.

 

[Fahzgoolin]

I loved the world, graphics, and combat.

The game's story was a slog and the quests were extreme tedious. I gave up after 15 hours.

 

[semiconscious]

Yes...after 17 playthroughs and 750 hrs I can say that the game is total shit

now this i like ...

had a very good time with the game, but, yeah, i can understand someone else not being able to do so. it's an amalgamation of stuff that works well, & stuff that don't at all...

 

[ScriptedReality]

I wanted to defend it but... Looking back it wasn't really fun. It was just something to do and I wanted to see my character at full strength. It got stale.

 

[RedSwirl]

It really doesn't. 2014 was on of the best years in RPG releases ever, with games like Divinity: Original Sin or Shadowrun: Dragonfall.

It only says something about the lack of familiarity with the genre of those handing out the rewards.

Let's be real: GOTY awards mostly only ever consider AAA games. PC-only games don't even get looked at unless they're mainstream phenomenons like Blizzard games or Minecraft or something.

2014 was just a really show year for AAA games.

 

[D i Z]

I spent way too much time trying to find a way to make the game fun. I kept telling myself "I'll restart as a ________, maybe the gameplay was designed around their style of combat"... But the fun never came.

Each class was a different brand of boring. Melee combat had horribly unsatisfying hit responses and the ai was clueless. Magic combat was spamming whatever ability was off cooldown and had the added feature of causing framerate issues. The "tactical combat" mode was one of the most awkwardly controlled experiences I've ever had on ps4. The only thing it added was making the wretched combat last longer...


I was so happy when I bought Divinity Original Sin and cleansed my palate of the Inquisition.

I did the same thing. I absolutely loved Origins. When I played DA 2, I pretty much hated it. It wasn't until I had dumped hours upon hours into Inquisition that I went back and played DA2 with a better appreciation. That's how bad Inquisition was for me. Uninstalled, never to return. Picked up Divinity a little later.

 

[Brawndo Addict]

Here's my quick impressions from 2014:

---

It takes inspiration from the worst parts of MMO questing but not the good parts. They create pointlessly large zones with boring quests with no story content; they completely forgot to make zone storylines/progression and several zones don't even have main story content associated with them. It would be like if you played Origins but each of the zones you went to (Orzammar, Circle Tower, Dalish Forest, etc) were just there to create some variety in visual design but had no inherent stories or quest lines associated with them. It borders on insulting. Gather 30 zone-wide shards? Go get my druffalo? Gather herbs/ore? Close 12 rifts? No I will not gather 7 letters spread out through the zone; this is exactly the kind of lazy quest design that MMOs have been trying to get away from, but here they embrace it.

And there's literally no payoff or reason to do any of it (aside from +1 power). At least quest givers in a MMO attempt to justify the 'gather X items' quest with a couple paragraphs of story text. Here there's like two lines, "My druffalo wandered off in the midst of all this fighting, could you get it back?">>>"Thank you so much, this really means a lot". I did this quest because I thought there had to be something more to this but there wasn't, just a warning of things to come. There are no mechanical or story motivations to do anything they've thrown in aside from satisfying the gating of the main story quests (which is only in there so you can't go through it all at once and realize how short it is).

If the combat was decent maybe that would help, but you can have it on hard and never have to use the tactical camera or actual strategy. Even if combat did require strategy, AI Tactics are nonexistent compared to Origins. And without tactics you're going to have to manually control everything through an infuriating tactical camera that is not free-moving; it gets caught on terrain and can't get over steep elevation changes. Enemies have too much HP as well so it takes forever to kill things but you never feel like you're in any real danger of dying. This is the first game in a while where I eventually turned the difficulty down to easy just to get the combat over with faster because it's so tedious and brain-dead.

---

My opinions have only gotten worse over time. It's a truly awful game that makes DA2 look okay. It feels blasphemous to even mention it in the same post as Divinity or Shadowrun. Pointing to the fact it did well in a "game of the year" popularity poll is like using the fact that Adam Sandler movies make lots of money as proof of greatness.

 

[VanCityGamer]

I HATED the combat in this game. That combined with the overabundance of terrible fetch quests are why I quit about half way through. The story was pretty decent and the graphics were very nice.

 

[Darak]

I had a lot of fun with this game. I played a dagger rogue in hard mode and never touched the tactics camera, which made the combat pretty brutal. That made the game enjoyable for me, since you spend 90% of your time doing filler quests and a ton of combat.

The main quest storyline is beyond terrible, though. The hero is the Chosen One and the main villain is a pathetic caricature. However, there are some decent quests in there and one or two good surprises if you are somewhat interested in the DA lore.

I found DA2 much worse, to be honest.

 

[Evilkazzz]

I gave it a shot but only lasted 3 or 4 hours. Glad I merely borrowed it from my brother and didn't pay for it.

It really felt like an offline MMO (in a bad way) where as Xenoblade Chronicles X felt like and offline MMO in a good way. Both have collectathon aspects but Xenoblade focuses on exploring expansive environments with little that is sectioned off or out of your reach.

Maybe the story gets better. They seem to be going for more "mature" writing but the couples hours I played were pretty cliched and uninspired.

 

[Cherry]

It got MUCH better for me. I beat it after 70 hours, now I'm considering buying the DLC to keep playing. My character was a female/elf/rogue who preferred bows over daggers. Beat the game on normal difficulty without using the tactical view.

I enjoyed the story, interactions between characters, and the dragon fights are something I would spend time preparing for and getting hyped about. I had a TON of fun with Inquisition. I never bothered finishing DA2, but I spent about 40 hours on Origins.

Inquisition > Origins > 2

Now, that is just me of course. Many people seem to disagree, so take what you will from my experience.

 

[eXistor]

It's the type of game you can safely pass judgment on within 2 hours. You've pretty much seen all it has to offer in that amount of time, it just repeats for 50 hours after that. I liked it, found it to be fairly addicting even, but it's not a very well designed game.

 

[Taruranto]

It really doesn't. 2014 was on of the best years in RPG releases ever, with games like Divinity: Original Sin or Shadowrun: Dragonfall.

It only says something about the lack of familiarity with the genre of those handing out the rewards.

Not to mention DOS is basically the best cRPG you can find since... Mask of the Betrayer? New Vegas?

A true masterpiece worth of the Infinite Engine days.

Of course, it's not mainstream and not by "dear" Bioware, so they can't give it any award.

 

[Arulan]

Says a lot about the year it released in.

No, but it does say a lot about the bias of GOTY awards.

It was a fantastic year for RPGs especially, with Divinity: Original Sin, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, Might & Magic X - Legacy, Legend of Grimrock II, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Wasteland 2, Lords of Xulima, and Dark Souls 2. It's shocking that a game like Dragon Age: Inquisition would even be nominated for anything RPG-related, let alone GOTY, in a year such as this one, but that's mainstream bias for you.

 

[Mung]

I just stopped playing soon after I got about 30 hours in. So dull. But incredibly hyped at the time for some reason.

 

[RedAssedApe]

No, but it does say a lot about the bias of GOTY awards.

It was a fantastic year for RPGs especially, with Divinity: Original Sin, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, Might & Magic X - Legacy, Legend of Grimrock II, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Wasteland 2, Lords of Xulima, and Dark Souls 2. It's shocking that a game like Dragon Age: Inquisition would even be nominated for anything RPG-related, let alone GOTY, in a year such as this one, but that's mainstream bias for you.

Guessing most review outlets did not have enough staff who played those other games for them to get votes.

 

[Servbot24]

I played it about 6 hours. The only way that it's remarkable is that it encapsulates mediocrity to a degree I didn't think was possible. It puts you in a perpetual state of, wait - why is this my hobby? Why am I here? Shouldn't I be outside right now?

That said if I had to choose between Inquisition and Mordor, I would choose Inquisition by a long shot. Inquisition was simply inoffensive, bland nothingness. Mordor was an assault on the artistry of the medium.

2014 was completely bizarre as far as GOTY awards went.

 

[madspooky]

I don't think the game really deserved as much hate as it did. I finished DA1 and DA2 and I feel like it suffers from the same issues that Fallout 4 ended up with. They are two completely separate games with different feels, with the latter being "dumbed down" for a wider audience. I feel like a lot of the hate comes from people looking for a Baldurs Gate experience and ending up with an RPG-lite instead.

It doesn't get any deeper than what you start off with but if you can put away the preconceived notions it's not a terrible title.

 

[D i Z]

Guessing most review outlets did not have enough staff who played those other games for them to get votes.

Everyone at these outlets will make time to rush to and gush about anything Bioware.
Otherwise they wouldn't play these games at all.

 

[thechristoph]

A lot of people liking it doesn't exonerate it from being a shit game.

Thisisneogaf.gif

A game can't have a couple of shortcomings, some questionable design decisions, or a flaw here and there. It's either "Dat GOAT tho" or shit.

 

[Servbot24]

Thisisneogaf.gif

A game can't have a couple of shortcomings, some questionable design decisions, or a flaw here and there. It's either "Dat GOAT tho" or shit.

I get your point, but does it really matter? Whether a game is a 5/10 (which Inquisition is) or a 1/10, the result is the same - you most likely shouldn't play it.

 

[Dick Justice]

Awful game. Felt more like work than fun.