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[Murder. She Wrote]

If you like the world/lore you should play it. It's still a terribly flawed game though

 

[diaspora]

You're right, then it becomes a tedious mess, as you're forced to hold the trigger down for longer amounts of times since all the enemies are now obscene bullet sponges.

I played the game on nightmare up until the last tedious boss. This was hardly an improvement.

Well, no, that doesn't work either on a fundamental level on trials.

 

[tuxfool]

ugh

And lol at praising the encounter design of DA:O, it was pretty sloppy.

Actually, what he says is somewhat true. I did manage to do that for a lot of the time. The rest was just babysitting cooldowns. Actually another part was just reviving AI rogues, which had the tendency to never do the right thing.

 

[Lister]

ugh

And lol at praising the encounter design of DA:O, it was pretty sloppy.

Nice rebuttal. Ugh.

And although not all combat in DA:O was a nice set piece, it was a hell of a lot better than the random mobs in DA:I.

The exceptions were the dragons.

I would almost be tempted to go back to the game if there was a "dragon hunter" mode that just leveld you up and let you play those encounters.

Those were the best... possibly the only good part of the game.

 

[Psychoward]

You're right, then it becomes a tedious mess, as you're forced to hold the trigger down for longer amounts of times since all the enemies are now obscene bullet sponges.

I played the game on nightmare up until the last tedious boss. This was hardly an improvement.

Maybe try doing things other than holding the right trigger down then? I played on hard btw and still had fun with the combat.

Origins you could get through spamming Cone of Cold and Mages were obscenely OP but everyone seems to forget that when they wanna shit on DA:I.

 

[Linkyn]

Sure, Inquisition has plenty of things to enjoy. Basically, just do the main quest and companion stuff. The smaller quests and exploration are not worth it, at all, unless you're actually short on power for the next mission (which I'm not sure is even possible).

Edit: Be prepared for some horrendously stupid party AI. Unless you're playing on Easy, get ready for a lot of micromanaging moving characters out of AE. Oh, and don't bother bringing melee companions to a dragon fight. They just die. Instantly. All the time.

 

[Psychoward]

Nice rebuttal. Ugh.

And although not all combat in DA:O was a nice set piece, it was a hell of a lot better than the random mobs in DA:I.

The exceptions were the dragons.

I would almost be tempted to go back to the game if there was a "dragon hunter" mode that just leveld you up and let you play those encounters.

Those were the best... possibly the only good part of the game.

There isn't a single mob encounter or difficulty spike as awful as the blood mage basement in Denerim.

 

[MasterOfPastures]

If you played Origins and DA2, play Inquisition for the story (and more importantly) the characters. In that department, it was a much better game than Witcher 3 (although that m8ght be vecause of the plot threads, lore and world progress already stacked there from two previous games). If you are coming in fresh without that backbone of experience, Inquisition will be a quasi MMO slog for collectables filled with characters that you dont know and with little to no reason to care about them.
Witcher 3 got me to play as far as that cavern with the blond witch after the fight with one of dog horde demons or whatever. I will be kind and attribute it to me not having any context from previous games or the lore, but the story was just... banal. Sure, there is a horde of devil digs rising in the night and striking the helpless, but there was no urgency. I need to puck it up again and give it a go. It deserves a playthrough alone for the achievement that it is.

And finally, to the Sera bemoaners, i did agree with you all until I actually decided to put the effort and get to know her. Her flippant, childishly puerile demeanor was a struggle, but after all that, she ended up being one of my favorite companions, up there with Dorian. But, if you lack that kind of patience, you cannot be blamed for dismissing her.

 

[PFD]

If you go back to DA be sure to play the Trespasser dlc, it's quite fun

I played it after finishing W3 and yes at first it was jarring, but I still enjoyed it just fine

 

[Lister]

Maybe try doing things other than holding the right trigger down then?
.

Why? That worked 99% of the time. I might have had more fun with the game's combat had the tctical mode not been neutered by working like my mouse and keyboard had turned into a fucking gamepad.

I ended up playing with the xbox 360 controller because tactics only slowed down the tedious combat even more, regardless of input method. It didn't help that on top of everythign else combat never felt rewarding. Just more junk, and zero narrative impact. Though DA:O also suffered frmo the former. Don't know why these types of RPG's have such a ahrd time with loot.

Which remoinds of somehtign else that drove me bunkers and had me almost quitting the game before beating it: the crafting cycle was such a fucking mess of confused, poorly implemented UI. Often times I'd come back to a save game, knowing that what awaited me was 20 minutes of menu hoping to upgrade my shit. I'd just sit there with the gamepad in my hads for like a minute... then I'd turn it off and play somehtign else.

 

[tuxfool]

Maybe try doing things other than holding the right trigger down then? I played on hard btw and still had fun with the combat.

Origins you could get through spamming Cone of Cold and Mages were obscenely OP but everyone seems to forget that when they wanna shit on DA:I.

Knight Enchanter was essentially broken in DA:I. If you rolled with Vivienne or as that build yourself, you were nigh unstoppable.

 

[His Majesty]

Witcher 3 got me to play as far as that cavern with the blond witch after the fight with one of dog horde demons or whatever. I will be kind and attribute it to me not having any context from previous games or the lore, but the story was just... banal. Sure, there is a horde of devil digs rising in the night and striking the helpless, but there was no urgency. I need to puck it up again and give it a go. It deserves a playthrough alone for the achievement that it is.

I am confused whether you are talking about The Witcher 1 or 3.

 

[diaspora]

Knight Enchanter was essentially broken in DA:I. If you rolled with Vivienne or as that build yourself, you were nigh unstoppable.

That's incorrect actually. The KE is a defensive build requiring the use of standard spells to buff and take advantage of KE moves.

 

[John Kowalski]

Of course it is, all you have to do is accept that they're different games trying to do different things, even if somewhat bound by genre.

Actually this had me thinking of replaying it. I miss it.

 

[tuxfool]

And finally, to the Sera bemoaners, i did agree with you all until I actually decided to put the effort and get to know her. Her flippant, childishly puerile demeanor was a struggle, but after all that, she ended up being one of my favorite companions, up there with Dorian. But, if you lack that kind of patience, you cannot be blamed for dismissing her.

Yeah. I did get to know her. She was terrible all the way, I kept expecting her to get better, but there was nothing there.

 

[HStallion]

It's fine if you feel that way, but the execution of powers and their tactical value in combat is objectively different in 2 and 3 with 3 having the most complex use of them.You also keep saying "RPG focus" without articulating what that is.

No, that's all there really is for most of the contracts. Largely the same handful of canned animations with at least W3 having a "cinematic" conversation presentation.

My problem with the powers in 2 and 3 is they felt like they came up with a few basic power ideas and stopped there. Most of the abilities felt like different graphical skins over the same couple of powers, usually moving somewhere fast or an AOE attack or the like. Most of the character classes felt redundant because they all basically played the same. And I rarely used them as there was no point, you could obliterate most enemies with the base weapons and even bosses weren't pushing you to get creative as most encounters boil down to find cover, rain death down on an enemy and then find more cover and repeat.

As to the RPG focus I found the later two games to be action games with a light coating of RPG elements. Another example is I much preferred DA Origins compared to DA 2 and DA Inquisition. The focus went from managing your character and party,worrying about stats and status effects and my decisions being varied and have interesting consequences to more action and skill based action. Problem was I felt the devs never pulled it off well.

 

[MasterOfPastures]

I am confused whether you are talking about The Witcher 1 or 3.

It was the cave where you go to search for that Elven mage, after you recruit the witch living in a village that spends her time teaching peasants the basics of animal husbandry.

 

[DMTripper]

In my honest opinion, no.

It's a pretty awful game with some of the most tedious combat going. Some like it so idk

 

[Linkyn]

Yeah. I did get to know her. She was terrible all the way, I kept expecting her to get better, but there was nothing there.

Different strokes, I guess. I had a mage build for my main, and liked to roll with Blackwall, Sera, and Varric. Perfect storm of party member interaction comedy, and very effective for taking down enemy groups.

 

[His Majesty]

It was the cave where you go to search for that Elven mage, after you recruit the witch living in a village that spends her time teaching peasants the basics of animal husbandry.

I'm aware, I just find it funny how his description is a better fit for the first chapter of The Witcher 1.

 

[MasterOfPastures]

Yeah. I did get to know her. She was terrible all the way, I kept expecting her to get better, but there was nothing there.

Then you missed the point of her character. Her whole life was a struggle against being defined by her "elfness" and any other assumption beyond her control. Unfortunately, for her that meant being unapologetically crass and contrarian towards the dalish, the high and mighty, and general decorum. She was a true independent, steuggling against her own roots in order to gain her identity.
But goddamn if some of her jokes were anything but just bad.

 

[tuxfool]

Different strokes, I guess. I had a mage build for my main, and liked to roll with Blackwall, Sera, and Varric. Perfect storm of party member interaction comedy, and very effective for taking down enemy groups.

Sure. But I'm just dispelling the notion that one just has to get to know her.

Then you missed the point of her character. Her whole life was a struggle against being defined by her "elfness" and any other assumption beyond her control. Unfortunately, for her that meant being unapologetically crass and contrarian towards the dalish, the high and mighty, and general decorum. She was a true independent, steuggling against her own roots in order to gain her identity.
But goddamn if some of her jokes were anything but just bad.

No, I got the point. Still found her terrible.

 

[Ralemont]

No, I got the point. Still found her terrible.

She's an intentionally polarizing character, and I don't blame anyone for hating her. But suggesting that "there's nothing there" is way off-base. There's a careful history crafted to explain why Sera is how she is that you uncover through dialogue and off-hand information throughout the game. Even knowing her backstory some find her repulsive, which is totally fine. But she isn't poorly-written or shallow.

 

[MasterOfPastures]

She's an intentionally polarizing character, and I don't blame anyone for hating her. But suggesting that "there's nothing there" is way off-base. There's a careful history crafted to explain why Sera is how she is that you uncover through dialogue and off-hand information throughout the game. Even knowing her backstory some find her repulsive, which is totally fine. But she isn't poorly-written or shallow.

Precisely. Since I rolled a proud Dalish agent as my inquisitor, I steuggled real hard with a party member that shat on my inquisitor out of sheer principle.

 

[phant0m]

I enjoyed DA:I because you can do more than just hit stuff with a sword and managed a team with different abilities. I played through it as a female mage and had a great time. And Sera

Spoiler

was my main ho.

 

[diaspora]

Precisely. Since I rolled a proud Dalish agent as my inquisitor, I steuggled real hard with a party member that shat on my inquisitor out of sheer principle.

IIRC she gets less defensively aggressive a couple of years later in Trespasser.

 

[Ralemont]

IIRC she gets less defensively aggressive a couple of years later in Trespasser.

Yet another reason that Trespasser is so good...it finishes some character arcs that can end a bit weirdly in the base game. The difference in attitude towards certain things like the Dalish for Trespasser Sera and vanilla Sera is stark.

 

[mcfrank]

It is a better game than the Witcher 3, so you should be fine.

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

You're right, then it becomes a tedious mess, as you're forced to hold the trigger down for longer amounts of times since all the enemies are now obscene bullet sponges.

why not just use the proper counters? the reason for making some of the mobs into strawmen tanks help encourage and reward counters like backstabs, magic debuffs or status effects, combo effects, etc -- not to make you sit there attacking the shield of a lv5 templar with auto-attack for 5 minutes =p

 

[Psychoward]

Why? That worked 99% of the time. I might have had more fun with the game's combat had the tctical mode not been neutered by working like my mouse and keyboard had turned into a fucking gamepad.

I ended up playing with the xbox 360 controller because tactics only slowed down the tedious combat even more, regardless of input method. It didn't help that on top of everythign else combat never felt rewarding. Just more junk, and zero narrative impact. Though DA:O also suffered frmo the former. Don't know why these types of RPG's have such a ahrd time with loot.

Which remoinds of somehtign else that drove me bunkers and had me almost quitting the game before beating it: the crafting cycle was such a fucking mess of confused, poorly implemented UI. Often times I'd come back to a save game, knowing that what awaited me was 20 minutes of menu hoping to upgrade my shit. I'd just sit there with the gamepad in my hads for like a minute... then I'd turn it off and play somehtign else.

Because then the encounters will go by quicker because you're using the powers efficiently?

 

[Staf]

I stopped playing DA:I a couple of hours into it around its launch. Mainly because the combat was uninspiring, story not grabbing me and the fucked up dialogue system. Don't have anything to play at the moment so i'm planning on starting it from scratch and give it another try. The GF do seem to love it.

Problem is that the game i just finished, and loved 100% of it, was Divinity: Original Sin EE on the PS4 so.... Yeah, we'll see.

 

[Bananajama]

No - Witcher 3 surpasses DA:I in every way

Truly awful game

DA:O >>> DA2 >>>>>>>>>>>DA:I

 

[Vetro]

Well i didn't enjoyed it BEFORE Witcher 3 - so nope

 

[Soyongdori]

It's a Bioware game. The game would feel sluggish and clunky after coming from TW3. And most likely, you would be bored to tears while playing DA:I just like I was.

 

[JBwB]

Yes you should play it since you've already played the last 2 games and are interested in the story.

It's a great game... Just don't go in expecting it to be as good as The Witcher 3 (because it certainly isn't).

 

[Ovek]

Yeah sure, I'm currently playing through it now and liking it a lot. It helps that I don't put Witcher 2 or 3 on the same pedestal as Bioware "casual" RPGs... If you get what I mean.

I like and dislike things about them both, but if you are playing DA:I on a harder difficulty and have a nice focus build, combat is quite a lot better than on Witcher 3. Does DA:I have fetch quests? Yes it does and so does every other RPG in existence including the incredibly fetchy Witcher 3.

The only super annoying thing in DA:I is the war table timed grind, but if you play on PC you can just mod that shit away. On that note I can't wait for the same garbage filler in the new Mass Effect Andromeda on the galactic map.

 

[RespectThySole]

Knight Enchanter was essentially broken in DA:I. If you rolled with Vivienne or as that build yourself, you were nigh unstoppable.

Yup. Game was a joke as a knight enchanter.

 

[Dremark]

No, after you finish Witcher 3 your hands will fall off and you'll go blind and deaf.

 

[Zeuanimals]

I would for most games agree, but will say that Inquisition differs in that there were gameplay additions and changes made post release that changed up alot for combat.

Sounds promising. What about it changed?

Yeah sure, I'm currently playing through it now and liking it a lot. It helps that I don't put Witcher 2 or 3 on the same pedestal as Bioware "casual" RPGs... If you get what I mean.

I like and dislike things about them both, but if you are playing DA:I on a harder difficulty and have a nice focus build, combat is quite a lot better than on Witcher 3. Does DA:I have fetch quests? Yes it does and so does every other RPG in existence including the incredibly fetchy Witcher 3.

The only super annoying thing in DA:I is the war table timed grind, but if you play on PC you can just mod that shit away. On that note I can't wait for the same garbage filler in the new Mass Effect Andromeda on the galactic map.

Yeah, The Witcher 3 had fetch quests, but it atleast had a wealth of quests with some depth, too. Most of DA:I's fetch quests didn't have any context. Once you enter a certain area, you're just given a bunch of tasks and you can either do them or not. Those things made up most of the game's content, similar to a Ubisoft game. The Witcher 3 does something similar with all of the question marks on the map but a lot of those end up being great quests with actual quest givers.

If you do ignore the Ubisoft-esque side content in DA:I, you're left with 10 main quests, the companions quests, and the occasional quest you find from people out in the world (not many from my playthrough but I'm sure I could've missed some even though I went searching). That's not a whole lot of content IMO.

 

[toastyToast]

If you do wanna play it just beeline the story. The side quests are mostly a mostly a bore. You can do the stuff with your party members too I guess. They're no where near as fleshed out as Mass Effect loyalty quests though

If you do ignore the Ubisoft-esque side content in DA:I, you're left with 10 main quests, the companions quests, and the occasional quest you find from people out in the world (not many from my playthrough but I'm sure I could've missed some even though I went searching). That's not a whole lot of content IMO.

I've made this point a few times. It's less than 10. Not much to the game really.

 

[Summer Haze]

There is a reason DA:I was game of the year.

There's also a reason TW3 is the most awarded game of all time, even beating TLoU.

@OP : Yes, it's still a good game. Just make sure to play on nightmare difficulty and don't feel obligated to finish every activity on the map. I ignored most of them because I hate that shit and I had a much better time than if I was to obsess over clearing the map like I used to.

 

[BigTnaples]

I played DA:I before, loved it, however didn't finish it. After playing Wild Hunt, I don't know that I could go back. I will try, but I somehow doubt I'll follow through.

 

[qa_engineer]

I couldn't finish da:I before the witcher. It was fun for the first 20-30 hours but got really, really boring. I couldn't stop playing the witcher 3 on the other hand.

 

[Vaga]

Played DA:I first and thought it was ok at the time, then W3 came and blew my mind. Some time later came back to DA to platinum it, had to finish a run on last difficulty. It was one of the cruelest things I forced myself into.

I'd rather sit balls naked on lego bricks than ever go through that pos again.

 

[Priapus10101]

Do yourself a favour and play Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition instead. Dragon Age: Inquisition is severely overrated and is ten steps backwards from Dragon Age: Origins.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

I played Inquisition on Easy. Just skated through it. I love the characters, and I enjoy the world. The DLC for Inquisition (Trespasser) was wonderful.
The other DLC Jaws of Hakkon adds a icelandic-inspired-viking area that mixes celtic and picts with fishermens friend type content. That is okay.
The second dlc is about the deep roads, and I've always disliked the Deep Roads on DA1 and DA2. It's not better here.
The Darkspawn are garbage toilet orcs, canon fodder and just plain boring.
What I enjoy so much about Inquisition is the characters. After exploring I enjoyed going back to Skyhold and talking to everyone. Every party member has a win/failure state where there personal story takes a massive shift. They are all different, and you might not see what they are all about unless you talk to them extensively.
I played as a female elf on my second playthrough and really enjoyed the romance with cullen. It was quite cute.




I don't think that games ruin other games for me. Is Max Payne 3 supposed to ruin The Last of Us for me, because MP3 has vastly superior shooting? I think that is a garbage opinion.

Things can be good or bad and have strengths and weaknesses on their own terms. Inquisition has great voice acting, characters, nice oversatured art style, lots of people locations to explore and I enjoyed the combat. I just played it like an hack and slash action game jumping and spinning with a two handed sword popping green vortex implosions everywhere.
I liked spicing it up by taking control of the other party members. I'd play as a healer for a bit, or a rogue, or a necromancer or an archer, or a trapper. And some of the sub classes like Knight-Enchanter is really fun.

 

[lastplayed]

DA2 > Inq any day of the week.

Agreed. Hawke had so much personality compared to the Borinquisitor.

 

[fwpx]

I just finished DA:I, and the ending was so bad I'm not going to give them money to see the "real" ending that they locked behind DLC. I'm going to pick up The Witcher next.

 

[Doc_Drop]

So I'm stuck for a new game to play and I was in a mood for an rpg on ps4. I was thinking of first waiting for blood and wine but the wait seems too long and inquisition is on sale now.

I played inquisition before at launch and didnt really like it because of the stupid placement of the attack on R2, the hinterlands quests being the very definition of fetch quests with no substance. I gave up when the war room minigame was like a smartphone game with cards and timers.

Thing is, I played the first two da games and quite liked them and I'm very much invested in the story. So my question is, does the game get better, or is the story worth surving these nibbles for? Finally, how will one look at it after already having played the Witcher and its story?

I would say yes if you want to but know that the story is actually finished off in DLC which was shitty of them. I can't say I understand the sentiment of avoiding particular games after a high calibre one - I wouldn't refuse to go out for a burger if the previous day I went fine dining for example

The war room should just be seen as something you can do as an extra - set short term missions for when you are playing, leave longer taking missions when you wont be playing (ie overnight or whatever)

I personally enjoyed the companion story stuff and the game as a whole and I am also one of the strange people that actually enjoyed DAO2 (played it before Origins which I imagine helped). If you've already paid for it you may as well, but if there is anything you've fancied but haven't got round to it might be worth doing that instead as DAI isn't exactly a short game, especially if you want to get the most out of it

 

[Sanador]

So I'm stuck for a new game to play and I was in a mood for an rpg on ps4. I was thinking of first waiting for blood and wine but the wait seems too long and inquisition is on sale now.

I played inquisition before at launch and didnt really like it because of the stupid placement of the attack on R2, the hinterlands quests being the very definition of fetch quests with no substance. I gave up when the war room minigame was like a smartphone game with cards and timers.

Thing is, I played the first two da games and quite liked them and I'm very much invested in the story. So my question is, does the game get better, or is the story worth surving these nibbles for? Finally, how will one look at it after already having played the Witcher and its story?

You can get the GOTY edition of DA:I for a pretty reasonable price. There is a ton of content in the game, and I have nearly 200 hours in it. If you like the Dragon Age series, Inquisition is its meatiest offering in my opinion. Enjoy!