The DAI DLCs are something that I've had for a while, but didn't get around to playing them because I wanted to make some changes to my decisions from my first playthrough, so I wanted to play them organically in my second.
Took a while for me to start a playthrough, and then I remembered just how long this game was.
First thing I did was play with the new Trials. Knowing that even playing on Hard the end of the game was a cakewalk, I activated Even Ground (all enemies scaled), Walk Softly (random enemies get new abilities/massive buffs), and Grizzly End (some bears promoted to boss level).
For my first playthrough I had gone rogue, but this time I decided to go Warrior/Champion.
Things I quickly learned:
Even Ground and Walk Softly turns mages into some of the most annoying enemies I have ever seen. There were far too many times that I would very nearly have finally taken down a mage's barrier only to have them refresh it. I screamed in rage more than one time, but it finally taught me to bring at least one mage with Dispel at all times. Also learned the benefit of dispelling at least some enemies in Rift's second waves.
Champion Warriors just don't die, once you get a few levels under your belt. Especially if you get a weapon/shield that adds Guard on hit. However, their damage output can be underwhelming at times.
Even Ground is a double-edged sword. DAI is set up so that if you end up overleveled, enemies will stop giving experience. As Even Ground prevents you from being overleveled by dragging enemies to your level, if you try to be competitionist like me it's very easy to hit the level cap WELL before the end of the game. Which was my problem: I got towards the end of the game with just the final couple of story missions left, along with 2 of the DLCs including the Descent and I hit the level cap. Between that and me finding an axe that from research appeared to be the strongest weapon I could ever find or craft, I lost my motivation.
So I started over, 100 hours in. This time I went Rogue again, because I had such a good time with the class the first time. I also went smarter: I started with Walk Softly, Grizzly End, and Rest Easy (lose all focus every time you rest or fast travel), but I also activated Take It Slow (50% EXP gain) when I hit level 6.
I must say, Take It Slow seems like it was designed for completionists. If I did it again, I'd just have Take It Slow on from the start.
Regardless, I played through the game. Again. And reaffirmed that, unlike many people, I actually really like it. I did all the quests in all the regions again, and did most of the collection quests, barring the furniture stuff.
As for the DLCS:
Jaws of Hakkon - Really enjoyable. I liked the cohesive story to the area, along with the changing conditions. I like how the different areas of the map had slightly different feelings. The combat difficulty jump was a little jarring (holy crap could those Hakkon archers put out burst damage and blow me the fuck up), but mostly enjoyed the renewed challenge. The bits of lore doled out were pretty interesting, as well. However: Fuck poison spiders. I hated every time I had to go up the river because of those fuckers.
I'd say that it was worth the money for most players.
The Descent - I have never minded the Deep Roads sections, and this is no different. My largest problem was how dark some of the areas could be. There's a bit of interesting lore stuff going on, but I'm uncertain if I like it in context of the series or not. I was disappointed that the Gear door stuff didn't really lead to anything major.
Reading up, I guess some people found the final boss difficult, but I did what I always did: As a tempest, I popped Fire Flask and then spammed Throwing Blades with the increasing damage per hit modifier. That would pretty much shred every boss in the game (Corypheus was a goddamn joke. Killed him pretty much under 90 seconds, and it only took that long because of the cutscenes).
Probably worth it only if you really love the game like I do, or you're really interested in Dwarf culture in Dragon Age.
Trespasser - The main course, and holy crap did it deliver. I had seen a lot of people compare it to Citadel, and while the comparison didn't quite fit, there were certainly moments that reminded me of it.
Getting to catch up with all my party members was great, albeit somewhat forced in the opening in a way that you can tell the game wanted to get all that out of the way to get to the meat of the matter.
The Qunari can be tough sons of bitches to fight. I see that Bioware retained the whole burst damage thing from Hakkon, because there were quite a few times when I just got blowed up. However, it was cool to bring Iron Bull along and get his perspective. It's more fascinating to read about how he can betray you if you decide to sacrifice the Chargers, a choice I almost made because I saved them in my first game. So glad that I just couldn't do it, sad card for Bull be damned.
More than anything what I appreciate is that it gives a fulfilling ending to the game. The ending of vanilla Inquisition feels so rushed and forced. I had totally forgotten that the final mission is just the final boss, and that's an underwhelming fight in the first place (probably because Corypheus ends up being a wasted villain who has a grand entrance and then gets his ass kicked over and over again).
However, the setup to Solas being the next big villain is done well. If the goal of the game was getting me pumped to play Dragon Age 4, consider me pumped. I disbanded my Inquisition with the angry speech ending in my Inquisitor telling the Exalted Council that she had to go save the world, AGAIN and was like Fuck Yeah!
The whole thing makes me really happy that my wife convinced me to play an elf. Honestly, the game is so slanted towards Elf history and lore that playing any other race would feel like I was missing a ton.
I will admit that I told Solas that I'd try to redeem him, but dude is a giant dumb ass. For an ancient god, he sucks at planning. His attempt to stop the other gods led to the ruin of the Elves. His attempt to charge his orb led to Corypheus tearing a hole in the sky and devastating the world. Why does he think his new plan has a chance of working? Idiot.
Definitely worth the money, because it's the ending Dragon Age Inquisition deserved. Also because it's goddamn crucial in a way that few DLC are. Although now that I think about it: Legacy, the last DA2 DLC actually set up Corypheus. And Witch Hunt set up a lot of Eluvian and Morrigan stuff. So maybe it's just that last Dragon Age DLCs are always the important ones?
Anyways, here's a chance for people to talk about how much they hated this game and how I'm totally wrong to have sunk as many hours into it as I have. Or about the game, I don't know, I'm not your boss.
Took a while for me to start a playthrough, and then I remembered just how long this game was.
First thing I did was play with the new Trials. Knowing that even playing on Hard the end of the game was a cakewalk, I activated Even Ground (all enemies scaled), Walk Softly (random enemies get new abilities/massive buffs), and Grizzly End (some bears promoted to boss level).
For my first playthrough I had gone rogue, but this time I decided to go Warrior/Champion.
Things I quickly learned:
Even Ground and Walk Softly turns mages into some of the most annoying enemies I have ever seen. There were far too many times that I would very nearly have finally taken down a mage's barrier only to have them refresh it. I screamed in rage more than one time, but it finally taught me to bring at least one mage with Dispel at all times. Also learned the benefit of dispelling at least some enemies in Rift's second waves.
Champion Warriors just don't die, once you get a few levels under your belt. Especially if you get a weapon/shield that adds Guard on hit. However, their damage output can be underwhelming at times.
Even Ground is a double-edged sword. DAI is set up so that if you end up overleveled, enemies will stop giving experience. As Even Ground prevents you from being overleveled by dragging enemies to your level, if you try to be competitionist like me it's very easy to hit the level cap WELL before the end of the game. Which was my problem: I got towards the end of the game with just the final couple of story missions left, along with 2 of the DLCs including the Descent and I hit the level cap. Between that and me finding an axe that from research appeared to be the strongest weapon I could ever find or craft, I lost my motivation.
So I started over, 100 hours in. This time I went Rogue again, because I had such a good time with the class the first time. I also went smarter: I started with Walk Softly, Grizzly End, and Rest Easy (lose all focus every time you rest or fast travel), but I also activated Take It Slow (50% EXP gain) when I hit level 6.
I must say, Take It Slow seems like it was designed for completionists. If I did it again, I'd just have Take It Slow on from the start.
Regardless, I played through the game. Again. And reaffirmed that, unlike many people, I actually really like it. I did all the quests in all the regions again, and did most of the collection quests, barring the furniture stuff.
As for the DLCS:
Jaws of Hakkon - Really enjoyable. I liked the cohesive story to the area, along with the changing conditions. I like how the different areas of the map had slightly different feelings. The combat difficulty jump was a little jarring (holy crap could those Hakkon archers put out burst damage and blow me the fuck up), but mostly enjoyed the renewed challenge. The bits of lore doled out were pretty interesting, as well. However: Fuck poison spiders. I hated every time I had to go up the river because of those fuckers.
I'd say that it was worth the money for most players.
The Descent - I have never minded the Deep Roads sections, and this is no different. My largest problem was how dark some of the areas could be. There's a bit of interesting lore stuff going on, but I'm uncertain if I like it in context of the series or not. I was disappointed that the Gear door stuff didn't really lead to anything major.
Reading up, I guess some people found the final boss difficult, but I did what I always did: As a tempest, I popped Fire Flask and then spammed Throwing Blades with the increasing damage per hit modifier. That would pretty much shred every boss in the game (Corypheus was a goddamn joke. Killed him pretty much under 90 seconds, and it only took that long because of the cutscenes).
Probably worth it only if you really love the game like I do, or you're really interested in Dwarf culture in Dragon Age.
Trespasser - The main course, and holy crap did it deliver. I had seen a lot of people compare it to Citadel, and while the comparison didn't quite fit, there were certainly moments that reminded me of it.
Getting to catch up with all my party members was great, albeit somewhat forced in the opening in a way that you can tell the game wanted to get all that out of the way to get to the meat of the matter.
The Qunari can be tough sons of bitches to fight. I see that Bioware retained the whole burst damage thing from Hakkon, because there were quite a few times when I just got blowed up. However, it was cool to bring Iron Bull along and get his perspective. It's more fascinating to read about how he can betray you if you decide to sacrifice the Chargers, a choice I almost made because I saved them in my first game. So glad that I just couldn't do it, sad card for Bull be damned.
More than anything what I appreciate is that it gives a fulfilling ending to the game. The ending of vanilla Inquisition feels so rushed and forced. I had totally forgotten that the final mission is just the final boss, and that's an underwhelming fight in the first place (probably because Corypheus ends up being a wasted villain who has a grand entrance and then gets his ass kicked over and over again).
However, the setup to Solas being the next big villain is done well. If the goal of the game was getting me pumped to play Dragon Age 4, consider me pumped. I disbanded my Inquisition with the angry speech ending in my Inquisitor telling the Exalted Council that she had to go save the world, AGAIN and was like Fuck Yeah!
The whole thing makes me really happy that my wife convinced me to play an elf. Honestly, the game is so slanted towards Elf history and lore that playing any other race would feel like I was missing a ton.
I will admit that I told Solas that I'd try to redeem him, but dude is a giant dumb ass. For an ancient god, he sucks at planning. His attempt to stop the other gods led to the ruin of the Elves. His attempt to charge his orb led to Corypheus tearing a hole in the sky and devastating the world. Why does he think his new plan has a chance of working? Idiot.
Definitely worth the money, because it's the ending Dragon Age Inquisition deserved. Also because it's goddamn crucial in a way that few DLC are. Although now that I think about it: Legacy, the last DA2 DLC actually set up Corypheus. And Witch Hunt set up a lot of Eluvian and Morrigan stuff. So maybe it's just that last Dragon Age DLCs are always the important ones?
Anyways, here's a chance for people to talk about how much they hated this game and how I'm totally wrong to have sunk as many hours into it as I have. Or about the game, I don't know, I'm not your boss.
