Dragon Age Inquisition. Is it any good?

[MatTheCat]

Since playing Gothic on PC almost 15 years ago, I have always had myself down as a big RPG fan...except I find that most RPGs tend to bore the pants of me.

RPGs such as....well, anything Bioware and anything Bethesda, which means:

Oblivion, Skyrim, Fall Out, Mass Effect 1-3, Dragon Age 1-2...etc.etc... and lots more besides.

I did however enjoy Gothic 1-3, Risen 1-2, and also The Witcher 1-2.

I am pointing all this out in the off chance that there is someone with a similar vein in RPG tastes, who might twig with what I like and don't like in an RPG game, and who might have given Dragon Age Inqusition a whirl.

Now, I got bored out my head playing the first one....never bothered with the second. But this third one looks as though it might be a little bit different from the rest?

Is it any good, or is it just yet another souless AAA title with bought and paid for rave reviews all over the gaming media?

 

[MatTheCat]

I like it.

But what other rpgs do you rate?

 

[MatTheCat]

I keep going back to skyrim lol

Which is in my view the most boring over-rated souless empty RPG of all times....not everyones opinion, I know, which is why I asked for views from someone with a similar vien in RPG tastes to myself.

 

[MatTheCat]

If you don't like the following then do not purchase.

• Grindy fetch/kill missions
• Levelling AI
• Random loot
• Contrived crafting system
• Poor controls
• Poor UI
• Horrendous character animations
• Total inability to switch weapon sets during fights. You can't switch from ranged to close combat weapons when enemy AI closes to close quarters.

Urghh....

Ok...got what I needed to get from this thread. Those who are saying it's great either love all the RPGs that I hate, or are saying that Dragon Age Origins was much better. Looks like this is one to miss alright, especially since it is still selling for 40GBP.

The reason I played it for so long is because there are simply no other RPGs out there right now and I wanted it to get better. In the end I realised playing a poor RGP for the sake of it was a monumental waste of time.

The above is exactly how I felt playing Skyrim, Mass Effect, Dragon Age etc... It is as though the hype and 'positivity' surrounding the game gets the better of your own personal judgement and you feel compelled to press on with something that you would have otherwise ditched long ago.

U may want to give Risen 3 a try.

It has crap reviews especially from the English speaking press, but then so have all Piranha Bytes games. In Risen 3, the combat is of the twitch/action variety, and I can't pretend that it is any good. Many of the characters are totally gay as is a lot of the dialogue. The storytelling is cheesey, and the voice acting is atrocious. Character development is widely varied, but highly imbalanced. Also the game/graphics engine is by now very dated looking, although the visuals are still very attractive in their own right, in the sense that the Risen 3 world has an ornate quality about it.

However, despite my less than glowing description above, I am finding that I am immensely enjoying this game. I think the key that makes PB games (Gothic 1-3, Risen 1 - 3) so immersive is the care and attention to detail that goes into the creation of their worlds. There is not a single item in the game that hasn't been placed by hand. This means things like no random loot. Finding a good stash of treasure really means something in this game. It also means that the environments are a joy to explore, as opposed to the visually stunning vistas of a game like Skyrim, which also happen to be completely empty of content or purpose other than to serve as a space-time barrier in between the bazillion generic dungeons. Oh yeah, and the baddies don't level up either. I can't actually believe that any developer would include such a widley hated feature in a modern RPG. This would be reason alone for me to steer well clear of Inquisition.

Anyhow, The Witcher 3 will soon hit and that looks like the RPG to blow all other RPGs right out the water........but I was kind of scrambling around looking for a good RPG to take with me on my next imminently looming stint sailing the seven seas.

 

[MatTheCat]

I am a complete sucker for RPGs and loved all the ones you mentioned - those you liked and those you didn't.

Going off your list of likes/dislikes, though, I'd say as others have that it's debatable whether you'd like DA:I

However, I have an inkling going by what you've said there that you'd get a lot of enjoyment out of Two Worlds II.

I gave that a try.

I found that it started very well, but then kind of lost it's way a bit. I stopped playing when I was forced to collect items in a maze tomb level, for which I had no map, and which were full of hard baddies.

'Mazes' are not fun in computer games. Not ever. At least, almost not ever.

Know of any others that I may have missed?

RPGs I have played and enjoyed:

Gothic 1-3
Risen 1-3
Witcher 1-2
Divinity Draken Saga
Deus Ex HR (to the extent that it is an RPG, which it isn't really)

RPGs that bored the **** of me:

Oblivion
Skyrim
Fallout
Kingdoms of Amalur
Bioware collection....(yep, the entire lot from KoTR to Dragon Age Origins)

I can't think of any others.....

(got to be 3rd person/1st person). Got no time for the Diablo style from top down perspective.

 

[MatTheCat]

To be fair, the ones you say you enjoyed are barely even RPGs. The ones you didn't enjoy are!

Whatever.

The games I mentioned I enjoyed are great. The ones I said I didn't enjoy suck on goat's rim.

 

[MatTheCat]

Hmm, I don't remember that bit, but then it has been ages since I played it. I generally hate mazes too (who doesn't!) but guess I must have persevered through it. I will say though that TW2 does get really interesting when you get a bit further and get the chance to do funky things with the magic system.

I don't think what differentiates your likes and dislikes is necessarily that one set is comprised of proper RPGs and the other isn't. I don't see Amalur or Skyrim as any more case-typical for RPGs than Gothic 1-3, Witcher or Divinity. I feel like I've got a general feel for what you like based on this (and I personally think Gothic 3 is one the very best RPG experiences ever made, once it's properly patched anyway), but not sure what to add to the list.

However, if we are thinking of the lighter RPG elements of Deux Ex HR as well, then I wonder if you've tried Dishonored? That has about as much in the way of RPG elements (basic ability trees, loot, some crafting) and it might fit with what floats your boat.

Yeah...Dishonored was fantastic....grade A game all around with a brilliant story and great ideas lifted right from high grade comic writers. I ignored it when it first came out cos it had 'Bethesda' on the tin, but nothing like a Bethesda game as I know them.

I remember even more clearly now what turned me off TW2. It wasn't only a maze quest as an unavoidable main quest, with hard baddies and no map....but it was timed as well! Whatever where they thinking of?

I just find that most if not all of the big US made RPGs lack substance and heart. In Bioware RPGs, which focus most on character development. All the characters are gay and I want them all to die. In Bethesda RPGs, (I played Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3), that characters are too flat to even be described as gay. Of course, Bethesda RPGs have vast stunning open world evironments full of....practically nothing. Amongst all the marketing hype and consumer self-hypnosis surrounding Skyrim for example, I have seen it described as a 'mile wide and an inch deep' on numerous occasions. As for Amalur..pffft. Easily the most boring RPG I ever played, which is a shame cos the combat in that game was pretty decent, if not a bit far too easy.

The PB games (Gothic/Risen) offer hand crafted interesting worlds to explore and what these games lack in 'character development', they make up for in making me actually care about the characters and their advancement in those games. Witcher games offer some of the best storytelling in any PC game, and I thought the combat mechanics in the Witcher 2 were excellent....shame about the restricted environments with the invisible barriers (which I have always hated with a passion). Divinity Draken Saga I really loved as well, but the makers of that game went all 'isometric' for their follow up title and I just couldn't see me ever getting into any isometric based RPG or RTS game.

My searching around for an RPG to play brought me to Alpha Protocol. Totally missed that coming out and the gaming press are a bit down on it but that what the journalistic whores say about video games doesn't really carry a lot of weight these days...when I were a lad, you could actually trust these people.