Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ Game Jar

ChienAboyeur said:

Story driven (aka linear)?

When a story is non linear, the game can not be story driven?

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There are two ways to do an RPG. 1) Keep the player "on rails" and feed him lots of 'wow-awesome' and story at the speed, pace and script you want, fewer but far deeper NPCs (this does not preclude branches) 2) Let the player roam with lots more but shallower NPCs, and have a larger number of short stories attached to a token/skeleton main quest but ultimately you don't control how his game looks and when things happen to him or in what order (this does not preclude branches).

Neither is inherently better imho. BioWare = linear but strong/controlled story experience, Bethesda = open world lots of freedom and large spaces.

The problem with DA:I is that the masters of RPG method 1 became jealous of the financial success of the masters of method 2) and are trying to create some hybrid. Whereas I would prefer it if they just did method 1) just without screwing up.

Couchpotato said:

Well Gaxkang I'm one of the few that you mentioned, and I don't feel any betrayal or loss. Quite the opposite with some disappointment, and plenty of enjoyment.

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Yes indeed not everyone who cares for RPGs feels strongly about a major developer taking big steps down action-cinematic lane, just like say, not every pet owner is passionately anti vivisection. But I honestly wonder how you'll feel in 5 years when "RPG" will be nothing more than a marketing label attached to shooters with 10 more spoken lines than CoD XXVII:Gunporn Warfare or Generic Action Game with Wizards and Orcs. When the only RPGs will be Vogel plus some dudes on kickstarter making something for $10k with graphics that are barely 1999…

Oh well, I guess on the bright side I'll be saving $2k a year on gaming laptops and discovering the world of TV...

Pessimeister said:

Not just to be contrarian, but merely to offer a different take - I'd like to defend the presence of the Fade section of the game from Origins. In my opinion that was actually a reasonably interesting feature which required some degree of thought and experimentation with the various shapes and powers. It was also different from your regular dungeon crawl and a worthwhile change for Bioware to explore with the lore of Feralden and Thedas.

Origins I've completed three times, the sequel only the one time. I doubt I'll ever return to be honest, perhaps only begrudgingly to try out the later released DLC. But seriously, there are far greater games in my backlog to be experienced first.

I'll also mirror the sentiment expressed by Hidden X and others; this yearning for more cinematic action games is indeed something which doesn't especially interest me and the more RPG fabric is shed by BioWare, the distinctly less I seem to care for their direction. Still, I can't help but await with some curiousity what players here will make of Inquisition.

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I absolutely loved the Fade in terms of the concept and I happen to think the way they deal with magic (and especially blood magic) is the best part of Dragon Age lore.

But the gameplay itself was somewhat tiresome and like in other Bioware games, way too long for a forced section (if you wanted to deal with it that way) without much say in how to go about it.

I particularly despise their way of forcing companions upon you for extended segments - especially because the games are otherwise designed for you to create and nurture your party setup for both RPG and tactical reasons. It's extremely bad game design - from where I'm sitting. But it's nice for the story - and they've always been about story first. Too bad I don't really care for their stories that much.

I wouldn't want to have missed my first playthrough of the Fade section - but for any subsequent playthrough, I'll skip that section for sure.

That said, I doubt I'll ever replay it - as there's just too much filler combat. Just the thought of going through the whole Dwarven city section again makes me want to throw up before playing it again.

I haven't played DA2 yet (it's in the Steam queue somewhere), but if what the article says is true (watered down RPG part to make it more action, I probably won't like it that much).

I actually liked the Fade, in general I like when RPGs have sections that 'break the rules', that take you out of your comfort zone. The part I really didn't like was the underground dwarven caves. Probably the reason I haven't replayed DA:O with other characters.