DA:Inquisition - RPG Game of the Year @ RPS

aries100 · December 23, 2014

Adam and Alec at Rock, Paper, Shotgun talk about why they think that Dragon Age:
Inquisition is the best rpg game of 2014. Adam explains that:

The characters, quests and combat aren't the heart of the game - the world is.There's so much to do that some of the quests, dialogue sequences and locations aren't as solid as others. With this much to see and do, I'm not bothered by the occasionally uneven terrain. There are sequences that I thought were highlights that other people rolled their eyes at, and parts that I greeted with a shrug that other people found touching, amusing or exciting.

Alec has this to say:

And, of course, no-one does RPG characters like BioWare does RPG characters. There are more bores on the team than I'd like, but The Iron Bull's a star, Sera brings both pomposity-pricking and increasing humanity, Dorian is a fine Errol Flynn and Solas is so fascinatingly odd. And refreshingly, reassuringly Welsh. Just don't make me look at his face.Something has been lost as the scope and scale expanded, yes - but what scope and scale.

Do you agree with Adam and Alec?

Thanks to wolfhowwl at the Bioware DAI forum for finding this.

More information.

Bubbles · December 23, 2014

Sera was the only character I liked. I would have liked Cassandra – I like her character – but the fact she is a tank/warrior with chicken arms just makes her a Politically Correct horror. Her name should be Hips McGillicutty. No one who has broader hips than shoulders is strong or physically capable. They should have given her the model of Bull’s number 2, and that would have been a believable character. Or at least Layla Alli’s body if they are going for strong and sexy.

I would have also liked Vivienne but I find her character model and her portrait offensive. It’s like they found the most outrageously black female from a tribe in National Geographic and used that. The tribes that stretch their necks with the rings to make them longer. I’m part black and grew up in a mostly black city and I know most black females do not have necks like giraffes. It’s insulting and ridiculous.

The rest of them are just boring stereotypes. You have your hooker with the heart of gold (Varric), etc. Just boring hacks, including the super-emo Cole.

Sera was actually funny, and was an actual character. I hope she gets her own game. Or a movie. Something staring her.

Couchpotato · December 23, 2014

What I wouldn't give for a down-vote option as Sera was the worst character in the game. Nothing anyone says will make me change my mind about her either.

Anyway I can't say I agree about the game getting all the awards. Still it's a decent game so congratulations Bioware for all the various awards this month. :thumbsup:

I'm still picking Original Sin as my winner followed by Wasteland 2.

Dragonul09 · December 23, 2014

Sadly,the drought of good rpgs continues.

Dragon Age Inquisition aka the offline mmo ,that has more fetch quests than an actual mmo.

Divinity was a good game ,the combat was superb but the writing and story were horrible.They really need some balance in the humor department ,because it's getting a little old .They should get a little more serious in their next game, because they are losing a lot of people with the niche writing.

Wasteland 2 was decent enough but the mid-late game was atrocious ,broken quests,invisible characters and so many more problems that made me lower the score a little.And another problem was the damn engine that made the game to look like a ''turd'' literally.

Maybe i'm getting old and too edgy ,or games are getting worse and worse every year in the story department ,C&C ,side quests and writing in general.It feels like they don't want to hire a good storyteller because it may confuse the ''average'' player.

Ron Obvious · December 23, 2014

Dragonul09 said:
Maybe i'm getting old and too edgy ,or games are getting worse and worse every year and i think it's the latter.

I often wonder the same thing. Only i'm quite sure it's both. As far as DA:I, it is a missed opportunity with some great stuff like gigantic world, lots of things to do and good main quest and characters (i played over 25 hours and was still in Redcliffe when i quit) but ultimately ruined by horrible, godawful combat and bad controls. It's an improvement over DA 2 but it's definitely not as good as either Wasteland 2 or Divinity.

you · December 23, 2014

D:OS last update said they are reworking the story... I stand by my previous statement... There doesn't need to be an RPG of the year...

Couchpotato · December 23, 2014

you said:
D:OS last update said they are reworking the story… I stand by my previous statement… There doesn't need to be an RPG of the year…

I'm afraid I need a better reason than just because the story is getting rewritten by the developer. So D:OS is still my pick based on the current version available.

Anyway our site has the Game of the Year poll every year it's not changing. :brood:

PS: I'm still interested in seeing how much they can change the story though.

Dragonul09 said:
Wasteland 2 was decent enough but the mid-late game was atrocious ,broken quests,invisible characters and so many more problems that made me lower the score a little.And another problem was the damn engine that made the game to look like a ''turd'' literally.

I must be lucky then as I ran into only one major bug in the second half of the game. As for the graphics I had no problem with the Unity engine.

Ron Obvious said:
As far as DA:I, it is a missed opportunity with some great stuff like gigantic world, lots of things to do and good main quest and characters (i played over 25 hours and was still in Redcliffe when i quit) but ultimately ruined by horrible, godawful combat and bad controls. It's an improvement over DA 2 but it's definitely not as good as either Wasteland 2 or Divinity.

I agree if they change the combat and controls the game would be a lot better to me personally as well. I brought this issue up on other threads before.

joxer · December 23, 2014

Bubbles said:
Sera was actually funny, and was an actual character. I hope she gets her own game. Or a movie. Something staring her.

Won't happen. Remember, Mass Effect movie (animated) was about the most boring character Bioware ever made. James Vega.
If there will be DA3 based movie, Sera is too good to be in it.

Dragonul09 said:
Maybe i'm getting old and too edgy

You don't need "maybe" there.

Couchpotato said:
Anyway our site has the Game of the Year poll every year it's not changing.

And for 2014. it'll definetly be a complex one. Many games to choose from.
I wonder if it'll be the only poll out there that doesn't include overhyped Destiny.

Sidion · December 23, 2014

Bubbles said:
It’s like they found the most outrageously black female from a tribe in National Geographic and used that. The tribes that stretch their necks with the rings to make them longer. I’m part black and grew up in a mostly black city and I know most black females do not have necks like giraffes. It’s insulting and ridiculous.

Wat. [insert Jackie Chan confused gif here] I have relatives that look like Vivienne and they live right here in the US...

It did seem like the cast of characters had something for everybody. Some characters got annoying because I was wondering if I had to babysit them to keep them from doing crazy shit. Solas was probably my favorite. He was like an angry elf version of Carl Sagan.

A lot of the other characters always forced me to try to decipher what they were actually saying. Cole, fade spirit language. Sera, stoned-on-molly language. Cassandra, religious language. Dorian, extreme sarcasm language. The game just needed one more character that only spoke using popular memes. But a spin-off comic/graphic-novel/novel with some of the companions would be interesting with all the conflicting personality types.

TomRon · December 23, 2014

Couchpotato said:
I'm still picking Original Sin as my winner followed by Wasteland 2.

I agree on the top two but I have them in the other order. Number three would be MMX.

When do we have the Watch vote for GOTY, january?

greywolf00 · December 23, 2014

DA:I was just an average game imo. Bioware combat continues to take a step backwards and the experience felt kind of thrown together at times (not tight, lacking an overreaching direction). I had way more fun with D:OS, The Banner Saga, and Xulima.

Bubbles · December 23, 2014

Sidion said:
Wat. [insert Jackie Chan confused gif here] I have relatives that look like Vivienne and they live right here in the US…

You have relatives with giraffe necks? The only people I've ever seen with necks that long are the tribals that put rings around their necks to stretch them.

SpoonFULL · December 23, 2014

Bioware (and other developers such as UBi) are using the Bethesda model for development (which I think that the Bioware lead designers admitted in an interview); i.e. get hundreds of people working on the project, with varying output quality and then put everything together to make a 'big' game.

The keyword here is 'big', plenty of filler and low quality content hidden behind few high quality content - so that reviewers and the public judge the game based on its 'scale' rather than 'quality'.

It worked for Skyrim, and UBi are implementing it in almost all their AC and other open world games.

joxer · December 23, 2014

Sadly it didn't work out well for last Ubi's AC.
I mean… "Sadly". :evilgrin:

greywolf00 said:
DA:I was just an average game imo. Bioware combat continues to take a step backwards and the experience felt kind of thrown together at times (not tight, lacking an overreaching direction). I had way more fun with D:OS, The Banner Saga, and Xulima.

Definetly had more fun in Original Sin, refuse to buy Banner Saga, had less fun in Xulima.

But there was another openworld out there this year. And I definetly had more fun (and less bugs!) in it than in DA3. For whatever reason, that game didn't show up as nominee anywhere. And IMO it's outdoors look better than DA3, loadscreens don't last for ages, you can swim in it, etc. Still can't believe it.

lackblogger · December 23, 2014

You are the chosen one, you are the herald, you are the biggest of big cheeses, you inspire song and legend in equal measure, you laugh in the face of Dragons, you belittle the advancing apocalypse, all hail the true lord of our worl... OMG, he's just drowned in the village pond...

Yeah, bit of a cheap shot, it's just mechanics, but, really, quite funny when you watch it happen.

TomRon · December 24, 2014

joxer said:
Definetly had more fun in Original Sin, refuse to buy Banner Saga, had less fun in Xulima.

But there was another openworld out there this year. And I definetly had more fun (and less bugs!) in it than in DA3. For whatever reason, that game didn't show up as nominee anywhere. And IMO it's outdoors look better than DA3, loadscreens don't last for ages, you can swim in it, etc. Still can't believe it.

Why not buy The Banner Saga? Is it playable on portable devices, I know that's one of your Pet peeves. It's still a good game, even if it din't make a lasting impression I liked it well enough.

Which other open world game are you referring to? Risen 3?

Aubrielle · December 24, 2014

Sera has made me laugh more than any other character in a long time, in any game.

I love her to pieces.

Also, I'm glad to see this game winning so many awards. Haters gonna hate, and all that. There aren't many games I'm okay paying full price for - usually I feel a little guilty - but with DA:I I haven't felt a twinge of guilt. Not one ounce.

:sunglasses:

purpleblob · December 24, 2014

Ugh, I think Sera was one of the worst character I've came across…. along with Casavir and Anders. I 'm seriously considering of kicking her out of party… everything I do, she disapproves anyway.

I'm actually regretting buying DA:I at this point as this game is not providing me with any entertainment. I'm still hanging on though, in case it gets better (and hopefully real soon!) Since number of members here said it is actually decent game I will hang in there a little longer…

I definitely had more fun with D:OS

Charlemagne3.0 · December 24, 2014

The keyword here is 'big', plenty of filler and low quality content hidden behind few high quality content - so that reviewers and the public judge the game based on its 'scale' rather than 'quality'.

It worked for Skyrim, and UBi are implementing it in almost all their AC and other open world games.[/QUOTE]

The key difference being that Bethesda hands (PC gamers), The keys to the car. I freely admit that I'd be less inclined to buy Beth RPG's if they weren't modable/fixable. It still boggles me how the writing in Bethesda's in game literature is so vastly superior to the writing of their quests and story lines. Of course most of those books were written pre-Oblivion. I wish they'd bring back the choices, consequences, and deep politics of Morrowind. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed, and wont be coming back.

Sidion · December 24, 2014

Bubbles said:
You have relatives with giraffe necks? The only people I've ever seen with necks that long are the tribals that put rings around their necks to stretch them.

lol Dude, go to Google Images and type in "model" "long" "neck", take those pics and put them side by side next to Vivienne's neck and you'll see that it's a normal long neck. Some people (not African tribal) have them. It's true. Trust me.

On the "filler" or side quests, I don't know if I'd like the game as much if there were fewer side quests. They're the same kind of side quests that I've played in Witcher 2, Wasteland 2, Mass Effect 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Diablo 3, etc. They don't seem any better or worse when it comes to side quests. There's just a lot of them to fill the landscape. It makes the game world feel alive to me. And great for multiple playthroughs. And for most of them the NPCs and companions do have relevant voice over dialogue/comments. If I had to hate on anything it would be the lack of a day/night cycle, the invisible walls on a few of the maps, and the fact that there's no walk/run toggle on the pc keyboard&mouse controls.

DA:Inquisition - RPG Game of the Year @ RPS

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