Dragon Age: Inquisition - First Thoughts

It is too stinking early to snow. Let's keep all snow in Skyrim and not in St. Louis!

Back on topic: I'm excited to hear from you early adopters of this game. Which game does this most feel like? BG, Skyrim, something else? Outside of the other Dragon Age games, of course. I played Origins quite a bit but never finished. My goal was the romance of Leiliana, once I had played that out I quit. I never played the 2nd one at all.

Originally Posted by redman5427
By the way JDR, its snowing and 8 degrees in Michigan. Don't you miss it?

Let me think about that for a second… Nah.

I do miss basements though. I had a cool gaming room downstairs in the last house I lived in up there.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
It is too stinking early to snow. Let's keep all snow in Skyrim and not in St. Louis!

Back on topic: I'm excited to hear from you early adopters of this game. Which game does this most feel like? BG, Skyrim, something else? Outside of the other Dragon Age games, of course. I played Origins quite a bit but never finished. My goal was the romance of Leiliana, once I had played that out I quit. I never played the 2nd one at all.

Skyrim Meet DAO, sorta. Depends how you want to play it. Action mode fall in the Skyrim category of RPGs, although it's not quite Skyrim either.

Tactical mode is mode is point&click, but it's more meant for combat and you'll have to fiddle with the keybinding to get something more suitable for out of combat movements. I tried it outside of combat a few hours ago and I personally found it slow to use, but the party follows you around. The camera zoom might not be enough to do that efficiently though and you'll lack jumping too.

The main difference with previous BioWare game is the size of map and building having no loading screens to enter them.

Yeah, you have to get used to the interface, agreed. I'm still getting the hang of the tactical interface in this - I think it was a bit easier to use in DA:O.

If I were gonna compare the game to what Nut mentioned…I'd say…it's more BG than Skyrim. Skyrim is way more open and immersive, giving you the freedom to do just about anything you can dream up. I'd say this is more like BG in terms of design, even though the only comparison I could use as far as combat is either standard Dragon Age or Skyrim in third person…even though I felt more of a sense of detachment in DA:I's combat, where Skyrim made me feel like combat was a lot more personal, if that makes any sense…

Originally Posted by Aubrielle
If I were gonna compare the game to what Nut mentioned…I'd say…it's more BG than Skyrim. Skyrim is way more open and immersive, giving you the freedom to do just about anything you can dream up. I'd say this is more like BG in terms of design, even though the only comparison I could use as far as combat is either standard Dragon Age or Skyrim in third person…even though I felt more of a sense of detachment in DA:I's combat, where Skyrim made me feel like combat was a lot more personal, if that makes any sense…

It sounds like they tried to blend the two but came away with something that's not as good as either.

Originally Posted by JDR13
It sounds like they tried to blend the two but came away with something that's not as good as either.

I would kinda sorta agree with that, and excuse me for flip flopping for a minute while I organize my thoughts.

I love Dragon Age: Inquisition. I truly do. It's in its very own category.

But.

You're right in that, from an immersion perspective, the combat in Skyrim is better. Comparatively, you feel infinitely more freedom. It's personal, it's gritty, it's life-or-death. And it's you. Combat in DA:I is gritty, too…and real in a sense, but it doesn't give you the deeply, deeply personal investment that a Skyrim fight does.

On the other hand, if we're talking about world design, BG/Infinity Engine games were fairly linear. Linearity in DA:I is only there in a vague sense - the overarching story is in the background, waiting for you to continue, but the game encourages you to feel a sense of freedom in the world of Thedas. You complete main quests and side quests at your pleasure, and from what I can tell from watching my wife play further in the game than I've gotten, it does a good job of making you feel like a bigshot leader, something neither Skyrim nor IE games ever managed to do in a really significant way. The world is yours in a way that it never was with Infinity Engine games, and it goes way beyond those, but it's not quite as yours as it is in Skyrim.

…I hope that made sense.

But yeah, in terms of tactics, I'd say it's superior to IE games - it adds way more complexity to leading a party and micromanaging its tactics.

Thanks for the analysis Aubrielle. I didn't find BG to be very linear in terms of world design. In fact, I'd say it's quite non-linear, although BG2 wasn't as much so, and the IWD games are indeed linear for the most part. With the way regions have to be unlocked, it sounds like DA:I is more linear than BG.

It sounds like it definitely has some strong points though. I look forward to playing it, although it won't be anytime soon. By the time I'm done with Valkyria Chronicles, I'll probably be replaying the Witcher games in preparation for TW3.

first thoughts were:
-theres a "dual wield rogue" or "ranged rogue" pre-defined class choice right off the bat?
I thought that was weird. Can i equip a bow if i want to, since i picked the DW rogue? I just like the option, you know.

-wow there's a staggering number of ways to tweak and color my character. I agonize unnecesarily over this, but it took me about an hour just to get thru creation.

-thank the gods…. there's tactical view.. it's really there! (playing on ps3)

-cool, i can go in that house! The structures are not just environmental set dressing cereal boxes

-Ok, when we play a game in 3rd person, need to have an option to snap to forward view after a rotation with the stick. Where is it? Am I manually going to have to adjust the camera every time i make a 90 degree turn? Looks like it….

- Boy am I glad that my friend talked me into going PS3 on this launch, my pc bretheren seem to be a little annoyed….

Originally Posted by xSamhainx
first thoughts were:
-theres a "dual wield rogue" or "ranged rogue" pre-defined class choice right off the bat?
I thought that was weird. Can i equip a bow if i want to, since i picked the DW rogue? I just like the option, you know.

It's just preset skills and weapons for the prologue. As a rogue you can equip bow/daggers at any time. Once you are done with the prologue there is a respect amulet (Blacksmith store in Haven) too.

What about level scaling? Has there been any creatures you have met, that you had zero chance to defeat?

There is no level scaling in the open world zones and they have varied level ranges in term of monsters. For example, the Hinterlands (you get access at level 3-4) has level 12 enemies in it.

Originally Posted by Aubrielle
No, I totally didn't see this…! I'll definitely try this when I get back into the game in a little bit. Thank you!

Well this was totally my bad for which I apologize - no idea why my mind thought "toggle auto-run" mean walking, guess I was thinking toggle run

Anyhow it toggles run automatically versus manual - does nothing with walking.

Oh well. I like the game but have to admit the navigation sucks - totally console focused. No click to move, no binding of mouse buttons (just switching them) that I could find. Taking me a lot of fiddling to try and get the mappings to work something normal.

I also hate that I can't close the doors and that my underwear is full body armor (okay the last is superficial but I still miss seeing my guys chest).

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
Well this was totally my bad for which I apologize - no idea why my mind thought "toggle auto-run" mean walking, guess I was thinking toggle run

Anyhow it toggles run automatically versus manual - does nothing with walking.

Oh well. I like the game but have to admit the navigation sucks - totally console focused. No click to move, no binding of mouse buttons (just switching them) that I could find. Taking me a lot of fiddling to try and get the mappings to work something normal.

I also hate that I can't close the doors and that my underwear is full body armor (okay the last is superficial but I still miss seeing my guys chest).

Yeah, I was playing with the autorun key to no avail…my chick still kept running. It made me sad.

It also makes me sad that an RPG this good was designed with consoles in mind. You're right about the click to move thing…I hadn't noticed that. I think I'll end up spending a few nights wishing hard into the darkness to have things like closable doors and the ability to sit down. Even MMO's like Rift and FFXIV let you sit down.

*gestures to JDR* That was the first comparison I drew with Baldur's Gate - the whole limited ability to interact with your environment thing…

Sounds pretty good to me, so far. The limited interactivity won't upset me. So long as the world feels rich, and the combat is not a complete chore, I'm probably going to like this.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
but I still miss seeing my guys chest).

That's what the romance scenes are for.

And people really need click2move that much? I haven't used it (except in isometric games) for over 15 years now.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Sounds pretty good to me, so far. The limited interactivity won't upset me. So long as the world feels rich, and the combat is not a complete chore, I'm probably going to like this.

Then yeah, you're totally set. The world is a place of endless discovery. I'm convinced that you could play this game 150 hours and still find brand new things constantly, whether it's locations, mechanics, characters, concepts, whatever.

And the combat, despite my gripes and wishing it had more personal depth, the combat is fun once you get the feel of all the mechanics. I'm still getting this "chaos of the battlefield" vibe and things feel really unpredictable. Combat in DA:O was easier to master because it was simpler, but combat here is more real and gritty. It feels more like a war.

Alrighty then. I shall fetch supplies, and prepare the man cave.

Originally Posted by azarhal
That's what the romance scenes are for.

And people really need click2move that much? I haven't used it (except in isometric games) for over 15 years now.

Its a superficial thing - I like running around like a conan style barbarian. DAO and DA2 both let you so it was just a nick-picky thing with DAI that when you remove your armor you have a full battle suit on underneath, although at least it looks nice I'll get over it

However it is less the C2M that is the issue as much as the combat is just awkward on the keyboard mouse. I suspect that is mostly coming from playing Skyrim for 3 years with few breaks. I am to use to having total control over my game.

I kept attacking every time I wanted to rotate the camera so I swapped buttons and then I kept trying to attack with the wrong mouse button because I am so use to the right button being used for both moving to a destination or attacking. At the very least making it so when you click on the target you run up and attack … which doesn't happen with melee - you swing at empty air.

So it takes a lot more coordination for this old man. It means I have to use movement keys PLUS aiming with them and then attacking with the mouse. Frustrating when you are not as agile or twitch enabled and the mobs run away. But I don't want to play Mage just cause I dislike the GUI set-up for melee.

I just changed all my keys so now my attack is right next to movement keys and hopefully use the mouse for rotating and clicking on abilities. The pace is a bit faster than I use to as well. I also wish I could zoom in/out more with the camera and that there was a way to hide the HUD for screenshots. I love taking screenshots but so far no way to hide the HUD so limited to cut scenes.

Anyhow all minor stuff. Overall the game is great so far and I am enjoying myself a lot. Just takes some getting use to after something as open and flexible as Skyrim. At the moment my personal rating is 8/10 overall.

Yeah, i miss the bra and panties thing too. We all have our crosses to bear, I suppose….

I hate this game. It feels like "running around: the game" and the combat sucks. I'd much rather play thought another run of grimrock 2.