250+ Hours of Dragon Age: Inquisition & How It Could Have Delivered On Promises
Sep. 24, 2016250+ Hours of Dragon Age: Inquisition & How It Could Have Delivered On Promises
The following post is this author’s opinion and does not reflect the thoughts and feelings of Fextralife as a whole nor the individual content creators associated with the site. Any link that goes outside of Fextralife, are owned by their respective authors.
Editor’s Note: For a different perspective, check out ourDragon Age: Inquisition Fextralife Review.
Let us skip forward to the release ofDragon Age: Inquisition. This game was highly anticipated from the Dragon Age community and other gamers as well. We were told it would be a more “open” world with “real choices” and previous choices would be “mentioned” and have “impact.” Let’s look at each element of the game where these promises fell short, and how they could be rectified for future installments.
So again I ask: How is thisworld“open?” It is not evendynamic. There are no changes; not one person, or area, seems to get better or worse or anything of the sort,everything is the same.It is a bunch of trees and open fields with very little meaning or substance. You find a hut in the middle of nothing except a widow who is bemoaning the loss of a wedding ring. Really?The loss of a wedding ring? In the middle of a war zone?Jeez lady. You do not even have a garden or herd of animals; how the hell do you survive here? What are you doing? Her response should be “I am here to fill up time for you. I actually mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.” A lot of empty, large and wasted spaces. Almost every enemy in the Hinterlands is a bandit or a bear. All of the rift monsters are the same. In fact, closing a rift is probably one of the most boring aspects and yet the whole game is centered around it. Why boring? It is tedious and just there to show off your shiny hand. The monsters do not even DO anything but sift around their tiny area waiting for someone to come near. They aren’t rampaging the country side, they aren’t inhabiting bodies. They just hop around waiting for.. you know, whatever it is rift monsters wait for. Hint: You can not close 90% of the rifts and still beat the game and no one cares.
Real choices? Do not make me laugh. What choices are there really? You are either mean to a person or you are nice. There are no “hard” choices besides Mages vs Templars. And who picks the Templars anyway? That whole quest is so obnoxious and filled with drivel and “blah blah mages are so evil” I would be bald had I pulled out my hair in frustration. And Cole was some weird typical emo kid that everyone loved and was really just a spirit who got stuck in the real world. Ho hum. His “foreshadowing” was obnoxious at best and meta-gaming at worst. There was no mystery to him, no depth, no anything. Glad I made him human, though, after my second play-through as his spirit side was ingratiating.
If I learned anything from DA:I in regards to choices it is this:It only matters who you slept with and who you did not kill. Nothing more, nothing less. In a game that should have something more dynamic it is static and cliche. It was a sad disappointment for this DA veteran. What is more, is that the game has set zones based on level, so you cannot even make the choices to go where you want, you are stuck going to the zone that is your level. Tell me how that is open? The game is even designed around an arbitrary “War Table” that makes you spend time waiting for someone to fetch you some minerals. Please. I modded that right after the first play through. I want to play the game, not wait around for 3 silver ore. I do not want to get started on anymore fetch quests than I have for fear of causing myself a brain aneurysm. Putting flowers on a grave of someone who died is a giant slap in the face from the game devs. I can only imagine them laughing as all the people scramble to help some elf. Tell me in what elven lore do they put flowers on graves? Is that not a human tradition? It was the most ridiculous fetch quest to include. Hint: Zero fetch quests do anything worthwhile or dynamic in your game. It is filler for you to scramble about doing the bidding of arbitrary characters that won’t remember you later.
How about choices from DA:O? Redcliffe made me quit the game for a week because of how poorly it was handled. If Connor lives you see him at Redcliffe and that is it. He is very sad and boohoo, poor me blah blah blah. No chance to recruit him, no chance to interact with him more. No talk about his father or mother or anything else. That was another disappointment to add to my list. And Redcliffe itself was a poorly designed town. Even with the Blight the town was changed in such a way that Bella was not at her tavern if you had chosen to give it to her as a choice in DA:O. So thanks for recognizing that choice, real awesome. Keeping Lloyd alive in DA:O was near impossible and yet…no Bella, no story about what happened to Lloyd, nothing. At least keep the tavern name the way it should have been!
Furthermore, why is the physical landscape so different than before? I really miss the coastal-hilled town from DA:O. What about Kaitly and Bevin? In my playthrough Bevin becomes a great adventurer. I would havelovedto see him again, all grown up. Think about being able to romance a grown up Bevin, wielding his grandfather’s sword, tales of adventures that would shame Varric, interesting insights to the Hero of Fereldan… Some really missed chances and opportunity in that story arc. How sad.
But do not worry, at the VERY end of the game when you talk to Morrigan you can find out what happened to Alistair’s or the HoF’s son. Get some closure there. So everyone can find out what happened to Morrigan but who cares?The child-thing didn’t even matter in the end because its power is taken away by Flemeth.So for all you people who romanced Alistair in DA:O do not worry, his one night stand turned out to have created a bastard son that did not cause the end of days or the rise of an arch-demon. What a great story that could have turned into rather than, “OMFG ELVES!!!”
So now that brings us to the races of DA:I. Since DA: 2 the entire series has been focused on elves. Nothing but elves. All of the forum posts I read were about elves and how superior they were and poor elven racism. I kind of understood it in the first game and hoped that by granting them some peace in the alienage it would help. Nope. Can’t have that choice. We need to make sure Solas stands sure and pristine in his hatred of all things not-elven. The elves hate humans, they hate each other, they use blood (in the form of tattoos) to mark themselves, they are distrustful, and constantly complain about how their life is crap. There is little to no change in all of Thedas’ history regarding the elves. By the time I got to DA:I I had begun to wonder if they didn’t actuallyenjoytheir pity party. Both Solas and Sera act like their poo does not stink. One hates everything conventional, the others swears to have all the answers. And both hate each other and both hate anyone who disagrees with them. Sera would leave you, but Solas needs you; so he stays to the bitter end… out of pure spite and misery.How very “metal” of him.
Dear Solas:You made the mess, got mad that no one else fixed it, came back to fix it, messed it up more and now you act like your own gift of salvation. Kindly piss off.
Flemeth’s end was sad and probably the only thing that made sense in the game if you want to believe that a bunch of Elven dieties had been running and ruining everything from the beginning. The story had potential but it fell flat and it fell cliche, again. So…great. Both Solas and Flemeth were once living beings and now they are possessed by lunatic spirits and technically abominations. Thanks. Glad that Thedas makes sense now. While Flemeth’s story made sense because of her Black Grimoire in DA:O, and the Asha’belanar bit in DA:2, I feel like she deserved more in the end. But whatever, this has to be about the elves right? Funny side note: at the start of creating DA:I the original hero was supposed to be human but fans were discontent over that so at the very last minute they changed it. You can tell by the choices and how people react in game that their push-back of 1 year was to accommodate fans while giving them no real substance. “Oh you play elf? We hate you. You play dwarf? We hate you. You play Qunari? We really hate you.” Insert facepalm here.
Combatin DA:I would be made more pleasurable if someone was pulling out my fingernails at the same time. At least then I would not have to facedesk for how clunky the controls are. I have always loved being melee in every game I pick up but this one. The sheer amount of clumsy targeting and movement is so frustrating that I have only played a rangedrogue. I refuse to playmagesbecause I find that mages are made of silly. Throw a fireball, throw some ice or heal someone. It is boring. But I digress. The whole combat system is flawed in several ways. In order to melee hit someone you have to move around like a jack rabbit and constantly press shift, or was it control? To keep ON the damn target, not to mention how horrible the tactical camera is. Sticking with a bow I can at least stick to my target without worrying that I am not spam pressing a button just to hit something. To top it off:there is no challenge in any fight whatsoever. There is no rolling around to dodge something. Just move to the side. There is no charging or stuns or anything difficult. Even on the highest level of difficulty taking down a high dragon was as challenging as sneezing into a tissue.
MaybeI could have forgiven the limitations of combat, if not for the horrible and ungodly visuals and armor meshes and deplorablehatsin the game.Why is every single Chantry member wearing a phallic symbol on their head?Will someone explain who the hell thought that was a good idea?
And why iseverypiece of my gear stuck with an eyeball metal chestpiece? I do not want an eyeball on my armour.
Cassandra is in stitches. Are you kidding me?! Cullen is wearing raven feathers…what?! Shouldn’t that be on Leliana with her crow obsession? Varic always looks like Varric. Thanks for the chest hair peeping out. And Josephine is wearing a cotton candy shiny puffy dress. Just gross. Sera, well, who cares. Sera is Sera, Sera wears what she wants. How about Vivienne’s hat? That woman is damn awful, I hate even mentioning her. I talk to her once in the entire game if I have to. Iron Bull is wearing Clown Pants and Blackwall has the only outfit worth mentioning that looks decent…but mostly looks like a pillow is strapped to his chunky frame. Cole has a giant flappy hat and looks like a zombie. Good job. Dorian has some great fashion sense. Tevinter is all about putting on the Ritz. Too bad I cannot get his outfit to be used on everyone. Sigh.
Hair? Hair in this game looks like painted leather over a head. Nice to know that the fans have made better hair. And they did it forfree.
Faces…okay they got some nice skin textures and you can have fun with lip sizes. Too bad they hit Iron Bull with an iron bat of ugly and then took it to Vivienne’s cheekbones and then dropped a dead squirrel onto Blackwall’s face.
And what about the Nutcracker outfits the Inquisition members are forced to wear at the ball?And why is Morrigan still in the same outfit as DA:O?I just can’t go on anymore with the visuals in this game. The ONE shining factor of Inquisition graphics: You get pretty trees. Hint: You get better looking trees in games that are 5 years older.
Well, perhaps the main antagonist is interesting.Nope.The main antagonist is a character from a DLC in DA: 2. Wow. Way to drop the ball. Thanks for bringing in Corypheus as the mostuninteresting bad guy since Dr. Evil. At least Dr. Evil had a dwarf sidekick. But no, Corypheus includes every villain cliche since the dawn of humanity’s writing. Maniacal laughter: Check. “Lets” the good guy escape: Check. Talks about misery and woe and how he will bring about the End of Days?: Check. The bad guy is dead but not really? Check and check. There is nothing new or exciting here. Big giant yawn.
No, I do not want to spend the game adding arbitary designs and a garden. Nothing is functional, it is all aesthetic.I am also so very glad my arbitrary mount collection is able to houseonemount at a time in the stables. Why even have mounts again? Bonus: If you are on a mount and want to drop off a cliff you will not die. WHEE FLYING NUGMOUNT!… sigh.
Other than Dagna’s room there is nothing to Skyhold that tells me “Personal housing.” Adding bits of banners does not a home make.Skyholdwas boring at best and annoying at worst. I did fall through the floor once and I found a pumpkin there. That was funny but also annoying.
What about theDLC? Surely some of it is..interesting? The best of the additional content is Jaws of Hakkon. Jaws of Hakkon brings back the RPG wonder of discovering new foes, an intriguing storyline and puzzle pieces to figure out the story. No weird foreshadowing from half-spirit people, no maniacal laughing, no one bemoaning the use of magic. Just a straight up mystery with a lot of in-depth character content. I have a particular save intended for me to jump into playing that when I feel like staring at pretty trees and talking to the Hair-on-Fire lady.
Descent is okay. It is just a bunch of Dwarven lore which is not so bad, it has some interesting elements but you are stuck with another war table and a really stupid cog finding quest. The ending barely made sense. So Dwarves are magical, too. But only some and only in certain ways and the whole entire Thedas planet is probably twice the size of earth. Yay physics!
And of course, Trespasser, by which we can see what Solas really is: Not an elf at all, just some higher being who planted himself in an elf to take away your hand mark and do bad things to the world becausehe messed it up, didn’t like how it turned out and now wants the world to burn so he can start again. Yawn.
Jeez, is there anything that would make this player happy? For starters, the combat controls need to be reworked. The fun part about DA:O was the various options and choices and yes the combat camera to position your party. In DA:2, the quick combat made fights more interesting. If DA:I could revert something to a previous game, DA:O with the outlandish amount of choices with the quicker movement of DA:2 it would have felt a lot better. In addition to a refined combat system, here are some targeted points that could be focused on for future installments of the series:
What are your thoughts on Dragon Age: Inquisition? For all the content it has, so much of it is polarizing for players. Have I been too harsh? Too forgiving even? Let me know your opinions in the comments!
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Tarshana
Not just a gamer, but also a modder. I cook like a mad scientist and read books like they are candy.
I understand. I never owned a GOTY edition of any game. Are these different from the standard ones?
I played both NWN games, but never finished BWs NWN1. Ive got bored halfway through the original campaign because of the lack of a proper party. The henchmen were no substitute.
PoE is not perfect. Has a good story, looks great for an isometric game (hand-made background, nice light effects). Combat and gameplay is improved after the last patches. But very slow compared to even DA:O – think about 3 times slower. Heavy armor slows your attack speed by 50%, crossbows and firearms have to be reloaded… It drove me nuts until I figured out how to change this. Its possible to make it almost as fast as DA2 with some weapon improvements and talents. But its not for everyone. No video cutscenes, only text. And a lot to read.
It can be nice to be able to enjoy DA:I. I dont feel any worse by not playing it. I can understand DA:O fans complaining about DA:I because they wanted to enjoy the entire trilogy. BW designed it this way in order to be in line with other contemporary games. Maybe its marketing strategy, maybe this is the kind of game the new BW team likes to play.
No manipulation required; said this was my own GOTY in my review at the time on Amazon, and also included the flaws I saw at that time. I skipped PoE because I am not a fan of isometric party games (eg; still have yet to play the BG series, though I own them). And while there are many that did not care for DA2 or DAI, same can be said for DAO, which is my fave title after NWN1.
My opinion does not carry any more or less weight than anyone else, but I will include my voice with those awarding DAI the GOTY award.
When you make a decision to buy a product, like a phone, computer, car you are implicitly making a judgment, comparing the offer with your needs or preferences. No matter how many awards a product has won, I wont buy it for this reason. Thats only publicity for me.
DA:I is not a game for everyone. Many RPG players like Inquisition, many dont. For Bioware its good thing to have a large pool of enthusiastic and satisfied DA:I players. For me it doesnt matter. For instance, I never play 1st view shooters. Those games are simply not for me. I prefer to play strategy games instead. The same about the Whitcher series or Skyrim. I like team based combat RPGs because planning battles and thinking through them is what keeps me interested. I wont torture myself with 50-60 hours of combat for 3-4 hours of story. Ill read a fantasy book instead.
I skipped DA:I, Witcher 3 and played Pillars of Eternity for many hours. PoE it`s not better than the other two, just different. But it has those elements which makes me interested.The main problem Bioware faced by changing Dragon Age concepts with each new game is: fans of previous game(s) wanted to play the new one(s). Many of those unhappy with DA2 were DA:O fans. The same for DA:I. Bioware has to live with this reaction.
As much as I loved Inquisition, I can’t really quibble with much of what you say! It’s a great game, but it certainly has, erm, its own personality, let’s say.
And those bloody shards. D:
Right, because TW3 does not have Geralt act like an errand boy doing minor tasks. Plus, he seemingly is already a moody ingrate; no need for such companions.
Personally love that Bioware chose to have Cory appear again after Legacy; my top choice going into DAI. And this old man with his Corrupted Dragon seems to kick around most of Ferelden and Orlais for a suitable period of time before the final encounter. As for choices, while it was fairly easy for me to leave Stroud behind in the Fade, apparently some had to choose between Hawke and Alistair; a much more difficult decision.
Combat speed is much better then the previous titles; faster than the sluggish 2H warrior of DAO, but slower than the plastic looking 2H swings of DA2. And while I have only played one MMO, combat was much different. Setting up combos as a Mage was quite pleasing; a reason they are my fave class in DAI. Plus the versatility in design also seen in DA2 remained, so choosing a Mage again felt like wearing a fave tee.
Spoilers abound
I agree with your assessment almost completely, Inquisition may be one of the poorest attempts at a sequel to a beloved RPG series since Fable 3. At no point in time did I enjoy playing the game in my 100+ hours of playing it.
You see, I am one of 22 who actually liked Dragon Age 2 and felt it was a more enjoyable game than the original. While the original had an epic story with great design, its combat was just not up to snuff no matter how many options they gave you (my preferred RPG combat being Dragon’s Dogma). 2 had a personal story (extraordinarily rare in a fantasy RPG) with mediocre design but fun and fast-paced combat, which resonated far more with me. I wanted Bioware to take the design and complexity of origins and mix it with the story and combat of 2 in order to make a truly legendary game, but what I got was a greatly watered down origin’s story with no hint of its design along with a mockery of 2’s combat and strengthening of its simplicity.
First off, the story is trash: why is the inquisition more like a freaking school club than an actual military force? Its like “hey, I know you’re the inquisitor and should only be doing administrative and political work, but can you fetch some stuff for me?”. Heck No! Do I look like an errand boy to you? Why don’t I get one of my companions to do it? Apparently I can’t because they’re all too moody, fricking ingrates. Fine then, just point me to the bad guy and let me go ham on him. What’s that, I can’t because I don’t have a large enough military force? How big of a military force is needed to take on some old guy with a terribly weak dragon? The game forces me to ask all these questions and many, many more because its not a story made to be experienced, its one made to distract. Compare that to 2 where everything you do, for the most part, makes sense. “I’m going to take on jobs to make money in order to keep my family safe.” “I’m going to kill the Arishok right now because he is a threat to my livelihood.” “I’m going to side with whoever in order to survive the city wide cleansing going on.”
Secondly, the design is bad. While there are many examples that could be brought up, I feel the most significant offender here are the choices; they don’t really matter for anything. None of the choices from the previous game nor even this one have a significant impact on the world at all. 2 had this problem as well, but at least it didn’t lie to you with stuff like the tapestry and war table. Even one of the most important choices in the game, to drink from the well or not, is rendered inconsequential by the end.
Third, the combat. I’ll just repeat what my cousin said: “They have MMORPG combat for a single-player game.”
Fourth, and lastly, the presentation is flawed. While the game world looks good, the characters just don’t. Quinari don’t look scary enough, dwarves not tough enough, and especially elves not majestic enough. All the humans look like they are wearing poorly made wigs and the monsters, and I don’t know how they managed to pull this off, don’t look as good as they did in the previous games. Why does every character from this game look unattractive yet the characters from the old ones that show up here do. Its a mess.
To conclude, just play the Witcher 3.
About relevant in-game choices: There are two types of such ones used in DA trilogy.(1) The decisions / choices you make that have future consequences in the game(2) Consequences carried over to the next game.
The first type is limited. The second has no real meaning other than a clever device to increase sales.Lets discuss the first type for DA:O. The extent of your decisions is: who will join you against the Archdemon. You can have elves or werewolfes, Legionaries and Golems. Your second GW can be Alistair or Loghain. And thats it. You cannot kill both Harrowmont and Bhelen as a dwarven prince and take the throne. You cannot let Eamon to die and replace him with Teagan. The game won`t let you. More importantly, you cannot mess up the entire campaign, gaining no allies and facing the entire horde only with your companions, and die. BW did not designed the game this way, because it means making several games instead of one, and probably only a few doom-seeking players would have played it to the end.Compare this to strategy games like Civilization or Heroes of Might and Magic. In these games you can lose in many ways. But I never played a RPG as such. Of course your hero can die randomly in a fight. But not as a result of a failed/doomed campaign.The rest of your choices has no consequences. For instance, you can save both Isolde and Connor, or just one of them. Eamon will not refuse to aid you. All these decisions are for emotional involvement (immersion).
What about the consequences carried over to next games? These have no real effect in your campaign. You can encounter a Harrowmont noble, Amaranthine conspirators, Danyla, Zevran, Nathaniel. Or not. You can meet Alistair as a drunk or as a king. Or not. But DA2 main plot and every important quest will stay the same. In Awakening you dont have Royal Guards if you are the HoF compared to an Orlesian GW. The dwarfs are the same regardless who is King in Orzamar, and you dont have a company of dwarves or legionaries at the Vigil Keep. Nor a company of Elves if you are a Dalish GW and the Dalish were gifted Brecilian Forest.All these carry-overs are meant for new players to buy the previous games (lets see whats the story behind these conspirators). Or on a lesser extent to appease loyal players.If you have played IWD and IWD2, you can encounter some former NPC in IWD2. But the developers made the right decision to make the two games a generation apart.
I understand perfectly your viewpoint:)It happened also to me with the first Witcher game. I read Andrzej Sapkowskis books (quite good and humorous, borrowing a lot from Stanislaw Lems style) and I liked the story. But I did not enjoyed playing it. Tried it several times then I gave up. Ive spent maybe 1/10 of your time investment but its the same thing.
For me a combat RPG needs a good balance between the world building (including lore, politics, interactions), the overall story, quests, development of PC/NPCs and combat. If any one of these is elements is really weak Ill quit playing. But most important is immersion.DA:O shined because of the personalized story (the 6 origins were an amazing idea) and good world building. The important quests were good, some excellent. The rest not so. Development and combat was good with some problems.What made DA:O unique were the special events – your origin, the Fade quest in the Circle, Redcliffe siege, Urn of Sacred Ashes Gauntlet, Landsraad, Battle at Denerim, killing the Archdemon and even the final celebration. And a few more.These events are what we remember after finishing a game, not the 538th fight in the upper left corner of Dungeon 37. Now, what have all these events in common? Deep personal / emotional involvement. Deep game immersion.
This is why I liked also DA2, even if was weaker than DA:O. How many such events exists in DA:I? How important these are for the overall story?
Sometimes I do read reviews but not often.. I want to be surprised I figure that I could always just refund the game but I was determined to find a redeeming quality. I do not find it illogical. I once spent 3 years learning how to Fence and I fail at it like crazy, but I really wanted to learn. For me, I like to try things over and over just to get all the angles and really make sure I do not like something rather than dismissing it.
250+ hours is a large time investment. Going through that in a game you don’t enjoy does not compute to me.
BW is a company that sells their games mostly based on hype and most of the time what they promise will not come true. You’ll often hear that you shouldn’t judge a game until it is released or on what others have to say about it. I think that’s nonsense. As a customer you have to get your information from some source, because you cannot buy any game out there. You have to make choices. Slowly the simple thought that this is true for BW games as well is making progress under the BW fans. By now BW actively needs to seek a new audience, because a lot of the old fans have jumped ship.
I bought DA:I because I saw that some of DA2’s DLCs improved upon the game. Based on that, I wanted to give the franchise one more chance, but I had very low expectations. To my surprise I liked the game and invested a silly amount of time in it. That doesn’t mean I think the game is flawless, though. It could use a lot of improvements, but I enjoyed what was there.
Edit: to AngryFrozenWater – I like to be diplomatic about my opinions and foster an environment where if someone disagrees they will not feel invalidated by posting their own point of view. I want to be as balanced as possible and give fair consideration. It is just my way
– thank you for noticing my tongue in cheek comments. I meant the post to be entertaining and different than the usual “well the game sucks..” I do not think the game just “sucked” but rather I could not enjoy it and felt it did not live up to what the game devs had given expectations for .. which brings me to … I put in those hours because I was so sure I was missing something to the game. The only thing I knew before buying it was what the game devs, aka Bioware, had stated about the game. I did not read any reviews and I had not read the forums. I wanted to have my own experience without prejudice. I figured “maybe I am playing the wrong class?” “Maybe the wrong race?” and realized to my dismay, no.. I just could not enjoy the game.
good! I am glad you are enjoying the game. Part of my post is “I really hope other people do enjoy this game.. I do not fault them for enjoying it.” While it was not what I wanted in a game, I did get 265 hours out of it lol .. well and more now that I am updating the wiki
I have invested 1100+ hrs in three full campaigns, and have a fourth session currently underway. I do not consider it wasted, as I have enjoyed the entire series, though none of them are perfect.
Pouring 250+ hours in a game that you don’t like seems odd to me. You should really have invested your time into some other game.
You have an extreme negative opinion about DA:I, which doesn’t invite me to raise another opinion. I will compare DA:I shortly to the other two games, though. I’ve given my thoughts about DA:I somewhere else. I saw some flaws too, but I also saw many improvements over the other two games. For me it is even hard to go back to DA:O, because it didn’t age well. DA2 is my least favorite in the franchise for a long list of reasons.
The only points I like to repeat are the ones that affect BW as a whole: The writers seem to have lost their magic more in each new title and there is no consistency in a given franchise. The company wants each franchise to have its own identity, but fails to do so, because it gets most of its influences from other games, with which it wants to compete. They’ll add MP not to add a great experience, but it’s main purpose is that it allows a hidden form of DRM. This results in games following trends and not into innovative games that push the market into new experiences. It is again a sign of a corporate culture driven by fear and insecurity, which is visible in their games and in their relation to gamers.
Edit: I think you have too many disclaimers. It is your opinion, don’t apologize for it. Even Fexelea has her own opinions, which she ventilates without any disclaimer. I would also object to any editor’s note, no matter how innocent or objective. It is you who writes the article and not the editor. But if you agreed to that then more power to you.
It`s been a while since a laughed so much reading a review! I cannot comment about Dragon Age: Inquisition, since I never played it. And probably I will never try it. The first reviews about the combat system turned me away. I read a few user reviews since DAI was launched, but yours gave me a better perspective about what Bioware is considering “the future of RPGs”. Well, this future is a borefest.
The storyline seems idiotic from the start. When BW first described the general idea for DAI I was skeptical, since Inquisition was associated with persecution and mass torture in Europe, and has a similar negative meaning for Thedas: mage-killing gangs “cleaning” Thedas and making it a “better” world. Of course, when the Chantry realized that new mages will continue to be born all around Thedas, not just in Tevinter they enlisted the killers and made them prison guardians and occasional raiders / assassins. What sane person with even a hint of rationality would consider a mage child some punishment for their sins when they are as likely to be born in any family without regard of belief, social status or morality is beyond me. How was the Chantry able to balance the contradiction between their view about the Maker and the fundamental “sin” of mages is another wonder.Fast forward and BW introduced us to another Inquisition. Can anyone explain me who in the game was hit hard in the head to come up with the name “Inquisition” for the ad hoc organization tasked to close the Veil and get rid of Corypheus? And just how hard that blow in the head needed to be? I understand that a human raised with the Chantry teaching has a chance to accept it, but an elf, dwarf or even worse a qunari? I really don`t get it. How any mage will accept an alliance with something named Inquisition and supported by the Chantry is beyond me. And in the end all this mess leads to another Divine, and long live the New Chantry…That for me is a fundamental flaw from Bioware.
Compare this with the original Grey Warden order. They wanted to end the Blight and nothing else. They freed themselves from any bonds of status, religion or race. Finished the job, and that was it. When they realized that darkspawn did not disappeared completely but the rest of the world did not cared about this, they carried on in maintenance mode, ready for any new crisis.
