Dragon Age: Inquisition Review Thread

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XGN (Dutch gaming website) gave it a 9.5

http://www.xgn.nl/dragon-age-inquisition-review

Translated it the best I could:

Dragon Age: Inquisition is the new pride of BioWare and by far the best RPG in a long time. The game simply got everything: solid, good gameplay, beautiful graphics and a story that surpasses Dragon Age: Origins. The multiplayer co-op is a nice extra feature, but nothing more than that. In short, prepare yourself for an adventure that will take hundreds of delicious hours of your life.
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FUUUUCK!!!
fuckfuckfuckfuck!!!


do I have to buy this game?
of course I do....

fuck...

I feel weird....
such conflicting feels




I have only played the first game and bits of the DLC, should I try and play DA1 DLC and DA2 (though this made me skeptical and lost hope for the series) before I play this?

PC or PS4?
 
KePoW said:
Implied by who? I'm a longtime GAF member, which by definition means we're all more interested in video games than the mass casual person. And I didn't know or hear about this DAI difficulty implication.

Granted I have not read many DAI threads before this point. But for professional reviewers whose job is to play every single new game... do you really expect them to do heavy deep pre-release research into all games under development? Or should they play a game "fresh"?

Personally I think the latter is better, and that's how I would review games.



I didn't say Easiest difficulty. I said Default.

If a reviewer plays on literally the Easiest difficulty, then criticism against that reviewer is valid. But Default is perfectly fine, and what they *should* play on for reviews.

I mean... do you expect all reviewers to play every game on absolute max Difficulty setting? Games like Ninja Gaidens, Bayonettas, DMCs? That would be completely unrealistic for reviewers who have to play all types of games.

(I've never played TLOU, so I don't know what that example refers to.)
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If you're a professional reviewer I expect you to be able to be able to go into the settings of a game and change the difficulty if you find it to easy. If that is not an option, at least make it clear in your review that you played on normal and comment on the difficulty at higher levels, although when you can change the difficulty in real time this should not be too much to expect. The Kotaku impressions does this exactly right.

There's the combat system, which I enjoyed well enough on normal difficulty but which I haven't really had a chance to stress-test.
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For the most part, I found that I was able to let my melee characters go off on their own, and I stayed in control of my mage for 90% of combat encounters. I'm planning to explore the game more on hard difficulty, however, which I sense will force me to play much more tactically.
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Edit:
KePoW said:
I do agree that if a reviewer complains about difficulty (either too easy or hard), they should specifically state what setting they played on. And you're right, not enough of them say that.

But I stick to my opinion that reviewers should finish all games at Default difficulty.
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I do not disagree that reviewers should finish game on Default difficulty, I just want them to make that clear in their reviews, especially if the comment on the difficulty of the combat.
 
Lemondish said:
It's not that that shouldn't be the case. It's a logical way to go. I'm just not sure if it's a universally accepted choice and I think clarifying it would be beneficial to some.

I'm also not certain there's any objective insight to be gleaned by saying that the one difficulty you played wasn't challenging enough. None of these reviews explain what difficulties they played on or whether they were all relatively easy. Given what I've seen from games journalism, particularly with regards to hands on previews, I'm not convinced anybody writing these reviews is a sufficient analog for my own gaming tastes vis a vis difficulty. By that I mean most of the time they're terrible at whatever they're doing and it shows.
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I do agree that if a reviewer complains about difficulty (either too easy or hard), they should specifically state what setting they played on. And you're right, not enough of them say that.

But I stick to my opinion that reviewers should finish all games at Default difficulty.
 
Jack cw said:
Press and media also noticed how bad the reception of DA2 was among gamers, and most of the reviews I've read so far covered some concerns about things that DA2 failed at miserably, so I guess we are safe here. Sure, some will find something to nitpick, but I really don't expect a major backlash, this game is great.
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I've noticed some things too, but you cant blame me for being a little skeptical.

I honestly want this to be good. I was so let down by DA2, hell if you go back to the OT you will see me foolishly calling out Evilore for making a joke thread for the game that I was sure I was going to love (didnt know he was the owner here, lol)

Buut I felt really burnt, even bought the dlc because it was "sooo different" (It wasnt)

Please be good :)
 
EricTheCleric said:
I have only played the first game and bits of the DLC, should I try and play DA1 DLC and DA2 (though this made me skeptical and lost hope for the series) before I play this?
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It would give you some more context for the world (and some sense of personal agency in making things happen) but it shouldn't be necessary. Dragon Age Keep means you needn't have played either game at all to make your own choices.
 
So apparently it's highly recommended that you play DA:O and DA:2 otherwise you'll get confused.

Well shit. I have DA:O (from when it was free on Origin) but i just can't get into it. The combat is just... Ugh.
 
kotaku said:
5. It's Not Really Newcomer-Friendly

I get the sense that a lot of people will be coming to Inquisition without having played the first two Dragon Age games. Those people are going to have to do some background reading, because for better or for worse, Inquisition is hugely reliant on the lore, characters, world-building, and backstory laid down by the first two games. If you don't know a Tevinter Magister from an Orlesian noble, you're going to be a bit lost here.
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oh no, this may be a problem for me :(
 
Derp said:
So apparently it's highly recommended that you play DA:O and DA:2 otherwise you'll get confused.

Well shit. I have DA:O (from when it was free on Origin) but i just can't get into it. The combat is just... Ugh.
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You'll probably be ok reading the wiki, I doubt it's that impenetrable.
 
I think this part from the Kotaku article might be of interest to those worried about menial quests.
Kirk Hamilton said:
Inquisition's size goes beyond acreage, too: There's an overwhelming amount of things to do in this game. I've seen plenty of people concerned that there are too many busywork "go here and get 10 of these" quests in Inquisition. While those sorts of quests do exist (and seem pretty optional), they're easily overshadowed by the game's wide array of more-interesting diversions. Explore this time-frozen battleground, and see if you can find out what happened there. Visit your Inquisition's war-table to dispatch your forces and unlock new regions, or solve problems for minor characters. Use hand-drawn maps to scour the desert for a hidden Dwarven ruin full of powerful relics. Solve constellation puzzles in each area to triangulate and unlock a treasure room. Go giant-hunting, or challenge and defeat a trio of extremely dangerous dragons. Open a dam and venture into the caves beneath a lake to close an underwater demon rift. Survive the guardians of a hidden Elven ruin and re-forge a legendary sword. And on, and on, and on.
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The last two paragraphs of ccc's review mention some glitches, a lot of screen tears, npcs falling from the sky etc. Is there a chance a good chunk of the problems they faced were due to the firmware and they didnt realize it? Especially how they say the character models and environments looked last gen.
 
EzekelRAGE said:
The last two paragraphs of ccc's review mention some glitches, a lot of screen tears, npcs falling from the sky etc. Is there a chance a good chunk of the problems they faced were due to the firmware and they didnt realize it?
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Also day one patch. Sucks for reviewers to have to deal with all this mess.
 
KePoW said:
Implied by who? I'm a longtime GAF member, which by definition means we're all more interested in video games than the mass casual person. And I didn't know or hear about this DAI difficulty implication.

Granted I have not read many DAI threads before this point. But for professional reviewers whose job is to play every single new game... do you really expect them to do heavy deep pre-release research into all games under development? Or should they play a game "fresh"?

Personally I think the latter is better, and that's how I would review games.



I didn't say Easiest difficulty. I said Default.

If a reviewer plays on literally the Easiest difficulty, then criticism against that reviewer is valid. But Default is perfectly fine, and what they *should* play on for reviews.

I mean... do you expect all reviewers to play every game on absolute max Difficulty setting? Games like Ninja Gaidens, Bayonettas, DMCs? That would be completely unrealistic for reviewers who have to play all types of games.

(I've never played TLOU, so I don't know what that example refers to.)
Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with playing on Normal. But doing so, and then making an unqualified critique of the game's strategic depth (as Eurogamer did) exhibits a lack of due diligence and does a disservice to the audience.
 
Aztechnology said:
Better than a review to me

​11 Things You Should Know About Dragon Age: Inquisition (Kotaku)
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For those worried about fetch quests

Inquisition's size goes beyond acreage, too: There's an overwhelming amount of things to do in this game. I've seen plenty of people concerned that there are too many busywork "go here and get 10 of these" quests in Inquisition. While those sorts of quests do exist (and seem pretty optional), they're easily overshadowed by the game's wide array of more-interesting diversions. Explore this time-frozen battleground, and see if you can find out what happened there. Visit your Inquisition's war-table to dispatch your forces and unlock new regions, or solve problems for minor characters. Use hand-drawn maps to scour the desert for a hidden Dwarven ruin full of powerful relics. Solve constellation puzzles in each area to triangulate and unlock a treasure room. Go giant-hunting, or challenge and defeat a trio of extremely dangerous dragons. Open a dam and venture into the caves beneath a lake to close an underwater demon rift. Survive the guardians of a hidden Elven ruin and re-forge a legendary sword. And on, and on, and on.
Click to expand...

Complaining about fetch quests when they are optional and there is a ton of other significant content to do seems like a pretty weak criticism to me.
 
tmespe said:
Edit:

I do not disagree that reviewers should finish game on Default difficulty, I just want them to make that clear in their reviews, especially if the comment on the difficulty of the combat.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, then we're in agreement
 
McDougles said:
If you want to get into Tinfoil-GAF territory...

hxfvvz.png
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Lol...WAT!
 
Violet_0 said:
the Kotaku "review" sold me on this game. After several disappointing RPGs this year (Divinity: OS, Wasteland 2) I think this just might be the one
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Yeah. It really seems like Kirk Hamiltion understands how to approach an RPG from a players standpoint. This quote says a lot in my opinion.

Inquisition's greatest pleasures lie off the beaten path: Indulging in meandering, philosophical conversations with minor characters; learning some random vendor's backstory; reading lengthy and enjoyable codex entries; listening to lovely songs performed by the tavern bard; wandering off in one direction and just seeing what you find. There is simply no way to do most of that in a hurry; this game all but demands that you relax and take your time.
Click to expand...
 
KePoW said:
I mean... do you expect all reviewers to play every game on absolute max Difficulty setting? Games like Ninja Gaidens, Bayonettas, DMCs? That would be completely unrealistic for reviewers who have to play all types of games.
Click to expand...

I never said that. I just want reviewers to specify what difficulty they played on if making criticisms about the general difficulty of the game.
 
I'm mostly only interested in reviews from people that think DA2 is a mediocre game. It's okay, but has a huge amount of faults. Seeing some giving lover score to DA:I than DA2 is not... looking good :P

KePoW said:
If a reviewer plays on literally the Easiest difficulty, then criticism against that reviewer is valid. But Default is perfectly fine, and what they *should* play on for reviews.
Click to expand...

I was a reviewer. I played most games on normal.
But when I felt a game was "too easy" on normal, I stated that in my review and ALSO switched to a higher difficulty level to see if the problems I had with the game disappeared. Sometimes the games were just too simple for me, but mostly the problems vanished as soon as I changed to a higher difficulty level. And also stated that in my review, of course.

A reviewer can't play on one difficulty and then say the game is "too easy" overall.
 
KePoW said:
I do agree that if a reviewer complains about difficulty (either too easy or hard), they should specifically state what setting they played on. And you're right, not enough of them say that.

But I stick to my opinion that reviewers should finish all games at Default difficulty.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, and as I mentioned, that's by far the most logical method to go. After all, default is meant to be designed for the vast majority of gamers. The first step would be to clarify that this is their standard procedure so we avoid some confusion, though. I doubt I'll have much trouble simply assuming this, as I have for the most part of the last decade, but clarification is a fantastic thing. If they do decide to go a step further and comment on the other difficulties, I would greatly appreciate it, but I don't expect it.
 
I haven't kept up to date with this game, have details been released on which on console version might be better?

I'm conflicted whether to get X1 or PS4. My friend wants to game share on the X1 but I'd prefer to get the optimum version which ever that might be.
 
Raider1874 said:
I haven't kept up to date with this game, have details been released on which on console version might be better?

I'm conflicted whether to get X1 or PS4. My friend wants to game share on the X1 but I'd prefer to get the optimum version which ever that might be.
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PS4 version is higher res.

X1 version gets DLC first, if that's something you care about.
 
Does it do that thing that Skyrim does that everything else levels at the same rate as you which I found terrible?
 
SublimeAnarky said:
The Polygon review.. he says it was mostly on PS4 that he played, but because of the issues he encountered (some PSN 2.0 related and some others as well) he was going to withhold his score.

Then he gave it a 9.5.. is that an Xbox One/PC score then ? Does the X1/PC versions not have the same bugs ?

Anyone make sense of that?
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This is the reviewer here! We're withholding the PS4 score specifically because of the freezing issue, not the other bugs. As mentioned at the bottom of the review, we tested on Xbox One and PC as well, and the freezing issue does not seem to exist there (which would make sense if it is caused by hardware problems).

ocean said:
Xbox One got 9.5. If the patch fixes all the Playstation specific bugs before launch I'd assume it'll get the same score.
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Accurate!
 
cyberheater said:
Does it do that thing that Skyrim does that everything else levels at the same rate as you which I found terrible?
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Pre-release at least, I believe they said there's no leveling scaling in the game, except possibly the main quests (which would be a pretty small part of the overall content).
 
DAO actually didn't have enough level scaling. Portions of the game became boringly easy because you chose to do them later on and the scaling wasn't sufficient. Of course it wasn't an open world game.
 
Lord of Castamere said:
I never said that. I just want reviewers to specify what difficulty they played on if making criticisms about the general difficulty of the game.
Click to expand...

Spyware said:
I was a reviewer. I played most games on normal.
But when I felt a game was "too easy" on normal, I stated that in my review and ALSO switched to a higher difficulty level to see if the problems I had with the game disappeared. Sometimes the games were just too simple for me, but mostly the problems vanished as soon as I changed to a higher difficulty level. And also stated that in my review, of course.
Click to expand...

Lemondish said:
Absolutely, and as I mentioned, that's by far the most logical method to go. After all, default is meant to be designed for the vast majority of gamers. The first step would be to clarify that this is their standard procedure so we avoid some confusion, though. I doubt I'll have much trouble simply assuming this, as I have for the most part of the last decade, but clarification is a fantastic thing. If they do decide to go a step further and comment on the other difficulties, I would greatly appreciate it, but I don't expect it.
Click to expand...

Got it, we are all agreed on this
 
Basileus777 said:
DAO actually didn't have enough level scaling. Portions of the game became boringly easy because you chose to do them later on and the scaling wasn't sufficient. Of course it wasn't an open world game.
Click to expand...

On the other hand there's no better feeling after some considerable levelling up to go into a lesser dungeon like a boss. Awesome.
 
Spyware said:
I'm mostly only interested in reviews from people that think DA2 is a mediocre game.
Click to expand...

I'm with you. Bioware games are in this weird space for me, where I need a review from somebody who almost actively dislikes their latest releases.

Their games review very well, but I always end up not enjoying them all that much.
 
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