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[Ollie]

Is anyone playing this? If so, what do you think of it? Should I just stick with Skyrim until we get Elder Scrolls VI for all my open-world RPG needs?

[Samira Kernher]

Still waiting for the patch to fix all the bugs before I continue. It's been nice so far, but the open world areas are very, very MMOy. Fetch quests and so on. Rather dull IMO.

If you don't have it yet, wait until said patch before you get it. It's very poorly optimized for PC. And there's a major 100% guaranteed customization bug that happens a little bit into the main story.

[Silas Vitalia]

Inserting obligatory 'bioware ain't the same since they sold to EA' comment. 

I hear this game makes up for a lot of the bad will from part 2?

[Samira Kernher]

I consider 2 better, but then 2 had exactly the kind of story I've always wanted from RPGs.

3 is back to the standard epic chosen hero thing.

[Gottii]

Playing the crap out of this.

Its massive. Ridiculously so.

And fun.  Best of the Dragon Age games....

[Matariki Rain]

Ulf is "really liking it" and has been playing it most discretionary waking hours. "The combat game is not as good a tactical game as Dragon Age: Origins, but the story is better."

Although it's not my game style, I note that it has some excellent voice acting and some engaging characters. It's been pleasant enough to have around that in our house it's mostly played on speakers rather than headset.

[kalaratiri]

I love it.

[Vizage]

I've been playing (when I can) as well. I'm having a lot of fun but I think Sami hit the nail on the head with the MMO'y feel. I'm not very high yet but I've found myself spending a good chunk of time aimlessly fetching and collecting what's appears to be a trend for every zone (tablets, star map things, etc) which I get pretty bored of quickly. Besides that my only gripe (and I may just not be far enough in yet) is that all my class followers are identical to each other.

Hate on DA2 all you want but I was a little disappointed when I saw that Varric and rogue B and C all shared the same skill tress. I really liked the distinct flavour of DA2's followers all having a tree unique to them, it really gave your party flavour.

Now I can't be bothered with the other characters because they all just seem the same without the cool gear/upgrades I found for the other.

Tldr: fun game, minor annoyances. Will keep playing.

[Mizhara]

Well my internet shat itself and I might not get back online for a couple of weeks. As surfing and particularly typing on a phone sucks donkeyballs, I have time to play DA:I. 17 levels and 43 hours later and I can say it is good. It is not fantastic, but it is good.

Story is enjoyable, performance is great, graphics are excellent, characters are diverse and have depth. The world is humongous and a joy to explore. There are mmoish aspects I do not enjoy as much, but I have grown to handle it.

Where it really comes into its own is when the story missions really get going. Level design, fights, overall worldbuilding and so on blows me away. Also, the trans charscter is really well done.

It is almost too big though. A lot of decisions, a lot of differences depending on savegames etc means a ton of replayability but damn... I will easily be past 50-60 hours before I finish this and the thought of starting anew and do it all again is nothing short of daunting.

Hell, I am just three out of ten dragons in at 44 hours!

Those fughts are truly epic by the way. Long, hard, huge.

And now I am tired of fughting the fucking phone for dominance over this post so I will come back to this thread when I can finally type on a god damn keyboard again.

[Cmdr Baxter]

I have it, but I use the term loosely. I own the game, but it's a 23GB download and Origin absolutely hates the download on this game for God-only-knows-what-reason. So I'll probably be able to play it sometime next week, if I'm lucky.

[Mizhara]

Okay, got a keyboard now. Bless the intranet at work for what it provides. A horrifyingly shitty connection to the interblags.

The bad:

Combat is... eh, different? In DA2 it wasn't very good. Well presented but braindead and weird. My rogue bouncing from one side of the room to the other, instagibbing all the weak enemies (daggers make bodies FUCKING EXPLODE, didn't you know that?) etc etc. In DA:O it was far worse presented, but immensely more enjoyable. More tactical, better paced and with a staggeringly well done positioning system etc.

DA:I has gone a bit... weird. I can't really compare it to either of the other two. Enemies are ridiculously damage spongy at times and especially during the first five to ten levels a lot of the fighting is a pain in the ass. It's partly to do with the controls making you just spam attack into thin air if you're not within range of the enemy and partly to do with the completely weird way everyone moves around. Positioning is very important (particularly for Rogues, especially at later levels) but it's like the game fights you at every turn in that regard. At times, it's like playing an MMO where the mob AI is perpetually set on "random" and your party is played by concussed marmots.

When it shines, it really shines though. The "overworld" fights can be stupid and annoying, but pretty much every single fight I've had (especially bossfights) in the storyline missions and the more "event" like encounters have been lovingly crafted to be fun and enjoyable. Fighting the controls and the way they removed the healing system in favor of a limited amount of health potions per outing is frankly annoying but one can grow accustomed enough to it that the game still works. DA:O had a much better combat system, DA2's was worse (but far faster and better controls) and DA:I lands somewhere in the "wut" scale where it isn't either or.

Some mentioned no differentiation between the companions within their respective classes. You haven't played very long. Once you reach a certain part of the game, specializations unlock and each of your companions have their own while you get to quest for your own. Just make sure you do your own specialization quest reasonably early or you'll run out of skillpoints before you get to fill the new tree. I held off on mine for a bit and thus screwed up a few talents. Of course, you can respecc reasonably cheaply by going to the store next to your armor/weapon crafting in Skyhold and buying the medallion for it.

The tactical camera is a fucking atrocity though. It's the point where the port becomes readily apparent. It's fucking unusable on KBnM controls, I swear. This may very well be the reason combat in DA:I falls very short, as I've stopped even trying to do the tactical thing anymore. It just doesn't work on PC and that pisses me off.

MMOish elements have been mentioned. Yes, there are odd busy work quests and fetch quests. Find x number of shards. Find x number of things that let you pinpoint shards. Find x Astrariums and solve the puzzles. Bring item x to location y.

Yeah, I don't mind these one bit. Most of these are -entirely- optional and just there for the completionist or for those moments when you could use a little bit extra power for the war room to unlock the next area or whatever. I've ignored most Shard quests for instance and I've unlocked bloody everything and got 100+ power to spare. It's just there for the completionists or for when you just want to be out there exploring. I've done every major Skyhold upgrade and still have two regions to explore.

The game is good. There's just no way around that. It's Dragon Age in all its glory and it's worth every penny. Even given the absolutely staggering length of the game, I'll be replaying it a few times over the years, and I'd do it for the dragon fights alone.

Seriously, they are amazing. Each of them have been crafted with special abilities and elements. You'll go from a rather "standard" dragon flying around and shooting fireballs or firesprays at you, landing to show off their humongous size (you're fighting each of their four legs, their head and their tail, each of them being a point of attack), calling in adds etc etc to a lightning infused dragon occasionally pulling up "guard" (it's a new type of damage mitigation in the Dragon Age series) and so on. I don't have words for it. Go fight dragons. It's worth it. Also gives you the best crafting options, obviously.

The addition of a trans character (very well done) and an interestingly hinted D/s relationship doesn't hurt either. Oh, and if anyone played the DA2 DLC where Hawke goes to a Warden prison to find out what Hawke's father was doing? Your minds will be thoroughly fucking blown in this game.

I really enjoy this game. 46 hours in now and going strong. I highly suspect it'll be another ten to twenty hours minimum. If you remember the sheer epicness of the final siege in DA:O, fighting through the city etc, you'll find the same levels of amazing moments in almost every story mission there is, while having a world to explore that dwarfs Skyrim with ease while leaving every location unique and special instead of the same fucking cave every damn time.

Highly recommended.

Oh, and I haven't encountered any real bugs yet. Once a requisition officer stood halfway into the ground and a giant was launched a bit into the air when pushed onto a giant tree root. I've seen -one- texture bug and it was so far out of the way I should by rights not have seen it.

[Samira Kernher]

The major bug for me, the one that has stopped my gameplay in its tracks as I won't play at all until it's fixed, is the accent bug when you meet you know who. If you chose the non-default voice set for your race, it will change to the default if choose the customize option at the meeting.

And that isn't a chance thing, it's guaranteed if you have a non-default voice for your race and choose to customize at that scene. It's fucking ridiculous.

Combat wise, I preferred DA2 tbh. I've never been a fan of the slow paced stop-and-go style of 'classic' RPGs. Having to constantly pause and position people properly and all that just slows the game down for me. But then I play RPGs for the story, not the gameplay, so I prefer to be able to get the combat over with quick and easy so I can get back to the story. Ergo, DA2's was perfect for me.

Speaking of DA2, I really did love the story in that game. I loved just being able to play a mostly regular person trying to get by in a crazy and fucked up world, instead of some big epic hero. Sami actually takes some traits from my Hawke. <.< Sami and her brother are based off FHawke-Carver.

But yeah, combat. DA:I's would be fine if not for the awful controls. Seriously, no mouse move? No autoattack? No click-to-move? Ugh.

The new healing mechanics I don't mind, but then I play a mage and therefore have the ability to spam barrier everytime it comes off cooldown without having to bother switching to another companion to do it. I do dislike how barrier's range is shorter than every other spell in the game though, so if you're pelting someone with DD spells at max range and need to put a barrier on your melee people, you have to run forwards 10 meters before you can. Pretty annoying. Especially since there is no click-to-move so you can't just like, cast the barrier on the party member's portrait and have it automatically move you into position and cast it.

So yeah, not a fan of the combat in DA:I, I find it the worst of the three.


Story-wise, I do love it and am so mad that I'm having to wait before I continue. Seeing Mr. Big Bad the first time was... well, it was very cool. For some reason, even though I'd been expecting to see him in DA:I, I didn't really put two-and-two together and realize that he was actually going to be Mr. Big Bad. The trailers had all been very 'big dark evil monster villain' feel, like another King of Shadows or some boring shit like that, and it made me think this would be the first DA without a really good villain (<3 Loghain, <3 Meredith), but I've eaten my words. Seeing Mr. Big Bad again was amazing.

The party members are great. Except Sera. Did Not Get, she's a fucking chav. <.< But I love Vivienne and Blackwall and Cassandra and Dorian and of course Varric, the best dwarf companion ever. And Cullen and Josephine. Also Cole. Coooooole <3. I'd read Dragon Age Asunder before playing so I'd fallen in love with Cole already and was so much looking forward to him.


Please patch the game and fix the voice switching bug already, Bioware! I want to continue my game.

[Anja Suorsa]

Very much enjoyed. Now, on to the second playthrough!

[kalaratiri]

The party members are great. Except Sera. Did Not Get, she's a fucking chav. <.<

No she isn't.

She's a sort of attractive/sort of weird looking blonde with no verbal filter and a love of butts. She's basically tumblr.

[Mizhara]

Level 20 rogue. Newly crafted 400ish dps weapons x 2. Almost 90% plus to crit damage. Build focused on more crit damage and more crits. 50 extra stamina from neck. Apply mark of death. Burst every high damage skill (while enemy has 25% armor reduction and I have 20% armor penetration). Manually trigger mark of death. Fifteen fucking thousand crit, on top of all the damage already done.

Pause game to put pants in washer.

Come back and do it all again.

Five dragons to go.