Review Gamebanshee reviews Dragon Age: Inquisition + DLC

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: BioWare; Dragon Age III: Inquisition

It took them a long time to finally review Dragon Age: Inquisition, probably because actually playing it is a chore of epic proportions and they couldn't bear to stroll the countryside to click on 20/20 glowing thingies while gathering 12/12 glowing mac-guffins for more than an hour a day. At least they included info about the Jaws of Hakkon DLC in their review for added value.

If you love fetch quests, I suggest you stop reading this review right now and just grab Dragon Age: Inquisition. The game is chock-full of them. It's actually really difficult for me to say anything insightful about the quest design, simply because of how bare-bones most of the quests are. For example, let's consider the quests about establishing the Inquisition's presence in wilderness areas, which open up resting camps. All of them involve reaching a certain location and clicking on a prompt. Some of them involve small navigational puzzles that requires the player to figure out how to reach a location. For the most part, though, only the player's ability to follow a quest marker is challenged.

Most of the activities in the game follow the same pattern. Clear a number of enemy camps. Free a number of prisoners. Close a number of Fade rifts. Sometimes the game is merciful and only assigns one objective, though rarely an engaging one. It's only on occasion that I was reminded that BioWare actually knows how to design engaging adventures. At times I was asked to make decisions that left me very conflicted, whether to let the Chantry or the elves learn about the true nature of a controversial event in their past, for example. Episodes like that were a breath of fresh air, but all too rare.
...
Re-reading this review, I can't help but wonder if I've been too harsh. Dragon Age: Inquisition is a surprisingly relaxing pastime, and there's a lot of it. Played one or two hours a day, it can last for a very, very long time. In many ways, it reminded me of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, another game that left me very little, but was very easy to play for long stretches of time.

But that's not what I think games should strive for, and that's not what BioWare's games strove for in the past. While the developers often fell short of their reputation as master storytellers, they always tried to craft interesting universes and fill them with stories that would resonate with people. I genuinely hope they weren't trying this time, because Inquisition would be a spectacular failure.

The complete 6-page-review for your reading pleasure. Remember, playing DA:I is still slightly more fun than vacuum-cleaning your appartment.

 

[ghostdog]

Let's praise this great game:

Playing DA:I is still slightly more fun than watching a crack on the wall.

 

[a Goat]

A follow-up to Dragon Age II. The real sequel to Dragon Age: Origins. The perfect pick-up point for new fans. The culmination of the plotlines seeded in the previous two games and their DLCs. I don't envy BioWare. Dragon Age: Inquisition was always saddled with enormous expectations.

A follow-up to Dragon Age II. The real sequel to Dragon Age: Origins. The perfect pick-up point for new fans. The culmination of the plotlines seeded in the previous two games and their DLCs.

enormous expectations.

A follow-up to Dragon Age II.

 

[Black]

Let's praise this great game:

Playing DA:I is still slightly more fun than watching a crack on the wall.

I dunno, what if a cock manages to slip through the cracks? Wouldn't that be way more interesting?

 

[Carrion]

Nice. It's been only, what, nine months, and the (sort of) negative reviews start to flow in already? Should've waited at least until the sequel was released.

 

[Kiste]

Let's praise this great game:

Playing DA:I is still slightly more fun than watching a crack on the wall.

I dunno, what if a cock manages to slip through the cracks? Wouldn't that be way more interesting?

YES

 

[Cassidy]

playing DA:I is still slightly more fun than vacuum-cleaning your appartment.

I'm surprised Bioware didn't offer a job to the developers of Sunset to become even more

:incloosive:

 

[Commissar Draco]

playing DA:I is still slightly more fun than vacuum-cleaning your appartment.

I'm surprised Bioware didn't offer a job to the developers of Sunset to become even more

:incloosive:

Glorious rant about hipster ''games as art'' and ''shite as art'' Komrade. Beware of the Red Bourgeois! :russia:

 

[Kz3r0]

It took them a long time to finally review Dragon Age: Inquisition, probably because actually playing it is a chore of epic proportions

 

[tindrli]

For the most part, though, only the player's ability to follow a quest marker is challenged.

in other words----SHIT BANAL BORING... its ridiculous how they need to carefully pick words..

 

[Excidium II]

They managed to make all the chicks ugly

 

[pippin]

They managed to make all the chicks ugly

Dragon Age's models never were good and even then DA:I is a huge decline in that particular field, but what they did to Cassandra is what hurts the most

 

[Karwelas]

DA:I is a huge decline but what they did to a player with at least 1/4 part of human brain and taste is what hurts the most

Fixed... I hope.

 

[Ninjerk]

Let's praise this great game:

Playing DA:I is still slightly more fun than watching a crack on the wall.

I dunno, what if a cock manages to slip through the cracks? Wouldn't that be way more interesting?

I don't know, put your mouth somewhere on the crack.

 

[MicoSelva]

It is always good to read a GameBanshee review that is not written by Steven Carter.

I actually like it better than The Codex review, which was honestly so forgettable I had to re-read it to remember if I had read it at all (sorry, Kris & Delterius).

Bonus points for the 'as good as Amalur' conclusion*.

*I do not mean 'lol, as as terrible as Amalur', because Amalur was a decent game to spend time with, if there was nothing else to do. Same thing with MMOs. Too bad nowadays there is always something more interesting to do, at least for me.

 

[Morality Games]

Let's praise this great game:

Playing DA:I is still slightly more fun than watching a crack on the wall.

Hm. Alright then.

Playing DA:I is somewhat as engaging as cleaning your gutters. If the first DLC is as fun as weeding the garden, I'm in.

Being honest, I think that's a lie. I would find any random house chore more stimulating than DA:I.

Goodness, even talking about it is boring me.