I intend to upgrade my PC next year, but to fill the gap I bought half a year of GeForce Now, so I naturally received the game in the deal.
I absolutely hate the combat. Not only am I doing the same thing over and over, but I finally get why people were comparing it to Guardians of the Galaxy in their reviews. It’s the exact same system—charge up the enemy’s stagger bar, and when it’s full, run up and press "E" to either finish them if they’re low on health, or do massive damage. There’s even a super special finisher, just like when the Guardians unlocked theirs at the end of their character arcs; here, it’s just the fourth option. (Actually, it’s kind of like Kingdoms of Amalur, too, in the “press button to win” way). But in both cases—GotG and Amalur—they handled it better than DAtV did. And it's absolutely true that enemies almost always focus only on you.
I also hate that the warrior is just another mage. You have so many abilities that deal damage from a distance, drain life with necrotic effects, etc., that it doesn't even feel like I'm playing a warrior. And you can't play as a tank, either; it’s an action game, so your goal is not to get hit—or to parry hits. Because of that, you never have a lot of health. You’ve got two weapons you can switch on the fly: sword and shield when you press X, or a two-handed weapon. There’s no subclass division here like in DAO either. And if they didn’t want comparisons to Marvel movies, maybe they shouldn’t have given the warrior a move where, if you hold down "Q," you can throw a shield that comes back to you after hitting an enemy.
The game also has no exploration. It feels like Final Fantasy 13—corridors with mini-branches so you can find a hidden chest a few steps off the main path, and that’s it. The inventory system is also annoying; I equipped a helmet on Rook, didn’t like how it looked, and thought, “Fine, I’ll find a better one later.” But you can’t take it off. You can only swap it for another helmet or hide it if you don't want to see it. Once you equip something, it stays. The inventory system is so bare-bones, it's ridiculous.
The puzzles are just like SkillUp showed: turn two statues to face each other, move a glowing crystal from one pedestal to another a step away, or set up a laser beam to hit a mirror. And of course, everything is right there in front of you, barely a meter away. I swear if enough birds sat on it, they’d complete the puzzle by accident. Or, you’re blocked by some Blight growths; find the pulsating red umbilical cord bigger than you, destroy the node, and done.
Enemy variety is pretty bad so far, though I’m only at the beginning, so it might improve. But there’s also this thing where enemies spawn out of nowhere in waves—DA2 days are back! Then again, GotG had this, too, though combat there was actually fun. And it’s got all those “modern” elements that you see in every game now—Jedi Fallen Order, GotG, and the new Tomb Raiders have them too. You go through super-narrow passages as hidden loading screens, and then there are slope slides everywhere. It's so common now it's almost funny.
I feel sorry for the translator who had to work on this. Here, you can’t just use plural forms; it immediately sounds what communists used over here. There are no agreed-upon pronouns either, because it’s a gendered language, so everything just sounds awkward. Onu/Jenu just does not exist in the Polish grammar, these are just retarded neopronuns.
And speaking of dialogue, maaaan, it’s so bad. First off, characters repeat the same information over and over, with no synonyms. It’s like I’m listening to an echo. NPCs do it, companions do it, and there's so much “as you know” type of stuff. Plus, everyone just believes whatever you say. You walk into the elves' camp and say, "Hey, guys, your mythical gods—the ones you’re not even sure existed—they’re back." And they immediately react with, "OMG, our evil gods have returned!" Jesus Christ, maybe ask for some evidence or proof or something?
The new lore is ridiculously dumb. You’re in Arlathan, surrounded by ruins of entire cities filled to the brim with ancient magi-tech. Tevinter had literally thousands of years to ransack this place when they beat the elves. They controlled the area for so long that there would be nothing left, especially since they have legions of mages. Even if the traps killed a lot of people, they would’ve disarmed them eventually. But nope, everything is lying around and works perfectly. The power crystals that have kept everything running for so long would be priceless to the Imperium, but okay. Now, darkspawn don’t even have broodmothers anymore; they spawn from Blight pools on the ground like the Uruk-Hai in LOTR films. Broodmothers are out—it’s current year, after all, time to get rid of them.
At least the fish are back; Shepard would be envious.
I also hate those moments when the game turns into a visual novel. You get control of your character, kill three enemies, two-minute cutscene, walk five steps and break a barrier, two-minute cutscene. This happens especially at the start of new levels (and was super annoying in the prologue). Speaking of lack of control, the dialogue wheel is basically just different flavors of the same sentence over and over. You rarely get the chance to disagree or suggest an alternative; you’re just along for the ride.
The only thing I like is that they finally provide answers to long-standing questions—like what exactly the Black/Golden City is, confirming what/who Sandal was, etc. But in this run, I probably won’t romance anyone, because romance options pop up at the most awkward times. For example, there’s a character who is beating herself up about something she could have done differently, and my three options are all focused on addressing her feelings—or, derailing the conversation to flirt with her. Stuff like this has made me skip the heart options multiple times. For some reason, they feel the need to force in the option to flirt in serious conversations.
BTW, for whatever reason, the game has no two-handed swords. So if you like greatswords, like I do, you’re shit out of luck.
It's pretty funny that as many people are playing the new Dragon Age as are playing a game that came out 15 months ago.
I absolutely hate the combat. Not only am I doing the same thing over and over, but I finally get why people were comparing it to Guardians of the Galaxy in their reviews. It’s the exact same system—charge up the enemy’s stagger bar, and when it’s full, run up and press "E" to either finish them if they’re low on health, or do massive damage. There’s even a super special finisher, just like when the Guardians unlocked theirs at the end of their character arcs; here, it’s just the fourth option. (Actually, it’s kind of like Kingdoms of Amalur, too, in the “press button to win” way). But in both cases—GotG and Amalur—they handled it better than DAtV did. And it's absolutely true that enemies almost always focus only on you.
I also hate that the warrior is just another mage. You have so many abilities that deal damage from a distance, drain life with necrotic effects, etc., that it doesn't even feel like I'm playing a warrior. And you can't play as a tank, either; it’s an action game, so your goal is not to get hit—or to parry hits. Because of that, you never have a lot of health. You’ve got two weapons you can switch on the fly: sword and shield when you press X, or a two-handed weapon. There’s no subclass division here like in DAO either. And if they didn’t want comparisons to Marvel movies, maybe they shouldn’t have given the warrior a move where, if you hold down "Q," you can throw a shield that comes back to you after hitting an enemy.
The game also has no exploration. It feels like Final Fantasy 13—corridors with mini-branches so you can find a hidden chest a few steps off the main path, and that’s it. The inventory system is also annoying; I equipped a helmet on Rook, didn’t like how it looked, and thought, “Fine, I’ll find a better one later.” But you can’t take it off. You can only swap it for another helmet or hide it if you don't want to see it. Once you equip something, it stays. The inventory system is so bare-bones, it's ridiculous.
The puzzles are just like SkillUp showed: turn two statues to face each other, move a glowing crystal from one pedestal to another a step away, or set up a laser beam to hit a mirror. And of course, everything is right there in front of you, barely a meter away. I swear if enough birds sat on it, they’d complete the puzzle by accident. Or, you’re blocked by some Blight growths; find the pulsating red umbilical cord bigger than you, destroy the node, and done.
Enemy variety is pretty bad so far, though I’m only at the beginning, so it might improve. But there’s also this thing where enemies spawn out of nowhere in waves—DA2 days are back! Then again, GotG had this, too, though combat there was actually fun. And it’s got all those “modern” elements that you see in every game now—Jedi Fallen Order, GotG, and the new Tomb Raiders have them too. You go through super-narrow passages as hidden loading screens, and then there are slope slides everywhere. It's so common now it's almost funny.
I feel sorry for the translator who had to work on this. Here, you can’t just use plural forms; it immediately sounds what communists used over here. There are no agreed-upon pronouns either, because it’s a gendered language, so everything just sounds awkward. Onu/Jenu just does not exist in the Polish grammar, these are just retarded neopronuns.
And speaking of dialogue, maaaan, it’s so bad. First off, characters repeat the same information over and over, with no synonyms. It’s like I’m listening to an echo. NPCs do it, companions do it, and there's so much “as you know” type of stuff. Plus, everyone just believes whatever you say. You walk into the elves' camp and say, "Hey, guys, your mythical gods—the ones you’re not even sure existed—they’re back." And they immediately react with, "OMG, our evil gods have returned!" Jesus Christ, maybe ask for some evidence or proof or something?
The new lore is ridiculously dumb. You’re in Arlathan, surrounded by ruins of entire cities filled to the brim with ancient magi-tech. Tevinter had literally thousands of years to ransack this place when they beat the elves. They controlled the area for so long that there would be nothing left, especially since they have legions of mages. Even if the traps killed a lot of people, they would’ve disarmed them eventually. But nope, everything is lying around and works perfectly. The power crystals that have kept everything running for so long would be priceless to the Imperium, but okay. Now, darkspawn don’t even have broodmothers anymore; they spawn from Blight pools on the ground like the Uruk-Hai in LOTR films. Broodmothers are out—it’s current year, after all, time to get rid of them.
At least the fish are back; Shepard would be envious.
I also hate those moments when the game turns into a visual novel. You get control of your character, kill three enemies, two-minute cutscene, walk five steps and break a barrier, two-minute cutscene. This happens especially at the start of new levels (and was super annoying in the prologue). Speaking of lack of control, the dialogue wheel is basically just different flavors of the same sentence over and over. You rarely get the chance to disagree or suggest an alternative; you’re just along for the ride.
The only thing I like is that they finally provide answers to long-standing questions—like what exactly the Black/Golden City is, confirming what/who Sandal was, etc. But in this run, I probably won’t romance anyone, because romance options pop up at the most awkward times. For example, there’s a character who is beating herself up about something she could have done differently, and my three options are all focused on addressing her feelings—or, derailing the conversation to flirt with her. Stuff like this has made me skip the heart options multiple times. For some reason, they feel the need to force in the option to flirt in serious conversations.
BTW, for whatever reason, the game has no two-handed swords. So if you like greatswords, like I do, you’re shit out of luck.
It's pretty funny that as many people are playing the new Dragon Age as are playing a game that came out 15 months ago.
