Is inquisition actually a bad game or do people just hate it because of the gay stuff?

[Incendax]

A codexer once told me that having sex with another guy wasn't that bad, and people just hated that because of the "supposedly gay stuff".

He really makes the experience a positive one. It’s the game mechanics that feel like raw dogging a pine cone.

 

[Absinthe]

It's pretty bad. The story is complete shit. The villain is immediately aware of and could destroy the protagonist's crew whenever he wanted but instead basically fucks around with no real plan of action pulling bullshit out of his ass until he finally gets tired of you interfering with his shit and attacks in the endgame. The concept of an inquisition is a severe joke when done by kumbaya let's-all-sing-along types. You're quite possibly the most openly heretical organization on the face of the world, and you're supposed to be the church's inquisition. Fail. The "open world" aspect doesn't give us non-linear level design, actual exploration, or free-form adventures. It just amounts to a ton of time wasted bored out of your mind because you need to keep walking and riding from point A to point B. The quest design heads decided that being MMOish with tons of stupid fetch quests and the like wasn't bad enough; they needed to be like a Facebook clicker game too with tons of time-gated and grind-gated crap for story progression. The combat consists of tons of health sponge enemies while you waste time waiting for them to die. The companion tactics system is worse than it was in DAO. The tactical camera does not work either. Even on open terrain, it's too zoomed in to get a proper view of the whole battle field. Indoors, it's just ceiling glued and you can't see anything at all other than the guy you selected. It's painfully obvious it was never playtested. So you can't properly control the party either.

So basically you've got a crap story, crap quest design, crap level design, crap encounter design, crap party management, and a bad combat system in a game with multiple mandatory time-wasting mechanics. Everything is just fucking banalshitboring unless you are easily impressed by special effects for extended periods of time.

 

[glass blackbird]

I genuinely feel that DA2 is a better RPG than 3, or at least it's a less cynical and awful product. It wastes your time too, of course, but in many cases the bad parts of 2 are because of low budget or lack of time, like the reused areas. In 3, you go to lots of new areas and wander aimlessly across the vast, pointless environments. Lots of effort and money went into wasting your fucking time with a giant empty field or something.

They both suck ass though so it's not like it really matters

 

[Frozen]

DA2 already started a trend of dumbing down core Origin mechanics that was completely butchered in abomination known as Inquisition.

Origins actually had good combat system and nothing of that system is left in Inquisition, in DA2 they were half way there already.

So, if they did have more time DA2 would actually be even worse game (read: Inquisition).

 

[cvv]

I tried to give the game a chance but it's painfully obvious it's a nuBioware product. The writing, characters and story oozes a soft, soyboy, estrogen-laden vibe. You could almost smell the vegan farts and hair dye. The main villain is straight outta some Sunday morning cartoon for retarded children. He could give Skeletor a run for his money. The overall plot is shockingly dumb.

Aight, some positives. First, the visuals. DAI came out in 2014 and to this day it remains one of the prettiest games on the market, which just shows the powah of the Frostbite engine. Bioware had been known for making ugly games with excellent writing. Now it's the exact opposite - their environmental design is jaw dropping (DAI, Andromeda, Anthem) but their writing is rotting garbage.

Second, there are pockets of greatness, even in writing. I guess a few talented writers still remained in Bioware after the founders left and it shows. (Andromeda is already a 100% pure turd tho.) I think I even laughed once or twice during the convos with your companions. The main quests are p. good. The "talky" quest in the Empress' castle is a great example. Children and retards could find it booooring I guess but as simulating court intrigue and high politics goes this part is great. There was a lot of moaning about the MMO collectible quests. I didn't mind those because I happen to like collecting useless shit and hoovering up question marks on the map. That's just me tho.

The combat is bearable. Parts of it are even done well. The different classes and specializations actually play very differently, some of the skills are fun to use and you can really feel the resistances and vulnerabilities of various enemies, I've always liked that. But it's still RTWP so overall it's shit.

Itemization and crafting is shit too, of course but it's mainly because VERY few developers understand how to do itemization well and crafting is shit always and everywhere. That said I could list many RPGs with much worse itemization than DAI.

Dunno if anyone can call those positives but I tried.

 

[DalekFlay]

It is a damn pretty game, I'll give it that. And it ran well on my old 480 on high-ish I believe, which was impressive. Even Mass Effect Andromeda is a pretty nice looking game outside of the horrid character models and animations. Supposedly Frostbite kicked their ass up and down the block but it did have upsides as far as nice looking graphics on consoles and older hardware. Shame the gameplay in both is pretty dire.

 

[Skdursh]

It's a bad game, but then again so are the first and second ones. The only thing that saved the first one was good story and good characters, but the actual "game" element of it (i.e. the combat) was complete shit.

 

[cvv]

It is a damn pretty game, I'll give it that. And it ran well on my old 480 on high-ish I believe, which was impressive. Even Mass Effect Andromeda is a pretty nice looking game outside of the horrid character models and animations. Supposedly Frostbite kicked their ass up and down the block but it did have upsides as far as nice looking graphics on consoles and older hardware. Shame the gameplay in both is pretty dire.

Gameplay in Andromeda is actually great. Solid 3rd person gunplay plus spells in a tight package, this came out nicely. It's just the story, characters, creature design and almost all writing are beyond belief for a tryple A game in general and Bioware specifically. Most good fanfic is way better than this hot garbage.

 

[c2007]

It's a bad game, but then again so are the first and second ones. The only thing that saved the first one was good story and good characters, but the actual "game" element of it (i.e. the combat) was complete shit.

DAO combat was ok for a RTwP. It was made good by the scripts system, allowing you to guide your team into not being morons and actually taking care of themselves without constant micromanagement. Micromanage one time, and then companions reliably act right, are helpful and do what you built them to do.

Overall, I rate DAO a 7/10 game. I have replayed the DLC recently, and can say I will probably never play it again, but for its time it was a passable game.

DA2 would have been a better game, but the streamlining killed the tactical play and the reused assets killed the immersion. It was a harbinger of the fail that would be DAI.

 

[Yosharian]

It is a damn pretty game, I'll give it that. And it ran well on my old 480 on high-ish I believe, which was impressive. Even Mass Effect Andromeda is a pretty nice looking game outside of the horrid character models and animations. Supposedly Frostbite kicked their ass up and down the block but it did have upsides as far as nice looking graphics on consoles and older hardware. Shame the gameplay in both is pretty dire.

Gameplay in Andromeda is actually great. Solid 3rd person gunplay plus spells in a tight package, this came out nicely.

Please tell me you're joking..

 

[Bad Sector]

DAO combat was ok for a RTwP. It was made good by the scripts system, allowing you to guide your team into not being morons and actually taking care of themselves without constant micromanagement.

It might be my inner programmer, but i really liked the scripting system in DAO and wish more (realtime party) games had one. The main issue i had was that you had to spend points on it which doesn't make sense and feels arbitrary.

 

[DalekFlay]

Please tell me you're joking..

He's right the combat is pretty good for that kind of game. Even the general concept is good. The quest design is just total ass (same as Inquisition) and the story is super weak. So it depends on what we're calling "gameplay."

 

[Yosharian]

Please tell me you're joking..

He's right the combat is pretty good for that kind of game. Even the general concept is good. The quest design is just total ass (same as Inquisition) and the story is super weak. So it depends on what we're calling "gameplay."

Um. The combat is fucking ass. What the fuck are you talking about. I feel like I've taken crazy pills.

 

[c2007]

//*** Edit: this post was/is referring to people claiming MEA has good or somehow better gameplay than previous Mass Effect entries. It does not. Neither does DAI, it is absolutely shit in all aspects compared to both of the DA predecessors, especially DAO. ***//

Jetpack Defense League has arrived.

The gameplay is utter shit and a massive downgrade from ME3MP.

One gimmick to rule them all gameplay.

You're fired.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

the gameplay feels like an MMO.

most of the quests are "gather # of X" and contain only text, not text dialog, just text - written notes etc.

the gay stuff is annoying, sure, but the writing is also horrible.

there are glimmers of decent gameplay every now and again, but I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

 

[glass blackbird]

Remember the recurring thing where you might fight waves of boring demons in order to close a rift? Exciting

 

[AwesomeButton]

curious about this issue

You would like it just fine.

 

[hivemind]

You won't find me ranting about SJWs all day long on this forum or anywhere

 

[Sabotin]

It somehow felt bloated, yet anemic at the same time. You have these huge areas with distinct feels and looks that are populated by a myriad fetch/collect quests and require mind-numbing ammounts of running around. I know these are a staple of RPGs, but you're supposed to mask them a bit, break them apart, make them interesting, not just give a shopping list to the player. So it feels like you're doing busywork most of the time. Now if you skip these and just do main quests then the world feels even emptier. It's funny cause they went through all that trouble after DA2 copy/paste fiasco, yet went on and made the same mistake on a different side later.

The story oftentimes wants to be all dramatic and serious yet ends up feeling silly. I haven't really analysed it to point fingers at things, just a feeling I have while playing. The "gay stuff" is like a couple of lines, you can ignore it if it doesn't cause you anaphylaxis.

The combat felt wasted. All these nice abilites and combos, yet you can't do anything with them. Absence of the AI system from previous installments really cut down on my enjoyment. That and it didn't really seem deisgned for a 3D environment? I somewhat remember the game struggling with height differences during combat.

Overall I think the MMO feel comes from the game having all these self-contained, sterile systems in place, but then relying on the players to "make fun" on their own. And so they did xD .

 

[Rahdulan]

Aight, some positives. First, the visuals. DAI came out in 2014 and to this day it remains one of the prettiest games on the market, which just shows the powah of the Frostbite engine. Bioware had been known for making ugly games with excellent writing. Now it's the exact opposite - their environmental design is jaw dropping (DAI, Andromeda, Anthem) but their writing is rotting garbage.

I get the feeling their environments teams are the only ones that still give a damn about what they're doing. Possibly because they're not compromised by outside shit.

Spoiler

 

[glass blackbird]

You see that a lot in these dev hell projects. My understanding is that DA3 had lots of problems with frostbite just as MA4 did. They went through a lot of trouble getting any of the dragon age mechanics to work in the engine, getting cutscenes to work, and so on. But while the developers are busy trying to figure out how the hell to make the game work, the artists just keep on working, because they're hardly gonna get paid for nothing. So you get lots of assets and they look good, since the artists that stick around have as much time as they want to work on them

 

[TheChickenKing]

I'd definitely agree with the above statements that the environments were pretty solid. Looked awesome with great weather effects and lighting. I'd even go so far as stating that the world designs were solid. Zones weren't too big or too small, exploration usually revealed loot or at least something worthwhile, and several areas used vertical space pretty darn well, in my opinion. Instead of just being large and flat, areas would have multiple levels and various caves and connecting points. It was fun stuff. Made a lot of the abysmal MMO-styled fetch quests a lot more tolerable on my first playthrough, though they made any repeat playthroughs a miserable slog I almost instantly abandoned. I don't remember any interesting dungeons, but that's a separate sort of design so I don't mean to comment on it as I'm not overly familiar with good dungeon design.

I'd note that I think Inquisition, like many games with large worlds, really failed at making moving around it interesting. Some of the best areas gave you enough of a navigation challenge to be initially interesting, but a lot of general game design seems built around the notion that moving around the world should be as simple as point and click or pushing the left analog stick forward. They'll have intricate combat systems, stats to track, tons of upgrades to choose between, but somehow the audience is too stupid to want to traverse a massive open world in any way more complex than "baby's first game". Combat being more complex than movement isn't new to gaming, but the focus on open worlds is, and that makes me think this should change. It's the primary interaction any player will have with one of these huge games, games that'll cast the player as someone with considerable abilities that somehow only extend into battle. I'm not saying make it super tough or something, but at least give the player options to move more quickly through skillful play. Such mobility can allow for really interesting combat encounters as well; see any high-speed shooter or action game.

 

[Xeon]

I think that's the map with the pillars that you need to light with the green torch? I kinda hated that place, there was no NPCs to give proper quests and exploration of that map kinda sucked since the moment you touch water you get instant respawnable zombies or something and since I played on nightmare with some trials, it was kinda of a drag to do that map.

I thought if you do the pillars, the repsawnable zombies lessen or go away but didn't seem to do anything iirc so yeah that probably was my least favorite place.

Edit:
I think there was a similar map that looked like it, where you go with Hawk to meet his friend in a cave, at first it looked similar but after you clear the main problem, the map brightens up, that was pretty cool to see.

 

[c2007]

You see that a lot in these dev hell projects. My understanding is that DA3 had lots of problems with frostbite just as MA4 did. They went through a lot of trouble getting any of the dragon age mechanics to work in the engine, getting cutscenes to work, and so on. But while the developers are busy trying to figure out how the hell to make the game work, the artists just keep on working, because they're hardly gonna get paid for nothing. So you get lots of assets and they look good, since the artists that stick around have as much time as they want to work on them

This post has troubled me all day.

For most of the Codex, jizztastic visuals are the lowest priority. Speaking for myself, it is absolutely important the game looks modern, but I don't need eyebleeding scenery to be immersed in a game.

So, what you describe is just another indictment of the project management at BioWare. Rather than say, at a certain point - "Ok, we have lots of great assets, and aside from a few things that might come up that we can probably do in-house, we are asset complete. Time to cut that crew and reallocate to more coders!"

BioWare said "Storytelling is so 90s, lets make game pretty with awsum butn"

My contempt for BioWare is bottomless.

 

[DalekFlay]

Pretty sure it was EA that mandated all AAA games use Frostbite from some point on. I don't think Bioware had any choice, and in fact the Kotaku "inside story" articles talk about how much Bioware hated being forced to use it.