Dragon Age: Inquisition

 PC
User Score
6.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 4838 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,277 out of 4838
  2. Mixed: 968 out of 4838
  3. Negative: 1,593 out of 4838
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. krj38
    Feb 15, 2015
    5
    This is my second review of the game. After playing another 20 hours (to a total of 30) I still can’t enjoy the game as much as I would like and as much as I’d hoped to enjoy it before the release. The biggest problem with the game is probably that my expectations were really, really high. I still remember the pleasant surprise DA:O was; hence, it’s difficult for me to review DA:I inThis is my second review of the game. After playing another 20 hours (to a total of 30) I still can’t enjoy the game as much as I would like and as much as I’d hoped to enjoy it before the release. The biggest problem with the game is probably that my expectations were really, really high. I still remember the pleasant surprise DA:O was; hence, it’s difficult for me to review DA:I in isolation, without the baggage of its predecessor.
    Here it goes:
    Pros:
    Locations, some are really, really gorgeous.
    Some dialogues, especially those companion-related in Skyhold.
    Some quests/plot events.
    And that’s about it. The game, even as a generic RPS, is generally mediocre. So it’s difficult to list more clear advantages.
    Cons:
    Sloppy, unwieldy controls. No auto-attack, auto-loot, auto-interact (walking up to every single thing instead of just clicking on it can be tiresome).
    Terrible combat mechanics.
    The graphics aren’t great and the game is terribly optimised.
    The quasi-open world.
    A MMO/grinding feeling.
    Boring, pointless side quests.
    Dialogues – the choices seem pointless, irrelevant and the 3-4 word description often does not match what the Inquisitor actually says.
    Disappointments:
    Plot! DA:O made sense, you were saving the world, but in a reasonable fashion. The lore was enthralling. In DA:I they overdid it. And made it inconsistent: you are the inquisitor, the saviour of Thedas. But go and fetch some blankets for refugees and find a lost bull.
    Dialogues, and I mean it. They don’t seem natural. And they don’t give enough control over what’s going on.
    The combat is really underwhelming. Paired with terrible controls in general, playing the game and advancing the relevant plot often feels like a chore.
    The artificial, plastic feel and look of the game. The NPCs don’t seem natural. Just think about the grand ball (that was a potentially great quest, one of the best in the game) – a courtyard full of nobles and nobody notices you climb a wall.
    Overall, DA:I, the successor of DA:O, instead of being a great RPG, is just another game. It    … Expand
  2. amaldur
    Dec 21, 2014
    5
    The short version: Bioware has burned off all the goodwill it developed creating marvelous gaming experiences a decade ago.

    The Positives + The landscapes look good. Not great, but good. + The team at EA (I can't really call them Bioware any longer) clearly tried to address the complaints leveled against DA2. There are many zones with different backgrounds. The world feels large    The short version: Bioware has burned off all the goodwill it developed creating marvelous gaming experiences a decade ago.

    The Positives

    + The landscapes look good. Not great, but good.

    + The team at EA (I can't really call them Bioware any longer) clearly tried to address the complaints leveled against DA2. There are many zones with different backgrounds. The world feels large and contains many hours of game-play.

    + It was great to see some of my favorite characters return in DA:I.

    + The story ties up some loose ends and develops some open story lines.

    The Negatives

    + If I had to sum this game up in one sentence, I would say it takes exciting mechanics from other games and makes them dull. The perfect example of this is rifts. The MMO Rift used these to create variety in game-play, to encourage teamwork and to use as a vehicle for GM involvement. DA:I turns them into scripted encounters with no surprise or variety, thereby vitiating the very purpose of the mechanic. The war-table is another example. Unlike the rifts, though, the war table actually hurts the game by fragmenting the story.

    + The story is fragmented. Story is the essential element of any RPG game. Here, while there are some nice twists and emotional moments, the mechanics of the telling of the story interfere with the flow completely draining any interest. To me, the world seems to stop after I perform Story Task A. I then gather flowers, find stockpiles, fetch this or that for a while until I am level X, then I return to the war table to advance the story to Point B. It completely destroys immersion and impedes what could have been an interesting tale. It is a terrible, terrible mechanic.

    + MMO syndrome. I understand why MMOs contain meaningless fetch quests: there is no way that developers could possibly keep up with the demands of players who are online for ten hours a day month after month. Why are these quests littered throughout DA:I? This is a story-based, single-player RPG. Was it a lack of imagination or just the most expedient way to add hours of game-play, thereby addressing one of the complaints about DA2, without breaking a sweat. Either way, it's not good.

    + No review would be complete without addressing the woeful PC controls. They've been bashed to death so I won't go into detail but suffice it to say that Tactical Mode, walking to loot, combat movement and animation speed, and the needless simplification of the tactics menu make this game much, much less enjoyable than it could have been. These sorts of things show that EA doesn't really care about the game experience of it's players.

    + Lack of depth. Each of the NPCs looks interesting. They are of diverse races, backgrounds, outlooks. Super interesting, right? Well, no. Similar to the main story, all you get are one or two discrete instances of simple quests (kill this one group or one mob) and then a bit of dialogue. Done. The rest is just meaningless, sometimes story-inappropriate banter between characters as you walk. Really, there is not much there in terms of relationship.

    + Lack of enjoyable challenge. I was worried about playing at higher levels without a robust tactics command menu. I needn't have worried. The NPCs generally handle themselves. In fact, I can just start looting during fights often. Harder levels increase challenge but not the fun. The controls are largely responsible for this (see above).

    The fact that this was named Game of the Year says more about the year than the game. That reviewers rate this an 86 simply confuses me. Perhaps when it comes to AAA titles, 90+ means good, 80-89 means average and less than 80 means bad. That's the only way I can make sense of it.

    This is an average game made all the more depressing because you get the feeling that EA actually tried to make a good game. Perhaps this is the best they can do?    … Expand
  3. Omika_pearl
    Dec 7, 2014
    5
    One of my friends is a big part of this game's dev team. So this is hard to write.

    What it comes down to with Inquisition is that the game is tripping over itself to tell you how crazmazing, important, and fabulously central to the universe you are, and yet in every respect that matters, you don't feel that way at all. In fact, in the day-to-day playing of the game, you feel like a    One of my friends is a big part of this game's dev team. So this is hard to write.

    What it comes down to with Inquisition is that the game is tripping over itself to tell you how crazmazing, important, and fabulously central to the universe you are, and yet in every respect that matters, you don't feel that way at all. In fact, in the day-to-day playing of the game, you feel like a chump.

    How do I mean that? Well, example: I'm patronized and worshipped by everyone ever because of my super sweet and special hand tattoo. I don't earn any of the respect I get. I have no sense of anchorage to the world or my character beyond an impersonal memo at character creation. And yet past the first twenty minutes of play, I'm treated like the LITERAL second coming of Christ. Yes, Andraste = Jesus. I could do a whole review just about the paper-thin veil stretched over medieval Europe by this game, but it's completely beside the point I'm making.

    Okay, meaty example: I'm the grand inquisitor of awesomeness. I sit on a throne. I make judgments. My fortress is a **** epic keep at the top of the world. It is rad as **** I'm feeling that, right? And yet while everyone else in the main fortress area gets to wear their slick armor and gear, I'm forced to wander around in what I can only describe as my "battle pajamas." It feels awkward. I'm like some checked-out executive showing up to the office in a tattered bathrobe with six days of stubble on my face.

    "Inquisition? **** guys, we're still doing that? Oh, **** Two executions today? Lemme get my sword thing you guys gave me that I can't use outside of cutscenes... **** me, my head hurts."

    Another example: I'm the big important inquisitor. And yet it feels like 90% of my play time is spent bent over like a day laborer looting corpses and harvesting weeds. While my three painfully deferential companions just stand around staring at me work. Guys? No help here? No? I'm the de facto leader/messiah and I'm on **** duty with the looting and harvesting? I'm on **** duty with the fedex quests and requisitions? Really? I can't delegate this **** Okay. I'm starting to feel like all these "I'm in awe of you" conversations we keep having are a little bit sarcastic. I feel like you guys are being passive aggressive right now.

    The game needs a ****ing hatchet-man to come through and butcher 2/3rds of the content. I seriously cannot walk twenty feet without tripping over some kind of landmark, objective, quest, map marker, letter with a quest on it, corpse with a quest, etc. After a while I just stop reading things. Which is a shame, because Inquisition is a gold-tipped pyramid of writing labor. I'm pretty sure there are skeletons sealed into the code of this game. It has been described by many professional reviewers as "monstrous" and "titanic" and "huge" and I definitely agree. It's a lumbering behemoth of sheer content. This game will crush you under the weight of its boring sidequests no one gives a **** about.

    Even worse are the "plot tokens" you accrue to advance the story. You earn plot tokens by doing side crap. Yay. Can't advance the plot without your plot tokens. This game literally has a coin-operated storyline. You don't get much more corporate crapfest than that.

    And honestly? It's a god damned shame. Because when I explore intricate conversations about elven history and the Fade with Solus, I begin to see some of the hidden brilliance of the setting. I start to see in a few hidden corners the vision that could have been. We could have had a powerful work of RPG art here, but somewhere along the line some cigar-chomping executive was like "Crafting, see? People love the crafting these days. Gotta have the loot, see, gotta have them purple gears, see! Make it happen, see! And throw in some'a them achievements!" And then the beauty of DA: Inquisition was buried in a mountain of superfluous **** and 'features' while the core of the game atrophied, suffocated, and died.

    Mandatory level restrictions on items. How many times have I looted a sweet item only to see I can't use it for three more levels? What the **** is this **** I thought the whole point of playing a single-player RPG was to get away from this kind of arbitrary MMORPG crap? What, exactly, is differentiating this game from an MMORPG, at its mechanical core? (Dialogue notwithstanding). My god, there's even a giant mount collection and tons of achievements to whore. It's chilling. It just all feels like a gigantic waste of time.

    And with the removal of things like persuasion skills, the game has officially descended into "why even bother" territory for dialogue. One of my fondest memories of a CRPG was talking The Master in Fallout into killing himself. That sort of skillful master stroke doesn't seem possible in Inquisition.

    Whatever. I keep trying to finish the game, for my friend's sake. It's hard. I feel like a jerk.    … Expand
  4. Perun
    Feb 5, 2015
    5
    As huge DA origins fan I must say that this incarnation together with second one is just bad
    Its just one crappy console game ported to pc, maps filled with idiotic collectables, boring, horrible controls and ui, boring, crafting and gameplay decisions that make you wonder if they are still same team that made DA Origins, "tactical" mod, yeah sure, if it was working right, you cant even    As huge DA origins fan I must say that this incarnation together with second one is just bad
    Its just one crappy console game ported to pc, maps filled with idiotic collectables, boring, horrible controls and ui, boring, crafting and gameplay decisions that make you wonder if they are still same team that made DA Origins, "tactical" mod, yeah sure, if it was working right, you cant even set your characters to hold ..just nothing, its made for people with under 90IQ or what? Origins was too hard for them? Too much thinking?
    IGN 10/10    … Expand
  5. Revanchist95
    Jan 18, 2015
    5
    In the end, Dragon Age Inquisition disappoints more than it delivers. Regardless of the obvious pander to consoles and poor port, DA:I is just a single player MMO with a beautiful world, some poignant and truly powerful moments ("In your heart shall burn" is amazing) sporadically sprinkled into a mass of detestable filler, hoping to push people beyond the 50 minute mark with uninspiredIn the end, Dragon Age Inquisition disappoints more than it delivers. Regardless of the obvious pander to consoles and poor port, DA:I is just a single player MMO with a beautiful world, some poignant and truly powerful moments ("In your heart shall burn" is amazing) sporadically sprinkled into a mass of detestable filler, hoping to push people beyond the 50 minute mark with uninspired writing and lazy questing.

    I truly want to like this game. I loved the first and even have a guilty adoration for the second one despite its short comings. Bioware have traded quality for quantity, depth for scale but unfortunately cannot deliver such scale as effective as some other titles such as TES or Fallout. It can be summarized as this: You have round 10 really really good main quests (each lasts around 1-2 hours depending) some companion quests that are short but kinda good (the companions are, at least, interesting), and each region you get a mediocre region quest chain as you unravel the map. The rest are complete garbage. There is no context, the dialogues for them are just quest information dumps, most of those are fetch quests, and even quests such as finding the tomb of farhiel wihch sounds awesome feels empty since the cutscenes in these quests are either bland in the style of any MMO or absolutely no cutscene at all. Completely boring.

    Combat wise, it's fun and fast paced but it gets boring as enemy variety is low, the gear you get is also lacking in different appearances and most of the time you get such boring **** (even duplicates) despite being legendaries. Its not bad, just mediocre.

    Hence, what you get is around 1-2 hours of interesting stuff, followed by 10 hours of boring stuff then continue the cycle until you have exhausted your 15 hour interesting content. It feels like watching a good TV show but after 5 minutes of good show, you get half an hour of commercials.

    Bioware, please make those RPGs that are contained, meaningful, and interesting. Linearity is good if it is done correctly.    … Expand
  6. thisisevilevil
    Nov 23, 2014
    5
    I'm quite sure the ones scoring this game 10/10 is probably console players. This game was made for consoles first, then ported to PC. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, but the controls is, sadly, so messy on PC. The UI is also nothing short of confusing. The quest tracking system and the map is horrendous. You can't make a game like this for consoles, then copy it directly to PCsI'm quite sure the ones scoring this game 10/10 is probably console players. This game was made for consoles first, then ported to PC. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, but the controls is, sadly, so messy on PC. The UI is also nothing short of confusing. The quest tracking system and the map is horrendous. You can't make a game like this for consoles, then copy it directly to PCs without altering the UI. I know this is a new trend by now, but I would say that PC gamers has more or less been left behind here. We are forced to endure these horrible console-like controls (Hold Mouse 1 to autoattack? Comon man). They've had so much time to develop this game, surely they should be able to somewhat create a proper UI and proper controls for PC. Also, this new trend with locking FPS at 30 or 60 is just complete **** I

    The story is alright, but not impressive. DA: O is still, by far, one of the best RPGs of our time, and DA:I pales in this comparison. However, It's still interesting enough that I will score this game 5/10 since the storyline is keeping it up.

    Also another thing: This game is riddled with small glitches and bugs. I can't help but think that EA might have rushed bioware to release this title. I'm using the latest drivers for my system (also installed the latest beta driver from AMD for my grahics card, which have some optimizations for DA:I) but still, there's a lot, and I mean a lot of work to be done in this regard. Stuttering, micro-lag, FPS issues you name it. It's normal for a game to have issues in the beginning, but EA keeps making the same mistakes of rushing games to be released, instead of waiting so the game can receive better quality testing.

    Because of this game, I look even more forward to the Witcher 3. You have to respect companies like CD Projekt, whom creates games solely for PC with amazing graphics, and then subsequently creates a potato-version of that game, so the consoles can run it as well. It shouldn't be the other way around. I'm tired of playing potato-like games on my superior gaming rig. :(    … Expand
  7. Elisyeas
    Nov 20, 2014
    5
    I'm the kind of a crpg guy that very, very rarely writes reviews. I just stick to companies that I trust [like, up to some point Bioware], companies whose products are reviewed by not-on-payroll-people and companies that via the Kickstarter build my trust and make me invest in future projects [Wasteland 2 recently].
    With Bioware it's been one hell of a ride. Their past achievements will    I'm the kind of a crpg guy that very, very rarely writes reviews. I just stick to companies that I trust [like, up to some point Bioware], companies whose products are reviewed by not-on-payroll-people and companies that via the Kickstarter build my trust and make me invest in future projects [Wasteland 2 recently].
    With Bioware it's been one hell of a ride. Their past achievements will always be something amazing, games which brought me a lot of joy and kept me from eating and sleeping night after night ;-)

    I understand the need to "change". To "targer new audience" and "develop". But what they did to DA franchise - starting with DA2 - is a clear sign of "where the money is at ". After DA2 I promised myself I will not fall for the pre-order hype again. Yet I did. Based - again - on reviews from people who were NOT end-product-gamers, based on my big love for DA:Origin and based on what Bioware kept saying. That they "learned a lot" and will "not make the same mistakes again". But they did.

    After first 20 hours I can agree that the world is huge, characters are - to some extent - memorable, there is a TON of content, graphics [for me, hardly a crucial thing in terms of enjoying a great game - P:Torment anyone?] are very nice and the game has a great potential to become BIG. BUT. Answer me this.

    How can you take pride in a product which such broken combat system. How can you offer this game to "both new and old-school gamers" when the game is CLEARLY console-ready and PC gamers might feel like second-hand category. Combat tactics almost non-existant. Mashing your attack button becomes second skin, your party members act like idiots in terms of using their abilities and battlefield movement, tactical view is a joke and makes you cry. One of the PILLARS of an interesing crpg game has been stripped of anything enjoyable. No spell-follow combos, handicapped movement, poor framerate on well equipped PC rigs, mmo-like grind-fest in terms of herbs and ingredients, find-bring certain amount-get reward filler quests, no healing magic = pop-the-potion-diablo-style. I will just stop here because my rant won't make any difference. Dragon Age franchise took a certain turn and I accept that. It's their call and they have a right to do so. But I will not follow. I'm just not the "modern gamer type" I guess. From this day on I also refuse to believe in any kind of "professional" review from any kind of gaming site, including - obviously - sponsored YT users. If someone, SOMEONE, at SOME STAGE of beta tests or demo-playing would simply say "Guys, this really needs some serious changes, let's re-think and work on it while there's still time" things might have been different. But now, at this very hour, all good sides of this game [and there are plenty!] are simply overshadowed by a kick-in-the-face combat mechanics and simplicity which offends me.

    Apologies for chaotic thoughts. Just tired [waited 'till 00:00 to launch the game] and dissapointed.    … Expand
  8. marc5477
    Dec 22, 2014
    5
    Overall, an average RPG. Not bad, but nothing great either. For the most part, the few nice upgrades are overshadowed by a slew of poor design decisions.

    First, the good. Large, open maps. It almost felt like an open world game when I was in the Hinterlands. Nothing like true open world games but I thought this was a good step forward. Good voice acting. Sure there are a few iffy    Overall, an average RPG. Not bad, but nothing great either. For the most part, the few nice upgrades are overshadowed by a slew of poor design decisions.

    First, the good. Large, open maps. It almost felt like an open world game when I was in the Hinterlands. Nothing like true open world games but I thought this was a good step forward.

    Good voice acting. Sure there are a few iffy moments but for the most part, the game is well voiced. Too bad the story was boring.

    The bad: Repetitiveness... there are not enough enemy types and even fewer combat options. There is no strategy in the game and it feels more like a hack and slash than a RPG. During my game, I found that 1 could beat the entire game spamming a single button (Spirit Blade). Playing as Cassandra was just as bad as I could beat anything with just 2 skills. It does not matter what difficulty you play on, combat is trivial.

    The Ugly: Horrendous AI. Unforgivable honestly. Enemies and companions get stuck in environments often. Sometimes, enemies that get hit don't react and just sit there. Companions act like idiots when left to their own devices and they almost never follow commands (such as hold position). Gone are options that you had in DA1 that allowed you to control AI behavior and instead you have exactly 4 behaviors total to adjust and 2 of them are just about when to use a health potion...

    Lastly, and I only add this for completeness, I hate the graphics. I am not a big graphics guy so i wont deduct points for it but I hate the ugly shiny film placed over objects. I actually think that Skyrim, without any mods, looks 10x better than this game despite this game being much smaller in scope. Again, not a big deal to me, but some people might care.

    Neutral: The story. The companions. The enemies. The combat. None of these things were very bad, but they are not worth complementing either. The story is tiring... the good guys turned bad, started an apocalypse but they eventually redeem themselves yadda yadda yadda. This would be fine if the characters were interesting but they are not. I did not care for any of the companions in this game nor the side characters and their dialog seemed long winded. I did not bother with any romances in this game because frankly, i did not like any of the characters. The enemy variety is very sparse. You will fight the same enemy hundreds of times. Combat is very repetitive because there are very few abilities to use. Not that it matters because the entire game can be beaten with 1 button on any difficulty (Spirit Blade once you get it). There is really no tactics in this game unlike previous DA games. You can just rush into anything and take them out easily as long as you have 1 character than can regenerate guard or cast barriers. You can also run away from anything if you want or you can shoot them from out of their range and they will never attack you... boring.    … Expand
  9. lollygal
    Nov 23, 2014
    5
    I was really disappointed after I got this game for the PC. As a big fan of the gameplay style of DA:O and also DA2 I was reaaaaaaaaaaallllyyy looking forward to this. I didn't even bother to check out the gameplay videos and stuff before buying the digital deluxe edition because I was THAT confident it was going to be an awesome game (Clearly that was the wrong move).

    So I got it on    I was really disappointed after I got this game for the PC. As a big fan of the gameplay style of DA:O and also DA2 I was reaaaaaaaaaaallllyyy looking forward to this. I didn't even bother to check out the gameplay videos and stuff before buying the digital deluxe edition because I was THAT confident it was going to be an awesome game (Clearly that was the wrong move).

    So I got it on Origin and started downloading it.. Took me about half a day or so for me to finish it here (we don't have very fast internet speed T.T) and was super excited to come home after work to play it. However, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to check Metacritic (and other sites) for reviews about it. I was surprised and disappointed to find out that it was not the DA I was looking forward to. A game, that was originally and CLEARLY for the PC (talking about DA:O) had been made into a game for console and they ported it to PC just to earn (A LOT OF) extra cash. Read that some users said that EA (or was it Bioware?) were gonna make time to actually make it feel like it was for the PC and not just an obvious port from the consoles (can't remember the actual quote).

    Well, all I can say is that DA:I is nothing like the DA I knew. The DA I knew gave me an awesome tactical view so I could control ALL my characters effectively and effortlessly. The DA I knew did not make me hold a key to auto attack. The DA I knew did not make me walk all the way loot before letting me pick it up (But apparently there's a key to pick up stuff? well, the tutorial didn't tell me about that..>.>) . The DA I knew did not make the game feel like a typical MMORPG.. Dragon Age: Inquisition, is not dragon age anymore.

    Another thing I did not like was the skillset. Damn. when I saw the same exact (or rather very similar) skills they had for the mage NOT ONLY THAT but they skill trees were even fewer from the first game (or second game? I can't remember exactly). I was really disappointed that time and did not want to continue anymore. I returned the game before the 24hr mark without much thought.

    I did not get far enough into the story to comment on it. The character customization made my character look a bit more ugly than I expected but all that I could look past. But the gameplay I could not. Maybe if I played a little longer I might have gotten used to the controls but I did not want to because this is not the dragon age I expected or wanted.

    Dragon Age Inquisition might be the best RPG version of all the other dragon ages, (according to most of the reviews anyway.. >.> ) but it is certainly not a dragon age game anymore. Don't buy this game if you expect a dragon age game, but if you don't mind the change in gameplay style, and you liked the characters from before, and if you think the story is okay, go right ahead but just check it out properly first before you head to store and get one without thinking just because of the hype and the good reviews.    … Expand
  10. mech
    Dec 1, 2014
    5
    If this one gets praise for 60-something hours worth of gameplay then WoW is the best game ever made, since you can sink thousands of hours into repetitive quests, resource gathering and reputation grinding, which is what you'll be doing most of the time in DA:I.

    Let's forget the broken keyboard + mouse controls, 30 FPS lock in cutscenes and all other technical issues that make your    If this one gets praise for 60-something hours worth of gameplay then WoW is the best game ever made, since you can sink thousands of hours into repetitive quests, resource gathering and reputation grinding, which is what you'll be doing most of the time in DA:I.

    Let's forget the broken keyboard + mouse controls, 30 FPS lock in cutscenes and all other technical issues that make your games more cinematic.

    According to the critics, those annoying and meaningless X of Y progress bar quests are what a 2014 single player RPG should be about (bonus: escort a dumb SLOW animal with glitching pathfinding back to its farm). WoW has been more creative with "open world" quests even in its original 2004 version.

    You are expected to grind this sort of quests to obtain "power" in order to advance the story. No, thank you.

    Thank you for all the great times, BioWare. This is where we part ways.    … Expand
  11. Gothic90
    Nov 21, 2014
    6
    First thing to say - very important - this game eats your SSD for breakfast. I am NOT joking. It may or may not be the issue with Denuvo (fifa 15 seems to be fine), but it severely damages your SSD or HDD on PC. Do not get it on PC. Suppress your urge to buy a new console for it however, we don't want to see new games being **** port from console just to drive people out of PCs.

    One    First thing to say - very important - this game eats your SSD for breakfast. I am NOT joking. It may or may not be the issue with Denuvo (fifa 15 seems to be fine), but it severely damages your SSD or HDD on PC. Do not get it on PC. Suppress your urge to buy a new console for it however, we don't want to see new games being **** port from console just to drive people out of PCs.

    One thing to note, get out of Hinterlands. Part of the fault lies with Bioware, as many players would probably fully explore an area before going to the next. Putting many huge maps on another overland map, and put different main quests on different maps may be fantastic for some players but not for others.

    Inquisition definitely has a lot of technical issues on PC platform. If a PC game plays much better with a controller than Keyboard and mouse, there is something wrong - maybe fighting games could be forgiven, but this is a sequel to lots of games which had better K+M control, which is a problem and very frustrating - actually, even more frustrating than many fighting games port to PC.

    Companion AI is also a problem and shows Bioware clearly did not think everything through when working with a world in which you can actually jump. AI charging or jumping off the cliff is an often occurance. AI setting is a huge backwards step.

    Overall these are the negatives of the game which most critical ones tend to focus on. Positives are already covered by critics.    … Expand
  12. whatever523
    Dec 14, 2014
    5
    It's impossible to enjoy the game with such **** **** **** PC controls and UI.

    The sad thing is that making it better wouldn't really have been too much work.
  13. blackbird1
    Jan 17, 2015
    5
    MMO Zones in a Single Player STORY RPG = NO THX NO
    Even DA 2 with his tube levels was not so shallow than this....... get iron with bare hands and iron grows like a mushroom on rocks..... sry but no immersion shallow story worsed DA so far i don't get the media hype.... this ppl all must be stupid My points a e only for graphics and the tiny amount of good dialogs
  14. Vehement
    Nov 14, 2015
    5
    This could've been a great game but its flawed in so many ways.
    -The story is unfortunately no where as compelling as Origin. The main character's dialogues are rather weak. What happened to the Grey Wardens? Besides Black Wall, the Grey Wardens are just not there, and Black Wall is not all that interesting to say the least. I just didn't like how the main character accidentally gets    This could've been a great game but its flawed in so many ways.
    -The story is unfortunately no where as compelling as Origin. The main character's dialogues are rather weak. What happened to the Grey Wardens? Besides Black Wall, the Grey Wardens are just not there, and Black Wall is not all that interesting to say the least. I just didn't like how the main character accidentally gets his power and calls it done. Origin built the world with Grey Wardens being the champions needed to defeat the Blight, but now they are totally irrelevant in the series.
    -The gameplay has improved greatly over DA:II but for some unknown reason the AI hierarchy system from Origin was removed. The game makes for flashy play on normal mode, but when it comes to the highest difficulty your AI teammates are constant liability that always waste away potions and dies in a heartbeat against multiple enemies. I do enjoy the grinding but against enemies from the rift the AIs just don't really stand a chance which leads to frustrating do-overs again and again.
    -For some odd reason the elves just look uglier and uglier in each installment. What is even more odd is Dorian is the best looking guy, Leliana and Morrigan looks prettier than Origin while majority of the casts are average to not attractive at all. Its like high quality ugly. The funny thing is that there's actually quite a few interesting characters. Dorian and Cole is two of them. I also find Sera and Solas interesting as well but elves are just ugly to look at.
    -Outside of fighting, the animation/facial expression can be rather stiff on many occasions, making the conversation rather awkward to look at.

    The game's world is beautiful... but there's just so many things wrong with this game that just adds up.    … Expand
  15. masterchief247
    Nov 11, 2015
    6
    My second review, now on the PS4. When I purchased the game at release on PS3, it was broken to say the least. Now some months later I purchased it again for a second chance after purchasing a PS4. Apparently the updates have fixed a number of the issues I encountered because the game is much improved on PS4. Still to many nonsense quest, and the ending was terrible. The characterMy second review, now on the PS4. When I purchased the game at release on PS3, it was broken to say the least. Now some months later I purchased it again for a second chance after purchasing a PS4. Apparently the updates have fixed a number of the issues I encountered because the game is much improved on PS4. Still to many nonsense quest, and the ending was terrible. The character dialogue and relationship building is the lowest in the series. Basically a hack n' slash with passable main story. It is a 6/10 at best.… Expand
  16. Pchela
    Nov 23, 2014
    5
    I am very disappointed. This release was so hyped. I am so disappointed and the reviewers from all-around 'serious' game sites/magazines are to blame. This game has many flaws, in some aspects it is better over very bas DA:2, however the honest score should be nowhere near 87 metascore. The interface and especially camera control on PC are horrible and are spoiling most of the fun. TheI am very disappointed. This release was so hyped. I am so disappointed and the reviewers from all-around 'serious' game sites/magazines are to blame. This game has many flaws, in some aspects it is better over very bas DA:2, however the honest score should be nowhere near 87 metascore. The interface and especially camera control on PC are horrible and are spoiling most of the fun. The world is large by means of a 'walkable area' however everything is a dummy. You enter a house full of books, fruits, items, etc. You can't touch/check anything! They're all dummies. You can interact with only a few percent of NPC (at most), dialogues are dull and minimal, which makes all characters flat and uninteresting. What's worse the game does not make any effort at all to convince the player that his dialogue options have any meaning for the gameplay. Basically it doesn't really matter what you will say to NPC. All this together make this game a mediocre action rpg, with much more action elements than rpg. EAwere committed an atrocity on the genre. My last ever pre-order from western producers/distributors. Nothing left to do but wait in sorrow for the Witcher 3 and Pillars of Light.… Expand
  17. Post
    Nov 22, 2014
    5
    also first-posting and I couldn't agree more to this users feedback on the bioware forum:
    "My first time posting here and wanted to share my thoughts... I would really like to enjoy this game but I can't due to the controls. Sure it's not completely unplayable, but it sure does take the enjoyment out of the game. Along with terrible UI, framerate issues, game breaking bugs, and crashes    also first-posting and I couldn't agree more to this users feedback on the bioware forum:
    "My first time posting here and wanted to share my thoughts... I would really like to enjoy this game but I can't due to the controls. Sure it's not completely unplayable, but it sure does take the enjoyment out of the game. Along with terrible UI, framerate issues, game breaking bugs, and crashes that other PC gamers are having. It really makes me wonder if they even tested it on PC before release? As a loyal Bioware fan and a PC gamer, I find the current state of the PC version of this game to be unacceptable. I will give them SOME credit for "looking into these issues" but some of these issues shouldn't even be here in the first place."    … Expand
  18. cplaideau
    Nov 21, 2014
    6
    After 40h of DAI game play (nightmare) I would like to say well done Bioware....

    You just redid the trilogy of Mass Effect all over again... I will start by saying that I had played all Dragon age Game and DLC, and was a fan of the DAO combat system, and the depth of its lore, DA II was a bad attempt to bring casual/console player in with a stupid and unfinished Korean action RPG style,    After 40h of DAI game play (nightmare) I would like to say well done Bioware....

    You just redid the trilogy of Mass Effect all over again... I will start by saying that I had played all Dragon age Game and DLC, and was a fan of the DAO combat system, and the depth of its lore, DA II was a bad attempt to bring casual/console player in with a stupid and unfinished Korean action RPG style, non linear story and god awful/shameful reuse of assets..

    With the hype behind DAI, and multiple reviewers/youtuber I had hope Bioware would have stopped the hemoragy and try to gain back the core PC player of DAO. While, they stopped the hemorrhage they didn't seems to understand why most of us hated DA II... And bear in mind that I'm reviewing it while keeping in mind PC GAMES FEATURE, not consoles....

    First the good points:
    - Decent graphic,
    - Decent PC portage, but still lack features,
    - Fully voiced over character,
    - Eye candy feature like renaming crafted item, customizing character, few logic mini-games...
    - Multiples wink to the old character we loved/hated from DAO / DAO II
    - The story behind DAI seems ok so far, but discussion choice of your character seems to have less "anti-human/chantry/social" option as in DAO

    The bad:
    - Mix of the combat system of DAO/DA II is a failure,
    - Console shrinked UI, and UI settings,
    DA II character/BAG UI was bad, well, it's even worst in DAI...
    - Camera zoom option/UI scaling non existant
    - Lack of Key-binding ability
    You could literally plug a controller on your PC and play DAI as if you're in a console
    - Weird hit box on player/ spell range
    Probably due to their fail attempt of creating an Action type RPG game making the game playing with Friendly Fire on painful,
    - Trying to recreate and sandbox GTA/FarCry like game
    Lot of useless side quests/gathering artifacts, zone that have no point but to make you grind XP/Loot
    - Multiples annoying bug like:
    Instant respawn of mobs you just killed
    Don't even try to use "hold" ability to ask your companion to stand still, it's broken.
    Character teleporting left and right,
    Broken tactical
    - Infinite loading screen:
    I have a decent machine and installed the game on a SSD, and yet trying to load a new area (not the one you're currently is way too slow) with random drop of frame-rate from time to time (even when in area were my R9 290 shouldn't be struggling, in a house for example)

    The Ugly:
    - They got rid of every tactical feature that made DAO micromanagement useful for a hack and slash type game play
    I used to spend 5 to 10 min with each of my character in order to create the best tactical script which and help smarten the IA... Well, forget that in DAI because the IA is dumb and will forever be...
    - Tactical camera is almost useless and lack multiples feature like:
    * Detailed command,
    * Detailed character routing option,
    - Cannot have a clear overview of the battlefield:
    The camera is zoomed too closed to the ground that you cannot see anything beside the few mobs in your melee range.
    - Attribute point from leveling nonexistent
    Instead you gain your stat point in your talent/ability tree... thanks for dumbing it down for us Bioware

    Bottom line, Dragon Age Inquisition is a game to play, but not the way you used too. Sit down behind your screen, brainlessly hack and slash your way to the end with a decent story behind it. Trying to play it in nightmare seems to be a waste of time since the mobs still react as if they are heavier punching bags... Not the real challenge you would have expect....    … Expand
  19. jayman007
    Nov 21, 2014
    5
    Game feels like a long boring checklist of fetch and kill quests rather than the tight story focused games that Bioware is generally known for. If your going to do open world, populate it with deep interesting quest chains that diverge from the main plot; not kill x, grab y, find viewpoint z. If it's a long game, fill it with content, don't increase it's run-time with superfluous fluff andGame feels like a long boring checklist of fetch and kill quests rather than the tight story focused games that Bioware is generally known for. If your going to do open world, populate it with deep interesting quest chains that diverge from the main plot; not kill x, grab y, find viewpoint z. If it's a long game, fill it with content, don't increase it's run-time with superfluous fluff and time sinks.

    Other things that bothered me but weren't game breakers include:
    -weird looking character models; everyone looked oily and moved in very jagged unnatural motions
    -random crashes, as in, I couldn't really replicate them or find the cause, the game will just crash from time to time
    -extremely long load times, I have this game installed on my HDD and it would take a minute or two before I can get into game and due to the random crashes...this can get rather annoying. I am considering putting this game onto my SSD partition    … Expand
  20. Kandula
    Nov 26, 2014
    5
    I won't be one of those reviewers who plan to bash the game incessantly. My goal here is to write a comprehensive review for anyone who might actually be interested in the game, but hasn't tried it yet. Most of the reviews here seem to be simple rambling.
    As a whole, I didn't like the game. I'm a big fan of the Dragon Age series, and this felt like the worst of the games, even including    I won't be one of those reviewers who plan to bash the game incessantly. My goal here is to write a comprehensive review for anyone who might actually be interested in the game, but hasn't tried it yet. Most of the reviews here seem to be simple rambling.
    As a whole, I didn't like the game. I'm a big fan of the Dragon Age series, and this felt like the worst of the games, even including as a separate product the Awakening expansion for Origins.
    Here are the positive things about Inquisition:
    Technically speaking the developers delivered on what they promised for the environments. They are big, they are gorgeous, they are never reused, and there's no but in this sentence. The story line is interesting. The cast of characters is great - I didn't like only one of the companions. The companion quests were awesome as a whole, there were some profoundly funny and touching moments. There's a lot of reactivity towards player decisions and your class/race/gender specifics. The proverbial gem in the game, at least for me, were the decisions. In the past games, decisions could be placed on a scale of "good", "neutral", and "bad" and you just picked whichever fit your character better. I'm glad to say that here every decision you make follows an argumented logic that makes it gray. There isn't a wrong or right decision, there are just decisions you believe in, stripped of moral.
    The negative:
    I played on PC and controls are a wreck, as well as some technical aspects of the game. The developers supposedly confirmed months ago that the leading platform for the game is PC. I honestly don't believe that. The controls themselves shout console louder than any PR. The tactical camera mode is to put it mildly, a joke. Its viewing angles are unusable - environments don't become transparent when you go over them, meaning you can be stuck looking at a tree while your party fights, and you can't select more than 1 character even in this mode. I said I won't bash the game too much and to retain some measure of neutral tone I will say this - you won't understand how annoying PC controls are, until you try it out.
    The AI is bad and incosistent, gameplay itself is button mashing at its "finest" since every enemy in the game has more HP than before, so every battle takes longer.
    Don't be surprised. Bioware told you the game will be tactical, but there's nothing tactical about this game. As an example, I'll tell you about one of the dragon battles that were supposed to be a highlight in the game. The dragon lay in something resembling a pond. My party attacked it from up close. From then on the battle proceeded in the following way: we were next to the dragon, with me controlling my main character and literally holding 1 key, and occasionally casting a barrier spell that basically gives you temporary HP. We were standing in one place, and the dragon was standing in one place. The dragon hit us with a paw and from time to time by breathed fire, and we hit the dragon with weapons. The dragon's HP was 200K. By using my specialization's ability, my weapon was doing 300 damage on each attack. Does this paint the picture enough?
    From time to time the dragon decided to mix things up and fly. That was maybe once every 5 minutes. He flew away and used one area of effect spell on us from above, then landed, and we repeated the process until it was dead, which took maybe 15-20 minutes.
    This is it. This basically represents every battle in the game. Maybe I missed some things, like the dragon hopping about and me having to chase it, but the core is the same for every battle.
    As shocking as it may sound, there are no actual side quests in the game. Maybe 15 of every 20 quests are taken by you finding a note that says go to X place and kill the guys there. No cutscene, nothing you can immerse yourself in, maybe if you're lucky you get a one liner from your party a la "They deserved it!" I've never experienced such emptiness in a Bioware game before. The supposed inspiration for the game was Skyrim, but it seems to me this game resembles more a single player MMORPG. There's a lot of grinding with little context , leveling up is slow, and the more immersive story is lost between long and bland intervals of doing chores you can't care about.
    Party banter... It seems instead of funny, the writers decided to emphasize on conflict. This resulted in the party banter being bickering between characters all the time. By the 10th time I was groaning.
    Then there's the cutscenes. I don't know what to say. On my i74790K, GTX970, 16 GB 2400 mhz Ram configuration cutscenes were choppy, laggy, with screen tearing. And that's on the options the game proposed to me.
    To conclude it all, I can live with the laggy cutscenes, boring combat, even the lack of side quests. What ruined the game for me is what feels like an extremely short storyline. If you take away sidequests it stands to reason you'd get a bigger main quest.
    But you don't.    … Expand
  21. Putin2000
    Nov 20, 2014
    5
    I bought the game, guess i should review it.

    Its amusing and it is decent, but boy was it a disappointment after all the hype. 80% of the game is like a single player MMO, I am currently hunting rams because i need 15 units of ram meat to feed some random villager. Like wtf, why would i ever want to do this? And why am I doing this you might ask? Well, you have to complete side    I bought the game, guess i should review it.

    Its amusing and it is decent, but boy was it a disappointment after all the hype.
    80% of the game is like a single player MMO, I am currently hunting rams because i need 15 units of ram meat to feed some random villager. Like wtf, why would i ever want to do this?
    And why am I doing this you might ask?

    Well, you have to complete side quests to "unlock" main missions. At the moment i need 11 "power" which means 11 sidemissions i give no **** about. yay.

    The controls are also horrible, you cant click where you want to move and you cant autoattack. During 15 minute bossfigts that mean i probably spam buttons 500 times, and i have to use WASD to keep up with the hostiles who moves around. I quickly stopped playing with my main character and now only control ranged characters, because the controls are so flawed.

    But as I said before, I keep grinding because I enjoy the main missions and they make the game decent. But holy **** would i love if they just removed all the silly sidequest. I am 15 hours into the game and i kid you not, maybe 3 hours of that is actually storyline. Rest is collect item X and run around a **** and kill enemies which are easy but takes a long time.

    I would rate it 5/10, buy it if you have an extra 60 euro, or not, you wont miss anything.    … Expand
  22. Skyrar
    Nov 20, 2014
    5
    I have played about 25 hours so far (mainly main story), so I think I have enough experience with this game to write a short review. I will keep this review spoiler free.

    Story: A typical bioware/fantasy story. You are the chosen hero and have to save the world from the big bad evil. A story that has been told thousand times and will be told thousand times more. While the story is    I have played about 25 hours so far (mainly main story), so I think I have enough experience with this game to write a short review. I will keep this review spoiler free.

    Story:
    A typical bioware/fantasy story. You are the chosen hero and have to save the world from the big bad evil. A story that has been told thousand times and will be told thousand times more. While the story is generic als always, the execution has been good so far. There are barely any twists or surprises (finished about 60% of the story) so far, but the presentation is good. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't got deeper into it. 7/10

    Gameplay:
    Overall I like the combat system. My fear was that the flashiness of the attacks would be immersion breaking, but I quickly habituated to it. I would have prefered a more "realistic" look first, but Dragon Age Inquisition doesn't try to be realisitc, so i think it fits the setting. I remember Bioware saying that Dragon Age want's to have a mature, dark and gritty series like of Game of Thrones before they released Origins,. I think they gave this up. Dragon Age Inquisition is 90% high fantasy (Lord of the Rings), so I can live with a unrealistic and flashy combat. Another point is the controls. I'm playing it with keyboard and mouse. There are some problems with it. Tactical camera doesn't work well, because you can't zoom out as much as it would be needed. Another problem is there is no auto attack. If you switch your characters outside of the tactical combat, your previous character will stop to attack. You should play with a controller, if you want to enjoy the game more. 6/10

    Graphics:
    They graphics are great fo a (multi region) big open world game. The landsacpe looks fantastic. There are only two problems here. First the face animations look bad and some of the faces look like their are made out of plastic. Secondly the walk animations for female characters in cutscenes are awkward. They have this typical bioware gorilla-men walk. Another point is the immersion of the world. The camps/cities (you can only visit a small area of a city) feel lifeless. Other games (witcher 2 for example) manage to give their citizens a daily routine. Why can't bioware do the same. Why are 90% of the people just standing there and doing nothing? It's kirkwall from Dragon Age 2 all over again. 7/10 (because of the lifeless camps/cities, otherwise it would be 9/10)

    Sound:
    Sound effects and music are great. Voice acting in my language (german) is decent. Don't know about the englisgh version. What I don't like is the way the people in Thedas are talking. Everybody is talking in the same well educated way. No matter if you talk to a mage, who studies his whole live or some peasent, who probably can't even write. They all talk in the same way. That's a bit immersion breaking for me, considering thedas was highly inspired by the european middle ages. 8/10

    Questdesign.
    That's my main complain. It's horrible. For every interesting main quest you have to do 9 pointless and boring fetch quests. You are the LEADER of a important faction. Why do I permanently have to be deliver boy for some peasents? Why do I have to kill 10x of this, bring 10x of that? Looking at the hinderlands map I felt like I was playing Assassins Creed. 3/10

    Characters: Well done Bioware. Most of the Characters are interesting. I don't like the look of most of the female characters, but that's my personal problem. But they are unique and have a lot to tell about their past, motivations and problems. 9/10

    Miscellaneous: positive: - big (multi region) open world with a lot of stuff to do (if you like mmo- style quests) -choices and consequences ( can't tell how big) -difficulty is well balanced (playing on hard) -combo system - a LOT of conversations - two voice actors for each gender - extensive character creator - a lot of customization -Skyhold and the possibility to change it's look - being the leader of a powerful organisation is unique in rpgs

    negative: - a lot of bugs: Some serious clipping issues. The voice of my inquisitor changed at a certain point of the game. Other (minor) glitches - hair looks awful. No long hair in the game. - Barely any reaction to you actions (I'm closing a breech and fighting demons in a small camp and nobody cares about it) - no attribute points - a LOT less skills than in Origins or even Dragon Age 2 - No punishment if you die - Some serious problems with the quality of writing

    After the first 25 hours, the game is a 7.5 for me. Depending on how the story continues it could get a 8. Unfortunaly i'm not only rating the game, but the whole product. EA/Bioware Anti- Consumer policy: - Origins (DRM) - Denuvo (DRM) - First Story DLC XboX One time exclusive - Xbox One/ EA Access exclusive early access - Not moddable game engine - Different ingame content depending on the game version you buy - Different release days depending on the region you live - microtransactions - 2.5 points Overall: 5/10 Collaps    … Expand
  23. Schm2616
    Nov 18, 2014
    5
    I am only about an hour in, but as someone who has over 300 hours in origins I can say my first impressions are not top notch. The graphics are fairly difficult to work around, at times you can physically see blocks in the scenery, it is very difficult to call this game next gen. The skill tree's seem lacking as well. Part of my love with DA:O was the deep entropy/blood mage tree's. AtI am only about an hour in, but as someone who has over 300 hours in origins I can say my first impressions are not top notch. The graphics are fairly difficult to work around, at times you can physically see blocks in the scenery, it is very difficult to call this game next gen. The skill tree's seem lacking as well. Part of my love with DA:O was the deep entropy/blood mage tree's. At this point, no such tree's exist.

    At most, even if the story is 150% better than what I expect (which I can say is also lacking at this point) I would have to rate this no more than a 7. At this point, until finished I would have to leave it at a 5.5    … Expand
  24. dendygar
    Nov 20, 2014
    5
    Too much Skyrim, not enough Origins.

    You have essentially no control over your party, unless you want to completely shut off their auto-abilities. Yes, you can manually switch between everybody and use the "tactical" camera view, but it is clunky and of limited use. Unless you turn AI off, they will spam all of their abilities as their invisible AI deems fit. For a game that is    Too much Skyrim, not enough Origins.

    You have essentially no control over your party, unless you want to completely shut off their auto-abilities. Yes, you can manually switch between everybody and use the "tactical" camera view, but it is clunky and of limited use. Unless you turn AI off, they will spam all of their abilities as their invisible AI deems fit.

    For a game that is supposed to have a high standard of writing, it doesn't. The plot is generic, many characters have no personality, and your responses are incredibly limited. If you liked how many sidequests in Origins had at least a token decision involved with them, don't make the mistake of expecting that from this game. All sidequests I have encountered so far are fetch quests, taken and turned in with no input from me other than "Do you want this quest? y/n" No decisions or choices to speak of, not even a token dialogue choice that doesn't affect the quest outcome.

    I am not going to pretend the game is totally worthless, however. Some (SOME) of the party member dialogue is acceptable, and exploration can be kind of fun. Origins continues to roll in its grave, however.    … Expand
  25. JKCH
    Nov 21, 2014
    5
    I guess I'm disappointed enough to create an account to make a review, I want this to change badly. Huge DA:O fan, enjoyed DAII as well. Spent about an hour tweaking my tapestry so it was as I remember, created a character and boom. The WORST CONTROLS I've ever experienced in an RPG ever. Game breakingly bad.

    The controls are so bad I can't believe they've released it like this. Why? I    I guess I'm disappointed enough to create an account to make a review, I want this to change badly. Huge DA:O fan, enjoyed DAII as well. Spent about an hour tweaking my tapestry so it was as I remember, created a character and boom. The WORST CONTROLS I've ever experienced in an RPG ever. Game breakingly bad.

    The controls are so bad I can't believe they've released it like this. Why? I can't understand it, this was marketed as a tactical combat RPG for us PC people and it is genuinely unplayable with the current control system. When they were trying something new in DAII it was at least fun, they at least told us that it would be different from Origins. With Inquisition, they are trying to do something they'd already mastered!

    Even without using the tactical camera, this is barely playable using PC controls. I can't believe that critics haven't seen this as more fundamentally game breaking? What I was expecting to be a refined tactical experience has not turned out that way. I'm struggling to even properly attack, why no auto attack?! Why no click to move? This is basic basic basic! This is Bioware?! What the hell happened? I wanted to spend a hundred hours in this world and everything about the game seems awesome, I'd be ecstatic except for the fact that I can't actually play it.    … Expand
  26. TheMeph
    Nov 18, 2014
    5
    I have to admit, i am slightly disappointed.

    The scenery looks good, but all the characters are shiny and look like they have a thin coating of Teflon or varnish making them look like plastic and unappealing. The combat is meh. I don't like that I have to keep the button pressed to attack. Give me back auto-attack any day and a real tactical view. the one they have here is bad and    I have to admit, i am slightly disappointed.

    The scenery looks good, but all the characters are shiny and look like they have a thin coating of Teflon or varnish making them look like plastic and unappealing.

    The combat is meh. I don't like that I have to keep the button pressed to attack. Give me back auto-attack any day and a real tactical view. the one they have here is bad and limiting. The screen zooms out just a few feet above the characters, and you only get a good view of the immediate area. You will have to try to drag the camera around to find the targets and give commands, and it snaps back to the characters making it annoying to have to refind the target.

    Magic.. where did all the other schools go? How did we go from 4 schools of magic to just 4 spells? Bleh... Not impressed.    … Expand
  27. endertargaryen
    Jan 2, 2015
    7
    Updated Review:

    So I bought DA:I for $60 on Origin's 24 hour guarantee. I played it for about 5 hours, loathed it, and returned it, leaving a score of 1 here (with many reasons listed). Now, after playing it again for 30+ hours, my thoughts have turned around quite a bit. Instead of go through my previous review, I will try to sum up my feelings at this point: 1) They did not    Updated Review:

    So I bought DA:I for $60 on Origin's 24 hour guarantee. I played it for about 5 hours, loathed it, and returned it, leaving a score of 1 here (with many reasons listed).

    Now, after playing it again for 30+ hours, my thoughts have turned around quite a bit.

    Instead of go through my previous review, I will try to sum up my feelings at this point:

    1) They did not put a good foot forward for the first, oh, 10 hours or so of the game: boring story-line, dull scenery, dull quests, etc. After you finally get to a point where you have to the "choosing" quest, the game's story line improves dramatically. Once you are able to unlock more than 3 areas, the scenery is greatly diversed as well.

    2) This is still my #1 complaint: they removed the tactics. The AI is NOT smart enough to handle some of the more complicated spells, this should be rectified in a mod.

    3) The attention to detail graphically (textures and meshes) are astounding in some parts: one example are the stone walls, it doesn't matter how close up you get the camera to them, they all look like individual, well textured rocks stacked on top of each other to build a wall. The character work is excellent and high-mesh quality minus the hair, which is rather sad considering the quality of the rest of the people.

    4) #2 main complaint: if you start off with a KB+M, (just like the previous DAs), you will hate this game. It will leave quite an awful taste in your mouth. For PCMRs, the thought of HAVING to use a controller to enjoy a Dragon Age came is just pathetic. Well, I had to get over it, and when I finally did, it was much more enjoyable.

    Summary: The primary reason I am going from a 1 to 7 is because this is a good, enjoyable game, but when you combine the awful KB+M with the dull starting story and fetch quests, the neutering of tactics and healing magic and gimped ability trees, it gives an awful first impression for a DA game.

    Now, with 30 hours under my belt, I can say it is a worthy successor to the series, although I am still skeptical on whether the combat is going in the right direction (and for hardcore cRPG players, the combat will take 20+ hours before you get used to it).    … Expand
  28. Armis
    Nov 28, 2014
    7
    What's that? No regeneration, no healing abilities whatsoever? Also, a micro-transaction economy built around buying healing potions in multi-player? I'm sure this was all designed in order to be a more immersive experience. Or, you know, in order to milk their players utterly dry. Bioware, you sicken me.
  29. sedoi
    Dec 3, 2014
    5
    This game robs everything that made DA special and replaces it with generic quests and generic characters. Sadly I don't see much of a future for a franchise after it. It just fails to deliver on almost everything except visuals. Combat feels to repetitive and boring, while whole leveling system and upgrading is to blown out of proportions and feels more like time-waster than clever madeThis game robs everything that made DA special and replaces it with generic quests and generic characters. Sadly I don't see much of a future for a franchise after it. It just fails to deliver on almost everything except visuals. Combat feels to repetitive and boring, while whole leveling system and upgrading is to blown out of proportions and feels more like time-waster than clever made system. In the end i don't think i give it anything aside 5/10. That is NOT DA game. It's just generic MMO with DA references slapped on top of it.… Expand
  30. ttmx
    Nov 21, 2014
    5
    Really, really disappointing game. Probably the only RPG I've stopped playing halfway through out of complete disinterest. The plot is boring and you basically grind doing MMO style quests for hours and hours so that you can advance the story with another 2 minute badly lip-synced cutscene. It's not even worth it, it just feels hollow and uninspired and is just a waste of time.

    I loved    Really, really disappointing game. Probably the only RPG I've stopped playing halfway through out of complete disinterest. The plot is boring and you basically grind doing MMO style quests for hours and hours so that you can advance the story with another 2 minute badly lip-synced cutscene. It's not even worth it, it just feels hollow and uninspired and is just a waste of time.

    I loved both DA: Origins and 2. The stories were good and the combat was somewhat enjoyable. You could just get on with the story like a proper RPG without having to dick around doing "collect X" quests. This game has THE WORST combat system I've ever had the misfortune of using. It's a complete snooze fest, you basically either just spam-click or hold the attack button. I've got about 13 hours wasted on this game and not once was I entertained in combat. Your AI companions need constant hand-holding to not get themselves killed, the tactical cam is useless.. the controls are just horrible. Don't get me started on looting, like REALLY BioWare?

    I would not recommend this game to anyone, ever. And shame on all the "critics".. obviously all of them were paid off. It's like taking a bite of cardboard and saying it tastes good. You're either a liar or an idiot.

    AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE. BioWare is now officially a joke and if you buy their next game you deserve the pile of **** you get for your hard earned cash.    … Expand
  31. Shelledfade
    Nov 18, 2014
    5
    Some really big problems with this game. It really is like a single-player mmo. Get me X amount of item, return it to complete quest. Then the quest themselves become repeats after only 3 hours of gameplay. Bring back 10 wool and 5 lockpicks.... rinse and repeat multiple times, literally. Find a message lying on the ground and deliver it to person in X location. Okay sure, soundsSome really big problems with this game. It really is like a single-player mmo. Get me X amount of item, return it to complete quest. Then the quest themselves become repeats after only 3 hours of gameplay. Bring back 10 wool and 5 lockpicks.... rinse and repeat multiple times, literally. Find a message lying on the ground and deliver it to person in X location. Okay sure, sounds reasonable. Bout time we get something interesting going on here.... NOPE! 1 hour later and 3 more lost messages delivered and you start to wonder if every single thing around you is just lame filler. I mean at least skyrim had actual real quests for you. This just screams out tacky mmo while you're playing it. It's so sad.

    If you thought that was bad, there are bigger problems with the tactical camera. It doesn't zoom out far enough and you cannot adjust the angle of it at all the more you zoom out. It's retarded, origins tac cam was way superior than this. It's just awful... The A.I custom controls are also inferior in regards to dragon age inquisition.

    As of righting this I am seriously considering getting a refund while I still can. I'm not sure if its even worth it to continue playing this.    … Expand
  32. Andrew1175
    Nov 19, 2014
    5
    Disappointed in the game and refunded. If I wasn't able to refund then maybe I'd be more upset. This game was definitely designed for consoles like Skyrim sadly... I got annoyed fast that I had to go walk up to items using WASD and then use the action key instead of just right clicking and auto moving there. The attacking is clunky when it comes to targeting enemies. Again, it seems as ifDisappointed in the game and refunded. If I wasn't able to refund then maybe I'd be more upset. This game was definitely designed for consoles like Skyrim sadly... I got annoyed fast that I had to go walk up to items using WASD and then use the action key instead of just right clicking and auto moving there. The attacking is clunky when it comes to targeting enemies. Again, it seems as if they did this for console players and us PC players have to pay the price. I never got farther in than 2 or 3 hours before I requested the refund, so I can't give my opinion on whether or not the dialogue/story is good. I never used tactical view (I never used it in DAO either) so I can't give my opinion on that. Overall? I won't be buying the game again until it reaches about 30 bucks on those cheap CD key websites because I honestly don't think it's worth it. I really am disappointed with the game and won't be getting it. I'd recommended waiting a month or two for (hopefully) patches to make it more of a PC game like DAO was.… Expand
  33. JabberWookie
    Nov 20, 2014
    5
    Take all the good from DA:O, and the good from DA2... story telling, strategy, and the un combat respectively. Their thought process (I assume)... Witcher 2 did well, and so did Skyrim, Let's make a half ass version of those two with absolutely NO PC optimization and we make money. I seriously have stood by Bioware for so long, and even thought peoples' complaints about ME3 ending wasTake all the good from DA:O, and the good from DA2... story telling, strategy, and the un combat respectively. Their thought process (I assume)... Witcher 2 did well, and so did Skyrim, Let's make a half ass version of those two with absolutely NO PC optimization and we make money. I seriously have stood by Bioware for so long, and even thought peoples' complaints about ME3 ending was overzealous. But, I now have lost faith in you as a company. WTF happened?… Expand
  34. Axeface
    Nov 18, 2014
    6
    I will keep this as concise as possible, I have spent quite some time with the official game on pc (yes I purchased it despite loathing Origin and EA with a firey passion).

    Character creation - Visuals:- The character creators options and sliders are good, there are many new things here that I havent seen in other rpg's. And other things that are much improved, especially Jaw and Nose    I will keep this as concise as possible, I have spent quite some time with the official game on pc (yes I purchased it despite loathing Origin and EA with a firey passion).

    Character creation - Visuals:- The character creators options and sliders are good, there are many new things here that I havent seen in other rpg's. And other things that are much improved, especially Jaw and Nose options - It is very enjoyable to create a character you like to look of.
    Many of the textures are bad however, beards clip very badly unless you make your characters chin and jaw as small as possible, and eyebrow and stubble textures are horribly made (as they were in previous games).

    Character creation - Story:- While the option to choose other races is very welcomed as we missed it in Dragon Age *pukes in mouth* 2, there are no different origin stories. If you are a dwarf you are a surfacer criminal, for example. This coupled with the fact that there is a lot of forced dialogue means that Inquisition DOES NOT HAVE BY ANY MEANS the personalised experience of Origins. The ability to choose an accent for your character is a surprising and welcomed option - yet underwhelming considering what I said a few sentences ago.

    Performance:- This game runs like crap. I have a fairly good system and have even turned the graphics down. I dont mind doing that, I'm not one of those overclocking fps hounds. But this game has a kind of slow motion 'stutter' that happens every second or so (just go on twitch, you can see it on EVERY stream) - it is hard to describe but the game does not feel fluid in the slightest. It is obvious that the game is in need of a huge amount of optimisation, or perhaps the devs thought the engine was capable of more than it is - it is a shame, the game COULD look wonderful but the constant immersion breaking slow motion, frame skips, stutters and texture pop ins are just awful. I expect more from a game in 2014, and more scalability (this is a bad console port - explains everything).

    Modding:- Obviously, as this game is made in the battlefield engine modding is going to be incredibly difficult. In my honest opinion this is a HUGE mistake. I know dozens of people that have moved to PC, purchasing games a second time just for modding. This is a complete lack of vision by EA (Yes, EA... not bioware).

    Origin:- Origin is a piece of ****, you can't even take screenshots. And for me personally as an english speaker living in south america I CANT CHANGE THE LANGUAGE OF ORIGIN. I braught this up in TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN on the EA support forums along with many others. They said back then it would be fixed. EA is a moronic and completely incompetant company - what the hell are bioware doing chained to such an idiotic bunch of cretins?

    Mouse and Keyboard support:- It's funny that I should have to title this section as mouse and keyboard support as I am reviewing the PC title. Its bad. Moving a character around is passable, but everything else in this game is tailored for a gamepad and nothing more, it is just unintuative and clunky. And it's even clunky on the gamepad! I am NOT a hater of the gamepad, I love them in fact - Arkham City is one of my favourite games on the PC, but after trying the gamepad in inquisition I didnt like it so went to M+K - I was horribly disappointed with both control mechanisms.
    M+K is just bad, in the character creator pressing W moves the camera AND changes beard options, for example - it is terrible and no thought has been put into it - this is obvious. For all their boasting of PC support, they have delivered nothing.

    Behaviours/Tactics:- In Inquisition 'Behaviours' take the place of Origins 'Tactics Screen'. yet you only have 5 options and they are limiting and simplistic. In fact it even seems like the feature has been thrown in just so bioware can say that they haven't removed the tactics screen. Posturing.

    UI:- For me, on either an xbox controller or mouse and keyboard the UI in this game is terrible. It is clunky and unintuitive. I simply dont understand how bioware can do so badly after a game like Mass Effect 3 that had a down-right-inspired UI.

    Overall:-
    Bioware has tried very hard to mix the best of Origins and DA2 (DA2 had nothing of worth other than writing and acting btw) and what we have ended up with is a brown muddy mess.
    IF they make the game run better and more fluid the experience will be better, and perhaps the game will start to shine - but I am SICK AND TIRED of IF's with developers. Every game these days is "They'll fix it" or "This is coming next month in a patch" and I am sick of it.
    And for all their posturing about catering for Origins fans, Inquisition DOESNT deliver.

    Muddy, mish-mash of a game that is barely held together by.... well.... I dont know what.    … Expand
  35. magashiminbluh
    Nov 21, 2014
    5
    As someone who thoroughly enjoyed DAO and (to a slightly lesser extent) DA2, I'm dissapointed in this game. 30 minutes in and the controls had me swearing like a drunken sailor. The camera seems to be operated by a wall humping ghost with ADHD who has a fetish for staring straight at the floor.

    Once you're past the horrible controls the game can actually be quite fun, but it doesn't    As someone who thoroughly enjoyed DAO and (to a slightly lesser extent) DA2, I'm dissapointed in this game. 30 minutes in and the controls had me swearing like a drunken sailor. The camera seems to be operated by a wall humping ghost with ADHD who has a fetish for staring straight at the floor.

    Once you're past the horrible controls the game can actually be quite fun, but it doesn't even nearly match up to the hype (very few things do, but this just falls flat).

    The game feels like they tried too hard to force hack-n-slash mechanics into what used to be a strategy RPG, and as some other guys have put it, the consolization has ruined it.

    I don't know who bribed the critics to give this thing such a massive rating...    … Expand
  36. DanielCorfour
    Dec 2, 2014
    5
    Single-player MMO.

    The good: -Graphics are serviceable(but keep in mind that I'm running an OC GTX 970 and still sometimes my FPS drops to 30). -Main plot decent. Main quests decent. The bad: -Terrible PC controls. Bunch of very weird decisions regarding controls(like no auto-attack, no auto-loot, necessary button mashing..my "v" button is completely rekt after 100 hours of    Single-player MMO.

    The good:

    -Graphics are serviceable(but keep in mind that I'm running an OC GTX 970 and still sometimes my FPS drops to 30).

    -Main plot decent. Main quests decent.

    The bad:

    -Terrible PC controls. Bunch of very weird decisions regarding controls(like no auto-attack, no auto-loot, necessary button mashing..my "v" button is completely rekt after 100 hours of the game, and so on).
    Weird healing system.

    -Customization is lack-luster. Crafting is complicated but not complex. Every armor you craft looks the same. Unique items are made pointless by OP crafted items... which all look terrible.

    -Boss battle is a letdown.

    -AI clunky. Tanks don't tank, ranged characters constantly get into mele range. Support characters don't support.

    The terrible:

    -All those big open worlds? Completely pointless. Full of boring side quests, fetch quests and the same collectibles. And oh my Lordy... 90% of the game is just that: boring side-quests.

    -Tactical cam is completely and utterly broken and pointless. Tactics are "streamlined", meaning dumb-down and pointless.

    -Advertised material missing from the game.

    -Companion discussions and romance try to be "funny and playful"... they fail utterly.

    If you like tacky single-player MMOs, then this is for you. Else, stay away    … Expand
  37. Demetrandros
    Nov 25, 2014
    5
    lets get one thing out of the way first.
    what did i think of the game? well. its OK, mediocre would describe it best. the world is rather expansive and there are tons of stuff to do. but most of it has been done better elsewhere.
    the writing is **** period. want an example just go on youtube and type in dragon age Inquisition and click on anything involving sera. I'm British, and i    lets get one thing out of the way first.
    what did i think of the game? well. its OK, mediocre would describe it best. the world is rather expansive and there are tons of stuff to do. but most of it has been done better elsewhere.

    the writing is **** period. want an example just go on youtube and type in dragon age Inquisition and click on anything involving sera. I'm British, and i have to say that this is the first time i have actually been offended by a video game.
    soundtrack is your typical fantasy lord of the rings kind of thing.
    combat was spam the button to win. so nothing special there.

    all and all, a fairly mediocre RPG.

    but that's not why i think many people are giving this 0/10
    lets start off by looking at bioware's recent games.
    dragon age 2: more linear than FF13
    the old republic: a barely passable vanilla MMO
    mass effect 3: a complete **** of poorly programmed enemy AI, laughable writing, rancid and almost non existent RPG elements, tact on multiplayer and an outright disgusting day one DLC which not only expands a malnourished team roster, but adds in a character that should have been in the **** game!
    not to mention the incomplete ending that needed fan partition's to **** complete.

    bioware has a reputation for being a hollow shell of what it was, especially now that everyone from the golden days has now abandoned ship.
    and before the obligatory bioware defence force shows up, armed with wafer thin arguments like "EA FORCED 'EM". bioware is the developer, as in they make the game and are in charge of what goes in to the game, or as in biowares case, what doesn't. don't get me wrong EA are **** but it was bioware who added needless multiplayer to mass effect.
    it was bioware that made dragon age 2: dungeon deja vu
    and it was bioware that thought we were stupid enough not to notice A **** IGN EMPLOYEE IN THE **** GAME!

    tenouda****ten ign

    doe's that sound like a company you want to succeed?

    after all there money grabbing DLC
    after all the lazy-ass writing
    and after all the bull****.

    bioware does it all again.
    the critics are singing its praises (if can you trust them)
    the user score is almost green across the board.

    but this is still the same bioware that made dragon age 2 electric boogaloo, and mass effect 3; buy now and receive free prothean.

    do they deserve our money?
    these guys don't seem to think so    … Expand
  38. Benzin
    Nov 18, 2014
    6
    Singleplayer Themepark MMO says it all, fighting random, re-spawning, spongy enemies for standard MMO-esque side quests (Kill 10 x or Get 10 y), by auto-attacking and spamming your skills when they're off cooldown. Tactical Camera mode is now embarassingly bad compared to origins, needing to go through several hurdles for a party member to do anything other than use their skills.

    The    Singleplayer Themepark MMO says it all, fighting random, re-spawning, spongy enemies for standard MMO-esque side quests (Kill 10 x or Get 10 y), by auto-attacking and spamming your skills when they're off cooldown. Tactical Camera mode is now embarassingly bad compared to origins, needing to go through several hurdles for a party member to do anything other than use their skills.

    The RPG system took the biggest hit as it's dumbed down to mind numbing levels, no attribute points beyond equipment and perk bonuses, a tenth of the class skills that were in Origins, and any and all equipment being locked to a certain class, offering nothing other than robes and a staff for a mage. The inventory and combat controls are clunky at best, and the game was clearly designed with console controllers in mind, with KB/M being tacked on as an afterthought.

    Although the game's world itself is vast, with a bundle of other small activities to do not related to killing/scavenging, which is one of the few refreshing changes from the past installments but ultimately ends up being a bore to play.    … Expand
  39. Zebrastealer
    Nov 21, 2014
    5
    Revised, now I have 10 hours into DO Inquisition, still possible my ultimate score might very well change . I loved DO Origins and was one of the many who really hated DA2, never finished it. DAI is definitely an improvement over DA2, however I can still see the obvious design choices made for console support that really reduce enjoyment on the PC. Graphics are OK overall, definitely notRevised, now I have 10 hours into DO Inquisition, still possible my ultimate score might very well change . I loved DO Origins and was one of the many who really hated DA2, never finished it. DAI is definitely an improvement over DA2, however I can still see the obvious design choices made for console support that really reduce enjoyment on the PC. Graphics are OK overall, definitely not up to Skyrim levels, at least not up to the high Rez texture pack. Serviceable, but I really wonder how they got those screenshots leading up to release, because that isn't what I am seeing (running everything max). Graphics, not a big deal.

    Open world? Not sure at this stage how open it really is, seems to have a number do enforced boundaries (corridors) at this stage in the early game, but that might very well change as the game opens up. it does open up somewhat, bit I now see what people were talking about with the whole MMO feel of the game, it does feel like an MMO with mobs spawning all over the place....

    Annoyances - (revised: combat SUCKS! Controls are awful, there is no real strategic option, path finding is terrible and the camera is unusable in tactical mode) #1 combat is clearly still designed around button mashing console controllers. I was really hoping the return of the tactical camera would bring back the option to play in a more traditional RPG style, but the camera is poor- you can't zoom out far enough to see the combatants without having to scroll around the battlefield. Really frustrating to try to use. Oh yeah, those stupid DA2 animations are still present, your mages dance around turning their backs to fire staff missile attacks, etc...Plus your characters still look silly after combat with blood splattered all over them. AOE spells are difficult to use if you put friendly fire on, why couldn't they put an area of effect zone outline when you want to cast a spell? Yeah, I know, lots of people loved the DA2 combat. Not me though, I am old school original 1st edition d&d player, and prefer more realistic looking combat. Also not a big fan of the MMO styled combat text - just too damn busy with the crap flying around the screen.

    Another annoyance : loot controls don't auto loot when clicked, you have to physically move directly next to the item to loot it. WTF? With all the streamlining they did for this game why did they leave that out?

    Storyline? I don't know, seems a bit too close to Oblivion gates if you ask me, surely someone could come up with something more original on the writing team?

    Inventory - god awful, they made a terrible inventory management system just for consoles. How damn difficult would it have been to have two interfaces for inventory, one 'console friendly' and one 'classic?

    Skill trees...MEH, maybe things change later on but they are damn simplified now and little variety in the skills. hopefully there are more skills I haven't unlocked yet,,,,

    Classes: Gauntlet style classes, why in the hell did they remove heal spells? Oh that's right they must have done that to force you to farm ingredients to pad the number of hours in the game. Warriors can't use bows? WTF!

    I think Bioware really blew it when they decided to go their own way and create their own game mechanics instead of continuing to license D&D system. The first Dragon Age had a lot of influences from the early D&D rules and classic Balders Gate. They simplified all the rules so much to make this a very light 'action style' RPG, and there are much better options out there right now. (Shadow of Mordor anyone?)

    After DA2 I swore I would never buy another Bioware title preorder but the day before release I buckled because of the glowing reviews. I got taken, again.

    Anyway, I am probably going to play a lot of hours with this game (maybe not if this crap stays the same). I really wish the combat offered a seamless split option between old school and the action button fest, instead of a really unusable tactical combat option. My opinion, your mileage may vary.    … Expand
  40. MrSniker
    Nov 30, 2014
    5
    Eh, singleplayer MMO.

    1. Load times suck, if you don't have an SSD you're going to feel some pain. I would even suggest to not even buy it, unless you have an SSD. Hub loading times can take up to 2 minutes at a time. 2. Story and characters are terrible. A lot of times I feel the best characters are the ones you can't even have in your party. Cullen has a pretty interesting    Eh, singleplayer MMO.

    1. Load times suck, if you don't have an SSD you're going to feel some pain. I would even suggest to not even buy it, unless you have an SSD. Hub loading times can take up to 2 minutes at a time.
    2. Story and characters are terrible. A lot of times I feel the best characters are the ones you can't even have in your party. Cullen has a pretty interesting story and Leiliana is pretty awesome but you can't even use them.
    3. UI, this UI is worse than Skyrim for a PC. Never thought I'd ever see Skyrim's UI trump another games.
    4. Side quests have zero story. Its just fetch these said items and return to me. Or kill these 5 enemies and return to me. Or explore these five areas and return to me. Literally there are no compelling reasons to do a side quest if you're interested in lore, it's just a grind.
    5. Main quest is at most 10 hours long but is locked behind level and resource requirements to drag out the game.
    6. AI is just dumb and there's no options for control like DA:O
    7. There's not much role-playing? There's not a lot of options for good/bad consequences other than extremely tacked on judgements by the PC.

    To me the game feels like initially it was an MMO and after the disaster that was Simcity they scrapped the idea, reused assets and released the game. Last Bioware game I day one after glowing reviews.

    Game looks pretty and I liked the character creator. The main quest also isn't too shabby, albeit a bit corny but with lack of compelling sidequests and characters its just boring when you're grinding the game out to advance the main story.    … Expand
  41. Teresk
    Nov 20, 2014
    5
    -Can't remap mouse buttons, extra mouse buttons not supported.
    -Can't ''click to move''
    -Can't ''click to loot''
    -No screen-edge mouselook
    -No mouseover ability tooltips on your action bar
    -No key to select all party members at once
  42. Jolin
    Nov 18, 2014
    6
    Simply put,the game feels like a single player MMORPG. Repetitive button mashing combat,floating numbers over the enemies,traditional "go kill X and bring back Y of Z" quests,Super colourful lollipop spells.All contained within a nice hand holding theme-park environment.

    "Open world" is the term they use for "running through very large corridors".The game isn't an open world,you travel    Simply put,the game feels like a single player MMORPG. Repetitive button mashing combat,floating numbers over the enemies,traditional "go kill X and bring back Y of Z" quests,Super colourful lollipop spells.All contained within a nice hand holding theme-park environment.

    "Open world" is the term they use for "running through very large corridors".The game isn't an open world,you travel to zones that you unlock by progressing through the main story.

    Well at least the game somewhat succeeds at being a decent story telling action game,which is why I gave it a 6/10.However,if Bioware's intention was to make an open world RPG that can rival games like skyrim,I'm sorry to say but they failed miserably.    … Expand
  43. Dop
    Nov 18, 2014
    5
    The game after all the hype fails to deliver in a lot of points and EA didnt put money on my hand like the "critics review " so let's begin.

    Gameplay: Is a lot better than DA: 2 but still bad , to many styles mixes and fail in all of them. Strategic/tactics good luck with that. Graphics are okay not amazing not bad either, a couple of over painted stuff that don't fit with the rest    The game after all the hype fails to deliver in a lot of points and EA didnt put money on my hand like the "critics review " so let's begin.

    Gameplay: Is a lot better than DA: 2 but still bad , to many styles mixes and fail in all of them. Strategic/tactics good luck with that.

    Graphics are okay not amazing not bad either, a couple of over painted stuff that don't fit with the rest of the game, the background is dull and nothing memorable looks nice sure is alive hell no.

    Bugs it has a few nothing game breaking but you can get some random glitches, crashes , black screen.

    Controls here is when you notice the quality of a bad port awful keyboard and M response, if you dont have a controller i hope you at least have a lot of patience because is bad.

    Overall nothing to be proud of, nothing memorable either just another overhyped meh game that can be fun for a while. btw i played it on a i5 4670k, 16 gb ram, R9 295x2.    … Expand
  44. Cuz
    Nov 20, 2014
    6
    Been gaming for 20 years and this is the second game I've ever got a refund on. ...yes, it's that bad. The controls didn't bother me too much once I switched to a gamepad but the game just isn't any fun. Boring quests and stupid dialogue make everything tedious. The potion spam is sucky - did they really have to re-invent the healing mechanic from DA:O? Tactical camera is irritatingBeen gaming for 20 years and this is the second game I've ever got a refund on. ...yes, it's that bad. The controls didn't bother me too much once I switched to a gamepad but the game just isn't any fun. Boring quests and stupid dialogue make everything tedious. The potion spam is sucky - did they really have to re-invent the healing mechanic from DA:O? Tactical camera is irritating to use and the AI is junk. I really wanted to believe that Bioware could pull it off but this is just crap. At least when I played ME3 I wasn't super pissed off until the end... this time they got me early. Giving it a score of 1 for the music.… Expand
  45. Terminal-Rex
    Nov 21, 2014
    5
    I'm actually pretty disappointed with the latest instalment of dragon age, given that it got such good reviews I brought it straight away but am starting to regret that. The main problem with the game is the combat system is unforgivably awful and as a lot of people have commented it feels like a single player MMO, in my opinion that is sinful when it comes to single player games as theyI'm actually pretty disappointed with the latest instalment of dragon age, given that it got such good reviews I brought it straight away but am starting to regret that. The main problem with the game is the combat system is unforgivably awful and as a lot of people have commented it feels like a single player MMO, in my opinion that is sinful when it comes to single player games as they are able to utilize many more resources than massive online games can, so the combat should never be point and click or repeat button mash and if you enjoy having no real control of your attacks and basically prefer to watch a game than to play it this is probably the perfect game for you but not for me.
    To be fair the story seems pretty good and the voice overs and cut scenes are good and the game generally looks nice, but the game just doesn't feel right, its sure as hell no skyrim.    … Expand
  46. mrach
    Nov 19, 2014
    5
    Opinions seem to be very divergent for this came, and that makes a lot of sense. If you prefer action RPGs, I think you will love this game. However, if you were looking for a more tactical experience, and really enjoyed the combat of DAO, you will likely be disappointed.

    I fall in the latter category. I may be in the minority, but judging by the distribution of reviews, this is a    Opinions seem to be very divergent for this came, and that makes a lot of sense. If you prefer action RPGs, I think you will love this game. However, if you were looking for a more tactical experience, and really enjoyed the combat of DAO, you will likely be disappointed.

    I fall in the latter category. I may be in the minority, but judging by the distribution of reviews, this is a large minority. Most importantly, I found the tactical camera to be unusable. The camera does not pull back far enough to give you a good sense of the battlefield, is difficult to move around, and always seems to zoom way in on the selected character. So I spend a lot of time fighting the camera instead of my enemies. Also, character AI is not good, so I'm constantly fighting AI tendencies as well (which is a particular challenge given the camera difficulties).

    Ultimately, I simply gave up on the tactical camera and will just use the over-the-shoulder view. This is a disappointment, as I would prefer to really dig into the game by ramping up the difficulty and approaching the battles more tactically (use of the tactical camera does help with more difficult battles). Instead, I'm treating this game as a walk through the park - enjoy the scenery and story, but don't try too hard.

    I rate the game 5/10 because, despite the above shortcomings, this game does have some significant positives (that, for brevity, I did not discuss).    … Expand
  47. jpr64
    Nov 20, 2014
    5
    Bioware is failing again at deliver great rpg : this game feels like more a casual romance novel than a true rpg...

    Character evolution dumbed down, PC controls clunky at best, strategic view is a letdown... Why I put a 5 : for the character voice over and the npc interaction feel great, like in Mass Effect 2. But that's only the half of I was expecting for such a game... So 5,    Bioware is failing again at deliver great rpg : this game feels like more a casual romance novel than a true rpg...

    Character evolution dumbed down, PC controls clunky at best, strategic view is a letdown...

    Why I put a 5 : for the character voice over and the npc interaction feel great, like in Mass Effect 2.

    But that's only the half of I was expecting for such a game...

    So 5, no more, but no less

    JPR out!    … Expand
  48. whatevah12
    Nov 21, 2014
    5
    First of all, this isn't my final score, I aim to have an impact on people's way of mind rather than on the overall review score of the game. So this review can be considered a review of the reviews rather than a review of the game.

    I wonder if people actually understand what a review is, it's not where you show whether you liked the game or not, if so then I think a basic system of    First of all, this isn't my final score, I aim to have an impact on people's way of mind rather than on the overall review score of the game. So this review can be considered a review of the reviews rather than a review of the game.

    I wonder if people actually understand what a review is, it's not where you show whether you liked the game or not, if so then I think a basic system of thumbs up thumbs down would work better, but it's not such a system unfortunately. I'm going to be commenting on both the high and low ratings in order to seem as unbiased as possible.

    I understand that it may be hard to rightfully judge a game considering how ratings actually work nowadays, a 7 of 10 is considered mediocre, 4 of 10 is considered bad, and so forth. Though it should be common sense that very few games are worthy of 10s, and even fewer are worthy of 0s.

    A score of 10 would mean that the game has absolutely no flaws or issues, or an extremely small amount of them. 10 would mean that the game is as perfect as it can be, this game does have issues, that's clear to see. Mainly concerning PC optimization, framerate drops and controls and such are problematic. Giving a 10 is not good, it won't give the developers any reason to improve on future games, for this reason, giving a 0 is actually better.

    Giving a score of 0 is a different story however, I can think of very few games that actually deserve 0, the one that comes to mind is Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, which was an unfinished game that had barely entered alpha stage. Even games such as Ride to Hell deserve at least a 1 for the effort, but that's just my opinion so take that for granted. 0 Would mean that the game has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and every single feature of the game is flawed.

    The users that give the game a 10 are only mentioning the things they love about the game, ignoring the issues completely, same with users who give it 0 who only focus on the flaws. I've seen a few reviews that start with sentences such as "I'm only 10 hours in and I'm already bored" and given it a 0, if the game was actually worth a 0 then you most likely wouldn't have been able to play for 10 hours.

    Most reviews that give a 10 or 0 have a simulated sense of reliability because the score matches up with what the review actually says. A review that enthusiastically talks about how perfect the game without mentioning any flaw will obviously sound reliable to the reader, because it has no flaws at all it's deserving of a 10 right? And vice versa.

    Then there are opinions of course, I can't affect your opinions, though hopefully I've gotten through to at least a few of you

    TL;DR: This has become a war between fanboys and haters, with the fanboys coming out slightly on top. Giving the game a 10 or 0 because you slightly like or dislike it completely defeats the purpose of a review in the first place, it's pretty **** ridiculous and pathetic. Those of you who actually give honest reviews with honest scores, I applaud you.    … Expand
  49. jimbobslimbob
    Dec 9, 2014
    7
    "Takes a bit of time to get into, but once you do you will be hooked". Is it everything we hoped for? Short answer: Mostly. Long answer:

    The Bad The combat is much like number 2. It's not terrible, but it's not particularly good either. The return of the tactical camera was something I was looking forward to. It is dreadful. You cannot zoom out far enough, it is so close to the ground    "Takes a bit of time to get into, but once you do you will be hooked". Is it everything we hoped for? Short answer: Mostly. Long answer:

    The Bad
    The combat is much like number 2. It's not terrible, but it's not particularly good either. The return of the tactical camera was something I was looking forward to. It is dreadful. You cannot zoom out far enough, it is so close to the ground you can barely see 2 meters around you. It's a confusing, horrible mess to plan battles this way and ends up being a waste.

    The game is an "open-worlded" scenario where you are free to roam around and explore. What they mean by "open world" is that you have several areas you can travel to and each of them are very large individual "playgrounds". Number 3 seems to have swung in completely the opposite direction of 2. The sheer amount of areas and their sizes is amazing. However, where it falls flat on its face is the quests. Every area has the same dull "filler" quests. Collect 20 shards. Collect 20 Elfroots... Because of this the game frequently feels like a bloated MMO with tons of boring "non-content".

    I have come to the conclusion that it's best to ignore the majority of the side-missions. The amount of time you spend picking up plants and looting has driven me to the brink of insanity. You can greatly increase your enjoyment of the game if you simply move on with more important things.

    The Good
    It looks great. The areas look breathtaking and characters look alive and better than ever. It's nice to see some of the old characters making a return. There seems to be a lot of dialogue and mention of the events of the 2nd game. The main story follows on from the events at Kirkwall - that all happened in the second game. There are reoccurring characters from both previous games. The main story seems reminiscent of Elder Scrolls Oblivion - where you had to wonder around closing portals. You will be doing that a lot.

    Levelling up and skills are pretty much the same as before. You have different skill trees to specialise in and different classes to play. The game also leans heavily on crafting - for both making weapons, armour and potions, to upgrading as well. Unfortunately, due to the amount of junk required to make them like iron, plants etc, it becomes a chore because the way in which you acquire these items is about as fun as watching the loading screen.

    The way in which your stronghold and influence works is interesting. You can send agents on missions to acquire items and scout areas for you. All of these actions require "power", which you get by completing quests and obtaining objectives. It works well enough, but unfortunately it forces you into doing many of the boring side quests. I have found myself just wanting to get on with the story only to be blocked because I do not have enough power.

    This is also the first Dragon Age game to give the player mounts. This is a welcome addition that saves some time. You can also fast travel to previously unlocked camps and "upgrade" your horsey later down the line. You can access unlocked areas via the world map and you unlock new areas at the war table, where you must delegate scouting missions and the like.

    The world is large and beautiful. There is lots to do and the game will keep you occupied for a large amount of time. It is just a shame it was not put to better use.

    Summary
    Is it a good game? Yes, if you can put up with its issues. The sad thing is that stuff like the useless tactical camera could easily be fixed. It is a great shame that there is so much boring "filler" content to pad out areas; my gaming logic has always been to complete that "filler" content before moving on. Not only does this game make it extremely tedious (and in most cases, pointless), but it actively prevents you from doing so in some cases. If you can put aside these issues you will find this game is surprisingly good.

    + It looks very pretty
    + It is Dragon Age
    + Big open world
    + Lots to do and see
    + It is an improvement over number 2
    + Decent VO, sound and music
    + Deeper than you may think at first glance
    + Some interesting story quests
    + Familiar faces are from DA:O and DA2 are back
    + Dragon Age Keep is a great tool for importing world states
    - Feels like a grindy single player MMO sometimes
    - Areas are populated with lots of boring "filler content" that you should learn to avoid
    - Tactical camera was a wasted opportunity
    - Elfroots, Ore... and Shards
    - Forces you to do some of the boring fetch-quests to get "power" so you can continue with the story
    - "Consoley" UI, control and menus

    Jimbo Rating: 7/10
    "Dragon Age: Plant-picking simulator"
    P.S. If the tactical camera actually zoomed out, menu and UI (and looting) were more intuitive and I wasn't forced to pick up a stone and plant every 10 seconds, my rating would jump from 7/10 to 9/10.    … Expand
  50. iluxxx
    Nov 22, 2014
    5
    First dragon age was a masterpiece of game craetion, it fast beczme on of my favorite RPGs, I've been waiting for second part long, but it was really bad. When the Inquisition was announced, I thought that bioware will correct their main mistakes that were made in second part of the game series. But what we see there? Old-fashioned graphics, boring plot, few good characters. Waste of moneyFirst dragon age was a masterpiece of game craetion, it fast beczme on of my favorite RPGs, I've been waiting for second part long, but it was really bad. When the Inquisition was announced, I thought that bioware will correct their main mistakes that were made in second part of the game series. But what we see there? Old-fashioned graphics, boring plot, few good characters. Waste of money that is not worth buying!… Expand
  51. derbyherb
    Nov 21, 2014
    5
    I will try to be fair and look at both Pros and Cons.

    When you're out in the world I feel like I'm playing Assassin's Creed 3. Tedious over-abundance of map markers to activate and stick flags in. Infinite enemy patrols. Nothing dies quickly enough. Combat is so unsatisfying. When you swing a 2-handed sword at someone, it should hit with some umph. But you can stand there swinging at an    I will try to be fair and look at both Pros and Cons.

    When you're out in the world I feel like I'm playing Assassin's Creed 3. Tedious over-abundance of map markers to activate and stick flags in. Infinite enemy patrols. Nothing dies quickly enough. Combat is so unsatisfying. When you swing a 2-handed sword at someone, it should hit with some umph. But you can stand there swinging at an enemy with all your might and have 3 party members wailing on it as well and it will still take 5-10 seconds to whittle it's HP down to zero. That's how this game rolls, battles are a slow grind.

    As has been mentioned by every other review, controls are trash. You move your cursor to something lootable. "Loot" text appears. You go "cool, a chest" and do what every computer user on this planet would do, you click your mouse, WRONG. That swings your sword. Apparently the action button is the F key. I've gotten used to it now but it's still unwieldy... the camera doesn't help, it's hard to see and get a good view of your surroundings.

    Story is a load of crap and an Oblivion rip-off. It's disappointing because the lore in Dragon Age is substantial and engaging. This was the best they could come up with? Do they have interns and programmers writing the plot and dialogue now?

    The way the game shoves you into the plot is abrupt and confusing. You're not even sure what your character did for a living or where he came from but he's now savior of the world leading the Inquisition. A whole roster of party members are just there. You're used to building up your own party, but here the party is already there.

    The dialogue and conversations between your party members are just brutal. The voice acting itself is good (maybe the voice actors should just write their own lines), I have no problems with graphics or stuttering on my rig and I do like the Mass Effect dialogue wheel. The character creator is fine.

    Skills / stats / RPG character development: I like it. Typically there's only 1 good way to allocate stats on a class in any RPG. You mass points in your main stat and then a little bit of HP or maybe some mana or whatever. It's gotten tedious and redundant in modern games. So DAI does it for you. If you really enjoy putting 2 points in STR or Dex or Int every level, I guess you'll hate this. Skill advancement uses many of the same trees and specifications of Origins and II.

    And hey they actually brought equipment for your party members back in Inquisition, which was missing from II. Varric can even unequip Bianca and take a couple daggers to battle. In fact for some reason he did this automatically. Only problem is the inventory screen is kind of a monstrosity. There's lots of stuff going on and lots of menus to click through. I still have to figure it out.

    Game gets a 5 from me for now. To grade a game lower than that, it has to be a genuinely bad experience (like Dragon Age II was), and Inquisition isn't, it's more just kind of mediocre.    … Expand
  52. orctown-troll
    Jan 1, 2015
    5
    After finishing this game I couldn't wait to replay DAO, and COMPARE.

    Wow! What a great game Origins is! In the comparison Inquisition comes off BADLY. Dragon Age Origins was better....in EVERY... SINGLE.... DEPARTMENT. The only real bright spot was the use of the Frostbite 3 engine. DAI is pretty. The zones look better! Thanks DICE! It's a fairly sad say when you have to say the    After finishing this game I couldn't wait to replay DAO, and COMPARE.

    Wow! What a great game Origins is! In the comparison Inquisition comes off BADLY.

    Dragon Age Origins was better....in EVERY... SINGLE.... DEPARTMENT. The only real bright spot was the use of the Frostbite 3 engine. DAI is pretty. The zones look better! Thanks DICE! It's a fairly sad say when you have to say the bestparts of a 'Bioware' game don't actually come from 'Bioware'.

    Inquisition finally FAILS as a gaming experience, because it was not seriously designed as a western RPG at all. Instead it was designed (1): As an advertising ploy to sell console software to kids (and their parents). (2) As some kind of interactive MELODRAMA to appease a 'civil rights' agenda that has gone out of control. We have all enjoyed being gay in DA since Zevran in Origins already! As in the real world, the sexuality of the people is NOT AN ISSUE. Why then, does it have to be such a central theme in the Bioware mindset! You guys are CREEPY! For most of us our private lives are private! They are not central to our public functions. Gay or straight can you stop with the sex obsession already! Why are romance options So IMPORTANT with you people! Is this a fantasy RPG or a dating sim?

    Mike Laidlaw was obviously so consumed by fear that the game wouldn't sell enough console copies that he continued the ongoing simplification (hollowing) of the game mechanics. This may not be obvious at first because the game LOOKS SO GOOD. But as you play more the return dividend on 'play' diminishes steadily over time. In the end it is not a game that invites multiple replays. One play through is boring enough. This is NOT GOOD for a 'western RPG', where the whole point is multiple returns.

    The good parts of the game: the writing and the voice acting, the scenery and the zones are effectively WASTED by a game that has almost ZERO role-playing or character development options AT ALL! If you thought DA2 was bad, it actually got worse. Worse skill sets. Less control of stats. The crafting is a DUD (incredibly tedious).

    Bad combat controls.

    Useless tactical camera.

    DREADFUL party AI.

    Boring, repetitive encounters.

    Boring, repetitive quests.

    The Wartable is a farce. We were promised we would have power and influence in the world of Thedas. that turned out to be BS. The Wartable is a faux mini-game designed to waste time and have us tread water while we grind our way through the lovingly made NPC backstories. Now the backstories ARE good! If inter-active cinema is your thing, fine! However for every thrilling bedroom scene with Iron Bull there is a hell of a lot of grinding to endure. The Wartable could have been the heart of the game. Should have been the heart of the game. However no 'game design' was applied at all in this critical space. BIG FAIL!

    I won't go on.

    In conclusion the game is something of a mess. It looks great. It LOOKS great. The writing is good and the romance options are fun. The cut scenes are FANTASTIC. The interplay and backstories of the NPCs are great. The zones are exciting when you first explore them. The idea of being master of the inquisition sounds appealing.

    However none of that makes for a great game. Behind the great façade lies a sadly mediocre and disappointing GAME.

    Bioware have truly forgotten and abandoned their own Origins and their core fan base.

    Orctowngrot    … Expand
  53. cameler
    Nov 18, 2014
    7
    I still don't understand the need to completely and utterly go away from what made Dragon Age Origins successful. I mean, lets analyze the graphics shall we?
    Terrible animation, 2008~esque. Non existing facial animations, the characters do not smile. If the characters are in cheerful situations they have premade smiles to fake the emotions. I mean Jeez Louize they don't even respond with    I still don't understand the need to completely and utterly go away from what made Dragon Age Origins successful. I mean, lets analyze the graphics shall we?
    Terrible animation, 2008~esque. Non existing facial animations, the characters do not smile. If the characters are in cheerful situations they have premade smiles to fake the emotions. I mean Jeez Louize they don't even respond with brows to most situations.
    The models and world look nothing like what "Frostbite" is actually capable of. Same graphical level as a polished Da:O.
    The Digital Rights Management system used consumes more power than it should.... as if it should consume any at all. This is a first even for a company of EA's ambition. I guara DAMN tee you that someone somewhere is going to crack this software and IMPROVE CPU performance while at it.
    The story lacks anything cohesive and is best described as "cookie clutter". Good Lord all mighty.
    Combat mechanics are GOOD because they were made for console use, don't hate it because it works well on a joypad.

    Overall this game continues Bioware's downfall from a beacon of hope into an abyss of nothing. Surely you people can do better!

    And the voiceacting! Dear Lord the voice acting, what happened to the stiff deliveries and complete lack of emotionfrom anyone other than the main characters. Get your stufftogether Bioware.    … Expand
  54. davidstewart22
    Nov 20, 2014
    6
    Decent enough game but an atrocious console port, I'd probably be willing to give in a 7 or higher on a console. Much much better than DA2 but still doesn't replicate the experience of Origins.
  55. Heldrin
    Nov 21, 2014
    6
    Haven't played very much thus far, but I've played enough to say that you should probably pass on this for PC at the moment. The PC controls, the "tactical" (lol) camera, the menus, and other UI design decisions all make it clear that PC players are simply not the chosen demographic for this game.

    When I first started seeing the negative comments about the PC controls, I thought, "Well    Haven't played very much thus far, but I've played enough to say that you should probably pass on this for PC at the moment. The PC controls, the "tactical" (lol) camera, the menus, and other UI design decisions all make it clear that PC players are simply not the chosen demographic for this game.

    When I first started seeing the negative comments about the PC controls, I thought, "Well that's okay, I usually rebind all my keys anyways". Little did I know that the issues on PC go way beyond just bad key-binds.

    For example, the "tactical" camera is in this game is a complete joke. This is a feature that was in the previous Dragon Age games. It allows you to pause the game and assess the situation, issue commands to party members, etc.. This is an extremely important feature for difficult fights. Unfortunately, in DA: Inquisition, this feature is a clunky mess. You can't zoom out far enough to really be able to assess what's going on. The angles available to you while in this tactical cam mode are awful, especially during close-quarters fighting. Even just trying to look up while in this mode is difficult. Switching between characters and giving commands is somehow now worse than in the previous two games. This needs to be addressed immediately.

    The camera behavior is frustrating out of tactical mode too. When you attempt to zoom the camera out via the mouse wheel, the game auto switches you to tactical mode. This cannot be turned off. When you engage in dialogue with an NPC, the camera auto-pans to the side a bit. There have been several conversations I've had where the camera panned behind a tree or other obstruction, leaving me to stare at foliage while my character is conversing. Whoever was in charge of the camera behavior in this game really dropped the ball.

    Now on to the menus. Because the menus were designed for a controller, navigating them on PC is tedious. Got a new item in your inventory? Want to equip it? Have fun going through various menus and sub-menus, instead of just simply opening a bag and clicking the item. The ability trees are equally clunky, it took me a bit to figure out how to scroll down to the bottom of the trees, (you can't just use the mouse wheel scroll function, you have to click and drag the screen).

    They've also removed click to move and a number of other features that made the previous two games enjoyable on PC. Even looting in this game is clunky. Would you like to be able to mouse over an ability on your hot bar and read a tool tip which states exactly what it does? Too bad, that doesn't exist in this game! Have fun clicking through more menus and sub-menus just to get the info you want about an ability.

    The game does have good qualities too: it looks great, the environments are impressive, it has skill trees that allow you to build custom characters, the character creation process is great, the sound/music is great, it's not completely linear and is more of an open world. I think the story and writing isn't the best, but it's not atrocious either. There's definitely potential for a great game here, but the combat controls and UI really ruin the experience.

    6/10 at the moment, I will adjust my score if they fix the issues I've listed above.

    Addendum: I should also add that the tactics options in this game have been seriously reduced compared to the previous two Dragon Age games. You used to be able to set very precise behavioral controls for your party members, where they would use a certain ability when certain combat conditions were met. I'm not sure why they stripped this feature, it was really well done in the previous games.

    Also, there is now no healing in the game. You get "barrier" type spells for damage reduction, and 8 health potions. When you run out of health potions, you have to return to camp to restock.

    The lack of tactics and healing do not make the game any better, frankly I think it's a regression.    … Expand
  56. Enaid
    Nov 19, 2014
    6
    I am quite disappointed so far. I was hoping for something more like DAO. It reminds me of Rift. The graphics are not very good. Been playing it on the laptop, which is quite beefy, but the frame rate is horrible and the games tends to crash. There are so many things I dislike about this game, I am so crushed. I love DAO and DA2, but this doesn't feel like a DA game. Not to mention, I amI am quite disappointed so far. I was hoping for something more like DAO. It reminds me of Rift. The graphics are not very good. Been playing it on the laptop, which is quite beefy, but the frame rate is horrible and the games tends to crash. There are so many things I dislike about this game, I am so crushed. I love DAO and DA2, but this doesn't feel like a DA game. Not to mention, I am already bored with it. Very sad. So sad indeed.… Expand
  57. deekin
    Nov 29, 2014
    5
    Created this account to leave a warning to all dragon age fans. Although this game is not the complete bust many of the reviews make it out to be, it is terribly disappointing to anyone familiar with the franchise. the whole experience feels like a mediocre MMO without the multiplayer. quests are mostly tired stereotypical fetch quests that get old real fast. The world is quite large butCreated this account to leave a warning to all dragon age fans. Although this game is not the complete bust many of the reviews make it out to be, it is terribly disappointing to anyone familiar with the franchise. the whole experience feels like a mediocre MMO without the multiplayer. quests are mostly tired stereotypical fetch quests that get old real fast. The world is quite large but not particularly interesting, controls are passable a bit clunky and MMO like,certainly nothing special. i would have been more than happy to wade through these shortcomings to enjoy some heart pounding tactical combat the previous two titles were known for, sadly the true Coup de grâce for inquisition is its new simplistic and offensively poor combat system.there really isn't anything else like it, its a new kind of crap, so points for originality i suppose. It is at its core a very poor third person hack and slash with some bells and whistles, the tactical combat still exists but as a separate mode in a different fixed (and you guessed it, terrible) camera angle, you can only order one attack per character per pause and the time it takes to do this makes it feel very burdensome.
    All that being said the story is great, the voice acting is excellent and if it wasn't a dragon age title i may have given it a 6. At this point certainly not worth the money, better to go back and complete all the DLC on the first and second game or wait for pillars of eternity. I suppose we shouldn't have complained about dragon age 2, and Bioware PLEASE don't do this to Mass Effect 4    … Expand
  58. Jyynnxx
    Nov 19, 2014
    6
    Very poorly optimized for PC... even when I turn down the graphics to low, there is massive stutter in and out of cut scenes/talking. I have a really nice 980 graphics card setup, I have checked everything from video drivers down to putting new thermal paste on the water cooler. I have fixed the cut scene 30 fps lock to 60 fps lock, I have tried all different settings (windowed,Very poorly optimized for PC... even when I turn down the graphics to low, there is massive stutter in and out of cut scenes/talking. I have a really nice 980 graphics card setup, I have checked everything from video drivers down to putting new thermal paste on the water cooler. I have fixed the cut scene 30 fps lock to 60 fps lock, I have tried all different settings (windowed, borderless, fullscreen, v-sync on/off, etc). I have not got more than an hour in because they game is unplayable to me, I get taken out of the immersion of everything when this stuttering happens. Hope this helps anyone wanting to buy this game to wait about 2 weeks until they come out with a nice patch for this game.… Expand
  59. Gamed2long
    May 1, 2015
    6
    Its no Dragon Age: Origins. I picked the game up on a 50% off Origin sale. That was reasonable value. I'm midway through it. DA2 had a lot of problems. But in the end strong characters drove that game. This game has a huge world. Graphics that are on par with Skyrim (at least on my machine). And its all so darned generic. >90% of side quests are "read note," "go to place," "click object"Its no Dragon Age: Origins. I picked the game up on a 50% off Origin sale. That was reasonable value. I'm midway through it. DA2 had a lot of problems. But in the end strong characters drove that game. This game has a huge world. Graphics that are on par with Skyrim (at least on my machine). And its all so darned generic. >90% of side quests are "read note," "go to place," "click object" (maybe fight a baddy or two) done. I read someplace that when they designed this game they wanted something that could be done in 20 hours or 200 hours. Well they succeeded. By having insane levels of filler take the place of meaningful quests and character arcs. I have no intention of doing them all. The loading screens take a long time, for no clear reason. On PC the controls feel line a console port. Using their combat tactics is a difficult and tedious affair. Best part of DA:O and they broke it. But that's OK. Most of the time you don't need it. So far the most annoying thing for me though is enemy difficulty. Some enemies don't scale levels with you so if you're a few levels up on them, they drop like flies, or if they are levels up on you, your choice is run or die. The result is lots of quests/areas have "level recommendations," which if you choose to ignore, the game becomes too easy or too hard and no fun really quick.
    Overall it's not a bad game. But its nowhere near as good as it could be. And it wouldn't even need big changes to become a great game. But why bother? All the praise, GOTY etc. was heaped on it already anyway. Whether it deserved it or not.    … Expand
  60. btbrotherton
    Apr 15, 2015
    6
    The problem with this game is really that it just lacks heart. 95% of the quests seem to just be busy work, and you get them all from random letters. Most of the things I'm doing I have no idea why I'm doing them; there doesn't seem to be any strong motivation behind most of what you do. If this game was cut down to around 40 hours and the quests became more meaningful it probably couldThe problem with this game is really that it just lacks heart. 95% of the quests seem to just be busy work, and you get them all from random letters. Most of the things I'm doing I have no idea why I'm doing them; there doesn't seem to be any strong motivation behind most of what you do. If this game was cut down to around 40 hours and the quests became more meaningful it probably could have been a lot better.

    Also the AI is TERRIBLE, it's poorly optimized for PC, and just comes off as a horrible port. Most of the companions are boring or obnoxious and the female romance options are horrible.    … Expand
  61. Nathonas
    Nov 18, 2014
    7
    The good things:

    Gorgeous graphics and character creator. Great open world environment, in many ways similar to Skyrim. You can spend hours and hours exploring wide open areas, and you can totally ignore the main story and just do whatever you want. There is an enormous amount of content and things to do - quests, building camps and claiming new areas, the war table missions, complex    The good things:

    Gorgeous graphics and character creator. Great open world environment, in many ways similar to Skyrim. You can spend hours and hours exploring wide open areas, and you can totally ignore the main story and just do whatever you want.

    There is an enormous amount of content and things to do - quests, building camps and claiming new areas, the war table missions, complex crafting system, mounts, little skull things that allow you to discover hidden loot, tons of awesome lore/notes/books everywhere, etc. And don't forget the multiplayer - that in itself is almost like another game.

    I've only played about 7 hours so I can't comment much on storytelling, but it seems to be pretty good - not as strong as DA: Origins, but still solid RPG writing.

    Having said that, there are some serious issues with the PC controls. It seems like Bioware completely disregarded the PC version in favor of consoles. Some examples: you can't right click to automatically move to loot, interact with, or attack things. This seems like such a simple thing but it is really annoying.

    You also can't auto attack unless you're in tactical mode. Tactical mode itself has a lot of problems. For one, the zoom is really weird and it is very difficult to get an overview of the battle. When I was doing the first boss (Pride Demon), I had to switch to normal view just to click on the Rift. Also, being forced to use WASD instead of mouse scroll to look in tactical view is very awkward and clunky. Also, there's no key to select all party members at once.

    Another really strange thing is no ability tooltips on your action bar - if you want to know what a skill does during a fight, you have to open your skill menu and read it there.

    Finally,, the tactics/behaviour system has been completely simplified to the point where you don't really have to choose anything anymore. You just leave everything "enabled" and change some values, there's no more deep/fun tactics like in previous games.

    There are also some pathing issues, especially when using tactical mode. I had my entire party stuck in a corner in a cave and I couldn't get them out, as well as issues with a simple "move and attack" order where my character was getting stuck behind other party members.

    Overall I'm still enjoying the game, but I expected better from Bioware.    … Expand
  62. Metacri
    Nov 19, 2014
    5
    I haven't finished the game, only played it for a few hours, the graphics is good, the game-play is mediocre, the UI is barely acceptable, the story is not very interesting, but the worst of all is the art style and characters designed , they're just HORRIBLE, overly designed, those "companions" are even uglier than I thought, I've only recruited Sera and Vivienne so far but I alreadyI haven't finished the game, only played it for a few hours, the graphics is good, the game-play is mediocre, the UI is barely acceptable, the story is not very interesting, but the worst of all is the art style and characters designed , they're just HORRIBLE, overly designed, those "companions" are even uglier than I thought, I've only recruited Sera and Vivienne so far but I already cannot stand for their terribly ugliness! Being exotic or unique doesn't mean you have to make characters of your game not appealing deliberately, do you know that, Bioware? I'm not sure if I can finish this game with such hideous, outlandish and extremely ugly characters...… Expand
  63. Dree74
    Nov 18, 2014
    7
    Those who bought DA:I within 24 hours and dislike this game, you can get refund from EA Origin Help center.

    I played for 4 hours, I loved Dragon Age Origin (one of the best RPG i ever played) and somewhat liked Dragon Age 2, but sadly this game DA:I couldn't give the satisfaction i was expecting. Pro: - Gorgeous Graphic, I have GTX 770 / I7 4770/32GB RAM on SSD - Awesome soundtrack    Those who bought DA:I within 24 hours and dislike this game, you can get refund from EA Origin Help center.

    I played for 4 hours, I loved Dragon Age Origin (one of the best RPG i ever played) and somewhat liked Dragon Age 2, but sadly this game DA:I couldn't give the satisfaction i was expecting.

    Pro:
    - Gorgeous Graphic, I have GTX 770 / I7 4770/32GB RAM on SSD
    - Awesome soundtrack and ambient sound.

    Con:
    - You need a XBOX controller for better combat gameplay. Keyboard and Mouse will function very clunky.

    - The tactical combat is a joke, it puts camera upside down and the when the enemies are spreaded out in elevated terrain, it becomes really annoying.

    - So many tedious clicks, in order to loot a small valueless dagger from a corpse, you have to click multiple times. (ideally, 2 clicks would do, but somehow you have to click multiple times on a corpse to get the inventory open.)

    - Camera is the worst part, the main protagonist has to constantly look up in the screen to shut down the green portal, at the same time the you have to constantly put your mouse cursor over the enemies to attack correctly. Every combat requires too much camera movement and reposition.

    - The game feels like open world, but most of the world are vastly empty and narrowed down to certain paths.

    I originally wanted to give it 5/10 but EA agreed to refund my money back.    … Expand
  64. oRioN911
    Nov 18, 2014
    7
    If you want to play Dragon Age Origins again DON'T BUY THIS GAME. If you want to play a heavy strategical RPG you are in the wrong place.

    I'm not saying DA:I is a bad game, if it wasn't for the terrible tactical camera my vote would probably have been 8-9. Also the keyboard+mouse aren't very good for this game but I'm sure that they will fix it! The game is huge, not a real open    If you want to play Dragon Age Origins again DON'T BUY THIS GAME. If you want to play a heavy strategical RPG you are in the wrong place.

    I'm not saying DA:I is a bad game, if it wasn't for the terrible tactical camera my vote would probably have been 8-9.
    Also the keyboard+mouse aren't very good for this game but I'm sure that they will fix it!

    The game is huge, not a real open world, but still very enjoyable and amazing.
    The combat system under an action point of views is pretty funny.

    If you liked DA2 you will love DA:I for sure!!!

    ***People giving 0-3 votes are just troll or probably just seeking for another type of game.    … Expand
  65. featherlike
    Nov 18, 2014
    7
    Certainly a good game, but not necessarily great.

    Graphics: Much improved and looks great, albeit a bit too colorful and stylish compared to Dragon Age 1 and even 2 at times. Great updates to character models, though if you pay close attention, you'll notice some recycled animations from the previous two games, most likely due to development time constraints. For once however, the    Certainly a good game, but not necessarily great.

    Graphics: Much improved and looks great, albeit a bit too colorful and stylish compared to Dragon Age 1 and even 2 at times. Great updates to character models, though if you pay close attention, you'll notice some recycled animations from the previous two games, most likely due to development time constraints. For once however, the Dragon Age Universe has more than one body type per race (which is great!) The environments are beautiful and quite large, but a bit misleading as it feels empty at times. Facial animations can sometimes look a bit funky, though I would chalk it up to the face I built (other character facial expressions seem fine) There are graphical glitches out there (Varren was doing squats when I spoke with him in town, guess hes gotta stay in shape) and sometimes camera angles are positioned incorrectly and go through characters while zooming in for dramatic effect.

    Game play: Really a click fest, It reminds me of Dragon Age 2 but a bit toned down on the cartoon-ish aspect. The tactical view (at least on PC) is a mess and its difficult to get the right camera angle. This can be shown in some boss fights where its difficult to position your camera correctly due to size of enemy models and attempting to right click certain assets. Even on normal difficulty sometimes its best to pause multiple times to make sure you get the commands right. If you liked DA2 combat, you'll probably like this. If you preferred the RPG style in DA:O, you'll be disappointed as not much change has occurred here. There are many missions to perform but sometimes feels tiresome, much like MMO quests where you simply perform a mission for the sake of 'bolstering your inquisition' instead of moving the plot forwards. That being said, the combat is still an overall improvement compared to the previous iteration and feels more refined. Running can be agitating sometimes as it has an acceleration factor (no doubt catering to the console players)

    Story: Not much in the way of story. Overall it gives the impression of trying too hard to be epic. It is a standard 'Build on your kingdom' type RPG and thus the overarching story is standard fare but you get to enjoy many fragments to piece together and build on the universe. Personally I prefer a more story focused game that has a beginning middle end, but instead it is more of one simple 'save the world' story with lots of branches. Unfortunately, choices in DA:O appear to be retconned (The grey warden is dead and a dalish female. I unfortunately don't care for DA2's story so I didn't notice any good references there) The dialogue does its job, much of it reviews on the DA universe so veterans to the series may find some of the conversation pieces boring.

    Summary (tl:dr version at the bottom): Again, the game feels like it tries too hard to be epic, ideally the reboot should have tried to stand on its own feet with its own story and mechanics, but you get the impression Inquisition tries to cater to both newbies and DA veterans. There are multiple unnecessary callbacks to the previous game (way too many characters, both major and minor, return to Inquisition, damn its a small world) and it will only confuse both veterans and new players for different reasons. Newbies to the franchise may feel lost at times: be prepared to cycle through many dialogue choices to catch up on the story if you care. Due to this, your interest heavily depends on how you like the combat and game play mechanics. I suggest you look up videos on the game play to determine whether the game will be enjoyable for you. The RPG elements do their job but nowhere near as in depth as other RPG titles out there. Without a doubt, the game is a larger, more beautiful, more refined version of DA2 with a much greater emphasis on mission completion and empire building.

    One final rant: Relationships. What ever happened to a good RPG that did not cater to letting you bone the various characters in the universe? In the original Mass Effect, the romance was organic to the story as you felt that you went through a great deal with your companions and thus one tasteful scene was added before the final mission. It was certainly realistic and probable. Instead now it is constantly in your face and feels forced/unnatural. DA:O was the catalyst to this and should be toned back to focus on making an actual game instead of a dating simulator.

    the tl;dr version: Overall a good game. By no means great, it perhaps takes a step back towards the RPG genre but is by no means a real RPG. It still has many of the mainstream aspects you see in DA2 and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It is a 'build your empire' game, so do not expect a mind blowing story, but many different stories rolled into one bloated package. There is much to do in the game, but be sure you like the combat you see in the videos or you may find yourself bored after a few hours    … Expand
  66. TRANDO101
    Nov 18, 2014
    5
    I should start by saying that I HAVEN'T FINISHED YET. In fact i've only really played 30 minutes of actual gameplay so far, and i do quite like the gameplay and the graphics are pretty good but i find that my framerate isn't that great its 30fps sometimes a bit lower and I have the recommended specs for the game.

    Pros: - Gameplay is good -Graphics are great -Very open level design    I should start by saying that I HAVEN'T FINISHED YET. In fact i've only really played 30 minutes of actual gameplay so far, and i do quite like the gameplay and the graphics are pretty good but i find that my framerate isn't that great its 30fps sometimes a bit lower and I have the recommended specs for the game.

    Pros:
    - Gameplay is good
    -Graphics are great
    -Very open level design

    Cons:
    -Bad framerate
    - Story (so far) isn't much, cringe worthy at moments
    - Lipsyncing is also bad

    I'd give it a 7.5/10 so far, although each pro and con have 3 things, the cons for the most part can be looked past, the framerate isn't unbearable, i dont really have a problem with there being a lack of story this far in, the only major con is sitting through cutscenes in which the character models open there mouths after there lines half way through.    … Expand
  67. Moonknight313
    Jan 9, 2015
    6
    Seeing that this game gets totally awesome reviews I was a bit bedazzled when I finally starting to play it.

    RPG elements has been further dumbed down to please causal gamers and consoles even beyond Mass Effect 3 level (but at least in Mass Effect 3 you still had story, better fights and guiding). DA3 takes more from Star Wars Online but not in a good way, the massive areas are    Seeing that this game gets totally awesome reviews I was a bit bedazzled when I finally starting to play it.

    RPG elements has been further dumbed down to please causal gamers and consoles even beyond Mass Effect 3 level (but at least in Mass Effect 3 you still had story, better fights and guiding).

    DA3 takes more from Star Wars Online but not in a good way, the massive areas are beautiful but the majority of the quests fetch this and fetch that and this is even rooted into all the strange changes they have dont to the RPG, like crafting, leveling up, low XP gain and so on, so while Bioware tells us they want us to choose how to play it, in reality we are forced to explore and gather and craft (I am not one for crafting) and do all the dumbed down bits and pieces, and it is obvious that the game has been designed not by gaming experts but by some kind of executive board, answering questions like "How can we make sure they gather every single flower?", answer should have been, they dont it should be up to the player.

    THe combat as other has mentioned does not have much tactical flowered, you cannot control a lot of commands and behavior control is limited to idiocity and the AI is not that clever either (what happened here Bioware, have you forgotten your past?) The skill/spell three is limited which has unfortunately become some kind of Bioware standard which means that already at level 3 you pretty much unlocked most of the pleasures or pain of combat (ok some things come later but its not like in a true RPG where you masterfully build up charactes and unlock new great fighting capabilites)

    I didnt even thing DA 2 was that bad, yes it did reuse a lot of areas but at least it had some story, and again even though some people find the story good, I find DA3s story to be really boring, as well as your companions and all the talk, it is like they somehow magically made all the characters really irritation, boring and you just keep wondering "Who are these people around me? Get away!" anyone that has played earlier Bioware games knows how interesting the person gallery can be and how the story and the people drives the story and the game, but this? What is this? It's a kind of Star Wars Online (which is still a good game) in DA universe, not online and without star wars and somehow without the magic touch to make it a great game.

    Controls are also an issue, as guessed it was for consoles, and even though you can somehow learn to live with it, there are quite a few irritating aspects here, also the tactical view is somewhat totally useless. (I would think that is something they would fix in a patch, but has not happened till now in patch 2)

    Still, there are good things, the game world is large and consists of many, many areas and you can get a little Elder Scrolls (IV) Feeling. And it is not as bad as some people say, you can still waste some time playing this game as long as you accept the shortcomings and it will give you an experience which is a little above ok. Bioware during time has made some of my favorite games and with a little bit of old love they could still make more of those, but they need to look deep into themselves and rediscover some of that magic.    … Expand
  68. Amazing
    Jan 18, 2015
    5
    It's still better than DA2 but not as good as DAO. They really pushed the whole "open world" concept as their main marketing strategy, so it's a shame they forgot to make the world actually interesting. Perhaps if they integrated the story into the world instead of filling it with silly fetch/kill quests the game wouldn't seem like such an effort to complete.

    And not once did I feel    It's still better than DA2 but not as good as DAO. They really pushed the whole "open world" concept as their main marketing strategy, so it's a shame they forgot to make the world actually interesting. Perhaps if they integrated the story into the world instead of filling it with silly fetch/kill quests the game wouldn't seem like such an effort to complete.

    And not once did I feel like the character all the NPC's spoke in awe of. It's hard to when you're forced to do grunt work as the head of this self-proclaimed powerful organization. That 100 elfroot wont gather itself after all. The game's mechanics don't help the story at all, they just damage it.

    Bioware, please give us another DAO, not this MMO disguised as a single player game. And please don't ever include time travel in any future game you develop. The dialogue and writing for the rebel mages path was so nonsensical and downright lazy I almost quit then and there.    … Expand
  69. dumle
    Jul 6, 2015
    5
    This game got a lot of praise from reviewers and i heard terms like "Bioware is returning to form" being thrown around. I don't know what these people are talking about. In my opinion this game is mediocre at best. I will say that it feels like a honest attempt to make a good rpg compared to Dragon Age 2 but the result is just not especially good in my opinion.

    Lets start with the    This game got a lot of praise from reviewers and i heard terms like "Bioware is returning to form" being thrown around. I don't know what these people are talking about. In my opinion this game is mediocre at best. I will say that it feels like a honest attempt to make a good rpg compared to Dragon Age 2 but the result is just not especially good in my opinion.

    Lets start with the technical problems. There are bugs, physics issues, insane loading times and performance issues. The loading times in particularly were truly horrible. But hey i might have been the unlucky one so lets ignore the technical stuff and look at the actual game.

    The story is pretty weak in itself. They are trying to explore a bunch of different stuff in the story but the story is basically limited to very few actual story missions which causes most of the story to feel underdeveloped. I don't want to spoil stuff but i just found the main plot to be fairly uninteresting and underdeveloped not to mention that there is a lot of dumb **** in it.

    There are some nice character interaction with your companions in the base though and i would guess that this is the saving grace for some people. The dialogue wheel is back and it is awful as normal but there are a bunch of romances and stuff and people into this **** will probably get their fix from this.

    But the biggest problem with the story and its character is that 90 % of your time with the game will be spent exploring the different environments in the game. And this is basically totally separated from the plot completely. Sure you can have your companions with you but they don't offer any input or dialogue options except from some party banter so who cares.

    These areas do for the most part completely lack interesting quest, dialogue options, companion input or any meaningful stuff that you would expect from a roleplaying game. It is basically just the standard ubisoft open world nonsense combined with some boring as hell mmo grindy quests. I do like the the environments and how varied they are but they are just filled with complete nonsense.

    So the majority of the game is just complete filler that has very little to do with the main story and its characters. This could be acceptable if the combat was enjoyable but it gets old really fast. The tactical camera is **** so you want to play this game with the third person camera. Jumping between characters with the third person camera is a bother and since you don't really need to do this at the normal difficulty you will just play it as a normal mmo. This is completely mindless and gets boring really fast.

    And even if you are a masochist and want to try to be tactical there are still not a whole bunch of interesting abilities to use.

    Being forced to spend so much time doing something that is boring and not plot important is bad enough but it also destroys the pacing of the story entirely.

    I am getting sick of writing about this game but here are some more stuff that i would like to complain about.

    - Lot less character customization. Only ability points left.
    -Gui suck
    - less equipment slots than before
    -boring effects on rings
    -few meaning full choices
    -war room nonsense
    -beep beep beep .... searching mechanic

    Overall it was just a very mediocre game. Absolutely not terrible but at the same time not anywhere near being good. I should mention that i have completed the game.    … Expand
  70. misiekm
    Jan 19, 2015
    6
    Lemme preface this by saying I'm a huge fan of DA:O, and I enjoyed DA2 on my second playthrough well enough (though I still consider it a game with many, MANY problems).

    While not a bad game, DA:I simply does way too many things wrong (and worse than both its predecessors) to be considered anything more than decent. I won't say the cash spent on this game was wasted - my time spent with    Lemme preface this by saying I'm a huge fan of DA:O, and I enjoyed DA2 on my second playthrough well enough (though I still consider it a game with many, MANY problems).

    While not a bad game, DA:I simply does way too many things wrong (and worse than both its predecessors) to be considered anything more than decent. I won't say the cash spent on this game was wasted - my time spent with it was enjoyable enough - but the direction BioWare is taking this franchise worries me greatly.

    This game feels like an MMO.
    The world is absolutely huge... and at the same time, filled with nearly nothing but boring fetch quests and bland NPCs whose names you will forget 30 seconds after talking to them. The main storyline, while rather engaging, probably amounts for about 10h at best, with the rest being collectibles and "collect 10 boar brains" types of quests. Interesting side-quests are practically non-existent.

    The main storyline... well, I wouldn't put it as a minus, given that I really enjoyed it, but still... it feels like a missed opportunity. It's rather generic, truth be told - save the world, like most RPGs - and I can't really fathom why they went this way, instead of focusing a lot more on the much-hyped Mage-Templar War, and perhaps the Orlais Civil War. Oh well, too bad.

    The companions - typically the highlight of any BioWare game - simply... did not click with me, much. Even Varric, whom I carried around with me everywhere in DA2. They feel less connected with your character than in the previous games, perhaps because all of them join your team for reasons that have nothing to do with YOU (and everything with the Inquisition). They're all very well-written, of that there is no doubt, but they still failed to establish any sort of emotional connection with me.

    Your main character is the blandest protagonist of the series so far. The Warden, while voiceless, was at least given great backstory through the origin stories, which are IMO essential to truly get "inside" and role-play your character. Hawke's story began fairly early in his life and had us witness all of it's goods and bads, which again helped me feel connected to him. The Inquisitor... we get a short note of where the heck he came from, and some stuff related to his past happens... through text messages on the War Table. Yeah. It didn't help that I thought both male voices were rather bad (the British one sounds like Will Scarlet from Kevin Costner's Robin Hood movie, which made me restart my character after a few hours, and the American is hilariously, overly deep and macho).

    The combat felt shallow and dull, hamstrung by the ridiculous decision to remove the tactics screen (for f**k's sake, Varric, GET OUT OF MELEE RANGE WITH YOUR CROSSBOW!) and limit you to 8 skills (which really isn't much for a mid-late game mage) really turned me off. I don't enjoy the more action-focused style of it, either, but that's really down to personal preference. I prefer the more tactical approach of DA:O, myself. (Don't even mention the tactical view. That's such a disaster, at least on the PC, I'm not even bothered to mention it for existing...).

    Add to that the clearly console-ported UI, awful controls on PC, numerous bugs (most annoyingly the prevalent banter bug and other sound problems...), performance problems and other crap I can't be bothered to write up anymore, and you'll see why I laugh off the pretense that DA:I is anywhere near Game of the Year material.

    However, that's not to say it's all bad and no good. The graphics are absolutely beautiful - this game truly is a looker, very much worthy of the next-gen tag. The sounds (when they work) are very immersive, but the soundtrack is woefully underused - there are some really incredible tracks in there, but I'll never understand the decision to play 20 seconds of it every 5 minutes at best. Really weird design decision, I'd say. The banter (again, when it actually works) is funny and clever, as usual.

    There are many more points that should be touched upon in a full review, but given my lack of will to do so (and the limited space) I think I'd touched upon the more important ones. If you're interested in this game, but haven't bought it yet, consider it really well. Read some of the problems people keep mentioning on the forums (where BioWare for unfathomable reasons ignores them nearly completely). If you're willing to look past the problems, then you'll likely enjoy yourself well enough. But don't expect a ground-breaking, earth-shattering revolution in the genre. It's nowhere near that. It's not even a great game, in my opinion.    … Expand
  71. buchtak
    Jan 17, 2015
    6
    I've invested more than 100 hours into this game and if I were to rate it as objectively as possible, I'd give it a 6/10. Let's see why:

    First and most importantly of all, DA:I is very different from its predecessors. This is not the story driven RPG-adventure like DA:O or DA2, but rather an MMORPG-like third person sandbox with an incredible amount of collect/fetch/kill tasks. No, not    I've invested more than 100 hours into this game and if I were to rate it as objectively as possible, I'd give it a 6/10. Let's see why:

    First and most importantly of all, DA:I is very different from its predecessors. This is not the story driven RPG-adventure like DA:O or DA2, but rather an MMORPG-like third person sandbox with an incredible amount of collect/fetch/kill tasks. No, not quests, but simple meaningless tasks like "collect 36 pieces of ... spread throughout the world". This is by far the most salient aspect of the game and if you are completionist-ish, it will consume at least 80 percent of your time (but more like 90). It's only due to these simple tasks that DA:I takes such a long time to beat.

    You can, of course, skip everything and focus only on the story and important side quests. But the problem is there almost aren't any. There are only few main story quests and some of them only function as an unlock for others. The quests take on average 1-2 hours, so I would say that the total story missions time is about 10-12 hours. There are few "full featured" side quests that have their own special locations and mini-bosses. However, like story missions, they are rather short and scare. They're also completely isolated from the rest of the game as if they were DLCs.

    Many people complained about bugs and I am one of them. On my GTX660 @ Win 8.1, the game was constantly crashing (only in the cutscenes and at the war table, not in normal gameplay) due to DirectX errors. I recently bought GTX970 and reinstalled the system, and the problems disappeared. That doesn't mean the issues were on my side, however. The bugs are EA confirmed and they just don't manifest in my current configuration.

    Most of the people say that the combat system and tactical camera are atrocious, but here I'd say one can get used to it. Especially the tactical camera is really really stupid, but you're not forced to use it. What's worse are the tactics and AI of your allies, which often do not follow you orders or get stuck in a corner etc. In harder battles this can get very frustrating.

    But DA:I also has some bright moments. Although very short, the story missions are awesome and reminiscence of DA:O and DA2. The characters are typically Bioware complex with lots of romance options, conversations, and they react to each other. Even with all of its problems, the combats are fun and challenging (some battles even on normal difficulty). The are really powerful abilities for all classes that add variability to the combat system. Also on full details, the graphics looks very nice.

    In my opinion, most people are just frustrated that the game did not turn out to be what they exptected and hance the low scores. DA:I is not a bad game, but not 85+ AAA hit either. In overall, the game feels somewhat empty, bloated with extremely dull, boring, repetitive, and meaningless MMO-sandbox-ish "content", with occasional spikes of Bioware brilliance. But as with others, being a victim of EA marketing and a fan of Bioware games my expectations were also much much higher, and despite of all the good things this game has to offer, I'd label DA:I as the biggest disappointment in years.    … Expand
  72. Slazar
    Mar 5, 2015
    5
    True review by Slazar

    After buying game for PC, i started to play... When i saw controls on mouse and keyboard, i shut down the game. Then after 2 months i gave it one more try, but this time i connect PS4 controller, i played it for 30-40 hours, and this is my review. PROS: Graphic and Music CONS: Everything else Content of the game is huge, but 80% of that content is boring as    True review by Slazar

    After buying game for PC, i started to play... When i saw controls on mouse and keyboard, i shut down the game. Then after 2 months i gave it one more try, but this time i connect PS4 controller, i played it for 30-40 hours, and this is my review.

    PROS: Graphic and Music
    CONS: Everything else

    Content of the game is huge, but 80% of that content is boring as hell. Example no.1 - You need to connect starts, in basics you connect dots with lines(last time i did this in kindergarten), you need to connect all dots in one area (and there is several places to do so), so you can revel location of some kind of loot. And then you will repeat this process in other areas also. Example no.2 - You need to scout the area with some kind of magnifying glass to look for the shards, then you need to go and collect that shards in the area, then you need to take that shards in some cave, also to collect some kind of loot, then you will repeat this over and over and over. Sounds fun. Ok, enough about boring stuff, lets talk about combat. Tactical combat is something worst i ever experienced in last 20 years of gaming. Its so bad, its like when i engage in combat, i wish i could collect some more shards and connecting dots. View is horrible, controls are horrible, AI is horrible (and no! you cant adjust your party members), they are just idiotic, yea they will cast fire spells on fire immunity creature. So your solution is to turn of AI and manually coordinate every single move, so that every fight will last half hour, half hour of terrible view and controls. Second combat alternative is to play in real time with over the shoulder cam. In that case you lover your game difficulty, and jump around while your party members deal with enemy`s. Who would not want that ?

    To summarize, i played it for 30-40 hours and i really wanted to give this game a chance, especially it was not cheap, but i just could not play it any more, i give up. At the end of story i rate this game 5/10. And i feel really generous today. Cya all.    … Expand
  73. rpm
    Dec 15, 2015
    6
    This is not technically a "review" because, though I've tried a half dozen times to play it, Dragon Age:Inquisition has just not interested me enough to keep going. It is like if you pay for an expensive meal but your first couple of bites are really bland and uninteresting so you only continue to eat because you paid for an expensive meal and you're hungry. I plan to keep trying but thereThis is not technically a "review" because, though I've tried a half dozen times to play it, Dragon Age:Inquisition has just not interested me enough to keep going. It is like if you pay for an expensive meal but your first couple of bites are really bland and uninteresting so you only continue to eat because you paid for an expensive meal and you're hungry. I plan to keep trying but there are little things that have already really turned me off to this game...and little things add up. For example...

    When I want to interact with something (or someone) I have to be right next to it/them. In many games, if you want to interact with something/someone you can click on it and your character will move to it.

    Second, when I do stop to talk or interact with someone/something, my companions look like they drank too many energy drinks and cannot find a spot to settle. During dialogues it looks absurd for my companion's to nervously move around in and out of the camera view. Ok people, just chill! I'm trying to have a conversation here!

    Third, there are several interface design choices I dislike. It seems quite console oriented and not designed for PC. I am not AT ALL a fan of console games or PC games that function like console ports. Just for one example, it is unclear when leveling up whether a skill is selected, selectable, or "unselectable". This comes down to too subtle indications via color and contrast choices.

    Forth...Inquisition? This name brings up two memories for me and neither is conducive to my wanting to be a part of this organization and in no way elicits any sort of "heroic" feeling. First, I of course think of the Spanish Inquisition and their horrible reputation for torture, murder, etc. in the name of religion. Why would I want to be part of an organization called the "Inquisition" when the sole reference in most people's minds to the word is a part of human history most people would be ashamed of or disgusted by?! The second memory that comes to mind is Monty Python and their spoof of the Spanish Inquisition (torturing people with a "comfy pillow"!). These two memories have applied a permanent uncomfortable mixture in my mind of disgust and giggles. Either way, there is no room for any positive connotation of the word Inquisition.

    I absolutely loved DA:O, played through DA:2 even though the repeating locations really bothered me, but I can't get into this one yet. Several review sites express the necessity of sticking with it and that the first 10 or so hours are very boring.

    I do plan to keep trying to get into it as it was expensive meal and I am pretty hungry.    … Expand
  74. Chidawg66
    Mar 16, 2016
    5
    I really, really wanted to like this game. Dragon Age: Origins is one of my favorites, but man... is this game not designed very well in terms of story or side quests. I was burnt out playing this game cause I had little interest in the story or side quests. If you want a better experience, Witcher 3 is a HELL more fun to play than this game. This game could have been great but lacksI really, really wanted to like this game. Dragon Age: Origins is one of my favorites, but man... is this game not designed very well in terms of story or side quests. I was burnt out playing this game cause I had little interest in the story or side quests. If you want a better experience, Witcher 3 is a HELL more fun to play than this game. This game could have been great but lacks characters and story and you can literally be stuck in the Hinterlands for hours.… Expand
  75. mtorniai
    Jan 16, 2015
    6
    The game seems unpolished with all the crashing and terrible camera angles. The plot is very unoriginal. You are the chosen one as always. There's lots of rather unrewarding side quests that mostly involve lots of running from one place to another. The best thing about this game are the conversations with your companions that this series is known for. Many other side quest characters areThe game seems unpolished with all the crashing and terrible camera angles. The plot is very unoriginal. You are the chosen one as always. There's lots of rather unrewarding side quests that mostly involve lots of running from one place to another. The best thing about this game are the conversations with your companions that this series is known for. Many other side quest characters are quite robotic and annoying to listen to. Pretty much all the quests are borrowed from other games. Combat tactics are rather limited and often don't work the way you would want. The most impressive fights are the dragons which are outside the plot or quests. If you do too many side quests you're going to end up with very unchallenging main plot since everything is bound to certain levels and does not scale to match the player level. At some point all the equipment you find is also worse than what you're wearing and just becomes a burden to carry to the shop. There's very little use for money also so you'll end up with lots of excess. Besides the dialogues this is a very basic RPG with not much new except the war table as a mechanism to give you new things as you gain more power.… Expand
  76. darkwings13
    Apr 28, 2015
    5
    This game... was disappointing, to say the least. I will sum it up in point form to a better analysis.

    Graphics: Amazing and beautiful world we have here. The details are incredible! The landscape is stunning and the attacks are flashy. No complaints here. Character Customization: Unless you're amazingly artistic, and spend about two hours here, you characters can be passable at    This game... was disappointing, to say the least. I will sum it up in point form to a better analysis.

    Graphics: Amazing and beautiful world we have here. The details are incredible! The landscape is stunning and the attacks are flashy. No complaints here.

    Character Customization: Unless you're amazingly artistic, and spend about two hours here, you characters can be passable at best. The awkward green lighting during this process throws off alot of things. I had no idea my character's lips were that shiny until I hit the ingame cutscene. Lack of hair was also sad. Wait for future mods to improve on this

    Companions: Only near the end of the game do you even care about them. Whereas DA:2 make you baby sit your companions and do like 50 quests for them, here, we have like one personal quest or maybe 2. And the interaction conversations are short, and lacking in substance. Which is quite sad because the chars have a very solid personality, it's just not executed well by the way your inquisitor interacts with them. It can be SO much better, like in DA;O. Btw, besides Lelianna (the person working on her spent all his time on her face than everyone else), Vivinne, Cullen, Varric, Dorian and maybe Solas, everyone looks terrible, especially NPC. Yea, even Celene looked bad. Or at least average.

    Gameplay: THIS THING SUCKS FOR PC. WHAT THE HELL WHERE THEY THINKING? DID NO ONE TEST THIS ON PC?! Forget using the tactical mode, you'll want to break your screen. And the frickng tactics system was horrible. I was utterly appalled. DA:O and DA:2 had a very deep and good tactics system. They didn't even try for this one! You literally have like 4 commands, two of which is drink pots and move. As for skill usage, you can only set to using it alot, moderately or disable it. WTF?!

    They removed healing, which is completely stupid. Now you have to backtrack constantly to stock up on pots. Barriers just doesn't cut it. When you're playing on hard or higher difficulty, you'll want to pull your hair out. Your companions are stupid and need to be micromanaged every second because tactics sucks, you'll run out of pots constantly and overall it's a huge step down from DA:2 battles or DA:O tactical battles. It's like Bioware tried to combine both and made the world's ugliest baby.

    Btw you can't arrange skills. It's automatic, even if you don't like it.

    World: I said the world was beautiful and all but it's INSANELY BIG. There was no need for it to be this bi, especially if there's nothing interesting happening. Thank god you can teleport when you find campsites. Finding people and places are a chore. Sometimes there's up a level or down a level and you're circling around the glowing spot on the map like an idiot.

    Story: Uhhhhh.... so after running around, killing things for hours, we get a very anti-climatic boss fight at the end. The mage rebellion and grey warden parts of the story was perfect, so that saved the story. But after that, nothing much happens really. Anything that did happen, was cliche and unmoving or boring. It felt like padding and it was disappointing. Your inquisitor seemed pretty mellow about the whole thing to be honest. Like they tried to be inspiring and be a hero but it sorta felt flat. Or they were just an **** and didn't really care. The humor type was amusing at times though.

    From the series, in terms of world and story, DA:O is superior. In terms of gameplay, DA:2 is the best (I'm slightly biased here) and DA:O... just has the best graphics. I got so tired of the game I didn't bother finishing an entire area of quests.    … Expand
  77. HenryBukowski
    Jun 29, 2015
    5
    If this video game was not a video game but a manual entitled "How to Ruin a trilogy", I would give it 10/10 any day of the week. Unforunately, this video game is not a useful manual, but a video game. It's a really bad video game.

    The Grey Walden, Ferelden Blight --------------> Champion of Kirkwall ------------------> The Inquisitor. Does this progression from game to game make    If this video game was not a video game but a manual entitled "How to Ruin a trilogy", I would give it 10/10 any day of the week. Unforunately, this video game is not a useful manual, but a video game. It's a really bad video game.

    The Grey Walden, Ferelden Blight --------------> Champion of Kirkwall ------------------> The Inquisitor.

    Does this progression from game to game make sense to you? It doesn't to me.
    Why the need to project the player to ever greater levels of global significance? To me it doesn't feel genuine, but rather quite forced - far better surely to build on the strengths of the original game.

    It was quickly apparent that with the Dragon Age series, the devs simply made the games they wanted to make in the way they wanted to make them - unfortunately for us fans of Origins, this meant breaking what wasn't already broken - in the way combat was overhauled in Dragon Age 2 for example.    … Expand
  78. ZaPaAl
    Mar 6, 2015
    6
    A big and pretty, but shallow experience. If your computer can handle the technically stuttery implementation. Mantle made it playable, when they got it working, but even that they patched for worse again.

    The companions are flat, and even more so is the story. Everyone, from peasant to lord talks and talks in winded sentences forever. With the appearance of major plot drivers from    A big and pretty, but shallow experience. If your computer can handle the technically stuttery implementation. Mantle made it playable, when they got it working, but even that they patched for worse again.

    The companions are flat, and even more so is the story. Everyone, from peasant to lord talks and talks in winded sentences forever. With the appearance of major plot drivers from Origins the game picks up against the finale, but it's to short, to late, and in the end ... it felt more like a forced addition.This is not Origins.

    The open world is nice, if you're into that, but really ... it's a drag. I did finish all the quests, so combat, even exploring were fun for a long time, but the hardly existent difficulty, zero strategy requirements, unneeded equipment and thin story killed the game in the end. I'm glad it's finished. The ending was ... well, it ended. For now.    … Expand
  79. OldSch00lGamer
    May 22, 2015
    5
    Well, the game is very refined to say the least. Nice graphics, excellent map layout. Unfortunately, due to shaky pc controls and a higher learning curve than the previous two games, I quit playing DAI after a few hours. Just wasn't worth my time and effort to slug my way through it. Maybe some day I'll actually get bored enough to have another go at it, but so far I'm very disappointed inWell, the game is very refined to say the least. Nice graphics, excellent map layout. Unfortunately, due to shaky pc controls and a higher learning curve than the previous two games, I quit playing DAI after a few hours. Just wasn't worth my time and effort to slug my way through it. Maybe some day I'll actually get bored enough to have another go at it, but so far I'm very disappointed in the results. Having only played for… Expand
  80. Howmaster
    Aug 28, 2015
    6
    Disappointing.

    That's what I feel when I think about this game. I absolutely loved DAO and I actually didn't think the second game was terrible. It had a lot of flaws, but it was somewhat entertaining and had some memorable characters. Sadly, I felt DAI was a slightly above average RPG. So here goes: Time Invested: 75 hours. Story/Characters The most important element to me    Disappointing.

    That's what I feel when I think about this game. I absolutely loved DAO and I actually didn't think the second game was terrible. It had a lot of flaws, but it was somewhat entertaining and had some memorable characters. Sadly, I felt DAI was a slightly above average RPG. So here goes:

    Time Invested: 75 hours.

    Story/Characters

    The most important element to me in an RPG is the story and its characters. I did not find many memorable characters in DAI besides the Inquisitor and Morrigan. Morrigan really doesn't even count unless you have played DAO since most of my interest to her stems from unanswered questions from the first game. I didn’t care for any of the companion characters as they all seemed dull and unexciting. As a result, I found myself engaging in less and less conversations with my companions as I progressed through the game because I could care less about them. Additionally, I did not romance a character because, as stated above, I didn’t really like or find any of the companions interesting so why put the effort in.

    The overall story was just pretty “plain Jane.” Bad guy tries to take over world and good versus evil. Nothing new or really exciting here as well. To be honest I thought it was a bit boring and the villain was lame which added to this factor.

    There is a lot of content in this game. However, the problem is much of it is mundane. Such as go to spot A to get this and come back to B. The quests just are not very engaging or have much of anything going on. I will say that the world itself has an atmosphere that it adds to the game and I thought it did exceedingly well at looking as a war ravaged land when it needed to.

    I will say that the world state import was a very clever and unique idea by Bioware. Fans of the previous games will probably enjoy that they are able to customize what happened in the previous two games.

    Gameplay:

    The controls and menus for the PC are best described as clunky. The tactical camera is awkward and it will take a little bit to get use to; the whole four times that you do decide to use it. Combat feels like a hack/slash and difficulty is lacking which means it stops being fun after about 15 hours. The only real challenge in combat is fighting the High Dragons, but after your first few, it can be a little tiresome since they have so much HP.

    Your companions have terrible AI which can be painful at times. They constantly move out of position and fail to follow directions which makes you want slap them. However, the lack of difficulty makes up for their incompetence.

    The outfits and weaponry look really cool, but as with many RPGs, I wish there was more customization to your character. Speaking of customization, your stats are really dumbed down in this game. Basically you can only pick certain abilities, but your character auto-levels his/her stats. This was quite disappointing.

    This game came with a lot of bugs. Many of them have been cleaned up, but it still does not run nearly as smooth and clean as it should. The first few days of owning it and dealing with the bugs was terrible.

    Long load screens….need I say more.

    Graphics/Sound:

    I am not the type of gamer where graphics really are a big deal to me. I know many people would disagree, but I thought the game looked fantastic. The environment was wide open with great sights and had a lot of details.

    One thing that Bioware seems to always get right is voice acting and it is top notch here. I will say that the music is amazing as well, but it is not playing nearly enough.

    Conclusion:

    I admit that I had high expectations for this game which is why it was just a letdown. Don’t get me wrong, there is a ton of content here and room for a lot of fun, but I just expected much more from this series which seems to be declining with each new entry. The button mashing combat, clunky mechanics, bugs, hollow characters, and ordinary story is what makes this game average. I would say it is a slightly above average RPG because of its sheer size and loads of content. If you’re a fan of RPGs it is definitely worth a try, but you won’t be missing much if you do decide to skip it.    … Expand
  81. smilinmaniacc
    Nov 22, 2015
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is a very, very bad game for a PC owner. After waiting for crapload of patches, dlc's the game is still not optimized for PC.
    Simple pros and cons will seal the deal I guess.

    + Graphics are kinda nice. Most people hate them, but it is mostly due to the shiny faces effect.
    + Some of old characters have an action here.
    + Locations diversity.
    + Magic and spell effects feel more satisfying visually than previous games.

    Now its time to tell why there is so much rant about DAI. Some caps might appear, so excuse me for that.

    - Controls suck. Mouseover spells and attacks, the added feature of rightclick is a fake - character still attacks the same **** way, you just dont hold the mouse. Animations are long, and static - playing with melee class is pain in ass, since your char doesnt move an inch while performing 2 **** SECOND ANIMATION OF AUTOATTACK. No click - move to loot, no mass loot, no chain spells, all is dumbed down enough so your 6-year old console player wouldn't feel overwhelmed.

    - AI is stupid. they don't know what range mean - all chars go to fight melee, doesnt matter if they have bow, dagger or staff. They do not know how to use abilities, and you cant really adjust that - characters behavior menu became a healing pot macro. Do not teach your characters activatable static stances (like cassandra's) - they will use it and go afk. Game becomes retarded on hard and gothic 3 release on nightmare simply because you basically fight alone.

    - Tactical camera doesnt work.it is too small, doesnt cover all battlefield and range of orders is limited.

    - Tactical pause doesnt work for real here. No matter what order you issue in tactical pause, it will be ignored. like, why?

    - Story is stupid. Random guy/grill just had the mark appear on his palm without any decent explanation. Gratz, this makes you one of the most important personas in the history. However, it is no use, since...

    - 80% of the time is Korean MMO style grindfest. Gather 10 elfroots, kill 5 monsters, explore 5 places. get 6 librarium(or what is that **** called) pieces. Game itself is barely 10 hours, it is stretched forcefully by being unable to level without grinding.

    - Tolerance. Bioware became so tolerant lately. There are 3 types of female characters in the game - 1) lesbian 2) ugly as **** 3) unavailable in the party; 2 types of males - 1) gachigasm gayboys 2) Blackwall. Bioware is forcing you to become minority, to love and adore homosexuals. NO IT DOESNT WORK LIKE THAT. if you like that, you can have gay activities back there in your places or wherever you like. Not in my game.

    - No healing magic. Oh yeah, now you use potions. only potions. craft potions, gather stuff for potions, save at camps for potions - your group, as mentioned is stupid as **** and tend to receive damage a lot. And now you cant even heal them, yay! How not a challenging difficulty spike (sarcasm)? Basically the game on higher difficulty is - go to random location, find camp - fight enemies - run out of potions - return to camp - enemies spawned again - fight enemies - run out of potions.... should i continue the loop?

    - Final boss. Oh my god, they ****ed it up so hard ////SPOILER SPOILER DONT READ IF AFRAID the final boss is dlc guy from 2nd dragon age//// WERE THERE NO BADASS ENEMIES IN THE WHOLE DA FOLKLORE? Even infamous Mass effect 3 ending did it better.

    - Optimization. Game unexpectedly runs better on windows 10 (kappa sellout), but dont expect decent framerate if you are using something which is weaker than Geforce 970. Forget about the game if you thought about playing it on laptop. Fps drops, fps locks, constant stuttering - all ****gasm of the poor console ports you can experience right here right in the game.

    You have it. This game is not worth money, not worth time. You have good RPG to play - DA 1 and 2, Witcher 1-3, SWKOTOR 1-2, Pillars of eternity, Divinity, etc. Not this. This is call of duty from the RPG world. However, COD can be really fun in multiplayer unlike DAI, since

    - Multiplayer is pay2win chest opening simulator.    … Expand
  82. MagicGuitar
    Dec 9, 2015
    5
    The stupid AI isn't any better, the tactical view isn't any less boring, nobody wants it, but you need it, because the AI is so stupid. At least the game has a very good controller support and feels a little bit more like an action game. But it doesn't obscure the fact that combat is pretty boring most of the time. It is repetetive and some battles take a ridiculous long time and whileThe stupid AI isn't any better, the tactical view isn't any less boring, nobody wants it, but you need it, because the AI is so stupid. At least the game has a very good controller support and feels a little bit more like an action game. But it doesn't obscure the fact that combat is pretty boring most of the time. It is repetetive and some battles take a ridiculous long time and while most enemies are a joke, some are really hard to crack. This problem will be increased due to the fact that missions and areas don't have any level recommendation.

    So the only thing that keeps you going is the story and the beautiful landscape. The story certainly has it's moments and choices seem to matter, but sometimes it is somewhat frustrating as you expect a big battle or something big to happen and then there is only a short video sequence.
    The game isn't really open world. It is divided into several areas, which are big enough to explore. And there certainly is enough to explore, but it seems like a waste of time like in most games. And some areas are so screwed-up like a labyrinth to keep you busy.

    And then there are bugs! Many of them. Especially AI bugs or falling through the floor. Very frustrating.    … Expand
  83. Nerp47
    Aug 17, 2018
    6
    While to me Dragon Age Inquisition's main story felt bland and boring, where the game really shines is it's characters. when playing the game for a while you really start feeling like you're building connections and relationships with these characters, and interactions feel human and realistic,also being able to change your world state or previous game history, was a nice way to revisitWhile to me Dragon Age Inquisition's main story felt bland and boring, where the game really shines is it's characters. when playing the game for a while you really start feeling like you're building connections and relationships with these characters, and interactions feel human and realistic,also being able to change your world state or previous game history, was a nice way to revisit the old games quickly or refresh your memories if you hadn't played them in a while. Another thing i really liked was the amount of choices in dialogue. Being able to control what your character says almost every time he/she speaks was nifty even if useless. The music is also phenomenal but seems to be rarely used to great effect and only really has any emotional impact right at the end of the game.

    Where the game falls flat is with it's bad but playable Mouse and keyboard controls, useless Tactical Camera, War Table feeling like a tacked on mechanic to fool players into thinking there's more content then there really is, useless and unrewarding chores like finding crystals or connecting star constellations whenever you go to an open area to explore that makes doing anything but big side quests or the main quests feel tacked on or boring, and the inability to transfer previous game saves on pc which felt like a bad attempt at making the experience ever so slightly worse for pirates.

    The only side activities i really enjoyed were the dives into the history of Thedas. Either the side quests that involved previous characters or just historical figures of thedas, or the walls of text that enlighten you about previous events in the world, that probably no one would read unless they really cared about the history or world of the game.

    In the end it feels like a good game for anyone looking for a good story and some fun game-play but not for anyone looking for a classic RPG. I would love to see a Dragon Age Inquisition 2, but i also want a true sequel to Origins and Dragon Age 2    … Expand
  84. absoluterfreak
    May 19, 2015
    6
    I am not sure how to feel about Dragon Age Inquisition. Did I have fun with it? Yes. Do I think it is a good Dragon Age? No.

    The story is bland for any game and extremely disappointing for a Bioware Game. While there are some good ideas and even a few touching scenes, the whole story seems disjointed, without context and, worst of all, without significance. I forgot multiple times what    I am not sure how to feel about Dragon Age Inquisition. Did I have fun with it? Yes. Do I think it is a good Dragon Age? No.

    The story is bland for any game and extremely disappointing for a Bioware Game. While there are some good ideas and even a few touching scenes, the whole story seems disjointed, without context and, worst of all, without significance. I forgot multiple times what exactly was happening or who that person was. You do not get a feeling of epicness like in Origins, or an emotional and personal impact like in Dragon Age 2. It is also short and not very deep. I thought I was about halfway through the main story when the journal told me that the next quest would be the final one.

    The characters are, for the most part, well written, but the relationships do not feel nearly as deep as in both prequels. The romance arc I picked - with Blackwall - was disappointing, the romance was locked in after I flirted twice, and then he barely had anything to say to me, not even the way he would greet me changed, as if nothing had ever happened. Even the main character has no depth - we know almost nothing about the background of the Inquisitor, and he or she never quite develops a personality. Even the Warden managed to be more memorable, and achieved that without even having a voice actor. When Hawke makes a cameo and is instantly more likeable, you notice how bland the Inquisitor really is.

    The feature that you, as the Inquisitor, have freedom over the world and can customize your own castle, is a good one - and does entertain for a while - but cannot replace the depth of story and character, and the lack of both is especially striking for a Bioware game. Plus, any sense of threat or urgency that the story sequences might create vanishes while you are grinding your ass off for the side quests and inquisition missions.

    This leads us to the world. It is too big. The game wants to be Skyrim so bad that it's embarrassing, but doesn't manage to pull it off. You see, there are about 12 regions or so, and most of them are so gigantic that there are plenty of places where absolutely nothing happens. While they are beautiful for the most part, they are also empty and lifeless. Yes, you can loot tons of herbs and minerals and what not, and there are quite many - boring - side quests. But why do the regions look so alike? They are almost all either rocky and rainy, forest-y, or a desert. If you've seen one of the desert regions, you've seen all three of them. Why not use less maps, and instead focus on making them more interesting? We have ONE city, and it is ridiculously tiny - Val Royeaux, not even the size of the Skyhold? What? Instead, you get the same minor quests again and again. Explore map, conquer camps, claim landmarks, collect the **** out of everything. Make note, Bioware: THIS IS BORING. These minor tasks are overwhelming and while you can ignore them for the most part, they make you feel like you are not playing 'right' if you don't do them. Also, if you ignore them completely, there really is not much substance left to the game, since the story is over so quickly.

    Finally, let's talk about the fighting. You now have to keep the mouse button pressed down to keep attacking, which is just about the most stupid design decision I've ever seen. The fights are more tactical than in DA 2 again, but much less than in Origins. Plus, the abilities are not all that great, many are quite useless, and there are no tooltips to help you know what they do in the heat of battle. You will forget many times what the spells in your attack list actually do, and randomly use them in fights to find out. I played on normal and it was indeed normal and occasionally challenging up to level 11 or so, then it got very easy, as in almost playing itself. My Inquisitor could let the others fight on their own and already run around to collect loot or start mining.

    Finally, the technical aspects. I played with every setting on Ultra, and the game does indeed look quite good and runs fluently on a 1 year old PC. At least the landscapes, whereas characters, especially hair, look a bit chunky. I had 3 or so crashes, a few issues where I had to minimize and maximize the window because dialogue choices did not highlight correctly, and regular sound issues in cutscenes, as well as some clipping and graphical issues.

    A summary: Bioware has focused on the wrong aspects in this one. I don't think anyone playing Dragon Age 2 thought to themselves: Man, this is good, but I want it to be more Skyrim. No, because while Skyrim is an entertaining game, what we want from a Bioware RPG is great story, great characters, depth and a sense of epicness. The constant running around in lifeless maps damages the overall atmosphere even more than the small, repeating dungeons of Dragon Age 2. I did have fun playing, but usually only for some time before it started being a drag again. This is the wrong direction for Dragon Age to head into.    … Expand
  85. ireviewthings1
    May 22, 2015
    6
    Inquisition is a solid game for the first 30 hours, I give it that. But I don't quite get how it scored multiple GOTY awards last year. I guess it was just a generally bad year. I had it at a 7 at first by I downgraded it to a 6 while writing.

    The production value of the game is as amazing as you would expect. A RPG on the Frostbite Engine is just fantastic to look at. Dialogues are    Inquisition is a solid game for the first 30 hours, I give it that. But I don't quite get how it scored multiple GOTY awards last year. I guess it was just a generally bad year. I had it at a 7 at first by I downgraded it to a 6 while writing.

    The production value of the game is as amazing as you would expect. A RPG on the Frostbite Engine is just fantastic to look at. Dialogues are fully and very profesionally voiced. I have to say though that the voice acting of the player character (male human at least) is the weakest of all main characters. He sounds like an easy to impress/astound little hipster with no authority or character whatsoever in his voice. Meh.

    The gameplay is very fun.. for the first 30 hours or so. The problem, at least for me, is, it plays like an offline MMO. So you wander around the map constantly picking up herbs hear, ore their, loot hide everywhere. You do this to craft items and such. That's all very good in an mmo but why do I have to do this as the head of an world saving organization? Don't we have some peasents to do that? On the first map you enjoy all these side activites. But as late as map 3 you realize it's the same procedure everywhere you go. They absolutely wen't for quantity over quality so they can claim to have generated 120 hours of "content" (I hate that word).

    The combat is very weak. On PC you have the choice between 3rd person MMO combat and group selction tactical combat. The latter is absolutely pointless. They did not even manage to put in such a zoom level that allows you to overlook even half the battlefield. So you're left with 3rd person combat, wich is boring. Click on an enemy, keep LMB pressed - auto attack, throw in to occasional spell or skill. The combat is one of the weak points in this game wich is baffling.

    I have issues with the world design as well. First of I'm not a big fan of Thedas in general. I find the Dragon Age universe very generic compared to places like the Forgotten Realms, Tamriel or even the Shadowrun or Wasteland universe. Humans are humans, elves live in the woods, dwarfs live in mountains. Yeah. I heard that a million times. But while other games and worlds have something to set them apart, there was nothing in Origins or Inquisition that really excited me to learn more about Thedas. It is the total opposite of the Mass Effect universe to me.

    Another major issue for me is how the game actively forces you to engange in religious motives. It starts out with you being public enemy no.1 and 45 min later you are the "herald of andraste" and the people lay at your feed. I don't have anything agains religious themes in games but I always had the choice to keep that seperate from my character. Not though in Inqiusition and that makes me really uncomfortable.

    I grew up on Baldurs Gate 2. It is my favorite game of all time and as my gaming life has gone on I more and more realize and enjoy that nothing will come close to it. It is still sad to see that it's original makers have somehow no idea how the recapture the essence of their old masterpieces. Bioware is officially beyond their prime.    … Expand
  86. Schlapatzjenc
    Apr 24, 2015
    6
    Well, the game is not bad for an RPG and not horrible for a Dragon Age. That being said there's much less to it, than you expect after first few hours.

    First of all, the game's world and graphics. Nothing to be mad about, game is really pretty and I loved the detailed characters, though cutscenes are uglier and seem to lag for no apparent reason, even though game runs perfecly smooth    Well, the game is not bad for an RPG and not horrible for a Dragon Age. That being said there's much less to it, than you expect after first few hours.

    First of all, the game's world and graphics. Nothing to be mad about, game is really pretty and I loved the detailed characters, though cutscenes are uglier and seem to lag for no apparent reason, even though game runs perfecly smooth otherwise. The areas in game are MUCH more vast than in the previous installments, though on the other hand they're not exactly filled with many points of interest for exploration. Even the hidden dungeons feel somewhat bland. That being said they're very pretty and well designed and I mean both terrain, buildings and vegetation.

    Sound is definitely fine, voice acting also solid enough to be convincing.

    Gameplay-wise, it plays kind of like DAII mixed with something else. Fights are fast paced, but often repetitive and just based on slinging everything you've got at the enemy until it dies (then again, it's nothing exceptional for an RPG), overally interesting enough, but with not too many different kinds of enemies that would offer a varying experience.
    Boss or sub-boss fights are mostly boring and plagued with game's HORRIBLE leveling system. I tend to to every sidequest possible and it turns out THERE'S ACTUALLY A PROPER ORDER IN WHICH YOU HAVE TO DO THEM. If you don't you will end up like me being level 23 and killing level 15 enemies with one spell in some forsaken location. Or the opposite, level 17 team against 23 dragon, which will. fu*k. you. up. Unless you're running Vivienne which is basically playing the game in godmode.

    Oh and dragon fights are as un-epic as possible. Sure, they have cool sounds and animations, but killing them beyond the first one just doesn't feel like an accomplishment at all (and there's no execution animation). To top it off, while the game's crafting system is pretty neatly done, there's not really much you can use your hard earned materials for. You can never find all the schematics you want, since the drop is random, even if you do find something good, you can never be sure if there isn't something better waiting for you. It's just tempting and exciting on paper, but ultimately unsatisfying in practice.

    Skill trees are fine, though more spells (and more 'interesting' spells) certainly couldn't hurt the devs. Same goes for classes. There just isn't anything that made me say "daaamn I can't wait until I level up my necromancer, so I can get that cool thing and feel powerful". And don't get me started on necro class being weak, same goes for every other kind.

    As for items I got the feeling that there wasn't enough uniquety among them. Slapping purple color on the name and giving it increased stats doesn't make it incredible in my eyes. Then again I liked how various armors fit different races, also the ability to tailor parts of them to my visual needs.

    As for the plot, it's okay. Interesting enough to keep you going, though it sometimes feels like you're getting timeskips. Things just happen too... easily. "Yay, let's join the Inquisitor everyone!" kind of thing. But it isn't bad and the companions feel intriguing (as do most NPC's). It is a tad short and if you've been spending hours on sidequests, there's literally nothing left to do after the main storyline ends.

    Overall, a solid 6, maybe some more. The game is worth buying after some price reductions and I would recommend it, despite of the obvious flaws. It was fun, just not amazing (as expected from BioWare).    … Expand
  87. MKJ
    Nov 12, 2015
    5
    The first impression is great, but when I play more and more, it starts become dull. I think controls in pc is a little bit complicated and the story is a little dull and I have no feeling when playing the game. I think I enjoyed playing Dragon Age Origins than Inquisition. But good job at the graphics and the effects when in battle, but lack in the story.
  88. Ploppy0
    Oct 17, 2018
    5
    Pros :
    -Graphics are good
    -Some entertaining companion dialogue -Dubs are good -Some event in the main story line Cons : -A world with no consistency -No lore explanation or good sidequest to remind things, with background characters -Dull combat with no strategy, whatever the difficulty -Few classes are fun to play, Mage will all play the same for example. -Terrible side quest    Pros :
    -Graphics are good
    -Some entertaining companion dialogue
    -Dubs are good
    -Some event in the main story line

    Cons :
    -A world with no consistency
    -No lore explanation or good sidequest to remind things, with background characters
    -Dull combat with no strategy, whatever the difficulty
    -Few classes are fun to play, Mage will all play the same for example.
    -Terrible side quest with mmorpg fedex quality that nobody care
    -Boring collecting on maps with marker everywhere
    -Tons of pointless things to do to increase some xp bar that unlock things you don't care, and don't even know what it does
    -Half open world with tedious level design, 4 years after Skyrim it's a shame.
    -Blank NPC and world
    -Disastrous UI to manage equipment, with pointless crafting
    -Another "save the world" quest where you are the hero but still have to do chores.
    -Most NPC made ugly on purpose because of the dev team political agenda
    -Only 2 option(on8) for a male hetero romance

    DA:I is a RPG for people who don't want to play a RPG, the game fail at almost everything this genre should provide. It's not a terrible game, it's average for common users... But it's a bad RPG.

    DA:I is the perfect example of how AAA game and huge prod value can still be meaningless if you don't put some real talent for the writing and the game design.
    You can have the best engine and the best technician your game will still feel like an empty shell.    … Expand
  89. MelkortheKind
    Aug 11, 2018
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I have spent 314 hours of my life on this game playing every class and almost all the races (except Qunari). I am a huge fantasy fan and Dragon Age has one of the best lore foundations IMO (their interpretation of magic, dwarven culture, elven history, vast and intricate history of Thedas including the various religions etc. is just amazing!) This being said the game is the one thing it should never have been and that is average. I will list shortly the pros and cons and then give a short conclusion to why this game is heart-breaking.

    Pros:
    + Great lore still there although somewhat hidden or of less importance
    + Voice acting is pretty decent
    + Some weapons and armour looks cool although the variety is poor
    + Skyhold probably the coolest castle in any RPG I have seen although it’s not important in any way.
    + Mounts look cool although not very useful
    + Graphics is good especially the Emerald Graves (but by no means great)
    + Companions are much better than DA2, but not nearly as good as DAO, that being said it is light years better than any other non-Bioware RPG
    +Dragon fights are cool and can be exciting (where is the dragon fight at Skyhold?)

    The Cons
    - One of the most boring combat systems I have ever played, even WoW is better.
    - The ridiculously small number of abilities that are tied to your attributes I mean it has at most 5 active abilities per tree and ~4 passives. WHY?!?
    - Gone are the days of personalizing your character, dexterous warrior, strength rogue, tank mage NO, now you must follow a simple tree. IMO you could just leave your companions to auto level up.
    - The game's balance is broken as an example the arcane knight can kill Hakkon Wintersbreath 1v1 on nightmare with Even Ground, Walk Softly, Rest Easy, and Rub Some Dirt on It trails active. While the warrior and the rogue cannot survive even one hit.
    - Its pacing is of and that negatively effects the story as you are constantly busy with side quests and don't feel the rush to do any main quests (and you must do side quests to complete main quests this ties in with next point)
    - I am a completionist and must finish and area before continuing to the next area and this is really challenging in the beginning (Hinterlands) but as you level it becomes tedious even with trails active.
    -The collectables is irritating to a completionist and the amount of it is just ridiculous and why lock the coolest (dragon decor) behind Multiplayer or DLC.
    -Controls and PC optimization is really bad
    -AI can be infuriating and the tactical screen is useless, the AI do not obey basic commands
    -I feel that a lot of good lore was disregarded for this Mage/Templar war, it’s not bad, but come on, they trampled on the Wardens, making them into scared puppets.
    - It has a bad replayability as your choices are actually inconsequential so the only reason you will replay it is to try different races and classes and even that does not make a big difference as in DAO and then the grinding on top of all this just kills all motivation there was to do it.
    - The DLC’s are average and they feel like they could have been added to the base game (except Trespasser), some areas in the base game (hissing wastes, Storm coast etc.) have no real impact on story just like DLC and are only there to farm for Power and to lengthen the game.
    -Lastly and most damning, who is this game made for, kids? It has sex violence and all the other goodies, but its gameplay is for dummies (it literally has no learning curve), gone are the dark or gritty dialogue options (killing all the elves in DAO as an example) and the story is predicable with no real branching of narratives just one big grind fest.

    In conclusion the third instalment of my favourite fantasy RPG series has truly disappointed me. It is by no means a bad game in fact in 2014 it was probably the best RPG, but that's not saying much when the competition was that bad. I will probably never come back to play this game, which is sad because I have over a 1000 hours in DAO and still play it. Most worrying of all is that recently (2018 I think?) EA announced that they feel that single player games are dying and DA:I is proof of their mentality in 2014 already!! It is a MMORPG in an action-RPG skin. I have no problem with Action RPG's not everyone likes games like Divinity: Original Sin 2, but this game is neither. It tries to be tactical but is not and the “action” is boring. This game has made me worried that all companies will follow this trend of reaching for a wider audience (dumbing down) and creating larger and longer games that feel emptier and more tedious (Shadow of War). Lastly a good game is not measured in the game’s length or size or graphics, but in how emotionally attached you become to the world and its story, characters etc. and in this regard the game fails spectacularly.    … Expand
  90. Justmygaming
    Aug 15, 2018
    7
    While your team probably isn't as memorable as that of Origin's, they aren't downright forgettable in my opinion. It's a good game, with some interesting decisions, my issue with the game is it feels like a slog to get through at times. The sheer amount of basically worthless fetch quests is tiring, and it could take a week or two to complete the game. I recommend only doing side quests toWhile your team probably isn't as memorable as that of Origin's, they aren't downright forgettable in my opinion. It's a good game, with some interesting decisions, my issue with the game is it feels like a slog to get through at times. The sheer amount of basically worthless fetch quests is tiring, and it could take a week or two to complete the game. I recommend only doing side quests to gain power and quests for your companions, other than that it's a waste of time. Some hubs could feel so large that it gets tiring and overwhelming. The villain in this game is the least fleshed out villain in all the Dragon Age Universe, and the ending isn't anything massive, but the DLC does flesh out the story a lot more.… Expand
  91. VVars
    Dec 12, 2020
    6
    The game seems very fun at first, after some time it gets very repetetive though and does not encourage you to explore more of it. The strongest aspect I see is relations with followers. I don't like the mining and crafting though. And the combat system does not seem very excitng.
  92. Defianc4
    Jun 22, 2015
    7
    Dragon Age II with bits and pieces of Origins tacked on, it excels in mediocrity; this game exists as a forced compromise between the prior two games, and feels like it. The resulting experience continues Bioware's long-term, downward slide in quality that began with Dragon Age II. Though an improvement on said predecessor, it can't help but feel like both a slightly better version of DA2,Dragon Age II with bits and pieces of Origins tacked on, it excels in mediocrity; this game exists as a forced compromise between the prior two games, and feels like it. The resulting experience continues Bioware's long-term, downward slide in quality that began with Dragon Age II. Though an improvement on said predecessor, it can't help but feel like both a slightly better version of DA2, a mediocre version of Origins, and more the former than the latter.

    Some glaring issues include: a return of the brawn-over-brains combat system from Dragon Age II, extremely repetitive enemy types, which cannot number more than 10, the repetitive Oblivion gate knock-offs, the endless fetch quests, which actually ruin the pacing of the game by leveling your character up too quickly, the total lack of instruction in regard to the level requirements of each area, and the total uselessness of money through much of the game.

    The ending is also pretty shockingly short; this game isn't a total rush-job, but the content is definitely quite thin and only moderately worth your time.

    The game does, at least, offer some grudging RPG mechanics like the stat-crunching and loot collecting that all rpg fans love and enjoy, and some vestige of the multi-series storylines and Origins characters that players have come to love and expect. The game also thankfully has player commands and a tactical camera, despite being clear afterthoughts.

    It's only worth playing if you've gone through pretty much every other RPG out there.    … Expand
  93. tikend
    Oct 29, 2020
    7
    Weak story compared to previous games, not interesting characters, boring open world gameplay.
  94. iseeall
    Dec 9, 2015
    5
    Another port from console, with bad controls system. You can switch between 3-d person view (World of Warcraft-style) and "tactical" view (Baldur's Gate style) but in the tactical view the camera can't be zoomed out high enough to actually see the enemies. The camera is almost crawling on the ground and can only capture about 1/4 of the range of your spells (when you have a mage selected).Another port from console, with bad controls system. You can switch between 3-d person view (World of Warcraft-style) and "tactical" view (Baldur's Gate style) but in the tactical view the camera can't be zoomed out high enough to actually see the enemies. The camera is almost crawling on the ground and can only capture about 1/4 of the range of your spells (when you have a mage selected). This means that you have to move the camera like crazy to just issue the simplest of orders. Imagine an old man with extremely bad eyesight trying to read a newspaper by holding it 10 cm in front of his eyes and moving the head along each line of text. That's basically how tactical mode plays here. You even see farther away in the 3-d person view. So basically the tactical mode is useless and you need to play console-style, viewing each of the characters from behind. But that's too tedious and it's easier to play just one of them (e.g. your main) and leave everyone else on AI-assist mode. And then it doesn't even feel like a game where you control a group of characters or even as an RPG in general.

    The dialog system is handled in console style as well: the "ring" with short replies which don't always match what the character says after you select that option. What a mess really... This game might be good for console players but definitely not for desktop or RPG players.    … Expand
  95. PEnchan707
    Mar 21, 2017
    6
    Up front I'll tell you now, I thought DA Origins was very good and DA 2 very poor. Also, I'm scoring this game based on its status as a AAA game with the legacy of DA Origins to live up to.

    This game is better than the 2nd and tries to address many of it's faults. It has large and varied locations, many of which are beautiful to behold. The combat has less button mashing and is    Up front I'll tell you now, I thought DA Origins was very good and DA 2 very poor. Also, I'm scoring this game based on its status as a AAA game with the legacy of DA Origins to live up to.

    This game is better than the 2nd and tries to address many of it's faults. It has large and varied locations, many of which are beautiful to behold. The combat has less button mashing and is closer to Origins, most of the characters are more interesting and engaging (though still nothing to shout about) and the plot feels more coherent.

    However, there are many things that are still lacking. As mentioned above, though the characters and story are an improvement over DA2, as a story driven Bioware Rpg, they are still mostly sub-par. Some are cliched, some are shallow, some seem like they come out of a modern day sitcom. The script is uneven, as are their motivations and reactions to events.

    The combat is the main problem though. Increased difficulty changes nothing about enemy variety, tactics or ability use. They simply have crap tons of health, meaning your tactics are exactly the same, just that the battles take longer and end up in a game over screen more often that on easier settings. Worse still, getting you characters to stay still and do what you say is horrible. If you don't turn off their AI they do some terribly stupid things, like running up to shoot people with bows point blank and getting caught in AoE attacks alongside the melee character currently engaging a foe. If you turn off their AI, you have to micro manage them and given that moving around the battle is atrocious due to the awfully fiddly camera and lack off high above view, this is a colossal chore. Worse still, even then they still sometimes ignore your commands. Put a mage and crossbowman on a high vantage point (to get skill tree bonuses) and guess what? They'll get down and move closer to the enemy based on it's movement, or they'll just stop shooting for no reason.

    Enemies are moderately varied, but for a game this big, it wasn't that good. Speaking of big, the areas are very large and give a great sense of adventure, visually speaking, however most of the things to do involve collect items and going to placemarkers, Ubisoft style. It's bland and repetitive.

    The crafting system seems like it had potential but there was very little variety to the properties you give weapons and armour and just getting the resources to do so is tedious.

    I think it's worth mentioning that this game won awards in a particularly weak year for big, AAA games or popular franchises, particularly multi-platform games. Even then, it didn't win a particularly large amount of awards. I feel Alien Isolation (niche), Shadows of Mordor (new franchise), Bayonetta 2 (WiiU exclusive), Dark Souls 2(niche), Divinity Original Sin (kickstarter based turn based strat) and Mario Kart 8 (WiiU excl) were all far better games, and that's just off the top of my head. Some of them still won GOTY awards though, in preference to DA:I, in spite of their disadvantages compared to a mass-appeal, hugely hyped and marketed, multi-plat, 3rd game in a popular series.

    I'm sure they'll make at least one more but I don't feel the need as I think this series has nothing left to offer in its current form and with its current direction. I also think it got inflated scores partly because people were so relieved it wasn't as awful as DA2, but I'm just guessing :)    … Expand
  96. silverwolf42
    Oct 21, 2017
    5
    Bioware seems to have completely forgotten what DA:O made so great and just unleashed a collection playground. While looking gorgeous and having nice music, the characters are blant. I couldn't care less for any of them. How is that possible? The first one managed to have so rich and deep characters, which I loved and worried about.

    DA:I Is just a huge map with icons, running around,    Bioware seems to have completely forgotten what DA:O made so great and just unleashed a collection playground. While looking gorgeous and having nice music, the characters are blant. I couldn't care less for any of them. How is that possible? The first one managed to have so rich and deep characters, which I loved and worried about.

    DA:I Is just a huge map with icons, running around, jumping in fights and that's it.
    No soul.
    at all.    … Expand
  97. Kovasz
    Dec 25, 2019
    5
    I was skipping this title for a long time, as I've heard a lot of negative critics. But now I've just decided to check it out, maybe they've fixed the flaws, I thought, and it's not that bad after all these years.
    Well, the game looked promising at first, and after a few hours in, the world, the characters, the graphics, etc. are looks good, but the actual gameplay itself... they've made    I was skipping this title for a long time, as I've heard a lot of negative critics. But now I've just decided to check it out, maybe they've fixed the flaws, I thought, and it's not that bad after all these years.
    Well, the game looked promising at first, and after a few hours in, the world, the characters, the graphics, etc. are looks good, but the actual gameplay itself... they've made a REALLY simple battle mechanics. The good old tactical mechanism is completly gone (well, not completly, as there is an option for it, but it's 1) useless 2) needles). What you got instead, is an equally simple and bad 3rd person hack-and-slash solution, where all you have to do is keep pulling the trigger to attack and unleash your skills/spells, when they're refilled. That's it. No tactics, no skill based 3rd person action, it feels and plays like a mobile game, really.
    And although everything looks interesting, I'd love to explore the world (there seems to be a LOT to do), I'm just bored by this unchallanging combat and lame looting.
    Also, the levelling is too slow, and when you finally level up, all you get is ONE (1) skill point. Are you kidding me? Some FPS/non RPG games have more RPG elements than this game.

    Bottom line: I really wanted to love this game, as I loved DA:O and also DA2 (yes, it was more simple, but I still liked it), I wanted to play a good fantasy RPG, but this just feels like a mobile-like, single player MMO.    … Expand
  98. Luandro
    Jul 17, 2015
    5
    The graphics are good, but far from brilliant as it demolishes system resources when compared to games like the Witcher 3 where I run everything on Ultra plus it looks 10x better but not nearly as taxing on my sytem... Then the controls..where to start!! I hate every moment that i played with a melee character (rogue). You literally have to stand ONTOP of a mob/npc to talk to them orThe graphics are good, but far from brilliant as it demolishes system resources when compared to games like the Witcher 3 where I run everything on Ultra plus it looks 10x better but not nearly as taxing on my sytem... Then the controls..where to start!! I hate every moment that i played with a melee character (rogue). You literally have to stand ONTOP of a mob/npc to talk to them or attack them, to further this frustration, the character doesn't run towards the enemy when clicked on, you have to crawl towards them then mash the crap out of your mouse or keyboard to attack... The story line is absolute crap and full of cliche facepalm moments that will last you a lifetime. Bioware completely destroyed tactical mode gaming which was the best part of the original Dragon Age: Origins.(GO BACK TO WHAT YOU DID IN ORIGINS) The Massive open world I really like a lot, there are a TON of (mediocre) quests and side quests to keep you busy, but unfortunately the lack of tactical gameplay and the way the horses and characters run / move about makes this game unplayable. Waste of my money. I LOVED dragon age 1 and 2 (bought them both plus all dlc) but really..… Expand
  99. Frenetik
    Aug 9, 2015
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I liked the first Dragon Age game. It wasn't perfect but it was a classic BIOWARE role playing game focused on storytelling. After the huge mess that was DA2 I really had hopes for this game...

    The storyline in DA Inquisition is boring as hell with no real suspense, no interesting plot twists and no real choices maybe except for some political decisions and romance options. The plot is unrealistic.. I mean I am the mighty inquisitor and in the process of saving the world I must gather herbs, stones, animal skin and help every bastard everywhere to do whatever . The big problem is that If u choose to do only the main quests u need a specific amount of power for each mission. And power is gained by doing some **** side quests like helping farmers and killing bandits.

    I liked some of the story references to the first two games of the series (like meeting Morrigan or hawke). The graphics looks ok I guess. I liked the dragon design and the different environments but the gameplay is a big **** YOU to PC users. The controls are just bad...

    The conversations are juvenile, full of clichés and the plot seems like a Disney good versus evil story in which the hero defeats the bad guy and they all live happily ever after. I never felt like one of the characters was in danger or that my actions would somehow influence their fate like in Mass Effect 2.

    Regardless of how you play, the game will end the same... there is no good / evil ending like in KOTOR or Jade Empire. At least in DAO you had some options related to how you could complete the final mission.

    DAI is not a bad game it's just mediocre at its best. The main problem this game had was that BIOWARE and EA brainwashed us into thinking this was going to be a game of epic proportions thanks to all the **** trailers and promises from the developers. But in reality it's just an average game. Too bad BIOWARE is not what it used to be.    … Expand
  100. EarlessSpark027
    Jul 24, 2015
    5
    Dragon Age:Inquisition feels like an incredible opportunity... wasted. While visually impressive and with a solid gameplay, the game ends up feeling more like an MMO than an actual RPG. The locations in the game are huge but mostly shallow and filled with Fetch quests and 'kill those bandits' quests with no content, hence why I mentioned earlier that it feels like an MMO. The story, whichDragon Age:Inquisition feels like an incredible opportunity... wasted. While visually impressive and with a solid gameplay, the game ends up feeling more like an MMO than an actual RPG. The locations in the game are huge but mostly shallow and filled with Fetch quests and 'kill those bandits' quests with no content, hence why I mentioned earlier that it feels like an MMO. The story, which developer Bioware are renowned for, has a few good moments but overall is uninteresting with a weak villain and a terrible ending. The characters in the game are a mixed bag; some of them are good, particularly your advisors and some cameos from previous games, but for the most part they are weak: with the exception of three, the rest of your companions are forgettable due to in large because of the weak dialog throughout the game and the poorly done side missions. At the end of the day, you spend the entire game gathering resources and power for the Inqusition, only to find out that you might as well didn't do it, since the final battle doesn't put any of them at use.
    Overall, it's not a bad game, at times you can have fun with it, but it is most certainly the weakest entry in the franchise and overall fails to deliver what was promised to us.    … Expand
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

16
#16 Best PC Game of 2014
1
#1 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
1
#1 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 45 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 45
  3. Negative: 0 out of 45
  1. Hyper Magazine
    Feb 9, 2015
    90
    Best Dragon Age so far, hands down. Pity about the naff writing. [Issue#257, p.51]
    Read full review
  2. GameOver.gr
    Jan 22, 2015
    100
    The masters over at Bioware have done it again. This epic journey into the world of Thedas will steal more than 100 hours of your time, hours so full of superb gaming that you'll never forget them.
    Read full review
  3. Eurogamer Portugal
    Jan 14, 2015
    80
    Despite numerous shortcomings, the new BioWare project is undoubtedly worth your attention. One of the best RPGs of 2014.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »