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
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  1. ironballs16
    Nov 24, 2014
    7
    While the storyline I'd give a solid 9/10, the semi-clunky gameplay brings it down to an 8, but the rampant bugs (crash-to-desktop, freeze/pop-in characters, etc.) bring it down to a 6 1/2 or 7. It's worth playing, but my advice is to wait until after a patch or two gets released so a lot of the major issues get addressed.
  2. Eraser
    Dec 7, 2014
    7
    it wasn't huge disappointment. i'll count every problem i've encounter during my walkthrough:
    1) Terrible controls. Yes, pause button on ctrl. What "genius" invented. Tactical view is convenient as explaining how bad it is on PC. try it and you'll understand
    2) bugs, missing textures(divine Justinia in fade and more). Also, it drops on desktop in some dialogs or after some time in    it wasn't huge disappointment. i'll count every problem i've encounter during my walkthrough:
    1) Terrible controls. Yes, pause button on ctrl. What "genius" invented. Tactical view is convenient as explaining how bad it is on PC. try it and you'll understand
    2) bugs, missing textures(divine Justinia in fade and more). Also, it drops on desktop in some dialogs or after some time in important moment.
    3) Price tag. We all know EA, so no explanation required.
    4) For me, personally, - great amount of homosexuality. I mean, c' mon guys, we all know, you're LGBT-lovers but not everyone agree.
    5) poor optimization. Intel Core i5 3470 and it's loaded it on 56%. it's not ACU, but, still, frustrating
    And there is no bad side without good side. unless it's freemium game
    Good side :
    1) They're returned epicness. in most parts
    2) Partically open world. They did some effort there
    3) Characters have a character. Yep they didn't screw up it too. Personally don't like sera, but de gustibus non est disputandum.
    4) frame rate is smooth(Palit GeForce 660 GTX 2gb), but processor...
    There is more, like EA sold us a blank for future DLC. but it's a good blank. pretty one.
    So, final score is 7/10 it's good game. Some fans in blind thrill might rate it 10/10, but it's not worth it. If you like current BioWare's game, you'll love this one too, if you don't... Well, Pillars of Ethernity is coming soon and Divinity is available already    … Expand
  3. Although
    Nov 22, 2014
    7
    After 10 hours i have mixed feelings. It is not story-driven rpg but it is a region open world. And Bio solved it well. The story and characters are well-designed. The world wonderfull. There are many fetch quests but there is no chance to avoid them in this case.
    But combat system really crapy. Do you think we are full idiot? We cant manage our character well? You dont want to give us    After 10 hours i have mixed feelings. It is not story-driven rpg but it is a region open world. And Bio solved it well. The story and characters are well-designed. The world wonderfull. There are many fetch quests but there is no chance to avoid them in this case.
    But combat system really crapy. Do you think we are full idiot? We cant manage our character well? You dont want to give us that you gave by Dragon Age origins? You really think push 1,2,3 to be great solution for your old fans? I know there are many news also. But you are one of last firm with many old school rpers. Why do you kidding us??????? Pls give us a dlc include new combat system!!!!!!    … Expand
  4. Wivvix
    Dec 7, 2014
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Dragon Age Inquisition sets out to right the wrongs of Dragon Age 2 and while I feel it does achieve this, the gameplay is still suffering unbearably because of poor design choices.

    Please note reading further may reveal spoilers.

    Putting gameplay to one side for the moment, the story in DAI is frankly, rather disappointing. You're introduced to the protagonist in much the same way as Geralt of Rivia in Witcher 2 - in a holding cell and being questioned by a hostile interrogator. I mention this only because of how shamelessly this game borrows from other RPG's.
    You're introduced to your arch-nemesis very early into the piece and for all intents and purposes, your arch-nemesis does not evolve or develop at all throughout the entire plot. You learn some snippets about who and what they are, but they never really become the sinister figure you'd expect.
    As a result, the story plays out as rather anticlimactic.

    There are less than a handful of major plot developments, and depending on how you count them, in my view two of the four occur in the first ten or so hours, the third occurs around mid-way through the game (40-50 odd hours) and the final and arguably most interesting plot development occurs in the last two hours of gameplay (approx. 75 hours).

    DAI is riddled with things to do and side-quests to complete, however the majority of them lack even a loose connection to the events transpiring in Thedas. The main story arch exists pretty much in a silo, as do the side-quests which are silo's according by location (geographical) or companion.
    As there are really only 10 or so geographical locations you can visit outside of the main plot development, the game feels like approximately half of the content is directly related to player companions, which really detracts from the sense that the world spans two massive states.

    Then there's the basis of the game - leading the inquisition. I feel this was the Achilles Heel of the game and where the premise of the game betrayed creative writing to the point it was not tenable. Alas, Bioware persisted anyway.

    Quite early in the game, the town you reside in (Haven) is destroyed by your arch-nemesis. Rather than falling off the radar, learning about your enemy, rebuilding your strength and gaining some experience/gearing up for round two, the inquisition immediately relocates to the most conspicuous, isolated, indefensible (to a dragon) and otherwise utterly preposterous (vacant?) fortress imaginable.
    This is such a large pill of stupid to swallow, it can only be rationalized by due recognition of the sheer laziness in writing and lack of creativity from which it spawned.

    From that point in the game onwards, you're inextricably chained to this bizarre location and any pretense of exploration is dropped into a silo of brief excursions.

    On to gameplay...

    The AI is terrible. It's not simply a case of occasional micro-management needed. In pretty much all dragon fights you are forced to play melee damage, assuming you even bothered bringing one in your party, or else the computer AI will have it standing in fire or a pool of electrocuted water taking damage and chugging all of your pots, no less than ten times during the fight.
    It's not simply a case of issuing a move command every 20 seconds and then 'attack' once the threat has abated - the AI is so bad that you have to make these decisions every 5 second.

    Hold left-click to autoattack. This is mind-numbingly stupid. Every other ability in the game triggers from a single input command - auto-attack should be no different. There is no player-engaged block mechanic like in hack and slash RPG's, i.e. where you would cease input to auto-attack and then right-click and block. Thus the requirement to continuously input a command for basic damage makes little if any sense whatsoever, unless you have the attention span of a gnat and want to actively discourage battlefield micromanagement (which is what this mechanic does).

    Target acquisition and the inability to properly lock onto a target is also both frustrating and stupid. You can't cycle through visible targets and because of the 'hold left click to auto-attack', quite often mid-combat you will randomly switch target and consequently, draw aggro from an enemy happily attacking your tank unintentionally.

    The so-called 'tactical' camera is hopeless. The range of zoom is far too shallow to be useful and you can't select multiple characters and issue group commands. Trying to position area of effect spells is manageable but far from ideal using the 3rd person view. Bioware really needs to get back to DAO's isometric camera or just drop it altogether, because the tactical camera is good for nothing.

    Variety of gear in DAI is improved over DA2, however its implementation is still largely aesthetic and belies a concerted unwillingness from Bioware to engage with traditional RPG mechanics for progression.

    Fans of the Forgotten Realms series - nothin much to see here.    … Expand
  5. 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
  6. Canisrah
    Oct 30, 2017
    7
    I came to this game wondering whether Bioware would return to form and make something good - it's been a while since they release anything worth having and for me Inquisition represented the last time I would shell out for one of their games.

    Glad I did - it's absolutely a triumph and it would appear Bioware have found some of their old spark again. The scope is epic and the atmosphere    I came to this game wondering whether Bioware would return to form and make something good - it's been a while since they release anything worth having and for me Inquisition represented the last time I would shell out for one of their games.

    Glad I did - it's absolutely a triumph and it would appear Bioware have found some of their old spark again. The scope is epic and the atmosphere and story is great. There's always stuff to do and if you get bored doing one activity you have move off and do something else for a while. They seem to have borrowed a bit from Skyrim - though that is hardly a bad thing.

    There seems to be a lot of mmo mechanics in there and collection type questions but all in all it comes off well. The visuals are great and the music is brilliant. Characters are engaging (for the most part) though they aren't as good as the companions in the Mass Effect Series.

    Not much to complain about here - some activities can get a bit tedious but on the whole - really, really good game.    … Expand
  7. 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
  8. tikend
    Oct 29, 2020
    7
    Weak story compared to previous games, not interesting characters, boring open world gameplay.
  9. CaptainSpanky
    Nov 23, 2014
    7
    I am not sure what all the fuss is about... This game deserves neither a 0 nor a 10 - it is clearly fanboys or bioware/EA staff posting the 10's and pirates and haters doing the 0's. I bought the game tentatively, knowing that the reviews were very mixed., and knowing I could get my money back from EA within 24 hours of launching the game if it was that bad... I played it today. I have noI am not sure what all the fuss is about... This game deserves neither a 0 nor a 10 - it is clearly fanboys or bioware/EA staff posting the 10's and pirates and haters doing the 0's. I bought the game tentatively, knowing that the reviews were very mixed., and knowing I could get my money back from EA within 24 hours of launching the game if it was that bad... I played it today. I have no idea what the complaint is about the DRM, I wouldn't have even known it was there unless I read these reviews. I bought the game from Origin, downloaded and launched. Job done.

    Over all from about 5 hours play it seems like an enjoyable game. Are the graphics the best? - no. The Witcher 2 (which I am replaying at the moment) pisses all over this graphically, but it is a different game. The graphics are OK (on maximum), sometimes they look good, at others they looked aged, but it is not the be-all and end-all. The controls are buggy and the cuteness are laggy but the latest Nvidia drivers helped a lot there.

    The game play I have seen is OK, not amazing, but I am only just starting out. I intend to keep it & shelf it
    for 2-3 weeks and wait for a patch or two before I start a serious play-through. I think it will be a good game over all and I have no idea why there is so much hate around. People really need to calm themselves down. If video games leave you this angry, stop playing them and get another hobby.

    I will aim to amend my review later on if things suddenly get really bad.    … Expand
  10. JonoR
    Nov 29, 2014
    7
    There is a lot to like about Dragon Age Inquisition. It has a big sprawling world (well, it's got a bunch of large contained regions rather than a single world), its got interesting and well voiced characters, and a pretty decent story (not sure if it is as good as Origins or not still).

    Unfortunately it is a buggy world. There's a lot of animation clipping, companions in your base    There is a lot to like about Dragon Age Inquisition. It has a big sprawling world (well, it's got a bunch of large contained regions rather than a single world), its got interesting and well voiced characters, and a pretty decent story (not sure if it is as good as Origins or not still).

    Unfortunately it is a buggy world. There's a lot of animation clipping, companions in your base sometimes don't appear and you have to leave the area and return for them to show up, there are a host of bugged quests ranging from missing NPCs (reloading and doing it again generally works) to more mysterious quests that simply won't clear for no apparent reason. It also has DirectX issues and if you're unlucky you can suffer numerous CTDs.

    However, the worst bug is related to a returning character who depending on your decision regarding them can CHANGE your character's voice. There is nothing more immersion breaking then after 15 hrs of playing the game to suddenly have your character's voice change. This bug is probably the most damning and 10 days after the game's release it has still to be fixed.

    A lot of people complain about the PC controls, I didn't find them too bad. The tactical combat is pretty poorly done. You don't really have much in the way of options to control your AI companions and the camera doesn't zoom out nearly far enough. Combat isn't too bad, it is fun and colourful and people can argue it's shallow, but for the most part I found it fun enough.

    If your a hardcore RPGer you'll probably be very disappointed with the very limited skill trees. DAI is definitely no Path of Exiles when it comes to giving players choice and scope in leveling and building a character, but it's adequate.

    All in all, DAI is a good game. I would really like to give it an 8 or 9 out of 10. However, at this stage given the number of bugs (particularly the voice change bug) I'm going to give it a more modest 7.    … Expand
  11. fox294
    Jan 21, 2015
    7
    Pros: the world is gorgeous; it puts Skyrim to shame.
    Cons: combat not at all tactical, storyline is terrible (the antagonist is completely forgetable), crafting system sucks, MMO-style fetch quests and resources gathering, immersion-breaking characters and mechanics, break from previous DA dark/mature fantasy style in favor of high fantasy; protagonist has the personality of a wet    Pros: the world is gorgeous; it puts Skyrim to shame.
    Cons: combat not at all tactical, storyline is terrible (the antagonist is completely forgetable), crafting system sucks, MMO-style fetch quests and resources gathering, immersion-breaking characters and mechanics, break from previous DA dark/mature fantasy style in favor of high fantasy; protagonist has the personality of a wet napkin.

    It's a fun game, but with each passing date since beating it, my opinion of it drops.    … Expand
  12. 123456
    Dec 30, 2014
    7
    30-ish hours in and I'm really loving/frustrated by this game. My PC is 3 years old, only updated the Ram since and it looks fantastic with very few FPS drops. Textures, lighting and models all look great, really noticeable on characters during cutscenes. The maps are MASSIVE and very detailed, but sometimes the 3D maze-like aspect gets quite boring.

    Sound is minimal but immersive,    30-ish hours in and I'm really loving/frustrated by this game. My PC is 3 years old, only updated the Ram since and it looks fantastic with very few FPS drops. Textures, lighting and models all look great, really noticeable on characters during cutscenes. The maps are MASSIVE and very detailed, but sometimes the 3D maze-like aspect gets quite boring.

    Sound is minimal but immersive, although sometimes the volume levels seem a bit random. Characters are deep and story driven, and choices are interesting and thoughtful.

    Gameplay is often unbearable. If the fight is complex at all you can't really rely on the AI to keep your 3 party members from killing themselves, running off or attacking the wrong thing so you need to micro, which means using the tactical camera. Because of the open world idea for this game, the camera has real problems in confined spaces. AI and tactical cam combine to give everything an extra layer of difficulty. Tank aggro is about as reliable as any of the previous DA games too.

    Behaviours or tactics have taken a big step back from the previous games. You pretty much rely on the AI to pick the best spells to use rather than setting a priority list.

    It's not perfect, but it is a wonderful hiking simulator, much like Skyrim was a few years ago. The combat could have been so much better, but the rest is spot on. It's almost as shame fighting is so important.    … Expand
  13. boompow
    Nov 28, 2014
    7
    I am redacting some of my earlier review now that I have spent a lot more time in the game. I still think all the looting is an issue and the fact that I crash out with a DirectX error at random is annoying but holy crap this game gets better after act 1 comes to an end. I will not spoil anything but can only tell you to hold on until later int he game and it improves a lot. SkyholdI am redacting some of my earlier review now that I have spent a lot more time in the game. I still think all the looting is an issue and the fact that I crash out with a DirectX error at random is annoying but holy crap this game gets better after act 1 comes to an end. I will not spoil anything but can only tell you to hold on until later int he game and it improves a lot. Skyhold changes everything and the characters start to expand and your decisions seem more important. It still has a lot of obvious bugs and annoying errors but at least to me they are more bearable now that it has become much more interesting to me. The crafting is essential and once I resigned to having to click thousands of times to collect stuff it became less of an issues if not exactly fun. This is surely one of the best RPGs out right now even though it does not feel as alive as some others.… Expand
  14. Ghostryderflyby
    Mar 18, 2015
    7
    Pros: Expansive world with tons of area to explore, lush environments and great visuals. Great main story line and engaging plot. There are some novel elements included to increase your player's status, such as war table ops conducted in real time by your advisers, while you conduct other business. Standard Bioware excellent character creation and voice acting. Your companions arePros: Expansive world with tons of area to explore, lush environments and great visuals. Great main story line and engaging plot. There are some novel elements included to increase your player's status, such as war table ops conducted in real time by your advisers, while you conduct other business. Standard Bioware excellent character creation and voice acting. Your companions are believable and they make you care about them (provided you take the time to talk to them). Comedy abounds. Lots of good crafting options, and the player is encouraged to craft items, as crafted items are usually always better than what you will find out in the world.

    Cons: The game can at times become tedious. Stopping every 5 feet to pick up a rock or pick a flower for crafting resources, or being attacked every 15 feet by a pack of demons or wolves can become a grind. Some serious technical issues, such as ludicrously long load times, serious clipping issues or NPC's sometimes bouncing around, damage the immersion factor. Combat controls can also be frustrating if you don't remember to move your cursor out of the ability bar before trying to move your character. Combat also doesn't require much tactical thought at all, and can easily be accomplished with just left clicking and with the periodic click of a special ability, without ever entering tactical view. Attribute assignment is now handled automatically, and character specialization is more limited than the other 2 DA titles. The missing approval rating indicator also makes it difficult to gauge where you sit with your companions.

    I concur with other posters that I wish Bioware would dispense with the multiplayer element it introduced in ME3 and kept in DAI. I've never so much as entered the multiplayer screen for DAI, and never intend to. The multiplayer element just wasted resources and development time, that could have gone into fixing the technical issues and polishing the final release. As for a couple of the poster's complaints about party dialogue sound issues, I'm wondering if they aren't experiencing some serious hardware related sound distortion, because my experience in that regard was quite positive.

    DAI is a far superior game to DA2 but not without it's caveats. Aside from far larger areas to explore and much better visuals, it carries high replay value, with distinctly different reactions by people you encounter based on the race of your character. Numerous dialog choices along plot lines also change your reception, and of course your approval with your party members. Unfortunately the technical issues and grindy game play drag it down. DAI is not perfect, but I would say it's still worth your entertainment dollar and all in all, an enjoyable ride.

    (I've been a fan of Bioware since the days of KOTOR and Mass Effect 1. Unfortunately I have to concur with some other posters, that I think Bioware is going backwards since being bought out by EA. While they are getting some things right, like the expansive environment in DAI, the focus seems more and more on button mashing combat and pushing unfinished titles out the door to meet release dates. The result are games which are grand in scale, but still leave a poor after taste in the mouth due to technical issues and bland repetitive game play. To quote another reviewer; "A mile wide and an inch deep".)    … Expand
  15. 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.
  16. aburnstorm
    Jun 19, 2016
    7
    Needed some serious development on the play through side. An engaging story, but clunky interface and options really hindered its playability. I hope they take note that over complicating things does not make them more immersive, but simply less enjoyable. Streamlined in method of interaction does not mean you have to dumb down the interface. This would have been okay, but because theyNeeded some serious development on the play through side. An engaging story, but clunky interface and options really hindered its playability. I hope they take note that over complicating things does not make them more immersive, but simply less enjoyable. Streamlined in method of interaction does not mean you have to dumb down the interface. This would have been okay, but because they didn't let us fix it like we could with Skyrim, the game was not as salvageable.… Expand
  17. akarnokd
    Feb 26, 2015
    7
    I held off on this game in the hope it gets patched to be usable with keyboard and mouse, but gave up on waiting. It is ever so slightly tedios, places and dungeons are now lush and unique. It is full of fetch quests but I'm a collecting guy and most items were properly marked on the map. I played the prequels but too long time ago so didn't get most backreferences. I've completed mostI held off on this game in the hope it gets patched to be usable with keyboard and mouse, but gave up on waiting. It is ever so slightly tedios, places and dungeons are now lush and unique. It is full of fetch quests but I'm a collecting guy and most items were properly marked on the map. I played the prequels but too long time ago so didn't get most backreferences. I've completed most sidequests but unfortunately but lost two my best companions, and their hand-crafted equipment so no point continuing. The controls aren't that bad and after remapping keys to be a regular TPS, the only thing left is the need to continuously press the right mouse to look around: some toggle options would be nice, although I got used to it (similar to Assassin's Creed where I almost always free run with shift+right mouse. The game has some bugs: uncollectable collectables, hangs and stutter in cutscenes (played on high with GTX 660), but at least haven't run into any showstoppers. Bugs are common in newly released games, but not fixing them for months has no excuse. After spending 70+ hours, I don't feel any urge to replay with a different build.… Expand
  18. cossayos
    Mar 7, 2016
    7
    The game is certainly one of the better Bioware efforts. Large world, much to explore, if you're into that kind of stuff and some interesting characters.

    Three reasons, why I don't rate this any higher. This doesn't even try to give the appearance of being ported to PC. It's just playable on PC. Slapped on. Smoothly, I give them that. But if you haven't got a controler to hook up,    The game is certainly one of the better Bioware efforts. Large world, much to explore, if you're into that kind of stuff and some interesting characters.

    Three reasons, why I don't rate this any higher.

    This doesn't even try to give the appearance of being ported to PC. It's just playable on PC. Slapped on. Smoothly, I give them that. But if you haven't got a controler to hook up, you're in for some fingerbreaking experiences. I am among the lucky ones, owning an Xbox controler, which I haven't hooked up for several years. So I can enjoy my game, but this isn't any excuse for the shoddiest port I've ever seen. I tried to play it with keyboard and mouse, as I'm used to, but that's hard labor and not at all an ejoyable experience. Folks, nothing wrong with designing for consoles, but if you want to cater to PC also, take care of the controls and the UI. This is abysmal.

    Second minus is combat. I much rather play my games relaxed and don't care much about combat difficulty. But this is even too easy for my tastes. It boils down to button mashing. Nothing else involved. The major thing, you have to look for, is friendly fire. It does much more damage to your party than the enemies. So I turned it off, since my party killing their own, doesn't add to the absent challenge anyway.

    Third minus, as is usual with every game today, are the FedEx quests. It's not my biggest gripe, since it happens all over the board, with every game. As opposed to others, I don't even find it boring, since I always had a collector instinct in games. These quests give you some reasons to explore the maps and there's almost always some interesting loot involved. Minus nonetheless, since it shouldn't be an excuse to not include at least some challenging quests.

    So, it's a 7 for me. An enjoyable experience, given that I have a controler. It would be much less, if I was stuck with keyboard and mouse. This, for me, is the cardinal sin on the PC platform.    … Expand
  19. 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
  20. Kar-Chee
    Mar 12, 2015
    7
    This game is a mixed bag of awesomeness and atrociousness.

    The first thing that you have to accept to enjoy this game is the fact that it is an action RPG designed for gamepad. Not an isometric tactical RPG playable with mouse and keyboard. But if you accept that the game is pretty good. The world is huge and nice. The combat has its quirks but works quite fine. Some of the quests    This game is a mixed bag of awesomeness and atrociousness.

    The first thing that you have to accept to enjoy this game is the fact that it is an action RPG designed for gamepad. Not an isometric tactical RPG playable with mouse and keyboard.

    But if you accept that the game is pretty good. The world is huge and nice. The combat has its quirks but works quite fine. Some of the quests are very good and inventive, but about third of them is a MMO trash. Or even mobile free to play trash. If you are a completionist, this can break your enjoyment.

    Another thing to note are the long loading times. You really should have SSD hard drive.

    So to sum it up. If you own a gamepad, have an SSD and are fine with the fact that it is mostly an action game, it is a pretty solid 7. If they cut third of the game and made the combat a little better it could have easily been 8,5.    … Expand
  21. aidan0
    Nov 27, 2014
    7
    10 hours in.

    Combat: It seems like they tried to combine the mechanics of a fps (controls), old MMO (stand and fight) and Skyrim (3de person view). This mix doesn’t work so well on a PC. The combat controls are like an fps, without the mobility. Right click to look and left click to attack, WASD to move. Works on paper, terrible in practice. There is no movement when you are executing    10 hours in.

    Combat:
    It seems like they tried to combine the mechanics of a fps (controls), old MMO (stand and fight) and Skyrim (3de person view). This mix doesn’t work so well on a PC. The combat controls are like an fps, without the mobility. Right click to look and left click to attack, WASD to move. Works on paper, terrible in practice. There is no movement when you are executing an attack, you can’t block or dodge very well. There are skills to block and dodge. But you can only block 1 attack, the follow ups will hit you. Dodging or combat role is weird, but I guess that takes some getting used to. So basically you stand and fight most of the time. It fails to give you de necessary mechanics of an “old” MMO to be able to manage agro and sustain your frontline tank/s. So what do you get? Fighting is just very chaotic. Your range fighters will snatch agro from the tanks real fast. You’ll be taunting and battle crying as soon as that is off cool down. Hope for range to survive and oh don’t forget to spam pots, because you don't have a healer. Sounds like a MMO party. For better or worse.

    Story/look and feel:
    This game looks like Elder scrolls oblivion. Looks a lot like an "ok" Elder scroll game. Minus the moding, races, freedom of movement. It's not an open world like Skyrim, it just has big areas, like you would find in an MMO. Not a good or bad thing IMO. With so much to do, it's good that areas are split up. The story, well, haven’t gotten that far, so I’m not going to disregard it for now. But so far it’s very familiar, say, just like Elder scrolls oblivion, mixed with Mass Effect 3. Closing rifts, find allies for the final big assault. Originality aside, this might not be a bad thing. Lots and lots of filler like Skyrim or any MMO. Get this, got to this location, collect this, kill 10 of this, find 5 of this. Which could be a good or bad thing. At least it's not as obnoxious as the Far Cry fillers.

    Characters:
    NPC's look good, most of them anyway. But your character (even the presets) got hit with the ugly stick. And the bigger you are, the bigger the stick. I was so happy I could play a Qunari. But… you look… I don't know? Even after hours of customization I had to go with the presets with some minor tweaks. Why must they shine like they are covered in sweat? The reuse of Mass Effect facial animations is also very apparent. I don’t know why, but my female Qunari really reminds me of Shepard sometimes. Male Shepard. Romance is a big thing is these games, but I don't think I'll romance anybody on my first run. Solas seemed like the right choice, but he's race locked, so no go. That's very disappointing. Overall I do like the male and female NPC’s, clothing is also believable, given their background.

    Performance/bugs:
    In game gameplay is good, graphics look nice, I’m getting a good frame rate. The cut scenes on the other hand are bad. Everything slows down, gets choppy, stutters. It take so much a way from the experience. Some unexplained crashes, when interacting with a vendors table of all things. This is also the first game that takes 100% of my CPU on startup and 35 to 50% after that, which is a good thing because most games just us 10 to 25%. Finally a mutli-threaded RPG. There's also this weird bug, where you can't select dialogue options or click locations on the war map with the mouse. You have to use the fallback controls, numbers and arrow keys.

    Giving it a 7 for now, up from 6. I don’t know how the “professional” reviews can rate it so high.

    PS: Tapestry is a nice thing. I could recall almost all the choices I made in DA:O. And almost none of DA:2. Goes to show how memorable the games are. Luckily the saved game data for DA:2 was still available.…    … Expand
  22. 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
  23. JoshW
    Nov 26, 2014
    7
    I play the game on PC but I'm using a game-pad. I see a lot of folks complaining about mouse/keyboard and I cannot give my opinion on the matter.
    The game is very good but sometimes it feels repetitive and a bit boring. Though my decisions affected the world around me, I usually had a sense of emptiness, like interactions are a bit lacking at times (Not counting companions which are    I play the game on PC but I'm using a game-pad. I see a lot of folks complaining about mouse/keyboard and I cannot give my opinion on the matter.
    The game is very good but sometimes it feels repetitive and a bit boring. Though my decisions affected the world around me, I usually had a sense of emptiness, like interactions are a bit lacking at times (Not counting companions which are awesome). I missed random encounters, something that happened a lot in Skyrim and Wasteland/Fallout games. It feels like it’s missing a touch of comedy. I wish there were interactions that were not voiced over (like Skyrim) so developers could add more content to these huge maps. Having to run through empty land to get to my quest does not justify having a huge map. There is a lot of content, not arguing there, but if maps were smaller, they could still squeeze all the content they added and maybe I wouldn’t have enough time to get bored while playing it.

    Pros
    1 - Maps are huge and there's a lot to see
    2 - Main and side stories are good (not awesome)
    3 - Some side quests are fun
    4 - Graphics are beautiful on PC (ultra)
    5 - Tons of content
    6 - Some skills are fun to use
    7 - Character creation is good (Excluding hairs)
    8 - Combat is fun
    9 - Companions and their stories

    Cons
    1 - Maps are huge and there's not enough to do (when compared to the size of the map). I wish there were random encounters (Not everything had to be voiced over)
    2 - Some quests are boring. Backtracking is not fun
    3 - Mobs do not level with you
    4 - Loots are mediocre
    5 - Characters and armors/items look like they're made of plastic
    6 - Hair styles are horrible
    7 - Lacks armor and weapon customization. Colors and looks are set based on mods (ingredients) you add to your armor
    8 - Lots of bugs. Nothing that prevented me from completing the game, but there are lots of bugs    … Expand
  24. MrBla
    Jan 28, 2015
    7
    Best dragon age game without any doubt. It's even better than neverwinter nights.
    The graphics are amazing, the game runs so smooth, no fps drops or lag.
    Combat system is fixed finally, now it's more fun and more fluid. Interesting story. Dialogues are a top notch. Interesting characters. Finally EA done a great job. I give it 7/10. -1 for boring side quests -2 for using origin.    Best dragon age game without any doubt. It's even better than neverwinter nights.
    The graphics are amazing, the game runs so smooth, no fps drops or lag.
    Combat system is fixed finally, now it's more fun and more fluid.
    Interesting story. Dialogues are a top notch. Interesting characters.
    Finally EA done a great job.
    I give it 7/10.
    -1 for boring side quests
    -2 for using origin. This was the first and the last game i bought on origin.    … Expand
  25. nehebukau
    Dec 9, 2015
    7
    This game has a good story and great graphics but the combat system is terrible. I find that I am hating combat because it feels more like a twitch fest cross between tetris and mortal-combat.

    I guess the most helpful would be for me to put the quality of the game based on the others. It isn't as good as Dragon Age I and almost as good as Dragon Age 2.
  26. everin
    Oct 1, 2015
    7
    Tier 2
    + Compelling companion characters that explore some unique narratives and offer good development
    + A visually stunning and flawlessly constructed open world that covers a wide range of aesthetics ? A few ambitious systems for the Inquisition that tried to tie to the overall story and experience, but fell flat ? Combat is initially fun and fluid, but it far overstays its welcome    Tier 2
    + Compelling companion characters that explore some unique narratives and offer good development
    + A visually stunning and flawlessly constructed open world that covers a wide range of aesthetics
    ? A few ambitious systems for the Inquisition that tried to tie to the overall story and experience, but fell flat
    ? Combat is initially fun and fluid, but it far overstays its welcome and eventually becomes a chore
    - The first Bioware game to not even offer cinematic camera for any side quest conversation
    - Filled with shallow filler, collectibles, and lame side quests, which leaves the beautiful open world feeling empty and purposeless
    - Very generic and flat conclusion to what builds up as a potentially interesting main story arc    … Expand
  27. somerset72
    Jan 23, 2015
    7
    Played to level 16 so far and I'm largely impressed by
    - the scale and ambition of the storytelling
    - the choices to be made (or at least the perception of choice) - some of the spectacle is great On the downside - Some of the housekeeping stuff is a bit of a drag (bags, armour upgrade etc.) - Things are getting a little repetitive - "ok lets close yet another rift" - The skill    Played to level 16 so far and I'm largely impressed by
    - the scale and ambition of the storytelling
    - the choices to be made (or at least the perception of choice)
    - some of the spectacle is great

    On the downside
    - Some of the housekeeping stuff is a bit of a drag (bags, armour upgrade etc.)
    - Things are getting a little repetitive - "ok lets close yet another rift"
    - The skill tree feels like an over-simplification vs previous outings

    Still. Fun game    … Expand
  28. kinderschlager
    Nov 19, 2014
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. so far an excellent game from what truly little i have seen in my 13 hours in. though the game has some troublesome bugs and lack of instructions on how to get some things (not to mention missing skill trees like blood magic) overall combat is stellar and the story line, though forced at times (convenient castle is convenient) it does a good job of keeping things moving. if you want DA:O 2.0 this will not be for you. but if you want something more like KOTOR reborn? get the game, you wont regret it… Expand
  29. 21grams
    Nov 30, 2014
    7
    First I want to ask, do we all play the same game? I mean seriously, all those ones and zeros are absolutely ridiculous, or you people don't know what are you buying.. I spent 55hours already and I'm probably not at 50% of main story yet, which is really great so far.

    This game is absolutely massive, the world is huge and the things you can do in the game is mind blowing, many hours of    First I want to ask, do we all play the same game? I mean seriously, all those ones and zeros are absolutely ridiculous, or you people don't know what are you buying.. I spent 55hours already and I'm probably not at 50% of main story yet, which is really great so far.

    This game is absolutely massive, the world is huge and the things you can do in the game is mind blowing, many hours of dialogues which are cool, well written and can tell you all the lore of whole franchise, the characters are great and each one of them very individual, they react to you differently based on you choices and finally the world is so huge with plenty very interesting places to discover.

    On the technical side, game looks stunning, beautiful art design, good lighting, and it runs really well on my mid-range pc.(high/mid settings @1080p). Oh, forgot to mention, audio in general is also brilliant.

    Now the bad - well when you pick up for the first time, controls feel slightly clunky, but you can get used to it (should be patched hopefully). But I assure, it's not that bad like some say. And looting is.. well it's annoying, because character won't go to pick by himself (you have to manually move him near the loot). But these are minor issues and you can easily get used to them.

    Now some answers to critique on those ridiculous negative reviews:
    - pirates, don't be kids who didn't get their lollipop. I'm not fan of Denuvo, but doing this **** with copy/paste negative reviews, up voting those bad, down voting good is silly. Don't **** on game just because you can't play pirated version. I guess main reason of this mess going on here.
    - it's not continuous open world and it's a good thing. because you get bigger variety of environment and zones are large enough.
    - some consolish issues with controls are not that bad to drop the game.
    - side quests while being mostly generic are not bad. They are optional and have one purpose - to help explore the world (you don't even have to return to npc) and finally, nobody forces to do them.
    - game is not slow, unless you spend all your time in hinterlands. This is a tutorial zone to help new people to learn the game better and help to get used to it. You can skip all those bring x of y quests and move on to business
    - No, nobody forces you to listen to every single dialogue, tho I love them and find them accent of this franchise.
    - No it's not spiritual successor of Origins, it's not that heavily tactical game, tho if you really wish, it can be. Play on hard or nightmare and you will see you need to individually make order for each action and make reasonable decisions. And action approach is not necessarily bad if it is done right. I also hopped for tactical style like in Origins, but I'm not disappointment. This game is all about story, lore and characters, if you need tactical approach, go play Divinity Original sin.

    This game is definitely worth buying. Which nowadays single player game can provide 100hours of gameplay or more? It feels great, it plays great. -1 for minor issues here and there, so 9/10 is fair.

    And don't mind those red reviews, those are EA long term haters, pirates who hate denuvo, or typical "0 voters". If you want more honest information, go watch some YT reviews (for example Angry Joe) or any other objective reviewer from youtube community., Peace out!    … Expand
  30. RMDsilva
    Mar 10, 2016
    7
    First off: it's an acceptable game. Enjoyable, but nothing spectacular.

    If you compare it with the previous games though... It's pretty sad. The story.. it's not terrible. It's enjoyable. There's some decent enough twists. The characters are okay. Some of them are quite enjoyable, but nothing really spectacular. Slightly above mediocrity, essentially. The bad is that the choices,    First off: it's an acceptable game. Enjoyable, but nothing spectacular.

    If you compare it with the previous games though... It's pretty sad.

    The story.. it's not terrible. It's enjoyable. There's some decent enough twists.
    The characters are okay. Some of them are quite enjoyable, but nothing really spectacular.
    Slightly above mediocrity, essentially.
    The bad is that the choices, well, are there really choices? And this system of "pick from 3 vague hints and maybe you'll get something related" is getting old.
    And where are the excellent characters from before? They even managed to make Morrigan boring...

    The combat is fun, but forget tactical. It should be pretty obvious to anyone in game dev that "action" RPGs with skills that depend on positioning NEVER work for anything remotely tactical. Just becomes luck and grinding.

    That said, some techniques made combat enjoyable enough, if you didn't take it seriously..
    But this meant that all character building and levelling was essentially meaningless. And the difficulty must be horribly scaled: even trying to use some cheats to level more SLOWLY, I managed to outlevel the final boss by too much and had way too many resources without even trying.

    Then comes to the rest. Grinding throughout the world was enjoyable sometimes, just boring most of the time. So many archaic mechanics, like not being able to auto loot everything around you, made the game even more of a chore.

    I did spend more than a 100 hours of it, so I admit it's not terrible. But there's no excuse for it not being better. And this way, I can't recommend anyone actually paying for this.    … Expand
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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
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