Ultimately, what this comes down to is what we all already feared and knew deep-down especially after the ME3 travesty – Bioware isn’t Bioware anymore. It’s no longer a company that exists to make games with good stories, it’s a company that exists to make money for EA and it just so happens that the way to make EA money is to make games that have to include a bit of story content in there. It’s just another soulless developer that doesn’t represent the aims, goals and ethics that made Bioware so beloved for the first several years of its existence.

Sounds like the terrible Ubisoft formula. Lots of boring, repetitive side activities that can be almost completely auto-generated. I’m glad I’ve skipped this game.

Somewhat disagree with article. Compared to ME Trilogy, which probably took me about 100 hours to play through all of it’s content (all 3 games with one character), there was a ton more storytelling. In relation to that, agree that DAI has much poorer pacing of the story and just less storytelling, primarily told through cutscenes.
So, there isn’t as much storytelling in DAI, BUT I think there is more actual story. Each section of the map tells has a wealth of well crafted stories that tell about the local traditions and description of it’s inhabitants with isolated personal stories that do reinforce the idea that his world is falling apart.
Also, MMO didn’t invent grind. RPG did. You mention Skyrim. I remember when Skyrim came out and traditional RPG people were upset because the level of the dungeons automatically adjusted to your character level. With traditional RPG, you could easily come across a dungeon that was above your level and have to go grind somewhere for a bit.

Some used to say ,about jokes/stories, the shorter they are the better they are ,so you install reach the 100% stuff, have a good story , desintall, have a nice day and get ready for the next game, but on the other hand you got people who complain about paid many boxes for short game, so… here come” a”ssmy saint greed with is 10000 collectibles flags and the, to be continued…,joke, Skyrim with the mmo generator quest stuff (happily) you cant skip the side quest( i’m just sad for the 100% maniac freak , who play the last one ),anyway, it was very instructive before buying.

I have to disagree here. I am not sure were playing the same game. Light on story telling? I think the story in DAI is all around you , in about everything you do. Yes there are side missions, and yes you should do them, and the power point have a reason to be, this is not like Skyrim where it is one person vs the world, this is you as leader of a movement . You need people, power and influence because your task is about changing perception and gathering resources necessary to take on an army and untimely your foe(no spoilers)

I understand why some of the power and side missions are there, and I am ok with that. The game has a lot going for it and I really enjoyed my first play thru, and I have 2 other alts on there way as well.
There is always room for improvement , but that is in any game.

It seems anymore you have to research yourself, you cannot rely on game sites to honestly review games, look at the assassins creed nightmare , that should have received a 4 max in its current state but no one bothered to do that.

Final note, if you have played any of the Dragon Age games and enjoyed yourself, give DAI a chance, you will thank yourself for it later Now, if I only had Shale back…….

On the one hand, I really like just how much there is to do, even if a lot comes off as the same. However, the main story portions seem so small in comparison. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the grave threat that was going to end the world was practically defeated after only a couple of story missions. I don’t know, I guess I was expecting to spend more time saving the world than I was collecting X number of Y ingredients for practically nameless NPC #43.

So someone doesn’t like long games do they? What you are describing is the faul with every MMO and game that is 35+ hours. Even beloved Skyrim suffers this issue. Honestly thou this is more an issue of preference then a problem. Kudos to game that takes the long road, instead of the formulaic 8 to 20 hour campaign. I want to enjoy a game longer then a week. Some of us want side quest with lore and history. It makes for a more in depth world then just plot point to point. But come on to say that they don’t care about telling a story is a low blow. Its a 150hour game so there is tons of story, but just because you don’t like how the story was told doesn’t mean they dont care, it means it not for you. If anything they care too much; hours and hours too much. Don’t jab at something that some of us gamers intentional look for in a game just cuz its not your cup of tea.

I don’t really agree with this, I love side questing in DA: Inquisition and I never felt like I really lost track of the story line. If anything it kinda branches out the story line with different perspectives from villages and soldiers who are dealing with the various problems the breach caused. The cutscenes are done very nicely, even on most side quests so you never really feel like your not progressing, overall I think they did an excellent job on Inquisition.

I agree
I went through first playthrough in about a week, now when i want to go and play it i remember i have to do all the boring stuff (camps, shards, … ) all over again and i would rather go and go and play nba2k15
so in some things DA:I is beter than DA2 but in foucsed storyteling and replayability just isnt one of them
DA:O is still by far the best game in the series

I don’t think we played the same game, because I think both the story and the pacing are brilliant.

This was almost an article with a point.

I don’t see the issue. The sorry in DAI is amazing. Everything you to involves building a better world. Everything you did in the first 2 games effects this world. Everything you do in this game will effect the next world. Characters you talked to and interacted with as a Great Warden or the Champion of Kirkwall remembers exactly how you treated them. That kid you had back in origins pops up here. The mage you saved way back when tells you stories about how the Greg Warden rescued him. He owes that Greg warden his life so he is paying it forward. The champion of Kirkwall appears the way you made him appear if you do the dragon age keep thing. This game is fascinating. Your decisions reach across multiple games and decades. Every decision you make has long last repreccusions. I guarantee if you don’t close all the portals demons will be everywhere in the next expansion. Hell if you ed up royally in origins your world is completely over run by undead and towns are missing. This game is amazing.

Hey look, a debate!

I think it’s cool people can present their own views. Bioware has deserved a ton of hate, and they probably didn’t get as much as they deserved.

that said, this article just sounds like “let’s crank out another anti-bioware article.” Dragon Age is like TOR, except the main story is actually interesting (everyone kinda agreed the “stories” were awful in TOR), you have a huge amount of allies each fully fleshed out, and a huge world that tells a story. TOR had none of these things. yes, they have a grind, which as others pointed out, all RPG’s have.

Even Skyrim has a skills grind. If you try to face a dragon (or even Alduin) without any abilities or high ratings of at least a few skills, you’re gonna get murked.

While some of the area is level-grind progression, another reason other stuff is locked off…. it’s storyline progression. The storyline ISN’T about facing the big bad. The storyline is about your path to building a new destiny.

On that part, Dragon Age works pretty well. It doesn’t do everything right, but it’s got a lot going for it.

I’d say it was about the characters and the choices, not the stories. Bioware have always had pretty trope-heavy stories, all the way to Baldur’s Gate.

In fact, I think they did a rather good job, considering the game was open world. It’s probably the best shot I’ve seen at merging story and sandbox.

Welcome to Bioware games. That’s the first thing I need to say to not only you Phil, but all the others that think this way. I know you’re not alone Phil because this is not the first time I’ve seen something like this. However, the only difference between this game, and every other Bioware with the exception of one, is that here (and that one other game) they remove the illusion of choice when it comes to whether or not you have to do the sidequests. That’s right, you ever tried to play KOTOR or Jade Empire without doing the sidequests? Of course not because doing so almost seems unthinkable. Yet if you tried, the would get really difficult pretty fast. Instead of the game difficulty seeming like a curve, it would instead be like a set of very steep stairs.

MassEffect 2 by the way. If you were trying to figure out what the other game is, that’s what it was. Outside of the opening first hour sequence and the ending final hour sequence, you couldn’t do anything main story related until you’d done enough sidequests. Then you do one main quest, then back to sidequests until the game tells you otherwise. I’ll even do you one better. If I were to say, the reason you have to do the sidequests is so you can disprove a giant lie so you can get to the heart of an even bigger conspiracy While simultaneously gathering support to build a giant army to take one “the big bad”. Which game would I be talking about? In this instance you couldn’t tell me because it applies to both games.

So don’t sit there and tell us “Bioware doesn’t care about storytelling” when they took the time to tie “sidequesting” into the main narrative. Don’t sit there and say “we forget what the main objective is because of sidequests”. No no, WE don’t, YOU might but that’s because there’s not a popup every two minutes reminding you of what’s at stake. If that’s what you need, then maybe this genre of gaming isn’t for you. However for us longtime RPG players, we know that sidequesting is a way of life, even monotony comes with the territory, but we never forget what the main objective is.

Can you imagine of someone said something like this about the classic Final Fantasy games? “Squaresoft/Enix doesn’t care about storytelling because you have to occasionally stop and grind for an hour in any Final Fantasy game between 1 and X-2″ .

This article sums up nicely what is wrong with the RPG genre of the past years. It has all been about hitting that magic 40+ hour marker or higher. Sadly very little thought seems to go in to getting that many hours in a good constructive way, instead they just rip a page out of WOW.

This is probably why never since the days of BG and it’s ilk have I really been drawn in to RPG’s much anymore. Instead just wait a few months until all the dlc and expansions are out, hit the bay for a copy, find the cheats for max levels. Then play through the story like a novel and on occasions deviate when I find something interesting to the lore of the world.

I feel badly that the reviewer apparently suffers from ADHD. Maybe it’s because I read actual books and have to put them down and return to the story later that allowed me to retain the story line.

There’s a ton of story in the game, however as in real life you actually have to talk to people and read the materials lying around to get the full scoop. I can see where some folks have a problem with that as you have to actively participate in the process rather than it being spoon fed to you.

I was impressed with how all of the missions tied together with the main story line pretty cohesively.
If you’re a speed-runner and just want to blow through the game as quickly as you can, then I can see you having an issue with Dragon Age and the way that the story is laid out. If your a “completion-ist” like me, there are hours of entertainment contained in this game.

I disagreed with quite a few things in the article, but a lot of them could come down to more subjective “this is how I like to do things VS how you like to do things” sort of debate, which I feel would be pointless because it is based on preference.
The main issue I had with this article that I wanted to address is that the core issue put forth in the article (that you have to grind for XP and power before accessing story missions) is just not true from my experience.
First playthrough I was expecting more of the “grind” and found myself seriously over the level cap with more power than I knew what to do with.
Second playthrough I was more focused on completing main missions (because there was some stuff I wanted to do that I knew only came after certain points in the story) and I discovered that when I was only focused on the main missions I still always met the power/level requirements.
Sure, it meant that this time I was at the bottom of the “x-y” level range, instead of being past the top like my first run, but the point is that I still made it. I still was able to go right to the next thing.
However, I should clarify that when I say “main missions” I don’t just mean the plot advancing story missions, but I also mean the big core mission that comes with each area you unlock. Do you have to do them? Technically, no, but they feel like the sort of thing that was important enough to receive your attention, and are written to seem urgent enough that ignoring them feels like a jerk move. Just doing these, and only doing the stuff you come across on the way (I only ever bothered to close rifts I came across naturally, never intentionally sought them out) was more than enough to ensure I was swimming in more power points than I could ever use and adequate levels to access every story mission.
I think the complaint against it being MMO-grindy is a fairly empty one. The “grind” quests can all be ignored fairly easily if you don’t like them, and the game is fairly generous with the minimum level requirements.
I think the issue here has less to do with grinding and more to do with attention span. It isn’t a game for those with a short attention span. I never struggled with forgetting what the next main mission was about, and I struggle to understand how you could unless you have the memory span of a goldfish, or you weren’t even paying attention in the first place. I think the latter may be the case, because in the example of Josephine’s family trade relations, it does in fact have impact on the main story. Both in a “If you care about this character’s life beyond how they help you” sort of way, but also in a very literal “Hey! if you don’t fix this, and Assassin is going to shove a knife in her back” sort of way. Even if you don’t care about her, I don’t think it is in the Inquisition’s best interest to allow their ambassador to be assassinated. I’m not sure how the author of the article could miss that bit, unless they weren’t paying attention in the first place.

In end, I seriously doubt anyone will read what I’ve said (because it is really long, sorry), and I doubt it will have any impact on their opinion (because when has anything on the internet changed someone’s mind?). I usually don’t even bother commenting.
But I enjoyed the game, more than I’ve enjoyed many games recently. More importantly, I felt like it fixed a lot of the issues I had with DA2 and ME3. So for that, I’ll write in defense of the game. If only just this once.

We came because we care,and this why we are who we are.
@Arch peace…

I don’t mind the story so much as I hate how they ruined combat. Sooooooooo many broken things in this game. Hold position and disengage, are totally worthless as they don’t work.
As far as people saying the side quests go with the story, well no offence but you can make almost anything go with anything else if you spin it right. Throw out side quests (any), then have a think tank figure out how to make it work. Wow…… Some of the connections are really thin too.\
Bull gets his tubes tied so he and Casandra wont have a human baby with horns to bring into a world gone crazy. There, it fits with the story. Easy.

Right on the money. I’ve been playing DA:I the past few days and right from the get-go, I felt something was wrong. That something, for a start, was the combat system. Now, the whole hotbars thing is something I have an aversion to, but it was somehow different in the two previous games. Even DAII, which I wasn’t the biggest fan of, had a better combat system.

Then, after hours of running around in Hinterlands, it hit me – I’m playing a one person MMO. Literally everything is MMO-like and not even the inclusion of BioWare’s signature wheel conversations steps out of lines of that since SWTOR.

Back to the combat system, I find it’s actually worse than what I’d consider acceptable for an MMO – it’s clunky, there isn’t much to choose from the talent trees and managing my companions is something so futile, it hasn’t even crossed my mind (I micromanaged 95% of the fights in DA:O, because I had options and reasons to and it was fun). Hell, SWTOR’s combat was miles more fun than this.

I’m not quite sure what people like here. I haven’t kept too much of an eye for Inquisition reviews (being wary of spoilers and such), but the few things I’ve seen in most places always seemed to be positive. This is just a downright terrible game that has nothing really going for it, it has all the tedium of an MMO without the fun part of playing it with other people. My best guess is that BioWare wants to take another crack at making an MMO and this is a sort of prelude to that.

This is honestly the worst critique of a game I have ever seen. To be honest, it’s the only review that has ever angered me, and not just because I think DAI was an amazing game. First I’ve got to say that without dedicating an unusual amount of time to it I got through my first playthrough of the main storyline in 3 or 4 days of normal playtime.
The power required to do story missions can be _very_ quickly gained if you’re even the slightest bit concerned with sidequests. I’m level 10 on my second playthrough and already have enough power to blow through the entire story.
Second, and this is a huge one – DAI has a MASSIVE story to tell, and beyond that (with worldstates) it has a few _dozen_ MASSIVE stories to tell. It’s coming off 2 games, multiple expansions, and multiple books. If you think that can, or SHOULD, be wrapped up in 20 hours of gameplay then you are both foolish, and hoping for a waste of your money.
Beyond even that, the sidequests in DAI are hardly what I’d call fluff. You learn some very very key intel for the story while playing the majority of the sidequests. There are a multitude of little facts I would list here that were learned through sidequests if it weren’t for the fact that these little revelations would be big spoilers for those who’ve missed them.
In the end, DAI offered you a rich world, full of not only an amazing story, but an amazing framing for that story, and meta-story for that story. It filled this world with so much relevant and important content it still manages to amaze me daily and you get upset you couldn’t just blow through it like it should’ve been a linear series of quicktime events for you to be satisfied.
It’s pathetic and it’s worrying. We’ve finally been given not only a great story, but a great world for that story to take place in filled with a million _meaningful_ things to do and you want to reverse course. It worries me that you’re published Phil Owen, it worries me that anyone would actually take this into account.
This review was just abysmal. I truly wish I had the talent to explain to you why I’ve finally encountered a subjective opinion I think is abjectly wrong. You disappoint on so many levels.

I’m just happy to say that after posting my scalding-hot critique of this critique I could finally calm down enough to read some of the comments and the vast majority seem to agree with my issue. Phil, you were wrong bro. DAI isn’t a story lost in side quests like you somehow think it is, the side quests make up the world and its’ story, and your head is just crammed up your ass.

Nah, I’m still right.

Outside of snark Phil, do you actually think you could address your critics charges? This is why I usually love this site. If an author gets called out, the author normally responds thoughtfully. Have we become IGN all of a sudden?

Vrach,

I actually don’t care for the combat system. It is a bit too clunky, the tactical camera is a joke, etc. Yet for me, that really doesn’t matter.

Elder Scrolls has had 5 iterations, and the combat is still clunky and fighting outside of first person view is still a joke. Outside of an FPS, nobody has seem to get the whole real time fighting part right.

But why do I like it? I like that the characters are incredibly well-rounded. Even the worst characters are only average when it comes to being interesting. Most have some pretty compelling stories and are entertaining to have around.

I love the world built. This is a world with a ton of lore, and it works. They took something never really mentioned before, and more or less made it work. Even if the big bad isn’t very interesting, he comes from a lineage that is.

I like how the sidequests tie into the big story. Yes, this isn’t hard to do, but look at the Mass Effect series (all of them really) and Dragon Age II for how most sidequests have nothing to do with the main story.

And really, people need to stop the whole “sidequest/main story” dichotomy. There is ONE STORY. The rise of the Inquisition. That story is told through small buildup, and a few drastic momeents. But all tell the story about how they go from being caught in a small backwater to becoming the Big Dogs of Thedas.

From one who love RPG’s, that’s why I like Inquisition, and it’s mostly why I hated Dragon Age 2. Most RPG’s had an awful combat system. Planescape Torment was horrible. Baldur’s Gate 1/2 was cruel and arbitrary, and then add on top of that it was pretty brutal in its difficulty. (If you wanted a fighting engine that worked well, you had to go to the Icewind Dale Series) You really don’t play RPG’s for the combat mechanics.

I have hated Bioware for quite a while now, Dragon Age 2 was dire and what they did with Mass Effect 3 was unforgivable. I did not play this game till very recently (Origin sale) as I am very very cautious of purchasing Bioware games these days, Inquisition had mixed reviews but what I saw seemed good enough to fill my RPG void at the moment.

I will say Inquisition has a number of faults, the combat system is worse than ever, the game feels and plays like a shoddy console port. But one thing I can not criticize is the story, frankly when it comes down to it Bioware are good at story telling. To say they care more about checklists rather than story seems utterly bizarre to me. I can see how one would think it follows a slight MMO format of questing to gain levels in order to progress, but what RPG does not have that in spades?

I find that the side quest stories though required for progress, are often well thought out, interesting and quite enjoyable, making the entire experience a pleasurable stroll rather than a fast abrupt roller coaster. I can understand someone with low attention span feeling like the story is going nowhere as progress seems slow when you have so many side quests to accomplish. But that is what this type of genre is supposed to be like. Massive, many quests, long main story, tons of exploration and NPC conversations, if you want rails that give you the express route to the end, then perhaps this is not the correct genre for you.

It is easy to hate on Bioware these days Phil, but I do not think the story or side questing aspect of Dragon Age Inquisition is the right target, it is the games strength not its weakness.

My man Aedelric, always the voice of reason.

What I really like about a lot of the sidequests is the sidequest is LONG. Just got done with the hissing wastes, and that sidequest is at least an hour. And during the sidequest it adds to the lore of the world, and helps give some interesting understanding about the Dragon Age Universe.

And that was just one side quest.