I feel like gameplay wise, DAO was more fun to "play" being an actual tactical rpg. But I liked the characters and writing in DA2 a lot more. Both good games, but for different reasons.
Same with the control scheme. it was reduced considerably so that you could control the game with just a few buttons.
With one exception - they perfected AI scripts, so you could significantly reduce micromanagement of your party.
OP, it sims to me you missed that part in DAO (since you said you wanted to stop the game to give potions to party members), just as you missed pause. So I'd say - spend a few minutes to study UI and possibilities it gives. You want regret it!
Same with the control scheme. it was reduced considerably so that you could control the game with just a few buttons.
With one exception - they perfected AI scripts, so you could significantly reduce micromanagement of your party.
I'm not sure that this is an 'Exception'. the AI improvements were in aid of the reduction in control scheme.
You might be right, but it made UI (and game play) better, not worse in general. Oh, and at the end they allowed to have PC type control too. At least by giving full size quick-bar and normal mouse selection.
I agree with states things about the simplified and more boring gameplay of DA2, but I definitely think the same goes for the plot and design. I really liked the premise of the story - that of being contained to one place over many years - but I feel the game completely failed to deliver on this. It might has well taken place in a single year for all the sense of progression it managed to instil. Characters were flatter, the main plotline was contrived and they tried too hard to make the main conflict "mature" but all they ended up with was a choice between one side of Nazi oppressors and one of demon worshippers and literal demons. Complex storytelling isn't just "both sides are bad", it's much more a question of "both sides are good" ( or at least sympathetic). As it were, all they managed to invoke in me was a feeling of apathy. The step down from Loghain as a villain to Templar Girl and Chief Demon Pacter Elf (I don't remember either of their names - in fact, the only names I remember at all are of recurring characters from DAO) was steep and depressing.
Another major flaw was how completely unconvincing and badly interconnected with the plot the setting was. The story takes place over ten years but the characters and locations barely age at all. Another major flaw was how the main plot is about how pressed the mages are by the Templars and how everyone gets locked into the towers yet the entire city is teeming with dozens and dozens of nameless filler combat mages just throwing lightning and fireballs all over the streets like it's nothing. My suspenders of disbelief can only stretch so far before they break, and boy did this game drop it's pants.
I know this is not the thread for it but my thoughts in Inquisition in the spoilers though I'll try to be spoiler-lite. Warning this is me being frustrated, a lot.
Dragon Age Inquisition was probably a waste of the 60+ dollars I spent to get the digital deluxe edition. It's combat is horrid and you're limited to only 8 skills on each character's action bar. The tactical camera is a joke because it's considered an object in the game engine. What does this mean? The camera can literally get stuck on trees, rocks, etc. because the camera is a physical object when it tactical mode. Never use the tactical camera in-doors unless you like staring at the ground. The companions are nice but Sera and Dorian where the only two I wanted to actually befriend.
The main antagonist is flat and boring. Basically imagine if DA:O didn't have Loghain. A lot of my own personal favorite specializations like Bard and Blood Mage are absent though the Necromancy tree is fun. Kind of. You can animate anything's ghost but only for the duration of the combat. This causes some bugs where the ghost won't despawn and therefore you are locked in combat and cannot loot anything.
The Open World is a mess. I was being attacked by a bear so I retreated to the allied camp and the guards didn't even recognize I was getting murdered. Morrowind in 2002 at least gave the guards enough AI to keep out monsters.
99% of Inquisition is herb-gathering simulator. Now you don't have to pick up every plant you come across but you probably will since many are needed for upgrades. The actual quests in the open world are MMO busywork. I can't name any interesting quests I did in the open world that wasn't part of the main quest.
Also the tactics system is gone. Micromanaging ally abilities is an absolute pain. Also healing spells are gone. I have no personal gripe with that last one other than that it contradicts the lore of magic. I don't recommend playing a mage in DA:I btw. Your trees are Frost, Shock, Fire, and Spirit at the beginning. Three trees are just elemental effects. Again the Necromancy tree is entertaining but why get rid of the magic schools of DA:O?
I played the whole game because my friend said it was super good. I regret all 80 or so hours of that experience but at least I can rant about it knowing I've completed the whole game.
Edit: On the opposite end though DA:I is my friend's favorite game. So while I give it like an arbitrary 3/10 they give it an arbitrary 10/10
Comments
might as well throw away a bunch of cash in the sewer.
Do yourself a favour and play something else.
OP, it sims to me you missed that part in DAO (since you said you wanted to stop the game to give potions to party members), just as you missed pause. So I'd say - spend a few minutes to study UI and possibilities it gives. You want regret it!
Another major flaw was how completely unconvincing and badly interconnected with the plot the setting was. The story takes place over ten years but the characters and locations barely age at all. Another major flaw was how the main plot is about how pressed the mages are by the Templars and how everyone gets locked into the towers yet the entire city is teeming with dozens and dozens of nameless filler combat mages just throwing lightning and fireballs all over the streets like it's nothing. My suspenders of disbelief can only stretch so far before they break, and boy did this game drop it's pants.
The main antagonist is flat and boring. Basically imagine if DA:O didn't have Loghain. A lot of my own personal favorite specializations like Bard and Blood Mage are absent though the Necromancy tree is fun. Kind of. You can animate anything's ghost but only for the duration of the combat. This causes some bugs where the ghost won't despawn and therefore you are locked in combat and cannot loot anything.
The Open World is a mess. I was being attacked by a bear so I retreated to the allied camp and the guards didn't even recognize I was getting murdered. Morrowind in 2002 at least gave the guards enough AI to keep out monsters.
99% of Inquisition is herb-gathering simulator. Now you don't have to pick up every plant you come across but you probably will since many are needed for upgrades. The actual quests in the open world are MMO busywork. I can't name any interesting quests I did in the open world that wasn't part of the main quest.
Also the tactics system is gone. Micromanaging ally abilities is an absolute pain. Also healing spells are gone. I have no personal gripe with that last one other than that it contradicts the lore of magic. I don't recommend playing a mage in DA:I btw. Your trees are Frost, Shock, Fire, and Spirit at the beginning. Three trees are just elemental effects. Again the Necromancy tree is entertaining but why get rid of the magic schools of DA:O?
I played the whole game because my friend said it was super good. I regret all 80 or so hours of that experience but at least I can rant about it knowing I've completed the whole game.
Edit: On the opposite end though DA:I is my friend's favorite game. So while I give it like an arbitrary 3/10 they give it an arbitrary 10/10