A bit more than 17 hours played, so I will post a few more comments
-Holy shit this game is going to kill my gpu. I limited the framerate to just 40fps, instead of being bordering on 60fps, but even then after one hour I can hear my gpu going at maximum rpm. Hell, I think my neighbor should be able of hear it.
And this game has some of the longest loading times I’ve seen since I’ve put a SSD a few years ago. Big scenarios, but there is a price to pay for it.
-Technically, it looks great thanks to very good engine with PBR (physically based rendering) with great lightning and material rendering (skin or example), high resolution textures and hdr and effects in general (god rays, fog, spells, etc). Artistically, I think it’s more of a mixed bag. Some environments looks great, especially thanks to the lightning settings, the environmental effects like rain and fog, but the design itself of some parts are all over the place, with some interesting parts together some run of the mill fantasy designs. Characters look iffy, I like a handful of party characters, and all outside of that look mediocre, or just boring.
Overall I think it’s more a game spectacular thanks to the engine than to the artists work.
-The game improves after the Hinterlands, yeah. People were right about it.
-Dragon’s Age lore is… competent, but uninteresting. I admit it’s decently developed, but I find myself tuning it out lots of times. And it’s so lazy to put most of it in scrolls/books/notes you find, I think in general developers should try harder to embed their lore in the game itself, in the places, in the people, in the situations they put in the game.
A few parts like what I heard about the Tervinter Empire was pretty cool. Maybe make next game there?
Part of the problem is that you don’t get to experience the setting in a normal way, the world is always about to blow up, you are always the chosen hero in abnormal circumstances, all is overrun by monsters, etc.
-Main story is for now a mystery, but it all points out to same old, with a big baddie, a plan to dominate the world/get unlimited power, and a savior stopping him. Bleh.
-The best part, as always, are the conversations with the party members, digging in the dialog options, which shows a more complex and interesting world, backstory and character building. In fact I still wonder how they do it, how they can be good in that but bad in the rest.
I think their fundamental flaw is being good writers on paper (like, literally writing about a character or a city on paper), but they don’t know how to apply said writing in a real video game, in a setting you can experience, see it as a living world, that you can interact with, etc. Like, the old “show, don’t tell”. But they are good telling, not showing.
I just had a super cool conversation with Dorian about a great number of things, and he painted a world full of grey, with light and shadows and different points of view and a very humanistic perspective. But once I finish the conversation with him and play the game, it’s all about “the Herald of Andraste!” "you are the leader of the Inquisition, you will save the world! “this guy is evil, grrr!” “a fanatic sect trying to do nefarious things” “the Chantry is blind and oppose you” “this leader is trying to seize power for himself!” etc. I’m exaggerating but you get the point.
-I remember some discussion about side quests when the game was released. I think some people thought they weren’t so bad because they, the filler content is optional, you can skip the parts you don’t like. I think the argument is bullshit, because even if it’s optional, it’s part of the content of the game. And not only that, we aren’t talking about something like 1/5 of the game. It’s more the other way around, 4/5 of the game (basically everything except the main quest) consists of some of the laziest side quests I’ve seen in my life, full of repetitive tasks, poor or non-existing dialog, weak premises, collecta-thons, etc.
-A little example, the requisition quests aren’t only bland as hell, usually picking minerals and other materials, but their reward is a very abstract “+1 power” each. I think it would have been much better if your army and stronghold would have real needs and it gain concrete, related bonuses if you supply them.
-Oh god, checking out stuff at the shop. Buying and selling. Comparing items of different members of the party. Crafting and upgrading. It’s all so bad. I need ages to check out all the options every time I do a pair of hours of adventuring and my inventory is full again.
