Yeah, I’ve repeatedly heard that I need to get out of the endlessly grindy Hinterlands section at the beginning.
Pretend you are some opulent diner at a banquet. You can’t possibly eat it all. So take a bite from all the good stuff, and discard the rest in wasteful, decadent abandon.
Staying too long in Hinterlands would be like filling up on the free bread before the main course.
Unfortunately, combat in Inquisition is nearly entirely taken from DA2, except minus the immersion breaking reinforcement waves spawning out of thin air. (Well, except for the Fade rifts. But they have an excuse, and follow a clear pattern.)
You guys are not very encouraging!
Perhaps I consider Pillars 2 instead?
Wasn’t looking for an action game, but hoping for more of a stragic feel…
Yup. Leave the grindy Hinterlands so you can enter a new, equally grindy shitzone asap. Whole game is like that, you can’t escape it. The game is like a 2007 MMO that only you logged into, better come to terms with it now and adjust your expectations before it becomes too late.
The other zones aren’t nearly as bad. If you just do main quests and sidequests you find immediately compelling, you’ll be fine.
There’s a lot to like about Inquisition, but the combat is pretty unexciting. And definitely not up to the standards of Origins.
They still are…pretty bad. Pretty damn bad. But yes, beelining it for character sidequests and main quest makes Inquisiton tolerable.
Coincidentally, I’m about 40 hours into a replay of Inquisition right now. Everything said above is pretty accurate, although I don’t mind the simplified action-RPG combat. It’s fast-paced and pretty, and allows for some nifty tactics if you want (I personally can’t be arsed, so I keep the difficulty level low).
It’s been long enough since my last playthrough that I don’t recall many of the story and character details, so it’s a real treat exploring them again. I am utterly in love with Sera, and have pretty strong feelings about Iron Bull and Varric as well.
It’s certainly a flawed game, even in the generally strong storytelling. Why are we called the Inquisition if we never Inquisite anything? In such a richly textured world, why is the Big Bad so bland?
But overall, it’s great fun. I will very happily dive into the next Dragon Age game when it comes out in 2043.
:) We’re 160+ hours into our first go-round and enjoying it a great deal, though we’re getting whomped mercilessly by most of the rifts in Frostback Basin and the big boss in Jaws of Hakkon. The characters are indeed wonderfully etched, though they do seem to give up on said etching once the parent game is complete. (No one says more than “Hi” at this stage.)
This. I enjoyed the game quite a bit but it wasn’t because of the combat. That isn’t to say it isn’t horrible, but it in general doesn’t require much tactical thinking. I wanted to bang my head every time I needed to close another rift.
Still, I liked the characters / dialog and story a lot - even the corny parts. It also is pretty nice to explore.
Damn, you weren’t kidding! I’m still in the tutorial getting up the mountain to the first rift and I’m really battling with the controls. The game doesn’t want you to have any strategic control with a m&k does it?
Basically take a controller sit back and ‘drive’ your main char. Assume your companions know wtf they are doing and will survive on their own.
PS What are those blue lines that appear next to the character icons on the top left of the screen?
Just had an indoors battle and the tactical camera is glued to the floor. I am THIS close to just giving up on this game.
Perhaps I’ll give it a test run on a controller, but generally I’m not a fan of those…
I much prefer playing Inquisition with a controller. There are lots of little UI details that are just easier/smoother with a controller. Switching characters? Just press up or down on the d-pad. Picking up loot? Just stand next to it and press A.
Those blue lines are your barrier (mage spell).
Seconding the controller choice.
Also, get a mod that makes picking up loot/flowers/etc. instant.
I don’t think you need to switch to controller - I didn’t use one - but the tactical camera is awful and will make your life worse. Just go third person action and let the NPCs do their thing on their own mostly. In my experience this is actively more effective than trying to play the game like Origins.
Agreed, the mouse+keyboard UI is excellent in DA:I. Just don’t use the tactical camera and play on normal difficulty. The combat isn’t really the draw of DA:I, it’s all about exploration and story.
Hehe… Thanks for the tips!
Will fire up the game again later and give it another try. I really miss the tactical feel from DA:O and struggle with the rotation and angle and “driving” the cursor as opposed to the old “click to go”.
Guess I need to rethink it more like Witcher action with companions and less like Baldurs gate / XCom team strategy games.
The strategy aspect does exist on the hardest difficulty setting, where you need to pause all the time and give orders. You can give that a shot if you like, I didn’t enjoy it. You fight 10 million combats in this game, it would be exhausting to have to micromanage combat every time you accidentally aggro a crocodile or whatever.
Honestly, I played on easy so the combat basically resolved itself.
Honestly it’s pretty easy even on hard. Eventually I knocked it down to easy just to speed things up.