Dragon Age Inquisition is a great game. I’ve enjoyed playing it over the last few weeks, and as a whole, it’s a clear improvement on so many levels over the previous games. That doesn’t mean they did everything right. Creating an epic like this is no easy task, and BioWare deserve all the praise they’ve gotten. That said, there are some things I hope they change or get rid of for the next game. None of these things are game breaking, but getting rid of them would make for a better user experience.
Creating an epic like this is no easy task, and BioWare deserve all the praise they’ve gotten.
1. Less Padding (Way Less)
Seriously, give us a chest or two to stow all the crafting materials, rare items, or whatever we don’t want to sell at the moment. Storage was considered so important in the first game that the only way to get it was through paid, day one DLC. It was free in Dragon Age II, but unless I am totally clueless and blind, a good sturdy chest to keep things in is beyond the Inquisition’s ability to procure. And while they’re at it, link the storage to the crafting stations so we don’t have to go back and forth when we’re making something.
2. Storage
Dragon Age Inquisition offers a ton of stuff for the player to do throughout the course of the game. Too bad so much of that becomes mind numbing drudgework. What should have been a nice little break from the main quest to gather up random items or track something down becomes a slog that just goes on and on and on and on and on. The Shard Collector side quest is a good, spoiler-free example of this problem. To complete it, the player has to track down over one hundred of these damn things. BioWare could have achieved the same goals, in story terms, with a third or less that number.
3. Customizable Equipment
It’s a small thing, but it just felt like it belonged in this game. Choosing the type of clothing, the way the armor looks, or the style of weapon our characters use would have been a nice touch. Some of this could be partially done when crafting, but the cosmetic effect on the equipment wasn’t always the best choice in stats. Plus it would have been nice to run around Skyhold dressed in something that doesn’t look like a pair of Hugh Hefner’s PJ’s from an alternate dimension where fun never existed.
4. A More Immersive Presentation
Maybe this is just a pet peeve, but I find it a little jarring when I’m going to a game and a text box pops up and tells me something someone wanted or did and why it’s important. Show me, don’t tell me. Adding to that I never really liked the way the text boxes looked in the Dragon Age series. The plain font on a black background is kind of blah. Instead of uninspired text boxes, why not have an old book display as yellowed and stained paper with crudely printed words, why not have the intercepted letter from a general appear on fancy stationery complete with seal and look hand written, or if there’s a message carved in stone, show us a message carved in stone. They did it with the treasure maps.
This also extends to the NPC’s we talk to. BioWare is masterful at making the NPC inhabitants of their games feel real enough that we want to invite them to Thanksgiving dinner. That feels like it’s missing in this game, at least a little. There is plenty of good character development amongst the Inquisitor’s Inner Circle and Companions, but little to none from anyone else. Having a full conversation with more random people, like they did in the Mass Effect games, would have brought me in that much more. I can’t be the only one who wanted to get to know that dwarven dick of a bartender at Herald’s Rest Tavern a little better. I like having a meaningful reason or connection for what I’m doing, at least on some level. Even with simple fetch quests, having some poor schmuck of a peasant tell me why they need the old family heirloom rescued from a cave full of bandits will hook me better than a simple text box.
This also extends to the NPC’s we talk to. BioWare is masterful at making the NPC inhabitants of their games feel real enough that we want to invite them to Thanksgiving dinner. That feels like it’s missing in this game, at least a little. There is plenty of good character development amongst the Inquisitor’s Inner Circle and Companions, but little to none from anyone else. Having a full conversation with more random people, like they did in the Mass Effect games, would have brought me in that much more. I can’t be the only one who wanted to get to know that dwarven dick of a bartender at Herald’s Rest Tavern a little better. I like having a meaningful reason or connection for what I’m doing, at least on some level. Even with simple fetch quests, having some poor schmuck of a peasant tell me why they need the old family heirloom rescued from a cave full of bandits will hook me better than a simple text box.
5. Make it a True Open World Game
Or at least make the places we visit seem more like a real place. Dragon Age Inquisition has many vast and unique areas of Thedas to explore, but it isn’t any more open world than the previous games. Yes, the areas are larger, but it takes more than a sizable virtual geography of to make something open world. The most important part of open world is the world aspect. It has to feel like a living and breathing place that truly exists, in a way that makes us believe. Realistic worlds, even the ones set in make-believe lands, have a level of the mundane to them. The normal, everyday sort of things like the village blacksmith working, the town drunk passed out in the square, and people actually going about their lives and not just standing around waiting for the PCs to talk to them lends strength to this illusion and bolsters the more fantastic elements.
Having the areas blend in together as one giant map instead of several separate sections would have been cool too, but it probably wasn’t feasible. I can give them a pass on this part. The technical aspects of such a feat would have been daunting in and of itself, but coordinating the flow of the story without artificially blocking off certain areas would have been impossible.
Okay. That’s the five most important things I would like to see changed in the next Dragon Age game. Whether BioWare does it or not, who knows but judging on how much they improved the series with this one, I expect great things from the next installment.
Having the areas blend in together as one giant map instead of several separate sections would have been cool too, but it probably wasn’t feasible. I can give them a pass on this part. The technical aspects of such a feat would have been daunting in and of itself, but coordinating the flow of the story without artificially blocking off certain areas would have been impossible.
Okay. That’s the five most important things I would like to see changed in the next Dragon Age game. Whether BioWare does it or not, who knows but judging on how much they improved the series with this one, I expect great things from the next installment.
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by Kell Myers | |