The free roam part of the game is overwhelming. I found myself running all over Hinterlands to find shards, caches, get horses, save scouts, unlock agents, etc. Then I accidentally completed the story quest and it's like "Hey, why don't you go to these two new areas and start all over?"
Burnout is real.
Edit: The companion romance options are disappointing. As a straight male playing a straight male character, I get to choose between Cassandra and Josephine. One cannot accompany you on your adventures, the other has more scars and shorter hair than me. Both have an annoying French accent. I don't know how they did it, but all the French accents in these Dragon Age games are annoying as hell. Not sexy, just annoying. Quite the accomplishment, because I find French accents very attractive. But Leliana, Cassandra, and Josephine all sound like they have a speech impediment. In short: I miss Morrigan.
Edited, Nov 23rd 2014 1:07pm by Mazra
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Please "talk up" if your comprehension white-shifts. I will use simple-happy language-words to help you understand.
Actually, Cassandra's accent is sorta pseudo-Russian (Nevarran) and Josie's is pseudo-Spanish (Antivan).
I sort of agree about the open world aspect since the story itself isn't really well defined so, yeah, you can lose track of the plot as you chase map icons. I was hours in before I really grasped what the Inquisition really was and trying to accomplish.
So... I don't think this is spoilerish (about your DA:O Warden) but just in case anyone wouldn't want to know: According to Leliana, your Warden is dead. She doesn't mention how. It sort of bothered me, not because I expected to see 'me', but because I must have been a pretty sh*tty Warden to have gotten killed during the period of relative peace following the Blight and Awakening.
Then I remembered Awakenings and how, as Warden-Commander, I threw a Gray Warden badge at literally anything that moved and had a Warden retention rate of zero percent. So I guess I really was an exceptionally sh*tty Warden, at least in the recruiting department.
According to Leliana, your Warden is dead. She doesn't mention how. It sort of bothered me, not because I expected to see 'me', but because I must have been a pretty sh*tty Warden to have gotten killed during the period of relative peace following the Blight and Awakening.
Well, being a Warden is in itself fatal, so maybe not that bad? Either that or they did harder and harder drugs chasing the thrill they got as a video game protagonist and ended up ODed in an alienage, chopped up into cat food by Dalish orphans.
I didn't even really think about it until tonight but I can't say that I miss healing spells. Or at least I thought the change have a bigger impact. But the potions (healing and regen) fill the void well enough and it's nice to not have to commit spell picks to heals.
Varric kept running into combat with Biannca while we were fighting a Hurlock Alpha. Even when I placed him in tactical view, he'd run into melee and I half swear he was swinging his crossbow at the thing
I dropped the 10k to buy the Mystery Box (creating a save file beforehand, of course), but it's probably the best use of money in the game. After a few war table missions, it gives you a giant nug mount!
I also completed the initial stages of romancing the diplomat lady, killed a couple of dragons, and in my most proud accomplishment, completed all quests in the Hinterlands. And I'm never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever going back.
Oh, I also played two multiplayer missions for giggles. They're completely worthless.
You pick a random class and run around a series of corridors with 3 other dudes blasting away demons. You use the coin you find on missions to buy equipment packs with random gear, which inevitably won't be usable by whatever class you're playing. Rinse, repeat, die of boredom.
As far as I can tell, the single-player campaign isn't affected by anything you do in multiplayer, so it's basically a mission-based dungeon crawler with only 3 maps and no plot. I'm sure the taskmasters at EA wanted it just so they said they could have it ("New exciting multiplayer mode! Play with your friends!"), and I expect they'll try to squeeze some micro-payments out of it for new maps or playable characters, but I can't imagine why anybody would invest the time and/or money.
From what I've read, you pretty much have the multiplayer mode nailed. It was "Well, Mass Effect 3 had one so..." regardless of how much sense it makes for the game.
I'm trying to decide which specialization I want for my mage. Since Dorian already has the Necromancer tree, I don't really want to go that way. I can't decide between Rift Mage and Knight Enchanter. They both have ups and downs. I really wish I could unlock all three. I don't really care for all of the stuff out of any of them, but being able to mix them would work fairly well.
So... I don't think this is spoilerish (about your DA:O Warden) but just in case anyone wouldn't want to know: According to Leliana, your Warden is dead. She doesn't mention how. It sort of bothered me, not because I expected to see 'me', but because I must have been a pretty sh*tty Warden to have gotten killed during the period of relative peace following the Blight and Awakening.
Then I remembered Awakenings and how, as Warden-Commander, I threw a Gray Warden badge at literally anything that moved and had a Warden retention rate of zero percent. So I guess I really was an exceptionally sh*tty Warden, at least in the recruiting department.
Unless you're further along than me, I think I have some bad news... did you check your import? Make sure it imported the correct one? Because I have a quest to go find the Warden on the Storm Coast, so I think he's alive and well for me. I've heard of an issue where people's Keep choices didn't get imported, and they didn't find out for a dozen hours
I have to admit, between James in ME3 and Iron Bull in DA:I, Freddie Prinze Jr. is actually doing a pretty darn good job as a voice actor!
Turin wrote:
I'm trying to decide which specialization I want for my mage. Since Dorian already has the Necromancer tree, I don't really want to go that way. I can't decide between Rift Mage and Knight Enchanter. They both have ups and downs. I really wish I could unlock all three. I don't really care for all of the stuff out of any of them, but being able to mix them would work fairly well.
I have wanted to be a Knight-Enchanter since I first heard about it. And from what I've read, it's absolutely amazing. Stand in a flame wall, swing your light saber, and throw out a fire mine for huge damage every now and then. All of this with friendly fire off, of course. Apparently the only thing that can kill a KE is a swarm of higher-level enemies, or hard-to-reach archers. Dragons? Demons? Bosses of all sorts? Child's play.
I've heard of an issue where people's Keep choices didn't get imported, and they didn't find out for a dozen hours
As the Orlesian phrase goes, c'est la vie. On the plus side, I got news of Schmooples!
Edit: I've played through DA:O four times and the Keep only picked up one of my saves to begin with. So while it would have been nice if there's a Warden cameo in there, I wasn't any more attached to the 'Keep' Warden than I was the other three. The whole import save to create world state thing was a great concept with, from my experience, some really half-assed implementation.
I made it past the first major act last night in classic "early successes get splatted, team starts over" story fashion. Josie keeps shutting me down but I'm only perusing her because she's the best of a poor lot. Really, none of the relationships have me all that interested: I don't relate to any of the male characters in that fashion and Sera should be thrown into a sack with Cole and both drowned in the river. Someone create a mod to let me hit on Scout Harding. I like her pluck.
Aw, dang... spoiler for those not at Skyhold yet: I just found out that you can potentially save ALL of the named side characters when Haven is attacked. I thought some were fated to die, so in Skyhold I only have Threnn, Lysette, and Harritt because I didn't reload at the time to try for an optimal outcome. I didn't like Seggrit or Adan, but I wish I could have saved Flissa and Minaeve
Also, another bug: if you have extra consumable potions, grenades, or tonics (say, from using a belt with a +1 capacity), mounting will remove any past 5.
Edit: Also, the intro song ("The Dawn Will Come") sounds remarkably like the song in the Hobbit: The Five Armies trailer.
Response to your spoiler: Minaeve isn't in Skyhold anyway; a new Tranquil took over and says that Min is off elsewhere doing research or something. Seggrit just complains that his house burned down and you were made Inquisitor.
Response to your spoiler: Minaeve isn't in Skyhold anyway; a new Tranquil took over and says that Min is off elsewhere doing research or something. Seggrit just complains that his house burned down and you were made Inquisitor.
Oh good, no huge loss then!
Edit: Also, I do NOT remember Schmooples. Like, at all. Which is ridiculous, as I've played Origins several times, and romanced Leliana at least twice and maxed out her friendship every other time for the stat boosts, and yet I have no memory of that nug.
In other news, a bug/cheat in the game for out-of-combat healing without potions: If you have a +health belt, equip it and unequip it. Each time your health will be restored by that amount. For example, I have a +100 health belt. Doing this lets me fully heal all characters in a few seconds. Useful if you don't want to use potions or go back to camp.