I was very excited about the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition. I was expecting a return to the Origins style of gaming that they left behind to find mediocrity in Dragon Age II. I have decided, it didn’t. There’s a review in PC Gamer of Inquisition
that sums it up quite nicely, so I won’t bore you with more talk about
it here. I will, however, make known what I feel shouldn’t have changed
from Origins.
At first, I thought it was an Antivan
mispronunciation, or perhaps the Antivan Elvhenan pronounce it that way.
I was wrong, because even those with a Fereldan accent are pronouncing
it that way, now, which means it was a development decision about the
way elves pronounce things. Andaran Atish’an (according to the Dragon Age wiki: ahn-DARH-an ah-TEESH-an)
is a formal elven greeting, and therefore perhaps the most common elven
phrase heard throughout Thedas. And the development team decided it
just didn’t sound foreign enough, so they exoticised it to further
remove elves from the world proper. As if the prominent history of the
elves in Fereldan, Orlais, Tevinter weren’t enough. No, now they don’t
even belong to the land they roam. And how can I tell this? Because in Origins, their accents bear a striking resemblance to Fereldan accents.
Here, let’s put some things in
perspective. The Goedelic Celts have been consistently oppressed by
their neighbours the Brythons for hundreds of years. Goedelic Celtic
language, Gaelic, is spoken in the exact same accent as the way the
Celts pronounce English. So, the Scottish accent, for example, is
Scottish because of its Gaelic origins. Same with the Irish. It bears
the distinction of the indigenous language, and so would Brythonic if it
hadn’t been wiped out by centuries of prominent invasion. Am I
overstating this connection? No. Elven maidservants in Fereldan, and
even Orlais, speak with Irish accents. This is not an accident. It’s a
recollection of a former time when the only value anyone in Europe had
for Irish women was as maidservants.
The elves represent the disenfranchised
indigenous peoples of Europe – your Gaels, your Rom, your Basque, to a
certain extent the Jewish people – and they used to use the Gaelic land
connection to make the linguistic connection. But now they don’t. Now,
the elves are just strangers in a strange land – so why would they
deserve the sympathy begotten by hearing them speak and knowing they
sounded almost Fereldan, almost like home?
I’m not Irish from Irish soil, but when I
pronounce Andaran atish’an the way it was originally pronounced, I
can’t help but sound Irish. When I pronounce it now, I just sound like a
hipster who’s trying too hard to sound exotic. EA and/or BioWare have
removed a pinpoint of immersion, and for what?
2. The complex magic system
In case you hadn’t figured it already, I
prefer to play elven mages. A really well done magic system will ensure
my immersion for hours and hours, and Dragon Age used to have one of the
most complex, best immersive magic systems in gaming. I could choose to
specialize, or I could be all over the map. There were four schools of
magic with multi-faceted effects from explosions to storms to
neutralization spells that wiped out mana and mana regeneration. Was I
overbalanced? Hells, yeah, I was overbalanced! I was causing effects
with my triple-mage party that would wipe a battlefield in a matter of a
minute. Did that need to change? Well, yeah. Balance is best. But why
am I suddenly casting spells that, really, only do damage, maybe
incapacitate if I’m lucky? Why is it that I only start out with the four
elements and can’t choose healing spells? Where’s my Walking Bomb?
Where’s my Blood Magic? And why the hell does every spell I cast deplete
my mana reserves to nearly zero? If I can’t cause effect after effect,
what’s the point in being a mage? I may as well have been a rogue with
daggers – because the rogue with daggers is, honestly, the new
overbalanced character.
Remember when mages were so feared
throughout Thedas that it was deemed necessary to lock them in towers
under the watch of heavily armed anti-magicians? Remember when if
someone looked at you cross-eyed you could crush them in a psychic cage?
There used to be a direct reason for the existence of the templars, a
reason that was woven into the fabric of the game which would allow you
to be able to envision the world of Thedas as a dangerous place for the
non-magically gifted, and it had to do with a lot more than someone
lighting your hair on fire. When, pray, do I get to cast healing spells?
When do I get to turn into a spider (which is something that could have
been improved instead of eliminated)? When do I get to place a glyph on
the ground that throws my opponents back? When do I get to burn
everything in sight with a flick of my wrist?
Oh? You’re saying that last one exists
and everyone can do it now? It’s called “Antivan Fire” and it’s a
grenade-like weapon that you can load out in your potions slots? Well,
how do I convince my other players to do that? I’m too busy chugging
lyrium potions (which cannot be good for you). Which brings me to…
3. The complex AI system
What can I say? I feel insulted. It might
have been tedious sometimes, but I certainly felt I was putting my
strategic planning skills – minimal though they may be – to good use
with that IF/THEN programming mini-game. Now it all comes down to
tactics, which, as any good chess player will tell you, is the last
place in a game you want to be. It’s all improvise and no plan. I was
improvising plenty with the complex AI structure. Remember when you used
to be able to get into the tactics screen via the spacebar? Now I find
myself jumping around the field of battle, trying to issue order to NPCs
who just aren’t listening. The ‘T’ button is a very counter-intuitive
button to try to hit when you’re in the heat of battle. More often than
not, I miss and fire off a spell I didn’t want to.
But this was about strategy, remember?
Strategies like “IF an enemy is grabbing and punching the life out of
your ally THEN cast ‘Paralyze’ on that mofo straightaway!” Strategies
like “IF you see a magic user THEN kill that magic user”. Strategies
like, “IF an enemy is knocked down, Puppy, THEN ‘Overwhelm’ that enemy
and rip his jugular out”.
Now, what do I do? I rely on the
pre-programmed AI to do all of the strategic work for me. And you know
what else? I haven’t been ‘Overwhelmed’ once during this game, nor do I
have a dog to do the ‘Overwhelm’ing.
4. Where’s my damn dog, you asshats?
So. You decided to forgo the wardog, the
faithful hound, the smarter-than-lyrium-addled-dwarves puppy that would
bring you cake and wine and spirits and victory for what? A whore? Oh, a
horse! Right, well that’s better. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad there
are no brothels in this game, but did I really need a mount (pun not
intended, but certainly inevitable)? Can the mount fight? No. Can the
mount gore? No. Can the mount take me to places that I would otherwise
be unable to travel? Barring the possibility of a flying mount, no.
I want my dog. He was the best of the lot
of those allies, with his eternal love and adoration, and his fetching
abilities. I can’t fathom that other players had really bad things to
say about him, either. I mean, sure he didn’t have the wide range of
abilities that an ordinary fighter has, nor the dialogue options, and
giving him gifts was kind of a stupid idea. But – come on! That mabari
hound was one of the most innovative aspects of Dragon Age, and they eliminated it instead of making it better.
The only reason I can think of for all
these changes, all this dumbing-down of a very complex game with a very
complex mechanic to match is that EA and BioWare are looking for new
players for a game franchise in its third iteration. They want to
attract people who have not played Dragon Age from the
beginning, or didn’t finish because they thought it was too complicated.
Now, I’ve already paid my money to play a game that I’m ultimately kind
of disappointed in. Each time that happens, I tell myself it’ll never
happen again. This time, I decided I could give BioWare one last chance;
but I won’t be doing that any more. I will no longer be pre-ordering
games online. I will be waiting for the release; I will be waiting for
the reviews.
In my day, games used to get more
complicated with each iteration (unless you count the move from typed
commands to cursor commands). In my day, games used to get harder with
each iteration, or at least maintain a level of difficulty signature to
the franchise. Games developers used to respect their world and their
mechanics.
I am sad.
On the other hand, writing about this game has made me want to play it more — so it’s not all bad.
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