This combat system looks objectively worse. No control over companions, no overhead view and issuing commands via a tactical view. Graphics look fine but for a 4th game in a series I’m not impressed.
The days when Dragon Age was a whitebox version of Baldur's Gate are long behind us, my friend. First came prioritizing consoles over PCs, then an awkward halfway house between action and tactical combat, now approaching Dragon's Dogma action combat. The one thing I'll say about DA: it's consistently inconsistent.
Based on this trailer. If you're right then yes I'd be upset too, but it not making it into the trailer doesn't mean it's not there. This is obviously the first mission, some of those mechanics may not be explained yet.
I won’t pass any final judgements for myself until full release but based off track record since DA:O and the rocky development cycle for this game, I’ll be very hesitant. One of the biggest tragedies for me is this doesn’t get me excited. I don’t think I’ve been excited for a BioWare game since DA2.
The last time the tactical view was relevant was in Origins. Inquisition combat was a joke, and I say this as a fan of the game. The tactical view was useless ninety percent of the time with team members ignoring your commands more often than not. The actual combat itself was a mess too, to the point it was better to stay back and lob spells or arrow rather then risk missing all your attacks because your enemy is slightly higher up a hill. At least this looks more dynamic and skill based with all the projectile & AoE telegraphing.
I loved DA:O. It was far from perfect, but at the time it was the closest we could get to a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Icewind Dale - dark fantasy, tactical combat, and a decent story.
Then DA 2 came along and it felt like an entirely different series. I didn't get it at the time because of how simplified and arcadey it looked. I picked it up on some deep sale and got bored of it pretty quickly.
DA:I seemed to be trending back in the right direction with a bit more tactical combat. I never finished it but it was decent enough on a sale. This looks like they doubled down on DA 2 here and...meh.
Doubtful I would have gotten it anyway since it's EA but I would have loved to have been proven wrong.
Gameplay looks fine but also very similar to most triple-A action games on the market. Combat is fluid and cinematic meaning you can probably pull off all sorts of combos by mashing light and heavy attack buttons then do bunch of acrobatic moves to dodge any enemy attacks. You can probably also counter attacks execute all sorts of cool cinematic takedowns with single button or QTE.
But this often means that the combat lacks any sort of meaningful weight, emergent gameplay is non-existent and actual player choice is very limited and thightly controlled by what the game and level designers allow.
They've probably spend a lot of budget to make the combat in this game this fluid. However as a side effect the game has become even more of an action game with leveling and loot shoveled in than before. I just hope Bioware can pull off at least some level of build diversity with different classes, skills, items and abilities so that there will be at least some depth with character progression.
The opinions are all over the place right now. As someone who loved DA2, I have no problem with actiony combat and linear world, as long as the storytelling and companions stay the same quality.
I've played only Origins but this trailer is not doing a whole lot for me. Even visually I don't like it (which is bizarre because I think Origins looks like shit and still I somehow prefer it). Don't really like this art direction, personally.
If you've only played the most tactical of all of the Dragon Age games and not the Action based variations that are literally the other 2 games, please stop talking
Thank you! People forget that this hasn't been a tactical series since the first game. It's like people complaining that Zelda BOTW wasn't a top down 2D puzzler.
Don't listen to the whiners. There are 3 games in the Dragon Age series and only one of them can be considered a "Tactical" game. Hell, I remember all of the fallout and whining from fans when Dragon Age 2 became more of an arcade hack and slash. And then Inquisition was just a combo of the two styles that leaned towards Action over Tactics.
Someone pointed out that there's quite a few MC voice lines here, and that's a big wildcard for me. I thought Alix Wilton Regan absolutely knocked it out of the park as my Inquisitor, so that's a high bar to clear.
Ultimately it's going to come down to the cast, though. Won't know until I get my hands on it.
So they're just making "We have God of War at home" now. Everything they've put out about this game has made me more and more apprehensive. Guess I just have to accept that Origins was a one-hit wonder and they have no idea how or desire to recapture that.