This is my 60 hours in mid game review for Dragon Age 3.

Short version for people that hate reading or reasoning: a game of unquestionable quality that is super addicting and fun to explore but is lacking in pacing and missing some of that bioware story driven elements for huge chunks at a time. Combat is great fun to play but has some major issues.

And now the full version:

I am currently in the middle of the second act (out of three) which is the half way mark. I could easily advance the story but there is so much to do in the world that I rarely go on a main quest. Which I feel is the biggest issue with the game, there is a poor balance between main quest and a bunch of MMO junk.

Most bioware games give you smaller sized areas to explore which mostly consists of talking to NPCs and exploring the smaller area which leads to many combat dungeon like areas. Nearly every side quest in those games comes from an NPC in that area and is usually some moral deliema. In DA:I areas are massive and quests are given by random NPCs in the areas and back in your base back home. Quests are all basically just icons on the screen telling you to go there and do something. Half the time you have no clue what action you did for what quest, you are simply going from icon to icon fighting of discovering something.

Then in certain areas of the map you make enter the "dungeon" section where is plays out like a more traditional bioware area. So this game needs more of those and less of the MMO sections.

Not to say the MMO sections are all bad, I love exploration and this is the best exploration in any bioware game ever. Mostly due to the jump button, now traversal is an actual action, some areas require some jumping skills to get to. I love discovering a hidden cave that gives me a rare item or randomly stumbling on a dragon's territory. The open world needed to be more story focused like how it is handled in TES, that should have been the template not MMOs.

The story beats are still very well done but I have no lt really made a connection to this squad yet. They are more interesting than DA2 but still not to the level of DA1. The party missions I have done so far were not that great, perhaps it gets better as the game goes in. The best part of the game management is your home base and the amount of content within it which ranges from managing missions from a war table to juding criminals Game of Thrones style. I have spent many hours just in skyhold alone and loved it.

The combat is my favorite for the series so far, you know me action first and if you play this in real time it is the closest they have come to an action RPG, mostly cause of the inclusion of real time defense and counters. ( don't worry RPG nuts this is no mass effect, it is a true RPG first). For tactics the tactical view works well but I have some issues with it mainly not being able to cue up attacks meaning you need to babysit every one as they happen or risk the AI choose an attack for you. Or leave it up to the AI which is missing nearly every customizable option from DA2, they will do stuff that you don't want them to do or you can simplifiy their attacks but then heavy babysitting is needed. There are no group move to spot options. Oh and on consoles there are only 8 skill slots and no way to access a menu to activate more than that if you have more than 8. So I love to do combat but I don't feel as in control as I did in DA2.

Then there is the game breaking class, the knight enchanter. Vivienne is one and I choose to be one and now my game is broken. I soloed a dragon yesterday, my squad died in like 30 seconds, my knight enchanter stood under the dragon and smacked away for like 5 minutes until it died. See they use magic to make a sword and their skill generates a barrier as you hit meaning you self heal as you hit so the dragon can never hurt you. How bioware left this in I don't know but it's there and it makes most fights pretty easy, even on hard. In a game that is already very easy cause of all the side quests that if you complete them levels you up far faster than the main quests want you to, there is no scaling.

So there are some large issues with the game, I want to stress that those issues are what is keeping me from declaring this one of my all time favorite RPGs not that it makes the game bad. The quality in all phases of the game is impressive, this is without question a 9 score game for me, just what kind of 9 are we talking about. The gameplay is set, I enjoy it for what it is but it could have been better. What will determine my love level for this game will be how the story and missions play out going forward. I also have not touched multiplayer so that could be a whole new avenue for praise as well.

As of now if I were to make a prediction I feel like the first game is still the best one in the series but this is close behind. I wrote all this cause I was bored on a plane, thanks for reading.

phantom_leo said:

I like the game a lot too, but went to load it last night and got some sort of C-30480 error. I thought I lost everything. Turns out this is a very common problem. BioWare blames Sony, Sony blames BioWare, neither of them are working on a fix. I would hate to invest 80 hours in something and lose it all. I loaded a past save and it worked eventually, but it makes me nervous. Did you encounter this at all?

4 times already. I'm hoping it's not becoming more frequent the deeper you go. But it saves constantly so I never lose much.

Origins is going to be hard for them to top...the game was that good. Its like if Mass Effect 2 was the 1st game in the series.

I really want to play this but just too many other games to finish and things to do right now. Sucks. I refuse to start another RPG until Skyrim is done.

Dvader said:

Nope not happening, not my GOTY. Still excellent though.

Did you finish it?

Hey this is my GOTY again! I did a story mission and it was fantastic, pure bioware greatness. I wish the whole game was that. I am sure after 10 hours of wandering giant maps and following waypoints it won't be my GOTY again.

Since most of you will not see this scene, from the same perspective as me at least, Dorian and I just confronted his father to discuss why they don't see eye to eye.

It was a very personal one for two reasons:

(1) Dorian's reaction to the Inquisitor being gay as well, and...

(2) Dorian's dad apologizing for almost attempting to use Blood Magic to make his gay son straight due to the shame it would bring to his family's reputation...

...

...yeah. Kinda hit close to home on that one.  

Dvader said:

Sadly ,out of the game has no story.

Was this an auto-correct error? I don't get what you are trying to say here...