Playing through the tutorials got me very excited. It was very beautiful in max settings with hbao full. After i finished with tuts and went to hinterland, i still was excited until other places openned up and then i realized it was basically the same gameplay with different background graphics.
Then after 10hours into the game, came the wave of disappointment.
Why in nether hells did Bioware destroyed such an amazing single player rpg game into a mmo style rpg?
THE BAD
I hate the camera especially. Not just during tactical view, but also during conversations and during normal gameplay.
On tactical view, it was not far enough and only go as far as the ceiling, so how the hell do you use it in caves? Sure there are cheats created by fans to change the camera in tactical view, but isn't that supposed to be in the developers agenda/brain?
I hate the 3rd person view during conversations, i can hardly see the face of the person i talked to. Makes me feel like playing a bad point n click adventure game with lazy ass developer that did not care to put in animations.
I also hate the camera during gameplay, in my opinion, the nearest zoom is too far from the character. Why can't Bioware relaxed the camera settings a bit, at least let people customize its settings by configuring the .ini setting file? They are so scared the game might get customized that even a simple config was written in basic programming language. Makes player unable to just open them in notepad and tweak by ourselves.
That camera was very poorly done, so poor that it made me wonder who tested the game? Didn't they complained/reported it? Because every sane rpg player would.
I thought with that many years and games bioware would learn their mistake during character creation but boy i was wrong. What is so difficult to give us good lighting during character creation so we can actually see properly the eye color, etc of our own character?
The control is horrible. It is obvious it was not created for PC. Or even if it was, it was for people who own xbox controller for PC. It's like microsoft and developers nowadays are pushing people subtlely to buy the xbox controller for PC considering how many great AAA games released with xbox type controls.
Why said 'PC version' when it is not configured optimally for keyboard n mouse?
I am also a bit disappointed with the facial animations. For such an amazing game that is next gen and people/gamers all over the world are so looking forward to, i would think that bioware would hire the best, if not decent animators. If these kind of work is ok for their standard, i am starting to question what else is considered ok for them.
Come to think of it, it is so not bioware. Aren't they are famous for their quality games like ME series? What is going on here, did EA bought the company got anything to do with it?
ME and even Dragon age 1 n 2 which was released earlier has better facial animations than this.
And to top it all, in my humble opinion, i am disappointed with the mmo style gameplay. I feel like playing Guild Wars 2 most of the time. It's not that GW2 is a bad game, it is a great game but it is mmo. DAI is not, and i was hoping it would be like any single player rpg. Picking up elfroot all the time is tiring.
Combat is even more horrible than Da2. People complained about Da2 combat system, but now compared to Dai, Da2 is actually not so bad.
The ridiculous amount of writings is also annoying. If i stop to read everytime, i bet i will never get out of hinterland after a month. Man, if i want to read a book, i'll read a book not play a game. Damn it.
Someone in the internet said: proof that bioware listened to fans: they add the tactical view like in Dragon Age Origins. Heck, i think that tactical view is just there for the sake of just being~there. It actually does nothing else important. Unlike Dao, Dai is obviously not created with a battle system requiring a tactical view. The monsters/enemies move around and some even jump around everywhere, characteristics of a real time combat system. it's actually quite difficult for me and my rogue to 'properly' flank an enemy. Also with the so many special effects, i got confused sometimes as which one is my rogue and most importantly where she is facing since i need to flank my enemy.
After all my complaint, i just want to voice my opinion about 'self-destroying' type of game developers. There are some developers that made a huge success with their first game and then self-destruct. They tried to be a smartass, smart being innovative or an ass. And in the end changed the gameplay so much it's horrible. I really don't understand what the problem is with these kind of developers. They made a game, and it was successful, people love it so much they are begging for more, but instead of giving them more of basically the same, they give more of totally different gameplay. Is it so difficult to just create more content but with the same gameplay? They should thank their luck that at first game people love the gameplay, so they do not need to come up and think hard and waste resources for a new gameplay. They could use those resources for something else instead. But nooo, they have to be 'smart' or an ass and create a new gameplay.
I think these self destructing developers are such a fool they just don't get it. People already love your first game (DAO), what they want is just more of about the same game but with different content and stories.
THE GOOD
Now after putting 1month worth of time into the game, i think the game have some amazing qualities. Especially the graphics. They did an amazing job with the graphics. Every single map has different design, texture, and layout! Every single caves, every single house, every single mansions have their own design. This is amazing for an rpg game as huge as this!
I take my word back for calling Bioware lazy ass developer. They are definitely not lazy, just the animators that sucks so bad, and the 3rd person camera view during conversation is a horrible idea. We cannot see their faces properly because of this.
But i must admit, those are tons and tons of textures! Unlike other rpgs that has a huge level, dai put a lot of work into making each area unique. Most rpg would just reuse same textures over and over again just with different item and interior placement. Especially caves, dungeons, mansions and fortresses. You can find 10 dungeons with the exact same textures. With games like these, i usually get bored by the time i reached lvl 40. Even with all those mods, it is still boring-to-the-max seeing the same thing over and over and over again, entering the same cave, the same dungeon over and over. What is worse, not just the textures are the same, even the layout is the same!
That after entering 30 dungeons i know how to navigate without a map, what is on the left,what is on the right, where is the enemy going to be, etc, it became very boring since it has lost it's surprise effect.
With dai, you will never get bored. No matter where you go all you see is new, different layouts and textures. It amazes me. They really do put in a lot of work into the art department. Creating all those different levels is no easy task.
Argh what a pity, if only they hired better animators and the game designer made more talking npc with close-up view quests rather than just a reading text thrown about everywhere all over the map marked as quests. They should've put less work on the writings and more work into talking npc, and facial animations.
Less meaningless side quests, but only a handful of sidequests with story and animations that gamers can actively interract and make decisions instead of just passively doing it.
Heck, there was even no one to get more information from since the quests were either given by a dead npc or by some unknown has never met before npc and will never meet, or by some non existent npc, or by a 'seemed accidental' leftover letter of a dunno who~whom i also have no idea whether said npc still alive or dead.
Oh and did i mentioned all of those quests i mentioned above are on a piece of paper? A letter beside a dead body = quest, a letter on an empty house = quest, a letter on a campfire full of demons = quest, a letter under a tree in the middle of nowhere = quest, and so on. Endlessly written letters that magically becomes so noteworthy to follow, so it becomes a quest.
Well, to conclude, Dai is still a nice game (since i am a fan, and it's better than nothing, or maybe i am a victim of dai hype and hoping for the best), with beautiful beautiful graphics, superb voice acting and nice music. Also nice storyline.
But it just could have been better, much much better for a next gen AAA game with huge budget, and one of the most looked forward to game.
Damn, it could have been one of the greatest game ever made! If only they could just stop trying to be smart asses.