Dragon Age: Inquisition

[got_quiet]

I've been feeling sick (not plague sick) and my brain is mush so I figured I'd do something brainless and play Dragon Age:Inquisition again for the first time since 2016. It was kind of just what I needed and also kinda frustrating because it was brainless, which is what I was going for, but it's also brainless, which is a disappointing thing for a game to be. The writing is still good and I still like all the companions (yes, all of them), but actually playing the game again is reminding me of all the issues with the core mechanics and game philosophy that make it kind of unfun for me to actually play. Convoluted crafting and large paper doll management systems, having to pause the story to do busy work quests, combat that is too janky and disorganized for the live combat to feel good but doesn't work as a turn/pause model either, more time spent trying to find stuff than doing stuff, and so on and so forth. As a game that you play for the first time the exploration involved tempers some of these issues, but I am not a huge fan of open world games to begin with, and an open world that I already know has nothing for me at all. It feels like so much of the game is a waste of my time.

I usually like to play sword and board but I went with bows this time. At first I tried playing with a few of the "challenge modes," but then I realized that they were meaningless, and seemed to only make combat more scuffed, so I turned them off and am just easy moding throuh the game. I challenged myself last time and all that really does in this game is make you spend a shit ton of time micromanaging dumb AI and chipping away at unreasonable health pools. So I crafted a very good bow and am just one shotting everything. It's not engaging but that's what I was looking for.

To give a demonstration of how far gone my brain is right now, I was running around the Hinterlands and I saw this massive arrow on the map that looked different from every other marker. What the fuck is this? I thought to myself, and went to it and entered the tavern it pointed to. Oh right, that's Dorian's personal quest, and I forgot to tell Dorian about the letter, so I ended up ambushing him with his father by complete accident. I hadn't saved for quite a while so I just accepted it.

On top of wanting to play something that didn't ask me to do any thinking whatsoever, I also started playing because I wanted to play through Dorian's romance again. Cause I'm in a bad mood and wanted something nice. I don't know if I'm going to go through the whole thing though. It doesn't feel as good this time. I don't know if I screwed something up or what but even the romance part feels a little janky this time. I think I flirted twice and then got three cut scenes in a row that ended in a kiss. Oh well.

 Oh, and I forgot to mention, I HATE the mage recruitment quest. I know people talk about how much they hate the fade and Orzammar in the first game but if it weren't for Dorian I'd never do that damn quest again.