QuickTwist
Spiritual "Woo"
If you are into story driven fantasy RPGs, I cannot recommend this game enough. I recently started playing this game again for the first time since (I think) April. There has never been a game where I feel more comfortable RPing as a character, and that says a lot because I usually don't play games for the RP experience.
The very first thing I noticed when I started playing this game again is that the graphics are still very much up to par with what is out there today even though the game was released in 2014. The visuals are very pleasant to look at - it brings a vibrant, fantasy like atmosphere that is very appealing.
Now one of the very main differences between DA:I and Skyrim Se is that the RPing is very very believable. It feels very natural overall, it just seems to make sense on an intuitive level, even if all the answers are mostly the same. One thing I have noticed is that when RPing in this game I find myself very happy with the way the conversation went and that I can optimize the order that the conversation happens in the order that I want it to go. So often in Skyrim, conversations feel incredibly stale and lifeless. So often in Skyrim you run into the same voice actor you heard 10 min ago, and that is a huge turn off for me when it comes to RPing a character. I don't actually remember thinking "I ran into that same voice actor before" in DA:I. Ofc I am not super good at noticing those things, but just the same it doesn't come across as overtly as in Skyrim.
The next think I think is very different from DA:I than Skyrim, is that DA:I just feels so damn smooth in comparison. Things just flow way way better in DA:I than in Skyrim. I'd actually say DA:I even flows better than The Witcher 3 and that is saying an awful lot. Admittedly, the story is not as good in DA:I than TW3, but the direction is completely different for the two games. TW3 is more in touch with the dank darkness that is within the world and DA:I is much more of a fantasy type game.
Apart from all this, the lore is absolutely incredible. I recently saw a thread on this forum about writing styles. I remember very vividly that DA:I clearly has many different writing styles and I noticed this before I read about that thread jogging my memory. I am talking ofc about the codexes that you find all over the place in DA:I. There are so many stories to be told through many of the one minute or less reads of the codexes. They also sometimes become like different pieces of the same story found in different codexes and I really like that. The writing in the codexes is very well done and I even sometimes have to read the codex twice to know exactly what they are saying often times because of the symbolism used.
Lastly, the combat offers a level of depth that is remarkably deceiving. At first when you first start playing the game, you might think that combat in this game is a walk in the park. Think again, there is enough variety in terms of difficulty that it can be challenging for even the best of strategic minds. The reason for this is that not only do they have your standard easy, normal, hard, nightmare, but they also have these things called trials that you can turn on and off and depending on the ones you have active, even on easy it can be pretty difficult. Take for example the single trial of "health potions only heal 1 HP" This is enough alone for me to not use it on nightmare. But there is a plus side to using these trials. For each trial you have active, it gives you are varied degree of a chance to get some good gear at your main based chest. OFC I have to say that the trials only come with the Trespasser DLC. This is not a big deal because for many, many fans Trespasser is an essential part of the the main story arch.
One small note: There is a thing called the golden nug in this game. What it does is after you have beaten the game at least once, it is used to sync all the potions, weapon and armor schematics you found on a previous playthrough - very handy for a Nightmare run of the game with some trials enabled.
The very first thing I noticed when I started playing this game again is that the graphics are still very much up to par with what is out there today even though the game was released in 2014. The visuals are very pleasant to look at - it brings a vibrant, fantasy like atmosphere that is very appealing.
Now one of the very main differences between DA:I and Skyrim Se is that the RPing is very very believable. It feels very natural overall, it just seems to make sense on an intuitive level, even if all the answers are mostly the same. One thing I have noticed is that when RPing in this game I find myself very happy with the way the conversation went and that I can optimize the order that the conversation happens in the order that I want it to go. So often in Skyrim, conversations feel incredibly stale and lifeless. So often in Skyrim you run into the same voice actor you heard 10 min ago, and that is a huge turn off for me when it comes to RPing a character. I don't actually remember thinking "I ran into that same voice actor before" in DA:I. Ofc I am not super good at noticing those things, but just the same it doesn't come across as overtly as in Skyrim.
The next think I think is very different from DA:I than Skyrim, is that DA:I just feels so damn smooth in comparison. Things just flow way way better in DA:I than in Skyrim. I'd actually say DA:I even flows better than The Witcher 3 and that is saying an awful lot. Admittedly, the story is not as good in DA:I than TW3, but the direction is completely different for the two games. TW3 is more in touch with the dank darkness that is within the world and DA:I is much more of a fantasy type game.
Apart from all this, the lore is absolutely incredible. I recently saw a thread on this forum about writing styles. I remember very vividly that DA:I clearly has many different writing styles and I noticed this before I read about that thread jogging my memory. I am talking ofc about the codexes that you find all over the place in DA:I. There are so many stories to be told through many of the one minute or less reads of the codexes. They also sometimes become like different pieces of the same story found in different codexes and I really like that. The writing in the codexes is very well done and I even sometimes have to read the codex twice to know exactly what they are saying often times because of the symbolism used.
Lastly, the combat offers a level of depth that is remarkably deceiving. At first when you first start playing the game, you might think that combat in this game is a walk in the park. Think again, there is enough variety in terms of difficulty that it can be challenging for even the best of strategic minds. The reason for this is that not only do they have your standard easy, normal, hard, nightmare, but they also have these things called trials that you can turn on and off and depending on the ones you have active, even on easy it can be pretty difficult. Take for example the single trial of "health potions only heal 1 HP" This is enough alone for me to not use it on nightmare. But there is a plus side to using these trials. For each trial you have active, it gives you are varied degree of a chance to get some good gear at your main based chest. OFC I have to say that the trials only come with the Trespasser DLC. This is not a big deal because for many, many fans Trespasser is an essential part of the the main story arch.
One small note: There is a thing called the golden nug in this game. What it does is after you have beaten the game at least once, it is used to sync all the potions, weapon and armor schematics you found on a previous playthrough - very handy for a Nightmare run of the game with some trials enabled.
