Dragon Age: Origins had a very solid, traditional, tactical combat implementation, with some not so very well designed arenas (Deep Roads, anyone?). But it was very well executed technically and allowed for a lot of experimentation, with the occasional overpowered combination of abilities, which might have made the game a bit easy sometimes but it was fun, albeit slow.
Dragon Age changed the presentation of the combat, with a different camera angle and emphasis on over the top animations ? and, unfortunately, threw away a huge part of the planning involved in the combat with its uninteresting battle arenas, zero care with enemy positioning and the dreaded ?another wave? mechanism. But it was also fun, although dumber, easier and more repetitive. With that said, the new animations gave new life to the proceedings, making things more interesting for people into a more dynamic presentation. And it was also technically efficient.
Both propositions have their fair share of fans and detractors, but they both also look like the work of someone that knows what he was doing (even if, in DA2 case, the person did not have the time to do it properly).
Dragon Age Inquisition combat, however, baffles me, as it has no focus in terms of design and no competence in terms of execution. It still manages to be somewhat fun occasionally, as it is kind of built after some ideas that work, but the problems are intriguing:
1. Controls: The idea behind the combat in the previous DA games was that it would simulate a ?simultaneous turn based battle?. ?What? to do was very important, but the actual execution was mostly automated.
In Inquisition you have to position and move your character around to do some things, and you have to actually keep doing some things (pressing buttons, maneuvering to get line of sight, approaching the target to attack). The controls work if you control one character and let your party to their own devices but every time you want to do something a little more complex, the design falls apart (the tactical view is too low, there are no queued commands, characters stop doing what you told them to do, changing weapons midfight is impossible and so on). Not to mention that the interface is very poor if you are trying to do all this with a mouse and keyboard.
In both DA:O and DA2 I always managed to place my characters exactly where I want them to be (with admittedly a little bit more of work on DA2), but on Inquisition, I just do not bother.
2. Camera: trees, walls and objects keep getting in the way;
3. Confusing presentation: The ?turn-based? nature and auto-attack features of previous games also meant that the characters could be positioned within a reasonable distance from each other and from the enemies, alternating their animations.
With everyone closing in on each other or shooting from the other side of a very large area, you often do not see what?s going on. The aesthetic of the battle also suffers, with combatants misaligned or pounding the ground with no enemies on it while being shot at from God knows where.
4. The rift mechanism: while interesting as it introduces another element to think about while pounding some enemies, the fact that only the main character can interact with them makes the already laborious act of controlling everyone as a team an even less interesting proposition. It is often much more effective just control the main character in those encounters with the occasional barrier spam from the mages. Also, aiming at the barriers is sometimes a pain (see camera above).
5. Difficulty: In normal, the game is easy enough to hide the system shortcomings (you rarely NEED to do anything remotely complex in the game). In harder difficulties prepare to be annoyed fast. You still do not NEED to do anything complex to keep yourself alive, but if you don't you will be playing forever. Note to Bioware designers - giant health bars are boring, not difficult. To be fair, all three games suffer from that problem, which has just become more and more prevalent with each iteration.
The game is good, great even, if you overlook the mild case of consolitis and get into the history and other elements, but whoever was in charge of the combat dropped the ball: it is not complex, it is not varied, it is not beautifully or clearly presented, it is not nuanced, it does not control greatly, it does not bring anything new to the table. It is at best, an average system, copied from MMO?s, with worse feedback and mouse support.
Dragon Age changed the presentation of the combat, with a different camera angle and emphasis on over the top animations ? and, unfortunately, threw away a huge part of the planning involved in the combat with its uninteresting battle arenas, zero care with enemy positioning and the dreaded ?another wave? mechanism. But it was also fun, although dumber, easier and more repetitive. With that said, the new animations gave new life to the proceedings, making things more interesting for people into a more dynamic presentation. And it was also technically efficient.
Both propositions have their fair share of fans and detractors, but they both also look like the work of someone that knows what he was doing (even if, in DA2 case, the person did not have the time to do it properly).
Dragon Age Inquisition combat, however, baffles me, as it has no focus in terms of design and no competence in terms of execution. It still manages to be somewhat fun occasionally, as it is kind of built after some ideas that work, but the problems are intriguing:
1. Controls: The idea behind the combat in the previous DA games was that it would simulate a ?simultaneous turn based battle?. ?What? to do was very important, but the actual execution was mostly automated.
In Inquisition you have to position and move your character around to do some things, and you have to actually keep doing some things (pressing buttons, maneuvering to get line of sight, approaching the target to attack). The controls work if you control one character and let your party to their own devices but every time you want to do something a little more complex, the design falls apart (the tactical view is too low, there are no queued commands, characters stop doing what you told them to do, changing weapons midfight is impossible and so on). Not to mention that the interface is very poor if you are trying to do all this with a mouse and keyboard.
In both DA:O and DA2 I always managed to place my characters exactly where I want them to be (with admittedly a little bit more of work on DA2), but on Inquisition, I just do not bother.
2. Camera: trees, walls and objects keep getting in the way;
3. Confusing presentation: The ?turn-based? nature and auto-attack features of previous games also meant that the characters could be positioned within a reasonable distance from each other and from the enemies, alternating their animations.
With everyone closing in on each other or shooting from the other side of a very large area, you often do not see what?s going on. The aesthetic of the battle also suffers, with combatants misaligned or pounding the ground with no enemies on it while being shot at from God knows where.
4. The rift mechanism: while interesting as it introduces another element to think about while pounding some enemies, the fact that only the main character can interact with them makes the already laborious act of controlling everyone as a team an even less interesting proposition. It is often much more effective just control the main character in those encounters with the occasional barrier spam from the mages. Also, aiming at the barriers is sometimes a pain (see camera above).
5. Difficulty: In normal, the game is easy enough to hide the system shortcomings (you rarely NEED to do anything remotely complex in the game). In harder difficulties prepare to be annoyed fast. You still do not NEED to do anything complex to keep yourself alive, but if you don't you will be playing forever. Note to Bioware designers - giant health bars are boring, not difficult. To be fair, all three games suffer from that problem, which has just become more and more prevalent with each iteration.
The game is good, great even, if you overlook the mild case of consolitis and get into the history and other elements, but whoever was in charge of the combat dropped the ball: it is not complex, it is not varied, it is not beautifully or clearly presented, it is not nuanced, it does not control greatly, it does not bring anything new to the table. It is at best, an average system, copied from MMO?s, with worse feedback and mouse support.
