StingingVelvet: DA2 was still a tactical RPG, just a bad one. This is not really a tactical RPG, it's an Action RPG all the way in my experience. I haven't paused or used the other characters once in 6 hours, I just stealth, backstab and do my teleport attack on everything. Maybe on the higher difficulties you'll have to use tactics, but I can't imagine wanting to do that because of the controls and combat style. These aren't designed encounters, they're forest spam like an Elder Scrolls game.
Side quests so far are all very MMO style, much worse than previous DA games. In the earlier games you had occasional MMO style stuff but most side quests had a story and dialog and such. This one is literally an NPC you walk past asking for something, no conversation mode, and you go get it. Or finding a letter that points you to treasure. Stuff like that. Every side quest is this way, not some or most, all of them so far.
However the game is far, FAR better in the exploration department. It has huge areas filled with things to find that enhance your army and such. It has a lot of Assassin's Creed style side stuff to do. They kept saying Skyrim was their big influence but it doesn't really feel like Skyrim to me. It feels like an MMO's quests and exploration along with Assassin's Creed style collecting and building.
Well, that's just sad. If I wanted to play a single player MMO, I'd just play one of the MMOs that allow you to solo almost all content like TSW. At least it has interesting quests.
I really don't understand developers sometimes; DA:O was a decent commercial success from what I've heard, but instead of refining that formula, they went in a completely different direction, probably hoping for Skyrim-style sales, except that'll never happen.
Anyway, I was hesitating about buying this, so thanks for saving me the money. I'll probably pick it up when it's on sale for $15 or so, out of curiosity if nothing else.
As an aside, I find it funny that all the people who reviewed the game before release gave the game a great score, made a big deal of how good the exploration part was, and completely failed to mention that the quest design was awful. And they wonder why gamers don't trust them...
