Recent reviews by saiDeo

Fun little game with interesting world building. Could really use some proofreading though.

Out of nowhere, an absolute banger.

Decent dialogue, decent combat, decent exploration. All around solid game to scratch that RPG itch.
Feels a little half-assed towards the end, so hopefully Obsidian will remedy that later.

Pretty coooooolll.

I have mixed feelings about the game, but overall I had a good time with it. Mild spoilers ahead.

The pros:
- Combat is pretty much a better version of DA2/DA:I. Which i liked.
- Game is really well polished in terms of performance. No fps dips, stutters, memory leaks, crashes, and almost no bugs whatsoever.
- Looks really beautiful, and the visual style is a breath of fresh air after countless attempts in photorealism.
- The whole ending quests sequence is probably the best Bioware ever did. Think ME2 on steroids.
- Manfred.

The cons:
- The game starts BAD. I'm talking writing. Too much bland banter and cliched phrases (seriously, if i'll hear "I'm too old for that ♥♥♥♥" one more time...). To make VARRIC of all characters boring is a crime, and his little plot twist near the end doesn't really rectify that. Same could be said about some companions, which brings me to the next point.
- Interactions with companions feel pretty shallow at times. Compared to all the previous DA games, dialogues with them are rare and limited, which leads to them feeling one-dimensional and watered-down. There are almost no notable highlights, such as Morrigan/Alister banter from DAO, or acting on their own agendas like Anders or Isabela from DA2, or even some small twists like Blackwall from DA:I. "Hardened" status of Neve/Lucanis doesn't really make them feel hardened. And personally, the only time where choices in companion subplots made me feel something was the final choice of Emmrich's subplot.
- Same goes for Rook themselves. There are barely any options to actually roleplay a "renegade type" hero. You're stuck with either sappy goody-two-shoes or pragmatic paragon. Or you can just be flippant about everything that happens. Giving them mild imposter syndrom in an attempt to create some personal struggle felt meaningless. Even Ryder from ME:Andromeda has done it better.
- Gameplay-wise - not all builds feel equally fun and effective, and a decent chunk of combat mechanics feel pretty meaningless at the max difficulty (such as detonations). Same goes for companions kits, as its just much more effective to make them all into buffers/healbots than to try and make them be actually effective at dealing damage.

Overall, it's a decent game to scratch an RPG itch, and i will probably even replay it some time in the future. And it's probably the most that can be said about this game.

DLC of insane quality.

Banger.

Updated review:

So i gave it a bit more time and got more things to say.

At the start game is a bit of a shock to everyone who comes expecting an ARPG experience. Hotfix to stamina usage + some itemization as the game progresses lets you virtually forget that stamina exists and focus more on proper movement and timings. Overall it's a pretty enjoyable experience now, if you are ready for some pain.

There are still a lot of kinks in the combat system that are just weird / excessively unfun (like meeting shield enemies with light build). I have some other gripes too: too much garbage and not enough inventory space; too much focus on resource grinding (especially clay); very weird difficulty curve that just bounces back and forth between very hard and very easy; strange statsystem where same type weapons can require absolutely different stats.

However, game is fun and devs seems to be quick working with the feedback. So give it a go.

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Old review:

Calling this an ARPG is misleading. In its current state, It's a very sluggish and boring soulslike.

You play as a "hero" that runs out of breath after 3 rolls / 3 swings / running for 10 meters.
You are apparently a big deal in the lore, but every goofy ahh bandit will outperform you on stamina, poise and damage fronts with ease. I'm also pretty sure my grandma could swing a one-handed axe faster.

Technical side is also in shambles. FPS dips, camera bugs are ok for early access title, but no keybind remap in the year of our lord 2024? Come the ♥♥♥♥ on.

Wait for devs to "reinvent the genre" again and then maybe play it.

Quaint world and some interesting characters, but the choice consistency is often wonky, and characters behavior sometimes doesn't make sense at all. The story is alright, but isn't really anything special.

Overall, I had some fun.

GG