12 reviews liked by QuiteTheKetch


This is a Marvel film of a game. Dull villain, misplaced levity, huge stakes without personal attachment, uninspired action, and empty grandiosity. It's adequate. Not too good, not too bad.

THE INQUISITION
Except for the titular inquisition. This should be the game's biggest strength. It should be. Yet the War Table is busywork to earn points that you need to go on missions. Your army is just narrative fluff to show up in a few cutscenes. You can judge people, which is interesting. But the only repercussions are a bit of approval here or some Inquisition points there.

The game needed the potential for failure! You should be able to squander your power, misstep in your alliances, and confront the final boss with the sum of your forces. Instead, the Inquisition is largely aesthetic.

CHARACTERS
Except for the characters. This is where I write nice things! I like the characters of Inquisition and I think they save the game. Not every character works. I talked with Sera once then ignored her for the rest of the game. But that's fine. I could focus on any of the other better characters. The hardest choices in the game were deciding who to cut from my party of Iron Bull, Dorian, Varric, and Solas (it was usually Varric. I played a rogue so he was redundant).

Playing Wicked Grace with the gang, spying on the rabble with Bull, getting Cassandra a new chapter, and forging a future for Cole are great moments and why I kept playing.

GAMEPLAY
Ok, what can I say about the gameplay? The emphasis on Guard and Barrier means that sword-and-shield is necessary to win encounters. Battles becomes a game of defense, but that's complicated by the poor AI. When I'd need a Barrier most, Solas would've used it on himself. That's almost in-character, but also infuriating when defense abilities are the only abilities that really matter and the AI is squandering it.

I don't understand how anyone could prefer Inquisition's gameplay over Origin's. Even on Hard, I could send one character with Guard to fight a group of enemies and just watch from the distance as the enemies very slowly died. There's neither the skill needed for twitch-based reactions or chaining combos, nor the strategy for squad-based positioning and precise ability usage.

STORY
The world is divided, there's a mysterious hole in the sky, and you're the only one to solve it. Good hook! The game spends a while pointing fingers and building intrigue for who caused this event. The story's at its strongest here, as you struggle against fractured conservative orders seeking to profit from this chaos. Then there's a shift.

-spoilers- After Corypheus attacks, you stumble into a convenient castle, become legitimized as a hero, and proceed to stop Corypheus from getting power three times before ganking him. What doesn't work is that Corypheus never feels like a potent threat. He makes connections off-screen with incredibly evil people, monologues about generic villainy, and is more often talked about as strong than shown. His lore has potential and your companions have some nice dialogue about it. That's all. -spoilers-

CONCLUSION
While Dragon Age 2 is fun to talk about for how it failed to live up to its potential, Inquisition is just baffling. This was supposed to be the return to form the series needed. Yet for all the potential that DA2 squandered, DAI neither redeems any of DA2's ideas nor offers anything novel itself.

Inquisition's biggest strengths are its characters and how its themes about religion and conservative values are explored by those characters. I liked playing someone who rejected their religious significance, but respected people's need to believe. Maybe this franchise has lost its potential, but I still hold on to the hope that it can change. I want to believe.

This game is so beautiful but so, so stupid. Absolute dumpster fire. I hate it here. I love it here. I love running around with my little guys in the dark dank caves of Thedas and then one of them opens their mouth to say something inflammatory and I suddenly remember this game was written by a bunch of gibbons.

Bastion is a game with no big flaws, but it is also a game that doesn't do anything particularly impressive. It has functional combat, but its not particularly interesting. The visuals look alright, but aren't that great. The story has some interesting ideas, but there's not much to it.

The most interesting thing about Bastion was its narrator. He added a lot of important context and spiced up sections that would otherwise be very bland. The reactiveness to different actions you could take over the course of the game was also good. He was also used very well in the overarching story.

The game has a lot of different weapons available, however it actually feels like there's too many of them. Bastion is a very short game, and with the amount of weapons available there's no way the majority of them will get a significant amount of use. You also can't preview a level before traveling there, so you won't know what weapon you'd want to use for a level before you go, and although there are occasionally opportunities to change weapons mid-level, they're very rare. Since weapons are also upgradeable, you're even more encouraged to use one set of weapons throughout the game, as you won't have the resources to try anything else.

One of the game's gimmicks is that the level assembles/disassembles itself around you as you progress through it. This was introduced as a way to easily tell where you're going, but I had the opposite experience. Being unable to see the path ahead of me until I got close to it made it harder to progress, and I would frequently have to resort walking in a circle around whatever island I was currently on to try and see where the next bridge would assemble itself at.

Overall these aren't major flaws, and the game has stuff going for it. The narrator is good, the music is very enjoyable, and while the gameplay isn't great or very impressive, its fine and hard to be bored by. Maybe Bastion was more groundbreaking back when it first came out.

I love you ugly stepsister of the Dragon Age franchise, despite your bad everything and poorly-aged centrist narratives <3

cute and funny but it's as much of a democratic socialism simulator as vaush isn't racist

Cult of the Lamb is now possibly my favorite indie game of all time. I found it to be as close to perfect as a game can get in my eyes. The gameplay loop is fun and addictive, the art is adorable, the music is Amazing and adds to the atmosphere. I enjoyed my time with this game and look forward to restarting and making different choices for my cult!

Unbalanced mess of a game with a toxic as hell community. That being said, it is my favorite multiplayer game of all time.

I got to Hook Up with Huntress. 10/10.

Nox

2000

This game is very dear to me. A favorite from my childhood that solidified my love of rpgs and the fantasy genre.

Vexx

2003

You ever see a game on a shelf and think "This. this was made Specifically for me." That was Vexx for me. It may not be perfect and I am definitely biased but it was My game and will always hold a special place in my heart.

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