Post #131695
September 25, 2018, 07:51:01 PM
God, that's a tough one. Surprising as it may be, it's difficult to get me to truly hate something. Even when others have despised a game for one specific reason, I've found myself enjoying some aspect of it, at least.
That said, I hate what happened to a few games, even if I don't hate the games themselves. First and foremost would probably be Dragon Age Inquisition.
Where even to start. I suppose what I hate most is how much they changed the tone and genre. Dragon Age Origins was heavily inspired by dark fantasy stories like A Song of Ice and Fire, and it was apparent all throughout its makeup. The characters were never completely good or evil, and you were faced with tough moral quandaries in places like Orzamar when you had to choose between Harrowmont or Bhelen to take over as king of the dwarves. Harrowmont was the better person, no doubt about it, but he was too stuck in tradition and too weak to make meaningful change. Bhelen, on the other hand, killed his own brother, and probably even his own father to get a shot at the crown. He was ruthless, unyielding and exactly what Orzamar needed to move past its unfair and useless traditions, whether the dwarves wanted to or not. The magic system was just as dark. Sure, blood mages were powerful, but the cost to human life was immense. Even Dragon Age 2, as maligned as it was, kept this part of its identity. This was completely absent from Inquisition. By contrast, Inquisition was the stereotypical epic high fantasy you could expect from LOTR, not something as abysmally dark and unyielding as Dragon Age Origins. They removed blood magic as a skill your character could perform, the characters were clearly good or evil, and the characterisation was incredibly rushed for anyone outside your party. The story was much less involved and the quests were mostly MMO fetch quests.
They also paid zero attention to the continuity of the series and actively destroyed some of the many juicy bits from the previous games. Oh? You were interested in seeing just what Flemeth had planned? Too bad, she's dead now after appearing in one scene. You wanted to see what would come of literally fathering Satan in Origins with Morrigan so you could survive the Blight? Too bad, Flemeth banished the arch-demon essence she extracted from your son to the fade.
And the most unforgivable of all: WHERE THE FUCK IS SANDAL!?
Honestly, I had to seriously remind myself what I liked about this game, constantly, to keep putting up with its shit.