Vagueish comment on DA:I

[owlmoose]

I see all these people talking about a certain location in the game and how it's "earlyish" and "the beginning of Act One".

We are finally ready to trigger the quest that will ultimately take us to that location.

We've played for almost 30 hours.

I'm a little bit scared.

Comments

[phdfan]

Yeppppppppp

Although I would say it's the end of Act One, not the beginning.

[owlmoose]

Actually, that makes it better. 30-some hours to get to the *end* of Act One, I can handle. ;)

[sarasa_cat]

Yep. The first playthrough can feel like a long meandering wander.

In actuality, the game was designed to be scaleable for anything from 20 hrs to 200 hrs for a "full" playthrough. The 20-200 is official from Bioware. I didn't believe that 20 is possible but I have heard many reports of people doing the Inquisitor's Path quests (plus one romance??) in 20hrs. So, yeah, you've taken 30hrs to get to the Thing and other people are watching end credits in 2/3s the time.

Welcome to scalable RPGs?

FWIW, a bunch of us have been talking about how this game needs a spoiler-free flowchart of all the quests that helps players prioritize what they do.

After I completed the Thing, so much stuff opened up I felt a little overwhelmed.

[owlmoose]

We are now in the midst of The Thing (just had our little chat with the Elder One -- whom I recognized immediately, of course). I'm interested to see how much of the world opens up once that's done.

I *suppose* I can imagine getting through in 20 hours, although how are you high level enough to beat the bosses? I know they level up with you, but still, having that many fewer abilities at your disposal would be a problem, at least for me.

[sarasa_cat]

For speed plays the game feels reasonably easy on story mode but only if you stay on the path. Once you wander off that path, you tend to get mauled by a pack of bears and eaten by a high dragon.

Every portion of the battle during The Thing created *very* high tension game play for me. I didn't like my performance the first time through so I restarted before its final climatic scene where the Elder One has his "little chat." The second time I replayed the whole sequence of that quest far more strategically. Really good gameplay. I also liked how each bit of story played out during The Thing.

[fleurdeliser]

My first play through clocked in at 125 hours. It definitely doesn't have to be that long, though. That was my "I am going to visit every single location, do all the major and easily found quests in each place, and clear every quest from my log" game.

[owlmoose]

I doubt I will have the patience to be that thorough my first time through. :) For me, that's what replays are for.

[alias_sqbr]

I took about 30 hours to get there, and finished the game in 62. So you may not be ENTIRELY doomed :)

I got there in 11 hours the second time through! More important quests give you more exp, so your level isn't proportional to how much time you've played.