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“It’s Little Quests Like This”
by asreal

Crestwood & New Londo Ruins

I gave up on DA:Inquistion a few years ago when the game first came out on PC. I don’t have regrets for doing so. The thing is, I hate waiting for a game to get good. This is subjective of course. When does a game get good? I would say with any RPG it’s when the mechanics and systems all come together to give you a nice sense of gameplay ‘flow’. Being thrown into a massive map to explore is fun for many, yet I feel like my precious time is being wasted running around rocks and rivers without much to really do-- without many of the combat or crafting abilities available for use until a dozen hours in or so.

 

I don’t know, I can’t judge the game too harshly. I think DA:I has way too many systems and mechanics going on that it needs a bit of time to cook all the ingredients, not to mention the timey, wimey narrative that tries to append two prequels and still have enough of a standalone, complex ‘Game of Thrones-like’ drama left over for you to navigate and still feel fresh and new—its ambition is praise worthy for sure. But is it bogged down by its own weight? My overall feeling is that it’s all just too much!

 

Again, this is subjective. Too much of a good thing isn’t bad I suppose. I might be the only one feeling overwhelmed by everything in this game, whereas DA2 felt more streamlined and eloquent— just cut to the chase with everything. The other problem may be that I just loved Witcher 3 and it’s many little short stories a whole lot more, better in pieces than the overall whole, whereas DA:I is more concerned with the‘big picture’.

 

I’ve given DA:I (PS4) another run, this time I’m a lot further in to the story and world than I was the first time. It’s no Witcher 3, but recently I ventured into a region called Crestwood, and well, the set piece could have come from a Souls or Bloodborne game and I really loved it.

 

If you haven’t played DA:I, I suggest you keep from reading further. Otherwise…

Crestwood is a very dark and foggy village near a lake, a lake with weird green light shooting out of it. When you first enter the area, it’s pouring rain and the ground looks wet and muddy, the village houses look cold and damp and overall there is a sense of gloom all around. It’s almost as if you crossed into a Dark Souls game, specifically Dark Souls 1 ‘New Londo Ruins’.

 

If you’re not familiar with ‘New Londo Ruins’, it’s an awesome area in Dark Souls 1, which can be accessed after draining the flood water and has ghosts roaming around. There are also wet skeletons and bodies all over the ground to make things extra creepy. Crestwood is a definite homage to ‘New Londo Ruins’. As such, one of your main tasks is to drain the lake. Once doing so you can access a formerly flooded village, ‘Old Crestwood’, that’s now haunted by ghosts. The sad thing is that the former mayor of this town himself sends you on the quest to do this. Of course, you have to kill whatever evil thing lives underneath the lake that was causing enough trouble that a whole village of innocent people had to be drowned. The ending twist to the side story was fantastic, it turns out, the mayor himself flooded the town. When you try to confront him about it, he disappears. Now a side-quest opened up to pursue the mayor across the world map and bring him to justice. A pleasant, and tragic little side story that would have fit right into a ‘Souls’ or even ‘Witcher’ game. Just fantastic. If I could rate the experience, I’d give it 5-Stars!
 
(New Londo Ruins) 

 

My only complaint is that I encountered the side-quest 25-30 hours into the game.