14 DAY TRIAL // 
Dragon Age: Inquisition is a sign that developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts understand why gamers were disappointed with the second game in the series and are eager to regain their love by creating a complex, massive, engaging and sometimes surprising mix of action and role playing that can easily keep someone engaged until the end of the year.
Combat and exploration offer solid experiences, but I love the smaller and quieter moments that the title can offer, the way it manages to show the impact that a devastating event can have on all races and all personality types.
There are three elements in Dragon Age: Inquisition that captured my attention entirely: the evolution of Blackwall based on my interaction with him, the moment when I first battled a dragon and came close to winning, and the way a judgment affected the life of a defeated enemy.
Story
Dragon Age: Inquisition is a game concerned with the fate of the world in more than one way, and the narrative threads that BioWare has created are designed to move gamers from one big confrontation to another while also asking them to think about a variety of subjects, from the impact of religion to the way power should be wielded and how friends should nudge each other to become better in the face of adversity.
The Veil which is separating the real world from the Fade has been breached in one place and there are demons running around, with the powers of the world scrambling to come up with a unified solution, and the player needs to establish and grow the Inquisition until the threat can be eliminated entirely.
Dragon Age: Inquisition has a variety of potential backgrounds for the main character, some very cool companions, a lot of interesting NPCs to deal with and a big and complex world to explore and interact with in a variety of ways.
The writing coming from the experienced BioWare team is mostly engaging and informative, and it’s an actual pleasure to read the various Codes entries as they are unlocked.
There are some very familiar faces making a comeback, although newcomers can enjoy Inquisition without any detailed knowledge of previous BioWare games, and there are at least two moments when the storytelling actually managed to surprise me with a twist I was unable to spot.
The biggest criticism for the story is that it is too much rooted in classic concepts of the fantasy genre, especially when it comes to the primary threat and the quests associated with it, and there are moments when it’s easy to predict how most characters will behave.
BioWare still has problems writing romances and delivering flirty lines, but the studio has managed to create some side quests that evolve in surprising ways.
Gameplay
Dragon Age: Inquisition keeps the formula that has worked well for the first two titles in the series and allows gamers to create a unique character, recruit a variety of companions, build up the strength of his organization via both dialog and combat, and then, finally, face an ancient evil which is threatening the entire world.
The formula is tried and tested, and rather than trying to revolutionize, BioWare opts for quantity and creates a huge world, with plenty of quests to tackle, impressive areas to explore and interesting decisions to make.
Combat is very important and BioWare has delivered on its promise to make it just as easy to focus on just one character and control his actions and to use a tactical mode in order to keep the entire group of four under control.
The game is still a little too fast at times, which means that the Pause function gets a lot of use, but once the player’s party is developed enough, it’s a pleasure to see them mix and match spells and abilities in order to deliver devastating attacks to a wide range of enemies.
Battles can be challenging, even on Normal, and the game accentuates the need for solid thinking and tactics by limiting healing to a small number of potions, which is an interesting choice.
Unfortunately, once the gamer gets to around level 15 and gains access to some of the most powerful abilities, it becomes rather easy to deal with enemies and the only way difficulty can be boosted is by giving bosses a large amount of hitpoints, which leads to some sequences being turned into simple slugfests.
Thankfully, the automation system for character behavior is solid and it’s easy to just focus on one character during a long battle and mostly let the rest of them take care of themselves.
The exploration element of the new Dragon Age is also well structured, with plenty of cool side quests and discoveries for those who take the time to see the impressive and diverse locations.
The dialog mechanics have improved little and seem to offer less freedom than in previous entries, but the stakes of Inquisition are so much higher than even small choices transform the lives of people and the way regions will evolve.
The War Table mechanics in Dragon Age: Inquisition, with its system of perks and operations, is an interesting expansion for the series but seems underdeveloped, and the crafting is interesting to explore but has a limited impact on the gameplay.
The greatest strengths and the biggest problems of the game are linked to its ambition and its size.
On the one hand, it’s great to have a title which makes 30 hours pass right by as a player is exploring the core story and only dabbling into the rest of the world.
At the same time, there are times when the amount of quests and activities is overwhelming and it’s hard to see how a second playthrough could be justified, given the required commitment.
Graphics and audio
Dragon Age: Inquisition certainly makes good use of the Frostbite 3 engine, and on the PC, with a computer system that allows gamers to turn the graphics options up, it can deliver some impressive sights in all major areas.
The characters have plenty of detail and they move with grace even doing very destructive things to their enemies, which sometimes makes me regret BioWare’s decision to speed the action up.
As good as the game looks, there are some moments when faces look like they are made of wax and the design for the main antagonist and some of his henchmen is entirely uninspired.
The voice work for Dragon Age: Inquisition is a little uneven, which is somewhat of a surprise given the track record of the team.
The main character sounds great, especially in its human female incarnation that I played extensively, and most of the companions are also interesting to listen to, although The Iron Bull, as created by Freddie Prinze Jr., is a disappointment.
Unfortunately, the villains tend to be entirely disappointing, with one major exception, and interacting with the more secondary NPCs can sometimes break immersion for players.
When it comes to the soundtrack, Dragon Age: Inquisition manages to deliver an impressive main theme and some very cool battle tunes, and the world that the player explores is filled with sounds that make it feel interesting to examine.
Multiplayer
Dragon Age: Inquisition has a multiplayer mode for the first time in the series, which is designed to allow gamers to pick a class and then use a character that can constantly evolve to participate in battles alongside friends on a variety of maps, testing their skills against all the enemies that they have met in the single-player portion of the experience.
BioWare has clearly been drawing inspiration from the way Mass Effect 3 handled the same mechanics in its own multiplayer mode, which drew more attention than initially predicted.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is now faster and more action-driven, but I found the multiplayer battles a little alien because I lacked the ability to carefully control actions for my entire group and I was forced to deal with a limited set of abilities early on.
It will be interesting to see how the mode evolves when the entire community is able to jump in.
The Good
- A lot of content to explore
- Tactical combat
- Side quest design
The Bad
- Main antagonist design
- Some battles are just grindfests
Conclusion
The biggest criticism that can be leveled at the title is that it is a little too conservative in its approach to the role-playing and action genres and fails to introduce something entirely new.
At the same time, the developers have managed to carefully polish the core tenets of Dragon Age and fans of the series will be happy to discover how easy it is to tailor Inquisition to their own play style.
Newcomers will be quickly drawn in by the core story and might then reel once they realize how big the game is and the amount of hours required to explore everything that it has to offer.
Dragon Age: Inquisition can be completed in 30 hours in order to see the core narrative and experience the most important battles, but it’s also easy to spend double that time crafting, looking for secrets, dealing with all side-quests, playing multiplayer and then planning for the inevitable second playthrough and the new decisions that it requires.
As it stands now, this is one of the biggest and best experiences that BioWare has ever created, and all fans should pick it up as soon as possible and clear their gaming schedule for a few weeks.
