Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014)

Dragon Age: Inquisition takes us once again to the world of Thedas, which has descended into chaos after the events of the previous two games and picks up 10 years after the finale of Origins. The Kingdom of Ferelden has failed to regain its full power after the fifth Blight, the large-scale invasion of the Darkspawn that was the central theme of DA: Origins, and Orlais is embroiled in a civil war. Meanwhile, mages and Templars are fighting across the continent. In the midst of this turmoil, a tear in the border between the mortal realm and the Fade forms, leading to a demon invasion. This new threat will be contained by the politically independent Inquisition.

As the player, we take on the role of the leader of this organization and our task is to discover the identity of the person responsible for bringing demons into the world of the living and gather enough power to stop the invasion. The character creator screen allows you to choose the class of the protagonist: warrior, rogue, mage, then gender, appearance and name, as well as race: human, elf, dwarf and qunari. As in the second game, the main protagonist is fully voiced.

The main character is accompanied by companions, some of whom appear as Varric from previous games in the series. Not only do they provide invaluable help during battle, but they are also an important part of the story. By talking to them, the player can learn about their background, goals and objectives. Moreover, the player's actions influence how the companions perceive him. Romance, a hallmark of the Dragon Age series, is also a very important part of the protagonist's relationship with the companions.

The player is often faced with moral decisions where the traditional distinction between good and evil doesn't work. Some of these are important for the plot and the consequences are not always immediately visible. The possibility to import saved games allows them to transfer some of their decisions from the previous installment of the Dragon Age series. In turn, people who don't have any experience with the series, but want to learn their own history about the world and its inhabitants, will find that Dragon Age: Inquisition can take advantage of the Dragon Age Keep website, which allows players to create a customized savegame to import.

Alongside the main plot, the player completes side quests and participates in numerous smaller conflicts taking place in Thedas. As the Inquisitor, he makes decisions on behalf of the entire organization and thus shapes its reputation and policies towards other factions. Progression in the game leads not only to character development, but also to an increase in the importance of the Inquisition, which gives the game its name. Moreover, higher positions bring tangible benefits, such as an army that can be sent to conquer an impregnable fortress that holds important information. It is crucial to establish bridgeheads, often in the form of fortresses, in areas of special importance in order to gain influence and control over the territory. Moreover, nothing prevents the player from expanding their strongholds by managing the available human resources and directing their activities, for example research. Dragon Age: Inquisition, the player will travel all over the continent of Thedas.

Although the world is not literally open, the locations are much larger and varied than in previous games. Moving between locations is done using the world map, and once the character reaches a location, they are free to explore it on foot or on horseback. To gain access to important plot areas, the player-led Inquisition must first achieve a sufficiently high reputation. To this end, the player must fulfill side quests, earn the respect of different factions through diplomacy, collect magical artifacts and defeat dangerous monsters.

As far as the combat system is concerned, the player can issue orders to party members while in active pause mode, or delegate control over them to the AI in order to focus on one character and engage in battle by directly controlling his movement and attacks. The main commands are assigned to keyboard shortcuts. Enemies are typically organized and in various groups. With the enhanced AI they can support each other and react to the situation on the battlefield. All this requires the player to be careful and use an appropriate tactic.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is developed with the Frostbite 3 engine used in Battlefield 4. This technology allows to create wide open spaces and complex environmental interactions. Not only is it possible to destroy certain elements of the environment, especially during combat, but it is also possible to rebuild them, for example, to gain access to previously inaccessible places. The game features a day and night cycle system and variable weather conditions that can affect gameplay. Together with the DLCs, the game offers close to 100 hours of content.

DA:I was quite fun, with some great dialogue, interesting characters, tough choices and some beautiful areas. However, I also found it be stuffed to the gill with "fetch quests" random loot- and resource-collecting and map-icon-removing busywork. I also didn't get a lot of use from the paused combat mode and mostly diidn't find any need for tactical thinking in the use of abilities.

Overall, I had a good time for a big chunk of the 90-odd hours it took me to finish, but I suggest other players play on easy mode or at least ignore most of the side quests and just hit the main missions, which are great and varied.

The third installment in the Dragon Age franchise is an interesting product. It brings absolutely nothing new to the genre of role-playing games. It immerses itself in tropes and character archetypes and fails to raise itself above the standards set by the pioneers of the category. However, all in all, it ends up being an irresistibly addictive game by creating a world truly worth exploring. It is unfortunate that, though it represents certain elements of gaming so well, it treats other aspects like afterthoughts.

Let's start with the positive aspects of the game:

1. Lore: Bioware games have always been known for their extensive lore, and this game is no different. The history of Thedas is wonderfully depicted, and each sub-area has its own back-story, which brings them to life.

2. The world: Bioware nailed the open world thing with this one. The environments are multifaceted and memorable, with each area representing a completely different realm of possibilities. After the dreary, gray background of Skyrim, I was afraid that this would become the industry standard. Even though the influences of Skyrim are clearly visible in the game, Dragon Age: Inquisition manages to extricate itself from the staleness that comes with creating enormous open worlds.

3. Dragons: This game provides probably the best dragon fights I have ever had in video games. The dragons move and attack in such an organic manner, that it is sometimes hard to recall that they never even existed. The difficulty level of the dragon fights is also well done in my opinion, with most of them only beatable after you have crafted or received high-level gear, unless you use broken builds, of course.

4. Who the characters are: Inquisition introduces a wealth of characters, both old and new, with their own back-stories. The characters merge well with the lore and the fleshed out dialogue options, the banter among party members, and their own trials and tribulations, wants and motivations all converge to create a vibrant gaming experience.

5. Side-areas: The sub-areas in Dragon Age: Inquisition have the capacity to become their own games. From the lush forests and grasslands of the Hinterlands, to the vast, barren terrains of the Hissing Wastes; from the icy crags of Emprise du Lion, to the murky bog pits and marshes of the Fallow Mire, each area offers a plethora of side-quests and unique areas to explore and just experience.

Now for the shitty things:

1. The AI: Party management must be the most frustrating part of playing this game. Party members insist on tanking dragon-breaths and aoe attacks, while ignoring all skills in favor of auto-attacks. When they use skills, it is either to charge off a cliff or leap into a ravine. In fact, dragon fights are made significantly tougher because of the atrocious AI in the game. On the other hand, the enemy AI similarly suffers from intellectual bankruptcy. Since, for some elusive reason, ranged skills have infinite range, Dragons can be sniped to their death, while they complacently sit and embrace all damage. It seriously cheapens the experience. This is even more of a disappointment since previous installments in the series did have respectable AI, and way more options when it came to optimizing AI combat behavior.

2. The tactical camera: Bioware added this shitty gimmick to appease those who prefer third person RPGs. However, the system is implemented so poorly that it fails to bring anything interesting to the table. The screen does not zoom out enough, making it impossible to get a proper overview of the battlefield. The tactical controls are inexplicable, and party members frequently ignore previously given commands and engage in bouts of suicidal stupidity. Yet, since the AI is even shittier when left on their own, the tactical camera is sometimes the best way to babysit party members during hard battles.

3. Collectibles: The game has an extended section for collectibles, consisting of everything from shards, to wine bottles, to mosaic pieces, to curtains, to beds, to songs, to seeds, to quarries, to windows, to Astrariums, to fucking landmarks. Collecting is so tedious and pointless that it makes exploring a chore and detracts from the riveting landscapes. Other than the shards, the bonus for collecting this assortment of petty articles is non-existent. It only serves to vex the completionists. Add a plethora of fetch quests on top of this and you are left with wandering the countryside in constant search mode instead of truly enjoying the mesmerizing scenery.

4. The main quest line: Bioware really should have taken a pointer from Mass Effect 3, which managed to give that epic feel during the main quests. The main boss of this game seemed underwhelming and the primary questline seemed irrelevant and unimportant. Collecting an army seemed useless since it had no part to play in the final quest, which itself was short and trite.

5. What the characters are and the romance: Historically, Bioware has shown a tendency to propitiate social justice warriors and the LGBT community. In a world where being labeled sexist or bigoted can have severe social implications, that is a good business move. I have no problem with that. However, a large percentage of the characters seem to be largely defined by their sexuality, which seems forced and unnecessary. Bioware's idea of romance has always been insipid. However, this game takes it to another level, with many of the romance chains being tantamount to an imminent sexual harassment lawsuit. At least I saw boobs. But the girls seemed almost purposefully ugly, while almost all male characters subscribed to most social standards of masculinity.

It is understandable that Bioware wanted a cinematic experience with Dragon Age: Inquisition. For some time, the video game industry has been trying to bridge the gap between movies and video games, and Bioware has done that well with Inquisition (though Mass Effect 3 did it much better). However, while the story aspects are well done, there are problems with the gameplay, which hinder the experience from becoming phenomenal.

All in all, I am bored of typing. 7/10

Actual Score: 3.5/5

Lore-wise, this was a crowning jewel tying all three games together. It had some consistency issues regarding characters, and forced some morality on you that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and the final battle is a complete letdown. And I'm not even gonna talk about the Morrigansplaining. But oh my goodness, the worldbuiling and the exploration you get to do. The amount of fanservice - bringing back old characters, letting us see where the romances went, etc. I was giddy with joy this entire game, and forked over all my money for the DLC and would probably just mail them my paychecks if they kept making more content for this game.

I have sold my soul to BioWare and I regret nothing.

Put as shortly and simply as possible -- This game is awesome, and it's definitely worth picking up to play through the main story if you've followed the series since Origins, or if you're a fan of open-world RPGs like Skyrim. With that said, this game is freaking huge. There's a ridiculous amount of side quests and lore for you to dive into that provide more backstory for what's going on in the world around you. And if you're an explorer like myself, be prepared to spend some time collecting materials for upgrades to your equipment as you can craft and modify your armor and weapons to give you an advantage over some of the tougher enemies in the game, of which there are plenty to be discovered.

I don't really have too many negative things to say about the game, other than the fact it can seem a little overwhelming at times because there's so much to do, and because it's such a big game, things can get glitchy at times.

I give it a solid 4.5 out of 5.

Pros

-Great art direction for environments, armors, tarot cards, etc

-Lush and beautiful open maps to explore

-Crafting is nicely conceptualized, but hampered by a clunky, disorganized UI.

-Fun high dragon battles

Cons

-Poor story progression and pacing, including a very underwhelming final boss

-Underdeveloped companions (some more than others); insipid player character

-Uninspired level design; repetitive skill trees

-Multiple misleading dialogue wheel stumps--these are never perfect, but they seem problematic more often in this game than in previous installments.

-Shoddy body and facial animations: characters, including the player, remain mostly stiff and expressionless during conversations, or move like creepy marionettes.

-The distant conversational camera makes faces difficult to read. This, combined with a dearth of cut-scenes, diminishes the impact of many conversations.

-Cut-scenes, when they do occur, are dull and poorly put together. Most are merely interchanging shots of talking heads, with little added animation, cinematic composition, or even effective use of DOF.

-Unwieldy, disorganized, and buggy UI (e. g. inventory, tactical camera, crafting, quest journal, war table)

-Multiple glitches: bugs with conversational triggers and camera/model positioning (characters speak to the player while standing on furniture or wandering away, camera faces the wall during conversations, etc); characters jumping positions during cut-scenes; poorly structured conversational trees; disappearing dialogue wheels; disappearing characters at Skyhold

-War table missions are mostly filler with undifferentiated outcomes and tenuous connection to subplots or main plot.

Verdict

Worth a look for the nice art and environments--plus Varric, Hawke, and Morrigan if that's your thing--but grab it on sale, not at full price.