Dragon Age: Inquisition Review

In fact, the War Room is a major facet of the game, acting as a way to not only earn perks and rewards, but the door through which new areas can be accessed. On it is a large map, which is split in half. One side displays one region, whereas the other displays another. And, on each side of the board are statues of sorts, which update as you progress. Their purpose is to signify new operations that have become available, as well as those that have been finished. Completed ones only stay there until they’ve been selected one last time, because the party responsible for undertaking the objective always submits a final report.

Examples of operations include sending allies out to help soldiers who are trapped somewhere, or sending someone to try to make peace with folks you’d like to ally with. Major story quests can also be started this way, although usually by yourself as opposed to an ally. The others simply task you with selecting the person who you feel would be the best fit for their requirements. Most often, it’s a choice between the aforementioned three (Leliana, Cullen and Josephine), but there are also times where you’re able to send out other parties, one of which is called the Secrets. It truly is a neat system that improves upon the series’ base formula in interesting ways.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is a role-playing masterpiece that touts one hundred and fifty hours’ worth of content, and is a game that will easily exceed one hundred hours for all dedicated parties. There’s so much to do that it’s simply staggering, and its first open world (a forested area with an incredible amount of quests to undertake and voids to close) offers upwards of twenty plus hours in and of itself. Needless to say, if you like RPGs and can only afford one game this holiday season, the choice is easy.

The map system itself can take a little while to get used to, though, and I must say that it’s certainly not the best one I’ve ever used in a game of this ilk. That said, it works pretty well once you get the hang of it, and I may be in the minority when it comes to this complaint.

In addition to offering loads of quest work, Dragon Age: Inquisition is also the first game in the series to provide mounts. This isn’t exactly a strong part of the experience, because the horses tend to gallop rather slowly and their animations are somewhat awkward. It’s okay for a first attempt, but I think I’d rather walk than ride.

Combat, however, is handled very well and feels right for this series. It’s real-time, but still retains its strategical origins, and melds the two together seamlessly. To strike, one must approach an enemy (if using a warrior or similar class) and simply press the right trigger. Doing so will result in a slash, while each consecutive press will do the same. It’s not the type of system that Origins employed, where you would go up to a foe, press a button and end up being forced to sit and watch the battle take place. Instead, this is a much better design that makes you feel more in control of your party and makes combat feel more realistic.

Blocking results in an instant parry, which is great, and you can also jump away from battle if you wish to try to avoid a strike. Of course, running away is also an option if you plan to heal or do something of that ilk. You’ll want to play things smart, regardless of who you’re battling, because this is far from an easy game. I didn’t grow up with this genre, and just started playing RPGs a couple of generations ago, so I’m admittedly not all that great at the series. The combat is overly challenging at times, and the strategy aspects are things that I’m not all that familiar with through other titles. As such, I tend to turn the difficulty down to casual, which is still a bit of a challenge but is much more accessible.

The previous Dragon Age games aren’t known for being easy hack ‘n slash RPGs, and the same is true of this one. Being strategical is a must, and BioWare has aided that requirement by creating a great and user-friendly tactical camera. It’s available at the press of a button, and is helpful in that it slows down time and lets you plan your next move(s) then see them through. That way, you can move your party members to select locations that serve their classes well, such as higher ground, which suits archers best. Then, once they’re in place, it’s easy to tell them who to target.

What BioWare has done with the tactical camera is quite impressive, and it truly is great. I particularly liked being able to fast forward time, then stop it whenever necessary. However, I can’t help but shake the action-RPG gamer that lives inside of me, meaning that most of my combat attempts were done through melee means as opposed to tactical strategizing. Maybe that’s why I find these games more challenging than most.

Although its gameplay is very solid and its tactical additions are worth writing home about, Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s true success comes via its writing. Not only is its storyline interesting and thematic, but its characters feel alive and interact in a way that really adds to the immersion. Dialogue trees return, and it seems that every choice has been thoroughly explored and complemented with top-notch visual content. As a complete package, it does a great job of expanding not only its genre, but also the entire medium, and acts as evidence that video games can truly have great storylines.

I should also note that there is four-player cooperative multiplayer here, although it’s really nothing to write home about. Those who enjoy questing through different rooms with others while completing varied objectives will have some fun with it, but it wasn’t for me.

My time with Inquisition was spent on the Xbox One, which is apparently the more stable of the two current-gen console versions. Since I haven’t played the game on a PlayStation 4 it would be unfair of me to comment on that, but I will say that things ran almost flawlessly. I saw odd glitches — like disappearing enemies and a character’s beard going through his lapel — but nothing major on the visual side of things. It did crash on me once, though, right after a fast travel loading screen.

The last two games certainly weren’t lookers because they ran on dated tech, but that isn’t the case here. This third instalment is a major upgrade from its predecessors, and is quite beautiful overall. Not only does it look current-gen, but its environments are stunning and its character models look and act in a relatively lifelike fashion. They still have that RPG look to them, though, wherein their facial features don’t always line up properly with their dialogue and their eyes sometimes look a tad out to space, but that’s to be expected.

To complement its solid visual presentation, BioWare looked to its voice actors and musicians to give Thedas realistic life. And, by choosing the people that it did, the developer succeeded with grace. The game’s original soundtrack is very fitting and immersive, and its voice actors do a wonderful job of bringing their characters to life.

After a three year wait, Dragon Age: Inquisition has taken its genre by storm. It’s tough to truly fault what is a fantastic sequel and a great all around role-playing game, and it won’t come as a surprise if the title is picked as the consensus Game of the Year winner for 2014.

This review is based on the Xbox One version of the game, which was provided to us.