In 2011, Dragon Age 2 inadvertently confirmed rampant speculation amongst humans that size does, in fact, matter. BioWare’s fantasy role-playing game promised a sequel that spread an epic story over a ten-year in-game period; but in constructing the lush and vibrant city of Kirkwall as a setting for this story, the developers forgot to all the other things that make RPGs exciting: huge dungeons, locations to get lost in, side-quests numerous enough to distract you from the primary tasks at hand.
It’s ironic that a game about dragons ultimately lacked scale.
With Dragon Age: Inquisition (DAI), BioWare has taken note of the red pen scrawled through DA2’s development quest log, and by the grace of the Maker has it forged a different path for its successor to tread.
The path itself winds through a complex story of mages versus templars, good versus evil, church versus state, sword versus flesh. It forages through territory familiar to fantasy genres, such as elves, battle axes, health potions, wizards, magic and dungeons; it navigates landscapes full of Dragon Age’s homegrown tropes of quirky characters that talk to each other as you explore, the ability to seduce NPCs into beds, a fully voiced lead character only ever referred to by title (“Inquisitor” in this case) and oodles of blood spattered over armour during battle; and it factors in key elements of modern role-playing combat, such as a strategic battle planning, characters effectively classed as tanks, damage-dealers or healers, and a range of weaponry and play styles to suit fans of either fast-paced or slow-and-considered battle execution.
n essence, DAI has picked out all the things that could make a new Dragon Age game good, and made them very good indeed. Plus it has done so in a way that flattens the learning curve in order to keep the sheer vastness of what is on offer accessible (role-playing games can be frustratingly difficult to penetrate by a player new to the genre).
Your journey begins after the events of Dragon Age 2[/i], with events acknowledged by the characters (including a number of returning fan favourites). Our lead character, who can be male or female, has inadvertently prevented a world-ending plot by a proper bastard of a demon (he was going to sacrifice defenceless old ladies to achieve his goals for crying out loud) and in doing so harvested to power to save the world from the demon’s grander future attempts at world domination.
As premises go, there are no awards being handed out for “evil man tries to end world, you must stop him”. But the lore constructed throughout the first two games have allowed the narratives constructed around the premise to become extremely compelling. Better still, BioWare’s traditionally wordy approach to storytelling and deliverance through well-voiced and tightly-scripted characters is as rich here as it has ever been.
It’s a fascinating world to be immersed in.
But scale and size is everything with *Dragon Age:
Inquisition*. Not only is the kingdom of Ferelden explorable, so is its neighbouring empire of Orlais. Missions take place across both zones, and the landscapes navigable in each are enormous.
Often it felt like a combination of the Elder Scrolls game
Skyrim and the first Dragon Age game. It’s not as vast or as open-world as Skyrim, but during sections of exploratory digression through hills, forests, mountain regions and dungeons, it certainly feels closer than either previous Dragon Age title did.
There are some unusual aspects to the inclusion of Orlais, however. In Ferelden, BioWare appears to have really gone to town on the vocal accents. Previous games have included juicy dollops of real-world regional parlance and tone, but it’s ramped up to eleven here. There are characters that sound like they’ve just stepped out from Coronation Street or Eastenders, Eastern Europe, North America, Ireland… The list seems endless. Except in Orlais, where everyone inexplicably seems to have a strong French accent. It’s as if the racially diverse London was parked next door to Japan, the population of which is nearly 99 percent Japanese.
How did these two regions become so radically different ethnically?
That point notwithstanding, Orlais houses some of the more interesting quests in DAI. Of particular note, a lengthy section during the later stage of the game sees our hero have to survive at a masquerade ball. Staying on good terms with the judgemental social elite is paramount to acceptance at the venue, and remaining there is essential to unravel a complex plot that involves planned assassination and the usurping of a family member to the throne. There’s sneaking, eavesdropping, social engineering, moral choices, and ultimately an epic showdown with swords and bleeding. Nothing like this existed in Dragon Age before, and at times it felt like Assassin’s Creed Unity (which is set in France) accidentally leaked some of its creativity into BioWare’s studio.
hese major missions require military might to undertake. Think of “military might” as an experience point system and you’ll understand easily how completing quests for the good of the nation earns you strength as a commander. Venturing through sprawling vistas to discover and complete quests is an absolute joy, in part due to the beautiful visual design BioWare has birthed on the next-gen games consoles (we are reviewing on the Xbox One edition) — of all the next-gen games slithering from the loins of developers, few need as little cleaning up as *Dragon Age:
Graphics and tech
A region called the Storm Coast is of particular note here. Set against a backdrop of a bright but cloudy day and a stormy sea, exploration felt uncannily like ploughing through a real coastline.
The lighting system the game employs deserves particular praise here, as does the realistic weather system. Although each zone has a fixed weather pattern, each has been given excellent attention to detail. Rain bounces of foliage realistically and water-soaked surfaces, along with the uniform lighting dynamic caused by the cloudy sky, creates a real “wow!” effect. Similarly, the weather and storms continue in the background as you engage characters in conversation, blurred under a soft focus to extend the realism to dialogue sections. Some of the most believable next-gen console weather we’ve seen to date can be found in DAI. Elsewhere on the technical side, frame rates remain consistently strong during all third-person viewpoints (basically anything that isn’t a cut scene). The rate does seem to suffer slightly under pressure to render cinematic sequences, however. Not in a way that detracts from the experience, but certainly in a way that will have the technically minded fans wondering what it’s like on a PC (or PlayStation 4 — we haven’t had time to try yet). Overall though the game performs well and offers only minor and occasional graphical glitches, unless you count lengthy load times between large areas — these are quite annoying and break the immersion a bit too readily.
Conclusion
Dragon Age: Inquisition will please a lot of people, and I would strongly encourage gamers jaded and put off by
Dragon Age 2’s departure from depth to pick up a copy. The sense of exploration has returned, the replay value is enormous and the perfect blend of BioWare uniqueness and RPG expectation is one of the game’s finest achievements.
This is also a game that gamers new to the franchise will enjoy, although reading up on the backstory would be advised. You’ll be presented with lots of terminology such as the Chantry and Andraste, as well as scenarios from the past that concern major plot themes. Throughout the game these become clear, but initially it may feel like you’re at a party none of your friends have shown up for yet.
