Review: Expect nothing but excellence from Dragon Age: Inquisition

In this day and age of casual gaming, free-to-play games and on-rails completely scripted narrative-driven games, it’s rare to see a game offering hundreds of hours of gameplay and a hugely detailed, diverse world to explore. Where most game developers today seem to think that multiplayer should be the focus and a single player campaign is a tacked-on extra, BioWare created one of the most engaging role-playing games I’ve ever experienced in “Dragon Age: Inquisition.”

The third game in the real-time RPG series, you take on the role of The Inquisitor, who has the ability to close Fade rifts, which demons use to invade the realm of Thedas. The origin and race of the Inquisitor is up to you as is his class (warrior, rogue or mage) as well as play style.

Also, returning to the Dragon Age series in this game is the Tactical View, which allows you to pause combat and issue commands to your party. You’re still able to select other party members and utilize their abilities in real time but the option to stop time, take stock of the battle and issue commands is invaluable and should make DA:I accessible to both fans of action games as well as traditional RPGs.

In DA:I, a massive explosion kills several leaders of the mage and Templar groups, as well as leaders of the Chantry, the organization hosting a peace conference between the warring groups, which throws the entire realm of Thedas into chaos. The explosion also creates the Breach – a massive dimensional rift which allows demons to invade the human world. As a result, your character and several others establish the Inquisition to determine who was behind the attack as well as closing the Breach and restoring peace and order to Thedas.

Once the game begins in proper, you’ll venture around Thedas rallying support for the Inquisition while also sending your agents on missions to retrieve intel, gather resources and other operations which aid in growing the Inquisition. From the overworld map you choose either the Orlais or Ferelden regions to operate in and from there, you can venture to playable areas that range in size from smaller areas to (like the Fallow Mire) or much larger tracts of land (like the Hinterlands).

Each of the playable areas is meticulously crafted and a blast to explore. I’m always stumbling across new sidequests to tackle and new places to explore. Each map offers an amazing variety of wildlife and scenery as well as special settings like caves, dwarven ruins, giant palaces and more, hidden away inside every map.

As you explore, you’ll come across tons of inventory items like weapons and armor to use or sell (or destroy to clear space in your limited inventory), as well as accessories that augment your abilities. But you’ll also come across schematics which allow you to craft and customize weapons and armor. Throughout the game world, there are resources to gather of varying quality which, depending on what you use, allow you to craft much better gear than you could ever find – granted you put forth the effort to find these materials.

But even when you’re just wandering around taking on random quests outside of the main story quests, these activities earn the Inquisition Power and Influence, two experience meters which grant you special abilities (like being able to carry more potions or earning more character experience points from combat or codex entries) and the ability to scout new areas to explore and unlock new missions to send your agents on. This is a real triumph of DA:I in that no matter what you’re doing, you always feel like you’re moving closer to accomplishing your larger goals, even if you’re wandering around a map closing Fade rifts or exploring the Deep Roads.

As you explore these areas, you’ll eventually encounter NPCs who can be recruited to the Inquisition as party members or as agents. Agents can be sent out on missions while party members can accompany your character on his journeys around Thedas. I’m not sure if picking a different race or class changes your starting party, but I began with Cassandra (a warrior and high-ranking Chantry Seeker), Solas (an elven mage) and Varric, a dwarven rogue who fans of Dragon Age II know well.

Though, there are numerous skill trees to add some differentiation between characters who share the same class (like Sera and Varric or Cassandra and Blackwall), each character falls into one of three classes, so you’re essentially going to be filling out your party with who you like the most. On your adventures, your party members talk to each other and offer their opinions on your actions and the game keeps you informed of how your party members react to what you do and say.

Overall, I’ve found the characters in DA:I to be some of the deepest, most complex characters I’ve ever experienced in a game. I often have no idea how someone is going to react to what I do and say – much like the real world. This also extends to romance, in that you can often flirt with members of the Inquisition but even if you think everything is going well, they may still turn you down and you might have no idea why.

But what would a game with “dragon” in the title be if there weren’t actual dragons in the game? Throughout the world of Thedas, there are several different dragons to encounter, though you’ll want to be significantly leveled up before you try and take on any of the massive beasts. Overall, I found the battles against dragons in DA:I to be much more interesting than any dragon fight in Skyrim.

I’ve put an immense amount of time into DA:I so far (over 30 hours) and I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. But it keeps me coming back thanks to the fact that as the game progresses, you’re constantly being introduced to new mechanics, quests and new things to do to keep the game feeling fresh and engaging. For instance, once you reach your new base of operations at Skyhold (after leaving Haven), you can customize the castle to fit your tastes as well as outfit it with new features. After a time, you’re given the option to pursue a specialization to give the Inquisitor more powerful abilities. Also, as the leader of the Inquisition, you’re eventually able to judge criminals and other outlaws captured by the Inquisition, which can have an effect on how others view you as well as the course of the game itself.

There’s even a manner of multiplayer included in DA:I, though I have yet to actually try it out myself. Apparently it is a self-contained story in which you take on the role of pre-created characters during the time of the Inquisition. It’s an interesting prospect for a real-time RPG that I’m looking forward to trying – if I can ever tear myself away from the campaign.

Even with a number of other games I’ve barely touched, I can’t seem to bring myself to play anything but DA:I right now. There’s so much to see and do, people to talk to, dragons to fight, locations to explore as well as stopping whoever continued to instigate the war between mages and Templar that you could easily play this game for 100 hours and probably still have more to do.

If you’re a fan of BioWare’s traditional RPG style (like Knights of the Old Republic, for instance), you’re going to be completely absorbed by DA:I.