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Dragon Age: Inquisition
PlayStation 4
Expect This Inquisition to Be Great
4.5/5 stars
The third entry in BioWare's Dragon Age series has garnered a lot of praise. This game takes its cue more from Origins than the more reviled second entry while also adding a more open-world feel thanks to its many different areas to explore. While many can draw parallels to games like Skyrim, I feel Inquisition has a much better story and characters development and just draws you in - from the big story to the many smaller stories and quests you can explore. If you like this style of RPG, it is one of the best to come along in awhile.
Presentation: Being a part of the next-generation of games, Inquisition certainly looks the part. Both the cut-scenes and the playable part of the game look gorgeous. Facial animation certainly has come far in the last few years - and while it's not perfect, it's damn close. The environments are varied - from a swamp crawling with undead to a desert wasteland to a lush Elven forest - yes, they hit all the tropes when it comes to RPGs - but it's never looked this good. While there isn't a day/night cycle there is still plenty of variation and sometimes you just need to take time out to look around the see how amazing things really look in the world. Believe me, this is one game where is pays to take time out to take it all in. Hell, even your home base is an impressive achievement.
The music very much reminds me of Game of Thrones - the opening theme and the music used therein - and that is a compliment. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - Inquisition does things right. Otherwise the sound effects are very good and the voice talent is there to match - it uses a combination of talented voice-over actors (the likes of Greg Ellis, Laura Bailey, and Brian Bloom amonst others) and some more recognizable names, Freddie Prinze Jr., Claudia Black and Kate Mulgrew - to really give a well-rounded performance. Things really do flow smoothly and never felt forced or stilted to me.
As for how the game performed - I only once encountered a serious crash - and the game has such a good auto-save feature that I only lost about five minutes of play time. There were some occasional bugs - a headless fighting NPC, another NPS stuck in the wall or walking into each other - minor things. The biggest issue I had was with bugged quests - for instance, you are supposed to be able to gather 20 seeds for your Castle garden, but the last seed is impossible to get due to this glitch. Also, a quest to gather a certain amount of books around the castle is likewise broken - out of the 40 books, you can only find 38. Fast-traveling to and from the castle respawns all the books, but once you finish the quest, the books are still there, sitting and clickable but will never go away. These type of things are more annoying than anything else, but they are still there - and is the one niggling thing that makes me unable to give this universal approval.
Story: Now, for those unfamiliar with the Dragon Age mythos, it is highly recommended to check out the Dragon Age Keep (yes, this requires an Origin account) - and it's even good as a refresher even if you have played the games. This is a game steep in history, lore, religion and people - a surprisingly deep amount. Granted, for people who don't like to read, you can skip all that and enjoy the game on its own - but I find it a much richer experience to see just how much work is put into crafting this world.
Anyway, the main story is that there is a huge conclave between mages and the Templar order, who have been fighting an all-out war. This is a big even drawing the most powerful people from each side - including The Divine herself (leader of the Chantry and Templar Order) as well as powerful mages. But a huge explosion rocks and opens up a green tear in the sky known as The Breach - where demons spill forth. You (the main character you choose) walk out of this breach with an Anchor - the ability to close these tears and stop the demons. Because you are the only one to survive, many treat you as the new Herald of Andraste - touched by the god to bring order - and even though others are suspect, you are chose to head up a new Inquisition, an order not seen for centuries, whose sole purpose is to bring order back from chaos.
The game has you start out as essentially a rag-tag band of upstarts but soon you are swaying the fate of all Thedas as you court powerful allies, take down even more powerful enemies and find out the truth behind the Breach - which leads back to an ancient legend about the magic-centric Tevinter empire and a group of Magisters who dared walk in the Fade and corrupted it for all time.
Let's just say the story gets deep - for a world so steeped in lore and history, there's a lot going on. I love this kind of thing, but for those who hate it, you can just enjoy blasting demons and rogue mages and Templars and even a handful of dragons. Hey, I won't knock you - have fun the way you want.
Gameplay: Unlike Skyrim, you control a party. In the open world, you control whatever character you wish in your party. You can switch to them as needed and also bring up a panel to adjust things in battle. I admit, I thought the AI was good enough (at least in the normal setting), I never messed with it and hardly ever switched from my main character. But it may be a godsend on higher difficulties or for those who love to manage things. Battles are pretty straight-forward - each character has a regular attack (for a mage, slinging a ball of energy that corresponds to the element of their staff, for fighters, swinging whatever weapon they have equipped), plus multiples abilities you unlock as you level up. You have a meter (stamina or magic) that depletes as you use these skills, but will refill over time (or through the use of potions). Of course you have a life meter as well - as do enemies. As long as you're still standing as the end of the battle, you're good to go.
Throughout the game you can recruit many allies to help you - but you can only have up to three in your party at any one time. It's up to you to decide, but seeing as I chose to play as a mage I found the well-rounded approach (one warrior, one archer and one other mage) to be the best setup. Also, make sure to always keep your potions full just in case. Most battles aren't too hairy - but it is recommended you do at least some of the side quests to gain experience, items and influence to help you along.
There are two sides to the game, really, the regular exploration and battling (leading to leveling up, more skills, better weapons and armor and the like) and then you have the Inquisition side. As your main base you have a war table - this allows you to send your three most important allies (your spymaster, main Templar and ambassador) on specific quests. These quests are played out in real time - some take 15 minutes, some take several hours - but, luckily, these quests countdown even when the game is left off. These quests may unlock new areas, give you items, influence, gold and some even expand the story of your companions. You don't have to do them all - but why not? The Influence you gain unlocks important Inquisition perks - these are far-reaching abilities that give you more storage space, potions, rare material, lower shop prices, etc and the like - let's just say the more perks you have, the better prepared you will be.
That being said, there is just a hell of a lot to do in this game: it has a well-rounded crafting system if you are into making weapons and armor, it has a huge amount of areas to explore - each one with its own specific quests as well as quests that span the length of the game (finding shards via oculara opens doors to a temple, closing rifts, hidden mosaic shards). There are 10 main areas to explore - each with numerous quests - certainly into the hundreds. And, no, you do not have to do them all - in fact, even though I did try each one, it can kind of burn you out. The main quests are spread out enough that you can do them relatively easy with only a few side quests between. Beyond the side quests you have romance options, improving your keep, gathering agents and, hell, you can just run around gathering plants and minerals all day if you want. This game has something for everyone and it will keep you busy (I'm sitting at 117 hours and still not done yet).
Replayability: Just like the other Dragon Age games, the ability to change your race, gender and class gives you many opportunities to explore the type of character you want to be - not to even mention the adjustable difficulty settings, the many, many side quests (sure, I did them all - but others may want to spread things out) and romance options. All told, the possibilities aren't quite endless, but they are certainly quite varied.
Overall: If you liked the original Dragon Age: Origins, this is a return to form after the disappointing Dragon Age II. It's a more open experience with a suitably epic story, well-rounded characters and superb graphics. All told, if you like this kind of RPG, it's at the top of its game.
Presentation: 5/5
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Replayability: 5/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5
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