Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2015
- Overview: Dragon Age: Inquisition is an amazing game with a very involved and thoughtout storyline. This game really feels like you're planning a war, turning you into a tactician in a way. If you get it, you may want to clear your schedule for about a week, though, because it might take you that long to really get through it.
+ Graphics & Atmosphere - I have mixed feelings about the graphics in this game. Overall, it has incredible graphics, but then there are those glitch moments--missing shaders in cutscenes, disappearing hats, etc. But this game has an amazing atmosphere, and it keeps me coming back to it.
+ Dialogue Options, Game Comparisons - Dragon Age: Inquisition truly has something special when it comes to its dialogue. A lot of the dialogue options usually have consequences--good and bad. Both these consequences are usually not as immediate as games like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning or as severe as games like Fable. In fact, the dialogue runs a lot like Skyrim usually. Your decisions during your campaigns affect how your party gets along with you. If one of your characters consistently disagrees with your stance on a quest you're on, you might find yourself going back to your home base and getting in an argument when you try to talk to them about it. Have no fear, though, this game is good at smoothing things over… usually. What DA:I offers, however, is something none of these other games do--random AI sparked conversation. There is absolutely nothing more grueling and boring than getting stuck in a party of characters in the CGI wilderness for hours… days even, and never hearing another voice until you start a quest or you check in. I feel like the makers of Dragon Age understand this, because at completely random times (maybe it only feels random and its actually a scheduled thing every 30 mins or so), one of your companions will start talking to another about something relating to their character in some way. Some times its relevant, sometimes it's respectful, sometimes its hateful, and sometimes its downright random. Depending on the mix of the party and what kind of people are on your team, as well as their varying belief systems, classes, and races, you might find yourself listening to a warrior class describing his favorite material for weapon making, and ending with "it's pink! and it's pretty!" or three mages arguing about the fade. Both true stories.
+ Relationships & Romances - This game has a great system when it comes to relationships. Unlike other games like Fable which include romance, but only within about a 3 minute window, and only with random villagers, Inquisition only allows romance with select main story characters. And there are quite a few to choose from--including those in your party. In my game my character was with Cullen. Each character has a different kind of romantic relationship to offer, so depending on who you want your character to be, you can find someone that really fits your character's personality… or your personality. That said, if you start romancing other people at the same time in the beginning of the game and then choose someone out of the bunch later in the game, you may find that once people start finding out, one of the other people you romanced might be slightly bitter about your new relationship.
+ Team Options - The only complaint I really have about your immediate team is that you can only have 3 of them besides yourself on your party at any given time. I get why this is, but I still think, in order to get a good sampling of skills, the party would be better with just one more member. What I do love about the team options though is how customizable they are. Your team starts out small--Cassandra and you. Then you add Varric and Solas. As time goes by you gain many more members, and all of them have customizable skills and equipment. I have made many a custom weapon or armor for one of myself or my party members. Later in the game, each member also has an individually specialized skill path that is theirs and their alone--making them special in their own way. Sometimes it's tricky finding who works best with each other, and who works best with you. You might find yourself excluding someone pretty much all together because they don't have much to add to your party because of who your character is. For example, I usually exclude Sera because my character is a better archer, and include Cole instead. On the other hand, my version of Vivienne has mostly lightning magic, Dorian has mostly spirit magic, and Solas has a mix of healing and party support magic, so being as diverse as they are, I sometimes choose to put them all in a group when facing undead enemies. Don't get these three near a a large animal that's minding his own business, however, as they often don't know which direction to aim their staffs, and you'll find yourself fighting everything nearby because of their stupidity--even Solas. And though their magic compliments each other well, their personalities clash horribly, and conversations between these three are almost unbearable, whereas Ironbull and Blackwall act like bros from the second they meet each other. Their party conversations are often hilarious, and they fight well together. Now, with all that, if for some reason your own character gets on your nerves or you die, have no fear, you can fight as another member of your party.
+ Glitches & Game Issues - One of the main weird factor moments of this game are the many glitches than can occur. Usually the game corrects itself after the glitch, but once and a while, it doesn't. Most often my glitches occurred when my rogue (an archer) used a specific skill that would fire off a shot at an enemy and then make her flip backwards. If I had my stick aimed down, sometimes she would flip so far back that it would glitch and she would literally fall off the world, even when she was in a place that only had mountains, buildings and other solid ground. This particular glitch was reoccurring, and when she finished falling and dying (maybe), my character came back to her original spot with a significant chunk of health taken out of her character. This was actually a huge annoyance a couple times, since the game allows your character to move anywhere there's open space with very little restriction. I once backflipped across a railing at an elven temple and ended up two levels down and in a totally different room than the one my other party members were fighting in. Then there was the mechanism to lower the dam and drain the caves. Someone copy and pasted the mechanism and forgot to animate it, so it looked like my character was pushing this rotating bar and walking through another. The most severe glitch I experienced was when I was in an elven tomb and had Dorian energize a veil fire lamp. Immediately, the game threw me into some alternate game dimension where my character and her party were walking through weird floating polygons and a raised room with skeletons, and no way out. And if you ventured to far in a certain direction, you would seemingly fall off the world in this weird dimension and then be put back in it afterwards. I had to reload the game.
+ Customizable Options - This game has an amazing range of stuff that can be customized--from people's skills, to their weapons and armor, and even your relationship with each of them. Too often in open world games, you can't make items quite as good as the ones you find around places. Inquisition isn't like that. Sure, you'll find a lot of stuff, and some of it will be a lot better than the stuff you have, but I've often found that the stuff I made for many of my characters was far better in quality than a lot of the stuff I found. You can also customize how you play the game. With the exception of the main quests, you can kind of pick and choose which quests you do in what order, and which part of the world you want to explore. And even among many of the main quests, there are big choices that you have to make that will affect how you end up playing your game--choosing templars or mages, figuring out who should die in the rift, and deciding if you want someone to join your cause. In fact, there is so much in this game, that I'm not entirely sure how I could ever do it all. I will say, the one thing that was done less well in the customizable features was the ability to customize voices. There are two of each. Two male, two female, which make 4 total. On top of that, only one of the female voices really felt like it was something I was okay with hearing speak for several hours/days of gameplay. This was a bit disappointing to me, since there are 4 different races to choose from. Truly, I think each gender should've had around 8 different voices to choose from (2 for each race) just to give some real variety.
+ Storyline and Replay value - The beginning of this game is the same thing over and over… and over again, so the replay value truly isn't very high. In fact, most of the first act is like that. You do a lot of the same stuff over and over. That changes, though, when you decide to choose sides and back either the mages or the templars. Immediately your decisions start carrying weight, and by the end of the first major battle, you realize that your crew has truly been through something unique, because their attitudes towards you warm up quite a bit. Instead of being mindless computer drones, they actually seem to think and feel. What I will say about this story is that it's very well written at points, but it has problems executing. Minor missions and things like nobel parties mixed with battles is something the game does well. It loves puzzles. It has hours and hours of puzzles--thankfully not all are required. It's the major missions really that are the problem, which is… well…. bad. Inquisition has this thing where it seems to fear actually letting people win a battle… or actually do a battle at all. Cutscenes take the place of a couple big events, which is really bothersome. It almost diminishes your hard work--and that's from me, someone who loves the story way better than the game itself. That said, if you like stories, the payoff is still pretty big, especially if you decided to take the time to pursue one of the many possible romantic relationships in the game. I also like how the game tailors itself around your character. Depending on what race and class you are, your companions will react differently to you. Some even react slightly different depending on your gender when it comes to personal story lines. Overall, the replay value is still pretty high, as long as you can get through the beginning.
+ Carry over - Like a lot of games that have become franchises, Inquisition has characters that carry over from the pervious games. You'll be happy to know that several characters from Dragon Age 2 show up in Inquisition, and sad to know that Fenris is not one of them. Sorry, girls. Though, if you load a world state from a different dragon age game, its possible relationships in past characters could become a subject of conversation at some point. :)
+ Battle Mechanics - The last thing I really wanted to hit on is something that a lot of people take for granted in these kinds of games. Inquisition has probably one of the best battle mechanics--better than Skyrim and better than Fable 3. The only other game I've played that has it beat is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and that's only because Reckoning has quite possible the best made battle mechanics, as well as the most customizable, of any game ever. Inquisition isn't really that far behind, because its also highly customizable, and allows you to switch between party members in the middle of a fight, on the fly.
- Overall Impression - This game isn't something you should get just to "beat it." It'll make you miserable, because it's so involved and you just can't immerse yourself in it in just a few hours… or even a day or two. Dragon Age doesn't really work like that. But for someone who's looking for a great story and a game that's not all about level grinding or finding monsters around every bend, you'll love this game. The characters in this game bring it to life like only a couple I have ever played. I would recommend it to most anyone who likes role playing video games.
