Dragon Age Inquisition
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: EA
Platforms: Xbox One (version reviewed), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows PC
The first thing you realise when starting to play Dragon Age Inquisition is just how big this game is, although it is not an open world game like Skyrim the game world feels about the same size but feels more full. Everywhere you go there is something to do from solving someone’s problems to collecting crafting materials. Despite this very few of the missions are the fetch quests that you would expect.
Bioware has gone back to the typical save the world plotline after their experiment with the story structure from Dragon Age 2, they haven’t taken many chances with the story as it follows the traditional Bioware Cliché structure. To be honest this doesn’t take away from the game as the story is enjoyable and does throw in some twists that I didn’t expect. Where the game really shines is in the world and characters, the longer you immerse yourself in the world the more you begin to find yourself caring about what happens to the world and the characters in it. You will get more from this if you have played the previous two games, as seeing the people you met in them and seeing how your decisions effected the world. As the game bridges two generations of consoles Bioware came up with a new way of importing your decisions even if you played the previous games on a different console.
The controls are a mixture of the two games before it with a few differences. For the first time in the series you are now able to jump which makes navigating the huge world a little easier. Due to this change the main attack is on RT which can be a little jarring but it doesn’t take long to get used to the change. The other big change is the introduction of the Tactical view from the PC version of Dragon Age Origins, this is a completely optional view which pauses the game and allows you to give orders to your party. This isn’t necessary on the lower difficulties however to succeed at higher difficulties the AI isn’t able to survive by itself.
The game doesn’t do everything right, it gates off certain missions behind a power mechanic which you gain by completing quests. This feels like an unnecessary way of increasing play time, likely done as they want everyone to experience more of the game. The game also has quite a few bugs like your character being launched into the air or across the map whilst trying to attack and characters appearing out of nowhere and clipping into things. The worst of these bugs though is the game stopping during conversations, if this does happen to you leave the game running as it does eventually keep going after a few minutes.
The achievements are very doable as they are mostly just experience everything the game has to offer with the hardest being the difficulty achievements. In theory it is possible to get the full 1000G in one playthrough if you are willing to go through the game on the hardest difficulty first time round.
Overall this game is amazing and makes up for the missteps of Bioware’s previous two games (Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3) and if you have a spare 100 hours this game is a must buy and really is a game you have to experience for yourself. Be warned though if you have not played the previous games in the series, and even if you have but haven’t read the books / comics, there will be a lot you will be confused about and may want to read up on to catch up.
9.5 / 10
*Review originally done for www.thegamesden.com
4.5