Now Playing: Dragon Age Inquisition

Dragon Age: Origins was a great game. Dragon Age 2, on the other hand, felt like an alpha build shat out in about 6 months. Which is a shame, because there are elements of DA 2 I enjoyed in terms of story, setting and characters. In some ways, I’d argue that the story of DA 2 is more interesting than in Origins. The story of Origins kept it simple – you are the chosen hero sent to slay the big, bad dragon. DA 2 broke free of this rather generic fantasy plot.

Unfortunately, Inquisition chooses to play it safe, returning to a more simple formula. You are the chosen hero, sent to slay the big, bad guy (plus his pet dragon). It has some good moments, but on the whole, it’s not as good as either Origins or 2. I’m going to try to keep this review as spoiler free as I can in terms of story, but I will get into a few specifics here and there as we go.

You custom build your character from a choice of four races, although sadly the choice of race has little impact on the plot or character interactions. This is something Origins did quite well, with each choice providing not only a unique prologue chapter, but various insights and decisions in relation to the main plot. In Inquisition, the choice of race and background is largely cosmetic.

Your character is the Inquisitor – the hero people believe was sent to save them from an army of invading demons. There are some interesting moments where the game explores whether you really are some kind of ‘chosen’ hero, or whether you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but like I said, Inquisition generally plays it safe. If you’re looking for more depth, nuance or shades of grey, you won’t really find it here. Origins also had a darker tone to it, a little more grit, which applied not only to the story and characters, but also to combat. Inquisition feels far more sanitised by comparison in all of these areas.

So you have your main Story quests and I can’t honestly say that many of them are particularly memorable or interesting, at least in terms of gameplay (there was one story mission which revolved more around the political side of things, which I thought might be very cool, but ultimately it resulted in a lot of tedious running about searching for hidden objects). There are, however, a fantastic series of missions about a quarter of the way into the game. Unfortunately, these represent the high point of the story and everything which follows feels like something of an anticlimax.

Throughout the game you’ll spend time building your organisation – The Inquisition – into a major political and military power. But ultimately, very little of this preparation comes into play in any meaningful way. As a result, all of your efforts towards building the Inquisition feels rather wasted and worthless. As you complete missions in the game you earn ‘Power’ which represents the strength of the Inquisition, but finishing the game with 0 Power or 200 doesn’t make the slightest difference.

For example, you gain the ability to upgrade your stronghold. I expected these improvements to be more than simply cosmetic – something like the upgrades to the Normandy in Mass Effect 2, perhaps resulting in a siege battle where what upgrades you’ve chosen and allies you’ve gained each play their part in shaping the experience. But there’s nothing so dynamic or bold in Inquisition. Choices, large or small, are all largely cosmetic and have little to no impact on the story.

There’s also a serious lack of meaningful consequences to your decisions. At one point you must decide the fate of one of your companions. I chose an option which suggested the Inquisition would incur certain penalties, yet this never occurred. This is a problem with a lot of the decisions in Inquisition. I suppose it stems from not wanting the player to feel penalised for making certain choices, but this results in all of the decisions feeling rather pointless. Like I said, Inquisition can feel sanitised compared to the original. Everything is just a little too neat and tidy for the player.

Even when I had a flurry of ‘X character greatly disapproves’ messages flood my screen after a certain choice, one of those characters then stepped up and simply agreed my decision was for the best. It’s not possible to make the ‘wrong’ choice in Inquisition, or even a ‘bad’ choice in terms of outcome. I really want to see consequences for our choices both good and bad which impact our evolving experience. And seriously, can we cut out the ‘approval’ messages entirely? Let me know if people agree with me by how they act or by what they say, by their expression and tone. It’s distracting and irritating seeing this shit pop up, even for characters who aren’t bloody present.

As for the Story missions in general, they are decent overall, but I never felt as invested in the narrative as I would have liked, although I think this is also due to the way the main quests are structured, which I’ll discuss more in a moment. I should also say that if you take the main story missions alone, there’s not actually very many of them and they don’t last very long. Overall though, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the story of Inquisition, but I was left feeling rather disappointed by it in the end.

I preferred the way the Story quests were structured in the original game. In Origins you had 5 or so main locations each with a single main quest. Side quests would generally all branch from this main quest in the local area. As a result, you always felt you were progressing through the main story as you moved from one area to the next. But in Inquisition, main story quests are only tied to a handful of the large, explorable zones and are mostly played out in mission specific locations you only visit once.

This means that several of the zones play no part in advancing the main story. As a result, working through them, though fun, feels like a bit of a waste of time because you’re not progressing towards your primary goal. They just feel like zones to grind quests and experience in so you can level up for the next Story mission. For the majority of your time, you’ll be grinding through barely (if at all) connected side quests. These make up the bulk of the content and they shift the player’s focus away from the main story far too often and for far too long.

In addition to the Story quests you also have Companion quests, Side quests, Collection quests and what I like to call ‘Chore’ quests. Companion quests tend to vary from good to rather poor – some companions get quite elaborate missions with multiple stages, multiple locations and even unique, one-shot locations, whilst others just get a shitty ‘go kill X of these’ type quests. Side quests are equally a mixed bag but are decent in general. Then we have the Collection quests which I actually quite liked, as they encourage exploration of the game’s large, varied maps and can lead to lots of cool hidden stuff.

The Chore quests are the most basic ones – go kill 10 of these, go collect X of these type stuff with minimal dialogue or motivation. There’s a lot of these and at times it can almost feel like you’re playing an MMO. However, if you find this extra side content repetitive and dull, you can easily skip most of it. In fact, there’s so much content here you can easily complete the game beyond the recommended level (I’m not sure if there’s a cap, but I was level 22) and not even visit a couple of the major zones. If you’re the completionist type, there’s enough content here to keep you busy for quite some time.

So let’s talk about the game’s zones. These are easily the best thing about Inquisition. There are about 10 major zones in all, not including smaller, mission specific areas. These open world zones are massive and full of content, quests, puzzles and hidden areas. Exploration in Inquisition is very rewarding as every area feels hand crafted with tons of details and little touches. The variety is also excellent as you travel from grassy fields, to mountainous areas, to deserts, to coasts, to forests, to marshes and frosty peaks. I really can’t fault Inquisition when it comes to environments. They’re fantastic.

In terms of companion characters, Inquisition does a decent job, but sadly none of them quite live up to those of the Original. There are nine in all, not including your three advisers. If anything, I’d actually argue there are too many and I’d have preferred six companions – two of each class. Why? Well, because there are so many, you’ll barely use some of them, especially those of your own chosen class. You may argue that the number of companions is comparable to Origins, but that’s only if you include the dog and forget about the advisers. Origins also did a far better job of introducing them into the game. I prefer it when companions are recruited as you progress, their arrival tied in some way to the main plot.

But in Inquisition, some companions, even characters I liked such as Iron Bull or Vivienne, just feel like they’re joining you to make up the numbers. Some of them also get very few scenes or interactions with other characters compared to others, not to mention some rather lame companion quests. It feels like a case of quantity over quality, and this is sadly a criticism which you can apply to the game in general. I’d have preferred less companions, but companions with more purpose, more interactions and more depth.

Aside from your party companions you also have three advisers based around military, political and spying. Each has their own little side quest and scenes, some more than certain companion characters, in fact. You can send these advisers onto their own missions to secure resources, unlock new areas and build your power base. It’s a neat little mechanic that gives you the feeling that the Inquisition is a power influencing things beyond your own actions.

Inquisition has far more character and companion customisation than in DA 2 and in some areas than in Origins. You have light, medium and heavy armours, many of which can be enhanced using resources or runes or certain upgrades. These also have a cosmetic effect in terms of colour, although I must say I would have much preferred the cosmetic customisation to be a separate option not tied to stats. Weapons can also be modified in a similar fashion.

Inquisition also features a pretty decent crafting system for weapons and armour, and recipes can be found or bought in the world. It allows you to craft customised, stat specific items (based on what materials you use) which you can then name. This is a great addition but sadly a rather unnecessary one. The majority of the recipes you’ll find are trash compared to gear you’ll pick up on your way. Even some of the high end crafting recipes aren’t much better than dropped gear and not really necessary when it comes to making a difference in combat. So it’s a good system, just a little pointless.

As I mentioned, your base of operation can also be customised but this only really relates to cosmetic stuff like what sort of windows or curtains your prefer. You can also upgrade your potions, tonics and grenades but it’s not something I found really necessary either. You’re very limited by what each character can carry in terms of these items, so you’ll probably just stick with the one or two you prefer and ignore the rest.

So how does Inquisition actually play? Well, it follows DA 2 in the more ‘flashy’ type of combat. As a result, I feel it lacks the impact and weight of Origins. It’s not bad or anything, but that MMO feeling does creep in at times. I can’t say I particularly like the class ability options either as they feel more restrictive than they did in Origins. For example, in Origins I could build a dual wield warrior with a secondary focus on ranged combat and switch between two weapon sets on the fly. That’s in addition to the shield focused tank or two hander DPS role. And then you have four further class specialisations to choose from.

In Inquisition I’m either a sword and board tank or a two hand DPS. Even if I split my skill points between trees, I’m unable to switch gear in combat. A few class specific specialisations spice things up later in the game but it’s definitely not as extensive as the original. Playing as a mage, I also never felt like I had the same amount of tactical options open to me in terms of class and cross-class combos as I did in Origins. It just feels a little more stripped back. There’s also a strange absence of healing magic, although I can’t say it bothered me all that much.

Inquisition has a ‘tactical’ view but it’s bloody terrible and frustrating to use regardless of if you’re using a mouse and keyboard or a gamepad. I totally ignored it and just stuck with pausing the game and issuing specific commands where necessary. Your companions have a decent enough AI in terms of using abilities and positioning, but the companion specific tactics that you could really dig into and customise in Origins are also totally stripped back in Inquisition to a very limited set of ‘behaviours’. Once again, I just didn’t bother with it, whereas in Origins I spent ages setting up dozens of specific triggers for every character.

In general though, the mouse and keyboard controls for Inquisition are okay and you get used to their quirks (no ‘walk’ toggle for example? Why?). That said, I was playing as a ranged character, and I found switching to a melee focused companion very strange and clumsy to control. There’s no auto-attack or automatic move to target so you have to position manually with the keys. You get used to it, but I think if I wanted to play as a warrior or melee rogue I’d probably play with a gamepad, although I’d then probably get irritated by the radial menus and limited ability slots. They really need to improve the mouse and keyboard experience.

In terms of difficulty, Inquisition isn’t very challenging, at least not on Normal. I think I’ll bump it up for my next run. Playing as a mage with the Knight-Enchanter specialisation though, it feels like I pretty much broke the game towards the end as nothing could touch me and I ended up soloing a dragon with relative ease. Speaking of dragons, the dragon fights in this game are great and by far the most interesting battles you’ll have, probably because they’re a little more slow paced so you get to spend more time managing the fight.

What else? The horses are a bit shit, but I think that’s another issue of control. I’d probably enjoy them more with a control pad. You also have a nice variety of mounts to choose from. As you explore the world you’ll establish new camps and even take over entire fortresses. It’s nice to do, but like so much of building up your forces, rather worthless in the end. In terms of bugs, Inquisition has a few, but nothing too terrible, although I did experience several crashes whilst playing, but over 75 hours that’s not too bad.

As for performance in general, Inquisition could certainly do better. I initially ran everything on Ultra and although I could hit 60FPS in some areas, in others it tanked to 20-30. I eventually knocked everything down to High and got a pretty consistent 60 with that aside from a few areas. Annoyingly, you can’t switch and experiment with different options on the fly and have to keep quitting out the game to test stuff. Monitoring my system, Inquisition never really seemed to be pushing it that hard even on Ultra, so I’m not sure what was causing the FPS drop.

Honestly though, even on High, Inquisition is a good looking game with some nice character models, great environments and effects. It’s just a shame some of the character animations, especially in cut-scenes, are so damn bad. They can be very stiff and awkward and it’s something they really need to improve. VA is of a high quality so no complaints there, but the switch to the dialogue wheel still bothers me. I can live with it, I just wish they’d include the option of having the specific line attached to each dialogue choice so I know in advance exactly what my character will say. My other complaint, though a minor one, is not being able to save custom heads in the character creator.

Inquisition also features a multiplayer mode, but I can’t say I was at all interested in playing it. Plus it has f**king micro-transactions. What the f**k? I can understand that shit in free to play titles, but not in AAA full price releases. I’m not going to let this knock my score of the game but they seriously need to cut this shit out.

Wow, this has gone on for a bit, but that’s because there’s so much packed into Inquisition it would be a shame not to try to cover it all. A lot of this sounds more negative than positive, but you know when I write so much about a game it’s usually because it’s a game I like, but I just feel it has a lot of issues holding it back from being great.

Inquisition is a good game and it feels like a real return to form after the terrible Dragon Age 2. It has an almost ridiculous amount of content and though a lot of it may be rather shallow and forgettable, there’s also a lot of really great stuff mixed in there too. No, it’s not as good as Origins, but it does do a few things better and it’s a massive improvement over DA 2. If you want an enjoyable RPG you can sink a ton of hours into I think you’ll find a lot to keep you happy here.

6/10