By Sam Coles:
Dragon Age is a series that I hold close to my heart as the
original got me through tough times when I was at a low point when I was doing
my A-levels. It was a place I could escape to where I could be a hero and
people needed my help and it made feel good, I bought Origins back in early
2010 from Blockbuster (yes that long ago) and put it in my 360 and fell in
love. The year after I bought 2 on my 18th birthday and I really
enjoyed it compared to other fans as they didn’t like it I liked it though, it
would be another 3 years until we got the third instalment and it is one of my
favourite RPG’s of all times.
Dragon Age Inquisition takes place a few years after the
second game and it takes place in Ferelden and Orlais so you have a massive
world to explore compared to the first two games. The continent is threaten by
a new threat that is not the Dark Spawn this but instead a large portal in the
sky dubbed the Breach is allowing demons from the Fade to leak through and
letting them kill everyone. Compared to the first two games this game has a straight
forward plot with a focused threat unlike the other games where you had a vague
idea who you were fighting and I like this as you have a focus on the goal.
Dragon Age Inquisition’s gameplay is a mixture of the first
and second game so you can go for the more tactical approach from Origins which
is recommended if you’re playing on harder difficulties or you can use the real
time system of 2 which I prefer. You are also the leader of the Inquisition so
you have to delegate missions to your spies to gain resources and power. Power
plays an important role in this game as you need it to progress through the
main story as it is the only way you can discover new areas, how you gain power
is doing certain missions for factions, closing breach gates or establishing
camps in regions to telegraph a presences.
You really do feel as if you’re a leader of a powerful
empire as you establish your forces across the kingdom and there are parts
where you get to judge prisoners on your throne as well as being able to
execute them if you choose that fate. The only real problem I have with the
gameplay are the timers you have to wait for when you send agents throughout
the land and these can range from 30 minutes to 3 hours! Fortunately these do
run down in real time and will tick down even when you turn the console off.
Visually the game looks fantastic with its environments
however character models look very stilted and look unnatural when the engage
in conversation unless they are in scripted cutscenes. The game runs on DICE’s
Frostbite 3 engine and it looks spectacular with the particle effects from
magic spells and explosions coupled with the beautifully detailed environments
from the forests of the Hinterlands to the frost laden mountains of Haven. You
can’t deny the beauty of this game if you ignore the character models.
Dragon Age Inquisition is a fantastic game that you must
play if you are an RPG fanatic which will keep you occupied for hours upon
hours. It was a huge step up from the second game despite me liking the second
game it did have its flaws but it was good but Inquisition captures the sparks
of the original. If you have an Xbox One, PS4 and PC I would highly recommend
if you haven’t played this classic, it is on the 360 and PS3 but they look very
ugly this was during the period where they were still shoe horning games on those
machines so get it on the PS4 and the One if you want the full experience.
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