Dragon Age™ Inquisition

Before you get this game, I would recommend getting a console. I do not under any circumstances recommend this game for PC as they force you to use their launcher and then monitor your game play. Even the 4th iteration wasn't this invasive. EA has ruined me for Bioware games.

If you like the Dragon Age series or adventure/action RPGs you will enjoy this game. Unlike the faux sequel” of Dragon Age II (which was done on the cheap and reused the same graphic locations excessively because it was rushed out in one year) EA & BioWare aimed to correct that mistake by making this game environment vastly bigger and richer. It’s really big. It has multiple areas to unlock which increase in difficulty as you level up as a player. The outdoor environments are magnificent. They are gorgeous and set in every imaginable type of terrain: snowy mountains, rocky deserts and valleys, mountainous meadows, coastlines, underground caverns (the Deep Roads) and there is even an underground ocean. All areas have at least one, often several rivers, streams, waterfalls, lakes and/or oceans. Some landscapes are even studded with red lyrium. (A gem that creates power for magic.) It’s a really impressive graphical world to hang out in for a couple of hundred hours. They’ve kept the best parts of the past games, the fighting system and some of the old characters. Alas, in an attempt to appeal to uhh, less sophisticated players, the battle system for spells/attacks has been drastically simplified compared to earlier games. You are limited to ONLY EIGHT major spells or attacks. This is one of my few major criticisms, there could have been 10 or 12 or even 20. Apparently the idea was for the player to “customize” their spells depending on the upcoming enemy. Another major simplification is that, while mana (energy for magic) and stamina (energy for warriors/rogues) have meters, there is no way to instantly restore them with potions like in previous games. It’s designed to be easy for those who just want to fight and do little else. There is a Tactical View camera but I found that a bit hard to work. Still, pausing the battle is easy and very handy at times in hard fights. Sometimes it’s fun to control the other characters. If you get tired of casting spells and just want to smack someone you can easily switch characters during battles by clicking on their icon/portrait on the heads-up display and play your warrior or your rogue. The “tactics” screen (customizable AI controlled actions characters take automatically when you’re not directly controlling them such as “at what level of low health should an NPC take a health potion?”) is also greatly (excessively IMHO) simplified from the previous Dragon Age games. Also, if you’ve played earlier Dragon Age games, now potions are things you get for free in camp but ONLY the basic health potions. There is no more finding potions as “loot.” You can only carry a limited supply of potions and grenades. They make up for this lack by putting "supply crates" in areas with prolonged exploring and fighting where travelling back to camp to resupply is not an option. BUT, it only refills you 10 basic health potions, not your other potions or grenades. (This is a drawback.) There are buffs like belts that allow a few more, but they’re hardly worth it compared to other powers that come with rings, belts and amulets. You can eventually upgrade your potions' powers with "stuff." You will spend a lot of your time gathering SO MUCH sh*t (uh.. I mean resources)…. Hides/leathers, metals, plants of all types, and minerals for ‘crafting’ of weapons, armor, potions, grenades, and things called “requisitions” where they just need you to collect, yet more sh*t… uh objects. So, my advice is collect *everything* you pass even if you don't need it yet. It only takes literally one second and it'll save you time and money later. When you get enough money from selling things you can buy the most necessary plants in mass quantities. They made it pretty easy to collect things, you don’t have to be RIGHT NEXT to it, if the dot is showing you can right click anywhere on the object to collect it and move on in less than a second as soon as the collecting animation starts. The animations for fighting, which is mostly just mouse/controller clicking on either spells or bad guys, are really fun to watch and the animations get more impressive as you level up. One of the puzzle aspects of the game is just trying to find your way around the damn maps. It’s not just left and right, but up and down. The maps are so complex. The 2D map views can be as confusing as they can be helpful. Sometimes you really have to look around to find the path to an object that seems, at first glimpse easy to find. Often it’s not. It’s on the top of some rocks and you need to find the way up. Or it’s underground and you need to find a tunnel. Sometimes it’s frustrating, but that’s part of the challenge. Like a lot of really complex games you may need to just start playing it for a while, then when you really understand how everything works, restart the game (That’s what I often do.) All these complex RPG games have a learning curve. (I still end up using search engines for answers in-game on things *all the time!*) Learn how the “radar” search system works to find things. It really helps. One improvement is that EA/Bioware has cut out a lot of pointless conversations that you used to forced to do repetitively just to buy or sell items. Now you can just click on wares. Yet, there is still a lot of depth in the dialog for those who are more story oriented if you want it. In fact you can spend game points to make the conversations deeper, if that’s your thing. To reduce tedium, many of the quests are easy to finish and don’t ALWAYS require you to go back to the person or place where you started. You do the action or collect the items and … poof… you’re just done in many cases. There are gobs of fast-travel options also in this game which also reduces the tedium of retracing your steps, even from and to places within a map or a castle. This can also save you from getting lost. Like all Dragon Age games there is a ton of lore and things to read. I find all game lore contrived so I just skim it, but that’s just me. Like all games it’s frustrating early until you level up a bit and figure out the systems. Just know that the main purpose of the “war room” is simply to unlock new areas. Once you do, be sure to avoid fighting in places that are above your level. (every opponent’s level is clearly labeled as you attack them.) Also avoid any fights with “rifts” (part of the plot) that are above your level as you will lose fights for sure and get frustrated. This game will keep you VERY busy. Like I said at the start, it’s BIG. Really, really big. Often you will spend your time just searching for things to complete many different collections. But, because the maps are so complex, that’s a challenge, even if it is sometimes a bit frustrating. You will feel proud of yourself when you finish quests such as that (like finding all the lost gears in the Deep Roads). While no triple A quality game, especially one this big, is perfect, there are glitches (my rogues kept turning into white outlines) and frustrations (it’s hard to find things on the map, sometimes you think there’s a bug when something is just particularly hidden) that are inevitable. That said, Dragon Age Inquisition is a massive, well-made action RPG game that is will keep you busy for several hundred hours if you play all the available content and make a good-faith effort to complete all the tasks & quests. Between all the fights, just exploring the many amazing, varied beautiful outdoor landscapes in this game is fun.

"Sometimes the Maker is kind." - Cassandra Pentaghast =================================================================== At first, I played this Game because I saw that Dragon Age: Inquisition was the first GOTY winner of The Game Awards. So, I was wondering what made the first TGA's GOTY got its title and to my surprise (and this is my really honest opinion) it didn't give me a "great" Gaming Experience in the early parts of the Game. I'm saying this while also comparing to other "great" GOTY Games from that Era like Skyrim and The Witcher 3. One of the most "frustrating" bad UXs was that if I forgot to turn on my controller but the Game was already on, I was only able to use back the controller after I restarted the Game. With that in mind, even a small thing at the start, I was skeptical about the GOTY status for this Game. BUT, as I played the Game through the Story, I must say that I understand why this Game was considered as one of the "greats". The content, especially the Story, is huge! Meaning, there are many things that the Players do that can make even a seemingly insignificant NPC change dialogues because the situation had changed. I was amazed on how the details of the world-building could make the Game feel more "alive". What I liked the most out of this is that there's a chance that one of the Companions (other Playable Characters) leave the Players' side if they make a lot of mistake or response with a lot of "bad" answers. Heck, even the Side Stories that you can read from the books/papers scattered all over the world can make up an entirely new Game Story by themselves. Other than that, the Combat is kind of "meh", yet it's still good enough with the many options of Skills and Classes this Game provides. Plus, with 9 playable Companions that you can set up to make the Combat more fun with many combos and tactics. The visual is acceptable for a Game from 2014, though some parts of the world I found seem "unfinished" asset-wise, it was overshadowed by the fact that this Game has lots of areas to explore. So yeah, I guess it's GOTY-worthy in a way, and I still enjoyed the overall Gameplay a lot. =================================================================== I'm gonna give this Game "The Anchor" out of "The Veil".

si

This game has not aged well at all. It's like Dragon Dogma 2 but not quite, and that game falls off hard halfway through. I would return it if I could.

You won't be able to launch the game unless you're using the EA launcher, and you can't use the EA launcher because it doesn't launch anything. Do not waste your money, go to GOG or literally anywhere else.

As one of those weirdos that loves DA2, Inquisition takes me a bit getting used to, but getting it on sale and some slight tinkering to set it up on the steam deck makes for an amazing experience!

Game with many flaws, but still one of my favorites.

Algo lento al principio, pero escala hasta ser... bueno, un goty

Some of the most compelling companions ever crafted for a video game.