Dragon Age: Inquisition is the first great next-gen RPG

THE latest Dragon Age game, Inquisition is finally out. Will this finally push traditionally geeky RPG games to the masses?

Dragon Age: Inquisition will be one of the biggest games of the year.

HOW to talk about a Bioware game in anything less than 1500 words? The studio that created the Mass Effect series just don’t make small games. With hundreds of hours worth of content in their newest opus, Dragon Age: Inquisition, it’s a hard game to give a short review, but here goes.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is the third instalment in the Dragon Age series, a mature, high-fantasy world that asks players to create their own character then shape the story based on their decisions. This entry is no different but it is bigger, much bigger. In terms of story, this is the hardest aspect to review. The main plot, if you ignore side missions (who does that?), is purportedly around 50-60 hours, making it hard to judge the quality of the story as a whole, because I haven’t finished it yet.

What I’ve experienced so far sets up some intriguing mysteries and has a very compelling starting point that greatly changes the balance of the Dragon Age universe from previous games (though aspects may go over the head of players who are new to the series).

The short version is that after a massive explosion that interrupts peace talks between the mages and templars, a large tear appears in the sky (affectionately referred to as the Breach) and demons start pouring into our world from the fade (where they’ve previously been bound). Your character, whomever you choose that to be, restarts an age-old organisation called the Inquisition to figure out what happened and hunt down the culprit. You could write a book in itself (or a 200+ hour game) with the intricacies of the plot so we’ll move on. Suffice to say, you’re hooked from the moment you start a new game.

Like fantasy role playing games?

The exciting part of Inquisition, the first on next-gen consoles, is the beautiful world that has been created. Open world areas have some stunning design and each has a unique identity to stop them feeling copy pasted. On the other side of the design coin comes the gameplay, which takes the best aspects from the previous two games and combines them into a game that, arguably, surpasses either. Debates will rage drunkenly into the night for years to come on this point but it’s hard to deny the world feels larger, more populated, organic and reactive. I say reactive because the NPCs and creatures that fill each environment, and even the environments themselves, are affected by the actions of you and your Inquisition. Whether you are an evil overlord or a benevolent leader, your choices affect your character, the world and your companions reactions to you.

Dragon Age: Inquisition will be one of the biggest games of the year.

There are some niggles though, the tactics mode: an in-depth menu from the previous games that let you dictate your AI companion’s behaviour in combat depending on certain criteria, has been pared back drastically. Many returning players will have a problem with this but it’s not likely to be an issue for newcomers. Additionally, there have been reports of the control scheme being terribly poor when playing on computer using the mouse and keyboard, though using a USB controller circumvents this problem. I’m playing it on an Xbox One and found the controls to be perfectly fine, which is likely due to Bioware optimising the experience for consoles.

I could talk about this game until the cows come home but if you’re looking for the first next generation RPG that’s worth your money, this is it.

Originally published as Dragon Age: Inquisition is the first great next-gen RPG