By Will McCurdy
Editor-in-Chief Assistant
After Bioware finished their “Knights of the Old Republic” series and making the iconic space RPG “Mass Effect,” they took the role playing genre back to its Tolkien-based roots, with “Dragon Age” being the end result.
Although not a perfect series in terms of mechanics and story, with its first game, the series provided an expansive world where every choice mattered and the lore of the game was shown. However, it was largely unexplored unless goaded by player prerogative and downloadable content.
The second game was less than thrilling with the story being much smaller than the original, to the point where it could be realistically beaten in a long gaming session without the side quests. Non-player characters (NPCs) weren’t all that developed with the game making one side against the invaders who are honestly quite a bit more reasonable than their human and elven counterparts. The story was less immersive than the first and it may as well have been called “Dragon Age: Sequel Hook.”
As a longtime fan of the series, it is quite a bit to say that the newest installment, Inquisition, though odd, is the best of the games that has come out so far. The base is fairly straightforward as after the destruction of a peace talk, the main character is made the game’s version of “the chosen one” by virtue of being in the right place and helped out with a deus ex machina right off the bat. Freedom of race and class choice is even more expansive than in the first game with NPCs coming back stronger than ever, but one can get a tad distracted with the new design that makes their skin glisten like they just came back from a charity run. In addition to this, they make the other races seem more human with the once intimidating race of horned, gigantic Qunari appear to be cosplayers displaying character romanticizing at its finest.
Rather than hold the player’s hand even on easier difficulties, the game makes itself a challenge with pre-planned combat becoming a necessity against foes that may be weaker than the player one minute and kill the entire party in one strike the next with little room for error as a human bandit group can set up camp in rather dangerous proximity to a dragon that breathes lightning. In addition there’s an element of side quest delegation that involves an almost bureaucratic element that newer games seem to like including. While it adds a bit more to the game by making some missions considerably easier, it also takes a considerable amount of time depending on the mission and thus if not planned carefully can end up being a mess where the player gets caught in a deadly situation with their pants around their ankles.
Despite the flaws, “Dragon Age: Inquisition” is a lovely edition to an already fantastic franchise that will require one to be immensely bored with it or lose all of their appendages before they stop playing.