The game has great longevity, taking me 85 hours to complete, and I had barely explored some of the areas, and skipped tonnes of sidequests. I was also playing on normal difficulty. It would have taken even longer if I'd played on hard. This leads well into the first problem with the game. Playing on hard makes the tactical camera necessary, but it is too unwieldy to be fun, and is more of a hassle than a help, a far cry from the intuitive scroll in/scroll out tactical camera of Origins, which transitions elegantly from third person real time action, to a tactical overview reminiscent of Baldur's Gate and other such older D&D games. Dragon Age Origins streamlined and updated the mechanics well from these older games. Inquisition leaves them all behind. I don't mind the change to a more action focused game, however, the tacked on tactical camera seems to be a pointless artifact. They should have kept the old systems, or simply removed them and focused on improving the other aspects of combat. In Origins you could spend the whole game in the tactical view, if that's what you prefer. Of course, it's technically an optional feature, and it didn't affect my experience too negatively.
Back to longevity, the game is packed with side quests, character progression, War table activities(some need around 24-48 hours to complete. It was always exciting to shut down the game, and come back the next day to see the results), collectables, exploration, dialogue and finding and reading all the codex. All of this adds up to give an insane longevity to the game. I guess some people would see a lot of this as filler, but I never got bored. Not to mention the replayability of the game. I could start a new game, with the same world state as my first playthrough, and have a completely different experience based on my choices in game. But the replayability goes way beyond that. With the Dragon Age Keep website, you can customise all the choices from the previous two games, to alter the world state of Dragon Age Inquisition. I haven't had a chance to change my timeline yet, but I imagine this feature will allow me to squeeze out 3 or 4 more playthroughs. Plus, there are several classes and races to choose which will further alter the gameplay and interactions with the world. It is very easy to see myself spending 300 hours in Inquisition.
My first playthrough of the Mass Effect trilogy took me 90 hours. So this game is nearly as long as the entire Mass Effect trilogy, at least in my experience. And I took my time with Mass Effect. Here's hoping that Mass Effect 4 is as long as Inquisition.
The controls, at first, felt completely unnatural. In most RPGs in the vein of Dragon Age(including the last 2 Dragon Age games), you usually right click on an enemy, and your character will auto-attack with basic attacks, leaving you to concentrate on using spells on the hotbar. Bioware switched the attack button to the left mouse button, and you have to hold the button down, or keep clicking it. Initially I kept pressing the wrong buttons, and it was difficult to focus on casting spells at the same time as attacking. Then I realised it's pretty much the same as third person shooter like Mass Effect. Hold down the left mouse button to shoot, occasionally press number keys to use tech and bio abilities.
It's helped my hand-eye coordination and multi-tasking, but it's not exactly what I was hoping for and expecting. With the truncated tactical camera, and complicated controls, fights felt a lot more frantic than is typical of Bioware fantasy RPGs. I don't mean frantic as in having more exciting battles, responding to threats and smart AI. I mean I almost had to fight the controls and mechanics in order to fight efficiently and effectively in the beginning.
Sure, you can switch the left and right clicks in the options menu, however, Bioware went with the annoying trend in which 1 button has multiple uses bound to it. If you switch the attack to right click, you can no longer use it to rotate the camera, like in the previous two Dragon Age games. Once I got used to the controls I preferred them to the older games, but I dread replaying them, because i'll have to get used to their controls again. After about 15 hours, the controls felt perfect, allowing fights to flow really well, with very few uses of the active pause. I guess like a lot of innovations, people are resistant to change until they give it a chance and feel the benefits.
I really like the main menu screen. It's a looping video of two armies marching towards the starting location of the game, so the first time you play, it gracefully leads you into the setting and story.
I love the fact that the choices I made in the first two games, make it so some players won't experience some of my favourite scenes from the game. And that there are stories, and paths that I haven't experienced, waiting for me in a second playthrough. Although, as previously discussed it is extremely tempting to alter the world state with Dragon Age Keep, in the end I'm not sure if I could bring myself to do it. When I replayed Mass Effect 1, with the intention of taking the opposite actions and choices, I found myself making the exact same decisions as my first playthrough, staying true to the story as I first experienced it. I don't know how to explain it. I felt it undermined/cheapened was my original playthrough. When Garrus died in my ME2 playthrough, it would have taken me 5 minutes to reload, do it again and save him. But I did not. He was one of my favourite characters, but altering the story for my convenience would have felt false, undermined the tragedy of his death, and made continuing feel pointless. And I'm glad I didn't because in ME3, because one of my favourite scenes is reminiscing about Garrus before the final battle. I'm actually replaying Mass Effect 2 at the moment, and I have no idea what I'll do when I reach that point again. I'm excited to experience Mass Effect 3 with Garrus in it, but it'll feel like playing a fan fiction spin off or something.
The Inquisitor is my favourite protagonist yet. Controversially, I preferred Hawke to the Warden. Partially because he/she was fully voice acted, making it easier to connect with the stories and characters. My Warden just felt like an empty avatar, blankly staring silently, while everyone around them chattered and emoted. The strength of the characters and quests were enough to overrule that for me, but it still wasn't ideal.
Near the beginning of the game, you conveniently run into a character who has some very convenient theories, that felt like a hamfisted attempt by the developers to push the story along. By the end of the game however, it makes complete sense and looking back I can see it was a clever and subtle hint, and the devs managed to blindside me.
One thing that surprised me about Inquisition, was that there are a choice of 4 different, fully voice acted options. Even better was that one of them was the voice actor of Specialist Traynor from Mass Effect 3.
On the subject of sound, in videogames, stuff like singing and dancing usually feels cheesy, awkward and out of place. However, there is a moment about 1/3rd of the way in that is really moving. I'm not saying that it's without cheese, but it is timed perfectly and fits right in. I found it a very good way to connect with the faceless soldiers and civilians that you otherwise cannot interact with. Makes them feel more real and raises the stakes.
I also felt the fact that the tavern music relates to the events of the game was a nice touch. The moment you realise who or what a song is about is great.
Some of the facial animation is pretty funky, but that's kind of expected in a game with such extensive facial customisation. Otherwise the graphics are great. Better than I expected for a cross-generational game. I look forward to Biowares next game, which hopefully won't be held back by the last generation consoles.
Inquisition fixes/avoids a lot of the issues from the previous two games. Namely, the dragging Deep Roads and Circle sections of Origins, which dragged abominably and which you were trapped in until you finished the quest; and the rampant recycling of scenes present in DA2. After fighting through the same cave 5 times you start to question the point of it.
In Inquisition, there is a wild variety of sprawling areas, and it is up to you where you go and how long you stay before you leave. There are story missions which, once started, you have to finish, but you can choose exactly when it starts, and they are all exciting and interesting so you don't mind not being able to leave. I remember a few times in Origins when I wished I could leave a mission to go buy more health potions, but with the new health potion system it's not necessary. In most RPGs, including Origins I'm always reluctant to use consumables, because I figure I might need them in the future. Most of the time, this results in me simply never using them. Basically, in Inquisition you have a limit of 8 health potions, which you can replenish at any time by returning to a camp. Doing so, however, makes all enemies respawn, so you can't cheaply use it to get an advantage. It's kind of like Estus flasks in Dark Souls. Anyhow, I think I prefer the new system to the old one, because they are free, can be replenished frequently, and have a limit, so I can't obsessively hoard them; and there isn't really a reason to.
Unlike Origins there aren't any events influenced via the actual gameplay sections, either by action or inaction. For example, in Origins I visited a village under siege by the undead. During the quest, I thought it would be safe to go back to my camp, and return to save the village later, figuring that the game wouldn't move on without my interaction. When I returned however, the village had been wiped out. Nothing like that has happened to me in a game before or since. At the time it blew my mind. I had assumed it would be like all other RPGs, where you have to physically be present to initiate the next part of a quest. I assumed wrong, and my carelessness determined the fate of this village. It certainly made the world feel more real, and the consequences more dire.
I remember an early live demo of Inquisition showing that they had expanded on this idea. Basically your castle was under attack, and you had a certain amount of time to reach it to save it. Along the way you come across a village under attack. You had the option to help it, and risk losing your castle, or leave it, prioritising your castle. And then, further on you came across the ships of the army attacking the village and your castle. You have the option to destroy the ships to prevent them from retreating, or again, ignoring them and continuing onto save the castle. The devs also mentioned that you could simply leave the area, leaving everything to fall. Sadly, they removed this quest and presumably similar mechanics that would have been present throughout the rest of the game. When I reached the credits, and this quest had not yet materialised, I was very disappointed. Logistically, I imagine these sorts of quests would introduce too many variables to juggle and make into a coherent story. But, hopefully one day someone manages it.
In conclusion, I enjoyed the changes made to the formula. Although I love games like Baldurs Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age Origins, I guess I wanted a change, and that's what Inquisition gave me. There are epic moments, both uplifting and crushing. There are smaller, more personal moments that are just as important.
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