Dragon Age Inquisition Review

dragon age inquisitionIf there’s one thing that Dragon Age Inquisition does especially well, it’s world building. While the first game in the series, Dragon Age Origin, felt like “Tolkien for Adults,” Inquisition seems to model its world and lore a bit more after George RR Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. Different races and factions have deep, complex histories, with their own myths and legends, and very different accounts of how certain events occurred. When it comes to the various religions and supernatural forces that make up the Dragon Age world of Thedas, all of it is presented with uncertainty. Like the giants and children of the forest in Game of Thrones, it is unclear to the majority whether or not these things actually existed or are simply stories.

This same uncertainty clouds your own character and your quest. After somehow surviving a physical entry into the fade (Dragon Age’s spirit realm) and receiving a powerful mark on your hand from a ghostly woman, the world at large becomes convinced that you are the earthly representation of Andraste (essentially the messiah-martyr of Dragon Age’s leading religion). Somewhat less certain of these beliefs is your character, who eventually gets lifted up to lead the Inquisition against spirit-world breaches that have appeared in the sky. If you like, you can play the game like a fantasy version of Life of Brian, frequently insisting that you are not the messiah while the people around you believe anyway.

In addition to how you handle your messianic status, Dragon Age gives you a wealth of options for how you would like to define yourself and your inquisition. Like the Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect series, the Dragon Age series is developed by Bioware, a developer renowned for their increasingly complex player decisions. Here, they have dropped the “morality” system that drives most of their other series, so it is up to the player to decide whether what they have done is “good” or “bad” or somewhere in between. Your decisions are more about function than your interest in becoming a Jedi or a Sith.

The alliances you make and the enemies you provoke can have a drastic impact on the world at large, as can your own race and magical inclinations, or lack thereof. Regardless of whether you are importing decisions from previous games (through a somewhat convoluted system on the Dragon Age website, which you need to be aware of prior to starting your game) or starting fresh (as I, somebody unaware of the aforementioned system, did), the world of Thedas changes significantly based on your actions here.

In addition to the world-building, Dragon Age contains a wonderful cast of characters who are not broadly defined by the fantasy-archetypes of their races. Varric the Dwarf, for instance, is a prolific author of pulp adventure stories and romances, despite hailing from a civilization that does not read. Sera the Elf rolls her eyes at traditional Elf beliefs and is terrified by magic, while elf-mage Solas is fascinated by the fade and willing to take magic as far as it can possibly go. Meanwhile, human mage Vivienne represents the mages who believe magic needs to be reigned in and controlled by the templars. This isn’t even touching on Iron Bull and his unusually progressive order of warriors called The Chargers, or Grey Warden Blackwell and his secret, or gay exiled mage Dorian, or devout knight Cassandra, or corporeal spirit Cole. The game is absolutely brimming with interesting characters, each with their own motivations and associated quests.

This does not mean that Dragon Age Inquisition is flawless. Despite a much-improved combat system which emphasizes diverse teams of specialized fighters, Inquisition runs into trouble with its side quests. On the positive side, this game is utterly enormous. I tried to complete every single quest in the game and, aside from a few that glitched and would not allow me to finish, I succeeded. This took me 151 hours, according to the in-game counter. However, I’d be lying if I said that all of that time was well-spent. A significant number of quests amount to nothing more than finding icons on a map, picking them up, then going to another point on the map and dropping them off. This game is a major victim of what I call “dotted map syndrome” (you can read about that here), and while the busy work incentivizes exploration, it ultimately makes the game feel bloated.

Another problem stems from what is, at first glance, a very clever and innovative progression system.  In Inquisition, you unlock new story missions using “Power,” which you achieve by completing side quests and collecting items for “requisitions,” theoretically empowering your army and home fort. The idea is that even casual players will have to explore the world and complete side quests to move on, and that players can pick and choose which side quests appeal to them.

If you intend to play Inquisition just to get through it, this is a good system. However, everything else about the game seems designed for complete player immersion. The developers are hoping that you will devour every piece of lore and history and learn everything there is to learn about the characters. The game allows for that, but while doing so improves the game in some ways, it weakens it in others. For one, the side quests are not gradually introduced. There are two different points in the game where the developers simply drop half of the side content on your lap at once. In each case, completionists will spend 40 hours or more checking items off a list, collecting items and reading lore while occasionally chatting with their team members. Meanwhile, the imminent threats to the world get to sit on the back-burner. It’s a whole lot of veggies to get through before getting to the meat of the game.

The other problem that emerges from this system is that, while some content is available after the game is completed, some is not. So, if you want to be sure to complete everything in the game, you need to complete it all before the final mission. The problem here is that completing all of the side quests makes your party far more powerful than necessary for the end. Just looking at the “Power” points that unlock missions, I ultimately obtained more than double the number needed to unlock everything in the game. Meanwhile, my characters were all levels 23 and 24 by the final mission, which recommended the player to be between levels 16 and 19. Corypheus is supposed to be one of the greatest threats the world of Thedas has ever known, but after slaying every dragon in the world, he seemed like something of a pushover, a formality to get through to close out the story.

This feeling of anti-climax is even stronger due to the weakness of the game’s ending (you can see me finish it, while eating a sandwich, here). It’s not that it disappoints, per se, but that it’s predictable and unremarkable. It feels cheap that the aftermath of your actions are narrated over still images, and while the post-credits sequence is a highly intriguing twist, it’s ultimately just a teaser for future games in the series.

Despite these flaws, there is enough greatness in Dragon Age Inquisition to make it notable. It received various “Game of the Year” awards in 2014, and there’s certainly an argument that it was the highlight of the (somewhat lackluster) year. After three titles, the Dragon Age series has grown from a flawed germ of an idea into a force to be reckoned with, much like the titular inquisition. With just a few tweaks, a sequel could be a true masterpiece.

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