Dragon Age Inquisition was never officially released in India and that's why I really didn't have much hope that I'd ever get to play the third iteration of one of my favorite Videogame series of all time. But then something truly unexpected happened a few weeks back as Epic Games Store decided to give away the Game of the Year Edition of Dragon Age Inquisition for free, for a limited time. And with that, they just provided the only legitimate way that someone from India could actually buy and play the game, and that's exactly how I finally got to play Inquisition, the game I had wanted to play since the day it came out back in 2014.
And after spending quite a substantial amount of time with the game (though it's really microscopic in comparison to the total amount of playtime that Inquisition offers) I think I can finally give my honest viewpoint on the game--the things it does well and what it doesn't. But first off, I have to admit that after having read lots of negative aspects of the game over the years like it's MMO-styled and watered down combat (in comparison to Origins and Dragon Age 2's) along with a colossal amount of fetchquests----these had me a bit worried about the game but after actually playing thorough it, I can safely say that I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I initially thought I would.
Sure the game does throw a LOT at you, from it's gigantic levels that have a feeling of endlessness to them to it's choke full of sidequests that do feel really overbearing at first, but as the World is designed with so much care and attention to detail it actually ends up feeling pretty good and inviting to roam around doing it all. Plus it's Dragon Age, one of my favorite Videogame series' of all time. During my playtime, I was feeling a lot of genuine nostalgia in the game which reminded me of many areas from Origins, as Inquisition embodies that same awe inducing feeling of high fantasy and fascinating World building that was a hallmark of Origins'. This was one of the high points of my time with the game that really took me back more than a decade ago.
But now about the most important part of the game which is the gameplay itself and this is where Inquisition falls short of both Origins and Dragon Age 2 (even more so) as it tries to combine the best aspects of both but comes close to neither the tactical finesse of Origins nor the high octane bursts of excitement that was DA 2's combat system. Instead it lands somewhere in the middle and ends up being a clunky and oftentimes boring slog that made me miss the constant enjoyment of DA 2's combat all the more. Honestly, the combat in DA 2 was better than Inquisition by a landslide and much more fluid and tactical at the same time, in fact most of the systems Inquisition tries to improve on actually goes against it.
For example the Tactical Camera is a bloated and ultimately pointless addition that makes everything unnecessarily complex during the combat, to the point that I didn't even bother to use it that much. Also, the targeting mechanism is abysmal in this game, and can be downright frustrating during a heated battle as you try to switch your target. The Companions can't be given orders like it was in the past Dragon Age games, well it's certainly possible but far more arduous and un-intuitive than it ever was in both Origins and 2. In those earlier games, it truly felt like you were part of a team and can work out cross-class combos that felt satisfying and rewarding but in this one, it's just not worth the hassle.
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| While vibrant and colorful, the combat is easily the worst part of Dragon Age Inquisition |
It's honestly disheartening to see Bioware going from a near-perfect combat system in Dragon Age 2 to an almost-broken one in Dragon Age Inquisition and while it can be still enjoyable (though to a much lesser degree), it breaks down in pieces as soon as the going gets tough. For the most part, the combat in Inquisition is a joyless romp and a significantly inferior version of it's predecessors. Frankly, the only thing that keeps me going is the prospect of leveling up so I can unlock another cool ability for my character.
But there are some things that Dragon Age Inquisition does remarkably well, and what I think of as truly evolutionary for the RPG genre as a whole and it's how Bioware has managed to fuse both Attributes and Abilities together in this game. Instead of manually distributing stat points in every level, your Abilities will now unlock Attribute points themselves. This is something that may not be a favorite for a lot of people, but I for one, do think it's an evolution of the earlier system that we're accustomed to and is far more streamlined without sacrificing it's depth in any way.
The visuals are also the most rich and aesthetically inspired the series has ever seen. Thedas truly comes to Life in this game and is just an all around visual feast that's as enchanting as it's memorable. Dragon Age Inquisition is honestly one of the best and most realistic looking games I've ever played where state-of-the-art visuals are evenly complemented by vivid Art Direction and a vibrant sense of aesthetics that stays in your memory long after you've stopped playing. There are a lot of moments in the game that seems like a painting brought to Life, especially some of the distant views and landscapes. Art Direction is always something that Bioware is a master of, crafting some of the most compelling, high-fantasy landscapes that captures the imagination of the players and Inquisition may just be the highest example of it, until their next game Dragon Age: The Veilguard arrives, of course.
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| Dragon Age Inquisition is a sumptuous Visual feast that still holds up to this day... |
But too bad the game's high sense of visuals are met with an unsatisfactory and lackluster combat system which doesn't do the former justice. I'm leaving out the Story entirely cause even though it ticks all the boxes that an epic, sprawling, high-fantasy story tries to deliver, it somewhat lacks the heart and emotional depth that was present in Bioware's greatest games. So I'll just leave it at that.
Another aspect that really separates Inquisition from the best Bioware games is that in those titles, even the most insignificant of side quests had something meaningful to add to the overall story, the individual character arcs or to the Worldbuilding. But in this game, most of the side quests are just quests that add nothing else to the overall experience besides the XPs. These are some of the ways that makes Inquisition feel much more emptier than the earlier games, despite having the biggest and most dense Worlds among them all. It's just how the earlier titles managed to wrap the player into those Worlds----and that's what's missing.
Anyway, these are what I think of Dragon Age Inquisition after playing quite a bit of it. While it's still Dragon Age, the game makes me miss DA 2 despite everything else it does so well such as the levels and the characters. Inquisition has far more content but the past games had more soul and looking back it really seems that they did and achieved more with less. Let's just hope the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard gets the balance right again.
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