Dragon Age: Inquisition

Wait, isn't the anchor on his left hand?
Leave it to EA to get the cover
of their own game wrong

You know, there just really isn't a whole lot to say about this game.  It's good but it's not great or anything like that.

I think the best way to describe this game is that it's like eating macaroni and cheese.  It tastes pretty good and you might even say, "Damn!  That's good!"  But, it's not particularly new or ground breaking in any kind of way.  Sure, it's expanded a bit on what we've seen in other games, but it's not giving hardcore RPG players anything particularly new to cheer about.

Just about everything Dragon Age:  Inquisition does, it does pretty well.  The graphics look like they belong on this generation.  The levels vary in size from one room dungeons to expansive countrysides and coastlines.  Textures look detailed which, considering how large some of the levels are, is pretty impressive how far the technology has come.  Character design is incredibly detailed particularly in the facial features where small scars are evident to the casual cutscene viewer.  In fact, there is no drop in graphical quality between cutscenes and gameplay; which I suppose has become pretty typical at this point.  Most animations are very fluid but the jump animation looks hilarious and horse riding is stiff.  There were a few glitches that I experienced but when someone puts 80 hours into a game, they're bound to find a few.

Where this game falls a little flat is in the combat and plot.  The combat is fine but we're really not experiencing anything new here.  No matter which class you select in the character creation, the controls are the same.  There's one button for normal attacks and the others are for special moves that expend mana/skill points.  Oh and there are also limit breaks, something else that definitely isn't new.  Based on the combat, this game was definitely meant for PC play.  On PS4, you can map eight different special skill/spell slots (X, Circle, Square, Triangle, and L2 + the aforementioned buttons), which I'm certain on PC would be the numbered buttons 1 through 0 or you could simply click the icons like in just about any other PC MMO.  Fortunately, in this game, you will be able to beat the game before even unlocking more than ten special skills/spells.  The downside:  there aren't very many moves to unlock unless if you want to needlessly level grind.

Other than that, not much more to the regular combat than that.  No blocking, dodging, etc.  You can run away though.  There's another mode of combat where you can give direct commands to all four members of your party from an overhead view for a more tactical experience.  However, most of the time, this is not only an unnecessary approach but also a waste of time as it takes much longer to win a battle this way.

The story is painfully average.  And it's actually a shame because there was clearly a lot of thought that went into this plot.  There are plenty of factions, characters, and their interactions with one another to understand, but ultimately, it just gets really convoluted trying to remember all of these people and nations and what their motivations are.  It all feels pretty useless anyways because it really just boils down to one thing anyways.  You see that guy over there?  You need to go kill him because he wants to do bad shit and has already done some bad shit.

In fact, like some other RPGs, the side quests and character quests were much more interesting than the main quests.  In the main quests, it just furthers the motivation of the main enemies of the game and what they are doing to stop them.  But in the side quests, we learn a lot more about the main characters of the game and where they come from, what their desires are, what they want from life, etc.

There's another feature in the game where you can tell your ambassador, army commander, and spy master to do stuff.  This is way less interesting than it sounds though.  You just click on stuff on a map and a timer gets started until they finish the tasks.  You'll want to do these because they unlock side quests and such but it's really boring.  It feels more like a free-to-play android game than what should be an interesting extra in a good RPG.

The best part of this game is the decision making.  It feels like you can take the story in an infinite number of different directions.  The main plot remains the same but there are a lot of nuances you can change along the way depending on who you become closest to or what side quests you decide to do.  Even aspects of the character creation affect the plot.  For instance, I chose for my main character to be the mage class which, unbeknownst to me, would result in just about everyone in the game being skeptical of my character since, in this universe, just about everyone dislikes the mages because some of them are murdering assholes.

Overall, not a bad game, but not a great one either.  What it does, it does well and I'm sure there are plenty of RPG players out there that enjoy it since it's well executed.  I had a lot of fun playing it as well but because it felt similar to a lot of RPGs I have played before, it began to feel a bit stale about 40 hours in.  I would still recommend it though as this game has plenty to offer and gets right all of the cliches we've seen in other RPGs such as crafting, item hoarding, and the stereotypical character classes such as tank, rogue, warrior, mage, etc.

But yeah, if you're looking for solid execution in a more or less typical RPG, you should check this out.  If you want an RPG that's a bit more unique and innovative, I would give this one a pass.

Cover:  http://static4.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1197/11970954/2509963-blw5obcciaallar.jpg