Bigger is Better with Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age: Inquisition (DA: I) came out this past Tuesday, and much of the news seems to portray the game as a largely worthwhile experience. A great deal of the praise is connected to how much DA: I is a return to form, with several critics likening their experiences to something akin to replaying Dragon Age: Origins so much they develop cold sweats and, in a moment of clarity, they choose to burn their memories of Dragon Age II in order to sustain their fevered love of the DA franchise.

Having played through both DA: O and DA II, and having enjoyed both a great deal, I’m interested to see how DA: I manages to make compromises to the often polarizing differences between both of its prequels.  Below are three elements of the finished product which I look forward to experiencing.

Combat looks snappy

From what I can gather, combat looks to be a compromise between the dynamic simplistic combat in DA II and the more tactical traditional model used in DA: O. What results are some progressive choices such as the omission of healing spells, which forces the player to use buffs and debuffs more thoughtfully than in past games.

Race selection is back

Character creation allows the player to choose between different races again, instead of simply being a human Hawk like in DA II. While this addition isn’t a huge deal for me, I tend to prefer more customization to less of it.

The world is large and teeming in beauty

I probably enjoyed DA II’s limitations more than most, and felt that the game’s single-city approach was largely successful in that it kept me entertained for the duration of the game’s play session. Much of my enjoyment came from scouring near every inch of Kirkwall through the many quests that furnished it. I very clearly recall some rather small sections of the city as housing several different quests lines. What resulted was the sense that I had completed quests for almost everyone in the city, and became intimate with the city’s topography as though Kirkwall had become my home.

That said, DA: O had also laid the groundwork for some interesting cultural and historical exploration as well, which was largely absent from DA II. The return to a more macro-focus in DA: I appears to handle its subject matter nicely, and clearly tries to expand its world by introducing the player for the first time to Orlais, a neighbouring land alluded to in DA: O.

I’m looking forward to Dragon Age: Inquisition, and will certainly play it in the coming months. Until then, I’ll gladly be keeping up with news on sales figures and critical reception, to see how the game fares, and what elements will mutate into the eventual sequel. Maybe Dragon Age 4 will be even bigger than DA: I. With any luck, it can be so large that you never have to see anything more than once. A deeply impersonal experience, maybe, but certainly a bigger and better one; at least, according to the internet’s collective will, which wishes to absolve itself of the time they spent playing DA II.