Dragon Age Inquisition: Maximalism at its best

If you’re anything like me, I’m sure that Dragon Age: Inquisition’s size is likely its most salient feature. Several years back I would have gone nuts if I’d have heard that an RPG I was interested in playing was “big”. The word used to conjure feelings of a world teeming with interesting people and creatures to meet and maim; of unique cultural vistas that all seemed startlingly like various real-world countries; of  an overlaying sense of wonderment and excitement that despite having spent 10 hours in this game’s world, I still have so much to learn and so much to discover.

Then Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood seeped into my consciousness. Prior to AC: B, I had experienced games that I feel could only safely be described as bloated to the point of excess. For example, I simply can’t see past this bloat in the Disgaea series. I’m sure the franchise offers gamers a ridiculous amount of hectic tactical combat, but it simply offers too much of it. I get the impression that too many ideas are thrown together in an attempt to appeal to too many sensibilities. The philosophy that predominantly defines the Disgaea series is known as maximalism: or, the idea that more is better.

Anyways, AC: B defined a moment in my life where I began to resent maximalism in games. Despite the accomplishments that AC: B brings to the AC series, such as improving its combat, the prevailing feeling that I get when I play any AC game since Brotherhood is that it is simply unfocused and distracted by a want to fill the game up with boring and / or repetitive tasks.

Maximalism has certainly become the prevailing design philosophy in many blockbuster titles, including those who incorporate elements of RPG design in them. Far Cry 3 and 4 are both padded by what I would consider an unnecessary amount of content. Even the excellent Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was criticized for its uninspired imitation of the AC series. 

Back on point: DA: I is a blockbuster game that largely succeeds despite its maximalism. For every quest I need to complete that requires me to gather herbs or animal meat for unwilling or incapable denizens, there are more than enough moments of exploration that feel organic and fit nicely into the game’s scope, story and narrative.

More specifically, DA: I’s grandiose tale requires a grandiose amount of gameplay. The fact that I get to explore Orlais and Ferelden in equal measure, and that I get to read and experience just about every facet of the game’s lore (a first for the series) is worth all those instances of becoming overburdened by the sheer amount of junk that I collected. In other words, DA: I is a game that has earned its bloat.