121 hours 33 minutes! No, I'm not about to burst into a solo rendition of Rent the musical, rather that's the amount of time yours truly has spent on Bioware's latest opus Dragon Age: Inquisition. Just shy of 5 straight days of Dragon slaying, magic hurling, swash-buckling bliss. Now, one might be tempted to ask "what am I doing with my life?" but then you look away from the screen and think "Nah, I'd much rather be in there."
Right off the bat I have to say, the hype around this game was damaging to say the least because, while it is a solid Fantasy role playing game, it doesn't do much we have not seen outside it's superb graphical fidelity and truly epic scope. Since it's announcement almost immediately after it's predecessor, the hyperbole song of "bigger and better" could be heard in every corner of gaming news, honestly not a big boast considering the disappointment that was Dragon Age II.
So HOW do you end up 100+ hours in the bowels of Ferelden working your way to inevitable victory, world saving and badass-itude (that's made up...on purpose...leave it alone...keep reading...shoo!) as the Inquisitor? I'll tell you how...
Let's start with the character creation menu, which is usually an arbitrary inclusion in most RPGs to give the player a sense of control of your character's overall look. This is definitely not the case with Dragon Age, here you can tinker with your height, build, skin tone, eye color et al to an excruciating level of detail. Each trait involving tone has a color wheel which essentially means you could be a purple skinned, yellow eyed dwarf with white hair! It's simply astonishing!!! Off course I immediately made the most hideous creature I could conjure, and it was terrifying! Realizing that I'd be spending upwards of 50 hours with that wretched creature assaulting my visual orbs, I went back to the drawing board, and Alana was born...well, created.
Right off the bat I have to say, the hype around this game was damaging to say the least because, while it is a solid Fantasy role playing game, it doesn't do much we have not seen outside it's superb graphical fidelity and truly epic scope. Since it's announcement almost immediately after it's predecessor, the hyperbole song of "bigger and better" could be heard in every corner of gaming news, honestly not a big boast considering the disappointment that was Dragon Age II.
So HOW do you end up 100+ hours in the bowels of Ferelden working your way to inevitable victory, world saving and badass-itude (that's made up...on purpose...leave it alone...keep reading...shoo!) as the Inquisitor? I'll tell you how...
Let's start with the character creation menu, which is usually an arbitrary inclusion in most RPGs to give the player a sense of control of your character's overall look. This is definitely not the case with Dragon Age, here you can tinker with your height, build, skin tone, eye color et al to an excruciating level of detail. Each trait involving tone has a color wheel which essentially means you could be a purple skinned, yellow eyed dwarf with white hair! It's simply astonishing!!! Off course I immediately made the most hideous creature I could conjure, and it was terrifying! Realizing that I'd be spending upwards of 50 hours with that wretched creature assaulting my visual orbs, I went back to the drawing board, and Alana was born...well, created.
If I'm honest...I probably would...
One epic opener and late title card later, out of the shadows she emerged, all 7 foot of magic wielding awesome! My Qunari Mage. Qunari's are the fancy name for the closest thing to orcs in dragon age lore, though they differ by having horns, and often as smart or smarter than other races in run of the mill fantasy. My motivation to play one was, other than their striking and imposing looks they have generally been antagonistic as a race until now.
It's not much of a spoiler to say you start the game despised, accused of something you didn't do (obviously) which makes for ridiculous conversations/confrontations initially as dwarfs, elves and rather frail looking humans try to pick fights with you as a Qunari. (Kevin hart vs. Shaq ridiculous)
So off you go into the big bad world, emphasis on BIG! The very first area is rather benign, and serves as a hub with a handful of beginning missions that get you acclimated to the environment and mechanics. The thing is though, it could easily accommodate the entirety of a smaller 7-8 hour game handily and have room to spare, yet by the end you've traveled the length and breadth of a dozen such areas! Plains, jungles, deserts, beaches, caves, dungeons and ancient ruins, it's all here, and plenty of it. The level of ambition in terms of scale and detail in this game is staggering to say the least, it's a shame that there wasn't such variety in exploration and tasks. Despite the size of maps, you are often herded along paths to find resources and mission markers which only appear when in range if not story related. They also implemented a jump mechanic for the first time in the series, yet vertical traversal isn't well executed or even encouraged. This meant frequent, 10 minute bouts of frustration trying to jump to a ledge mere feet high (what with my avatar being 7 feet tall) for an item just out of reach that I would eventually abandon.
Exploration and the tedium of collecting resources and trinkets aside the real jewel at the heart of this series has always been the combat. Bioware deploys a hybrid of turn-based and real-time fighting systems that is and has been unparalleled for years. Once combat initiates you can pause at any time to consume health and issue instructions to your 3 companions. You can control any of them on the fly as well, so death of the protagonist doesn't render you an idle spectator waiting for either victory or ignominious defeat. This makes for fast, fluid and frenetic action, especially when random encounters see you up against hordes or giant monsters much higher level than your group. Herein lies another problem with Inquisition's early chapters. You are a glorified punching bag at the start of this game, particularly as a mage, worse if Qunari like me. None of the gear or weapons early on was selectable for my level, race or character class! I definitely wasn't rolling in enough gold to buy anything worthwhile and my stats were desperately inadequate. So I died, like a lot, like a lot a lot, good thing I'm not the Hulk because that would have been a very expensive tantrum. This definitely dragged out my playtime somewhat significantly, but the worst offender in this regard is the actual mission structure. In most other epic RPGs there's at most a 10-15 hour long story campaign, which you could plow through with relative ease before roaming the vast expanses of whatever kingdom doing good or bad deeds for/to the denizens.(Here's looking at you Skyrim :-P) Inquisition pads out it's paper thin main arc by splitting individual missions into multiple side quests which is a dirt cheap trick to achieve length. Things like fetch quests and tower defense usually the reserve of after the fact exploration become a main stay of the main plot, and boy does it get old quick. Particularly when pursuing "favor" missions for your crew of miscreants (all 8 of them) the tedium is compounded as they all require you to either retrieve something(s) or assassinate someone(s) in order to gain their full loyalties.(F** off Solas!)
As for the story, you eventually become High Inquisitor, in essence leader of all the armies you convince to join you against a new threat against the whole world. It's easy to shrug it off as standard fantasy fare, but there are genuine political intrigues and intricacies that must be dealt with a modicum of thought, lest you lose alliances and throw the outcome of the coming war into jeopardy. At times it requires you to sincerely ask for advice from your teammates, with dialogue options opening up to you as you progress and particularly if you perform loyalty missions satisfactorily. At other times you pass judgement on individuals and situations that determine whether you make allies or enemies of them, often with two standing in opposition of one another. They're as real as political and diplomatic events can get and you'd be forgiven to think you were playing a Game of Thrones title. They however, affect the final act rather than the ending itself, which changes little and ends up taking the steam out of your careful machinations somewhat. There is a strength in writing here that shines best of all in one area, the passive non-cut scene banter. While most cut scenes are serious and stoic, the exposition squarely aimed at the dire circumstances you face, the things your team mates and random characters say as you wander about in your castle home or in between objectives is positively hilarious. Iron-bull (a Qunari warrior), Varric(a dwarf) and Sera (a mentally exotic elf ) being hands down favorites. Iron bull revels in battle, uses the word awesome a lot and often calls the protagonist the "best boss ever!" because you brought him along. He's constantly on about alcohol and sex to the disdain of the more spiritual/serious party members and has a running joke of commenting on Varric's height,(or lack thereof) all the while playfully threatening Sera for stealing his kills. Varric is laid back, also partial to the drink and has a penchant for asking personal questions and noting down the responses for his fluff romance novels, which are best sellers throughout Ferelden. Sera, well Sera's just touched, like that girl you can't leave home alone mad because your wardrobe or even house might meet a fiery end. It's a good way to flesh out your team's personalities outside cut scenes, and make you care about them and their ultimate fates.
I know it's been a long one, but so was this game, and there's so much to say that I haven't even began to touch on, but that's probably a post for another day, after another play-through maybe? (Lord have mercy on my soul if I do) It might seem like I've faulted it far more than praised it, but like any piece of art, it inspires love and hate yet the sum of its flaws and strengths is what determine a master-piece, and Dragon Age: Inquisition qualifies abundantly. You can only really appreciate the look of this game with all the graphical bells and whistles going, though it is no slouch at lower configurations. My rig was fully up to the task but it was the first time the War Lady showed her age, so Inquisition is a resource hungry work of art.
Honestly, I'm not sure what to do with myself now. *twiddles thumbs*
Till next Under Acheivement, "Panahedan, Basalit-An"
-C.K.
In case there's a Thomas who doubts...hate us, coz they ain't us...