Dragon Age is an up and down series no doubt. Dragon Age: Origins (DA:O) was a phenomenal achievement in nearly every aspect, from the story, the characters, the locations ... even the mods were good. Dragon Age 2 was one of the biggest pieces of trash I have ever played. A train wreck of bad decisions, poor implementations and a no doubt rushed release. I played it through once (grudgingly and disgustedly) then flushed the game from memory. So I was hoping for more of Origins in Inquisition and I got what I wanted. Note: all of these observations are taken from a sword and shield warrior perspective on the normal difficulty level (on PC), using the Dragon Age Keep import world function.
First, Dragon Age Keep. I love this feature. Being able to import the world that I left behind from DA:O (and DA2 as best I could recall) was a remarkably welcome addition. Especially since I don't even have the computer I played the previous games on, I was thrilled to be able to do this. For my second play through (ongoing) I went back and created an entirely different world for my new Inquisitor and it is a pretty fresh experience. I cannot stress using the Keep enough. It is a wonderful tool. Have fun with it.
A new game opens with with a bang and your character waking up after it with one of the default faces in full view. I was mildly disgruntled by this. Why not have him/her stand up with their back turned and removing their helmet before revealing what they look like? As was done in ME2 and ME3. Seems strange that they would reveal what the Inquisitor looks like only to have me change it in the next second. Granted, I make minimal changes to default appearances, but I was confused by that choice.
After that you are set upon your path to save Thedas (bit of trivia for those who don't know: Thedas is an acronym for The Dragon Age Setting) with the help of some new and some returning characters. Your initial foray after character creation will reveal some of the games issues right off the start. The tactical camera is back but is less than helpful to say the least. The camera angle it adopts counterintuitively obscures the field of view more than the normal play view and the controls are clearly not intended for those who use mouse and keyboard. Additionally, menus for the skill trees and inventory are meant for people who are playing on gigantic flat screen TVs and not (as in my case) 25 inch computer monitors. Tool tips and item descriptions very often covered one another up, making it somewhat of a chore to decipher what I was looking at. Happily on the normal difficulty level I didn't really need the tactical camera that often and when I did, I was able to maneuver it sufficiently to accomplish what I needed to.
After completing the first mission you wake up in Haven in your pajamas. I bring the pajamas up for a reason because, seriously Bioware, what is with those beige pajamas with gold buttons? That is one of the most God awful outfits I have ever seen and on some races (the elves in particular) they are downright laughably absurd. Why can't I at least walk around in my armor or give me a choice in what to wear? Those are atrocious. I hated seeing the Inquisitor in them. Here I am, on my throne, rendering literal life and death decisions ... in my jammies. Please fix that.
After a few simple quests in and around Haven where you can begin to get to know your companions, you are sent off to the Hinterlands. This is really where the game begins and where you will start to get a sense as to how immense this game is going to be. There is a general suggestion you read over and over on forums and message boards that simply states "Get out of the Hinterlands!" because you can easily get lost there -- especially if you are a completionist. Each zone is incredibly beautiful, finely detailed and very large with dozens of quests in each one. On my first play through, I was well into level 10 before I even began the second story mission. This is partly due to the fact that I was unfamiliar with the War Table (more on that in a bit) and because I was having so much fun exploring the two zones I had accessed that I didn't want to stop. The zones are astounding visual experiences that are so much fun to explore with hidden treasures and puzzles (Astrariams are amazing!) spread throughout. To whit: I was walking down one of the beaches and came across a set piece where a Dragon and a giant were duking it out. You could just stand there and watch as these two behemoths tore at one another. The ambient sounds in each location are equally amazing from the distant roars that will have you stopping to look around, to the tiny insects that were so real to me, a couple of times I actually looked over to the direction the sound came from because I had thought a bug had just gone by my ear.
However, as visually impressive as the game is, there is little variation in the types of enemies you will encounter zone to zone. Humanoid, demon, spider, animal. Take your pick and scatter throughout. That is somewhat disappointing because encounters begin to feel more and more the same as the game goes on. Also, what happened to the Darkspawn between the games? The ones in Inquistion are mere shadows of the menace they were in Origins.
Also the ongoing party banter bug, where you will play for long stretches with only the ambient sounds and background orchestration as your companion, is sadly still a problem. I miss the bickering, the joking, the story telling that makes the Dragon Age companions so much fun to wander these vast expanses with. That is not to say the companions themselves are poorly written (far from it) but many are experiencing this particular problem and since Bioware seems to be having difficutly isolating the issue (if there is one) it may continue to be one for the forseeable future. The companions themselves however, are all really interesting, funny, compelling and deep. Each has their own set of beliefs and values built upon a lifetime of experience. I enjoyed each one for what they were meant to bring to the game. Although I did find some of the personal quests to be a bit lacking in depth and story.
There are also certain things the game simply straight up does not tell you (e.g. each party member has their own focus pool, you all don't just share one). There are others (you must unequip certain weapons from some characters to modify and upgrade them) and that is somewhat unforgivable. Also the War Table is pretty confusing at the outset. From here you can send your advisors on various missions to increase the Inquisitions influence and power. However, all story based missions start from here, as do some important side missions. For example, from the War Table you begin the quest to choose your characters specialization. Nowhere is this communicated, it is simply another choice that appears on the map after certain conditions are met in the storyline. Nor it is explicitly stated that one of your advisers MUST be available to begin the quest. In my case this was Cullen who I just kept sending on missions so the specialization quest was always labelled as "Busy". It wasn't until I went online and someone else expressed similar frustrations that I was able to continue with that part of the story. Those sorts of bottlenecks frustrate me as a player especially when they could be easily remedied by a simple statement in the quest journal. Inquistion Perks are another mystery at the outset. Unless you like to learn by trial and error (and you cannot recover perk points and will not get enough for all perks) I would reccommend reading about them ahead of time to see which are better than others.
Other small annoyances, as a sword and shield warrior the dearth of one-handed swords (I know, I know, random number generator, but still) and their relative diminished power as compared to similarly tiered one-handed axes and (especially) maces was disappointing. It wasn't until the very end, after defeating the strongest (non-story related) dragon in the game, that I found a sword that was comparable to the mace I had constructed -- even then it had 30 less DPS. I was a SWORD and shield warrior. It would have been nice to use a sword some of the game. You will find materials and loot everywhere and I say collect them all. Yes it is a bit time consuming but you will never want for materials if you get them as you pass them. Having a place to store loot I didn't want to vendor trash would have been nice though. One last thing about the zones, some were difficult to navigate to way points that are RIGHT THERE (Emprise du Lion) while others were somewhat bland given their size (Hissing Wastes). Espeically since mounts seemed like an afterthought .. and that ear piercing sound those Harts make. I don't care if that is accurate to similar animals in our world, it is horrible to the ear. Lastly, no modding capability (as of this writing). Too bad, because there are some truly creative people out there who can take games like this and do things that are amazing and fun. One need only look at Skyrim to see how this is true.
Bottom line, this is a wonderful RPG. Hell, this is a wonderful game period. I realize I focused on the negatives in this review (I tend to do that) but those negatives were eclipsed by the amount of positive attributes in Inquisition and the just plain fun I had with this game. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and what I liked best is my first play through took 95 hours from start to finish. It has been far too long that we have gotten a game with this level of depth, complexity and replayability. Go Bioware. Awesome job resurrecting this series from the mediocrity it had sunk to.