Dragon Age: Inquisition I A Game That Surprised Me...

The Dragon Age franchise is (or was) a somewhat unknown quantity to me. The only thing I'd ever heard of it was that it was inferior to other games in the genre (Skyrim, The Witcher) and never lived up to the heights of RPG elements held by other Bioware games. I'd played the KOTOR Star Wars games and actually enjoyed my playthrough of Mass Effect Andromeda (albeit I played once most of the launch issues had been fixed) and so I had a good idea of what I was getting myself into. As stated in the opening line; it took me 3 attempts to get into this game which is why it surprised me as to how good it truly was. 

At the beginning of my first attempt, I believe it was around 2016/17; just after I'd just breached the fantasy genre. I was greeted by a good character editor and plenty of options with which to build my character as I saw fit with classes and sub-classes. The opening cutscene was intense and intriguing; why is there a hole in the sky?; why am I in chains?; what role am I going to play in this story?. As my imagination ran wild, I plunged into the opening section of the game and immediately found a problem. I was greeted by (what I thought was) a basic, two-pronged combat system. The tactical battle system (which I was somewhat familiar with from other Bioware games) and a really basic free-form combat system. I never really liked the tactical battle system from KOTOR and always preferred to have more control during play. By the time I'd cleared out the opening valley and met a few companions, I was bored of the combat and put the game down for around two years.

In 2019, I decided to retry the game and started a new game as a different class (I'd initially picked rogue) but again I ran into the same issue as before and didn't make it out of the tutorial yet again. I put the game down and had pretty much washed my hands with it.

In 2023 I decided to give the game a proper chance - this time I'd watched reviews on it and seen on forums and comments about how much they loved their time playing.This was also coupled with me seeing a trailer for the new game Dragon Age: Dreadwolf which I thought looked very cool. This time I again picked a different class and actually got more invested in the story; characters and lore. I made it out of the tutorial and my word; I'm so glad I did. The world opens up into distinct areas with unique enemies and different challenges. The companions were diverse and deep and getting to know each one was a true joy. 

The story gripped me with it's twists and turns - the fact that after about 3-4 hours you seemingly 'beat the game' by closing the rift in the sky only to be greeted by the real antagonist of the game shortly thereafter. The combat exploded into a diverse, complex but intuitive system with skill mapping and multiple mapping options. The ability to respec your skills at any point was also extremely helpful as I'd initially focused on two-handed swords and felt the damage wasn't worth the lack of defence. I was able to change to sword and shield effortlessly. 

As I progressed through the story, I kept getting surprised by how well written both the story and the characters were. I decided to romance Josephine in my playthrough and the connection between both my character and her seemed so organic and realistic. Not to mention one of my favourite moments being in the DLC where Josephine takes your character to a show and there's a cut to my characters face being absolutely baffled at what they just saw which genuinely made me laugh out loud. It all fit so well with the gruff, tough guy demeanour I had been building for my character; of course he'd be baffled and gobsmacked as a man of action and few words - it was perfect. 

I felt the story was done incredibly well with a balance of existential danger with the main antagonist being on the loose and the political scheming of the different regions of the world. The combat became diverse, fun and engaging; it even became challenging on medium difficulties. The characters were great and well written and I felt a genuine connection between my character and quite a few of the companions. The DLC I played also had a great ending and clearly was a setup for the next Dragon Age game - although I doubt my Inquisitor is likely to feature given the ending of the DLC.

All in all, I loved Dragon Age Inquisition. I can't wait for the sequel and I genuinely would recommend it to anyone who wants to play a deep fantasy RPG; just with the small caveat that the opening couple of hours might lose players as it did me a couple of times.