INQUISITOR!!!

I have been wanting to do a review of this game for a long time. Dragon Age Inquisition was the first RPG I’ve played that had so much to do and complete. This is a game by BioWare said to take about 150-200 hours to complete. And let me tell y’all it will take every bit of those hours. So here are my thoughts on the game!

When it comes to reviewing a video game, I typically make sure complete the whole game itself. However, there were too many side quests in Inquisition (which I’ll touch on in a bit). So this is just to say I did not finish every side quest, but I did quite A LOT of them. While I didn’t complete each side quest, I had plenty of fun with what I completed.

Story

To summarize you (the player) have been chosen as the Inquisitor to settle the civil disputes throughout the land of Thedas. After an explosion kills Divine Justinia, a hole has been thorn through the Veil. This incident leaves all dead except you, as you have gained the power to close rifts of the Veil. This Veil is used to keeps the land of the living and the Fade (where spirits and demons dwell)separates. Once this hole has been torn, demons and other terrors begin to plague the land of Thedas. The Inquisitor also has been tasked with closing the Breach.

That’s only the beginning of the story as there is so much lore and history. I want to be transparent and let you guys know that I did not play Dragon Age: Origins or Dragon Age II. So I was going into this as a novice to the lore. But let me say THERE’S SO MUCH LORE! In the menu during gameplay you can access the Codex that houses all of the history you can discover in the game. It’s so much that I got to a point of not even skimming when I would find in the game. My husband would always joke that a game should not have that much reading haha. But I completely understand why this game received the accolades it did back in 2014, which including Game of the Year and Best RPG. Starting from the beginning, the game feels immersive. There were few moments when I felt that the story was not realistic or that I was apart of the world. My decisions had the ability to change people’s perceptions of me, and this mattered when it came to making decisions on where strike next. My decisions were palpable and lives in the game were altered.

The other element that really made the story top tier would be the stories of the your companions in the Inquisition. Each character has their own agendas, favors, and desires that you can choose to indulge. You can help Cassandra find information about the Seekers, or gather ingredients for Vivienne. The list goes on as each character has something for you to do. Depending on what you do, it will help raise or lower your approval rate with each character.

Characters

Characters can really make or break a game. Luckily Dragon Age Inquisition has plenty of characters you can befriend. You start off the game in custody after the explosion in the first cutscene. The first character you meet is Cassandra the Seeker and Leliana who will be with you till the end of the game. They help create the Inquisition which put you as the leader as the Inquisitor. As you travel across Thedas you meet different characters like Dorian, Iron Bull, and Blackwall that you can recruit into your ranks. As you go on missions and gain favor with the people in Thedas, you get the opportunity to learn how the characters feel and their moral code. And some characters have history with the past games that will influence how they think in Dragon Age Inquisition. For example when Iron Bull is introduced you learn that he has a crew that he completes missions with. You also learn that as a Qunari, they have some strict beliefs. While talking and adventuring with Iron Bull you learn how he views his people and their beliefs. I enjoyed playing Iron Bull’s side quests because it leads to this pivotal moment that determines how he moves forward in the game.

And we can’t forget about the romances in this game. You have so many choices to choose from in terms of romance. There’s a character for whatever preference you may have. I personally chose Cullen and it was the cutest little romance. (Fair warning to all my devout religious folks, there IS sex in this game, you know I don’t want y’all to be caught off guard). Cullen gets super awkward cute as you flirt with him so I was definitely sold on that one. The next time I play I would like to see what a romance would be like with Iron Bull or Blackwall.

Experience

I was completely immersed in this game from beginning to end. Because there’s so much you can do, my character literally became the hero of the story. A factor that added to this immersion experience would be the customization. At the beginning of the game you have a choice between your sex, class, and race. Your class determines your fighting styles and abilities. The choices are warrior, rogue, and mage. In each fighting class you can choose from two different styles. I was a rogue with the archery style. There are also four different races: human, qunari, dwarf and elf. There is also a ton of customization options for your character. I spent so much time designing my character to what I wanted her to be ( I wish I could show you guys, but I deleted my save file to make room -__-).

Another element to the immersive experience was the decision based gameplay. As I spoke with villagers who were refugees or with mages who felt oppressed, I was involved in their stories. My decisions as the Inquisitor would have an impact on those who followed me. In the game I played it was important for me to try to make the best decision for the good of my people. This way of thinking played a huge role in how I dealt with enemies and how I punished prisoners. While my decisions did not always make everyone happy, I was doing what I thought was best for my people. The decisions and consequences were very real. There was a decision I had to make where I had to choose between two people to sacrifice themselves so the rest of the party could get away. I thought I made the right decision, but I regretted that choice all the way to the end of the game. And it seemed like the game made sure I would remember it. It has done it’s job in making me believe that the world and the life of my character are real.

There’s so much more I could say about Dragon Age Inquisition. There are so many great qualities the game has to offer. I would recommend this game 9/10. I can only take away from the graphics just because we see how great graphics can be (think Final Fantasy XV). However, Dragon Age Inquisition is stellar considering when this game was dropped. I’ve completed the game but am eager to start playing again.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article, especially if you made it to the end. See you guys next time! Peace!