Sights & Sounds
- Depending on what you're doing, the game is either in 3rd person (when exploring towns or holds) or more of a top-down perspective (when battling). The game makes these transitions fairly seamlessly, which is nice. I do have to confess that while the top-down perspective is nice for keeping track of the battlefield while fighting, the world feels much more immersive and larger when the camera angle is in that tighter 3rd person perspective
- The game is from 2014, so it's not going to blow you away graphically. Some environments look quite stunning considering the age of the game, while others look somewhat dated
- More care could have been devoted to the player's character model. Hair--particularly facial hair--looks horrible and clips through armor and clothes. It made the cutscenes often look pretty stupid.
- The music is serviceable. Some of the lyrical compositions are actually pretty catchy, but much of the overworld sounds are largely forgettable.
Story and Vibes
- If you've played Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, you'll get a lot more out of the plot. I played the first two entries on Xbox and was able to bring over my world states thanks to Dragon Age Keep. That doesn't mean that you won't necessarily enjoy the story if you don't have a saved world state, but your experience will be a little worse
- The story is a continuation of the plot from the previous games. In a vaccuum, its a fairly run-of-the-mill "forge alliances with difficult partners, save the world from the big bad guy, and maybe bed one of the side characters" affair. It doesn't really provoke much deep thought or introspection, but it's fine in its context
- I played as a Qunari, which actually did add some interesting flavor to the plot, cutscenes, and reactions of the other characters
- Many of the characters are quite poorly-written. All of them are some variation of a dour malcontent with 1-2 tepidly humorous personality quirks and a tragic past. Some are more annoying than others. The game makes a big deal of building relationships with each character, but the only thing worthwhile to glean from those efforts was filling in backstory details
Playability & Replayability
- I played as a two-handed weapon specialist warrior, and I think this may have been detrimental to my experience. Combat never really felt fun. It was more like a grindy hack-and-slash. I wish I would have played as a rogue or mage instead, or at least gone sword & board for more variety than "stun enemy, hit it a bunch, repeat as necessary"
- There's a few little puzzles and things thrown in, but they aren't very special. They feel like afterthoughts in many cases
- I don't think I'll be coming back to this game. It took me over 92 hours to complete the main game and DLC, and there wasn't anything special enough to make me want to reconsider. Besides, I'm happy with where my world state is going into DA 4
Overall Impressions
- The game was stable and ran well. I didn't encounter any notable crashes or bugs
- If you've played the first two games in the franchise, I would recommend trying this game out. I really liked DA: Origins and hated DA 2, and DA: Inquisition feels like it falls somewhere between the two in terms of experience.
- Overall, I'd say that I recommend it, but with a caveat. If you're already neck-deep in the franchise, give it a go. Otherwise, wait for a sale.
Final Verdict
- 6.5/10. A polished game with some mild fun, but not memorable
- Depending on what you're doing, the game is either in 3rd person (when exploring towns or holds) or more of a top-down perspective (when battling). The game makes these transitions fairly seamlessly, which is nice. I do have to confess that while the top-down perspective is nice for keeping track of the battlefield while fighting, the world feels much more immersive and larger when the camera angle is in that tighter 3rd person perspective
- The game is from 2014, so it's not going to blow you away graphically. Some environments look quite stunning considering the age of the game, while others look somewhat dated
- More care could have been devoted to the player's character model. Hair--particularly facial hair--looks horrible and clips through armor and clothes. It made the cutscenes often look pretty stupid.
- The music is serviceable. Some of the lyrical compositions are actually pretty catchy, but much of the overworld sounds are largely forgettable.
Story and Vibes
- If you've played Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, you'll get a lot more out of the plot. I played the first two entries on Xbox and was able to bring over my world states thanks to Dragon Age Keep. That doesn't mean that you won't necessarily enjoy the story if you don't have a saved world state, but your experience will be a little worse
- The story is a continuation of the plot from the previous games. In a vaccuum, its a fairly run-of-the-mill "forge alliances with difficult partners, save the world from the big bad guy, and maybe bed one of the side characters" affair. It doesn't really provoke much deep thought or introspection, but it's fine in its context
- I played as a Qunari, which actually did add some interesting flavor to the plot, cutscenes, and reactions of the other characters
- Many of the characters are quite poorly-written. All of them are some variation of a dour malcontent with 1-2 tepidly humorous personality quirks and a tragic past. Some are more annoying than others. The game makes a big deal of building relationships with each character, but the only thing worthwhile to glean from those efforts was filling in backstory details
Playability & Replayability
- I played as a two-handed weapon specialist warrior, and I think this may have been detrimental to my experience. Combat never really felt fun. It was more like a grindy hack-and-slash. I wish I would have played as a rogue or mage instead, or at least gone sword & board for more variety than "stun enemy, hit it a bunch, repeat as necessary"
- There's a few little puzzles and things thrown in, but they aren't very special. They feel like afterthoughts in many cases
- I don't think I'll be coming back to this game. It took me over 92 hours to complete the main game and DLC, and there wasn't anything special enough to make me want to reconsider. Besides, I'm happy with where my world state is going into DA 4
Overall Impressions
- The game was stable and ran well. I didn't encounter any notable crashes or bugs
- If you've played the first two games in the franchise, I would recommend trying this game out. I really liked DA: Origins and hated DA 2, and DA: Inquisition feels like it falls somewhere between the two in terms of experience.
- Overall, I'd say that I recommend it, but with a caveat. If you're already neck-deep in the franchise, give it a go. Otherwise, wait for a sale.
Final Verdict
- 6.5/10. A polished game with some mild fun, but not memorable