E3 has come and gone,
and we have learnt some new things about various games. However, the
one I'm most interested in is Dragon Age: Inquisition, the third
instalment of the fantasy franchise from Bioware.
As always, I will try
and keep spoilers to a minimum and won't reveal anything I'd consider
plot critical. Basic companion bios, gameplay, voice actors and
related information will all be mentioned below, so if you're
starving yourself of spoilers to better enjoy the fantasy feast
ahead, I must suggest you stop reading now.
The
Dragon Age Keep will come out before Inquisition. Whether this is for
all platforms is not quite specified, but obviously it will for PC.
The Keep is basically an extensive storybook which enables you to
make the decisions of Origins and DA2 to set the world up for
Inquisition. It's a great idea because it'll get new players caught
up with the storyline, enable old players to fiddle about with things
without needing to complete whole playthroughs and get around the
problem of cross-generation plays (ie those who played on Xbox
360/PS3 before but now have an Xbox One or PS4).
If
you play as a Qunari you will not be Tal-Vashoth (one who was in the
Qun but forsook it), but Vashoth (one who was never part of the Qun).
This gets around a knotty lore problem. Qunari can be mages as well
as warriors or rogues, and (for those wondering) hair colour can be
dark instead of pale, if you want it.
Speaking
of character creation, this'll kick off right away (as in Origins)
rather than after a prologue (as in DA2).
New
companion information: the male human warrior has been confirmed as a
(presumably former) Grey Warden, called Blackwall. He sound like a
very upstanding sort of fellow, like Eddard Stark (hopefully with
better judgement).
Sera,
the elven archeress, is confirmed as a romance option, but only for
female Inquisitors. [On this note, the companions (and some
non-companions) have specific sexual orientations. It's not like DA2
where anyone will shag Hawke, each character, that you can romance,
in Inquisition is straight, gay or bi].
The
third mage companion has been named as Dorian, a Tevinter chap.
The
Iron Bull (Qunari male warrior companion) is not Tal-Vashoth. He is
still Qunari (follower of the Qun religion).
This
means only one companion (probably elven rogue, dual-wielding)
remains unnamed.
There
will be, as previously revealed, 4 Inquisitor voices, 2 per gender.
There will be an American female voice, American male voice, English
male voice and English female voice.
At
the time of writing Alix Wilton Regan (Traynor in ME3, Mhairi in
Dragon Age: Awakening [Origins expansion] and Ser Cauthrien in
Origins) has been officially confirmed as a female voice. Bann
Teagan's voice actor, Timothy Watson, has not been confirmed, but I
do think the male Inquisitor speaking for a new trailer does sound
very like him.
In
terms of gameplay, as was previously announced the top-down tactical
view (for battle) has not only returned for PC but been introduced
for the first time in the series to Xboxes and Playstations. However,
in an interview it sounded like you could actually walk around and
play the whole game (excluding cut-scenes) that way. Mark Darrah (of
Bioware) also said in the interview (with GameSpot) that during
conversations you'll actually be able to just walk away,
mid-conversation. I'm sensing the possibility of an obnoxious-as-hell
playthrough...
Speaking
of interviews (not that I spent a few hours watching Inquisition vids
instead of working...) gamerMD83, a Dragon Age superfan, did one with
Cameron Lee (DA:I Producer) and Liz Lehtonen (Queen of the
Cullenites, and also Game World Producer) which revealed some
interesting things about how the Inquisition as a group develops. For
example, to advance the story you need a certain level of power, so
the Inquisition is almost like a character in itself. You can also
order it to perform functions which have a direct impact on areas you
can access (the most simple being that ordering your minions to
repair a bridge will give you access to an area you might otherwise
not be able to reach).
So,
whilst the Inquisitor and his associates are running around slapping
Templars and hunting nugs, you'll dispatch your underlings to do
little missions of their own, which will affect the options available
to you (this is from a while ago, but I think one such 'mission'
might be researching new metals/spells to improve your smithing or
magic).
There
will, it seems, be far more crafting available than previous games,
but there are no real details on this as yet.
No
firm word on time of a playthrough, but I've heard murmurings of
around 50 hours.
Assuming
it comes out on time (Origins was delayed, of course), it'll come out
on 10 October (7 October if you're in North America. Why there must
be a 3 day gap I don't know).
Thaddeus
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