(Retro?) Review: Dragon Age: Origins (PS3)

I really liked Dragon Age: Origins when I played it over a decade ago. It was one of my favourite games of all times, but how would it hold up nowadays? For the sake of reference, my PS3 is the original fat version.

Character Creation

Character creation is a whole different beast to other games because, in addition to selecting your sex, race (dwarf, elf, or human), and class (rogue, mage, warrior) players pick an origin. These determine the first two hours or so of your game before converging into the common thread of the plot. Elves have three potential starts (city elf, which is very dark, Dalish, and mage), dwarves have two (both cool, noble and common) and humans have two (noble, also very dark, and mage). Dwarves cannot play as mages for lore reasons.

You make your own face, which mostly works ok except that beards give your characters totally hollow cheeks that look weird. There’s also a decent range of haircuts which were copied in the sequel and replaced with mostly rubbish in Inquisition.

On this occasion I played as a female dwarf warrior with the commoner origin, but during the years I have played every single origin and all of them are good. It’s a great way of making each start distinctive and you will encounter again those you meet at this stage. It’s also excellent at immersing you in your own corner of the world and making you understand things from a certain perspective.

Story and Sound

The story is the single strongest point of Dragon Age: Origins, and the writing team hit it for six. The basic plot is very simple. There’s a blight. Think fantasy zombies called darkspawn plus an undead dragon (there’s more interesting lore to it than that, but that’s the shorthand). Ferelden (a sort of fantasy Britain) is at risk of annihilation. You join the Grey Wardens, the only chaps and ladies who can stop it, and that’s your job.

Players have to rally different factions obligated by ancient treaties to help. But with each group paths can diverge according to how the player acts. You can choose to be super nice (as I did on this occasion) or be brutal (lots of murder-knife action for those who want it). Often these are moral questions or dilemmas with no clear cut answer, but two legitimate yet opposing choices. And because the player has a few of these factions to get on-side, there’s a constant feeling of progress towards the greater goal.

The writing of dialogue, from cutscenes to party banter, is excellent, and the voice acting is great (a particular favourite of mine is Simon Templeman as Loghain). There’s a deep sense of authenticity to the world (if one can say that about a fictional place). The dwarves aren’t just short humans, they have their own civilisation and culture. Similarly with the elves. Companion dialogue is especially good, with differing people getting along well, or not (I went with the classic Alistair-Morrigan party, plus Leliana). Unlike other games, there’s not really a weak link (one might say the dog, who cannot talk) and you can go all the way from sleeping with a companion to annoying them so much they leave or try to kill you.

The music is also good, particularly the main Grey Warden theme.

Gameplay

Combat still works very well, with differing classes bringing different but complementary skills to the table. There are some minor niggles here as frames can drop or the game stutter a little. There’s a good but not enormous range of enemy types, with differing types and level of darkspawn, alongside the mindless undead, revenants, abominations, and good old-fashioned bandits. A nice touch is the mini-slowdown and animation you may get when you kill an ogre.

There’s also a party camp where you can recover from injuries and enjoy some chats with party members (also possible for the three you choose to take into the field), and a merchant.

Graphics

Graphically, things still look pretty good. Character models for companions and the like are decent but do look a shade dated now. Less significant characters are prone to hollow cheeks. I have this turned off, but if you have a sanguine sense of humour, leave the blood spatter on. Having your characters discuss things while covered in blood is, er, interesting. Menus etc are completely fine graphically, lighting effects could be better, fire has a notably low frame rate flicker, but things are basically fine given its age.

Bugs and Other Issues

When it comes to problems I’ve already mentioned the potential in combat for things to stutter a little (it is only a little, it’s an annoyance but not a major one). I did experience three crashes during my playthrough of around 33 hours or so (NB I did not do everything that was possible by a long way). All occurred when entering the menu during combat, and in the latter half of my playthrough. Not ideal. Load times can be on the long side, and you’ll encounter shorter loading when just entering a house in a village, or suchlike.

Replayability

Replayability is excellent. Not only are there the usual differing classes and races to pick, but the unique origins add a lot to the depth of a playthrough. Plus there is a very broad range of outcomes and serious decisions with major consequences. You can be delightfully nice, or a demon-shagging, child-murdering, elf-slaughtering psychopath. Your character might end up dead, or on the throne of Ferelden.

Conclusion

Origins really does stand up as a great game. A few technical points weigh against it (dated graphics, the odd crash) but the core of the game is a match for anything that’s been released since and it remains the best entry in the series by a long way.

 

Thaddeus

Dragon Age – What I want to see next

I really like the Dragon Age series. Origins is one of my favourite RPGs, and whilst DA2 was clearly rushed, it also had a certain charm (and a rare case of retconning improving something, namely the Qunari). Inquisition had its plus points but also took a step in the wrong direction, I think. Size was emphasised over quality. Maps were enormous but the side-quests were shopping lists.

Inspired by this great article by Shinobi here’s what I’d like to see in the next Dragon Age game.

But first, a note. It’s eminently possible, probable, even, that a Dragon Age Tactics game will come out. I have no idea if this would be before or after DA4 (my guess is before). These suggestions are about a main franchise sequel to Inquisition rather than the intriguing Dragon Age meets XCOM game that’s been mooted.

Origins. I do like the increased mentions of race and class (mostly mage) in Inquisition, but the origin stories in the first game were a great addition to help make every combination of race/class feel more distinct, and I’d like to see them brought back.

Combat tactics. These were present in the first two games and inexplicably axed in Inquisition, replaced with a rather rubbish system whereby the skills were tagged as Use, Use Often, and Do Not Use. The Origins/DA2 approach of having, say, Alistair use an attack to knock down enemies but only if they were elite or higher was a straightforward and effective way of ensuring you didn’t have to micromanage companions in combat.

Weightier decisions. In Origins (I’m harking back to it a lot, but it’s a bloody good game) there were numerous stark choices to make, from a possessed child to werewolf attacks on elves who might not be entirely innocent. These choices affected who your allies would be in the final battle. Whilst there are decisions in Inquisition (who to put on the Orlesian throne, for example) they don’t actually seem to have much consequence in gameplay.

I’d also like more moral conflict within parties (this could tie in with the decisions point above). It’s an approximately medieval world, and this can (and historically did) lead to some difficult decisions. If you’re being besieged and there’s food for 10 days, or 40 if you force out all the non-combatants, then you’ve got a dilemma. Suppose you’ve accepted the surrender of a 1,000 men, but an enemy army has appeared and is blocking your access to fresh water, which is running out fast. They offer to let you past if you release the prisoners. Do you do it? Try and negotiate as your water runs out? Kill the prisoners so the men guarding them can join the army and battle the enemy? Or, on a smaller, more personal scale, suppose an arranged marriage could end a war, but one or both of the couple don’t want it. Do you force them to bring peace to many and misery to them? Or let them have freedom at the cost of ongoing conflict? Or what if you’re chasing enemies and they take refuge in a chantry? Do you burn it down or camp outside, risking being attacked by their followers? Difficult choices create meaningful decisions, and the potential for moral conflict.

I’ve already mentioned side-quests. The shopping list approach (fetch 10 dead rams to feed some refugees) is boring. It’s worse still when put alongside the excellent side-quests of The Witcher 3. Quality over quantity, writing little storylines over Fetch X, is much better as well as providing the opportunity to give more depth to role-playing and companions.

Add more weight to judgements. The judgement system in Inquisition was a good addition, capping off a questline by sentencing the defeated foe. However, the upshot was mostly you lop off the bugger’s head, throw them in jail, or they become your ally (which usually meant a small bonus side-quest from the war table). I think this should be expanded. If someone’s imprisoned, they could escape or be rescued, or even have a ransom offered for their release. If they’re killed, their followers/family might seek vengeance. If they become an ally, they could betray you, or (as a one-off) become a party member. I’m not saying have this for every judgement, just make them possibilities that have to be considered. In Inquisition, the ‘good’ option (make them an ally) got most approval and in-game bonuses. There’s no downside. Adding betrayal possibilities would help balance that.

Base improvements to be more substantial. I don’t mind if the cosmetic stuff has no gameplay impact, but other decisions (focusing resources on income or information, diplomacy or military) could be used to affect how things progress. Originally, Inquisition was going to have every conquered keep in the field be designated diplomatic, military or espionage, and something like that could work well.

I’m not a DLC fan. I didn’t get it for Inquisition, though I do know how things turned out. And when I buy a game, I expect the whole storyline in the game, not to be finished off in DLC. Extra content should be just that.

Bring back the murder knife. It was possible, and fun, for the Origins protagonist (the Warden) to be pretty damn evil. A bit more in the way of dark options would be good.

Frivolous stuff:

More armour styles. Some of the armour/clothing looked pretty nifty in Inquisition and I liked the customisation options, but there’s not much range.

Better haircuts. It’s a shame they axed the original set (also used in DA2) because there were only one or two I liked in Inquisition.

A photo mode. I loved this in The Last of Us Remastered.

Bianca and Scout Harding as companions.

Thaddeus

Early Thoughts: Dragon Age Inquisition (PS3 version)

Dragon Age Inquisition (DAI) came out very recently for the PC, Playstations and Xboxes. I got the PS3 version. This is an early thoughts post about the first 20-30 hours of the game (it’s reportedly around 200 hours long if you do a completionist play-through, hence this post before I [possibly] put up a comprehensive review after finishing it).

Pre-game stuff

I hadn’t intended to include this section, but the PS3 version at least doesn’t have a manual. It has a tiny booklet with no in-game information whatsoever. I’m baffled by this. I’ve played both previous games so it wasn’t too much of an issue, but it’s still an inexplicable decision.

I realise this’ll interest almost nobody else, but I like it, so it’s included. The game has options for German, in both text and voice. After a playthrough or two, I’ll probably give that a go. And who said videogames weren’t educational?

At first, I thought Dragon Age Keep had failed to work, for the good reason that it had failed to work. However, to check and try again, I visited the Keep site and tried clicking to export my world state [which I did not do for my first playthrough]. This feature can be found at the bottom right corner after you click to open the right side bar. When you’ve done it, it’ll take a time stamp. Make a note of that, and then compare it to the one that appears on-screen after you try importing before character creation.

The PS3 browser has been buggy for a while, but, provided you have an internet connection, the Keep does work (I checked with a second character and the import did succeed).

The Keep is a free, online, browser-based system which allows you to recreate or change the choices made for the first two games, and then import those to DAI in order to affect the world.

Character Creation

There’s greater racial choice than before, with the horned and tall Qunari joining fantasy staples elves, dwarves and, of course, humans. Both genders are available, and there are two voices to choose from per gender (one English, one American).

The character creator does offer far more customisation options than before. Tattoos, for example, can now be practically any colour because a colour wheel rather than discrete options are how you select the hue [NB Qunari do not get tattoos, but instead get in-game warpaint instead of helmets, which they cannot wear due to having horns]. However, there is a dramatic difference in graphical quality between the PS4 version and PS3, and it’s a bigger difference than I was expecting.

Creation options are the best of the series by a long shot, but the surprisingly lacklustre graphics mean that you may well be wondering whether your Warden or Hawke (protagonists of the two preceding games) actually looked better.

The hair is a low point. It looks far too shiny, almost like plastic. This is also the case on 360 or a low end PC. If you’re playing on PC, turn the mesh textures up to maximum and it resolves the problem.

There are no scars in the PS3 version for memory reasons (according to Bioware’s Mike Laidlaw). In the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions (unsure of Xbox 360) you have a range of scars to choose from, can position them where you like and alter their shallowness/depth.

Whilst I do like Dragon Age a lot (including this game), the weaker than expected graphics were somewhat disappointing.

Crafting and Customisation

I was looking forward to this a lot. The vast majority of armours look different on differing characters and you can craft your own. Cloth, metal and leather of varying types can be combined to provide different appearances (so you can inflict the beeswax catastrophe of plaid weave on whoever you dislike) as well as unique bonuses (resistance to particular types of damage, for example).

In addition, weapons can be crafted in a similar manner, and you can create arm and/or leg armour which you then fuse to your main armour to augment it a bit more.

Crafting armour requires schematics which can be procured both as loot and bought through shops (unfortunately I don’t think you get a preview of what the armour’s like in either statistical or appearance terms).

In addition to armour and weapons, you can also make your own potions. Beyond the basic healing potion, which is topped up whenever you’re in a camp, there’s a range of others which must be made by the player. Improvements to potions and grenades are optional but can offer significant benefits (it seems, I must admit I haven’t done much potion/grenade upgrading).

Last but not least, the player’s base of operations can be customised. This is almost entirely aesthetic, so if you want to hang Qunari banners all over the place to remind your mostly human underlings who the boss is, there’ll be neither bonus nor penalty. A few upgraded areas (such as the garden) have a couple of options (chantry or herb, in this case).

NB creating a space doesn’t seem to work for naming crafted armour/weapons. However, as well as preserving spaces as part of the initial (and usually bland) default name you can, weirdly, insert one by making an apostrophe and then a space right after.

Gameplay

For the first time, a tactical view is available to all platforms. It’s the first game I’ve ever played with such a thing. At first it felt rather odd and old-fashioned, but (especially for more serious fights) I’ve grown to quite like it. There’s also the over-the-shoulder approach available, which is very similar to Dragon Age 2’s combat style.

Unlike DA2, it seems that you can no longer use all abilities, only those mapped to the eight slots available. That’s... interesting. You can alter them, of course, as you like and maybe I just missed how you do it, but that’s how it seems.

Tactical view offers the advantage of moving over an enemy to reveal not only their health and effects, but also weaknesses and immunities, so you can damage them more easily.

When speeding up time in tactical view, sometimes there’s a 2 second black screen delay. This is not a bug, it’s related to hardware limitations. It seems to happen when you aren’t already centred on the character you have selected.

There is very little healing. All characters have a shared pool (8, initially, can be increased with perks) of healing potions, which are easily replenished at camps but there’s no easily acquired healing spell. Instead, health is protected by spells such as barrier, or status effects such as guard. Enemies can also use such things (but you can destroy them with the right spell). It feels more tactical, as you send off one warrior to distract a boss whilst your other three characters wipe out the minions so you can all focus on the (by then) solitary boss. With the right spells or warrior skill you can block off a corridor, dividing enemy forces so you can take them down more easily.

Thankfully, the second wave of enemies that was very common in DA2 makes no return here.

I’ve been playing on normal, and my party hasn’t yet been wiped out. I may crank it up to Hard for a later playthrough.

Outside of combat, there’s also the base of the Inquisition. Weirdly, it feels a little bit like XCOM: Enemy Unknown (on steroids). You go out to a massive area, massacre the local bandits/wildlife, and when you return home you have more power to unlock missions and bits of dead lizard (and the horrendous plaid weave) to make new gear. After major story events, check in with your companions and advisers, who may well have new things for you to do (outside of the war table).

The war table is a big map of Orlais and Ferelden. As well as just visiting the open world areas (which you can do more easily via a world map in your menu), you can pick missions to attempt, and order your advisers (diplomatic, espionage and military) to send their agents to conduct missions of their own. These are well worth doing and yield small rewards in gold, influence, items and so forth.

The Inquisition also gains perks, as do characters (although much more slowly, at least early in the game). These vary from increasing your inventory from the small 60 (alas, no chest to store stuff forever) you start from, to opening up new dialogue options on matters religious, historical and so forth. When you recruit agents in the field (a fairly rare occurrence) these also provide a perk, reducing the time it takes agent missions (see above) to be completed.

On a more minor note, locked things are far rarer than in previous games (it feels like you could do without a rogue most of the time), and some barriers can be smashed down by a warrior or dispelled by a mage.

The user interface is functional but feels like it could be streamlined. Things are never in a weird place but it does seem that it takes a bit longer to get things done than could be the case. On the plus side none of the crafting materials takes up the finite space available in your inventory, so you can collect metal, cloth and herbs without worrying you’ll hit a limit.

Story

I can’t go into details because I’m only a certain distance in, and spoilers are the work of Satan. I do know who the major villain is and much of the background to what’s happening.

Weirdly, for a Bioware game, the story feels a little stilted after the very start. I think this is because of two things: your character doesn’t come with much background at all initially [more is revealed later], and you get thrust into the Hinterlands. The Hinterlands is one big open world area where you can spend 20 hours plus trying to do everything. My advice is to leave as soon as possible to get the story going.

After the early part of the game the story really kicks off, and the Inquisition becomes the centre of gravity which is all that stands between the world and chaos. The characters are well-written, and it’s nice to wander around your base, bumping into people you’ve recruited and people who’ve just shown up (tip: chatting to them can provide new quest opportunities).

I can’t properly assess this until I’ve completed the whole game, of course. Slightly slow at the start, but currently feels very promising.

Graphics

This is why I don’t like giving scores.

I’m not someone too fussed by graphics. For others, they matter a lot. The graphics in DAI are generally poor. The hair looks plastic, textures often take a while to load, the facial hair [stubble more than shiny beards] looks poor and so on. The moustache of one characters was so bad it was almost amusing (not Dorian’s, I hasten to add). It is worth mentioning that the clothing can look really rather nice, and even has a good ‘wet’ look (a bit like Dragon’s Dogma, but the dry/wet difference is determined by location rather than as a combat effect).

If you’ve got a low end PC or ‘last-gen’ console but plan on upgrading in the near future you may well prefer to wait. The graphics are disappointing, and sometimes to an extreme degree. The first vitar (facepaint) I found for my Qunari mage looked pretty good (some basic white stripes). A later one (almost full-face yellow) was so bad I swapped back.

However, for me the graphics are a secondary issue. So, this area of weakness is not a deal-breaker, from my perspective.

Sound

The music is good, and in places very good indeed. As always, voice-acting varies a bit but the general quality is very good. It’s also weird, but nice, to hear Cullen as commander of the Inquisition’s army, after we’ve seen him progress from nervous Templar, to Knight-Captain in the last game.

Assessing the Inquisitor is very hard because there are four voice actors (two per gender, one English, one American) and I’ve only heard a lot from one (Alix Wilton Regan, English female voice). Very good so far, but I want to try the others as well.

The effects could perhaps be a little better. They’re not bad, but also haven’t made a huge impression.

Bugs and other issues

In a game this massive, there will be some bugs. Worth emphasising that they’re often platform-specific. Anyway, here are the ones I encountered on the PS3 version.

Sometimes there’s a very faint (probably one pixel-thin) horizontal black line halfway up the screen. In dark settings, it’s hard to see, in snowy surroundings it stands out.

Not a bug, but the loading times can be a little long.

Sometimes, going into/out of tactical view can mean lots of sounds cease to be heard. This can be rectified by leaving the area. Whilst this has happened very rarely to me, it’s still irksome.

X means both jump and loot (and light fires, where applicable). Once I tried lighting a fire, was too far away, and ended up lighting it in mid-air, which then had my character hovering (halfway through a jump animation). I could still move around, and looting resolved the comedy problem.

To date I’ve suffered two freezes. The first was a ‘regular’ freeze (no warning about potential corruption of the system on restart), and upon reloading the last save the issue did not recur (although I did skip through the preceding cut-scene). Whilst this isn’t great, freezes do often happen now and then with massive RPGs (cf Skyrim, Dragon Age: Origins etc).

The second occurred during a cut-scene immediately after I’d saved (the save icon was still up). I waited a little while in case the save was still being processed, and afterwards did get the potential corruption warning, though all was fine.

Conclusion

It took me some time to sink my teeth into Inquisition. I think the early visit to the Hinterlands coupled with the lack of information about your character was something of a mistake. However, once the story kicks into gear it really seems to take off. As well as the companions and advisers, I like the secondary cast that join the Inquisition.

Apart from the freezes, the bugs are all minor but the little delays can make it feel like a good book where every page takes five seconds to load. Not a major problem but it does take the shine off a little.

At this stage, I’d give it 8/10. It should’ve been a point higher, but the loading times and numerous small bugs do stack up.

Thaddeus

Preview: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age: Inquisition comes out in ten days in the UK (seven days for the US, nine days for the EU outside the UK), so now seemed the right time for a proper preview (regulars will know I’ve posted quite a bit about this game already but we’re at the maximum level of pre-game knowledge now). It comes out for the PC, Playstations and Xboxes. Naturally the PC and current-gen consoles have better graphics, but in terms of gameplay and content all platforms have the same offering. If you have an Xbox (not sure if it's only One or 360 as well) you can get early access in a couple of days via the EA subscription service.

I’m going to adopt a minimal spoiler approach. There will be some relating to how gameplay works, very basic details (some of which have been known about for over a year) regarding the plot/companions, but I will do my best to keep spoilers to a bare minimum. So, if you’re deliberately starving yourself of info to avoid the venom of spoilers poisoning the delicious cake of Inquisition, this should be the preview for you. It’s pretty lengthy, I should warn you.

Dragon Age Keep

This is either very good news, if you’re connected to the internet, or very annoying news. The Keep (which you need an Origin account to access) is an online, browser-based feature which basically allows you to customise the choices that were made during Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2 and DLC (you do not need to have played any of that to make the choices). These will then have an impact on Inquisition, and your world state will be imported during character creation. The upside is that if you’re shifting consoles (or going to/from PC) you can recreate or amend past decisions without playing through whole games, and that if you’re new you can easily get to grips with the backstory (each decision is concisely explained). The downside is that you cannot import saves directly and that if you lack online connectivity to your console then you cannot alter the world state from the default. I think it’s a shame there isn’t a basic Keep for major decisions on-disc. If you’re online, this should be fine, if you’re not, it’s a bit disappointing [NB I know it’s not encouraging to start on a downer, but I should stress this is about the most negative view I have of the game].

The Keep is now in Open Beta, so you can access it but it isn’t quite finished. I strongly advise getting this sorted ahead of time so that you can just import your finished world state on the day.

Character creation

Character creation is more in-depth and has more options than any previous Dragon Age game. There are four race choices (dwarf, elf, human, Qunari), both genders and two voice options per gender (one English, one American [you can test them during character creation to see which you like]).

There are the usual options you’d expect, but many features (eye colours for inner/outer iris, tattoo colour, makeup colours) use a colour wheel which effectively means you can pick any colour on the spectrum. For the first time, scar intensity and location can be altered.

Certain features (ears, noses) can be altered using not only presets and sliders, but also a grid system which gives great versatility when it comes to how wide/pinned back ears are, and so forth.

Female dwarves can have beards, although it’s fuzz rather than full-blown man-beards. Adam’s apple size can also be altered, for both genders, and male characters have full access to makeup. Qunari horns can be varied considerably, though there are fewer hornless/hairstyle options, and hair colour is more limited in range than for other races.

As with previous games, classes are only limited in that dwarves cannot be mages for lore reasons. If you choose rogue or warrior then you also choose archer/dual-wielding daggers and sword & shield/two-handed weapons respectively but this does not lock you into that play style (you cannot change class in-game but you can shift from dual daggers to archer, for example).

I’ve seen a few videos of character creation and, to be honest, it looks tremendous. The lighting has been designed to be neutral, giving a good indication of your appearance (usually a problem with character creators), and it’s worth noting there is no capacity, at launch, to alter your face once you’re in-game.

Crafting/customisation

A significant complaint about Dragon Age 2 was the lack of capacity for customising companions (almost none, in fact). This has been very, very dramatically improved upon for Inquisition.

For a start, you can actually change their armour. I know this is Videogames 101, but you couldn’t in DA2.

Even better (and quite surprisingly because it must’ve taken a huge amount of time) almost every piece of armour changes shape to suit the style of the individual on whom it is equipped. I think a few stay the same on whoever wears them, but the vast majority will change. So, a robe on an Inquisitor will look very different than it would on the mage companions.

For the first time, we can craft our own armour and weapons. Better still, using varying materials (whether metal, stone or cloth) will alter both the appearance and the stats of armour and weaponry. Multiple colours of each armour can be changed this way (NB you do need to acquire schematics to do this), and it suggests a very high degree of crafting customisation.

In addition, the home base of the Inquisition can be customised in both stylistic terms with decoration, and in terms of more practical advantage (for example, making a garden in which you can plant herbs to grow more).

Potions and the like can also be crafted and customised, so the infamous Jar of Bees can be improved by adding wasps.

The crafting looks very good.

Gameplay

This is one of the hardest things to assess without actually playing, so I’ll summarise what we know factually and then try and surmise how well, or badly, it’ll work.

Combat will be fairly fast-paced, but the tactical camera will return and be available on all platforms this time (for those unaware this will enable the player to pause combat, issue orders and then either end the pause or run time forward a little and issue more orders).

There is very little magical healing [reports of there being none are false, but it is rarer and more difficult than past games, and there is no ‘healer’ set of spells]. Potion healing (with a limited number that can be increased via perks and the like) does come back. Health regeneration out of combat is strictly limited based on difficulty. There are various ways to increase health through perks or to diminish damage likewise (a barrier spell, for example, makes a barrier that takes damage instead of health so long as it lasts).

A character who runs out of health in combat can be revived by a spell or by a nearby character, provided the reviver is not attacked for a little while.

Spells seem to offer more tactical options (for example, you can make a wall of ice which could close off a corridor) than past games.

There will not be second waves of enemies all the damned time (as in Dragon Age 2) but this might happen very occasionally.

Combat can often be a weak spot in RPGs (except for Dragon’s Dogma, which somehow managed to be an RPG with fantastic combat and somewhat rubbish world-building/story). My guess at this stage is that it’ll work pretty well, without being trouser-explodingly good.

Is it open world?

Jein. There are specific areas (forested, desert, mountains etc) but these are very large (many are larger than all of Origins) and I believe there are well over 20. Within these areas there’s lots of scope to explore, so much so steeds were introduced so you could get around more quickly (fast travel is possible within areas).

Reports from journalists who’ve played the game suggest a total size comparable to Skyrim, and possibly even bigger.

So, it’s not a true open world, but there is a very large world and plenty of room to go off the beaten track. One thing Mike Laidlaw, Beardmaster of Bioware, said was that he wanted every area to have at least one location that wasn’t part of any quest and that was just there to be found by exploring.

How the Inquisition works

The Inquisition will almost be a character in itself. It will gain power as you progress through the main and side-quests, enabling you gain perks. In addition, the choices you make will have a lasting impact (choosing between rival sides in a war, for example). You will also be able to send agents out on missions independently of what you and your companions do. So, it’ll be more than the Grey Wardens were in Origins. If you played Awakening, it sounds like a much more developed version of how that worked.

As you conquer areas you can ally or destroy certain groups, and the forts you take can be dedicated to trade, espionage or military might.

The Inquisitor will be able to make judgements about certain individuals, with a wide range of options over the course of the game (I’d guess only a couple per individual).

Very basic story outline

The world is embroiled in war and attacked by demons, and to quell the turmoil the Inquisition is formed. It is not loyal to a nation or religion, but is a law unto itself and seeks to impose order. This can be done through nice or ruthless means, and whilst there isn’t a ‘full evil’ option (after all, you’re there to save the world, not end it) it seems you’ll have a pretty wide range of options from pragmatic brutality to peace-making compromise.

That’s based on many things I’ve seen and read ahead of the game’s release, but that’ll only be proven (or disproven) with the game itself.

Once the main story is complete, unlike all previous instalments, the game will not end. Instead, you will be able to keep playing. There is no New Game Plus option.

Characters

The Inquisition is not a one man band. In addition to the Inquisitor (the player-character) there are nine companions (three each of warrior, rogue and mage) and three advisers who advocate diplomatic, espionage and military means to resolve problems.

Several characters return (Varric, Cassandra, Leliana, Cullen amongst others) and others may or may not based upon the choices you make in the Keep. There’s a large number of romance options (I think at least four regardless of gender/race, with more possible for certain combinations). Those characters interested in amorous relations have a set sexuality (gay, straight, bi) unlike Dragon Age 2, where anyone would shag Hawke given the chance.

Longevity and review plans

Given it’s been described by many developers and journalists as a massive game (I’ve heard 30-40 hours, or more, for the main storyline and 150-200+ hours for all the things in the world) I won’t wait until I’ve finished my first playthrough to do an initial review. As I’ve done for other games (such as Skyrim) I’ll do an Early Thoughts review, indicating my view based on the first few days or so. Once I’ve completed my first playthrough I’ll do a more comprehensive review (not sure whether I’ll go straight arrow through the storyline or dilly-dally picking mushrooms, so it could be over a month before I finish it).

Anyway, that’s my preview. A week to go if you’re in the US, and a few days more if you’re in the UK or other bits of the EU.

Thaddeus

Dragon Age: Inquisition, E3 news

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

Dragon Age: Inquisition out in October

Good news! Dragon Age: Inquisition will be released in October. Huzzah!

That's the 7^th for Americans and the 10^th for the UK (it's common, though still annoying, for games to be released on that sort of basis).

This is more or less when we were expecting. Once Amazon get their arse in gear and put it up on the UK site I'll pre-order.

Pre-ordering will get you some DLC weapons (NB no DLC companions this time). The Deluxe edition (a GAME exclusive in the UK, which, to be honest, I've decided I'm not remotely tempted by) will get you some unique mounts, more gear, the soundtrack [the most tempting bonus] and some other stuff yet to be announced.

Just before the release date was announced we got the cover reveal. It looks quite nice, and if you look at the gap in the demonic horde you can see a dragon's head. If you make the image negative (I can't take credit for this, some chap on Twitter did it first but I forget who) it's much more apparent, as are the dragon's wings.

Not sure this has been officially confirmed, but it seems that Gwendoline Christie, (who plays Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones), will be voicing a character. I don't know who, but that's good news.

Last but not least, along with the cover and release date we got a new trailer, which looks rather good:

So, once Amazon finally puts it up I'll pre-order for the PS3 (there will be graphical differences from that generation to the next, but no gameplay differences). Rather looking forward to it.

Thaddeus

Dragon Age: Inquisition – more info

As the title cunningly suggests, there's some new information out regarding Dragon Age: Inquisition. There be spoilers below. We learn more about the world, gameplay areas, and companions. Generally the info below is confirmed or probable, and where it's not certain I've tried to make it plain it's unconfirmed speculation. If you're avoiding all spoilers then you should probably stop reading now, and I'll put a picture below so the vile sight of spoilers do not besmirch your innocent eyes.

Some of this information comes from the GameStar April edition. It's a German magazine, and some reports of what it says may be wrong, largely due to dodgy translations. Sadly, my German has been getting rustier by the year, so I doubt mein Abitur will be much use reading it auf Deutsch. Some info comes from a post on the Bioware forums regarding information in an overseas Xbox magazine, and the lack of deletion or denial of the post's contents suggests it's accurate.

Each area has realistic ecosystem with predators, prey, factions and quest/Inquisition expansion opportunities. Animals attack one another, bandits raid towns. Crafting and customising weapons (as mentioned previously) can be done, so hunting for furs and the like may very well help in this area. However, if you hunt a species to extinction then it either won't return to a given area or will take a long time to do so.

Speaking of customisation, it's possible that the Inquisition headquarters, and other keeps, will be customisable (this is beyond the previously mentioned decision of whether a keep focuses on commerce, military prowess or espionage).

I also read somewhere (and I can't find the article/video now, alas, so take this not so much with a pinch as a boulder of salt) that you will have to make special one-off decisions. For example, you might have to choose whether a certain keep researches a special sort of magic, or forging a new type of metal. You would only pick one and cannot change your mind. You'll have to make similar choices when playing the game (the well-known one about defending the village or your keep when both are under attack springs to mind). These choices will, we are told, have lasting consequences and could prevent you from doing a whole slew of quests (if you let loads of people die they won't be asking you to hunt chickens for them later on). I like the sound of it. It adds weight to choices and improves replayability.

New areas will be unlocked when the Inquisitor/Inquisition is strong enough (probably as basic as a certain level unlocking a given area, but it could also refer to keeps controlled, or suchlike). There will be five areas: Ferelden, the Free Marches, Orlais, Nevarra (east of Orlais), and the Dales (which lie to the west of Ferelden and south-east of Orlais).

It's nigh on certain we'll return to the Deep Roads, but can't say if it's Kal Sharok[sp] or Orzammar.

There are definitely giants (or giant bipedal tusked creatures) which look rather good. They appear similar to the cyclopes (plural of cyclops, not a typo) in Dragon's Dogma after a successful diet (or somewhat like Anima from FFX, but without all the bondage gear and bandages).

The Fade looks significantly different to the first two games, which I'm rather glad about. The Fade always made my eyes go a bit weird after a while, and I found it a bit tedious, but (visually at least) it seems to have been dramatically improved.

On that note, the graphics generally are a huge improvement, but we'll have to wait and see just how significant the PS3/PS4 difference is (I'll be buying for the PS3, but might well get an Ultimate edition [or whatever they call it] for the PS4).

It's been suggested that there will be two voice actors/actresses per gender. This has not been confirmed, nor is it known whether (if it's true) we get to pick our voice or if the voices are assigned to races and cannot be changed (except by racial selection). It's possible there will be a feature to alter the pitch of the protagonist's voice, to add a bit more customisation (this appears to be under consideration by Bioware, with no decision yet being made).

The Inquisitor will have a little prologue section, which it seems will deal with character creation. In addition, we'll be able to wear whatever armour we like, regardless of class (so you could have a warrior wearing a mage's robes). There may be penalties for having out-of-class clothing/armour.

We have a new companion confirmation: a bald elven mage called Solace or maybe Solas.

The Iron Bull, the Qunari chap we've seen a few times, has also been confirmed, but that was pretty much an open secret.

Last but not last is the elven archeress, Sera[sp]. That's six in total (as well as the three above we have Vivienne, and returning characters Cassandra and Varric). So far we have 2 each of rogues, mages and warriors, so I'd expect one more of each class.

To my immense surprise, and absolute approval, there will be no DLC companions. Even as someone near certain to preorder (and thus get a code to download said DLC character for free) I despise DLC companions. They're either good, in which case they should be included as standard, or rubbish, and therefore not worth having. So, huzzah for this unexpected decision!

Speaking of companions, Bioware are doing a feature called Followers Friday. Each month they'll reveal or post more information about a companion. The first, an introduction to Vivienne, is here: http://blog.bioware.com/2014/03/24/introduction-to-vivienne/

There's also a suggestion, entirely unconfirmed, the game could be out in October. That's a shade later than the Q3 area mentioned previously, but it's better to get a game a day late than bang on time and in need of immediate patches to fix constant freezing *cough*Skyrim*cough*.

The Warden and Hawke may well make cameo appearances, but not as companions. Alistair will return. Unless he's dead. Well, maybe he could be a zombie.

There are a reported 40 endings. Now, given all the above info it's possible to see lots of variance (military, commercial and espionage approaches to the Inquisition, being brutal or merciful, siding with mages or Templars, being for or against Morrigan and so on) but 40 is a bloody huge number. I suspect much of that will be done the way Origins ended, with a few pictures stating that Bhelen was competent but an arse or Harrowmont was nice but useless.

I really like Dragon Age, and I've been looking forward to Inquisition for a while. Just about every bit of info released seems positive, and much has been in direct reaction to fan feedback after DA2. Hopefully it can come out more or less on schedule, because, if they deliver on the promise, it could be a fantastic RPG.

Thaddeus

Dragon Age 3: spoilers and speculation

The early briefing ahead of E3 has revealed a new trailer for Dragon Age 3 (Inquisition), as well as an approximate release date of Autumn 2014. That’s a year or so later than expected, but after DA2’s clearly rushed state I think most people will be willing to wait.

It is not yet clear what platforms the game will be out for. Xbone, PS4 and PC seem very likely, although whether or not it comes out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 is less clear. I very much hope it does, as I’m really looking forward to Inquisition, but not enough to buy a PS4 for that one game alone.

After this point there are many spoilers, so if you’re deliberately avoiding them please stop reading here.

Here’s the trailer:

In it we see (and hear) a number of recurring characters. Morrigan (voiced by the delightful Claudia Black) returns, and I would guess she’s brought her baby (who has the soul of an Old God/dragon/archdemon) with her.

We also see Varric, still carrying his swanky crossbow Bianca.

I believe the lady in Seeker armour is Cassandra, which was widely expected and very welcome.

A Qunari (possibly the new Arishok, as his horns are lengthier than the usual in DA2) is present.

Near the end the sky (the Veil?) is torn open, revealing a load of demonic creatures and the dragon, which I think is probably Son of Morrigan.

Although there’s neither sight nor sound of Flemeth it would be pretty surprising if she were not present in this game. She’s been in both the previous instalments and after Morrigan attempts to kill her in Origins it’s quite possible she’ll be opposing her daughter. The other, less likely, possibility is that Flemeth *is* the dragon (she can transform into one, and does so when Morrigan sends the Warden to kill her in Origins).

Leliana also did not feature here, but was at the end of DA2 with Cassandra, which suggests she too will return.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect, characters aside, of the trailer is that it presents a war between Morrigan/magic against the forces of good and order. Whether this is simply analogous to the Templar/mage conflict we know about (with Morrigan on the mages’ side) or whether we’ve got a three way war (Morrigan, the mages and the Templars) is unclear.

It also seems to me that we’ll have a similar ally-collecting central quest, as per Origins. That worked really well in the first game, and this time it seems that siding with the ‘bad guys’ is also a possibility. 

I’m still very much looking forward to Inquisition, I just hope it comes out for the current as well as next generation of consoles. I don’t mind the extra wait, but that does make me worry that such a move diminishes the chances of it coming out for the PS3.

Thaddeus

Dragon Age 3 confirmed

After a lot of speculation Dragon Age 3 has formally been confirmed:

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119622-BioWare-Confirms-Dragon-Age-III-Inquisition

The subtitle, which had been one of several doing the rounds, will be Inquisition. As was very widely expected, the action will take place in Orlais, the faux French kingdom west of Kirkwall and north of Ferelden. 

As expected (and pretty much necessitated by the end of DA2) the game will feature the chantry being torn apart as mages and templars go at each other's throats and refuse to acknowledge the chantry's authority.

According to the info the game's been in production for 2 years already and is expected late in 2013. Hopefully the much longer turn around time than DA2 had will see a superior quality game. Apparently the world will be more expansive, there will be more customisation (I'd love the chance to play as a Qunari but would be surprised if that's an option) and more 'reactivity' to player choices.

Of course, we'll have to wait and see how it turns out. DA2 had some good elements (the Qunari were a rare case of retconning improving things and the voice acting remained of a high standard) but it was clearly rushed. There was little variation to areas, with the vast majority simply copy and pasted. Likewise, the story lacked a central theme or sense of direction.

I like Dragon Age, so hopefully Inquisition will be a great RPG.

Thaddeus

Dragon Age 3 rumours

The Escapist, amongst others, has reported upon some rumours about Dragon Age 3 which have emerged:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119172-Rumor-Survey-Spills-Details-on-Dragon-Age-3

Whilst certain aspects have the ring of truth, I'm not sure they're entirely right. There may (or may not be) spoilers for DA3 below and are spoilers for previous games.

DA3 is to be set in Orlais

This has been hinted at elsewhere and many expected this to be the case. It's also possible that the game takes place in Orlais and other countries, and I'd be more surprised if we did not visit the faux French kingdom than if we did.

Civil wars + conspiracies + demons invading from another dimension

The civil war aspect (well, Templars versus Mages and with a waning Chantry) more or less happens during DA2 so it'd be a bit weird if that got dropped. The conspiracy angle is also somewhat hinted at (with Flemeth and Morrigan).

The dimensional portal and lots of angry demons is new. I hope it isn't true, as it sounds rather bland and unoriginal. It also seems entirely unnecessary given that a once dominant church is falling into wrack and ruin and civil wars are tearing the world apart.

Variable playstyle and 'important' decisions

Apparently the player's job is to lead the Inquisition (nobody expected that), and reassert some form of order. This can occur by assembling armies and smashing your enemies in the face until they realise that doing whatever you say is a good idea, using spies, or partaking in political shenanigans. That would be quite a significant change in gameplay from both previous instalments. It also seems a bit weird to have the protagonist leading something called an Inquisition. They don't have a good reputation, really.

Up to 10 companions, with up to 4 in the party at once, and online co-op gameplay

I'd be surprised if this happens. I think that's more than either previous game and a four man (including the player-character) group works perfectly well.

I also hope the online gameplay doesn't come about. Yes, a solitary player can just do without, but it would mean the developers spending more time frittering their time away on co-op rather than world-building, scriptwriting and so on and so forth.

Titles including The Breach, Exarch, Inquisition, Inquisitor, Apocrypha

Whilst I like Exarch, I think the term is not one that most will get (given Byzantine history isn't exactly pop culture). The Breach sounds like a troubled pregnancy, Apocrypha too mystical, and the two Inquisi-terms could work but they sound like a tortuous experience. After the double facepalming statues of Kirkwall Bioware might seek to avoid giving DA3 a title suggesting prolonged pain.

Stuff not mentioned

Nothing about a lady Qunari companion, alas. Also not mentioned was the DLC approach, but given what happened with ME3 and DA2 it's reasonable to suspect there'll be an unpleasantly large array of DLC, including day 1 DLC.

In fact, Dragon Age 3 has not, I think, even been officially confirmed. However, it's close to being a dead cert. I just hope it's more like Origins than DA2.

Thaddeus