The Inquisition on PC

You know I had a lot of doubts going into this game considering what EA has done to a lot of good games over the course of the past few years. I lost faith in Battlefield, Mass Effect, Dead Space and numerous other franchise titles just because EA corporates couldn't get their heads out of their shareholder's asses. I would risk the damage to my reputation to say that most long time franchise fans would agree with me.

But, I'm not here to talk bad about EA. In fact I think they did right by a lot of fans and critics with their newest installment of Dragon Age. Sure it has it's issues but, I think for once they're actually starting to listen to what their customers want and not looking at the bottom line.

Story: 

It's cohesive, yet mysteriously confusing. Some of the story points don't link up a lot as a whole, but that's largely ok the most important points are generally well grounded in well versed story telling. I'm not an expert in Dragon Age lore nor do I care to be but, everything I experienced matches the lore of the past Dragon Age games I've played and haven't deviated much from solid expansionism.

Romance options feel slightly stilted. They're still just as awkward as before, but this time they have more meat to them. However, romance options that could have been were instead ignored. I'm looking at you Cassandra x Female Main Character. Bioware has also fully embraced the whole equal rights role by giving lots of same sex options. Although in my opinion it still has a long way to go. The idea would best be served if every option had male/female romance lines. Maybe it's a fling or a deep relationship either way it could be fleshed out more.

It follows the old hero archetype and offers a grand experience from multiple viewpoints (Mostly Varrics.) Banter is well timed and meaningful offering a change of pace in the serious attitude in the game.

8/10

Gameplay:

I was expecting more fluid action what I got was more reminiscent of an antiquated FFXII combat system. Still fun nonetheless but, It was lacking that true action packed feeling like its sister title Mass Effect. The open worlds are rife with standard rpg quests to do. Each of them seems to provide lore and appropriate rewards for doing them. They made it similar to the collection of Last Fight readiness meter like in Mass Effect 3. I thoroughly enjoyed that system as every little thing amounted to something. No quest felt like a throwaway, maybe-don't-need-to-do-this-one quest.

However, cameras really made me sad, like literally fetal position crying sad. They're just that bad I'm not sure how it is on the consoles but the PC version of the game's camera controls were just flat out terrible. Sometime it's too close, sometimes it's too far, sometimes I'm flying somewhere out in the middle of nowhere.

Tactical inputs don't really seem to matter in my opinion as all your friendly AI never seem to react in time. Making it more like a 1 man demonstration of skill with 3 meat shields. Having a double front-line often serves purposes better than have 3 DPS characters making for a very linear combat system in a sense. You aren't limited to doing this. But, in order for aggro to be held you almost need 2 tanks as 1 just dies far too fast.

Moral choices are not well defined. However, thematically it works. Just like in any large holy war there's bound to be ambiguous context you don't understand not having definitive good/bad options makes for a more convincing dialogue system.

7/10 


Graphics:

No one practices hygiene in Dragon Age. Seriously everybody's hair is shiny as fuck. For 0 reason. Dorian's mustache is like color of my Honda Accord, Metallic Gunmetal. You would think walking under a waterfall might fix the hygiene issue, but no, I think it makes it worse for an extended duration, until the water dries.

Animation could use some work. Mouth and facial movements make me cringe a little. It almost feels amateurish compared to current gen work but given the large scope of the game it can almost be forgiven. Hopefully in the next title the facial rigging and bones will be improved enough to demonstrate this.

Now that I'm done complaining about the graphics the rest of the game looks utterly stunning. Locales are all extremely well polished. Traveling around the world you really can get immersed. Models are amazing and textures are extremely high fidelity. Leather and metal look to be of actual quality not just haphazardly textured on.

7/10

Sound:
Again quite stunning. The soundtrack fits every single time and Sound FX are well rounded. They don't sound out of place or overly muted. The audio reel is actually well varied giving it hyper realism. Metal clangs could use some work especially in cutscenes. They sound muffled and underwhelming to a degree like the recording equipment were too far away.

All in all the game's sounds are well done with only minor room for improvement with various cutscene audio syncs and the metal clangs. 

8/10

Final Verdict:

Long time fans of the series will enjoy this game. Newcomers to the franchise should feel right at home with a solid experience. The clunky systems are far overshadowed by the overall open world ability to explore and create your own story.

7.5/10