PAX Australia - Dragon Age Inquisition Hands One

The evening prior to PAX Australia, I had the chance to attend an event where I got a serious amount of time with upcoming Dragon Age Inquisition.

We were treated to a nice introduction to the game and what we would play by Mike Laidlaw, the creative director of the game. Mike explained a little about why they wanted to make the game and just how long they have been at it. He then explained that Bioware had not been 100% honest with people when they said you were the Inquisitor, in fact when you start the game, you are a no-body. In fact you are arrested for a crime you have no memory of, actually you don't really know anything.

First thing I had to do was make my choices for what my character would be, the race and gender, the look and voice, even scars and tattoos were options. I selected a human female and gave her some really wicked scars and a massive giant red tattoo over her face, to make her seem more badass. Then you are given the choice of what type of class you want to play as, I went for the mage as that is my go to class; Then the adventure began.

I won't spoil what happens at the start, but things are not in your favour. Thankfully you are taken from your current location by Cassandra to the front lines of the battle, which is taking place under the rift. Along the way a small rift opens and Cassandra runs off to fight the demon that appears, after she leaves you another one appears and comes for you. You are now thrown into the combat for the first time and here you are shown the ropes. Attack as a mage is pretty simple, you hold down the attack button and spells are cast, should you wish to vary your attacks, you can use the more powerful options as well. These however have a cool down before you can use them again and they also require your mana to be at set levels.

The two of those systems combined means you need to ensure you plan out your attacks prior to casting the spell, else some very nasty thing may occur. Once you have faced off against a few demons the game then introduces you to the tactical camera view, which will allow you to direct your team to attack set targets and more, should you want to do that. Apart from that tutorial I never ventured back into it as it is not my thing. You can though at any point cycle through the characters to take control on the field in real time, something you will need to do from time to time as only rouges can open locked doors.

I fought my way to the command area and while I was in conversation with the other characters, I could hear the battle raging on around me, screams of soldiers be decimated by hordes of demons and explosions that thundered around the mountains. As the group I was with could not come to a decision on how they should proceed, I was tasked with making it, should I join up with the army around us and fight through the ranks to get to where I needed to go or perhaps I should use the mountain path through the old mining tunnels, assist the scout team that went that way and let the soldiers fight on their own. I chose the mountain path simply because I did not want to be bogged down fighting so much.

Once we reached our destination, Solas the elf pictured above advised that the strange mark contained with my hand could close the rift near us, but as it was dormant it would need to be made active first, but that would bring a danger with it, because what was on the other side might come through. I activated the portal and giant stone creature came through and the fight was on. Each attack I and the team performed took down its health little by little, but it was using the shard to protect itself and at the same time lesser demons were being summoned. Using the power in my hand, I was able to disrupt the rift, which in turn caused the demon to loose its protection and we went back to attacking. This cycle went on for a bit until it died, once it was dead I was able to tackle the bigger problem, closing the rift. As it closed, the force of it closing knocked my character out and I was then treated to waking up in a strange place, again.

After some nice cut-scenes and interactions with people, Cassandra, Solas and Varrick, also above decided with some others that the threat was still real and something needed to happen and thus the Inquisition was born. But the Inquisition had hardy any supplies, men or moral so off we went to recruit more, gain supplies and help anyone we could. From this point on the game opened itself right up and let me choose where I wanted to go. After securing a forward position in the Hinterlands, I was able to make my own path, which resulted in me going around making more camps to gain more ground. Along the way I stopped skirmishes that had broken out around the place and even stopped to help people in need.

It was around this time that my time with the game came to an end, almost 3 hours of game and I had barely begun to scratch the surface. What I have taken away from my time with the game is two things, firstly make your choice of character wisely, I rushed through mine here to get into the game as fast as I could, but when I play it for myself, I will do all I can to ensure my character is crafted just the way I want them to be. Secondly, set aside a few days to play this properly, because from what I sampled, this game is not only going to tax your time but also your emotions, being a Bioware game you can expect some complicated characters and even with the small amount of time I spent with Varrick, Solos and the others I can see myself caring about them.

My time with Dragon Age Inquisition put any fears I had about the game being like the second one to rest, this feels more like the original but adds much more to the experience and I for one can't wait until I can get the full game.