I’ve posted a few articles where I mention I’m a budget gamer, and that I have to choose carefully when it comes to what games I invest my time and money in.
This year has already seen the launch of some big name titles, and even though there’s only a few more months in the year there’s still plenty of exciting titles that have yet to be released. If I had to choose only one of these games to play, it would have to be Dragon Age: Inquisition. Throughout the year, BioWare has supplied fans with plenty of chances to see what features make Inquisition one of the most anticipated games of the year, including character customization and crafting discussed in a video posted earlier this week.
1. Multiplayer
Inquisition is the first Dragon Age game to have multiplayer mode. There are three multiplayer co-op campaigns in the game where you and your friends can play agents of the Inquisitor, completing side missions to further your ultimate goal. Four players can participate in the multiplayer missions, playing characters with their own personalities, motivations, and fighting styles.
2. Friends and Enemies
Inquisition wouldn’t be a Dragon Age game without plenty of dragons to fight. The dragons have been updated for Inquisition, and are much bigger than dragons in the other games. Players will now have the ability to tell their team to target a specific area of the dragon, such as a leg or the head.
In addition to dragons the Inquisitor will have to fight against several new creatures working for someone known as “The Elder One.” Previous Dragon Age games have thrown demons, skeletons, and similar creatures at the player. Inquisition’s enemies are even creepier, giving the game a very dark feel.
In order to fight all of these enemies, the Inquisitor has even more people on their team than the player had in previous Dragon Age games. The Inquisitor is assisted by nine companions and a few advisors who all want to help save Thedas. Of course, they have their own motivations as well, and some may or may not get along with each other. Your choices throughout the game not only affect your character, but also influences what happens to all of your companionsas well.
3. The Keep
Like most BioWare games, Dragon Age: Inquisition has an extensive storyline, which will be affected by your choices in previous games. Rather than having the option to import saved characters, BioWare has created a program called “The Dragon Age Keep,”which enables players to recreate what happened for them in the previous storylines, and then import that information into Inquisition. This allows players to have a lot of flexibility whether they have played Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2, or not. By using “The Keep” you only need to enter information into the program instead of playing the game again just to change one or two choices.
4. Open World
If you disliked Dragon Age 2 because of the limited areas then you’ll be happy to know that Inquisition takes the player character all over Thedas. The places you are able to visit range from “blistering deserts to demon-infested swamps.” This is definitely an exciting aspect of Dragon Age: Inquisition, because so far we’ve seen only a small portion of the world in Dragon Age.
Not only do your choices affect the storyline, but you can also affect the world around your character. If you hunt a specific type of animal in an area, then you’ll begin to actually affect the animal’s popularion and you’ll encounter that animal less and less.
5. Character Customization
The sneak peek of the character creation shows that players have a bunch of detailed options to make their characters look however they want. You are once again able to choose your voice, just as you could in Dragon Age: Origins. You also have plenty of options when it comes to facial features, including various beard options and the choice of having a broken nose, or not.
There is also a color wheel to choose the inner and outer color of your eyes, as well as the makeup for your character. The character generation is so detailed, you even have the option to choose your eyelash color.
Overall, I think what I am most looking forward to is exploring the open world of the game. When playing Dragon Age 2, I always felt limited because there were only certain designated areas one could go to in the game, and often areas that were supposed to be different looked very similiar to areas I’d been in before. Hopefully, Inquisition will allow players, including myself, to feel less restricted because of the open world and all of the other options this Dragon Age game will have.
