Dragon Age Inquisition Walkthrough and Review(Description)Part 1-KJS
0I found a particular mod absolutely essential: the one which removes the looting animation. When there is such a large emphasis on gathering resources, I'm glad I had the option to not spend 20 hours watching my inquisitor bending over laboriously for the 8965169th elfroot. I would also recommend the conversation zoom mod, which brings the camera closer when you talk with people - the base version has you stare at them talking from afar as if you were an outsider, making it a lot more impersonal than in the first two games. The added intimacy makes a lot of difference.
Anyway, on to my irrelevant thoughts about an 11 year old trilogy!
During quarantine, I played through the Dragon Age games for the first time, back to back - man, what an epic trip!
It was nice to directly compare them all - The first one had the most straightforward story with some really hard choices, great characters, but some drawn out, exhausting dungeons (especially Orzammar). The hate for DA2 is completely blown out of proportion (though I admit it probably helped that I was prepared for its shortcomings due to all the online whining). Yeah yeah, dungeons are identical, yeah yeah it's just one city, but perhaps even BECAUSE of its narrow scope there was never a dull moment, not a single minute went by which wasn't character or plot driven in some way, and it always felt personal, with constant world building.
As for Inquisition, it took a lot of steps forward, and a few back. Despite being 6 years old, it's still jaw-droppingly beautiful at times, with great voice acting, music, etc. They went somewhat overboard with rectifying the second one's mistakes however, as it's a bit TOO big for its own good. The Witcher 3 remains the benchmark for filling a massive world with meaningful content, as in DA:I the vast majority of side quests are started by reading some letter on a corpse, going to some place and killing some monsters, without a single line of dialogue spoken. I wish there were more consequential and involved quests - it's telling that before the final mission I had 3 entirely untouched zones, as the game didn't bother to give a plot-related reason to go there, besides to level up. They are all pretty and entertaining enough, but the lack of narrative drive in those sections makes the breaks between the EPIC story quests a bit of a grind, and I had to tactically pace out companion quests so I could dose myself with plot periodically. It worked though, and those story quests are genuinely great, with some moments in particular straight up goosebump-inducing that I will probably remember for years. To be clear, there isn't necessarily LESS plot than in previous games, it's just spread more thinly over a larger game. (To compare, the first 2 games took me 50-60 hours to beat each, this one took 120) The combat is really punchy and spectacular with lots of spell combos, although I absolutely hated that there's only 8 skill slots. It was hard to get excited about levelling up near the end, as any new ability meant the loss of another one I sunk several skill points into already, so I ended up forcing myself on passive abilities so I can remain effective. At first I didn't like how you lost the ability to distribute attribute points, but then I learned the ins and outs of the crafting system, which was a fair enough replacement and led to some really satisfying tinkering.
As this is the GOTY edition, a few thoughts about the 3 DLCs:
- "Descent" was refreshing in the sense of being an atmospheric dungeon crawler calling back to DA:O, which I missed after all those spacious maps, but a lot of the enemies having way too much health and immunities made the combat outlive its welcome a little, and the final few locations and lore-bomb ending - while really epic - were brushed over way too quickly, ignoring its implications for the world, making it feel a bit like fan fiction.
- "Jaws of Hakkon" is another large open map, very pretty, and a nice little self-contained plot. It's more of the same basically, not vital, but neat.
- "Trespasser" though - this is essential. It's criminal this wasn't in the main game. It's basically the "real" ending, building on and giving context for the confusing cliffhanger twist of the main plot, and includes one of the best character moments in the game: heartfelt, dramatic, lore-altering, and a perfect setup for Dragon Age 4. I can honestly hardly wait after this.
Overall, a somewhat bloated game with a lot of heart and individually amazing moments with really fun combat. I am keeping my fingers crossed Bioware doesn't mess DA4 up, because after these last 220 hours I'm not ready to be disappointed.
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