I know I'm kinda late to this game. But due to a hectic schedule I couldn't ever really tear into the game properly. So I played it in fits and starts until I finally beat it.
Story:
Ok, the story for Inquisition continues the Dragon Age tradition of being really thin. But unlike the other games this game has large set pieces: Adamant Fortress, the siege of Haven, and the Fade mission all stand out as some of the best DA quests in the series. They're big, sweeping things that feel exciting in a way DA never has.
Sure, they're big flashy dumb scenes. But they're exciting!
Outside of those set pieces though Inquisition has a lot of great ideas about faith, religion, power, and rebellion... and it mostly shelves those ideas after raising them. Does the power of the Inquisition and being the head of a religious movement corrupt the Inquisitor? How did the Inquisitor handle the reveal that Andraste did not save them? Did they hide that fact to keep a united army of the faithful or did they reveal the truth to the world and possibly harm their movement?
The game doesn't care in a story sense. Nor does it care about all those forces you gathered together in a gameplay. Did you sacrifice Iron Bull's men for the greater power of the Qunari alliance? Who cares. The Inquisition forces are always just as good or bad as the scene requires.
The actual story is simple but that simplicity is not a bad thing. You survive an explosion thus fulfilling one aspect needed to be portrayed as a messianic leader: You Were Chosen. Then you seemingly die in Haven fulfilling the whole Resurrection aspect needed. And then you move on to defeat THE Great Evil which is represented here by being the first darkspawn AND a morally bankrupt Tevinter Magister.
It's as close to black and white the series has ever been. You are this messianic hero vanquishing the greatest evils ever.
Corypheus, despite what this site says, was a good villain too. He had an ambitious plan that was never hard to figure out or murky or muddled. He wanted the throne of the Maker. He was crazy. He was evil. And he was powerful. His attack on Haven at the end of the first act was amazing. Simply amazing. That whole section of the story still stands out as the best part of the game.
In comes the bad guys, we have to hold them off and Mulan the mountains above us and lose all the steam we'd spent the first act building up. Then at the moment of our bleakest despair our spirits are raised through a song and our hopes answered by finding Skyhold.
Like seriously, best part of the game. I listen to the Dawn Will Come on my way to work!
And after that we dismantle Corypheus's plans one by one until out of desperation he challenges us to one last duel in the sky for good and all. It was simple. It was satisfying -- for the most part. The actual ending felt tacked on. Like they'd planned for something else originally and then after all their extensions they just had to cobble together a boss fight using Haven assets and call it a game.
My biggest source of evidence for this is the fact that the ruins rise into the air.... and presumable fall but that's never shown nor is the situation of having the whole party standing on a falling ruin ever given thought. Also, all that influence and power we gathered throughout the game... didn't matter. Nor did upgrading Skyhold... or even Skyhold at all.
But all this worked really well for this story. I feel it was a bit of an over-correct from Dragon Age 2 though. Because the first game was mostly about heroes vanquishing evil but sprinkled throughout you had your dark choices and morally grey areas. These aspects were lauded by fans. So then the second game came out and everything is madness, dark, bleak, and no matter what you do your family falls apart and dies and we're left alone and hunted. And **** you if you want some green in our gunmetal grey universe of stone and sand and blood.
...then after that game didn't get so lauded as the first we're now playing as fantasy Jesus fighting the closest thing to the Devil Thedas has ever produced. And this takes place is the most vibrant and lush looking BioWare games ever. And we get to play pranks on people! And decorate our throne room to be extra-special-French pretty!
I mean, there's still dark moments. My favorite part of the game is the moment when we lost everything and were left for dead in the frozen wastes of the Frostbacks! But those dark moments are really allowed to shine so much because the game around them is so much lighter and fun. And the simplistic story adds to that.
Early on we're given a name to our threat. We know what they want. And if you picked mages at the beginning you even have the enemy's gameplan laid out before you. Then you work steadfastly to take down the enemy while rising your influence in the world.
Simple. Wonderful. Easy to grasp.
Corypheus is also one of the better Dragon Age villains, in my opinion, because of this simplicity. A devote follower of Dumat who followed his master's plan to the take the Golden City. But he was betrayed and the City was already black. He was cursed. He was turned into a monster. And then he was imprisoned for centuries. Upon awakening the world has moved on. His country is a shadow of itself. His humanity is gone. His Old God is long dead and the Maker never was.
So he seeks to bring order to this chaos. He'll be the God the world desperately needs and he'll restore the Imperium to its rightful place as ruler of the world.
The parallel between the Herald of Andraste and the High Priest of Dumat and their quests to restore their respective status quos was really well done. It never overwhelmed you by screaming that these two characters were similar (or worse having Cory say, "We're not so different, you and I.").
And both characters have a similar disillusionment scene. Corypheus finds out there is no Maker and that Dumat seemingly betrayed him for whatever reason. The Inquisitor discovers that Justinia saved them and they were not ever chosen by Andraste. And depending on how your Inquisitor reacts to this... maybe you are different than Corypheus or maybe you're cut from the same cloth and seek to take thrones and power.
Simple story. Well done but simple. I'd like something more complex for any expansion or sequel (which ever comes first) but this was a great palate cleanser after DA2's more personal story and the grim-darkness of Origins.
Finally, I love the theme of Faith vs Fear. That with the Civil War, the Mage-Templar War, the war with the Elves, and all the general chaos in Thedas that we give the world something to believe in. That faith can be used to rally people and believe that there's a future.
And Corypheus's main weapon was fear. He even had a fake Archdemon to further drive fear into the hearts of his enemies. Most importantly, he had a large Fear demon working with him that has grown fat and powerful on all the fears everyone has ever had about the Blights or Magisters. All those nightmares incarnate and working with Corypheus himself. And we had to face the fears of Thedas in the game and only a spirit of Faith could set us free.
The world's on the edge of collapsing in on itself. An immortal evil from an ancient past will sunder the Veil and destroy the world. And we give the world faith in itself.
It was powerful. I just wish we could have put the fear into Corypheus somehow. That final fight needed some more umph.
Characters
I think here's a spot where I'm going to disagree with the consensus as well. In general, I feel the characters were a step back from the character work in DA2. And I think that too was due to a reaction to how we all dealt with DA2 when it released.
The characters in DA:I are a whole lot like the characters in DA:O. They're all a handful of tropes that they draw on and mostly subvert. They grow some. Some don't. The first mage you meet has a terrible secret and a last act reveal that can be seen as a betrayal (all three games do that. Be wary of the first mage you meet in DA4).
And it's great. Strong personalities and well defined tropes they kinda fit into or struggle to escape from under. Like Cassandra the Crusading Knight who rebelled because she thinks her organization needs to change.
So of course the characters here are a strong point for the game. Did I get to talk to the characters as much as I wanted? No. I feel like I barely knew Dorian and never really met Vivienne despite doing all her personal quests. And yeah, because I had to squeeze time to play the game whenever I could I tended to stay on mounts as much as possible which meant I never heard a lot of the ambient dialogue.
But the characters are great.
...but the characters in DA2 where like people. They had multitudes of flaws. They had their own agendas that sometimes went against your wishes. They might not have had such a strong motivation to stay around Hawke (Isabela in particular always bothered me; why is she with us? Aveline too later when she's busy being the Guard Captain of Kirkwall.)
I liked that the characters where their own people. The characters in DA:I, at least in my opinion, tended to be a little too "Whatever you want, Your Worship." Sera's the only one who seems to buck against that tread... but she's so damn childish...
Still, great characters. I took a shining to Iron Bull in particular but even the advisers like Cullen (I'm now one of his biggest fans) and Leliana had great writing. Overall, I liked the group of weirdos more than the Origins weirdos... and probably more than the DA2 group. But I wish they were as nuanced as the DA2 group.
Other Areas:
-Music
Best in the series.
-Locations
Really good but the cities needed work. The outdoor areas were fantastically realized. Everything is distinctive and wonderful. But Redcliffe? Val Royeaux? Tiny and unremarkable. The ruined cities of Crestwood, Crossroads, and Sahrnia? A little better but they're still tiny. It's a world of forests, deserts, snowy peaks, and ruins. Leaving the world to feel really uninhabited.
I'm thankful for the larger and more varied maps. But the cost was that the most powerful empire in Thedas feels like it's an uncharted frontier. Or that most of the area is a lost kingdom taken back by the wilds.
Probably not the feeling we're supposed to have about Orlais.
-Gameplay
Once I got used to it it's fine. Take a little from the Witcher, a bit more from Dragon's Dogma, and mix liberally with a bit of Dragon Age: Origins and you got Dragon Age: Inquisition.
It's not broke. No need to fix it. Well, except for the glitches. Fix those. But it's fun combat. And it's engaging. And I liked it a lot.
-Quests
...oh, quests. If you aren't a main mission quest you got no love. Lots of filler side quests. Get this, kill that, kill that and take this... repeat and repeat.
Where were the memorable side quests? Even the companions personal quests seemed really unimportant, for the most part. Collect X of this for Vivienne/Blackwall. Kill X of that for Cassandra and Dorian. Destroy X of this for Varric. Occasionally you get a proper side quest for the companions but I cannot remember a proper one for Dorian or Vivienne (apparently Dorian's is glitched and some people never get it... so I'm one of those).
Outside of companions? There's some decent side quest ideas on the War Table. I really loved the whole Sahrnia map and its quest against the Red Templars. Like... that's my favorite side quest in the game. And I really liked taking the Griffon Wing Keep. Less so the Crestwood Keep.
And dragon hunting was fun but not particularly deep or anything. You just go around picking fights with dragons.
For the main quest? Great work. All around great work. Best campaign of the series with varied and interesting quests, spectacular set pieces, and twists in the narrative. Also special brownie points for having so many options to avoid combat in the Arbor Wilds mission. That was fantastic.
And the Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts quest? I cannot decide if I love or hate the quest. It'll never be my favorite quest (The reveal of the traitor was too obvious and the quest requires way too much looking for collectibles instead of role-playing or even puzzle solving). But I've got to admire a quest designed to navigate politics even if the choices made were less than desirable (collect all the things, spam your Witcher highlight button constantly to win).
Overall, a really solid game. A game I'm going to replay a few more times. A game I honestly cannot wait for DLC for to continue my adventures and explore the universe. A game with flaws and short comings, of course, but it's a lot like Skyrim... it's good enough that I don't care about the short comings.
Arbitrary numbered score? 4/5. That sounds almost right, or something. Good game.
Retour en haut
