[Review] Dragon Age: Inquisition: Bioware Reclaims the RPG Crown

SBFord

There is no better way to begin a review of BioWare’s Dragon Age Inquisition than to say that anyone who has been hungering for a magnificently crafted role-playing game will find a place to love and in which to play for years to come. Bioware has once again shown why it is the king of the story-driven RPG with a tale that stretches a player’s abilities and emotions all the way from the game’s first moments through the final epilogue following the credits and all of it is wrapped up in some of the most visually stunning environments ever created.

Read more of Suzie Ford's Dragon Age Inquisition: Bioware Reclaims the RPG Crown.

Dragnelus

Cant wait for it!

Unknown

I like that the review touched on whether or not it was a decent PC experience but am hesitant to put much faith in its assertion without any mention of the UI; especially considering mod development for this Dragon Age installment may be lacking because of the game being built on the Frostbite engine. Am I going to be scrolling through dozens of pieces of equipment because the inventory UI was scaled for a console connected to a TV?

bartoni33

I am concerned about the crashing that is brought up. You mention decent Autosaves but not Quicksaving. Is their not any Quicksaving? Please tell me their is Quicksaving. Please.

TheAmazingDwarf

Suzie, can you give us more details about the combat? For instance, how are the encounters? Do you have lots of fighting encounters with loads of trash mobs, like in DAO, that sometimes get boring, or are the fighting encounters more like the quick never endind spawns of DA2?

And what about the tactical combat? Did you use it? What was your impression abbout it?

 

Thanks for the review. 

xmojo1

Really looking forward to playing this game and whether The Witcher 3 can take the RPG crown off it next year.

Methos12

I'd be incline to give these early reviews more weight if the exact same thing hadn't happened with DA2 reviews and we all know how that turned out.

SBFord

Quick Save = F5  For the most part, you can save in any place in the game, though there are certain situations where you cannot, only fair IMO.

Combat encounters are fun and my crashes did not involve times when I was involved fighting groups of enemies. Most of my crashes happened at utterly random moments, sometimes in transition, sometimes just walking through the world.

Mobs are generally pretty small outside of "big encounters" of significance to the story. That said, I ran into packs of dragonlings that could be overwhelming if not approached with caution. I chose not to use the Tactical Camera very much as I prefer a more action-RPG type experience. The times I did use it were great. It's kind of like a football coach drawing the play of the day on the chalkboard in days gone by. Xs and Os and dotted lines to show where to go. It has true potential and will absolutely be crucial in higher game play difficulties.

 

SBFord

Originally posted by Methos12
I'd be incline to give these early reviews more weight if the exact same thing hadn't happened with DA2 reviews and we all know how that turned out.

 

DAI is categorically not anything like DA2. Not even close.

TheAmazingDwarf

Thanks for the answers, Suzie.

Belgaraath

Suzie thank you for the article. I was hoping for a little more detail around the computer specs so people can decide between the PS4 version which I read is equivalent to high settings on a PC and what specs/ card you think someone will need to play this game on a higher resolution, like 1440P Gsync 144hz or a 4K 60hz monitor. To many, that is critical as the resolution on those two Asus monitors if the graphics are signficantly better might be worth the investment if upgrading one's PC. Someone like me who has a 3 year old computer might not feel like upgrading yet if I can get the game for $60 on a PS4 and feel like I'm not losing much graphically. Any thoughts? How was the draw distance and pop ins? What resolution were you using? Just looking for some more technical details and graphics settings.

Entris38

Very excited for this, and guildmates are already forewarned of upcoming absence they can expect from me. Also really happy to see this was a PC review, with mouse and keyboard. I'm hoping if there were some serious bugs you would let us know.....

I'm really hoping, like Origins, that this can be a game that holds my attention for months and re-playable for years!

expresso

How dare this be a good game with the Wow expac out in a two days.. How very dare it.

On the plus side when I do get round to playing it it will likey be cheaper.. I hope its more like 2 and not as boring as 1

chrodo

System Requirements

Minimum:



OS: Windows 7 or 8.1, 64-bit

Processor (AMD): Quad core @ 2.5 GHz

Processor (Intel): Quad core @ 2.0 GHz

Memory: 4 GB

Graphics Card (AMD): Radeon HD 4870

Graphics Card (NVIDIA): GeForce 8800 GT

Graphics Memory: 512 MB

Hard Drive: 26 GB

DirectX: 10

Internet: 512 kbps up and down



Recommended:



OS: Windows 7 or 8.1, 64-bit

Processor (AMD): Six core @ 3.2 GHz

Processor (Intel): Quad core @ 3.0 GHz

Memory: 8 GB

Graphics Card (AMD): Radeon HD 7870 or R9 270

Graphics Card (NVIDIA): GeForce GTX 660

Graphics Memory: 2 GB

Hard Drive: 26 GB

DirectX: 11

Internet: 1 Mbps up and down

The specs are not to bad , even people with mid range PC should not have to much trouble with this.

gab4moi

Originally posted by expresso

How dare this be a good game with the Wow expac out in a two days.. How very dare it.

On the plus side when I do get round to playing it it will likey be cheaper.. I hope its more like 2 and not as boring as 1

Your hope will apparently, and thankfully, not be realised, given the steaming pile of detritus that was DA2... that said, I too will be waiting until any bugs are fixed before diving into the game, although given the fact that modders are the best fixers of Bioware stuff, and this game would seem to preclude them, that may be a long way down the track... 

gervaise1

Looks good from the video review.

Limited supply of health potions - that's OK; familiar to any player of pen and paper, Baldur's Gate, even WoW etc. ..... at least I hope that's what it is.

Will be interesting to see what sort of business model Bioware are going with: no sub; I assume b2p and DLC - although they have talked about "free" updates, maybe a mix of free and paid DLC / full fledged expansions? A part of me has visions of them charging for potions, armour repair and who knows what else.

Yamota

Sounds like a good game but the fact that it was designed for a console is a turn off. I bet Witcher 3 will be better though.

SBFord

Originally posted by Yamota
Sounds like a good game but the fact that it was designed for a console is a turn off. I bet Witcher 3 will be better though.

It was not designed for console. The PC game stands on its own with native controls for keyboard/mouse.

There is nothing console-like about DAI.

 

JEFFnSoCal

[mod edit]

gervaise1

Originally posted by SBFord

Originally posted by Yamota
Sounds like a good game but the fact that it was designed for a console is a turn off. I bet Witcher 3 will be better though.

It was not designed for console. The PC game stands on its own with native controls for keyboard/mouse.

There is nothing console-like about DAI.

 

Yes. The video review uses WASD for movement, numeric controls for special spells etc. All very familiar.

Ghavrigg

[mod edit]

Kabaal

Rather poorly optimised if the benchmarks are anything to go by

 

Blinkenn

Says it reclaims the RPG crown when Skyrim and Witcher have stolen it. That's a bold move Cotton, let's see if it 'pays' off.

haplo602

does the thing work without internet connection ?

Vorthanion

[mod edit]

Anireth

I don't get the hate for DA2. The outer areas where a bit disappointing due to the heavy reuse, but with all the praise Skyrim gets despite *everything* being reused over and over..

Too bad i most likely need a new computer first, which means i have to decide between playing TW3 and DA:I early next year..well, maybe i'll wait with DA:I until they released all the DLC, TW3 shouldn't be as bad in that regard.