Dragon Age: Inquisition - In-depth at E3

Stevivor has posted a new article that takes a look at all the information from E3 last month, and gives their opinion on Dragon Age: Inquisition.

In-depth at E3: Dragon Age: Inquisition

You wouldn’t know Dragon Age: Inquisition is a cross-gen title by looking at it, and that's because it looks spectacular. Okay, maybe some of the characters faces are a little rough and some more time needs to be spent on moustache physics, but overall the world that BioWare has created is very impressive. Huge mountain ranges littered with massive trees stretch on an on and the detail doesn’t stop there. The smoke effects are some of the best I’ve ever seen and the steam rising from the ground really brings Inquisition to life.

Inquisition feels a little like an MMO and looks to have been inspired by some of the gameplay ideas associated with the genre. In battle each class has to work together focusing on their role to get the best results. You can switch between controlling any of the characters mid battle. It’s kind of like micromanaging a small raid and makes strategy increasingly important as the battles become more difficult.

More information.

I also find it a little sad that party combat roles is associated to MMO gameplay. So many knowledge lost.

The E3 info are so out-dated now. Yesterday Raptr chat is where to go to get information overload and now that BioWare is done with characters they should start to talk about gameplay more…

Originally Posted by azarhal
Yesterday Raptr chat is where to go to get information overload

Thanks for the great link!

Azarhal, awsome find!

Some questions are pathetic, like this one:

Q: Can you adjust the pitch of the inquisitor's voice from the four base voices?
A: Not at the moment. (MD)

The proper question should be - can we "get high" with helium in the game?

Luckily, there are proper questions, for example this one:

Q: Can you give Qunari Inquisitors claws? :>
A: Umm, what?
No. (MD)

And proper questions that didn't get a proper answer, an example:

Q: Scars and/or freckles- an option in the CC? Thanks for replying to our questions btw
A: Both. (ML)
A: Scars - Yes
Freckles - No (MD)

A huge read, many unanswered stuff though. Some editing would be nice as there are too many repeated questions.

Mike Laidlaw confirmed on Twitter that your companions will disappear when you are on a mount until you dismount.

What?!

Originally Posted by Morrandir
What?!

Yeah, that sounds pretty lame.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
What?!

Pathing problems when you have 3 dudes running around behind you. SWTOR works like that too and that is what I expected.

You mean I won't have my posse of companions, like in Skyrim? Too bad. It's cool traveling up a mountain and looking back at 4 or 5 companions in tow. However, this was modded in by the community, it wasn't vanilla.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Pathing problems when you have 3 dudes running around behind you. SWTOR works like that too and that is what I expected.

What? How's it any different than when you have 3 dudes walking around behind you? Only real difference is the speed at which you're travelling, which shouldn't realistically affect anything.

Or are you assuming the companions wouldn't be able to use mounts of their own, so would be travelling slower?

By the way, while we're being all MMO-like here, do these mounts also just magically appear out of nowhere, and disappear just as mysteriously?

So what about the banter when you're mounted? Do you just hear voices from invisible ghosts or will the banter just be deactivated?

Originally Posted by Stingray
What? How's it any different than when you have 3 dudes walking around behind you? Only real difference is the speed at which you're travelling, which shouldn't realistically affect anything.

Or are you assuming the companions wouldn't be able to use mounts of their own, so would be travelling slower?

By the way, while we're being all MMO-like here, do these mounts also just magically appear out of nowhere, and disappear just as mysteriously?

I think it's more that BioWare decided to put their time and resources on other features/issues than making it work with companions in tow.

As for the other question, I believe the answer is magically appear, but I'm not sure.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
So what about the banter when you're mounted? Do you just hear voices from invisible ghosts or will the banter just be deactivated?

From what I understand, banter only happens in area where you shouldn't be mounted, like right after/while in combat, in towns and buildings.

In a game like this, they really should have just left mounts out entirely, if it was going to be so half-assed. I mean, "production qualities" are one of the few things that BioWare games even still have going for them…

"I also find it a little sad that party combat roles is associated to MMO gameplay. So many knowledge lost."

This. I mean, seriously? Absolutely hilarious that this is somehow associated with MMOs.

Although, I guess they -arguably- did start in multiplayer RPGs. The PLATO RPGs of the 70s placed a big emphasis on playing together, and Wizardry, the first single-player party RPG, was basically trying to design a SP version of what the PLATO games were doing with MP.

But to say I'm being charitable would be a significant understatement.

Originally Posted by Stingray
In a game like this, they really should have just left mounts out entirely, if it was going to be so half-assed. I mean, "production qualities" are one of the few things that BioWare games even still have going for them…

Having your party members disappear is just terrible.

It's the little things that make a big difference.

How cool would it be to trot through the countryside and every one of your party members has their own mount? That would be great.

Instead, we get this weirdness. It reminds me of being a kid and playing console RPGs with party members that would disappear instead of follow you properly on the map. It was a pet peeve of mine.

I don't mind having the horse appear and disappear. It's sort of like your loot bag. Do you really want to see your horse walking alongside you for the whole game? Or each character carrying a huge sack of loot? I think that would be worse than what we have now.

But disappearing party members, that's just awkward. I would have preferred to see them all have their own mounts.

Edit - As a side thought, why not use magical horses for mounts instead of real horses? That would solve the issue of the disappearing and reappearing horses. You could design the horses to be ethereal wisps that live on another plane and are summoned when you cast the spell. They would enter the normal plane with a burst of particle effects and bam, there's your mount.

Is there any word on friendly fire yet?

One of DA2's huge frustrations was that friendly fire was available only on Nightmare — but the other than that the Nightmare setting was more of an endurance slog than a strategic challenge.

Please make friendly fire a simple toggle, Bioware!

[edit: never mind, google tells me that this was answered last August. There is a slider, which is great.]

BioWare has insulted us too many times. DA:O DLC, DA2 rushed garbage, ME2's nonsensical story, ME3's horrible ending. Then there's the lame romance rubbish that passes for "role-playing". Then add in their obsession with homosexual stuff.

Gouging DLC, bad storytelling, juvenile romance, rushed products. That's modern BioWare.

Oh, did I mention forced Origin usage on PC? We'd be better off if they closed and the talented people went to other better studios.

PS: So far Inquisition smacks of guys in suits wanting to copy Skyrim, now BioWare is a "me too" developer instead of a leader. Dark days.

Mike Laidlaw confirmed on Twitter that your companions will disappear when you are on a mount until you dismount.

I was suspecting this.. I've always disliked that in jRPG's; when you travel you're just the one guy and then when it's combat your companions seems to jump out from your body.

It only really makes "sense" in strategy / board games games where you're pushing pieces over a board and this piece is representing an army or whatever, but for these type of games its terribly immersion breaking and just doesnt fit in with the rest at all. I mean we have super detailed world and then basically a chess piece that is just a vague representation of something? No. Just No.

There are a dozen things that could disastrously impact my likelihood of getting and/or enjoying DAI. Whether or not my companions are shown following me when I'm on a horse… not one of them.

I wonder if we will be forced to have mounts then. I don't use mounts in Skyrim (to much of a hassle) so would hope I can just skip them in DAI as well.

16 mins gameplay:


My impression?
- Nice visuals
- Retarded phonegames inventory (Original Sin feels like a dream compared to this BS)
- Let's learn hieroglyphs before starting a game to understand their skill trees
- So… No looting? Oh, wait, in 16 minutes you *will* loot one thing
- NO SUBTITLES BY DEFAULT! Hello, I have neighbors and am alergic to headphones!
- Definetly refreshing dragon script/AI, this is much better than Skyrim's phoenixes
- A horse… Meh… I'm with wolfgrimdark. On foot or on wings, but not on backs!