4/5 ★ – Jack_Outside_The_Box's review of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Dragon Age Inquisition is an interesting game, mainly because my opinion on it seems to change notably as time goes by. I don't want this review to come off as a breakdown of the negatives this game has, because in all honesty there is a lot of good this game holds in it; otherwise why would I have sank 1168 hours into it since it's release all the way back in 2014? However I feel time has given me the opportunity to form a much more objective perspective on this game, in regards to the good and the bad that comes with it. Dragon Age Inquisition; developed by Bioware and published by Electronic Arts is the 3rd instalment in the Dragon Age franchise. It follow's events soon after Dragon Age 2 in which the Mage-Templar civil war has erupted across most of southern Thedas and the Free March territories. During an attempt to resolve tensions, you find yourself part of an explosion at the Temple of Sacred Ashes which rips open the sky and brings down demons into the living world. You somehow obtain a magical ability on your hand to close down the rifts and through the proceeding events you become the leader of the Inquisition, a order established to bring stability back to the land and to end the threat of the breach. In terms of overall narrative, Inquisition continues to exemplify the storytelling that Bioware has always been well-known for. The game benefits from already having so much already established lore and world-building to work. Being given the option to import your choices from Origins and 2 also helps flesh out the world to present you a more unique experience too. As with most Bioware games, you are the central focus of the events unfolding and your choices mould the storyline notably and also impact the relationship you have with the brilliant cast of characters you have around you. The companions in this title are probably some of my favourites as well, they are written in such a smart fashion that even if you dislike them you know it's down to them being such a well defined character who is true to their natures. It reflects how amazing these people are at writing a world that feels truly alive and lived in. In terms of gameplay, Bioware continues their attempts to innovate through Inquisition with both good and bad results. Combat is the most refined the series has ever seen. Moving forward with the fast-paced button mash combat from Dragon Age 2, there is a lot more fluidity to the combat in Inquisition; plus the freedom in terms of levelling up and building unique classes with unique abilities is truly notable. However, where the gameplay often crumbles under it's own weight is in the world-design. It seems like Bioware took the restrictive environment complaint from Dragon Age 2 and went a bit too far in trying to improve on it. Environments in this game are huge and it feels like they didn't utilise the space as well as they could have. You can lose so much time in this game to the scale of these environments, and the way the game has you playing through them via menial fetch quests and collectibles just reinforces a sense of tedium that lingers all throughout the exploration side of this game like a really bad smell. Dragon Age: Inquisition feels like Bioware wanted to address all the complaints of it's past by throwing so many ideas at the wall and hoping it all stuck. What doesn't help is I hear the development for this game was severely hindered by the addition of the Frostbite engine, which at the time was only known for it's usage in DICE's FPS title; Battlefield. When you add a muddled desire to address all of it's past transgressions on top of a engine they were struggling to even work with, it's easy to see where the issues of this game stems from. Despite the bloated tedium the game's environments suffers from though, it's hard not to come out of this game still notably appeased. The storytelling in this franchise just continues to improve and there is still a fun and enjoyable experience to be found in this title; you just need to be willing to know when enough is enough when it comes to exploring any one zone.