Dragon Age: Inquisition Preview

The latest preview for Dragon Age: Inquisition comes our way via PC Gamer, and is penned by Chris Thursten, with occasional interjections from BioWare producer Cameron Lee. Here’s a snip:

The nature of the Inquisition will affect the resources the player has available. There’ll be multiple open-world zones in the game, representing an area of Thedas that includes Ferelden, Orlais, Nevarra and the Free Marches. Securing territory for the Inquisition in each zone is a key activity, based around the capture of a network of fortresses. I was shown a desert area west of Orlais where a series of side objectives poisoning water supplies, raiding caravans culminates in the brief siege of a rundown Grey Warden outpost. Once claimed, the player has the choice to transform the outpost into a military fortress, an espionage centre, or a mercantile hub. Fortresses also grant the player access to agents, who can be assigned to various tasks to expand the Inquisition’s power base. Examples given included rebuilding an ancient colossus to stand as a testament to the faction’s strength, or reopening an old Tevinter gate to access a new area.

This system encapsulates the ways that Inquisition builds on the foundations of its predecessors. The player’s faction has always been key: in Origins, you were tasked with rebuilding the shattered Ferelden Grey Wardens, and Dragon Age II is, in essence, the story of a revolutionary cell forming in a backwater town. The Inquisition is the logical next step, giving the player charge of a Wardens-style company from its outset and letting them decide what kind of organisation it turns out to be. At the same time, it also demonstrates that BioWare have been paying attention to how open-world action games like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood have approached the same topic. It might upset purists, but it’s promising nonetheless.

(Changing with the times is certainly an influence,) Lee says. (The open world is a trend that we see in a lot of genres there’s a level of technology you can get to where you can open up experiences you couldn’t do previously. We think we’ve found a way to present a really strong narrative in an open world.)