Dragon Age: Inquisition Previews and Interview

Some new coverage for Dragon Age: Inqusition has been published since we last checked, and I’ll start this round-up with this preview over at Only Single Player, though it should be noted that it seems based on already available info rather than a gameplay presentation or hands-on time. Here’s a snippet:

The game is set in a semi-open world and as James explained in our first details post, the game is not a seamless open world. There are different areas in the game, two of which are Eastern Ferelden and Western Orlais, and each area is larger than any of the open areas that Bioware has built before. There’s a ton of variation as well, ranging from mountain ranges, bogs, deserts and as we’ve seen from various screenshots released, cities and other demonic areas to explore. Each area is filled with everything you’d expect such as loot, new quests, hidden areas and of course, monsters that inhabit the land.

The leveling system in the game also doesn’t scale, so at times you could end up finding yourself in an area with a foe that is way out of your league. As great as all this sounds, the best thing about what Bioware is doing with Dragon Age: Inquisition is making sure that the narrative of the game is front and center. The team is giving players more freedom, but not enough to impede on the directed narrative that Bioware is crafting for Inquisition.

This is very similar to the way that The Witcher 2 was made and that excites me about Inquisition. People for ages have been complaining about stories being too linear and not allowing more freedom and quite a few of the next-generation releases seem to be taking this to heart. Killzone: Shadow Fall, Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Witcher 3 are all leading the charge in implementing a much more directive narrative in an open world. Obviously they aren’t the first, titles such as Infamous 2 did this, but that open world isn’t quite the scale that fantasy RPGs have become over the last decade.

Then we move on to PSXExtreme:

As for the combat, it should be a similar mechanic to what we’ve seen before, but the developers are implementing a new tactical camera. This allows you pause the action and scan the battlefield, which will allow you to assess any predicament. Battle is a fluid situation, so this feature should prove extremely useful to those who wish to be more strategic and thoughtful in their approach. In terms of foes, they’ll range from human opponents and dark little creatures to the franchise’s staple, dragons. These nasty suckers are always on the hunt but you’ll have to avoid them until you’re ready. Your party will have to be buffed big-time to handle a dragon.

I particularly like that environmental destruction will play a role again, for the first time in combat. This is also thanks to the new engine, so if you see a wooden support holding enemy archers, take out the damn support! Enemies can do the same, though, so be careful. All in all, I think we’re looking at a rebirth and a fitting progression for this series, so the RPG faithful should be excited. My only concern is that it tries to be too much like Skyrim and doesn’t retain its former distinct charm. But I can’t not have faith in the guys at BioWare. That just seems.wrong.

Finally, I bring to you this interview with cinematic director Jonathan Perry from Xbox360Achievements:

Yours is the role of The Inquisitor. Is he the leader of the Inquisition, or a cog in a bigger machine?

The Inquisitor is the leader. His ultimate goal is to return order to this world that’s been plunged into chaos, and you do so through various means, one of which is managing the resources of the Inquisition. Over the course of the narrative, you’ll grow the power, the resources and your influence over the Inquisition, and you’re able to use your Inquisition troops and forces to have an effect on the world around you.

All of the areas you go through do have a reason for you as The Inquisitor to go through, as one of the guys in an earlier interview was asking: (So you poison a well. Do I have to go poison the well as The Inquisitor? Because it seems like something I’d send one of my guys to do.) You will have resources at your disposal to help you pursue your goals.

With these Fade tears popping up throughout the world, will closing them operate like they did in previous the Dragon Age games in which you have to actually enter the Fade and maybe close them from within? I can’t comment too much on that, because it touches on a little bit of the story. But one of the goals as The Inquisitor is to go and try to close these tears and seal them off, so there aren’t all these demons spewing out into the world. The huge Fade tear in the sky and the Fade tears in the world, they certainly play a big part in the narrative of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

What kind of demons can we expect to see spilling through Fade tears then? Are they familiar Dragon Age creatures or are they all new monsters?

You will see some of the demons we’ve had in previous games, but the Fade is full of all sorts of demons, so there were a couple we revealed in the E3 trailer that people hadn’t seen before. We do want to add several new creatures as well.