Archief - Dragon Age: Inquisition

The Story

Dragon Age: Inquisition tells of the land of Thedas. It’s a mess. The Chandry are warring with the mages, and the the Seekers of Truth and the Templers have broken away from the former.

“Every group with the power and authoritiy to confront evil is preoccupied – and then the sky opens up and demons start pouring out,” Game Informer writes.

A tear in the sky links to the Fade, a place of magic and demons. This allows demons, who would otherwise need a host to enter the human realm, to cross freely.

The World

Described as “more open world,” players are able to access “significant areas” of the world map. “You’ll be going from eastern Ferelden to western Orlais,” says the executive producer of the Dragon Age franchise, Mark Darrah. “Obviously, we’re not going to build a million square miles of space, so that means we’re not a truly open world in the way some people think.”

Each area is larger than anything they have built previously, he added. The repetitive level design is “no where to be found” in Inquisition. A bog, a desert, and a mountain range, all described as “enormous,” were of note in the demo, according to the magazine.

Gameplay “threads” are littered throughout these areas. “You might find a mysterious pile of corpses as your reach the top of a sand dune,” they write. “Or an arcade device that lets you pinpoint the location of magic items.”

Darrah explains that he’s been trying to drive exploration, an aspect he claims BioWare “hasn’t done in a while.” He compares the exploration of the upcoming Inquisition with that of the Baldur’s Gate series, which is also a BioWare creation.

He also wants to ensure that the game taps into spontaneous exploration and discovery, and says that there is an “absolute, elemental, and primal joy” in discovering something unknown and unexpected, and discovering something others might not. Player initiative is where an more open design shines, he says.

Locations in Inquisition are described as “contained open world,” with items and content to collect and engage with. Day and night are also mentioned. Mounts, which are said to be “more involved than simply riding a horse around,” will also be in the game. “Very little” of the content is scaled to the player’s level, meaning random encounters with enemies, such as dragons, can be far more powerful and incredibly dangerous.

Whilst player freedom is important to BioWare, the team doesn’t want to sacrifice narrative as its expense. “We definitely need to make sure that we can still tell the kind of story that we want to tell,” Darrah tells Game Informer.

Balancing player-driven exploration and “organic” environmental-narrative with a emotionally engaging, character-driven story has been one of their biggest challenges, according to the BioWare vet.

Engine

Dragon Age: Inquisition runs on the Frostbite 3 engine—technology now used for many of EA’s internal projects, such as Battlefield and the upcoming Mirror’s Edge 2, as opposed to BioWare’s Eclipse engine, which was used for Dragon Age II.

“Frostbite is a real paradigm shift for BioWare, and even more so for Dragon Age,” says Darrah.

He describes Eclipse as “a little long in the tooth,” and goes onto say that the transition to Frostbite allows them to investigate opportunities previously denied by their old technology. Namely, large areas with lots of interactivity. The large, open areas in Inquisition are said to be “a direct result” of using Frostbite.

Built by DICE, the developer responsible for the Battlefield series, the team expended great effort to adapt what was traditionally a first-person shooter engine into a role-playing engine, but are “very happy” with what the technology allows them to do.

Known for its environmental interaction, the technology will be used for limited destructibility, as well as construction. Destroying the support beam under an archer-filled platform is given as an example, or magically fixing a crumbling footbridge to get to a new area. Restoring a ruined desert outpost will allow the player to transform it into an Inquisition stronghold.

As Inquisition is set for release on both current and next-generation platforms, as well as PC, Darrah said that the team are “striving really hard” to not let the gameplay be affected by technical differences. They want the experience to be as similar to each other as possible across all platforms.

The PC version will also have a control scheme customized for mouse and keyboard.

The Inquisitor and the Inquisition

The player controls the Inquisitor, the head of the Inquisition. Race, class—with a choice between mage, warrior, and rogue—gender, and name are chosen by the player. The Inquisitor is also “fully voiced.” Racial considerations also impact interactions with others in certain areas, as some races may be persecuted in a particular area.

By interacting with the world—such as collecting things, helping others or completing quests—the Inquisition grows in both strength and reputation. “It’s fundamentally about giving an organization the same kind of progression you might expect out of a character.”

It’s also noted that BioWare will not yet reveal how this progression will be communication, and “how players experience that sense of improvement.”

Game progression is also determined by the Inquisition’s level of power, as “areas of interest” on the world map aren’t accessible without a the meeting such power requirements. This is achieved, as previously explained, by interacting with the world in various ways, leaving the player able to purse content more suited to their tastes.

Combat

Game Informer writes that Inquisition‘s combat pace “rests in a place between the two previous entries.”

“I look at strategy and tactics as a natural out-growth of something that Dragon Age has delivered in spades,” said Creative Director Mike Laidlaw. He also says that “pause-and-play” is part of BioWare’s legacy, and that he wants to maintain that alongside the speed and crispness of response, which he believes to be part of modern gaming.

Players can switch between characters or set behaviors for each ally. Instantly-executed commands are said to lend Inquisition “the feeling of a third-person action game.” The game’s combat speed and enemy design are intended to push the player toward a more deliberate approach, tactics-orientated approach.

Enemies have specialized roles and work in groups. Prowlers, for example, tend to hide and sneak, avoiding face-to-face confrontations.

“Imagine trying to immobilize and take out a disruptive prowler while you’re also being shot at by archers, evading swipes from a bruiser’s two-handed axe, and worrying about the enchanter in the back who is buffing all enemies on the field. ”

Enemies are to said to make tactical considerations based on the player’s location, cool down times and their own amount of health.

Class-based skills trees and specializations make a return in Inquisition. Class abilities can be used to compliment each other. This “insists that you can approach combat with an all-action philosophy, all-tactics, or anywhere in between.”

Other Characters

Beyond coordination and complimentary abilities in combat, dialogue and story are said to be the player’s “primary connection” with their allies.

BioWare have yet to reveal the identity of the main antagonist, although it’s reported that players “learn early on that a single mastermind is behind the breach and all of the chaos surrounding it.”

Style

Equipment in Inquisition is adapted to each character to avoid tarnishing each character’s “signature style.” Through crafting, players can turns items collected from exploration and combat and transform them into new armor, or customize existing equipment.

With this focus on customization, crafting is designed to allow players to mix and match between substance and style. Players can apply the best stats to any piece of armor. In effect, it seems as though the player could have “end game” statistics on the appearance of “starting” gear.

“[Party members] will keep their iconic look,” claims Darrah. “If you take a character like Cassandra, for example: She has an inconic look with a trench-coat almost, with armor underneath that.” He then explains that, although new armor will make her look “very different.” she will retain her unique silhouette.

Choices

“Dragon Age has always been about hard decisions, where there’s no clear path,” says the series’ lead writer, David Gaider. “If we can successfully argue either side of an issue and not feel like a sociopath doing so, then that is a good avenue for us to explore.”

Inquisition wants players to consider the outcome of their decisions, as they will be forced to live with them for the continuation of the game. Not unlike its predecessor, Inquisition will use a dialogue wheel, although improved this time around. Clarity seems to be the focus, as some options in the previous game would apparently intrigue reactions that surprised players.

Consequences will “ripple” throughout the world, with some encounters and sections of the game determined by earlier decisions, according to Laidlaw.

BioWare wants a player’s actions to have an impact on the world. Levels can change and new content can be unlocked based on your actions. “It’s not just a couple of level changes; it’s something that permeates the whole game,” says Laidlaw. “You did this at one point in the game, and that’s going to come back and bite you in the ass.”

The development team doesn’t want players to worry about their platform of choice and bringing forward decisions made in previous Dragon Age titles. The team is “currently investigating ways to maintain consistency in choice”, according to the magazine. “But is not ready to reveal specifics. ”