Dragon Age: Inquisition Previews
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1. The combat is more about positioning and ability usage
Ah, Dragon Age 2. That game where you hewed the arms from armies of archers, only for a dozen more of the fey, grasping runts to ninja-pop out of mid-air. That game that allowed its rich, straggly tactical DNA to be ground beneath the foot of rinse-repeat scenario design. Thankfully, Inquisition seems to have brighter ideas. The pace of combat has been slowed a tad, enemy spawning appears to be a thing of the past, and the result, I'm told, is that fights reward positioning and the selective, efficient usage of abilities over the spamming of health potions and attack buttons.
At one point in our demo, I was shown a simple clash with three gate guards. Our party's mage Vivienne (in the running to become First Enchanter of Orlais, don't you know) threw down an ice trap, halting the attackers as they closed the distance, which gave dwarf rogue Varric time to amble down the right flank. The Inquisitor and erstwhile Chantry seeker Cassandra then engaged head-on, obliging the thawed-out guards to face them rather than angling their shields to deflect Varric's bolts. A modest little gambit, yes, but one that's hopefully illustrative of grander scenarios.
Speaking of which, later in the demo the party took on a conjurer and his warrior escort. Vivienne again resorted to ice magic, walling the enemy mage off from the melee types so that the Inquisitor and Cassandra could attack him. When he teleported away from the ice wall, our First Enchanter gave chase; the party's melee troupe, meanwhile, switched their attention to the grunts.
By dint of much pausing and manual targeting, the demo handler was able to keep a lid on the ensuing chaos - casting dispels to strip the other side's warriors of various magical buffs, and manoeuvring Varric away from fireballs thrown by the wizard. Vivienne polished off with a little incendiary action of her own, calling down a bombardment of meteorites. It was a spectacular fight, but it also felt clean, surgical in a way BioWare's more recent titles haven't quite managed.
Then we move on to GameReactor:
Everything's running on a PC, and the visual sweep is impressive, heavily detailed yet emphasising more the vivid colour to paint its fantasy setting. As with Witcher, as with Skyrim, it's a unique look to a well-worn premise. Your player character moves realistically when walking along angled inclines, or wading through mud on a shore. There's little flat in the environment; hills and steep mountains ripple across the immediate landscape. Cresting a rise allows the team to pull off those extravagant sweeps to showcase the draw distance and multiple points of interest; enemy keeps, caves, deep valleys. The option's there to strike off where you want. What you do there is up to you.
Because player choice is still king. Focus on the demo's opening is on a side-mission story beat that sees you decide to pull back your troops to a nearby stronghold, leaving the wounded and the nearby village of Crestwood to fend for themselves. Your companions don't share your sentiments, and as a closing scene plays out as your companion Baird looks over the resultant carnage - the charred remains of Crestwood residents - BioWare Edmonton intone that "actions (even in-action) speak louder than words", and there'll be consequences to everything. Given this is the company that gave us Mass Effect, you know it's not an empty threat - or promise.
But talk is light, the demo favouring combat. The team escalate the action over the course of the demo. They start with one-on-one clashes, camera pulled in to the Inquisitor taking out foes in turn. Next engagement, they flip to another character of the foursome to detail teamwork-focused combat, camera pulled out slightly to take in everyone. They finish by showcasing the Tactical Mode, which is making a return from Dragon Age: Origins, the camera now flicking to overhead and being freely panned round the battlefield.
We conclude with this piece from T3:
A really in-depth crafting system and deep customisation for your character are essential to almost any open-world RPG nowadays, and Inquisition will have both. Along with that, the combat system is a mixture of that from Origins and Dragon Age 2 - with party combat coming to the fore.
The tactical view from Origins is also back, which is great news. The main reason being, Inquisition looks like it'll be the toughest Dragon Age to date, certainly in terms of combat. Combining the powers of your party is vital, and tactical view will let you pause the battle, to position your party and plan your attack.
Resources are limited, and health doesn't regenerate on it's own so the focus is on finishing every battle as cleanly and quickly as possible.
DA is all about making choices - tough choices - and Inquisition will force you to choose between people. We asked JP about the nature of choices in Inquisition, and whether you could go through the game and win every situation.
"It's one thing that Mass Effect 3 did differently and it worked really well. We wanted players to be able to make these tough choices where either way, someone is going to die... or, there's a benefit but a consequence along with that. You can't sit on the fence - you're the leader of the Inquisition and there are lots of shades of grey."
