Dragon Age: Inquisition - E3 TRAILER

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Jason Schreier 34 minutes ago  4,702 71
 




 

Dragon Age: Inquisition Lets You Choose Your Hero's Race

If you miss dwarfing or elfing it up in Dragon Age, the next one is all for you.

Playable races were an integral part of the first Dragon Age, but Dragon Age 2 ditched non-humans in favor of dude/dudette hero Hawke, a choice that series fans questioned (among many other choices in DA2).

Dragon Age: Inquisition, out next fall for PC, Xbox One, PS4, 360, and PS3, will return to tradition. Your hero, the person in charge of the eponymous Inquisition (an ancient organization that has been resuscitated to fight off menacing demons), can be human, dwarf, elf, and possibly a fourth, if the folks at BioWare decide to add qunari.

And yes, BioWare assures us that NPCs will treat you differently based on your race, like they did in Origins.

You can read more about those details in the cover story of this month's Game Informer, which is dedicated to the third Dragon Age. There are some party details (the dwarf Varric is playable, as is Cassandra, who interrogated him last game—but no playable Morrigan); some world details (closer to Skyrim than Dragon Age 2); and other interesting tidbits. It's sounding pretty neat so far.
 
OP from thread at Neo Gaf:

Via: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/game...526096699?mt=8


Originally Posted by Nirolak

I'm at work so I can only give a super shallow write-up, and will let someone with more time do a full write-up for a new thread, but:

-At least three playable races (female/male of humans/dwarves/elves). They're considering Qunari.
-Same three classes.
-Instead of just your characters growing, you also grow your inquisition army through lots of various methods ranging from doing favors, blackmail, finding ancient lore, getting ancient relics, obtaining secrets, making connections, etc, etc. An example of how this helps you is that say a castle turns you away. If you only have a few people, you might just be turned away. However, if your inquisition is an army, you can just siege the castle to get inside.
-"Question: Is there multiplayer in this game?" "BioWare: Boy we really loved Mass Effect 3's multiplayer. They just knocked it out of the park."
-The world is split up into parts across multiple countries, but they're large and explorable. Instead of progress being gated by how many of the missions you've completed, you are gated by the power of your inquisition. So, you have to go explore across all these areas and find ways to increase the power of your inquisition. Basically think of like DA2's first act where you had to amass a ton of gold, but on a much larger/broader scale with a lot more choice/variety in what you do, and that the entire game works like that. Also, the inquisition buffing stuff doesn't overlap with your character growth mechanics like gold did, so you don't have to avoid buffing yourself to save your cash. Their goal is that ultimately you can do the types of content you like and explore the places you like and still finish the game.
-They want to increase the variety of things you do. Think of your traditional kind of open world game where you have all sorts of various quest option types.
-The map spans from Eastern Ferelden to Western Orlais. "Each of the areas we're building is bigger than anything we've done before."
-The zones are all traditional open world zones where it's large open and there's interesting stuff scattered all around that can start quests or open a new side dungeon, etc, etc.
-You can run into random monsters in the wild and have a mount to help go through the giant open areas. There's a lot more environmental variety.
-Okay in summary if you've played Skyrim you know how this open world works.
-Environmental interaction is a notable focus. Mages can repair bridges, if you find an abandoned fort you can turn it into an inquisition base, and things like that.
-The PC version's controls will be tailored to the PC unlike DA2.
-The graphics look really good IMO.



Originally Posted by shinobi602

  • Wants to make the action less frantic and more deliberate, returning to more tactics-oriented approach to encounters. Big return to party-based tactics
  • Part of that is slowing down speed of attacks, more important is designing enemies that force you to examine the battlefield and choose actions carefully
  • Battles veer away from button mashing toward a structure where observation and reaction take precedence
  • Instead of swarming enemies, your foes have specialized roles; work together and force you to size up the battlefield
  • You won’t regularly see waves of new bad guys appearing out of nowhere to extend encounters
  • PC gamers getting an optimized version; “PC actually is different, especially from a controls standpoint”, trying to “recapture the very tailored experience of DA:O on PC”
  • Going from Eastern Ferelden to Western Orlais; repetitive environments are nowhere to be found in DAI like in DA2.
  • Players aren’t just funneled down narrow corridors, the demo showed a bog, desert, a mountain range, all enormous and freely explored in third person.
  • Lots of hidden things to find, caves, dungeons, corpses, etc that create other unique sidequests
  • “Trying to drive exploration- something that frankly, Bioware hasn’t done in a while.” “In a way like Baldur’s Gate, areas that existed in part just to spaces that you went to, but they had a story of their own.”
  • Want to make sure there a sufficient number of caves in the game that are each unique, and optional. If you have a mage in your group, you can use a spell to reassemble a crumbled bridge to reach a new area.
  • Can also restore a ruined desert outpost into an Inquisition stronghold
  • So much ground to cover that mounted creatures are implemented
  • Monsters, and dragons for example, do not level up with you. Some are vastly more powerful, forcing you to come back later with proper experience
  • Some environmental destructibility
  • Warrior class has grappling chain that can pull enemies in close
  • Enemy scenario: Fighting a massive, armored dragon, you can target a leg, send warrior into melee range to bash off armor, rogue can sneak up and poison the exposed limb, dragon stumbles around allowing others to unleash spells etc
  • Weather effects can impact exploration, ex. Rainfall, desert sandstorms
  • Rainy weather can make areas muddy, slowing down your traversal/agility in combat, while sandstorms can inflict damage causing you to seek shelter
  • A new mage joins your party, Vivienne
  • Both Varric and Cassandra also join you
  • Working hard to make large areas interesting; slopes, rocks, elevations and your character has tailored animations for overcoming each. Ease of movement key.
  • Morrigan is not a party member; not a cameo role though
  • Collect resources/materials and craft armor for you and all your party members; heavy emphasis on customization
  • Each armor retains a certain iconic look, but looks different on each character. They want the squadmates to each have an iconic look, but customize armor to tailor to each while retaining elements of that iconic look
  • 3 classes to choose from of course: Warrior, rogue, and mage
  • At least 3 races to choose from; when asked about Qunari, Mike Laidlaw says “Do we go to four? I don’t know. Definitely these are the safe bet”.
  • Your racial choice colors your interactions with others; for example elves may be persecuted in some parts, but an enclave of elves is more likely to open up to one of their own.
  • Chantry/Templars don’t respect your Inquisition, you have “persuade” them through your own means. You can come across a fortress and if refused entry, you can lay siege to it and break down the doors. What you do from there is your choice.
  • Hinting that you have a base of operations, maybe a castle to call your own


Originally Posted by Gaming Everything

- BioWare listened to feedback on previous games
- “A lot of the decisions we’re making are about Dragon Age and what this generation of RPGs will look like.”

Story

- Game begins as Thedas is in chaos
- Chantry and the mages are at war
- The Seekers of the Truth and Templars are no longer tied to Chantry rule
- Ferelden continues to recover from the darkspwan Blight that ended 10 years ago
- Orlais is involved with a civil war
- Tear in the sky links the real world to the Fade
- Magic and demons come from Fade
- Rip allows demons to cross freely instead of using a mage host
- Demons/abominations are running free all over
- With everything going on, “there is a suspicious level of chaos in anticipation of this event”
- Reinstitute the Inquisition
- This is an organization that doesn’t answer to any outside power
- Inquisition puts aside politics and extracts answers
- “…about looking into what conspiracies happen, what kind of dastardly deeds could occur, when people are weak and naturally torn apart”

Inquisitor

- Your hero acts as the head of the Inquisition
- Lead the organization rather than controlling a foot soldier
- You’re left as the only survivor early on, which leads to this ascension
- Create and guide the Inquisitor however you please
- 3 classes: warrior, rogue, and mage
- At least 3 races: human, elf, dwarf
- No pre-set name
- Fully voiced
- Can be male/female
- Events take place as you perform them, not being relayed by another character
- Will need to overcome resistance, but this becomes easier as the Inquisition gains more power/respect
- Inquisition’s reputation/strength go up as you finish objectives, gain items, help others

World

- Inquisition has a long reach
- Visit multiple large locations
- Several different regions
- Structural style like Dragon Age: Origins
- Access key story beats by reaching certain levels of power
- Explore to achieve that power
- Collect magical relics, solve mysteries, fight dragons, help others
- Don’t need to do everything
- Different resources to acquire better equipment and continue the story
- Won’t always be able to move from one area to another seamlessly
- “each of the areas we’re building is larger than anything we’ve built before”
- No repetitive environments
- Areas include a bog, desert, mountain range, can be explored freely in third-person
- Can take on unique quests by coming across things like an arcane device that lets you pinpoint the location of magic items
- Locations are like self-contained open worlds
- Each has a bunch of items to find and content to experience during day and night
- Game will have a mount system
- This will be more involved than just riding a horse around
- Very little is scaled to your level
- Can encounter monsters that are much more powerful than you
- Freedom is big, but BioWare as a story to tell

Frostbite

- Huge areas are made possible due to the move to Frostbite
- “We’re very happy with what we can do with the technology.”
- Will have some destructibility, game has a bigger focus on building
- Having a mage allows you to reassemble a crumbled footbridge to reach a new area
- Convert a ruined desert outpost into an Inquisition stronghold
- “If you destroy something, you can construct something.”
- Frostbite 3 allows the team to develop more easily on five platforms at once
- Better visuals on PS4/Xbox One than PS3/360
- Content being kept the same
- “Frostbite 3 is intended to bridge the gap between current-gen and next-gen”

PC

- Will be optimized for the platform
- “The PC actually is different, especially from a controls standpoint.”
- Caters to mouse and keyboard, unlike its predecessor’s tradition

Battles

- Will encounter lots of resistance
- Battle pace lies between Dragon Age 1/2
- Not always a pause-and-play affair, but not always filled with tons of action
- Directly control a character and you’ll notice control similarities to Dragon Age II
- Switch between all characters in your party at will
- Choose AI behaviors for allies if you’d like
- Commands are performed right away with a button push
- BioWare looking to make things less frantic and more deliberate
- Slowing down the speed of attacks while also creating enemies that force players to examine the battlefield
- “We’ve got that mesh of action and RPG.”
- Enemies have specialized roles that work together
- Better AI for enemies
- Enemies seem to make planned attacks based on their strengths and work together logically
- Players have a number of skill trees, specializations, abilities
- Classes have their own powers with tactical significance
- Party members can work together

More world details

- Areas will change based on what time it is
- Weather impacts exploration
- Rain can make a bog muddy, making travel slower
- Still has classic enemies including ogres, elves, qunari

Friends/foes

- Dialogue/story sequences are the best way to learn about your allies and their abilities
- This can also be done to a lesser extent in battle
- Vivienne: Inquisitor mage who was in line to hold the position of first encharter in the Circle of Orlais
- She wasn’t able to take the osition due to the Orlesian civil war
- Writers analyze the story’s main themes and conflicts, then create certain characters around them
- Not all characters are created so that you’ll like them
- Other allies and their loyalties are currently unknown
- Learn early on that there’s someone behind the demon breach and resulting chaos
- Won’t learn who you’re dealing with early on
- Cassandra and Varric from Dragon Age II are playable party members
- Morrigan won’t be a party member
- Morrigan’s role seems to be more than just a cameo

Crafting system

- Use materials from around the world and enemies you defeat to make customized armor
- “Crafting in Inquisition is about customizing yourself, your character, your looks…”
- You can, technically, eventually create any colored version of the armor your start out with on par with what you find late in the game
- Characters will keep their look, but the armor will have huge influence on how they look

Choices

- Will need to make choices as problems develop
- Not always about dark choices
- BioWare is looking for players to think about potential consequences and deal with them if they happen
- Dialogue wheel similar to that of Dragon age II lets you make choices
- Some improvements
- Optional addition being added to the wheel for more clarity
- Choices have an impact throughout the world
- “Loose ends are a constant problem… We have a responsibility to resolve at least some of them if we’re going to introduce new ones…”
- Choices involve themes, mysteries from previous Dragon Age games
- Game will offer clarity on things such as Red Lyrium, Grey Wardens’ activities, Flemeth, Morrigan’s fate
- BioWare working on the issue of bringing over previous choices in Inquisition
- “It’s very important to people, and it’s very important to us. We don’t want people to feel like they can’t buy a new console or change the platform they’re buying this game on simply because they want to make sure their saves are maintained.”

Multiplayer

- Not confirmed/denied
- “it was surprising how well it was received in Mass Effect, and we were really happy with how that worked out…”

We’ll keep this post updated with additional details…


http://gamingeverything.com/new-drag...ition-details/


Sounds amazing.

 
I'm not sure about this inquisition thing... It sounds suspiciously like the war preparedness level in Mass Effect 3 that ended up just boiling everything down to a big number that went up when you finished a mission. Hopefully the system in DA3 is deeper!

Nice to hear that the content is the same on current gen as next gen.

 
That footage is pretty great. I'm also a bit leery about this Inquisition group. I'm not a fan of always introducing new, previously unheard of, super groups. For me, the Wardens were the coolest.
 
I could swear MP was confirmed awhile ago. MP in ME3 was good, I just hated that it was tied into the SP like it was. DA doesn't seem to lend itself to MP so easily though. I guess we'll see.

 
chubbyninja1319 said:
That footage is pretty great. I'm also a bit leery about this Inquisition group. I'm not a fan of always introducing new, previously unheard of, super groups. For me, the Wardens were the coolest.
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I'm for it if they have a musical number...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbcyiFt5VEs[/youtube]

 
chubbyninja1319 said:
That new video clears up every concern I had. Mike Laidlaw explained the Inquisition in a way that left me completely satisfied.
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Yeah, if they're faithful to everything they're saying, I have zero concerns. And this game will have had 3 years dev time by the time it comes out next year. It's no 5 years like DA:O, but it's a lot better than DA2.

 
The only thing I really didn't like about DA2 was the repeated environments. But I did like Origins a lot more.

 
I read the articles and watched the videos last night.  Very excited about everything they showed and talked about.  When I first saw some images of the new mage, Vivienne(?), I got excited because I thought that headpiece she was wearing was actually a set of Qunari horns.

I think the story and the role of the inquisition sounds very interesting.  It is a little odd to me that the Wardens are again minimized and relegated to the role of just another competing faction in the game. However, the Wardens are pretty much focused on darkspawn, darkspawn, darkspawn and are probably ill-equipped to deal with a tear in the veil and political intrigue.

Hey, I saw them mention mounts a few times, but did they confirm horses?  Because I could be wrong, but I don't think they specified that your "mount" would be a horse (c'mon, giant mabari...).

 
Mmmmm, make your mark Commander Shepard... oh I mean Champion.  :booty:

Yeah I'm enjoying the push and pull we see from going back and forth with the next iterations of Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Some people might not like Mass Effect game design influences in their Dragon Age but I think overall it's beneficial for Bioware to implement what they've learned overall. Having a "galactic readiness" is an epic ok you got your party together and closed all the side topics, now let's get this massive epic battle underway!  :whee:

 
I'm only probably going to get this so I can see Morrigan's story complete. I absolutely loved Origins, it was one of those games I played the hell out of after beating it as I did at least 12 more complete playthroughs just to try different things. With that said, I was not happy with Dragon Age 2 and how they changed it as honestly Origins was so good I would have been 100% content if they had used the same graphics, combat systemm same everything for the sequel. I never actually finished 2 because it irritated me so much so I suppose I'll have to buy it eventually so I can play DA3 properly when the time comes.

 
Navex said:
I'm only probably going to get this so I can see Morrigan's story complete. I absolutely loved Origins, it was one of those games I played the hell out of after beating it as I did at least 12 more complete playthroughs just to try different things. With that said, I was not happy with Dragon Age 2 and how they changed it as honestly Origins was so good I would have been 100% content if they had used the same graphics, combat systemm same everything for the sequel. I never actually finished 2 because it irritated me so much so I suppose I'll have to buy it eventually so I can play DA3 properly when the time comes.
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Well I think the stamina system was semi-broken (in the bad way) in Origins and was done much better in Awakening & 2.
 
I agree, even though there was very little info for a long time, it must have been pretty early in production.  Now, it's coming along nicely and we still have 14 months + to go! 

 
chubbyninja1319 said:
I agree, even though there was very little info for a long time, it must have been pretty early in production. Now, it's coming along nicely and we still have 14 months + to go!
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Bioware also has no title coming out before it - and hasn't had one in about a year and a half, so they've got to talk about something.

 
Interesting way to do things.

http://blog.bioware.com/2013/08/28/the-dragon-age-keep/

Within the Dragon Age Keep, you’ll be able to customize a Dragon Age historical world state to your exact specifications drawn from Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II story decisions. These include hero attributes, companion details, quest results, and more. Customize as much or as little as you wish. Then you'll be able to import your saved world state into Dragon Age Inquisition at the start of a new game. For new players, the Keep will serve as a great way to understand the people, places, and events that shaped the world leading up to DAI.
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Anexanhume said:
I'm personally excited about it. I won't even import. I'll go through all of the choices so that I can refresh my memory of what I've done (or wanted to do) and then I'll also know to look for those consequences throughout the game.
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I love it as I played the first 2 on 360 and no longer have that console.
 
Anexanhume said:
I'm personally excited about it. I won't even import. I'll go through all of the choices so that I can refresh my memory of what I've done (or wanted to do) and then I'll also know to look for those consequences throughout the game.
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This. I think it's a pretty slick idea. And we don't have to pay for it ala Genesis 1 and 2 DLC for Mass Effect.
 
Yeah but do you remember all the choices you did? When I imported in several profiles in Mass Effect I was like ahh what did I do in this one (and they didn't show you all the things you did)?

 
Spybreak8 said:
Yeah but do you remember all the choices you did? When I imported in several profiles in Mass Effect I was like ahh what did I do in this one (and they didn't show you all the things you did)?
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I remembered all mine for me1 when I got me2 on ps3 and it ha been years since playing it.

I'm sure I'll remember the major ones from da1 and 2. And in any case it will be nice to have the refresher and to get to make decisions to import vs having none since I ditched my 360.
 
I really hope they make more of an effort to make your decisions count this time as Awakening and DA2 barely referenced anything you did in Origins. In fact, some things were outright ignored in favor of whatever they wanted. They have proven with the Mass Effect series they can really make it count what you did so I hope DA3 will be better in this aspect.

 
Here's a brief but great article at IGN from PAX:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/31/the-beauty-and-brutality-of-dragon-age-inquisition

It reveals that you can play as a male or female Qunari!!  And here's a quick vid discussing the game as it was shown at PAX and it shows real gameplay footage.  Wow.  It's looking great!

http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/08/31/dragon-age-inquisition-impressions

And, finally, here is a long article from Kotaku detailing what they saw in their hands-off demo.  Again, wow-factor stuff going on. 

http://kotaku.com/the-next-dragon-age-is-crazy-ambitious-1232404991

 
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My big issue with the DA Keep, which I don't think can be answered until we see it, is will this TRULY explore every single thing, or will it be like Genesis in ME 2 that assumes you did ZERO sidequests in ME 1.

Applied for the beta like everyone else in here.

 
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I decided to finally finish DA2 so if I get into the Keep beta I won't be spoiled by the info. Always intended to finish it but was planning to do so a few months before DA3. Anyway, I think I may have been a little harsh these last few years about it as despite some of the changes it's still a good game. I won't take back my original view though that Origins is still vastly superior to this game in almost every aspect except maybe the combat since I like having it sped up considerably. It seems this one also gives you more options for decisions and outcomes so that's a plus too.

 
Awesome, looks like they're combining the strengths of Dragon Age 1 and 2 for Inquisition! Game looks pretty good for being a pre-alpha build.

 
chubbyninja1319 said:
Yeah, DA:I is looking pretty awesome. If that footage had been around since E3, why on earth haven't they shown more of it?
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Embargo perhaps?! It is in Pre-Alpha and if fans didn't like what they saw from it there would be a lot of bad buzz about their game. That's the only thing I can think of.

Yeah watch it, it doesn't cover any spoiler stuff plus it's too early really as they're just showing the overall gameplay mechanics.

 
Spybreak8 said:
Embargo perhaps?! It is in Pre-Alpha and if fans didn't like what they saw from it there would be a lot of bad buzz about their game. That's the only thing I can think of.

Yeah watch it, it doesn't cover any spoiler stuff plus it's too early really as they're just showing the overall gameplay mechanics.
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I think it's pretty simple. They want to show the footage to people dedicated to the hobby whether by profession or fandom behind closed doors. They know people of the same type will seek the footage out online. Those same people will also understand what "pre-alpha" means. It's not as if they're actively promoting it, but it does generate positive buzz among the interested groups. They have no incentive to necessarily try and stop this kind of thing.

And frankly, if the game looks this good a whole year before release, I have nothing but confidence and excitement for next Fall. I've been a day 1 purchaser of every dragon age game and this will be no exception.

 
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BioWare fans are some vicious, catty bastards. :D Especially after the maulings they received on DA2 and ME3, I'm sure BioWare is pretty gunshy about putting anything out into the world until they're good and ready.

From watching this footage, I'm feeling pretty comfortable with sticking with the current-gen version of the game. It looks like Assassin's Creed IV looks-- the basic geometry and assets are clearly designed with current-gen limitations in mind, with the next-gen versions just adding in some nicer lighting and particle effects.

 
Ryuukishi said:
BioWare fans are some vicious, catty bastards. :D Especially after the maulings they received on DA2 and ME3, I'm sure BioWare is pretty gunshy about putting anything out into the world until they're good and ready.

From watching this footage, I'm feeling pretty comfortable with sticking with the current-gen version of the game. It looks like Assassin's Creed IV looks-- the basic geometry and assets are clearly designed with current-gen limitations in mind, with the next-gen versions just adding in some nicer lighting and particle effects.
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Same here. This is like the Xbox/Xbox 360 situation around 2006 when we had titles releasing on both consoles and for the most part, the 360 version just looked nicer.

Unless you're Splinter Cell: Double Agent, where the Xbox version was a more complete game than the 360 version. ;)

 
Has anyone here played BF 4 on current gen? That would likely be a good indicator as to how it would run on 360. Also it would likely mean a HDD would be mandatory as it already is for BF 4 & NFS Rivals on 360. Not an issue for most people here, but you'd be surprised as to how many people have 360's w/o HDD's.
 
I'm starting to fall in the "forget current gen and create games to their fullest potential" camp.  I understand the economics of releasing a game on systems with massive installed bases.  But I, selfishly, just want AAA games to be as good as the hardware will allow.  What I've seen of DAI leaves me unconcerned, though.  It looks damn.  good. 

 
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