As someone who normally balances college, a part-time job, and a hobby as a game critic, it has become more and more difficult to dedicate large chunks of time to long, hundred-hour epics. Time is a precious commodity, so signing onto lengthy campaigns can be a lot to ask for. When Dragon Age: Inquisition touted a playtime of over 100 hours, I was not too happy to hear it. After buying, playing, and beating the game, my opinion more mixed than I was expecting. It makes an interesting series of design choices, demonstrating a new philosophy for Bioware; one that I am still unsure what I think of.
One of these choices was to utilize mechanics typically associated with free-to-play, microtransaction laden game, without actually including said microtransactions. As the head of an organization dedicated to restoring peace and order, the player character has several advisors. Each member of this war counsel has their own specialties: They consist of the chief ambassador, the spymaster, and commander of the army. At the war table, each one can be assigned a mission to undertake in the player’s stead, which they will accomplish in a given period of time. The trick is that these missions do not take game time, instead relying on real-world time. Many of them take only an hour or less to complete, which fits perfectly into what should be a standard session. Others take several hours, even a day to two in the most extreme case. Assigning these operations fits neatly into the average person’s schedule, subtly encouraging the player to take a break and/or do something else for a time.
On top of that, quest design has been noticeably simplified. Previous entries in the franchise had fairly involved missions, with their own more personal tales from ordinary people. While some of them could be quick, many could take an hour or more. This is not the case in Inquisition. Eschewing the questing philosophy of the other Dragon Age games, Inquisition aims for conciseness more than anything else. Any one side-mission is designed to be completely quickly, within the span of about 30 minutes or less.
Even the dungeons in Inquisition seem to be made with this shorter running time in mind. Dragon Age: Origins included old temples and ruins that would take several hours to explore, up to 6 or 7 in the most extreme cases like The Fade or The Deep Roads. Although these places took a long time to explore, so much of that time is padded out with long corridors and endless fighting, without much in the way of meaningful content, making it difficult to keep the player’s interest. Often, it would take several play sessions to complete one of them, whereas Inquisition’s various old manors, ancient sanctuaries, et cetera, were compact in their layouts. Taking no longer than 30 minutes to fully explore any one of them, the locations were just big enough to have something interesting occur, but not enough to spend large chunks of time.
Another appreciable change that occurred in the making of Dragon Age: Inquisition is the new “open-world” structure. Unlike games like Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto, Inquisition does not have one large, complete and dynamic area to explore. Instead, there are almost a dozen distinct, yet massive, zones of operation in which players can explore to their hearts content. Populated with the dungeons and quests mentioned above, along with a myriad of collectibles, these fields of play offer tons of things to do. Though it takes a lot time to complete everything in an area, one can quickly enter an area, find something to do, and complete it.
Lastly, character progression is not as fast as that of previous Dragon Age games. Unlike previous entries, Inquisition grants only a minor amount of experience when dispatching normal enemies. For example, at level 19, with a required 50000 XP to level up, a single soldier will only offer about 10 XP. Significant experience boosts, of 1000 XP or greater, will only be awarded when defeated strong monsters or completing quests. As a logical consequence, players advance more slowly than they ever have before in this series.
In a rush to play catch-up with everyone else, I binged for several days on Inquisition. However, as I sat on my notes and reflected upon the choices Bioware made for the game, I realized something: Bioware did not want me to squeeze 95 hours of play into my week off. In the context of the war table’s subtle nudging to stop playing, bite-sized quests and dungeons, open-world design, and slow progression, it became clear that I was supposed to only play for an hour or so per day, over the span of months. In theory, I should be okay with this, since time is so hard to come by for many people who, like me, keep playing games as they start to mature into adulthood. To the game’s credit, it largely succeeds at what it sets out to do. However, there were consequences to using this methodology, and I am not sure that Bioware’s games are equipped to handle them.
Because of the focus on many faster, more compact quests, very few of them have the chance to leave an impression upon the player. Missions in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 all told stories about the people and places involved in them. Even if they did not tie-in to the main story, each one says something, however minor, about what life is like in the world of Thedas. It is only because Bioware decided to give each quest enough time to develop, no matter how long that way be, that this was possible.
Inquisition changes this dynamic. With the more streamlined quests, there does not exist enough time to fully develop any one in particular. The result is that there is a lot of surface-level content, tasks meant only to serve as a minor distraction. This lack of deeper content, which tells its own story and connects with the player, makes it much less likely for one to become invested into the world and the plot. I barely connected to the people I was meeting when roaming through these large areas. Like a Diablo game, they did little more than give me an opportunity to find more loot and crafting materials. Rather than people, they felt more to me like bulletin boards telling me where I can go get a new shiny sword and/or what I can find in order to make them give me a new shiny sword.
Bioware also failed to realize that style also ruins the pacing of the main campaign. Many people report spending significant amounts of time, typically around 10 to 15 hours, in the Hinterlands before moving on with the story. In fact, these anecdotes are so widespread that leaving the area as soon as possible is one of the mostcommonPSAs to new players. It is very likely that players will end up working on completing places like The Hinterlands nearly to the exclusion of the main quest. Since many other such locations open up once the main plot gets underway, this temptation is always looming over the player. For my playthrough, I went over 20 hours without advancing the campaign by even a single quest, and this happened to me on two different occasions after my experience in the Hinterlands. My old completionist instincts, honed after years of gaming, worked against me. Even though I was fully aware that these quests were unimportant, and that I was beginning to grow disinterested, I kept plowing through the optional content. Sadly, my experience is far from unique.
I once wrote that Dragon Age: Origins did not respect my time, especially given the context of Dragon Age 2. Inquisition makes a different mistake. Although it clearly acknowledges that I have other things to do with my life, it does so without addressing the issue of undue focus on raw game length. Because of this error, the content is on display here is purely surface-level, lacking the depth that Bioware was known for even at their worst. Despite my Inquisition playthrough lasting nearly twice as long as my nearly complete journey through Origins, it was not anywhere near what one could consider to be comprehensive. I cannot claim that I was “burnt out,” but nor can I say that much of the what I experienced was particularly interesting outside of the decidedly few main missions. Inquisition is not Bioware’s worst game, but nor is it memorable.
Irridium
April 11, 2015 at 11:29 amHonestly the biggest change I noticed was the beginning. Inquisition's just happened and dumped tons of stuff on you at once. Probably trying to go for the "big explosive intro" thing everyone seems to be going for. Like, it's not bad per say, but it really doesn't help some games, this I feel being one of them. It starts with an explosion then you in someplace odd then spiders chase you then you're saved by a golden women then you're in the normal world then a prisoner then you learn the divine is dead the conclave is a failure and peace for templars and mages is not going to happen. It dumps a LOT on you in a very short amount of time, and even as someone who plays these games a ton I still found myself going "wait, the hell is even happening? WHO died?! WHAT?!"
DA2 was like that as well. You're running from the Darkspawn in Lothering which is in Fereldan and are trying to get to Kirkwall which is in the Free Marches. Not as bad as Inquisition but still, a lot to dump on a new player like that. Compared to Origins, which eased you into the world and society of whatever origin you chose. Yes it took a while, but I much prefer having exposition given over a longer period of time compared to one giant dump all at once right at the start. Origins really did have trouble with respecting the player's time, but I think the individual Origins up until Ostagar were really good.
Of course, that would take time and as you said time is not something lots of people have. But I still feel it would have been better if, say, you spent an hour or so in whatever race's background you chose to ease you into the world a bit. And maybe then I'd care when those war table quests relating to your background came up. Not much more, granted, but it'd be better than "oh right I'm Dalish and have a clan/family I forgot about that".
newdarkcloud
April 11, 2015 at 2:01 pmI agree with a lot of the points you're making here. The fact that Inquisition starts in medias res is a big problem, specifically because of the reasons you stated. Furthermore, because you're lacking the context that comes from an Origin story, you're not given a grounding. You've no idea what was going on before, so all of this exposition is hard to take in.
What I would've probably done there is give the player an hour or so to hang out at The Conclave to talk with various dignitaries to establish the plot and maybe even introduce some the characters that will play roles in the various missions for the main campaign. This would give the player an opportunity to understand what's happened in Thedas since previous games (or in general if this is their first DA), give them relationships and a backstory to build on as the game progresses, and avoid the confusion that came from the start of the game in its current state.
My point for this article is that Inquisition naivelymistook breadth for depth. Somebody reported that one could mainline the story missions, only doing enough side content to accrue the needed Power, and completed the entire game in about 20 hours. For an RPG, that's not long. They could easily do what you say while still making for concise, succinct levels. The two are not mutually exclusive.
abombomb
April 12, 2015 at 8:59 pmOh, you sad little fucker. Why don't you blow your fucking brains out, you whiny little shit. God, I'd love to see pieces of crap like you beaten to death.
Tom Palmer
April 12, 2015 at 10:27 pmHave you considered therapy? I may not fully agree with the article, but dude that's some seriously misplaced rage. Did the babysitter touch you when mommy and daddy went out at night or something?
zid
April 13, 2015 at 3:34 amWhat the hell is the matter with you? You have issues. Get help.
zid
April 13, 2015 at 3:35 amTroll account, Tom. Don't feed the parasprites.
zid
April 13, 2015 at 3:36 amHm. I was considering getting this but to be honest I think i'll spend the money on Pillars of Eternity. Thank's for the excellent write up.
zid
April 13, 2015 at 3:46 amI haven't played this game but just watching the trailers for it gave me this impression. I couldn't tell if it was trying to be funny or serious and it bothered me that something that could have taught a valuable lesson failed at it.
ZeonChar
April 13, 2015 at 3:48 amI honestly think it's BioWare's worst game. I was pretty burnt out by the end and so happy to be done with it.
ZeonChar
April 13, 2015 at 3:49 amPillars of Eternity is fantastic and in-depth with tons of roleplaying options.
abombomb
April 13, 2015 at 8:07 amI honestly think you should have an axe slammed through your thick retard skull.
abombomb
April 13, 2015 at 8:08 amThe writer of this retarded bullshit deserves to have his neck snapped, and so do you.
newdarkcloud
April 13, 2015 at 9:40 amYou're very welcome.
Slartibartfast
April 18, 2015 at 12:40 amTo each their own. I think this start is one of the best, for the same reasons that you dislike it for. I simply love that you are thrown into the events right at the start, that what's happening is as mysterious to the player as to the game characters. It reminds me a bit of the start in Mass Effect 1 (although that had a bit more growing-in, I agree).
Eve Narlieth
April 18, 2015 at 5:13 amWhen I started playing DA:I, I felt disappointed. I was one of the players that spent way too much time on the hinterlands, without really progressing the main quest. I've now come to terms with how the game is set, and have found a nice balance between exploring and the main quest. I think my problem in the beggining was (as always happens, to everyone) comparing it with DA:O and DA2. That, added to all the problems you listed. Now that I've found middle ground with DA:I, I'm enjoying it very much. It probably has to do with taking months to complete it. I got it in pre-order, played a bit in november, then came back to it in january and have been playing it since. Spacing it out is definitely a good idea (which I REALLY didnt do with DAO, DA2 and the mass effect trilogy, all of which I completed in a 4 month period). Very nice review, thank you.