I’m not having a great time at the moment, folks. Instead of tackling my already insurmountable backlog of great 2024 games, I’ve shot a decade into the past to try to finally finish Dragon Age: Inquisition, a game I’ve bounced off twice already. This time around I’m more engaged with the plot (and actually made it far enough to become the Inquisitor), but every mechanic is grating and seems to be actively discouraging me from carrying on.
The reason I’m playing Inquisition should be obvious: I must play Dragon Age: The Veilguard on release. Not only will I need to write about it for work, it’s the continuation of a story 15 years in the making. I need to know what happens to Varric, Solas, and the fate of Thedas, and to do that I need the full context of the previous games. You don’t go to see Return of the Jedi having skipped Empire Strikes Back.
I’m not going to whale on Inquisition any more than I already have, but for those of you who aren’t avid Ben Sledge readers lapping up every delicious word that leaves my fingertips and is transported across oceans via internet and beamed directly into your eyeballs I’ll offer a short recap.
Inquisition’s open worlds are utterly mundane, the vast majority of quests are pointless, and the excellent character work and great BioWare dialogue is spread too thinly between meaningless filler. I understand that this is a ten year old game, but The Witcher 3 nailed open world design and engaging side quests just six months later. In CD Projekt Red’s fantasy RPG, I couldn’t help getting distracted by interesting optional activities multiple times on my way to any main mission. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, I’m struggling to find the main mission, let alone discover anything interesting along the way.
I don’t want to capture collectibles in order to progress the story because of your stupid Power points. Give me interesting reasons to explore!
I’m going to write about the combat another time. Be ready.
How Do You Cope With Disappointing Sequels?
Dragon Age: Origins is one of my most beloved games of all time. I found the stories scintillating, the characters well-written and relatable (despite being, you know, witches and assassins), and the choices devastating. It was my first BioWare game and remains my favourite (Mass Effect is on the to-play list). Dragon Age 2 was also good, although nowhere near the levels of the original. Had I played Inquisition at release, it would have probably turned me off the entire series.
So I turned to TheGamer staff to see how they coped with disappointing sequels. Games like Final Fantasy 2, Dead Rising 4, Dead Space 3, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Crash of the Titans, and Angel of Darkness were brought up as personal disappointments. How did my colleagues cope with games in their favourite series offering up disappointing sequels? It depends.
Most people just said they replayed the older games, the ones that they enjoyed the first time around. One colleague also mentioned that, for more recently released games, waiting for updates and mods was an option. For Crash of the Titans, Editor-in-Chief Stacey Henley “basically accepted the series was over and never coming back,” and she ignores the existence of THPS 5.
However, it’s her take on Angel of Darkness that interested me most. She found the good stuff in the game, but came out hoping it wouldn’t ever do that again. I’m in a very similar boat with Dragon Age. It’s another Assassin’s Creed, where I loved (and still love) the series’ roots, but the more recent entries stray so far that they’re unrecognisable from a gameplay perspective.
What To Do About Dragon Age
Dragon Age: Inquisition does have redeeming features. The cast breaking out into song after the destruction of Haven was surprisingly poignant and hit me harder than I expected. I like the fact that, as the Inquisitor, I can choose what to do with prisoners in my court and have to weigh up the pros and cons of any punishment.
BioWare’s character writing is still on point, and the narrative is engaging, if infuriatingly sparse. My problems are pretty much entirely with the box-ticking laundry list of objectives in dull open world areas. It’s a shame that makes up the vast majority of the game.
So I’m going to power through. I reckon I’m about halfway now, and if I get my head down and focus on the main storyline, I’ll see all the good bits and leave as much of the chaff by the wayside. Maybe I’ll miss some great side quests, but it’s the only way I can make it to the end of the game. Then, I’ll be prepared for The Veilguard. I’ll just spend the next four months hoping that it throws every design decision from Inquisition out the window.
