Just popping in to say one thing:
I started playing Dragon Age: Inquisition two weeks ago. It is the reason I have not logged into this forum for two weeks. I could write up why I love this game so much, but that would take time that I could instead be playing the game. Holy shit. My SO has a copy too, and I don't think we've left the office since we booted them up. (Mm, that moment when it's 9 pm and you and your partner are looking at each other wondering which one of you has to stop playing to go make dinner... "Mom! More hot pockets!")
Tips:
- If you've played Dragon Age before: You are playing a new character, neither the Hero of Fereldan from DA: Origins nor Hawke from DA2, but all of the choices those characters made have an impact on this game. You cannot import saves from these games, however: Bioware realized it was too much of a mess with people playing these games on different platforms, plus there's a fair number of people who played Origins and not DA2. Instead, go to the Dragon Keep website. You'll get an animated recap of the main story points with the option to adjust them, and then you can go into more detail tweaking things afterwards. Then when you start Inquisition, you can download those story settings. (Note: Dragon Keep allows you to specify your old characters' race, background, class, love interest, etc, but NOT their appearance or name. This made me mad...until I saw how it works in-game. They refer to your old characters, but take care to never use a first name. As for their appearance...um...I don't want to say too much, but don't worry about it. It's fine. Trust me.)
- If you've never played Dragon Age before: still go to the Dragon Keep website and watch the recap. It's a nice set of cliff notes. Otherwise, you'll be totally lost.
- Don't get stuck in the Hinterlands. It's your first big "go explore" zone, and you're only meant to spend, like, an hour there before moving on. I spent 5 hours getting really frustrated with how tedious it felt before I figured that out: it's just a place to get your feet wet and figure out the controls. Don't worry: you can come back later all you want.
- Turn meshes up to High to get rid of the shiny hair.
- In character creation, turn lip shininess to the lowest setting. Trust me, it's still plenty shiny.
- Avoid spoilers like the plague. This game has some awesome twists.
- Don't get hung up on trying to master all the systems and details, and don't try to do all possible quests and take all possible conversation options. Do what you can, do what looks fun. RP it: you've been thrown into the big scary world with more responsibility than you ever expected and you're just trying to keep up. You will not suffer because you put one talent point in the wrong place or misunderstood how the stats work, and there are so many side quests that you will not complete them all unless you are a super-perfectionist-completionist.
- If you're really picky about how your character looks, take screenshots of all settings during character creation. Yeah, there are a lot of settings, but if you get into the game and realize the cheekbones are too high, it will make it SO much easier to restart and tweak your design.
- I'm really, really impressed at their handling of non-traditional orientations/lifestyles. It's not perfect--nothing ever is--but there are 8 love interests spanning various straight/gay/bisexual orientations and each romance arc has it's own unique tone, ranging from ridiculously silly to dramatically romantic. There's even a minor (non-romancable) character who's FtM transgendered: it's not made to be a big deal, and isn't even mentioned until you've known the character for awhile.*
And that is all. I retreat back to my cave.
*EDIT: After progressing further in the game, I have to amend this: the transgendered character's history becomes a bigger deal as you get to know him and his friends more, and you get the chance to ask him questions about it (with whatever level of tact/curiosity you deem appropriate). I'm not in a position to say how much attention to the subject is too much vs. not enough vs. just right, but it certainly looks like a positive portrayal to my eye, and his commanding officer gets downright irritated if you insist on referring to the character a woman.
Last edited: Dec 15, 2014