It is, in short, the best of both worlds.
Epic is the word.
Although not quite an open world in the sense of anElder Scrollstitle,Inquisitions world is enormous.
Ferelden, Orlais and the intervening Hinterlands are separated out into individual enclosed areas.
This is a game so big that even after 20 hours,Inquisitionis still throwing you new gameplay mechanics.
Clear your schedule for the next few days weeks years, youll need it.
You play as an unfortunate bystander caught up in a huge disaster.
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Characters too are hit and miss.
Something had to give, I guess.
Attributes are now no longer modifiable directly, but instead are added to via ability bonuses.
Your mages gain more willpower for magic the more abilities they gain that will actually use it.
And if you make a mistake, you’ve got the option to always respec your character.
Combat similarly has been overhauled.
At first, you are fighting over the shoulder, locking on and holding triggers to attack.
But one button press and the camera takes to the sky to offer a view of the battlefield.
In over the shoulder mode, the triggers attack, but in tactical view the triggers unpause the game.
Bioware has successfully avoided annoying its fans by crafting a system that can tailor to any play style.
As I said, every design choice has a purpose behind it.
This design philosophy permeates every aspect of the game.
Think Mass Effect 3s War Assets, except that they actually do something.
Power and Influence can also be gained inInquisitions other throw in of quest.
That crafting system, incidentally, goes further than previous games by quite some distance.
But the real star is the lighting, which is simply gorgeous.
You level up a separate character and go dungeon crawling with a group of friends.
Even the crafting system from the main game migrates across, giving the multiplayer a surprising amount of depth.
No one expected the Inquisition… to be so good.
Rating:
5 out of 5
