Players won't be forced to adhere to one type of gameplay

Apr 24, 2014 00:35 GMT  ·  By

Dragon Age: Inquisition, the upcoming medieval fantasy role-playing game from BioWare, won't impose any restrictions on its owners in terms of play style, as the studio wants as many people as possible to engage in the new title.

BioWare has delivered some great role-playing games over the years, combining them with other genres, like third-person shooter, but also with medieval brawling, like the upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition.

While the studio has proudly bragged about the ways Inquisition is going back to the more hardcore roots of the first Dragon Age: Origins, in order to make it up for the action-oriented Dragon Age 2, BioWare's Marc Laidlaw has confirmed that there aren't any restrictions on players.

"We really want you to be able to play your way…there are, absolutely, some things that skew more hardcore, like the health not regenerating and so on, but they're also skewed to be more sensible, and to introduce a challenge…they reward moment to moment smarter play," Laidlaw told Kotaku.

Players will be able to customize various aspects of the game itself, not to mention particular things about their character inside the story.

"I wouldn't say there is any effort being made to alienate people, but I think it's got to be a game that's true to itself," Laidlaw says. "There will be things like difficulty, and there will be elements that you can customize your play, the same way you can customize your character and your race. You can do everything you can do in tactical [view] in real time as well."

In the end, BioWare wants to make players feel like they're leading the Inquisition alongside their allies and trying to stop the dark forces from invading the world of Thedas.

"Ultimately, I really want players to feel like they're a leader, and that they're able to see the organization around them have like a real impact on the world," Laidlaw said.

"That ranges from smaller impacts, like hey, cool, you've kind of planted your flag and established a new camp, and that gives you a new forward base, a new place to rest...to more grand moments—you're sending your people out to pursue different objectives, whether that's opening access to a place that realistically one person can do but an organization can't."

Dragon Age: Inquisition is set to include a big open world and plenty of complex characters, so it's going to be interesting to see if BioWare can fulfill its promises.

The game launches later this year for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One platforms.