14 DAY TRIAL // Dragon Age: Inquisition has received a huge amount of details in the last week, complete with a release date, a cover, and plenty of info about its actual gameplay, growing the anticipation among fans for the new medieval fantasy role-playing game.
The new title is also BioWare's chance to shine and show that the years under Electronic Arts, which brought forth great things like Mass Effect 2 and 3, but also not so great one, like Dragon Age 2, haven't affected the studio's potential when it comes to creating massive role-playing experiences.
Dragon Age: Origins was also released under the EA publishing banner, but the fact of the matter was that the title had already been in development for quite some time while BioWare was still an independent company, meaning the corporate overlords at EA didn't get a chance to tamper with the formula.
However, with Dragon Age 2, BioWare and EA started thinking about making the experience a bit more mainstream and ended up delivering a good enough experience that, unfortunately, suffered from plenty of different problems.
The story was certainly on-rails, as you were no longer able to choose between different playable races, being stuck with humans, and the decisions made by players didn't have that big of an impact on the story, especially when it came to the ending that dropped a big bombshell on the universe.
The recycled environments, the somewhat simplistic levels, and the maze-like city of Kirkwall were also sore points, but in the end the RPG was good enough, something that given BioWare's pedigree, shouldn't even happen.
With Dragon Age: Inquisition, the studio seems to have learned its lesson and touted many years ago that feedback after Dragon Age 2 would be taken into consideration during the concept phase of the next installment in the series.
As we saw last week, the results are quite clear, with BioWare portraying a stunning open world role-playing game with way more environments and a much bigger freedom for players to pursue the tasks and goals they want, not the ones imposed by the story.
Sure, the big event that looms over the game, the invasion of dark spirits from the Fade, is still here, meaning players won't have that much time to lollygag, but you can bet that BioWare has more than enough moments to unwind during the game and enjoy the company of your allies.
The customization system also looks quite good, as besides allowing players to choose male or female protagonists from all the different races in the game, they can also pick different classes with multiple specializations. From the Knight, who can be a Champion, Templar, or Reaver, to the Mage, who can go for Knight Enchanter, Necromancer, or Rift Mage, to the Rogue, who can become Artificer, Assassin, or Tempest, players have more than enough choices.
I for one am quite excited about Dragon Age: Inquisition, but I'll become convinced only after I get a chance to try it out at E3 2014 or at Gamescom 2014.