New Previews and Gameplay Footage

IGN preview here:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/31/the-beauty-and-brutality-of-dragon-age-inquisition

They have the tactical view from DA:O back (and you can use it on all platforms), the action looks more like an action game in a lot of ways, and you can play as a Quanari. Sounds like there is a lot of freedom too (more overarching goals than moment to moment) and the world sounds huge. You capture keeps like you might capture bases in a game like Far Cry 3 and that allows your Inquisition group to grow. Also sounds like there may be more grey area choices, like Witcher or Walking Dead.

The game even has environmental destruction, which makes sense in Frostbite but I don't think I've seen an RPG with it before. Apparently you can use a fire spell or weapon to burn down wooden towers for example and that will send enemies in them falling to their deaths.

Nice! Really surprised to hear about the Qunari race option; would have expected them to stick to the stock human, elf, and dwarf selections. 'specially since your main character will still be voiced. Anywhoo, Qunari, more freedom of choice, capturing keeps, tactical camera, minor destructibility, fantastic graphics -- keep it comin, BioWare!

Didn't see any party system in the footage, and it looks like a hack and slash/action rpg now? Graphics look a bit better, but the backgrounds still look bland. I wouldn't mind a new combat system if it was good like the witcher or something though, as long as the story and characters weren't boring as shit again.

Pfft...comparing this to walking dead. Dragon Age Origins let you murder children way before Walking Dead made it cool.

Yeah I could have sworn I read before it was just humans again for your player character but I guess they are allowing multiple races again plus Qunari, which would be a very interesting choice. This game sounds really cool I have to say. I loved Origins and II was just alright to me, but this sounds like not only a return to a lot of what Origins was doing, but pretty innovative for an RPG.

My point was that Bioware basically always have boring black and white moral decisions. Even when they've seemed more complex, the best example being the Genophage, they just kind of end up black and white anyways. The brief examples sounded more grey area, like the Walking Dead and Witcher have. The one I'm referring to being something along the lines of defending your keep or the village outside it, and a cool touch mentioned being that you can manage to save both but it will be difficult to do.

Did you play II? II was basically that. This looks actually more actiony but it has the tactical view and hopefully none of the spawning out of thin air reinforcements that were actually what ruined DA II's combat more than anything else.

@artisanbreads: For Mass Effect yeah. Dragon Age has always been full of fucked up choices.

It was better than Mass Effect, there were some real good ones like Morrigan's at the end of DA:O. And I suppose the Mage and Templar thing could be pretty grey area (but I find it again presented rather black and white in reality). I think it has nothing on the Witcher for example, so it could certainly improve. Either way, I think a choice like the one about defending the village or keep playing into the gameplay in such a way is pretty interesting vs having it just be something you choose on a dialogue wheel.

Looks really nice, couldn't get into Origin's game play but I really liked the lore and I haven't even started DA2 but I would like to check this one out.

@artisanbreads I played a bit of DA 2, it was more action oriented but it still had the basic system just instead of auto attacking you had to hit the buttons. This seems like it has a dodge system, block system, even had a grapple hook type DMC looking move in there.

everything about this game looks like green slime. God, DA2 was a shitshow of great magnitude. This looks worse

They said you could play the game either as an action game or as a tactical RPG. So you can zoom out to a top down perspective like in the first game and issue orders to each party member and watch them carry it out in a turn based kind of way or you can just stick with your dude and slash people if that's what you want. Basically they allow for both options, and I'm sure if you put the difficulty up pretty high you'll have to at least use some tactics to survive.

The more I see and hear about this game the more I want it.

Hmmm...this might be the first Dragon Age game that caught my interests. Seem like it might be an epic Rpg, but only time will tell. Looks fluid, clean, and fun.

@paparoach: ? The game hardly looked green at all.

@oursin_360 said:

Its still tactical just with fancier animations witcher style from what I can tell. Probably hack and slashy with special moves that have cooldowns/mana cost etc, which would be interesting. As for the backgrounds, I hope that is just pre-alpha stuff.

I love how the quickshot makes it seem a tiny bit like God of War, and Zelda. It looks so fucking good. I'm definitely looking forward to the multiplayer. :D

I think I am now properly excited for this game.

Okay. Playable Qunari is just rad. So is the return of the tactical map, though I'm not totally clear on its implementation yet.

Don't know what to think about everything else. Managing an inquisition sounds like an interesting meta-layer to put over a Bioware RPG, thought it could also just be Galactic Readiness again. Also, the game's premise does little to calm my suspicion that we're still running around doing loyalty missions, building up an army to beat the evil army. I don't ever want to do that shit in a Bioware game again, ever.

Still, playable Qunari...

It wouldn't be a Bioware game if you weren't doing that.

I like the idea of making the combat more immediate and more action oriented. I know I just fired up the ire of practically every fan of Bioware's old games, but I just can't get into that kind of combat. It's sluggish and always felt clunky and unwieldy to me. As opposed to something that's completely turn-based or completely action-oriented. I want to see an honest-to-God combat scenario, complete with a skill bar and some pause-and-play and some party management, not this "fifteen seconds of watching skills play out in carefully-planned areas and animations" shit. Gimme some gameplay, dammit!

Otherwise it sounds fine. It would be nice if the world really did react in mind-blowing and amazing ways. What if you could build up the Inquisition as a morally reprehensible gang and people cowered in fear before you? Or instead you could hold them up as an honorable, but iron-fisted army who dictatorially controlled everything? Or maybe they could hold the ideal place of a guard, almost like a reinstatement of the Grey Wardens, and only come to action when they are needed? Or maybe you could somehow side with the demons and turn on the entire world?

Bah, who am I kidding? This is going to be "gather several different armies to fight off an impending invasion" all over again.

You know, I never played the first two, but this stuff is looking pretty cool.

Well, I think we all can agree that this looks pretty fucking impressive. Can't wait for Bioware to finally shut all the whiners up.

/thread

Still doesn't beat the Witcher 3 but I have to admit as an EA hater that I am genuinely excited for this game now.

Not sure if you've already decided not to bother with the previous games but I would suggest giving Origins a shot. It's a really fun game and it's definitely in my top 5.

Everything they're saying about the gameplay sounds right so far, but damn it, I want a skill tree screenshot. If they do the thing where only certain characters can play certain roles again, I am going to be upset. Also I'd like some word on Origins, they're talking around them, and that either means they won't be in there, or Bioware isn't sure yet. Honestly though, I won't be satisfied with the preview coverage of this game until I see some promise from the story, and that's the kind of thing that's hard to communicate in interviews.

@hunter5024: I think they've said there won't be Origin stories ala playable prologues like in DA:O, but you will be able to select your character's backstory, probably like how you could in Mass Effect.

@yummylee: I've been following the coverage pretty closely, and I'm pretty sure they haven't confirmed either way yet. The reason I think they're not sure yet is because in one of the GI interviews Mike Laidlaw said they wouldn't promise anything until they were sure they could deliver, and this was right after talking about playable races. Though I bet you're right, they probably will end up doing a Mass Effect style system.

Didn't play the first two, but I'll pay attention to this.

Didn't play the first two, but I'll pay attention to this.

Well they have said the game starts with some sort of tear/explosion in the sky and demons pouring out of it... seems like that's a set beginning that everyone will share but they aren't quite explicit.

My bet is that its ME style like you guys are suggesting. I doubt they'd do the Origins and now even add a Qunari Origin to the mix, seems like a lot to bite off. It already seems that way now, considering that the protagonist will be voice acted (correct?) and I'd assume there will be multiple VA actors for the different races. Maybe they could do it Saints Row style and give us options? That would be a cool choice.

Your main character will be voiced, but I can't imagine that they'd actually have a unique voice actor per race, not to mention gender. That's eight different voice actors, all for the main character, for what'll no doubt be a significant amount of dialogue. It would be an extremely tall order to be sure.

They'll more likely have one voice actor per gender across all four races, who'll then change his/her accent per race. English for Human, Welsh for Elf, and so on. Which in itself sounds like a pretty big task, but it's a bit more realistic than the alternative.

And Fallout 2 let you murder children and even gave you a title for it, and that was back in 1998! ;p

On the subject of the new Dragon Age, I cant say i'm impressed, sorry. I want the game to be good but the "responsive" and "immediate" combat of Dragon Age 2 killed the tactics aspect of it, each encounter was just a wave based clusterfuck. If I wanted to play a hack & slash game there are much better ones out there. I come to Dragon Age (or used to) for it's great party based strategic combat. Granted they havent gone into depth about the new mechanics but from what they've shown it seems much more suited to a controller, which is kind of sad given that Dragon Age started out as a PC exclusive that was made for fans of Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights.

I know i'm coming off as elitist but this isnt a PC thing. To put things in perspective they've basicly pulled an XCOM: Declassified on us. Oh well hopefully the story's good. While i'm whining I mareswell complain about the art style too, It looks like SWTOR, enough said.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking, or like I said open it up more like Saints Row. I don't expect that many options but there need to be at least a few if they are giving us race choices.

Well first, tactical view is not only back for PC, it's in for consoles as well. I think this is a pretty great sign for the games tactical nature compared to the last game. As I said in a previous comment, the worst part of DA II's combat hands down was the reinforcements that spawned in from all directions as it completely ruined positioning, which is core to a good tactical combat system (it certainly was to DA:O).

So I understand why your concerned given the move from DA:O to II, but the devs seem to want to go back to what DA:O was offering. And the things is they should, Origins sold way better than II did.

I don't think there is much to bury this game on, in fact there is much to make you think they are going back to a lot of what was great about DA:O and also going in new directions too with an open world setting.

They are saying there will be a tactical mode, but all they are showing looks like a nice fluid action game... I won't take their word for the tactics a second time. More power to them for building an engine that actually works as an action game, I'm just not interested in that game any more.

@artisanbreads: How are you ment to micro manage a party that have to block, dodge and attack manually? You cant. Not while you're controlling your character anyway. So most of the combat theoretically would be up to the AI. Which I doubt you can program via a tactics option like in prior DA games. (Because that would be way too manic to work)

You're saying previews are all lying then when they played through it on a tactical view? You think that the devs would say it's there and not have it in the game?

Actually IGN preview says you can do just that and program the tactics like Dragon Age I. Why don't you think AI could manage to block, dodge, and attack? I'm confused. Enemies do it to you... And even if you were stuck on your character (which you aren't) your allies would have to do all of this themselves.

@artisanbreads: It's not that I dont think they could manage, I said that it's out of the players hands. Whereas in prior Dragon Age games everything was up to you and if your party failed that was your failure. If the AI fails to block at the right time and gets hit, dies. How could you have prevented that? Obviously the AI is programed to block but they also have to attack and leave themself open so what dictates when they attack and when they dont? The tactics? I would imagine that would be like in the original where they only act when enemies are casting spells or do something when a player is below a certain amount of health etc.

Anyway as ive said this is all speculation. I'm not going to pretend like they're leaving anything out or their combat system doesnt work, it just doesnt seem as interesting to me now. I've played RPGs where your party is active and take care of themselves and it's just not the same.

The game looks fun and dragon age finally remembered what nice graphics is lol.

14 minute demo http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1416so_videogames?

thanks man, watching this now.

Just watched this and it looked pretty good. I'm curious to see the tactical view in action since it wasn't shown. Even though Dragon Age 2 had it's problems I still enjoyed the world and the characters so if this fixes the problems that game had I can't wait to jump back into that world.

Some intriguing choice stuff in that demo. Also some hints that they're no longer terrified of locking the player out of content.

Red Templars sound dumb as hell though. One of the most misguided parts of DA2 was how they neutered their ideological conflict by robbing the main antagonist, Meredith, of her agency. It'd be a shame if they made the same error twice. Bioware filled its "fanatics toying with power they don't understand" quota with Cerberus.

CLOTH PHYSICS. HNNNNNNNNNGGGG.

This is looking pretty damn awesome, but then I also don't really have reason to be cynical, because I've been enjoying Bioware's output.

This is looking pretty damn awesome, but then I also don't really have reason to be cynical, because I've been enjoying Bioware's output.

I am hopeful. Hell - I'm even a little over the moon.

It looks like Bioware is making strides to become the gamemaker I always wanted them to be. Finally bringing their worldbuilding up to a level with their storytelling and characters and player agency.

Now if they really manage to bring together old school tactical overview and management with new school action and immediacy, as seems to be their stated goal with Dragon Age: Inquisition's combat - I see Bioware rising to the challenge of the new age, and defend their spot on the Olymp of the World's Finest RPG-makers.

"... starts off with you killing demons."

What the fuck is happening to this goddamn genre? I want more talking!

I'm actually pretty excited for this game. I really loved Origins and the Inquisition story here seems like it could be really cool.

But Bioware have a lot to prove after their last few games and I'm not even considering picking this up anywhere close to full price, even if it gets glowing reviews and recommendations. Especially with the Witcher 3 coming out, which is essentially a "fuck you Bioware, this is what you were trying to make".