Dragon Age: Inquisition hands-on: building a team

A lot goes into being the leader of an Inquisition. You have to bring together the greatest mages, fighters, and rogues from around the world, go on multiple quests, make tough choices, and close the rifts that is allowing the Fade to bleed into the physical world. I got to learn all this and more first hand at a New York Comic Con 2014 event, where I went hands-on with Dragon Age: Inquisition.

My party came pre-assembled with a human Inquisitor warrior that specializes in heavy two-handed swords. The rest included a rogue, a sword and shield warrior, and a mage. Each has a handful of skill mapped to the top three buttons and right bumper of the Xbox One controller while A is reserved for jumping and the right trigger for standard attacks. A circle with items, such as health potions and thrown objects, can be accessed using the left bumper. Although I don't tend to think of Dragon Age as a hack and slash role-playing game, Inquisition gets pretty close. Sticking with real-time combat can be as straightforward as selecting a character, running toward the enemy, and holding down the attack button until the special skills recharge.

After speaking with a scout, my quest is to make my way through a large, open, and unexplored map toward the enemy's stronghold. Along the way are a lot of undead, which are awoken by walking through the water. Also found along the way are a number of side quests, giant pillars with secrets written on them, and rifts that need to be closed.

I was told that the map I was playing on was the smallest in the game, but it's still large enough to get lost in. It's very tempting to leave the set path and gravitate toward the side quest markers. The undead may spawn indefinitely, according to how much time your character spends walking through ankle to knee deep water, and seeing the water ripple from your movements is a clear sign that the undead will be coming your way. But their numbers can be managed by moving quickly, and the ones that do show up can be quickly dispatched. Fortunately, it looks like the spawning trigger only happens when the player's character enters the water, and not the AI controlled party members, otherwise I would never progress past the lakeside.

While walking along the path, I came across a large stone pillar with a torch that can only be lit by a mage. There's a plaque on the opposite side, which can only be read by the light of the magic fire, but lighting the torch summons a group of undead that need to be dealt with first. It turns out that the pillar is a collectible that applies to something later in the game.

It's hard not to be distracted from the main quest. The wide open world, despite the ominous darkness and wandering undead, is one that begs to be explored. After walking down the road for a bit, I kept getting the sense that I was walking into a trap. Or that could just be the ruins and nighttime mood giving me that feeling.

I eventually reached a rift, which looks like a green tear in the sky, with a large NPC named Sky Watcher standing by it. We have a short conversation before I switch to my Inquisitor to close the rip. Interacting with the tear brings forth demons and other creatures from the Fad, and Sky Watcher used his giant hammer to help in the fight. Fighting multiple opponents is the best time to switch to strategic mode (Select button), which freezes time and brings me to an overhead view. In this mode, I can switch between party members and give them individual commands. I direct my mage to keep his distance, and my rogue is sent around to flank the large enemies while my sword and shield warrior distracts it. Characters can only follow one command at a time, but holding the right trigger lets movement occur again. So, players can hold the trigger, watch the party move, freeze time again, and issue new directions as needed.

It took everything I had and I almost didn't make it, but I managed to break through and rescue the hostages.

Before I knew it, I was at the heavily defended enemy stronghold. Heroes have a pretty long sight range, which gave me the opportunity to go into tactical mode and plan out my strategy. I snuck my rogue in to take out the archers while my warriors dealt with the melee enemies. The dead started to rise while the battle went on, and I was told that they would spawn endlessly. I had to bring up the item wheel, select disengage from combat, and make a run for the stronghold doors. Then I rushed up some stairs and pulled a lever to close the doors behind me.

As expected, the toughest enemies were within. There guard was protected by a line of archers behind him. Is if that weren't enough, he also had a monster fighting at his side. I threw everything I had at them, including a very rare magic bee grenade, but even with time frozen it's hard to keep track of everything that's going on in the confined space. I thoughti killed all the archers, but it turned out that there were two atop a staircase that were whittling down my party's health. My mage was the first to go down, a split second before he could drink the health potion, and my rogue almost followed. Eventually, after using up all three of my bee grenades, and using my rogue to stealth fully take out the archers, I won the battle. It took everything I had and I almost didn't make it, but I managed to break through and rescue the hostages.

As I was leaving the stronghold, Sky Watcher met me at the steps. After a short exchange, I asked him if he wanted to join the Inquisition. And with that, I had a new party member and reached the conclusion of the demo.

Dragon Age: Inquisiton releases for the PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on November 18th.