Dragon Age: Inquisition Trailer Focuses On Making Tough Choices

I've never really been into the Dragon Age games. They always seemed like moderately “okay” versions of Mass Effect. I know I'm likely pissing off a lot of fanboys and fangirls alike, but that kind of comes with the territory. Nevertheless, BioWare aims to bridge the gap of gamers who may not have been interested in all the medieval-fantasy lore and sword-and-board romance tales by promoting Dragon Age in a different way. The latest trailer for the game focuses heavily on the consequence of choice and how players will have plenty of hard choices ahead of them throughout their journeys.

The three-and-a-half-minute trailer starts off by talking up some of the game's core features, such as the various class and race options, as well as the basic traveling aspects that help flesh out the game's extensive mythology. One thing worth pointing out, though, is that games like this oftentimes talk up the big, wide, open expanses of the environments, yet they're often not quite as accommodating for exploration as they originally let on. You know, you traveled to a lot of places throughout the Mass Effect series but they were usually quite small in scope. I do wonder if Dragon Age: Inquisition will follow a similar trend or if it will have environments that fit into the category of being “large and expansive”?

Anyway, the trailer moves on from the typical promo-material and into the territory of discussing and explaining how the choice system works.

We get a firm understanding that choices, consequences and alternate plot-lines can be put into effect based firmly on the little things. For instance, your gender, race and class can alter how you're viewed in the world, as well as how you interact with the vast array of characters you'll encounter.

It's a neat and complex thing to take into consideration, especially given how much planning and graphing had to be done with the potential character interactions. I mean, the character interaction architect and design planner probably had one of those confusing chart graphs showcasing all the different interaction possibilities that the poor programmers had to design. What happens if you're 'X' race that interacts with 'Y' NPC? Or what happens when you're 'X' race and 'Y' gender while interacting with 'Z' NPC? Once you start multiplying those possibilities times different questlines and faction interactions, you have an integrated mixing pot of vastly unique outcomes to consider.

That entire paragraph above is mostly what the second half of the trailer focuses on – how players can make these decisions based on intrinsic traits that open up the world to even more possibilities. Players will also have the ability to dictate who lives and who dies based on various scenarios, as well as who stays and goes on their team.

The additional micromanagement elements of the Inquisition's capabilities could also add some extra replay value to the game; being able to map out and decide how to address various situations on the tactical map is a neat way to expand the game's depth.

You can look for Dragon Age: Inquisition to launch on November 18th for home consoles and PC. Need more info? Feel free to pay a visit to the official website.