Developer : Electronic Arts
Release date : November 21, 2014
Synopsis :
Dragon Age: Inquisition is a 2014 action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. The third major game in the Dragon Age franchise, Inquisition is the sequel to Dragon Age II (2011). The story follows a player character known as the Inquisitor on a journey to settle the civil unrest in the continent of Thedas and close a mysterious tear in the sky called the “Breach”, which is unleashing dangerous demons upon the world. Dragon Age: Inquisition’s gameplay is similar to its predecessors, although it consists of several semi-open worlds for players to explore. Players control the Inquisitor or their companions mainly from a third-person perspective, although a traditional role-playing game top-down camera angle is also available.
The release of Dragon Age II was met with a mixed reception from players who lamented the loss of the complexity of the first game, Dragon Age: Origins (2009). BioWare sought to address player feedback for Dragon Age II as a major goal, which influenced the design decisions of its sequel. Ultimately, BioWare wanted the third Dragon Age game to combine the elements of the first two games in the series. Having begun development in 2011, BioWare used EA DICE’s Frostbite 3 engine to power the game, though this created many development challenges for the team. They had to crunch extensively during development, and because of hardware limitations on older generation consoles several gameplay features had to be cut. Trevor Morris composed the game’s soundtrack, replacing Inon Zur, the composer used for the previous games.
Officially announced in September 2012 as Dragon Age III: Inquisition, the game was released worldwide in November 2014 for Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Upon release, the game received critical acclaim, with critics praising its exploration gameplay, combat, visuals, writing, characters and customization. The game received some criticism for its filler content, technical issues, tactical view, and aspects of its narrative. Commercially, it was one of the most successful games released by BioWare. It was awarded numerous accolades and nominated for more, including Game of the Year by several gaming publications. Several narrative downloadable content (DLC) packs were released to support Inquisition. A sequel, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, is currently in development .
A massive explosion destroys the Conclave and creates a hole in the Veil — the metaphysical boundary between the physical world and the Fade, the world of spirits and demons — referred to as the “Breach”. The only survivor of the blast is the player character, who emerges with a mark on their hand capable of closing rifts in the Veil that have sprung up in the Breach’s wake, but who retains no memory of what happened. Witnesses claim the player character was ushered out of the Fade by a mysterious female figure, rumored to be the prophet Andraste, the historical Bride of the Maker.
After closing several rifts, the player character begins to be referred to as the “Herald of Andraste”. With the Chantry effectively leaderless, Leliana and Cassandra Pentaghast invoke one of the Divine’s last orders to re-establish the Inquisition, an organization originally formed to defend against the dangers of magic and heretics. After closing the Breach with help from rebel mages or remnants of the Templar Order, Haven is attacked by a force led by Corypheus, an ancient Darkspawn mage, who was responsible for opening the Breach. Aided by a dragon, Corypheus overcomes Haven’s defences and confronts the Herald. Corypheus refers to the mark as “the Anchor”, which he means to use to physically enter the Fade, with the goal of attaining apotheosis for himself. He attempts to remove the Anchor with a magical orb-shaped elven artifact, but the Herald sets off an avalanche, burying Haven and decimating Corypheus’s army. Solas leads the survivors to the abandoned fortress of Skyhold, which becomes the Inquisition’s new base of operations. The Herald is appointed as the Inquisitor, leader of the Inquisition.
With Hawke’s assistance, the Inquisitor investigates the disappearance of the Grey Wardens and discovers they are being manipulated by Corypheus into raising an army of demons. During a battle against the Wardens, the Inquisitor enters the Fade and regains their memories, discovering that they obtained the Anchor at the Conclave after stumbling onto a ritual being carried out on Divine Justinia V by Corypheus, and then coming into contact with the orb. Either Hawke or their Grey Warden ally sacrifice themselves to help the others escape the Fade, after which the Inquisitor must either exile or recruit the remaining Wardens.
The Inquisitor also attends a ball at the Winter Palace in an attempt to resolve the ongoing Orlesian civil war and gain the assistance of Orlesian forces. Afterwards, the Empress’ arcane advisor, Morrigan, joins the Inquisition as an Imperial liaison. She directs the Inquisitor to the Temple of Mythal to stop Corypheus from obtaining an Eluvian, an artifact which could enable him to enter the Fade. Inside the temple, either the Inquisitor or Morrigan gains the powers of the Well of Sorrows, a store of magical energies tied to the elven goddess Mythal. The party escapes Corypheus through the Eluvian, which shatters behind them. Mythal is later revealed to be Morrigan’s mother, Flemeth; whoever drinks from the Well of Sorrows is the recipient of wisdom from previous servants of Mythal, but also binds them to her will. They discover that Corypheus’ dragon is the key to stopping him, then confront Corypheus as he reopens the Breach and defeat him and his dragon, resealing the Breach permanently. In the process, the orb carried by Corypheus is irreversibly damaged. The Inquisition returns to Skyhold to celebrate their victory, while a dismayed Solas vanishes after recovering the device. An epilogue narrated by Morrigan details the outcomes of the Inquisitor’s major decisions.
A post-credits scene shows a meeting between Flemeth and Solas, who is in fact the Dread Wolf Fen’Harel, a previously inactive deity figure and the original owner of the orb. Their conversation reveals that Solas is indirectly responsible for the events of Inquisition, as he had allowed the artifact to come into Corypheus’ possession so that it could be unlocked on his behalf. He petrifies Flemeth and seemingly absorbs Mythal’s power.
Source : Wikipedia
