Dragon Age: Inquisition is an action role-playing game similar to its predecessors. At the beginning of the game, the player chooses a race for their player character: human, dwarf, elf, or Qunari, a playable race for the first time in the series.[1] Players customize the Inquisitor's physical appearance and gender, among other things.[2] Players can access a cloud-based online interactive story creator called Dragon Age Keep, and detail the major plots of the previous two Dragon Age games and import a world state in Inquisition without requiring replay of the initial games.[3]
The game has a semi-open world structure, as the world is broken up into several sections, which players can freely explore.[4] To allow players to navigate the game's world faster, mounts, creatures players can ride, are introduced.[5] The various regions that make up the game world do not scale in level, meaning players can be too weak or strong for the enemies found in a region.[6] In each hub world, players can complete side activities such as sealing Fade rifts and capturing keeps or forts, establish camps, which are used to provide fast travel and resupply points.[7] Performing these acts will grant players resource points in Influence, which can be used to unlock global upgrades for the Inquisition named Inquisition perk, and Power, which is required for progressing the story and unlocking new areas.[8] In addition, the player can complete side missions, fetch quests, collect magical shards,[9] and solve Astrarium puzzles.[10] Players can also collect codex entries, allowing them to have a deeper understanding about the world of Thedas.[11] At Skyhold, the Inquisition's base of operations, players can access the war table to unlock locations, receive rewards, gain influence and/or progress the story. As the Inquisitor, players deploy agents and troops of the Inquisition to complete various text-based operations through their primary advisers, which influences the rewards and time requirements of the effort undertaken.[12]
In Inquisition, players can interact with numerous non-playable characters, some of whom can be recruited as agents for the Inquisition.[13] A dialogue wheel offers several dialogue options for the player to select.[14] Depending on the Inquisitor's race and class, additional dialogue options are available for players to select.[15] Throughout the game, the Inquisitor needs to make important decisions that might change the state of Thedas and have long-lasting consequences.[16] Companions will sometimes approve or disapprove of the Inquisitor's decision.[17] At Skyhold, the Inquisitor can talk to their companions and learn more about their backstory, and initiate their personal quests.[18] Among the nine companions, who assist players in battle and three advisers, eight can be romanced. Some of these party members can decide whether to fall in love with the Inquisitor based on their gender and race.[19] In addition, the Inquisitor can "judge" certain people on their actions and decide their fate at Skyhold.[20]Players choose from three classes: warrior, mage, and rogue.[22] Warriors are sword and heavy weapon wielders who can absorb a lot of damage from hostiles; rogues are equipped with either daggers or bows and arrows; and mages are practitioners of magic that can cast spells on enemies. Each class has their own stats and attributes. For instance, rogues may favor dexterity for critical hits, while strength is more important to warriors for inflicting powerful damage.[15] Stamina or mana governs the use of active abilities. As the player character attacks hostile opponents, the whole team gains Focus, which can be used to unleash special abilities.[23] Combat in Inquisition focuses on the player's ability to form a cohesive team with their party members.[24] During combat, players can switch to control other party members, while artificial intelligence (AI) will take control of the Inquisitor and the remaining members in the party.[25] This action-oriented system follows the player in a typical over-the-shoulder third-person style. Players can access the Tactics menu to modify the behaviors of the AI companions during combat.[26] The player can also access Tactical View, which allows them to pause the game, assign locations and orders to the party members and then resume the game to see it played out.[27] During the use of this combat system, the camera will be closer to that of a top-down perspective.[28][29]Killing enemies and completing quests earn players experience points (XP). Once the players have enough XP, the inquisitor will level up, which increases the player character's health and stats, and gives players skill points they can use to unlock new talents.[30] Players can specialize their character further, which grants them specific abilities.[31] At Skyhold's Undercroft, players can craft and customize armor or weapons from crafting recipes using the materials they have collected; rarer materials give the particular weapon or armor piece better attributes.[32] Weapons and armor can be upgraded with accessories and enchanted with runes, which introduce new properties to the weapon on which they are inscribed.[15] The inquisitor and party members can be equipped with accessories such as rings, amulets and belts, which can further alter the character's stats.[33] Research items can be given to Skyhold's researchers, which can then provide players an XP and damage boost against the researched enemies.[34] Players can customize their keeps, such as rebuilding a garden as a Chantry church or a herb garden. These upgrades have minor effects on the Inquisitions espionage, commerce or military capabilities.[35][36]Dragon Age: Inquisition introduces multiplayer, which BioWare describes as a "dungeon crawling experience". The game features a co-operative multiplayer mode which tasks players to play as an Agent of the Inquisition.[37] Players have to play through levels, and fight against increasingly difficult AI.[38] The mode can be played with three other players, or be completed solo.[37][39] At launch, the game features three multiplayer campaigns and nine playable characters.[40] The mode is completely separated from the main campaign. As a result, the progress made by the player in the multiplayer mode does not carry over to the campaign. Players can upgrade and craft items and unlock new characters in the multiplayer mode. Players can purchase an in-game currency called Platinum to speed up unlocking new characters.[41] Two multiplayer DLC's introduced additional features: Destruction added new routes to existing multiplayer maps, armor sets, and wild creatures that roam the battlefield and attack both friend and foe;[42] while Dragonslayer adds the Fereldan Castle multiplayer map, High Dragons as enemies, and three new characters, including Isabela, a companion from Dragon Age II.[43]
