Dragon Age Inquisition: What did the Alpha Build tell me?

Dragon Age Inquisition. Are you ready?

NOOOOO!!!! Dragon Age Inquisition has now been delayed!!!! Luckily it is only for one month. I first heard this news via IGN and my stomach dropped. I thought "oh great, another E3 announcement title delayed for a fucking year" which does happen from time to time. However, as soon as they said "for one month" I felt more at ease. With this in mind I wanted to dissect the Dragon Age Inquisition Game Play Series demo's that can be found on the Dragon Age YouTube channel.

Dragon Age Inquisition menu wheel in the Alpha demo

There are two videos released in Alpha format that I have been watching avidly. As a HUGE fan of Bioware's series, Dragon Age, I am full of anticipation when it comes to Inquisition's release. Mike Laidlaw, creative director of Inquisition, guides us through the demo and boasts that Dragon Age Inquisition "is larger than the entire play space than Dragon Age Origins". Naturally, I would expect this particularly as we are firmly in to the 'next gen era' of consoles. The path we take, as the Quinari Mage is an overland journey. A journey that I believe showcases some stunning environments. We are headed towards Redcliffe Village and so push our way through a multi terrain littered with cliffs, trees, shrubbery and intermittent danger. Mike Laidlaw calls this "The World Master System". A system that is dynamic depending on how we choose to interact with the environment. Again, I must stress that I would expect this from an Role Playing Game so this detail does not "WOW" me.

Dragon Age Inquisition. One of many battles shown in the Alpha demo

I have always been fond of the leadership abilities in battle and in plight in the previous two Dragon Age games. Inquisition continues to adopt this popular trait whereby players can command their team in to a strategic battle form. I am content with this. There's nothing better than planning your next attack to move forward. I enjoyed seeing this within the Alpha build game play demo. With this, the battle scenes looked busy and exciting. I found it slightly frustrating though as I did not understand the interface of the commands. On the flip side, I found this to be a 'gaming tease' as it is something that I look forward to learning about once the game is released in November 2014.

What would a Dragon Age game be without........ A DRAGON?! In the first alpha game play video Mike Laidlaw commented "Dragons are so large that we've changed the way you target them. Individually attacking their limbs and tails..." GREAT! This looked and sounded great. The High Dragon shown in the Alpha demo occupied over SIX minutes of a sixteen minute video. Obviously, Bioware want us to TAKE NOTE! The ordeal that ensued in this fight seemed punishing but appetizing enough to make me want to jump straight in a play.

In the second video, we start off in Redcliffe Castle. Instantly I notice how dark, bleak and dangerous the environment appeared. This was a stark contrast to the first video in which we are greeted by the greenery of Inquisitions appeal. I see exactly why the developers made the distinction in the videos. Naturally, it makes sense to show us players a multitude of pastures. The two videos were released three days apart SO my next point could be entirely coincidental: I found that the graphics in the second demo to have looked MUCH more refined in terms of textures and frame rate. Can anyone tell a difference or is it just me? Let me know in the comments. The picture below shows an example of the graphics in a character close up from the second Alpha Demo video.

Dragon Age Inquisition characters. Everyone has a unique story

I thoroughly enjoyed viewing the Alpha Game Play demos of Dragon Age Inquisition. Yes, we have to wait ONE MONTH longer but the wait will be wholeheartedly worth it. For now, I am going to continue to enjoy the new demo releases.

You can pre-order Dragon Age Inquisition from this affiliates link and enjoy FREE delivery to the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK.