Inquisition could be the return to form that Dragon Age fans were waiting for (hands on)

For many Dragon Age fans, Dragon Age II was oddly limiting, taking away your playable race options and instead putting you in control of the human character Hawke.

Sure, you could still customise your looks and gender and even choose between mage, rogue and fighter — but compared to the breadth of options (and different introductory sections) in Dragon Age Origins it did feel a little restrictive.

There’s none of that in Dragon Age: Inquistion. You can happily spend a good hour in the character creator, tweaking the angle of the horns on your Qunari rogue before setting off for adventure. (And let’s be honest — it’s the first time we’ve been allowed to play Qunari, so you’re going to want to do just that.)

I got some hands-on time with Inquisition ahead of PAX Australia at the end of October and while we’ll have a full review very soon, here are some of my impressions from the three hours or so I played.

First up is that while character creation is back, there are none of Origins’ tailored intro stories. You start Skyrim-style — arrested, mildly amnesiac and pleading for your life.

It works because Inquisition has such a strong storyline from the outset — there are tears in the Fade letting all manner of demons through, and you seem to be the only person capable of closing them, for reasons that are (at least at the start) very unclear.

In terms of gameplay, there’s a lot here that’s familiar, but with some interesting tweaks to keep it all fresh. Micro-managers will delight in the new ‘tactical view’ that lets you pause combat and zoom around the battle, analysing the state of play before dictating your squad’s next move. (For the more story-minded players, you can also just set your difficulty to casual and trust that everyone will take care of themselves.)

The skill tree system resembles a tweaked version of Dragon Age II’s and it’s great, but the inventory management is again what it was in Origins, and I for one welcome it back with open arms. Crafting is also back, with the addition of letting you play around with weapons and armour manufacturing. Sadly I didn’t have a lot of time to explore this in my short play time, but it looks detailed and fun.

Probably is the biggest change is exploration. Gone are the curiously railway-like maps to move between various zones — Inquisition embraces the free roam and you can lose a lot of time jumping around finding new areas to explore and new ways to fall down mountains. The game also makes the best of the power that next-gen consoles can bring to bear: it looks beautiful. (And yes, PC does look even better.)

I was a very big fan of Dragon Age: Origins, with multiple playthroughs under my belt. Dragon Age II left me a little cold — I struggled to even finish it. But Inquisition has me excited again — it feels like a sprawling epic game you lose a lot of time in. With more than a couple of familiar faces popping up, this is a game should have Dragon Age fans feeling like they’re back home again.