Well, the graphics on the Xbox 360 box art are identical to the Xbox One box art. Maybe that's a good start?
The first thing to note about the Xbox 360 version is that it comes on two discs and while installing the game to your hard drive isn't required, the game highly recommends that you free up 7.1 GB of data to do so. This can be a tall order depending on how big your drive is and what else you have stored on it. I had the space for it because I was planning on installing the game to the hard drive anyway, but I could see how this could be problematic if you weren't expecting it. The bigger issue is, even after you've spent 15+ minutes on the installation, loading screens are long and frequent. Additionally, the high resolution textures won't be fully loaded even after that long wait and various characters' clothing will look downright ugly until finer details pop in. The good news is, the game mostly runs smoothly during combat and while exploring the environment; there are only minor frame rate issues when the camera focuses on graphics-intensive areas. Once the character models are fully loaded, people look as good in this game as they did in Mass Effect 3, so the graphics are great for a 360 game. Most of the time.
The short answer is: yes, you will definitely notice that this game is not optimized for the 360 and PS3. I've only just started playing the game though, so I can't say for sure yet whether this is going to interfere with my enjoyment of the overall game. I guess the best way for me to find out is to do another playthrough!
Thanks to the Dragon Age Keep, I'm able to start a game using the dubious histories of Grey Warden Amastacia and Chickene Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall. Between the two of them, we have a male human mage and a male dwarf warrior. It seems reasonable to round things out by having a female elf rogue Inquisitor. You also have a choice between dual wield specialization and archery specialization for the rogue class. I chose dual wield because I know Varric's in this game and he'll have archery covered. Upon selecting these options, the game tells us that our character is a Dalish elf sent by her Keeper to find a way into the Chantry's conclave, because the Keeper had a vision of something that will affect the entire world. The game then cuts immediately to our character, standing on a barren hillside and surrounded by greenish light. From here, we can customize her appearance and give her a name.
Readers: Say hello to my Inquisitor, Torquemada.
I'm not sure yet what the dialogue options are going to be like in this game, so I don't have a plan for her personality. However, given the fact that I just named her Torquemada, something tells me she might wind up being kind of snarky. As soon as the appearance is accepted, we see our Dalish elven lady begin to run away from demons. Well, crap. Apparently, I forgot to set the demon slider to "zero" when I created her. In any case, Torquemada's aimless running brings her to a feminine figure shrouded in green light and reaching out her hand. Given a choice between this being and the demons, the elf reaches out and takes her hand. There is another flash of light, and the next thing we see are soldiers rushing toward the elf as she collapses to the ground on a completely different landscape.
I realize this screenshot is kind of a blur but then again, so is her memory of this event.
That first cut scene only lasted about a minute and I already have no idea of what's going on. One thing's for sure: Chantry Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast isn't happy about that cut scene, either. Torquemada is brought before her and Leliana in chains in some unfamiliar dungeon, and Cassandra demands to know how we got a magic glowing hand that blew up the entire conclave. We assure her that we have no clue what she's talking about. In fact, we don't even know what the conclave is, let alone how we got into it, and that bit about the magic glowing hand is new to us, too. Looking down at our left hand confirms that it is, in fact, quite glowy. Apparently, I forgot to adjust the glowy hand slider to zero, too. This new character creation interface is tricky.
Cassandra finally decides to show us what the plot is instead of making us guess and unchains Torquemada, but binds her hands with rope for the walk. We find ourselves in the town of Haven, located in the Frostback Mountains of Fereldan, which we recognize from Dragon Age: Origins as the town populated by cultists who were hiding the Temple of Sacred Ashes. In addition to the army of soldiers patrolling the streets, there's another new feature: a massive shaft of green light pouring downwards from the sky that Cassandra refers to as "the breach". She tells us this breach destroyed the Temple of Sacred Ashes and killed everyone in the area... except for Torquemada, who emerged from one of the rifts alive and with a strange mark on her hand. We also learn that the conclave was a meeting between Templar and mage leaders, moderated by the head of the Chantry, Divine Justinia, with the goal of ending the Templar/mage war. Now all those people, including Justinia, are dead and Cassandra is highly suspicious about why we survived.
Unfinished portrait of Divine Justinia V, during happier times.
In this case, "happier times" means the concept art stage of the game.
Torquemada asks why we're going for such a nice walk when everyone thinks she blew up the temple. Cassandra replies that all they know about the mark is that it's connected to the breach and this connection may allow us to close the rifts between our world and the Fade. It's just a theory, but it's also the only idea anyone has at the moment for how to actually close these tears in reality. Cassandra assumes that we're either innocent and can close rifts, or we'll all die horribly in the attempt and Torquemada's guilt or innocence will be a moot point. Seeing how we don't have much other choice, we agree to follow Cassandra and the Seeker cuts our bonds.
As we head toward the front line that the Chantry soldiers have set up to defend Haven from the demon onslaught, a flare of magical energy goes off in front of us and Torquemada's mark burns with similar energy. Two demons appear and Cassandra tells the elf to stay behind her. Torquemada sees one demon headed straight for her, then spots a pair of daggers laying on the ground nearby, and decides that Cassandra's advice sucks. We kill one demon as Cassandra deals with the second, but as soon as the Seeker turns around and sees we're armed, she points her sword at us and tells us to drop the daggers. Torquemada replies that she'll be happy to if Cassandra can guarantee that absolutely no more demons are going to show up on our way to the portal with demons pouring out of it. Cassandra sighs and lets us keep the butter knives.
Eventually, we run into other people who are fighting against the demons. An elf mage and a dwarf with a crossbow are fighting near a rift that is somewhat large and doesn't look like it's going away any time soon. The theory about using Torquemada's mark to close rifts is about to be put to the test. The four of them take out the demons in the immediate area and Cassandra yells for us to do something cool with our hand. Torquemada reaches toward the rift and a beam of green energy shoots out, connecting the two of them. There is a small magical explosion, and the rift becomes unstable. Torquemada reaches out again, and this time her ability manages to seal the rift completely.
And I was worried I'd be stuck with Cassandra forever. Thankfully, here's a character from DA2 who's actually likeable!
The elf mage, who introduces himself as Solas, is pleased to see that his theory was correct. Cassandra tells us that he is an apostate who she has consulted for his expertise in this area and he says that if we can close small rifts, there's no reason why our ability shouldn't be able to close bigger ones with practice. The dwarf rogue chimes in and introduces himself as Varric Tethras... but we knew that already. Torquemada gives Bianca a compliment and we're already on his good side. Cassandra tells them they should leave while they can, but Varric says she should know perfectly well that she'll need all the help she can get. So, we proceed to the front line with a party of four, including an increasingly grumpy Seeker.
Before we can get to the rally point where Leliana is waiting, we have to fight through a larger group of demons and this is where the game introduces us to the tactical view. A feature that many fans were displeased to see cut from Dragon Age 2, this allows us to pause the action and issue individual commands to each of our party members. In this case, I have Torquemada go into stealth mode and flank the group from behind while Cassandra and Solas focus on the most powerful demon, and Varric is directed to take shots at demons using ranged attacks. Once the actions are queued up, I unpause the game and the group springs into action. The demons are taken down without too much fuss.
I don't trust Chancellors. Not since Chrono Trigger, when one of them turned into a monster named Yakra.
Shortly thereafter, we meet with Leliana on a bridge overlooking what's left of the Temple of Sacred Ashes. She's arguing with a Chancellor of the Chantry who, upon seeing Torquemada, demands to know why we're not irons. Cassandra tells him that we can close rifts and she's not going to bind the only person who can close the breach that they're staring at. The Chancellor's not happy, but he has little authority at the moment. Cassandra says we should take all the soldiers we have and charge toward the temple. Leliana disagrees, and says the soldiers should be used as a distraction while we take a safe path through the mountains to reach the temple. Since they can't agree, Cassandra asks us what we think. Torquemada decides that since demons can apparently pop up anywhere around here, the idea of a "safe path" is flawed and decides to go with Cassandra's plan.
Fighting through demons is definitely easier with soldiers to back us up, and getting to the temple turns out to be simple enough. We descend down some stairs and find ourselves in a large room with balconies overlooking the site where the breach's energy is impacting the ground. Solas believes that all we need to do is get to ground level, and sealing the rift there will also close the larger breach above. Since we don't have a way of reaching the sky, we hope he's right about that. Cassandra tells her archers to take positions on the balconies and her soldiers to stand ready on the ground, because messing with the rift will also attract demons. Something unexpected happens as Torquemada approaches the breach, though: she can hear a menacing voice talking about a sacrifice, along with the panicked cries of Divine Justinia. Once on ground level, we have a vision of the Divine being suspended magically in the air before a shadowy figure who senses our presence and directs his minions to kill us. We shift back to reality after that vision, and Solas muses that this since this area is partially merged with the Fade, we're seeing echoes of the past.
That mystery will have to wait though, because it's time for us to disrupt the rift and make some demons angry. As Torquemada connects with the breach, something comes through and it's not one of the weaker demons we tore through on the way here. It appears to be a Pride Demon, and it quickly becomes clear that its close proximity to all this magic energy means our attacks can't touch it. Solas yells at Torquemada to disrupt the rift to weaken the demon, so we get clear of its attacks and do exactly that. Its armor disappears, but the damage it takes from each attack is still in the single digits. Between its thick hide and the lesser demons coming through the rift to distract us, it winds up being a long fight. Eventually, Torquemada's new power weakens the pride demon enough for it to be slain, and she proceeds to close the rift.
Honestly, I don't think Varric was pulling his weight in this fight. I clearly remember him being level 20 at the end of the last game.
Torquemada doesn't remember anything after that until she wakes up three days later in one of Haven's quaint log cabins. An elf girl walks in as we wake up and she apologizes profusely for disturbing us. We tell her to relax, but she doesn't, and she tells us that Cassandra wants to see us right away. Since most of the town of Haven is closed off to us at the moment by NPCs posing stoically with one fist pressed to their chests, we decide to do that. Cassandra is in the Chantry, and we can hear before we even get close to the door that she's having a shouting match with that Chancellor about whether or not we're innocent. We interrupt their argument and the Chancellor responds by ordering the nearby soldiers to chain us up and drag us to Val Royeaux to be executed. Cassandra tells the soldiers to ignore that and leave her, Torquemada, Leliana and the Chancellor to talk. Once they're gone, Cassandra reveals that the Divine issued an edict before she died, and that was to re-establish the Inquisition. That means the Chancellor officially has no authority of the Seeker, and Cassandra tells him he can go now.
We're confused by what exactly this means. Cassandra and Leliana explain that the Inquisition was an order established by the Chantry in the past to restore order during a time of crisis and we've clearly reached that point. With Torquemada having gone through the rift and emerging with a power that can end the crisis, they now believe she was a gift from the Maker and the proper choice to lead the Inquisition. Being Dalish, our elf doesn't even believe in the Maker and she tells Cassandra she's not interested in leading a holy war. Cassandra replies that despite our heritage, we're still the only person who has had any success in dealing with the rifts and she reserves judgement on whether or not this is a holy war because we don't know what caused it yet. Torquemada agrees that restoring order is necessary and decides to go along with the plan for that reason, but that reason alone.
"Look, just be our protagonist. Please. The nug with the glowing left ear didn't exactly work out well."
The game then cuts to the town of Haven again, where Chantry soldiers begin nailing proclamations to doors and mobilizing for war. A crowd of villagers assembles as Cassandra, Leliana and some high-ranking soldiers stand alongside Torquemada as she emerges from the Chantry. The only bystander who doesn't look impressed is the Chancellor, who shakes his head and presumably leaves Haven. After that, the title screen appears, letting us know that what we played was just the introduction to this crisis.
My first impression of the introduction is, there wasn't enough exposition. Telling me my character has a good reason to be at the conclave isn't as good as showing me her conversation with her clan's Keeper and hearing the urgency in their voice as they describes their vision. This is particularly true when we don't even know what the conclave is; the main menu only shows us mages and Templars marching toward a location just before the sky explodes. In modern RPG's, players need to be able to connect to their character early in the game and the first two Dragon Age titles succeeded in that regard, but Inquisition fell decidedly flatter in its intro. Hopefully, the confusion will be cleared up as the game goes forward and perhaps the gaps in the Inquisitor's memory will even serve a purpose in the larger plot. Once again, the best way for me to find out is to keep playing.
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