Dragon Age 3: Inquisition Combat Trailer Analyzed and Dissected

A Dragon Age: Inquisition trailer was recently released depicting the game’s combat, going in-depth into the gameplay of the upcoming role-playing title from BioWare. The gameplay itself is split between real-time action-based combat and a tactical overhead mode where you can pause the game.

The trailer begins with a human Inquisitor as its main playable character (players have a choice between humans, elves, dwarf, and qunari) facing off against a Ferelden Frostback, one of the game’s main dragons that’s been showcased before in previous (E3 2014) trailers. 

The trailer further depicts players going up against one of the main enemy factions—the Red Templars—by attacking one of their slave wagons with all manner of spells and ranged attacks. 

The trailer depicts something new, never before seen, with green pulsating lights coming out of certain monsters empowered by the Vale. 

There are some instances where monsters fight amongst themselves, as rival factions go up against each other instead of simply ganging up on the player and their party. 

Curiously, Cole, one of the game’s companion characters, appears hooded throughout the combat footage displayed instead of hood-less as he’s depicted in screenshots released of the character. Ashe, Lady Insanity, a fan of the Dragon Age games, speculates that Cole might be decaying as the spirit that possesses his body may be dying. 

You should definitely watch the video linked above if you’d like to find out what spells, abilities, and enemies appeared throughout the trailer. 

The trailer shows areas where the protagonist and his or her companions do battle against hordes of undead. These undead appear to be very weak in one-on-one combat but pose a threat in large numbers, and thus offer a different challenge from living combatants.

Four schools of magic are depicted throughout the trailer, with either rift magic or creation being one of them, followed by winter and inferno, as well as primal.

Throughout the trailer, there are fade rifts that pop into the world, spawning monsters in their wake. They remind me a lot of the Oblivion gates that open up in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It’ll be curious to see whether the player will be tasked to close these fade rifts as he or she journeys through the game.

Expect more analysis of the game as BioWare releases more trailers for us to discuss. 

Dragon Age: Inquisition is set for a November 18 release on the PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.