In my very first “first-hour review”, I’m going to review Dragon Age: Inquisition. Released in 2014, the game is very popular, and thanks to its stylised graphics, it holds up pretty well in 2025. Unlike its earliest predecessor, Dragon Age: Origins, hailed as one of the greatest RPGs ever made, Inquisition is considered pretty mild by the fans of the franchise for its MMORPG-like gameplay loop. I don’t have much to say in that regard since I was playing it blind.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is my introduction to the series. In my first hour, I played the prologue, which ends with defeating the Pride Demon. Then I spent some time exploring the village of Haven and ended my gameplay after reading some codex entries.
So far, the game is impressive, but there is more to it, which I am uncovering in this first hour review.
First Impression
My very first interaction with this game is the menu screen that fades into an ambush on marching soldiers. Since I am new to the franchise, I had no idea who those soldiers were at that moment. I guessed they were the Mages and the Templar army. And I was right about that. Kudos to me.
Character Creation
The game asked me to choose my Race and Class. I decided to go with a female Elf with the Mage class. I usually play as some sort of warrior in every other game, so why not choose when you have an option? The game also showed some sort of background, which I barely glanced at.
I named my female Elf character, Akshra.
The character creation screen gave me 4 preset Head styles. I clicked on “Customize”, and it presented me with a variety of options to customise the face of my character. Overall, it was fine, but they only have limited hairstyles and not a single one for long hair, which was weird considering they have multiple “shaved” looks.
Once I confirmed my changes, the game jumped into a not-so-long, 30 FPS cutscene. Weird.
Game Controls
Moving forward, the game introduced me to the Dialogue wheel. A staple of BioWare games, I presume. I picked some brave dialogues to represent my Dalish Elf lifestyle.
Finally, the game let me control my character and oh boy! Dragon Age: Inquisition has one of the most obnoxious controls for a 3D game.
For the most part, you use your keyboard mainly. WASD for movement, Q and E for left and right strafing, respectively. The mouse has its role for controlling the view, but it requires you to hold the LMB/RMB to change perspective. It’s a 3D game that’s asking me to control my character like an isometric game. Weird.
I watched some spoiler-free reviews on it, and they often make comments on the ‘hold to attack’ aspect of the combat. I don’t have any problem in that regard. The real pain is when you have to neutralize those Rifts. The up/down camera movement was horrendous. I needed to reach a certain FOV to steer my perspective upward. Scrolling your mouse UP too much throws you into tactical mode. It was hard for me to reach the perspective to hit the Rift’s hitbox by holding the mouse button.
Reviving is another aspect of the combat that I find tedious. Since you have a mouse cursor that’s normally used for interacting with the environment, why not make the reviving radius a little larger? Why do I have to stand so close to the fallen character I want to revive?
I find it impossible to avoid the enemy’s projectile in the first hour of the game. I tried jumping and strafing, since I had no exposure to such controls in a 3D game, I wasn’t able to do that.
User Interface
Anyway, let’s move on to something novel. Subtitles. They were disabled by default, but clicking escape reveals it during the cinematic. Good choice. Also, they were on top of the screen. I think the control scheme and subtitles are the aspects of the game that I have to adopt if I want to enjoy it to its fullest.
The UI style is pretty quaint. Character creation in the early game, and the codex entry for every character or ingredient/recipe has its own hand-drawn Tarot card design. This is another aspect that makes this game timeless.
The reading, however, I find painfully hard. I have a condition that I can write on a dark background comfortably, but reading white text on a black background leaves me with an unpleasant experience.
As far as Combat UI is concerned, it is effective for the KMB layout. You have all your required abilities at your disposal in a dock-like horizontal bar that matches the quaintish style of the overall UI.
Story and First Reaction
Dragon Age: Inquisition is not far from other RPGs. As the story was progressing in the prologue, you were turning out to be the person who could save the world. In short, you are the chosen one. The plot seems to be interested in the conflict between the Mages and the Inquisition. Elves being second-class citizens among humans, exiled or nomadic Elves called Dalish, and the dynamics among the other races. But it is up to the game to make history more solid. And the interaction between you and other game characters is what will define how far they can take their game in the case of immersion.
Closing Thoughts
So, this was my first hour reaction to Dragon Age: Inquisition. As I have already mentioned, the graphics are stylised, and that is what makes it a timeless game. I have heard some praise for this game from reviewers, but I am also worried about the time-consuming repetitive gameplay loop. As I have not delved into the game options, I will look for some way to optimise my gameplay. Otherwise, I will adapt to their weird control scheme. In contrast to it, the game style is very appealing, voice delivery is perfect for the kind of cartoonish style it possesses. This game entertains me, and I wish I could entertain myself in the coming hours. I am very confident in my experience so far. I am looking forward to playing it even more.
