Here it is, Spring Break, and no kids in sight thanks to the in-laws. Look at all this time I have to work on my stack of shame! I just finished one old game (Dragon Age Inquisition), so now it’s time to finish a newer game, such as Assassin’s Creed Origins or Wolfenstein II. In fact, with zero kids around, the latter may be the best to tackle.
But what am I doing instead? Playing Dragon Age Inquisition. Again. Rolled a new character and everything. This time I’m a male elf mage who has his eyes set on Dorian.
I still miss Alistair and my Hero of Ferelden.
I have problems. Deep problems. And yet I can’t stop myself. I don’t want to stop, while we’re at it. The last time I had such a deep connection with a game was—get ready for it—Mass Effect. Yet here I am with another BioWare title, obsessed to almost unhealthy proportions.
What strikes me the most about this go around is that this is the first time I’ve played any Dragon Age title as a different race. It’s the first time I’ve ever played as a mage as well. I’m curious how it differs with Dragon Age Origins, but in Inquisition, your race and even class changes A LOT. Now that I’m an elf, Solas is far friendlier to me. As a mage, I’m treated differently. As a Dalish elf, I’m treated even more differently. Different dialogue options open up. It’s simply amazing how much work BioWare put into this narrative. That’s one big difference between DA and ME; in ME your only choice was gender. There’s a big reason why you couldn’t choose a different race, but regardless of gender, people treated you the same. That is, unless you developed your Paragon or Renegade reputation to an extreme. If you went around punching reporters in the first game, reporters are rather skittish around you in the forthcoming games.
In DAI, however, I’m often mistaken for a servant. Non-mages are really wary of me. It takes longer to gain the trust of non-mages, whereas mages have no problems loving me immediately. As I said before, Solas really opens up far more than he ever did with my human rogue. Even Varric feels a bit more affection toward you because you aren’t a human. It’s all so very surreal, and it’s an amazing lesson in casual racism. While nobody cares what color your skin is, the same can’t be said for those with pointy ears or vertical challenges. This is part of why I really want to see this second playthrough through.
I am burning through this far more quickly than the first time, however. I’ve done all the side quests and collections the first time. I’m not doing this random fetch quest that doesn’t net me anything of real value. Treasure maps? Meh. Walking around a statue in a very specific way three times to summon a ghost? Forget it. Although I am still doing the astrariums, because dang those are super fun.
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