A Look at Dragon Age : Inquisition Multiplayer

As we recently addressed, the upcoming and highly anticipated outing from Bioware, Dragon Age : Inquisition, is going to be a very long game. That’s just with a straight play through and just talking about the single player aspect. It will certainly be well received as we have been starved of a proper RPG for quite some time now. The multi-player contingent of Dragon Age : Inquisition  that was announced has been showcased at PAX, with some lucky people getting a hands on experience with it.

Much like we saw in Mass Effect 3, the multi-player game mode in Dragon Age : Inquisition  is separate to your single player campaign. In the co-operative multi-player mode, you can select from 12 different builds for your character to play as, earning levels and cool new moves as you go. In the typical fashion of co-operative efforts in a medieval-esque setting, it is important for a party to have a diversity of characters, including dedicated tanks, damage and support classes.

Making use of your class skills and playing in character is also important. If you are a squishy DPS mage you should stand back and blast away, avoiding damage whilst dishing it out, or you will soon find yourself on the wrong end of a sword or arrow. The same goes for every class. You must fight to your strengths and trust in your team mates.

As your team explores a dungeon and battles enemies, random events will play out. Completing them will net extra gold for the team. Similar to the way it worked in Mass Effect 3  with the objective focused waves, except at random in this case. You will find scattered throughout the map rooms only certain classes can open, which offer a higher level of risk vs reward; for example a dangerous boss fight for greater loot. Gold and health pick ups are shared, with experience distributed in class appropriate ways, so it isn’t a rush to land that killing blow or run around trying to loot everything possible. It’s always nice when developers highlight co-operative spirit in a co-operative mode and discourage or eliminate the possibility of loot ninjas.

Whilst having a great multi-player option is awesome in itself, it has also resulted in combat being super refined for the single player experience, which can only spell good things for the game.

Dragon Age : Inquisition comes out on PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One and PC  in North America on November 18th, and Europe on November 21st, 2014.