`Dragon Age` will devour your days

B6
LEISURE
March 5, 2015
www.FortHoodSentinel.com
‘Dragon Age’ will devour your days
BY CHRIS HAWKES
Commentary
I have a regular group of friends
that I game online with on the
PS4. Usually, we get on “Destiny” and play for a few hours
when we have
time. However,
for a few weeks,
my
friend
John vanished.
As part of the
interrogation
process, I was
soon educated
about the cause of his absence:
“Dragon Age: Inquisition.”
I’d never played any of the
“Dragon Age” games, but his
never-ending praises overwhelmed
me with such curiosity that, logically, I put the game on my
Christmas list.
After a few weeks of waiting, it
was my turn to disappear. “Dragon Age: Inquisition” can only be
defined as a time-eater. It will
devour hours and hours of your
days simply because there is so
much there. After a few weeks
between three characters, I had
already logged about 100 hours of
gameplay.
Like many role-playing games
these days, “Inquisition” allows
the player to decide what he or
she wants to do. There’s a chain of
THURSDAY
Paddington, PG, 7 p.m., (2*)
Photos courtesy of www.dragonage.com/en_US/home
quests that push the story forward,
but the player has no obligation
to complete them. If you want to
stay in the first area and finish the
piles and piles of quests thrown
at you, that’s your prerogative.
If you don’t feel like getting all
the playable characters, the game
won’t force you. Do you want
to spend all your time collecting
herbs or scouring for ore? That’s
completely up to you.
It’s a very strange experience; I
would start a quest with the full
intention of finishing it, only to
find myself distracted every few
feet by glowing materials such as
plants and irons primarily used for
crafting weapons and armor. Then
I’d accidently stumble into a secret
dungeon; slay a trio of giant trolls
and heavily armored attackers, distracted again by loot dropped,
then completely forget about the
quest I wanted to complete in the
first place.
Often times, I’d find myself
micromanaging my characters’
armor and weapons, upgrading
them obsessively, even the characters I cared nothing about or rarely
used in my party. Hours later, I’d
wonder where the day went after I
invested so much time to fidgeting
in the inventory screens.
Essentially, “Inquisition” makes
me feel like I have attention deficient disorder. There is so much
to do that I lose focus, go off on
an elaborate tangent, but never
return to the original thought.
Much of this is to do with the
fact that “Inquisition” is so epic
in scale.
The game throws so much at
you that your quest log transforms
into just an epic to-do list. After a
few hours, I had acquired about
30 quests, which I’m not even
sure if I am ever going to complete.
By no means do I feel that this
is a bad game. I’m still playing
it, I might not be anywhere near
to beating it and it’s one of the
best next-gen games visually. Yet,
when I do sit down to play, I issue
a full disclaimer: I’m not going
anywhere for awhile and it’s going
to be very hard to pull me away.
FRIDAY
Jupiter Ascending 3D, PG-13,
7 p.m., (2*)
SATURDAY
Project Almanac, PG-13,
noon, (1*)
Studio Appreciation Advance
Screening, free, “Run All
Night”, R, (*). Tickets will be
available at your Clear creek
and Warrior Way Exchanges.
Doors will open at 2 p.m.,
movie starts at 4 p.m.
SUNDAY
Strange Magic, PG, 2 p.m., $1
Black or White, PG-13, 6 p.m.,
(2*)