Last year, Dragon Age: Inquisition gave EA's swords-and-sorcery franchise a much needed shot in the arm, delivering a taut RPG experience more akin to the potential of the first game in the series rather than its disappointing sequel. Now, a DLC epilogue looks set to put a cap on its engaging storyline.
If you played Inquisition, you'll perhaps remember that the end of the campaign saw some balance returned to the world of Thedas — but, as the player character swearily mentions in the trailer for this new DLC, broken things rarely stay fixed in fantasy settings with such ongoing political strife.
Previous single-player centric DLCs released for the game — Jaws of Hakkon and The Descent — seemed more like side-stories, but this piece of content is being referred to specifically as an epilogue to the main campaign of Inquisition. Entitled Trespasser, it looks like a fitting end to a major return to form for the Dragon Age series.
Trespasser is set two years after the events of Inquisition, when peacetime is rudely interrupted by a Qunari invasion. Since so much time has passed, the first order of business for the player is to reunite the motley crew that makes up their Inquisition so they can attempt to nip the situation in the bud.
[HTML1]
While the group may have earned the respect and trust of the population of Thedas over the course of the base game's campaign, the events of Trespasser seem set to unsettle that status quo. Once again, it seems like an uphill struggle against foreign and domestic threats is on the cards.
As well as this compelling set-up for an addendum to the game's campaign, Trespasser looks set to offer more of the interplay between characters that made Inquisition so compelling. Reuniting the cast of characters seems like an excellent device to allow for updates on the various relationship options that were peppered through the base game.
Much was made ahead of the title's release of its comprehensive romance paths. This aspect of gameplay will be familiar to any fans of EA's other major RPG franchise, Mass Effect — but, after Inquisition, Dragon Age might well be the series leading the pack in terms of well-written, fully interactive in-game relationships.
However, the response to this piece of content will likely be massively informed by its length. We've seen DLC offerings for Batman: Arkham Knight roundly criticized for being smaller than many would like, once again raising questions of just how much gameplay players expect for their hard-earned cash.
That being said, there's no reason to believe that Trespasser will make the same mistakes. If the DLC can live up to the promise of this trailer, Inquisition might be about to end on a high note.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is available now for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC. The Trespasser DLC will be available for download for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC from September 8, 2015.
