Advice | Tips For Playing Dragon Age: Inquisition

Thinking about playing Dragon Age: Inquisition? You certainly should, but here's some tips before you start.

Personally I'm a massive fan of the Dragon Age series and BioWare in general. I would definitely recommend playing this game and I completely agree with the many polls that have picked it as the best game of 2014. If you've played Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Awakening and Dragon Age II (along with the DLCs if you're hardcore) then you will feel completely at home as soon as you start playing. Having said that, each game comes with its changes such as in features and controls, and it never hurts to get some advice before you get stuck in.

After roughly seventy hours, I have since finished the game and am on my second playthrough. I will try to refrain from spoiling anything major. I've decided to split my tips into stages - character creation, settings and gameplay.

Character creation can be both fun and tedious but no matter what, make sure you are completely happy with the outcome before continuing. There's nothing worse than getting twenty hours into a game and then deciding you hate your character's appearance/voice. Have a fiddle around until you're satisfied but (and here's the major tip) remember to turn 'Lip Shine' all the way down unless you like the look of mega glossy/strangely luminescent lips. Trust me, it's even brighter and more distracting during cutscenes.

Settings depend largely on how good you're computer is because yes, I'm a PC gamer, damn you. Your graphics card has to be good enough to run the game, that's a definite; but if your PC tends to be slow then make sure you have your settings on as low as possible. The only exception (and this is another major tip) is the 'Mesh Quality' which you should put up to at least normal if not higher. This will get rid of the "shiny hair" problem that occurs. When on low, it makes your character's hair literally glow even when there is no sunshine to be seen. My other tips are to activate on-screen subtitles for easier understanding and change the controls until they suit you.

Gameplay has more varied tips, simply because there is so much gameplay in and of itself, so I'll just throw them at you in bullet points.

• Gather every herb/crafting material you see (like elfroot and iron, etc...)
• Talk to your companions/advisors as much as possible while at your base (hell, talk to everyone you can anywhere you are!)
• Read every bit of information that comes your way because while there's a lot of it, it is all very interesting and obviously relevant to the world you're in
• Explore all of Haven as soon as you can (it's not huge, don't worry)
• Don't stick around in the Hinterlands too long - do SOME side quests but not all otherwise you will lose the will to live; they will still be there for you later on, no worries
• Don't buy any armour or weapons, just upgrade the stuff you find and like
• Don't collect junk items (you can recognise them by their blue picture backgrounds)
• Collect all research items (these have yellow/gold picture backgrounds) and hand them in to your researcher for XP - this is also a good way of clearing your inventory
• Complete all "inner circle" (companion/advisor) quests before the last main story questline because they are inaccessible after finishing the main plot
• Choose auto level-up for your companions - they know what they're good at, so let them pick
• Put health poultices in all of your companions kit slots (and ignore lyrium potions because they're useless, even for mages)
• Don't engage enemies (whether they're demons, people or animals) that are a higher level than yourself because you're only likely to be killed repeatedly
• Some side quests or inner circle quests happen chronologically before certain main story quests, so if you aren't too worried about spoilers then look online for a suggested 'order'
• War Table missions run in real time so leave longer missions to run overnight while you're sleeping - even when the game is turned off, they will continue to run

So, a lot of tips that I hope you find useful. If I think of any more, I will add them on with a date beside it to show that it's a new tip. Let me know if you enjoy the game (though I know you will of course) and also if you have any suggestions for further tips!