Dragon Age: Inquisition is an impressive third installment

Dragon Age: Inquisition is a truly beautiful game and it is extremely easy to get completely immersed and lost in its story and gameplay.

Even with about 40 hours into the game — only half way through — it is one of the most expansive role playing games I've played.

Although you cannot import your character from the previous two games — Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2 — you can go to www.dragonagekeep.com and craft the background of the story. You can select the endings of previous adventures or customize the story to your liking.

Bioware is known for its great stories and huge open world games. Although Dragon Age 2 felt a little rushed and unpolished, Dragon Age: Inquisition is a like a seven-course meal — just as you think you are finished, out comes another platter of goodies.

You play the Inquisitor, who must close demon-spewing rifts that have appeared across the game world, Thedas. The campaign is huge and takes from 50 to 100 hours to complete, depending on how many side missions you do. Although some of the side quests are necessary to unlock the main quest, you can skip most of them. I would recommend not skipping too many because you will miss a lot of great content.

You can add 10 other characters to your party by completing missions. These characters are a great addition and make the game much easier to conquer. Some missions require other character classes to do things such as needing wizards to light magic torches or fighters to bash in doors. You can switch to any of these characters directly and control them as your own. This lets you try your hand at classes other than your original character.

When you first enter a new region, the story feels a little linear, but as you venture forth the world opens up into a massive open map place where you can wander throughout, flitting from one side mission to another until you feel comfortable enough to rein yourself in to finish the original mission.

Combat is great. You can run in and slash-n-bash or use the tactical mode. In tactical mode you get a top-down view, order your party throughout the battlefield and pause to consider all your options. This mode is especially useful against large opponents such as a dragon or a major villain.

Combat is finely tuned. It is a excellent balance between being too hard and too easy. There are a good variety of enemies, but dragons are some of the most thrilling battles in the game. Almost every open map area has one stationed somewhere in it. Each dragon has its own unique set of magical abilities and tactics. This is where using the tactical mode is a must.

After you finish the campaign — or not — and you are wanting more Dragon Age, there is a good online co-op mode. You create a new character and can team up with three other players to battle your way through five zones in three different maps. Online gameplay has its own set of skill trees and experience that are separate from the single-player campaign.

With Dragon Age: Inquisition, Bioware really listened to its fans and improved the Dragon Age franchise with the latest installment. The game is worth every penny, especially since it can go on for 50 to 100 hours.

Contact Mark Rummel at (810) 989-6275 or mrummel@thetimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrummel.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

★★★★

• Developer: Bioware

• Publisher: Electronic Arts

• Platform: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One

• Genre: Action role-playing