It runs like butter for me at 1920x1080 on full everything with a very advanced Shaders overlay on top. I’ve got a GTX 1060 but it’s only allied to an overclocked I5 3570, it’s far from weapons grade hardware. It looks lovely and is indeed one of the best in that sense but its animations are very much second grade for the current Gen, in my view. There are moments when it’s good, but they are background vignettes. When you’re in camp and the soldiers are sparring, it looks great. But that sense of kinetic relationship is lost when you actually play. You do a bunch of unrelated animations and your enemy does the same and there’s no actual connection between the two. It looks like two disparate mo-cap sessions.
Inquisition’s art is hit and miss but as you say it’s strengths are very strong. The armour is only second to Dark Souls and Witcher 3 for me, and there’s a lot of armour in it. Each of its respective levels varies from good-excellent in respect to offering interesting landscapes which seem somehow saturated with stuff to do while still presenting the trick of having space and variation within them. You can stumble on enormous castles and such without even realising it. It’s easily on a par with, if not better than, Bethesda’s open world offerings. It lacks the more organic or creative exposition for its locations that The Witcher 3 nails so well, but there is nonetheless narrative for everything if you want it and most of it is a very good execution visually of an interesting if oft clumsily delivered lore.
As with the rest of the game, the art suffers from not knowing how to project its unique voice in favour of trying a bit of everything rather than going with the courage of its convictions. There’s a lot of wood to be missed for a lot of trees.
It honestly reminds me a lot of New Vegas. NV offers far more from a role playing perspective in terms of how you approach a given scenario, but big picture NV tries at a much bigger scenario and DA:I by and large realises many of its core and most exciting ambitions. It is a living, fractured world split into unique cultural and natural areas where you can imprint your influence but always with significant consequence. The main story only makes sense in as much as you care to explore it and speak to its players. You can delve in as much or as little as you wish. Companions are just as interesting, well rounded and opinionated. There’s main factions to consider but also strong cameos from various lesser players who were bigger in the previous franchises offerings. And so on.
