A light was shone upon the story of Dragon Age: Inquisition at Gamescom this week, and the spotlight was very much on the enemy of Thedas. In a new trailer, there are some freaky enemies on show, but it was very much the allies of the Inquisitor that caught my attention.

It has already been revealed that Dragon Age: Inquisition will see the biggest party on offer of any BioWare game, but the Gamescom trailer showcased a few familiar faces outside of that party which peaked my interest. Firstly, a ‘Warden’ is seen aiding the Inquisitor – which raises all kinds of questions about save games from Dragon Age: Origins, and whether the Hero of Ferelden will make an appearance. Secondly, a female Hawke is definitely helping the Inquisitor out. Both of these, in a perfect world, would hint at save game uploads that impact the game, but Mark Darrah has understandably explained the difficulties of fitting all these many different implications into one game. It would be a nice addition, but we should not expect to see our Warden in Inquisition – although our iteration of Hawke may appear, and it does seem likely that some Wardens will be on our side.

As I touched upon earlier, the trailer showcases some very interesting enemies, but none of them compare to the unseen Elder One referred to in the video. Regardless of who or what this mysterious character is, there is no doubting the importance of him/her/it. On a side note, there is an exciting snippet of dragon v dragon action in the trailer that is particularly intriguing.

On top of this trailer, an 8 minute gameplay demonstration was led by BioWare Edmonton’s Aaryn Flynn at Gamescom. The demo sees the Inquisitor, a human female warrior, head straight into action in a quest called Lost Souls at The Fallow Mire. Around a minute and a half into the demo I was stunned by the free-flowing combat, specifically the seamless switching between party members without a pause in the action. It quickly transitions from the Inquisitor hacking at undead with a two-handed weapon to Solas, the party’s mage, casting a static cage spell to allow the player to continue onwards.

In stark contrast, the tactical camera completely pauses the action to allow the player to approach battles strategically. The two methods of action combine to make for a very compelling combat system in the demo. The utilisation of the combat methods will define many player’s style of play, and make it somewhat unique from player to player. I was never a fan of slowing the combat down in the previous Dragon Age titles, but seeing Inquisition’s new tactical camera is making me think again.

The gameplay demo draws to a conclusion with the player recruiting saved soldiers to their cause against the Elder One, leaving them free to explore the region. With Aaryn Flynn going on to explain that there are over 100 more missions like this, it is easy to believe him when he claims it is the biggest story BioWare has ever told, and that a completionist’s playthrough takes 150 hours.

With 9 class specializations, 21 combat trees and over 200 spells and abilities; it really is easy to see how much work has gone into Dragon Age: Inquisition – and how apparent it is that the player can tailor the game to suit them – from the many character creation options, to the previously mentioned 100s of missions.

After a push back from the initial release date of October 10, Dragon Age: Inquisition will be released on November 21 in Europe on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.