I normally don’t do collector’s editions of video games. They tend to be overpriced useless junk that just takes up space in your home. I’ve made the occasional exception like with Batman: Arkham Asylum, Mortal Kombat, and the two most recent Fallout games, but these days I stick to digital or no-frills titles. So what made me decide to pick up the $200 (after tax and overnight shipping) Inquisitor’s Edition of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Well, a lot of reasons. The first is that I rarely buy video games these days, especially at full price. I’m spending far more time with tabletop games (especially miniature painting/building) so I had a lot of trade-in credit at the old Babbages/Software Etc/EBX or whatever it is called these days. Enough credit in fact, to pick up this with little to no cash spent on it. So why not? My wife thought the tarot deck looked great and I was interested in the lockpick set since I haven’t monkeyed with one of those in a long time. Since there weren’t any other physical copies of games I was really looking at purchasing this year (Maybe Persona Q, but $50-$70 for a 3DS cart? Ha ha ha…no.) so I decided to why not blow it all on a giant exclusive like this? At worst, I’d get a decent unboxing feature out of the site for it and I know my wife would use the tarot deck. At best, I’d have an actually cool exclusive set I’d want to keep around.
What now follows are forty-three pictures detailing everything that comes in the Dragon Age: Inquisition Inquisitor’s Set. You’ll see the good and the bad here. Remember that each picture can be clicked upon for a large, more detailed version of the image. So with that in mind, let’s enjoy this Bioware based photo galley, shall we?
This is the box as it arrived at my Doorstep. Gamestop just put a UPS overnight label on the Bioware crate that must have arrived to them without opening it or even remotely seeing what was in there. Pretty irresponsible if you ask me, but they did probably have an insanely short turnaround time to meet. Notice the box says it weighs 9.3 pounds. That’s a lot of ancillary video game odds and ends.
Here’s the box open. Notice there is little to no space between the Inquisitor’s Edition and the box it is in. It’s as if they folded up the box around the collector’s Edition. Again, a bit shocking Bioware and EBGames let an expensive limited edition of a game go out like this. Doubly that there was no protective material like peanuts or those little air pouches either. Bad corporations, bad!
A top down view of the set in its box.
Three-quarters view of the boxed set.
Top-down view of the boxed set with the Sony PS3 version of the game removed from its sheath.
A bad photo showing the backside of the plastic casing that goes around the boxed set. It shows some of the items in the Inquisitor’s Edition.
Finally, we have the Inquisitor’s Edition out of the plastic sheath that holds it and the video game. The box is not metal but rather a thin feeling plastic made up in faux alligator (Black Dragon?). Each scale is detailed and textured. The box looks great but you can tell it wouldn’t hold up from even a small fall. A bit disappointing. For the price, I would have e3xpected far superior materials. Look at the metal steamer trunks Chaosium got for the deluxe version of Horror on the Orient Express. EA and/or Bioware could have easily sourced a high quality container like for even less money but corners were cut. It’s still a great look collector’s edition but it could have been so much more box-wise.
This is the front side of the box. I love the little latch here. It’s fully working and helps make the whole package feel a bit like a treasure chest.
The latch is up! Ready to see what is inside?
This is an EXACT picture of the moment I opened the box. Remember what I said earlier about how they needed to put actual packing materials in this and that it was obvious Gamestop didn’t even check these Inquisitor Editions before they went out. Well, here’s the nail in the coffin. Nothing was in its spot after it’s long trip to Arlington, VA – and why would it be? There is no way to secure any of these pieces in the case or any temporary padding for shipping. Holy crap, Bioware, Triforce, Electronic Arts and Gamestop should be ashamed of themselves for shipping a $200 edition of a game like this. Honestly though, they don’t care. These are companies that think little to nothing of you as a human being and just want your money. I’ve already sent off email complaints to all three. Let’s see if they actually respond.
Another picture taken after I sifted through to see if any damage was done. Thankfully only one item was actually damaged and it was something I could easily fix thanks to having a plethora of metal glue in the house (Oldhammer saves the day again!). Again, look how badly this thing was packaged. Shame on everyone involved. Well, no sense bitching and moaning about it. let’s continue with the unboxing.
This is how the box top SHOULD look upon opening. This looks much better than what we had for our first impression, doesn’t it?
Here is what the first layer of the bottom of the box looks like. Yes, I did say first layer. we’ll show you the second layer down the road. Each layer is made of very thin flimsy red plastic with a faux vinyl layer on top. Again, very cheap materials used to make this and for the price of this, the companies involved with this could have easily sourced a higher quality materials to make this CE out of.
Here we go with the Knick-Knacks. This is a Shield of Thedas or something like that. There’s no description of the pieces in the box. The shield is made of plastic, not metal. it looks really cool, but like much of the Inquisitor’s Edition, it’s really flimsy.
A really nice looking resin/finecast castle. It’s not metal, but it is really solid plastic. Nicely detailed and unlike some pieces in this set, it will hold up well.
A Cestus?
A look at the three other faux pewter (it’s very thick resin) figurines with this set. You have a lion, an eagle/hawk and a set of keys. The set of keys were the one damaged piece in the collection. The little connectors holding the keys into the base were snapped off due to the terrible shipping and lack of protection. A little Games Workshop super glue though and it’s holding up nicely now. Disgusting I had to do that though.
A close-up of the resin keys.
A close-up of the eagle figure. The actual detail on this thing is incredible and it’s my favorite of all the figurines.
A close-up of the lion figurine.
So funny story. I had to look at the plastic casing sheath for the Inquisitor’s Edition to figure out that the Cestus was supposed to be in the lion’s mouth. It must have been knocked out during the shipping process due to the lack of protection (and forethought). I was able to get it back in the mouth with little to no trouble and this is the end result.
A leather pouch containing the lock picks! Hurrah! The part I was most looking forward too.
The pouch unfurled. See the lock picks sticking out?
Here are the lock picks out of the leather pouch. They are terrible. There is no other way to describe them. They aren’t real lock picks, but then that’s probably for liability reasons. Still, you can purchase a beginner’s set of lock picks for like thirty bucks. These are plastic and really crappily made to boot. We’re talking like those plastic toothpicks that you buy in terms of material and thickness. Again, considering the companies involved in this, this really should have contained a set of real picks for the cost…or at least actual metal replicas. This was pathetic. You couldn’t even scratch an itch with these without the picks snapping, much less an actual lock. Man, so many corners were cut material and quality-wise with this set, it’s not even funny. Had I actually spent money on the Inquisitor’s Edition, I’d have been PISSED and asked for my money back.
A ratty feather? I guess it is supposed to be a quill.
A satin pouch containing the tarot cards. This is the highlight of the Inquisitor’s Edition by far.
The tarot cards removed from their pouch.
A sampling of the cards. They’re very well made and the artwork is terrific. Again, this is by far the highlight of the set.
The Tower card.
A quick interlude as my cat decides she REALLY wants the feather that comes in this Inquisitor’s Edition.
The steelbook case for Dragon Age: Inquisition
The inside of the steelbook case. Notice there are two disc slots, but that Dragon Age: Inquisition only has one disc. What is the other slot for? No idea. It would have been nice to have a soundtrack to go in that slot, but nope. This steelbook case also came with a code I had to use on ORGIN but it never told me what exactly I unlocked. The piece of paper says “Bonus Multiplayer Items” but there are no details. Oh well.
Here we go with the SECOND layer of the boxed Inquisitor’s Edition. This one can’t be removed from the boxed. It’s glued in and it feels like if I tugged, I could get it out but I’d also risk ripping the flimsy plastic the layer is made out of. Man, I’ve used flimsy a lot in this piece, haven’t I?
Here are the four coins in the set. They’re bigger than a silver dollar and they feel like resin.
A glass apothecary jar. This is really well made and an unexpected treat in the set.
A rolled up cloth up map. I guess they could have folded it but it wouldn’t have fit in the second layer slot that exists for it.
The map in all its glory. It’s huge. The picture does not do the full map justice.
To show just how big the map is, I’ve placed the PS3 case in the lower left hand corner of the map. Look at the size of this map! It’s big, beautifully drawn, very soft and probably the second best piece in the Inquisitor’s Edition, after the tarot cards.
A close up of a section of the map.
The final piece in the Dragon Age: Inquisition Inquisitor’s Edition is a journal.The cover is real leather and looks quite nice.
Of course it’s actually just a leather holder for a journal. That’s not a bad thing. it means you just treat it like a slipcase and once all the paper inside is used up, you can take off the case and move it onto a new journal. Here’s a look at the journal the casing is currently around.
A look at the pages of the journal itself. They’re very thin and the paper is of a very low quality, but if you don’t like it, just move the casing to a journal you do like. The leather cover is well made and very striking, so I’m not too upset about the actual journal pages themselves being lackluster.
Our final picture in this unboxing is a look at EVERYTHING in the set. It’s crazy how many little doodads are in here, eh? I do wish that a lot of the pieces were made from a higher quality than they actually were, but what can you do? It appears Triforce, EA, Bioware and Gamestop all teamed up to give you quantity rather than quality, which really shouldn’t be a surprise since this is the video game side of the gaming industry. I’m really happy with the journal cover, map, tarot cards and steelbook casing though. I definitely would have felt ripped off had I paid $200 for the Inquisitor’s Edition of Dragon Age: Inquisition, but considering I got it by trading in old games I would never play again, I can live with what’s here. Again, the lock picks should have at least been made of metal many of the pieces should have been made out of higher quality materials and EVERYTHING SHOULD HAVE BEEN PACKED/SHIPPED BETTER, but there’s no doubt the Inquisitor’s Edition looks impressive, even if it actually isn’t when you get your hands on it. I think some hardcore zealous Dragon Age fans will love this and for them, this will be money well spent. For everyone else, this is a bit of a disappointment. Thank goodness the game won’t be.
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