If you, like me, have been spending a decade waiting for the next entry in your favorite franchise, you’ll be able to understand my excitement for the new Dragon Age game dropping next week. Ten long years after 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition offered arguably the best pre-Elden Ring high-fantasy gaming experience in the business, the long-awaited sequel, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, will finally take fans deeper into the heart of Thedas than ever before. The wait has been long and often frustrating — fans can’t hear the names “Joplin” or “Morrison” without shedding a tear for what could’ve been. However, we soldiered through, mainly by sticking to the good and, if you’re anything like me, replaying Inquisition over and over again.
Hardly anyone can deny Dragon Age: Inquisition is a great game; it even won Game of the Year at the 2014 Game Awards. Yet, every time someone talks about it, the conversation goes to how the game’s earliest section, focused on the Hinterlands, is tiresome. I’ll be the first to admit there are some valid points to these criticisms: the Hinterlands are expansive, to the point of potentially feeling overwhelming. Yet, I cannot bring myself to fault the game for it. In fact, I believe that the Hinterlands are the highlight of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say the game actually peaks early with them.
Hinterland who’s who
Dragon Age: Inquisition is set in a medieval-inspired world called Thedas. It’s ravaged by a civil war between two factions: the mages and the templars. A conclave organized to negotiate a peace treaty goes awry when an explosion kills the attendees and leaves a hole in the sky, referred to as The Breach, allowing for nightmares and demons to come out and attack. A hero with the ability to close The Breach emerges, leading to the reformation of the Inquisition, an organization separate from other kingdoms and empires focused solely on closing The Breach.
The key to a successful RPG rests almost entirely on world-building. The world these characters inhabit must be intriguing if not necessarily inviting, and attractive enough to want to venture into it. Most importantly, it needs to be sweeping — if the world in an RPG feels limited, the game itself will be limited, even if the narrative is stellar. Right off the bat, Dragon Age: Inquisition aces this key aspect. You can call the Hinterlands many things, but chances are one of those words will be “immersive.” As the de-facto introduction to the world of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Hinterlands do an excellent job putting you in the shoes of the Herald of Andraste.
Narratively, they do an excellent job setting the stage for the plot: You actually get to see the people struggling to survive and witness the destruction caused by the mage-templar conflict and The Breach. More importantly, you see the resilience of the people of Thedas, who are not yet defeated despite facing seemingly insurmountable odds to stay alive. The territory does a brilliant job of showing rather than telling, a crucial aspect in a visual medium like gaming. Practically, the Hinterlands offer everything you need to know about how to play Dragon Age: Inquisition. The early fights are easy enough without ever feeling like the game is holding your hand. Yet, the territory is so expansive that it allows for multiple enemies of increasing difficulty lurking in every corner.
A critical detail about RPGs that often goes unnoticed is how many similarities they share with a typical coming-of-age story. No matter if you’re playing as an underdog or an experienced warrior, you, the player, must go through a period of learning and coming to terms with your role. The Hinterlands are the perfect place to explore that role as Thedas’ savior. There’s a healthy mix of run-of-the-mill obstacles and tougher challenges in the world that make you comfortable in your abilities without feeling like a training ground.
They provide enough time to take a breather and get to know your companions. Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you one of the best parts of the game is the banter between the characters. There’s nothing better than running around listening to their ridiculous stories, appreciating their sassy insults, and learning more about their lives. These interactions make the world of Thedas feel complete — at points, you might feel like you’re traversing the Hinterlands’ forests yourself, accompanied by new friends and not on a life-or-death mission.
The Hinterlands are exciting too. One minute, you’re killing rams for their skin, and the next, you’re fighting a rage demon that’s this close to killing you and your party. You can be walking by a waterfall, minding your business, and suddenly, you open a secret door with a key you found somewhere along the way and enter an unknown, out-of-the-map territory full of hostile dwarves. Far more than any other territories on Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s map, The Hinterlands feel uncharted and expansive, a fascinating territory with a history as old as Thedas itself. Unlike truly frustrating places like The Hissing Wastes or skippable locations like The Fallow Mire, the Hinterlands feel truly lived-in, ever-changing, and full of little stories that breathe life into Thedas.
Holding the Hinterlands
I’ll be the first to admit that Dragon Age: Inquisition is far from perfect. The common complaint is that it’s too ambitious and massive for its own good, and ironically, the Hinterlands are the best representation of its shortcomings. I’ve gone for almost a thousand words about how great they are, but the Hinterlands can also feel like a chore. By the time you’re doing the umpteenth quest, it might feel like there’s no ending to them, and if you’re a completionist, they will for sure test your patience.
Yet, that’s what I love about them: the Hinterlands are messy and convoluted, which only makes them more of a perfect representation not only of Thedas but of the Dragon Age saga as a whole. They’re wildly uneven, but isn’t life the same? I always appreciate a game that can draw similarities to our day-to-day existence while remaining firmly grounded in its lore and setting.
The Hinterlands are your average real-life experience: They offer the good and the bad without necessarily going all-in on either side. Quests like Trouble with Wolves make for a useful detour, while others like Templars to the West will have you fighting for your life and yelling at your companions as if they could hear you. Then you have quests like The Ballad of Lord Woolsley, which are quirky and somewhat creepy and add to the lore of Thedas without spelling it out. Sure, eye-rolling chapters like Where the Druffalo Roam are tiresome, but you can always ignore them … though I’m willing to bet you won’t. That’s the thing about the Hinterlands: You spend so much time in them that you actually get to appreciate their little nuisances. They’re annoying, but you understand why they’re there.
Replaying Dragon Age: Inquisition means rediscovering Thedas in new ways. I’ve played the game once a year since 2018, and I swear it keeps providing new and unexpected ways to surprise me. A lot of my enjoyment from it comes from the Hinterlands, a place that provides the perfect balance between action, plot development, and free exploration. While every other territory has its highs and lows, the Hinterlands is the only one that feels 100% enjoyable. The entire game lies ahead of you, and Thedas feels exciting and full of possibilities. Places like The Western Approach are far too bleak to bring any kind of amusement, while equally expansive locations like The Emerald Graves come with the bittersweet realization that you’re entering the endgame and you’ll soon have to say goodbye to Thedas.
But the Hinterlands are always there, immersive and welcoming, offering a haven for every weary traveler. I hear your complaints about them and I can somewhat understand them. But I will never fault the Hinterlands for doing what they’re supposed to do: offer an enveloping view of a high-fantasy world on a scale few video games have achieved before or since. Yes, the Hinterlands are vast and labyrinthine and maybe even a tad repetitive. However, I would much rather have something that tries too hard than something that doesn’t try at all. The Hinterlands are the perfect place to lose yourself and bask in the high fantasy of it all — and isn’t that what playing an RPG is all about?
Dragon Age: Inquisition is available to purchase on Steam.
