Admit it: The Hinterlands are the best part of Dragon Age: Inquisition
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.
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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.
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