14 DAY TRIAL // There are times when I am running around one of the biggest areas of Dragon Age: Inquisition, looking for one of the caves that might lead me to a landmark that I need in order to completely cart the area or hunting down a villain with a penchant for hiding, and I wonder how much The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim the development team at BioWare played during the development process.
In some ways, the new role-playing game is more connected to the classic Bethesda release than to its own predecessors, because it wants players to feel like they are exploring a big and complex world that has a life of its own.
There’s fauna running around, with big animals hunting the smaller ones and often ready to take the player on.
There are plenty of ore veins to discover and plants to pick in order to fuel various projects back in Skyhold and to fulfill requisition requests.
Mysterious devices and areas are sprinkled through all the areas, allowing gamers to collect items and to unlock more content that is not crucial for the main narrative but can fill hours of playtime.
Dragon Age even encourages gamers to use the war table to unlock new areas and to expand the scope of their adventures.
Linear RPGs are no longer engaging
Dragon Age 2 was almost entirely linear, and despite getting a much better reception from fans, the levels in Origins were also lacking in openness.
Since then, the gaming world fell in love with and spent hundreds of hours exploring the world of Skyrim, looking for caves, trying to find all the hidden areas and generally having a good time.
BioWare understood that linear RPGs were in decline and infused as much openness in Inquisition as possible, while still offering a structure and combat system built around a party of four.
An entirely open world structure would probably not work for a Dragon Age game because it requires complex relationships and a central hub to focus on.
It will be interesting to see how BioWare approaches downloadable content or expansions for its current title and whether they have plans to use a similar set of concepts for the next Mass Effect.
Bethesda has not announced a new Elder Scrolls yet, and that gives the EA studio the opportunity to try and introduce some innovation of its own before an even bigger open world captures the imagination of players.
