Still quite not Morenn from the Witcher, but getting there.

While the story takes place just in the kingdom of Ferelden, you will find a ton of information in the game that will get added to your Codex, describing far off lands, the creation of the world, various myths and legends, religion, politics and everything else you might want to know about a the game world for anyone that fancies reading them. It’s quite obvious that they really want to settle down with a great universe to use in future games, providing lots of fleshy details to establish certain landmarks. The map even teases new areas like “The Free Marches” or “Korcari Wilds”, but unfortunately you don’t end up vising those lands.

I personally think this is the game’s biggest flaw which dragged down the experience quite a bit alongside another nagging fact. The first map you see when you finish your origins story is same map that you will see when you finish the game. Zones are marked on your map, leading to other zones further on after a short loading screen. The different areas are pretty fractured and individualized, and if they are not, they’re part of a long-winded dungeon. The fact that they pretty much stay in the same artistic style, aside from the Dwarven city makes variety a problem as well. My issue with this is that it greatly affected the feeling of having traveled the world, the feeling that your character passed through fire and brimstone, that he fought numerous battles, had great adventures and is worthy of being where he is.

Welcome to Orzamma--- Shale, diden't i tell you not to butt in the picture?

I mean, imagine what your character in Dragon Age would say if he were in a tavern and the game allowed you take your journeys to the different lands. “I have traveled the Seven Seas, saw the temples of northern Antiva, persuaded the Quanari generals to not invade Ferelden, fought the Swamp Demon in the Korcari Wilds, saw the magnificent halls of the Warden’s Fortress in Weisshaupt, ended the curse of the Anvil of the Void deep in the Deep Roads and even gazed upon the wonders of the Southern barbarian isles.. yes my friend, i’ve had my share of adventures.” Instead our character might say something like “I donno, i pretty much stuck close to home, i mean, i did settle the political dispute in Orzammar, freed the Mage’s Tower, helped the Dalish Elves with a problem and settled a human power struggle for the throne.. but no, i didn’t really get to leave Ferelden.. but i heard Antiva’s nice this time of the year!”

This effect gets more compounded due to non-linearity oddly enough, due the fact that after the intro you are set to unite the races against the Blight. Might sound like the start of an epic journey right? Well, not so much, since you have all four zones opened up for all four races, and you can start on whatever path you want. Eventually it gets to feel more like checking off groceries off a shopping list than a long adventure. This is one game where i would prefer to have had the storytelling be linear, and have it take me through them on a nice path.

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