This is something I’ve mentioned in bits and pieces in other threads (and I have copied a couple of things I'e said before into this post), but I wanted to put it all down in a single post that covers my biggest issues with Dragon Age: Inquisition. The kinda stuff I’d like to see changed is probably beyond anything that would be achievable with DLCs or expansions, but should a fourth Dragon Age game follow a similar path to Inquisition, then maybe Bioware could improve on these issues.
I’ll preface this with the caveat that I do like Inquisition. It’s probably the weakest of the three DA games, but it’s not a country mile behind its predecessors. I’ve had fun playing it and more than got my money’s worth out of it. My criticism is based not on the game being bad, but that it could’ve been great instead of just good.
For me, probably the biggest thing I look for in a game like DA:I is immersion. Now, that’s a pretty vague thing, and it’s easy just to throw “hinders immersion” as a general “I don’t like it” phrase, but specifically, I want to feel that I’m in the game. I want to believe that the events of the game could be happening. There’s a lot of different things that contribute to immersion, from visuals, to stories, from characters to choices, from internal consistency to simply applying common sense, and it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what is and isn’t contributing. And indeed, there are things I like about the game which have nothing to do with the immersion, and things I dislike which don’t harm it. But overall, in an RPG in particular, when something happens that makes me feel like the world isn’t believable, then it will majorly harm my ability to enjoy the game.
The core of my problems with the game lie in the open world Bioware has created. And at first I was hugely impressed by it. The areas are beautiful, exploring them is a great experience, there’s a lot of content out there, even it can get a little uninspired and repetitive at times (there’s only so many fetch quests you can do). But as I played more, I came to realise something about the world. And that’s that it’s not alive. Thedas, as seen in DA:I is static. It’s a snapshot of a world. It doesn’t change. Or rather, that’s not entirely true. It does change. But only when the player wants it to change. Everything is entirely dependent on you, the player, acting. No-one else in the world will act unless you are ready for them to act.
In terms of the open world itself, this can be best seen in areas with major conflicts. From the Mages and Templars in the Hinterlands, to the undead fighting the Orlesians in the Exalted Plains, the battles remain the same no matter how long you wait. The combatants will respawn, but they’ll keep fighting over the same small bit of ground. Neither side will ever gain an advantage and drive their opponents back. Just the same fight repeated ad-infinitum, like a dream from the Fade, until the player does something.
Fade rifts. A major threat to Thedas? Nope. They don’t do anything. Unless you walk right up to them, the demons will happily sit there chilling. Leave the rifts unclosed and….nothing. No demonic invasions. No damage to the surrounding area, no peasants killed or fleeing their homes. Nothing. You're told that they're a threat, but they're never shown to be one at all, because they never get worse.
Take the guy at the Hinterlands Crossroad who needs the potion form his son to save his wife. What happens if the Inquisitor spends the next month collecting elfroot? Well, he’s still standing there, waiting for the potion. If your wife’s still in the same position a month later, why were you in such a hurry?
For me, this really hurts my immersion. I don’t feel that the world is alive. I don’t feel that the world is real.
But even worse than the impact of this lack of life on the open world is, for me, the impact on the main plot. No matter how urgent a part of the main story might be, no matter that story wise the timescale of events is being driven by other characters, it won’t happen until the player wants it to happen. When your active quest is “What Pride Has Wrought”, you can spend as much time as you like wandering around Thedas, and Corypheus will be no close to finding the Well. You’ll always get there just in time. The peace conference at which “Wicked Eyes…” takes place is supposedly happening when Celene and the rest of the Orelsians want it to happen….but it actually happens when you, the player want it to happen. No matter how long you avoid going, the peace conference won’t happen without you.
Roleplaying games, are, as far as I was aware, meant to be about you playing as a character within the world. But in DA:I, you’re not playing just as a character. You’re playing as something more. You’re not just in the world, you’re controlling the world. In fact, you alone are controlling the world. And that’s not what a person does. That’s what a god does.
I want to world to go on without me. If I chose not to act, that shouldn't stop others from acting.
Now, of course, this isn’t something that Bioware have introduced in Inquisition. Back in DA:O nothing changed unless you wanted it to, but it is much more obvious and egregious in Inquisition because there is so much more of a world out there. In DA:I pretty much everything is either part of the main plot, or stuff you encounter while doing the main plot. There's nothing else to do other than to get on with the story. In Inquisition, you're encouraged to go out into the world, spend time doing things, and as such it becomes really obvious that the world is utterly static. Sure you could sit in a bar for months in Origins, but who would? You have to go out of you way and do weird things for this to be noticable. On the other hand, in Inqusition, spending 50 hours of gameplay - which is likely the equivalent of at least several weeks of in game time - going out exploring the world is normal play. And yet in all that time, nothing has changed. The other zones are exactly as you left them. Your quests are still sitting there waiting to be done. Corypheus hasn't gotten any closed to becoming a god.
But just complaining about things isn’t that great. So what and how would I do it differently?
I can understand, and sympathize with, some reasons for this kind of design. First off is simply having limited resources. Making a world that changes is going to take more time, effort and complexity than a completely static one. And then there’s the matter of people wanting to do all the content, and/or have the freedom to do so at their own pace. If everything is tightly time restricted, then it starts pressuring players to act in a way they don’t enjoy. If things can change in game, people might miss out on stuff they want to do. And indeed, I do like to have some freedom in when and how I do things. But overall, I feel DA:I goes too far. Some restrictions on your actions, some changes over time without your input, make the world more plausible.
In terms of the main plot, I think the key is to put the player in different situations. Some where things need resolving immediately, or at a set time. Others where you have the freedom to explore. Loosely speaking, there should be three generic types of situation that you'll be in with regards the main plot in a "story driven open world" type game:
a - You don't know what the big bad is up to. You've got agents off searching for information and are likely doing much the same yourself. This is a perfect chance to explore the world, discover more deatils about the big bad's plans, collect allies, complete subquests and so on. Eventually, after a certain amount of time (likely modified somewhat by the amount of information has been collected), the plot will move on.
b - You know what the big bad is doing, you have leads, there's stuff you can do to oppose him, but there's nothing that demands immediate attention. At this point, you have to make a trade off. If you want, you can strike immediately against the enemy. Or if you want, you can continue to explore and gather strength, but remember that your foe will be doing the same - the longer you wait, the stronger their forces will be. Leave it too long, and bad stuff will happen, but there'll likely be quite a lot of leeway.
c - Something is happening at a specific time (possibly immediately). Either you go there at that time, or the event happens without you and you have to live with the consequences.
In Inquisition, the story implies that most of the time you’re in the last of those positions. But the gameplay implies you’re in the first.
Someone mentioned in reply to me in another thread that ME2 actually does this, and, though I hadn’t realized it until that post, it’s true – if something is happening now in ME2, you don’t have any choice, you have to go and do it now. But there are significant sections of the game where you have the freedom to go and do things as you want. And this is the kind of thing I’m looking for. Ideally you would never be forced to do the main plot events even if there’s no chance to delay them, just that if you chose not to, the Big Bad would succeed in that particular part of the plot. But branching stories are sadly probably too much work these days.
With regards the rest of the world, it doesn’t have to be made to have massive changes over time. Conflicts should ebb and flow somewhat, fighting should move across the map. Imagine if, when you first get to the Exalted Plains things are pretty evenly balanced between the soldiers and the undead. If, say, one of the forts had fallen, but the others still stand. If you get involved straight away, you will be able to push the undead back with relative easy. But leave it for a while, the Orlesians will start losing, the undead will drive them back. Eventually, if you leave it for a very long time, then the undead should win, but that should be pretty close to requiring you deliberately letting it happen. Of course, to make it even better, the Orsleians should have a chance of succeeding on their own. Not a big one, sure, but a small chance that happens every now and then, just so the game feels that little more interesting.
Fade rifts, or similar things, should expand. More and more demons should come out of them. The world around them should change. The inhabitants of the area – both human and otherwise – should leave. This again doesn’t have to be something that happens quickly, more of a gradual change, but something to actually give you an incentive to close them, rather than you being told they’re bad but being able to quickly tell by observation that they’re not really a threat at all.
Quests that imply they should be time limited should be. Not necessarily a strict one, but just enough that if you chose to delay it, there will be consequences to that choice.
And even on top of things like that, stuff that directly affects the game, there should be some more general other changes. People should move around more. Particularly if the game is going on for some considerable time (which, while never actually stated, DA:I appears to be by some of the player driven changes), small changes should appear in the landscapes, such as new buildings being created, trees being felled and so on. Just those little touches to make the world alive.
Phew, I think I’ve rather gone on a bit on this one. But I wanted to get that off my chest. 
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