85 réponses à ce sujet

[TrueHD]

Is the Hinterlands just this ridiculously large, special area where they threw a bunch of quests into for you to tackle when you're bored, or is the rest of the game similar in scope? I was having a good time with the game until I entered the Hinterlands and thought the game became a MMORPG and no longer had any idea what I was playing.

[devSin]

The Hinterlands has the largest number of "quests" (if you choose to call them that) in the game, but it's not the largest area (that award goes to the virtually empty Hissing Wastes). Most of the areas in the game are like this (there's only a few you can access at the beginning; most of the game is locked off until a later point), but there are story missions that actually advance the plot (those take place in smaller self-contained areas).

You don't have to do all the exploration stuff if you don't want to (and they don't really have much to do with the actual story of the game as presented). One of the bigger criticisms of the game is that it plays a lot like a single-player MMO, so if you're really turned off by it, you may just want to walk away.

[dragondreamer]

Hinterlands is a particularly large area, but most of the game consists of similar maps.  I suggest only do what you feel like doing and move on.  Especially at the beginning of the game, I would focus on following the main quest and not worry about trying to do everything.  You can come back later.  "Leave the Hinterlands!" is an old fandom cry for a reason.

[JeffZero]

What devSin said. But definitely try working through the game despite being put off by this design; much of the main plot is very solid.

[devSin]

What devSin said. But definitely try working through the game despite being put off by this design; much of the main plot is very solid.

I don't know if you got there yet, but the Frostback Basin (Jaws of Hakkon) is easily the best area in the game. I think you'll enjoy it.

One could only imagine if all the exploration zones had been like that.

I'd agree with continuing to push through the story at least until Skyhold, but if somebody still isn't feeling it by that point, I think it's fine to give up (and the story tends to sag on the back half anyway).

[prosthetic soul]

The Hinterlands is a terrible mire that will swallow you whole, and will bereave you of hours upon hours of energy and time better spent elsewhere in the game.  Be careful my friend, because before you know it, it will leave you a desiccated husk that wails at the TV screen, yearning for something interesting to happen. 

[JeffZero]

I don't know if you got there yet, but the Frostback Basin (Jaws of Hakkon) is easily the best area in the game. I think you'll enjoy it.

 

Nope, not yet -- my new file is around midway into the proverbial Act 2 right now and I'm going to do Jaws of Hakkon in-between the vanilla ending and Trespasser. But I'm pretty excited. Folks have told me it's Crestwood 2.0 -- bigger, better, and just as focused in its efforts. That's really all I need to hear... plus, the Avvar are apparently handled superbly, and I'm big on archaeology. So yeah, hype.

 

 

and the story tends to sag on the back half anyway).

 

It's definitely not what it could have been, but I think the main quests are generally strong. It needed a stronger finisher to be sure.

[Eelectrica]

+1 for escaping the Hinterlands if you're feeling bored.

Fallow Mire and Storm Coast will provide a change of scenery and aren't overly Large. Fallow Mire is quite a good area I feel. Very atmospheric.

Quest design in general wasn't one of DAI's strengths though.

[Jaron Oberyn]

 

This about sums it up.

[DragonRacer]

It's a trap.

 

No, seriously, it is. It consumed something like the first 25 hours of my game in my virgin playthrough. The devs were on Twitter telling people to, for the love of the Maker, LEAVE THE HINTERLANDS because everyone streaming their first playthroughs were people trying to do all the things in The Hinterlands. And All The Things is A LOT.

 

Honestly, I hope the devs learned something from this. Maybe let's not jam-pack your first open-world zone with a bajillion shinies and quests and leave us poor completionists feeling like we need to spend a week doing everything there before moving on.

[Eelectrica]

It's a trap.

 

No, seriously, it is. It consumed something like the first 25 hours of my game in my virgin playthrough. The devs were on Twitter telling people to, for the love of the Maker, LEAVE THE HINTERLANDS because everyone streaming their first playthroughs were people trying to do all the things in The Hinterlands. And All The Things is A LOT.

 

Honestly, I hope the devs learned something from this. Maybe let's not jam-pack your first open-world zone with a bajillion shinies and quests and leave us poor completionists feeling like we need to spend a week doing everything there before moving on.

The Hinterlands was the devs revenge for people complaining about DA2's small and oft repeated zones. LOL

I'm not entirely certain if I'm kidding

[Swordfishtrombone]

It's a trap.

 

No, seriously, it is. It consumed something like the first 25 hours of my game in my virgin playthrough. The devs were on Twitter telling people to, for the love of the Maker, LEAVE THE HINTERLANDS because everyone streaming their first playthroughs were people trying to do all the things in The Hinterlands. And All The Things is A LOT.

 

Honestly, I hope the devs learned something from this. Maybe let's not jam-pack your first open-world zone with a bajillion shinies and quests and leave us poor completionists feeling like we need to spend a week doing everything there before moving on.

 

Yeah, I remember trying initially to do everything in the Hinterlands before moving on in the main plot, till I read a post pleading people to leave the hinterlands and move on; that you can always return later if you want/need to. 

 

I just started another playthrough playing a Qunari for the first time, and noticed an addition that probably came with tresspasser; now when you are at the Hinterlands, and have gathered enough power to advance, Solas points out that you should probably get on with it... a not so subtle hint to GET OUT OF THE HINTERLANDS! 

[Fredward]

Is the Hinterlands just this ridiculously large, special area where they threw a bunch of quests into for you to tackle when you're bored, or is the rest of the game similar in scope? I was having a good time with the game until I entered the Hinterlands and thought the game became a MMORPG and no longer had any idea what I was playing.

 

It's similar in scope, the game has several very large areas that you walk through and Do Stuff. This is interspersed with main quests and occasionally companion quests but there aren't DA2 or DAO style side-quests. Or very, very few ones anyway.

[Hurbster]

It's a monument to bad design and terrible pacing.

[ArianaGBSA]

There is no point in "leaving Hinterlands", everything is Hinterlands except for Trespasser and Descent.

Some things are even worse than Hinterlands

But it seems that people enjoy changing maps, so give it a try

[correctamundo]

Is the Hinterlands just this ridiculously large, special area where they threw a bunch of quests into for you to tackle when you're bored, or is the rest of the game similar in scope? I was having a good time with the game until I entered the Hinterlands and thought the game became a MMORPG and no longer had any idea what I was playing.

 

Don't do more Hinterlands (or any other zone) than fits the story you want to tell. This is a game that gives you choices. If you don't like the exploring the Hinterlands, do enough quests to get the power to move the story along.

[nightscrawl]

Eh, I think the pacing is just fine. You are given specific quests that take you away from the Hinterlands, encourage you to leave, and it's entirely possible to go to Skyhold while having only completed a handful of quests for the necessary power points. I don't really think it's the devs' fault that people feel the need to go all the places and do all the things. If the player just sticks with the main focus in each area it moves along well, I think.

 

That said, I say this because I've played though the beginning part of the game about a dozen times, but I can see how a new player might be consumed. The first couple of times I played the game I had it in my head that I wasn't going to take In Your Heart Shall Burn until I had finished most of Hinterlands, Storm Coast, and Fallow Mire. But I've since revised that strategy and streamlined it so that I finish Haven with the most minimal effort possible and have the most time available for exploration with my favorite party combo: Dorian, Cole, and Varric/Cass, which is not possible otherwise.

[leaguer of one]

Dragon age's land version of the Scylla.

[CrimsonN7]

It's a trap.

 

No, seriously, it is. It consumed something like the first 25 hours of my game in my virgin playthrough. The devs were on Twitter telling people to, for the love of the Maker, LEAVE THE HINTERLANDS because everyone streaming their first playthroughs were people trying to do all the things in The Hinterlands. And All The Things is A LOT.

 

Honestly, I hope the devs learned something from this. Maybe let's not jam-pack your first open-world zone with a bajillion shinies and quests and leave us poor completionists feeling like we need to spend a week doing everything there before moving on.

 

Leaving the Hinterlands on first playthrough...

 

[Heimdall]

The Hinterlands was a problem because a lot of players want to completely clear an area of quests before moving on, and the Hinterlands might have more quests than any other single area in the game.  I got bogged down there for hours doing tangential quests for that reason.  Most of the other areas don't have this problem, at least not as acutely.

 

But the area wasn't designed to be played in one go.  There are several rifts and quests designed to be tackled at a higher level.  Many areas in the later game are entirely optional.  My first playthrough I skipped most of them.

 

So my suggestion is play only what you want to, focus on the much more engaging story quests if that's what you prefer.  I did one completionist run and I don't think I'll go to some of those areas again.  I'm certainly never collecting shards again.

[JeffZero]

Varric tried to warn us about the shards, man.

He tried.

"Marauder Shards" tried to warn us.

[Nefla]

I wonder if PC players can use some kind of cheat to get power instantly without farming it?

[Sylvius the Mad]

Players foolishly seem to believe that they need to complete all the quests they can find, and that they should keep looking for them until they stop appearing.

 

But DAI's power mechanic requires that there always be more power available, just in case the player has inadvertently trapped himself.  So, we see the infinitely respawning requisition quests, which are awful.

 

I never realised quite what people meant when they talked about all the fetch quests in DAI, because I wasn't doing requisition quests.  I've always only done the quests that made sense for my character.  I love that there are a bunch of different ways to play this game, and that most of the content is optional.  I also love that areas don't generally get closed to you just because you left.  But players appear to have been trained to behave differently.

 

Despite BioWare's best efforts, players can't be protected from themselves.  Developers should stop trying to do that.

[Sylvius the Mad]

It's a trap.

 

No, seriously, it is. It consumed something like the first 25 hours of my game in my virgin playthrough.

Mine, too.  But I liked it.

 

I want big spaces where I can do what I want.  I don't think the devs should worry about protecting us from ourselves.

[mfr001]

It's a trap.

No, seriously, it is. It consumed something like the first 25 hours of my game in my virgin playthrough. The devs were on Twitter telling people to, for the love of the Maker, LEAVE THE HINTERLANDS because everyone streaming their first playthroughs were people trying to do all the things in The Hinterlands. And All The Things is A LOT.

Honestly, I hope the devs learned something from this. Maybe let's not jam-pack your first open-world zone with a bajillion shinies and quests and leave us poor completionists feeling like we need to spend a week doing everything there before moving on.

Only 25 hours? I think I must have been at least half way to that just looking for Ferelden Locks.

And no, I never did get enough.