14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at BioWare says that it is exploring the option of locking out as much as one quarter of the game world included in Dragon Age: Inquisition to gamers based on their choices, in an effort to increase the replay value of the experience.
Lead designer Mike Laidlaw tells Rock, Paper, Shotgun in an extensive interview that, “I think that’s something we need to be closer to final to lock down. But our goal is that it’s a significant amount, a fifth or a quarter or so, that’s showing some degree of exclusivity. And then you can layer on top of that a certain amount of stuff that you probably just won’t find.”
It’s unclear whether the closed down areas will be based simply on how the player approaches certain situations or whether this will be also linked to the choices he makes for his character, from race to alignment, and to his companions.
The developer adds, “I think that our goal, more than worrying about percentages, is that when I present a choice, or when my team presents a choice, to a player, our goal with Inquisition is that we honor that choice.”
BioWare is saying that depth of choice will be important in Dragon Age: Inquisition and that the team wants gamers to actually think before committing to a decision rather than simply using a simple min – max approach.
The team has already described the game as more multi-region than open world.
Gamers will have to travel across Ferelden in order to stop a tear in the Fade, which is spewing monsters across the land, while also dealing with the war between the Templars, the Mages and the Chantry.
Dragon Age: Inquisition will be out in late 2014 on the PC, current-gen consoles, the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4.