Dragon Age: Origins – Fade and Maze

There are four discreet areas the player needs to get through in Dragon Age: Origins in order to get the support of allies in their fight against the Darkspawn and their Archdemon. One of them is the aptly named Mage Circle, a structure filled to the rim with magic practitioners supervised by the Chantry sponsored Templars, a group of fighters that are dedicating their lives to make sure that magic is not used against humanity.

The Circle quickly devolves into navigating the ethereal land known as The Fade, where demons and other spirits are existing, able to watch the real world but normally unable to actually influence it.

The powers of the creatures of The Fade are great but they have no creativity of their own so they copy reality in twisted ways and tend to entrap mortals in these manifestations. The demon that the player and their party go up against is a Sloth, who is interested in creating realities close to the ones characters experienced while feeling at ease and uninterested in leaving while preying on their psyche.

The Fade could have easily become a sloppy puzzle, with various paths closed off too quickly and with the various abilities you need to get to succeed dolled out too late. But BioWare manages to get the pacing right, allowing you to explore the entire setting rather easily as long as you don't rush into areas and you stick to the safe paths.

I went through the area in about three hours and, at the beginning, I felt like I was doing something tedious in order to return to the main quest only to end up wondering why the developers at BioWare did not choose to introduce more content to The Fade. It's really disappointing that the three areas where your companions are being sequestered by the Sloth are rather barren. It feels like a wasted opportunity to offer some backstory on the people you choose to run around with.