14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer BioWare wants to explain the structure of its upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition by saying that it is not aiming for a true open world structure but for a multi-region universe that the player can explore at his own pace.
Mike Laidlaw, the leader of the team, states in a bigger interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun that, "It’s a multi-region game, which means that you’ll travelling with a world map. You’re travelling across this chunk of the continent in which the game is set."
"And each of the regions is purposeful. It has a reason you would be brought here. It ties back to the story, or at least to the overall themes of the game," he continues.
The developer says that he is now using open world in order to avoid any comparison with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the game from Bethesda that many players see as the best example of the genre.
He adds, "I would say that it has elements of open world for sure, but it’s something closer to the feel we had in the Baldur’s Gate games or in Origins, even, where it’s larger areas, big spaces, and the chance for you to move around and see a wide variety of different terrains and locales and so on."
The new Dragon Age will allow the player to explore most of Orlais as he tries to close down a tear in the Fade that allows demons to pour into the game's world.
At the same time, gamers will have to deal with the big split between the Mages, the Templars and the Chantry, with other factions also playing important roles in the narrative.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is at the moment expected to launch on the PC, current and next-gen consoles at some point in the fall of 2014.