The new Dragon Age is a great game, as we've already told you. We've already given you some useful tips, too. But there's one more thing worth noting: if you just started the game, don't forget to leave the Hinterlands!


I know, I know. You're a completionist—you just picked up Dragon Age: Inquisition and you want to spend hours exploring the game's first area and doing every sidequest you can find. It's hard to look at the in-game map—full of all those pretty icons and exclamation points—and not want to complete everything. But you should know that Dragon Age: Inquisition gets way, way more interesting if you just spend an hour or two doing activities in the Hinterlands and then get on with the main story.

Yesterday I stumbled upon this hilarious Reddit thread by user jmarFTL that pretty much nails it:

OK, so I'm reading a lot of feedback about the game on different sites and I'm noticing a big trend. A lot of of the people complaining about the game are saying things like "boring sidequests," "really slow," "can't get into the story/characters." And that is almost always accompanied by "I'm trying to do everything in the Hinterlands before moving on." Normally I wouldn't tell anybody else how to play the game. And I definitely recognize the OCD-ness, must complete everything, don't want to miss anything impulses. But seriously. LEAVE. THE FUCKING. HINTERLANDS. The Hinterlands is meant as a starting area. Honestly, it has the most boring quests in the game and is probably the most boring area. You're a fucking Inquisitor, you shouldn't be too overly concerned with a farmer's missing druffalo. Do some stuff, gain some power, then go to the war table and use that power to unlock the next stuff. "But wait! I'm going to miss stuff if I advance the story." No, you won't. All of the areas remain unlocked and you can go back and do everything. Even after you finish the main story. Actually, you are going to miss stuff if you STAY in the Hinterlands. In the sense that you are going to level up killing low-level bandits and then be overleveled for the story content and areas that are actually cool.


He's totally right! Trust me on this one: I've played some 55 hours of Inquisition and I can promise you that the Hinterlands is just a small, relatively boring fraction of what the newest (and best) Dragon Age has to offer. And you can come back any time you want.

Hell, even BioWare's staff agree:

So do it. Leave the Hinterlands. You'll thank me later.

You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.