The Storm Coast

I don't have anything interest to post, except to say that this zone is fucking amazing looking (and sounding). The pounding rain and gigantic waves crashing against the shore, and while I was walking I came across a dragon and a giant slugging it out, that looked awesome.

This game is freaking gorgeous. I love the little touches, like the god rays and particulate matter floating in the air in Hinterlands.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

I'd argue the two zones you just mentioned are among the less impressive ones in the game. So if you're already impressed at this point, just you hold onto your hat.

You're right, though, it is freaking gorgeous. The view from Skyhold, man..

The giant/dragon fight was pretty cool, till the giant killed the dragon then aggro'ed on my party (who actually took him down pretty easily).

Still an amazing, and enormous area. I was actually floored at just how big the area was I started exploring.

Man there is so much to do in this game it's insane. Does anyone have any pointers on how to kinda weave through the content? Right now Ive only been to the Hinderlands and set up all my camps. I'm just doing side stuff now and I think I'm level 5 or something. I haven't felt this overwhelmed in a game since Skyrim (not necessarily a bad thing) but should I progress a bit farther before doing side stuff or kinda just do whatever!?

@sackmanjones: I'd personally recommend you do side-stuff until about level 5-6, head to Val Royaux and attend the myriad of requests you receive to meet folks; and then ride out the main story for a while until a bit more content opens up. At that point, "whatever" seems like a pretty apt description.

Many of the zones after the Hinterlands seem a bit more structured in terms of having a few really large quest-lines that take you through the majority of said area, and then some side-stuff ontop of that. Completing said larger quests also come with some pretty radical changes to the landscape in the aftermath, so you get to visibly see what you've done, which is a REALLY nice touch to making your actions seem impactful.

I thought the Fallow Mire was pretty nice too when you look off at those giant statues in the water. Almost Souls-like. Hell, I've even got some screenshots of the Hinterlands, it looked so nice. Game looks fantastic. Environments can be both dense and grand.

Problem I had with Skyrim was everything looked so flat and same-y. Granted, that was three years ago. Granted granted, Witcher 2 also had wonderfully dense environments, and that was also 2011.

@bmccann42: the dragon won for me and flew away. I was close to them and got enough xp to level up. Also looted the giants corpse

@sackmanjones: A number of the quests that immediately follow your trip to the Hinterlands have a recommended level of 4-7. Unlike some games it seems less like a recommendation for grinding and more like the game telling you when to stop fucking around and make some progress. The game isn't strictly linear either. I feel like the game expects you to leave quests undone and areas unexplored, because you will have reasons to return later.

Also you really should get to Skyhold as soon as you reasonably can.

I've been playing like a madman for around 50 ish hours and just hit level twenty. (not in one sitting)

I don't want to miss any story stuff so I've been taking the completionist route and have been trying to 100% zones before moving on.

I went Hinterlands, Forbiden Oasis, Fallow Mire,Val Royeaux, Storm Coast. I'm at the snowy place with the giant broken bridge now. Some zones can't be fully completed until later on as they require shards, war table quests, etc.

Dammit I really really really enjoy this game too.

The game's environments and art direction are pretty stellar, even on PS4. But those character models... The hair in particular looks ugly as sin, and I can still recognise many of the canned animations during dialogue sequences and cutscenes from Dragon Age: Origins.

And hopefully Hinterlands took you a hell of a lot of time and the later smaller zones are more satisfying because you actually get to move on at one point due to the smaller size?

It's kinda nice to see people put aside their bitterness and actually get hyped/excited about a game, particularly coming from EA/Bioware which the internet basically equates to Satan nowadays.

Can't wait to dig deeper into this one, though my dwarf warrior looks a little weird...