Fun Stuff > CLIKC
Dragon Age 2: Fuckin' Bitches, Stabbin' Dragons
KvP:
--- Quote ---Aakduce, a fan of Greywardens.com (and Dragon Age, of course), was lucky enough to hang out at the San Diego Comic Con the other day. Even better — he had the chance to hang out with BioWare’s Evil Chris Priestly and Mike Laidlaw. Evil Chris, as you may know, is the social voice of all things BioWare, and by extension, Dragon Age; and Mike Laidlaw is the lead designer behind the epic-ness that is the story of Dragon Age 2. Check out Aakduce’s thoughts on the Dragon Age 2 preview — and some of the answers he received when questioning the dynamic duo — below.
“When I got in, Mike was giving a speech about how they were ‘keeping what worked well’ in Dragon Age: Origins — and scrapping the rest. He also outlined the highlights of the game (most of which are already known):
• Story takes place over 10 years
• Hawke (male or female) and family escaped from Lothering just before it was burned to the ground by darkspawn
• Combat is more fast-paced and bloody — BioWare is going for the “300″ Spartan warrior feel here
• You can still use a “Pause and Play” gaming style for strategy
• Casters get dynamic finishers now, like the slow motion kills of warriors in Dragon Age: Origins
• Hawke is fully voice-acted
As soon as I got the chance, I played the demo! Here’s what I discovered:
The story is told by two different narrators who tend to embellish how powerful you really are, and the intro filled out the story of Ostagar (in the same stained glass fashion of DA:O). The game definitely played a bit more like Mass Effect 2, what with the voice acting, as well as in the general gameplay. At one point, I was offered the chance to utterly destroy mobs of darkspawn that were coming at me, or have the mage that was with me (Bethany, I think her name was) blast them. Mage spells in the demo were crushing prison and mind blast — which worked to marvelous effect, of course. The spellbook worked well, but, at least in the demo, there were no tooltips. When I reached the end of the preview, just as it was obvious everyone was going to die, a dragon came out of nowhere and, graciously, killed all of the darkspawn. The dragon then morphed into a familiar old lady with long grey hair — guess who, anyone?
I also had the chance to play a new DLC that is coming out soon. I didn’t get the name, but it was one of the hardest dungeons I have ever played, even on easy — at least in the pre-build that I was playing, anyway. In my chat with Chris Priestly, he told me that BioWare is going to keep making downloadable content for Dragon Age: Origins, and that they are planning to keep the DA:O franchise going for as long as they can — so the changes in Dragon Age 2 aren’t necessarily the end for more traditional roleplayers. There is also likely to be a third full Dragon Age game — and Chris told me that they are not yet done with Morrigan’s story.
I asked Chris about some of the feedback from people who feel that Dragon Age 2 isn’t a real RPG. He said that he felt that players were mostly put off by the fact that they can’t port their character from the first game, and that the only real difference in DA2 over DA:O for roleplayers was that they can’t choose their race. He also mentioned that Dragon Age: Origins only had a timeline of two years, while Dragon Age 2 spans 10 years, and that choosing the path BioWare did with DA2 has given them more ways in which to tell the epic story.
Overall, the game had a great look and feel. I was impressed — and I can’t wait to play it!”
Thanks again to Aakduce for sending in some impressions from Comic Con and letting us know what it was like to get your hands on some of the new content.
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Buttfranklin:
KvP you should probably put a spoiler warning in front of that blurb. Definitely a spoiler about shapeshifting dragons which makes Flemeth less of a surprise... Also that she's still alive for us who haven't played it. At least, the default game world is that she's alive.
Any mention of importing saves from DA:O to DA2?
KvP:
I'm pretty sure that's off the table. I had heard something along the lines of KOTOR2, in which you are given direct questions about your decisions in the first game, but I don't know how accurate that is.
est:
I would assume "no", as you're a completely different character.
KvP:
That doesn't necessarily preclude a savegame transfer. Seeing the consequences of your decisions as one character from the perspective of another ought to be gratifying on some level. That having been said, a canon timeline is the easiest way to go and therefore probably the preferred way.
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