Dragon Age Origins Preview

E3 2008 Preview

“We often referred to origins as the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate.” That was the opening statement by BioWare Executive Producer Dan Tudge, as he opened the E3 demo of BioWare’s upcoming RPG, Dragon Age: Origin.

This is a game that borrows heavily from the mechanics of such games as Neverwinter Nights and the aforementioned Baldur’s Gate. But inasmuch as it borrows from them, it also takes some new steps forward and presents an epic adventure in an epic setting.

The story of Origin has players taking on the role of a Grey Warden recruit, a force of warriors dedicated to fighting the Blight and the Dark Spawn horde, which is threatening to overrun the world. The level shown in the depths of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Los Angeles during E3.

As the demo opened, you are in the company of Duncan, a revered member of the Grey Wardens and the game plays out much like previous BioWare titles. The cut scenes are in-game assets in which you play an active role. The dialogue swims around you and you are given choices for your answers to questions posed. How you answer will but be aware that what you say may affect not only how people react to you, but also how the story will play out from that point forward.

Part of the adventure is the choices players can make. You can play at martyr, hero or tyrant and the attention to detail, graphically, is amazing.

The level shown was a battle sequence in Ostagard, leading up to and involving the lighting of a tower beacon. Of course, the enemy has overrun the structure and you will have to fight through with your party to the room where a boss battle awaits. If successful, you can light the beacon.

The game features scalable combat, but while you in combat, you can zoom in and make it feel more personal. You can also pause the game, select party members – and yes, as the game unwinds, while a single-player experience, you will need to build up parties to meet the challenges – and issue commands, whether of a tactical nature or to triggers spells and skills.

Graphically the game is superb, with amazing textures on the armor and in the environment. As you engage in battle, you will encounter blood spatters and that will accumulate and stay on your armor. Spells can interact with each other in this game, and they can be interrupted. By way of example in terms of spells interacting, you can pause the game, throw a spell that coats the floor in grease to hamper movement, but then ignite the grease to make it an area-of-effect damage spell.

The game also focuses on finishing moves and highlights those with the popular slow-motion camera to allow details of the attack to come across with jaw-dropping effect. Boss battles are meant to be tough

But this is “scalable combat where you are always the hero,” Tudge said, and then announced that with Dragon Age – which is a brand new IP – “BioWare returns to its roots.”

When it ships, the game will include world-building tools, similar to the Aurora Toolset. The game will also be supported with downloadable content.  And because it is a new IP, the universe is very big, very full with lots of back story and just pieces of it were used in the game.  

No definite release date has been set for the game though it is planned for 2009.

For All E3 2008 GZ Previews