All Fan Fears of Dragon Age 2 Becoming “Dragon Effect” Assuaged
Don't Worry Hawke, That's A Good Thing.
Dragon Age, like Mass Effect, has a very large fan-following. It stood on its own without the sci-fi jewel we love needing to back it up because it wasn’t just Mass Effect with a fantasy-coated setting – at all. Dragon Age’s lack of “good” and “evil” in the world and the deep, tactical combat were just two of the many concepts that allowed such an amazing game to stand apart in the growing success of Western RPGs. In a recent hands-on run-through of Dragon Age 2 with BioWare representative, we were able to explore and find out how much has been stripped from just what makes Dragon Age… Dragon Age.
One thing that those who didn’t dive right into Ferelden had to say was that the graphics were pitiful, a poor representation of what our modern technology was capable of. Even fans will agree on this, despite the deep-rooted love of the lore, characters and universe we’ve become so enraptured by. Well, this is an easy one, you’ve already seen trailers, including gameplay trailers – the game has definitely seen a worthy visual upgrade. But those are not the “fears” other fans like myself have been harboring.
Paragon, Renegade?
My absolute favorite theme within Dragon Age has always been the fact that there is no black or white. Every experience you have is morally gray. The reactions to your actions aren’t graded with positive or negative points towards your outstanding karma, they merely affect how your allies and various NPCs view you. They judge you; just like you might judge other people in everyday life for the things they do or say.
Ever since we’d seen trailers depicting three statements with large dialogue icons beside them, and were told it was being overhauled for “simplicity’s sake,” I had been slightly panicked over the change, worried it was becoming too much like Mass Effect’s paragon, renegade and neutral dialogue gameplay.
Well, for one, the options are now indeed shorter and simplified, whereas your character now (thankfully) has a spoken voice, and expands on the option you select. Secondly, the dialogue tree may look stylized like its futuristic sister, but the icons represent the tone in which your character speaks them. No paragon. No renegade. For example, an olive branch represents that your character will speak in peace, whereas the drama mask signifies your character will respond with a sarcastic or lighthearted tone. There will be around ten to fifteen different icons from what I was told by the BioWare rep who I played with.
Action-Packed Combat
The second clincher for myself and many other fans was the revamping of the combat system, from what we’d seen in videos thus far. Fast, action-packed combat replaced my beloved tactics screen and radial menus. Yeah, I loved the pause-and-play tactical mechanics. After you set your (incredibly detailed) tactics (though optional), you hotkey up a few favorites and do your thing until you unlocked several new skills.
This, by and far, and surprisingly to me, has not changed at all, in that nature. It is exactly the same, with one small welcomed tweak: the action happens on time. When you select Winter’s Grasp, you see the whitish-blue crystals forming instantly in your palm and whisk away immediately towards the enemy highlighted. In short, it’s fast, like it probably should have always been. When playing a rogue or a warrior, or even when you’re just using your staff to attack as a mage, you will have to keep pressing the A-button (Xbox 360) to use your regular melee attack. Your character is no longer automated and will not keep slowly spamming their general melee, and even more slowly raining blood with their skills.
Getting a chance to see this for myself before picking up the game, that I’ve admittedly long since pre-ordered, has put a lot of my fears to rest about the gameplay and safety of what I feel is so special about the series. The one final frontier now is if the story holds. Right now, I’m still left with a slight distaste over the approach BioWare has taken with the story. The idea that it takes place at the same time as the previous game, a time we’ve already experienced once, without the ability to play as our 60+ hour life-invested Grey Warden. Left us with cliffhangers we longed to be explained, that cannot properly be explained without the characters we’ve already grown so attached to available.
I have plenty of faith in BioWare’s plans to tell a great story, but it definitely needs to prove itself to me first. What I’ve seen so far in the demo at the press event as well as the demo now available on Xbox Live and PSN, the story of a Champion who has turned their heels in fear, at that, hopefully becomes full of allies and rivals I will grow fond of, in a world of many morally challenging options.
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At least what I can tell you, is that on March 8th, you will not be playing Dragon Effect 2 on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, but Dragon Age 2.
